Jer 23:1
23:1 Woe be to {a} the shepherds that destroy and scatter the
     {b} sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.

     (a) Meaning the prince's governors and false prophets as in
         Eze 34:2.
     (b) For which I have special care, and have prepared good
         pastures for them.

Jer 23:2
23:2 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the
     shepherds that {c} feed my people; Ye have scattered my
     flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them:
     behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings,
     saith the LORD.

     (c) Whose charge is to feed the flock but they eat the
         fruit of it, Eze 34:3.

Jer 23:3
23:3 And I will gather the {d} remnant of my flock from all
     countries where I have driven them, and will bring them
     again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and
     increase.

     (d) Thus the prophets always used to mix the promises with
         the threatenings lest the godly should be too much
         beaten down and therefore he shows how God will gather
         his Church after this dispersion.

Jer 23:5
23:5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise to
     David a righteous {e} Branch, and a King shall reign and
     prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice upon the
     earth.

     (e) This prophecy is of the restitution of the Church in
         the time of Jesus Christ, who is the true branch, read
         Isa 11:1,45:8, Jer 35:15, Da 9:24.

Jer 23:7
23:7 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they
     shall no more say, The {f} LORD liveth, who brought the
     children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

     (f) Read Jer 16:14.

Jer 23:9
23:9 My heart within me is broken because of the {g} prophets;
     all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man
     whom wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because
     of the words of his holiness.

     (g) Meaning, the false prophets who deceive the people: in
         which appears his great love toward his nation, read
         Jer 14:13.

Jer 23:10
23:10 For the land is full of adulterers; for because of
      swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the
      wilderness are dried up, and their {h} course is evil, and
      their force [is] not right.

      (h) They run headlong to wickedness and seek vain help.

Jer 23:11
23:11 For both prophet and priest are profane; even, in my {i}
      house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.

      (i) My temple is full of their idolatry and superstitions.

Jer 23:14
23:14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem {k} an
      horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies:
      they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none
      doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them {l}
      to me as Sodom, and the inhabitants of it as Gomorrah.

      (k) They who should have profited by my rods against
          Samaria, are become worse than they.
      (l) Though to the world they seem holy fathers, yet I
          detest them as I did these abominable cities.

Jer 23:15
23:15 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the
      prophets; Behold, I will feed them with {m} wormwood, and
      make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets
      of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.

      (m) Read Jer 8:14.

Jer 23:16
23:16 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not to the words of
      the prophets that prophesy to you: they make you vain:
      they speak a vision of their own {n} heart, [and] not from
      the mouth of the LORD.

      (n) Which they have invented of their own brain.

Jer 23:17
23:17 They say still to them that despise me, The LORD hath
      said, Ye {o} shall have peace; and they say to every one
      that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No
      evil shall come upon you.

      (o) Read Jer 6:14,8:11.

Jer 23:18
23:18 For {p} who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and
      hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his
      word, and heard [it]?

      (p) Thus they derided Jeremiah as though the word of God
          was not revealed to him, so also spoke Zedekiah to
          Micaiah, 1Ki 22:24.

Jer 23:20
23:20 The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he shall
      have executed, and till he shall have performed the
      thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye {q} shall
      consider it perfectly.

      (q) Both that God has sent me, and that my words will be
          true.

Jer 23:22
23:22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and {r} had caused my
      people to hear my words, then they should have turned them
      from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

      (r) He shows the difference between the true prophets and
          the false, between the hireling and the true minister.

Jer 23:23
23:23 [Am] I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God {s}
      afar off?

      (s) Do I not see your falsehood, however you cloak it, and
          wherever you commit it?

Jer 23:25
23:25 I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in
      my name, saying, I {t} have dreamed, I have dreamed.

      (t) I have a prophecy revealed to me as in Nu 12:6.

Jer 23:27
23:27 Who think to cause {u} my people to forget my name by
      their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour,
      as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.

      (u) He shows that Satan raises up false prophets to bring
          the people from God.

Jer 23:28
23:28 The prophet that hath a dream, let him {x} tell a dream;
      and he that hath my word, let him speak my word
      faithfully. {y} What [is] the chaff to the wheat? saith
      the LORD.

      (x) Let the false prophet declare that it is his own
          fantasy, and not slander my word as though it were a
          cloak to cover his lies.
      (y) Meaning, that it is not enough for God's ministers to
          abstain from lies and to speak the word of God but
          that there is judgment in alleging it, and that it
          may appear to be applied to the same purpose that it
          was spoken, Eze 3:27, 1Co 2:13,4:2, 2Ti 2:25.

Jer 23:30
23:30 Therefore, behold, I [am] against the prophets, saith the
      LORD, that {z} steal my words every one from his
      neighbour.

      (z) Who set forth in my Name that which I have not
          commanded.

Jer 23:31
23:31 Behold, I [am] against the prophets, saith the LORD, that
      use their tongues, and say, {a} He saith.

      (a) That is, the Lord.

Jer 23:33
23:33 And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall
      ask thee, saying, What [is] the {b} burden of the LORD?
      thou shalt then say to them, What burden? I will even
      forsake you, saith the LORD.

      (b) The prophets called their threatenings God's burden,
          which the sinners were not able to sustain, therefore
          the wicked in deriding the word, would ask of the
          prophets, what was the burden as though they would
          say, "You seek nothing else, but to lay burdens on our
          shoulders" and thus they rejected the word of God as a
          grievous burden.

Jer 23:34
23:34 And [as for] the prophet, and the priest, and the people,
      that shall say, The {c} burden of the LORD, I will even
      punish that man and his house.

      (c) Because this word was brought to contempt and
          derision, he will teach them another manner of speech,
          and will cause this word burden to cease and teach
          them to ask with reverence, "What says the Lord?"

Jer 23:36
23:36 And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for
      every man's {d} word shall be his burden; for ye have
      perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of
      hosts our God.

      (d) The thing which they mock and contemn will come on
          them.