Speaking of Prophets (23:9-40) 189Esarhaddon treaty (#521-22; Wiseman 1958a: 67-68; Hillers 1964: 63-64), on
which see Note for 8: 14. In Asia today, cholera comes through the drinking water.
Because from the prophets of Jerusalem pollution has gone forth to all the
land. Hebrew banuppa ("pollution") is cognate to banepu ("they are pol-
luted") in v 11, confirming what has been said about the prophets of Jerusalem
being morally bankrupt.MESSAGE AND AUDIENCE
Yahweh in this first divine speech intends a contrast between the prophets of
Samaria and the prophets of Jerusalem. In the former, he saw foolish Baal
prophecies leading people down the wrong path. The audience knows all
about this, and heads will be nodding in approval. But then Yahweh says that
in the prophets of Jerusalem he saw something really horrible. They compro-
mised their holiness by committing adultery and living by lies, so much so that
evildoers were strengthened and became unrepentant of their evil. Will the
audience willingly hear this word, which strikes closer to home, and will they
perceive that the prophets of their city should instead have been turning
people away from evil? Yahweh says that Jerusalem has become like Sodom
and Gomorrah, something the audience may already know if they heard Jere-
miah's dialogue on the fate of Jerusalem (5:1-8). A follow-up oracle promises
judgment on these prophets. As a reward for their celebrated living, he will set
a table of wormwood and poisoned water for them and make sure they eat and
drink to the full-a fitting punishment for clergy who have spread their pollu-
tion throughout the land.
These oracles can be dated early in Zedekiah's reign, i.e., in the years follow-
ing the exile of 597 B.C. (Volz; Weiser; Rudolph). When heard after the oracles
immediately preceding, Jerusalem's prophets (and priests), polluted as they are
by adulteries and other immoralities, will get the emphasis in Yahweh's indict-
ment (vv 10-11, 14-15). It is, alas, the "way" in which they "walk" (vv 12, 14).
But in the end, Yahweh says, will be a judgment.
3. Prophets with a Vision of Their Own (23:16-17)
23 16 Thus said Yahweh of hosts:
Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they make
you nothing; a vision of their own heart they speak, not from the mouth of
Yahweh,^17 continually saying to those who spurn me, 'Yahweh has spoken,
"It will be well for you"'; and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of
his heart they say, 'Evil will not come upon you.'RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION
Delimitation of the present verses has been difficult for commentators and
others, who seem not to know how far the unit extends. Many of them