Speaking of Prophets (23:9-40) 211MESSAGE AND AUDIENCE
Yahweh in the opening discourse says that he has heard the lying prophecies
uttered in his name by prophets who repeatedly say, "I have dreamed." How
long must this continue-schemes of no good that make the covenant people
forget his name, just as people earlier forgot his name because of Baal? If the
prophet has a dream, let him tell his dream, but the prophet who has Yahweh's
word, let him speak that word faithfully. Will the audience perceive that the
problem now is with competing Yahweh prophets and their modes of revela-
tion, some of them true and some of them false?
In the first two oracles following this discourse the audience is asked to have
another look at the character of the divine word. Supporting a faithful procla-
mation of the word in contrast to lying dreams, Yahweh says, "What is grain
compared to straw?" Also, do people not know that the word of Yahweh "is like
a fire, and like a hammer shattering rock?"
In the judgment oracles, Yahweh says he is against prophets who do not have
his word to speak, and who make up for their lack by stealing his words-or
words alleged to be his-from other prophets. Yahweh is also against prophets
who obey their own tongue and "oracle an oracle," who prophesy lying dreams
and lead the covenant people astray by their lies and wanton behavior. In con-
clusion, Yahweh says he did not send these prophets, he did not command
them; they are, in a word, no profit whatever to the covenant people.
The opening speech and the oracles following best reflect the early reign of
Zedekiah, i.e., 597 to 594 B.C., when Jeremiah was in greatest conflict with
other prophets (Volz).
When the opening polemic is heard following the divine council speech of
vv 18 and 21-22, the audience will perhaps perceive an ironic contrast be-
tween prophets who have not "heard" Yahweh in council (v 18) and Yahweh's
now having "heard" the lies that these dreamers are speaking in his name
(v 25). Also reinforced will be the point that prophets of any earthly use must
first have been present in the heavenly council to hear what Yahweh com-
manded and then been sent by him to correct people given to evil behavior.
True prophets could not be more sharply distinguished from prophets who
are false. The powerful divine word in the oracle of v 29 may also echo for the
audience the powerful judgment pronounced by Jeremiah on the prophets in
vv 19-20.
Mendelssohn in Aria # 17 of his great oratorio "Elijah," after the descent of
heavenly fire on Mt. Carmel, the confession of the people, and Elijah's com-
mand that the prophets of Baal be seized and killed by the Brook Kishon ( 1 Kgs
18:38-40), introduces these words from v 29:
Is not his word like a fire, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock, a ham-
mer that breaketh the rock, that breaketh the rock into pieces? like a fire,
like a fire! like a hammer that breaketh, that breaketh the rock? His word is