Jeremiah 23:38

But since ye say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus saith the LORD; Because ye say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the LORD;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(38) But since ye say.—Better, if ye say.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

23:33-40 Those are miserable indeed who are forsaken and forgotten of God; and men's jesting at God's judgments will not baffle them. God had taken Israel to be a people near to him, but they shall now be cast out of his presence. It is a mark of great and daring impiety for men to jest with the words of God. Every idle and profane word will add to the sinner's burden in the day of judgment, when everlasting shame will be his portion.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Since - Or, But if ye say.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

36. every man's word … his burden—As they mockingly call all prophecies burdens, as if calamities were the sole subject of prophecy, so it shall prove to them. God will take them at their own word.

living God—not lifeless as their dumb idols, ever living so as to be able to punish.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Because you go on in your scoffing and deriding my word and my prophets; and that when I have expressly forbidden you those profane speeches, or that deriding form of speech; adding further contempt to your former profaneness.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But since ye say, the burden of the Lord,.... Seeing, notwithstanding all prohibitions of it, and directions to the contrary, they still persisted to call prophecy by this name, and that in a jocose and bantering way, and asked for it, and what it was, in a scoffing manner:

therefore thus saith the Lord, because you say this word, the burden of the Lord; will continue to use it, though so displeasing to me:

and I have sent unto you, saying, ye shall not say, the burden of the Lord; and therefore could not plead ignorance of his will, or excuse themselves, by saying they would have avoided it, had they known it was disagreeable to him: this was an aggravation of their impiety, that they should obstinately persist in it, after he had remonstrated against it by his messages to them.

Geneva Study Bible

But since ye say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus saith the LORD; Because ye say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the LORD;

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

38. But if ye say … of the Lord] LXX omit.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 38. - But since ye say, etc.; rather, But if ye say, etc. In case the false prophets disobey, and persist in using the old expression, the threatening already uttered shall come into operation. Jeremiah 23:38

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In case they, in spite of the prohibition, persist in the use of the forbidden word, i.e., to not cease their mockery of God's word, then the punishment set forth in Jeremiah 23:33 is certainly to come on them. In the threat אתכם נשׁיתי there is a manifestly designed word-play on משּׂא. lxx, Vulg., Syr. have therefore rendered as if from נשׂיתי נשׂא (or נשׂאתי) instead: ἐγὼ λαμβάνω, ego tollam vos portans. One cod. gives נשׂא, and Ew., Hitz., Graf, Ng., etc., hold this reading to be right; but hardly with justice. The Chald. has expressed the reading of the text in its ארטושׁ יתכון מרטשׁ, et relinquam vos relinquendo. And the form נשׁיתי is explained only by reading נשׁא (נשׁה); not by נשׂא, for this verb keeps its א everywhere, save with the one exception of נשׂוּי, Psalm 32:1, formed after the parallel כסוּי. The assertion that the reading in the text gives no good sense is unfounded. I will utterly forget you is much more in keeping than: I will utterly lift you up, carry you forth. - With Jeremiah 23:40, cf. Jeremiah 20:11.