Jeremiah 23:36

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

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(36) The burden of the Lord shall ye mention no more . . .—The misused term was no longer to be applied to the messages of Jehovah. If men continued to apply it to the words of their own heart, they would find it a “burden” in another sense (the prophet plays once more on the etymology of the word) too heavy to be borne. This would be the righteous punishment of the reckless levity with which they had treated the sacred Name which Jeremiah reproduces in all the amplitude of its grandeur. They had never realised the awfulness of speaking in the name “of the living God, the Lord of Sabaoth.”

Benson Commentary

Jeremiah 23:36. For every man’s word shall be his burden — You shall be made severely to account for your loose and profane speeches, wherewith you deride and pervert the words and messages of God himself. Or, “Every man shall have most reason to regard his own word as hurtful and prejudicial to him. For the words of God were delivered with a salutary tendency, to warn sinners of the danger of their situation, and to call them to repentance. Those, therefore, who made a right use of them would have no cause to complain. But those who despised and rejected them perverted that which should have been for their wealth into an occasion of falling.” — Blaney.

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

Every man's word ... - Rather, every man's burden shall be his word; i. e., his mocking use of the word "burden" shall weigh him down and crush him.

Perverted - i. e., put into a ridiculous light.

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

The burden of the Lord shall ye mention no more; not in scorn and derision, as not believing there were any such judgments as they threaten; nor hardly, as if I sent yon no other messages but burdens. These false and irreverent speeches, which are in every man’s mouth, shall be burdensome to them, being such as shall bring down Divine vengeance upon them; because you have derided or misinterpreted the words of God, the living God; the sin of which is the more aggravated against you, because he is the living, mighty God, and because he hath been our God.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the burden of the Lord shall be mentioned no more,.... Or the word of the Lord under that name, speaking of it in a ludicrous and scoffing manner:

for every man's word shall be his burden; every flout, scoff, and jeer of his, at the word of God, shall fall heavily upon him, with weight upon his conscience, and press him with guilt to the lowest hell; or, however, a heavy punishment for his sin shall light upon him: or, as the words may be rendered, "for his word is a burden to everyone" (u); that is, the word of the Lord is reckoned by everyone a burden; and with them a burden and the word of the Lord are synonymous terms; which ought not to be, and was offensive to the Lord; and therefore he forbids the use of such a phrase, and threatens to punish for it;

for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts, our God; derided them, and put a wrong sense upon them; and which is aggravated by their being the words of "the living God", who is the true God and his words true; and he lives and is able to resent and punish any ill usage of him, and ill treatment of his words; and not the oracles of lifeless idols: and they are the words of "the Lord of hosts", of all armies above and below, and so was able to make them good: and besides, they were the words of "our God", the God of Israel; who had in all ages kept his covenant with them, performed his promises to them, and had done great and good things for them.

(u) "quia onus erit unicuique verbum suum", Schmidt; "vel verbum ejus, nempe, Dei", Dieu.

Geneva Study Bible

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.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

36. every man’s own word shall be his burden] mg. is his burden, and ye pervert, etc. Either (a) he who has jokingly enquired after the “burden of the Lord” shall find that those lightly spoken words of his are in very deed the heaviest load to bear, or (b) (rendering for “shall be” is) no alleged prophetic utterance has in fact any higher authority than the speaker himself.

ye have perverted, etc.] The LXX omit this clause; also the greater part of Jeremiah 23:37 (which is Jeremiah 23:35 repeated). The accumulation of epithets in Jeremiah 23:36 renders the clause suspicious.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 36. - And the burden of the Lord, etc.; i.e. ye shall no longer use the word massa at all. Every man's word shall be his burden; rather, the burden to every man shall be his word; i.e. his derisive use of the word massa shall be a burden which shall crush him to the ground. Ye have perverted; i.e. have turned them round, and put them into a ridiculous light" (Payne Smith). Jeremiah 23:36

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

A rebuke of their mockery at Jeremiah's threatening predictions. - Jeremiah 23:33. "And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest ask thee, saying: What is the burden of Jahveh? then say to them: What the burden is - now I will cast you off, saith Jahveh. Jeremiah 23:34. And the prophet, the priest, and the people that shall say: burden of Jahveh, on that man will I visit it and on his house. Jeremiah 23:35. Thus shall ye say each to the other, and each to his brother: What hath Jahveh answered, and what hath Jahveh spoken? Jeremiah 23:36. But burden of Jahveh shall ye mention no more, for a burden to every one shall his own word be; and ye wrest the words of the living God Jahveh of hosts, our God. Jeremiah 23:37. Thus shalt thou say to the prophet: What hath Jahveh answered thee, and what hath He spoken? Jeremiah 23:38. But if ye say: burden of Jahveh, therefore thus saith Jahveh: Because ye say this word: burden of Jahveh, and yet I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say: burden of Jahveh; Jeremiah 23:39. Therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you, and cast away from my face you and this city that I gave you and your fathers, Jeremiah 23:40. And will lay upon you everlasting reproach, and everlasting, never-to-be-forgotten disgrace."

The word משּׂא, from נשׂא, lift up, bear, sig. burden, and, like the phrase: lift up the voice, means a saying of weighty or dread import. The word has the latter sig. in the headings to the prophecies of threatening character; see on Nahum 1:1, where this meaning of the word in the headings is asserted, and the widespread opinion that it means effatum is refuted. Jeremiah's adversaries - as appears from these verses - used the word "burden" of his prophetic sayings by way of mockery, meaning burdensome prophecies, in order to throw ridicule on the prophet's speeches, by them regarded as offensive. Thus if the people, or a prophet, or a priest ask: What is the burden of Jahveh, i.e., how runs it, or what does it contain? he is to answer: The Lord saith: I will cast you off, i.e., disburden myself of you, as it were - the idea of "burden" being kept up in the answer to the question. The article on the word prophet is used to show that the word is used generally of the class of prophets at large. The את in the answering clause is nota accus., the following phrase being designedly repeated from the question; and hence the unusual combination את־מה. The sense is: as regards the question what the burden is, I will cast you away. There is no reason to alter the text to fit the lxx translation: ὑμεῖς ἐστὲ τὸ λῆμμα, or Vulg.: vos estis onus, as Cappell., J. D. Mich., Hitz., Gr., etc., do. The lxx rendering is based, not on another reading, but on another division of the words, viz., אתם המשׂא. - In Jeremiah 23:34 the meaning of this answer is more fully explained. On every one that uses the word "burden" in this sneering way God will avenge the sneer, and not only on his person, but on his house, his family as well. In Jeremiah 23:35 they are told how they are to speak of prophecy. Jeremiah 23:36. They are no longer to make use of the phrase "burden of Jahveh," "for the burden shall his word be to each one," i.e., the word "burden" will be to each who uses it a burden that crushes him down. "And ye wrest," etc., is part of the reason for what is said: and ye have equals for ye have wrested the words of the living God. The clause is properly a corollary which tells what happens when they use the forbidden word.