Jeremiah 27 9

Jeremiah 27:9 kjv

Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon:

Jeremiah 27:9 nkjv

Therefore do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers, or your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, "You shall not serve the king of Babylon."

Jeremiah 27:9 niv

So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your interpreters of dreams, your mediums or your sorcerers who tell you, 'You will not serve the king of Babylon.'

Jeremiah 27:9 esv

So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your fortune-tellers, or your sorcerers, who are saying to you, 'You shall not serve the king of Babylon.'

Jeremiah 27:9 nlt

"'Do not listen to your false prophets, fortune-tellers, interpreters of dreams, mediums, and sorcerers who say, "The king of Babylon will not conquer you."

Jeremiah 27 verses

Jeremiah 27 9 meaning

Jeremiah 27:9 is a direct divine command delivered through the prophet Jeremiah, emphatically instructing the people of Judah not to heed the counsel of false spiritual guides. These include deceitful prophets, diviners, dreamers, soothsayers, and sorcerers. Their uniform message, "You shall not serve the king of Babylon," directly contradicted God's clear will, which had been revealed as a call for submission to Nebuchadnezzar as a temporary divine judgment. The verse underscores the critical danger of embracing comfortable falsehoods over difficult divine truths.

Jeremiah 27 9 Context

Jeremiah 27:9 is part of a crucial prophetic oracle in Jeremiah chapters 27-28, which takes place in the early years of King Zedekiah's reign in Judah (around 597-594 BC). At this time, Judah, along with neighboring nations (Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Sidon), harbored hopes of rebellion against the burgeoning Babylonian empire. Jeremiah, by divine command, performs a symbolic act: wearing a yoke on his neck, representing the unavoidable subjugation to Babylon. The message of these chapters is unequivocally that God has, in His sovereignty, given all these lands to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and submission to him is synonymous with obedience to God. Disobeying this command would bring severe divine judgment. The presence of numerous false prophets and occult practitioners who promised liberation and peace posed a significant challenge to Jeremiah's difficult message, actively encouraging defiance against God's decreed judgment. Verse 9 directly warns against these voices of deceit, emphasizing that their message contradicted God's divine plan.

Jeremiah 27 9 Word analysis

• So: This transitional conjunction links the warning directly to the preceding divine decree (Jer 27:8) regarding the consequences of national rebellion against Babylonian rule. It signifies a logical flow, stating the proper response to God's announced judgment.
• do not listen: An emphatic negative imperative. It is a direct prohibition demanding an active and conscious rejection of the words coming from the specified sources. This command highlights the danger of mere exposure to false messages, emphasizing the need for discerning avoidance.
• to your prophets: This refers not to genuine prophets of Yahweh (like Jeremiah) but to false prophets within Judah or among their allied nations. These individuals often spoke what the people wished to hear, claiming divine inspiration that contradicted God's true message. The possessive "your" suggests a familiarity or even a reliance the people had on them.
• your diviners (קֹסְמֵיכֶם - qōsemêkem): Practitioners who attempted to foretell the future or gain hidden knowledge through various forbidden methods, such as interpreting omens, consulting lots, or ritualistic practices. These were explicitly outlawed in Mosaic Law as pagan practices.
• your dreamers (חַלֹּמֹתֵיכֶם - ḥallōmōtêkem): Individuals who interpreted or claimed to receive prophetic insights through dreams. While God could genuinely communicate through dreams (as with Joseph or Daniel), "dreamers" here refers to those who twisted such practices for deceitful ends, fabricating or misinterpreting dreams for political gain or popular approval.
• your soothsayers (עֹנְנֵיכֶם - ʿōnenêkem): Those who practiced various forms of magic, prognostication, or seeking omens. The term can be associated with observing "times" or "clouds" for predictive purposes, hinting at an attempt to discern fate through natural phenomena or ritualistic augury.
• or your sorcerers (כַּשָּׁפֵיכֶם - kaššāpêkem): Individuals engaged in overt magical practices, using spells, incantations, potions, or charms to influence events, harm others, or illicitly gain power and knowledge. This category often represents more potent and direct forms of dark magic.
• who tell you: This phrase encapsulates the unified deceptive message propagated by all these various purveyors of spiritual falsehood. It emphasizes that their shared message is the core of their dangerous deception.
• 'You shall not serve': This is the crux of the false counsel, presented as a direct, ungodly counter-command. It is a direct contradiction to God's decree through Jeremiah, which mandated serving the king of Babylon as an act of submission to divine will.
• the king of Babylon': Refers specifically to Nebuchadnezzar II, the reigning monarch of the Babylonian Empire, whom God had designated as His instrument of judgment over Judah and surrounding nations.

Words-group analysis

• "So do not listen to your prophets": This phrase introduces a divine injunction against misplaced trust. The imperative "do not listen" sets the stage for a critical distinction between legitimate divine communication and dangerous human deception. The "your prophets" implies a readily available and seemingly accepted source of religious authority that nonetheless speaks against God's actual will.
• "your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers, or your sorcerers": This extensive enumeration underscores the wide array of illicit spiritual channels and pagan practices prevalent in ancient Judah and the broader ancient Near East. The repetitive "your" suggests that these individuals or their practices were integrated into the cultural and perhaps even religious fabric of the people's lives. By listing them collectively, God condemns the entire spectrum of spiritual guidance that deviates from His covenantal commands, particularly those forbidden in the Torah (Deu 18).
• "who tell you, 'You shall not serve the king of Babylon.'": This vital clause provides the specific content of their deceptive message, which directly contradicts God's explicitly revealed will through Jeremiah (cf. Jer 27:8). This makes their falsehood manifest: their teaching opposes God's sovereign plan. The conflict here is not just about human predictions, but about active rebellion against divine decree.

Jeremiah 27 9 Bonus section

• The instruction in Jeremiah 27:9 was not exclusively for Judah but for "the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon" (Jer 27:3) who had messengers in Jerusalem. This shows that the issue of listening to false spiritual guidance that encourages rebellion against divinely appointed authority was a pervasive regional problem, not just unique to Judah.
• The diverse list of practitioners highlights the ancient world's vulnerability to various forms of spiritual manipulation, a reality also mirrored in the Church Age through false teachers and misleading doctrines.
• God's inclusion of these occult practices underscores His absolute opposition to such things (Deu 18:10-12), reminding His people to distinguish clearly between His ways and pagan practices, even when used by those claiming to speak in His name.
• The repeated "your" before each category implies a deep-seated reliance and a culturally accepted norm of seeking guidance from these deceptive sources within the communities addressed. The divine command aims to sever this unhealthy reliance.

Jeremiah 27 9 Commentary

Jeremiah 27:9 functions as a profound and urgent warning against all forms of spiritual deception that contradict the explicit word of God. In a time of national crisis, when the people of Judah desperately sought a path to avoid impending subjugation, numerous voices offered convenient and comforting lies—promises of independence and quick liberation. God, through Jeremiah, dissects the source of these lies, identifying a comprehensive range of false spiritual authorities: prophets claiming divine insight, alongside those engaged in explicitly pagan and occult practices such as divination, dream interpretation outside God's framework, soothsaying, and sorcery.

The core problem, articulated by God, is that all these sources converged on a message that directly opposed His sovereign will: resistance to Babylon. God had ordained the Babylonian captivity as a temporary judgment, making submission an act of obedience. To reject this divine decree, egged on by false prophets and magical practitioners, was not merely political dissent but profound spiritual rebellion. The verse powerfully demonstrates that choosing human comfort, illicit spiritual insights, or convenient lies over God's difficult truth always leads to graver consequences. It serves as an enduring call for discernment, emphasizing that God's people must evaluate all claims of spiritual authority against His revealed Word, even—and especially—when the truth is uncomfortable or goes against popular opinion.