Bible Strands
Jeremiah 27:9
But as for you, do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your interpreters of dreams, your mediums, or your sorcerers who declare, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jeremiah addresses Judah’s leadership and people during the Babylonian conquest, warning them against rejecting the political reality of Nebuchadnezzar’s authority. The immediate context frames this as a divine warning to nations refusing to submit to Babylon’s yoke.
The words — אַל (al) carries the prohibitive force “may not,” paired with תִּשְׁמְעוּ (tishme'u) meaning “you listen,” forming the direct command “do not listen.”
The thread — The warning against false spiritual counsel appears in Jeremiah 29:8, which explicitly names prophets and diviners, and in Isaiah 8:19, which contrasts consulting mediums with consulting God. Jeremiah 14:14 further identifies prophets speaking lies in God’s name without divine commission.
Why it lands — The text demands a concrete rejection of supernatural counsel that contradicts stated divine judgment. Readers must align their decisions with the declared reality of Babylonian dominance rather than follow optimistic spiritual reports.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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:
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 14:14 “The prophets are prophesying lies in My name,” replied the LORD. “I did not send them or appoint them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, a worthless divination, the futility and delusion of their own minds.
- Isaiah 8:19 When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t a people consult their God instead? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
- Jeremiah 29:8 For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Do not be deceived by the prophets and diviners among you, and do not listen to the dreams you elicit from them.
- Malachi 3:5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.
- Isaiah 47:12 So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!
- Jeremiah 23:16 This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are filling you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.
- Jeremiah 23:25 “I have heard the sayings of the prophets who prophesy lies in My name: ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’
- Jeremiah 23:32 “Indeed,” declares the LORD, “I am against those who prophesy false dreams and retell them to lead My people astray with their reckless lies. It was not I who sent them or commanded them, and they are of no benefit at all to these people,” declares the LORD.
- Jeremiah 27:14 Do not listen to the words of the prophets who say, ‘You must not serve the king of Babylon,’ for they are prophesying to you a lie.
- Micah 3:7 Then the seers will be ashamed and the diviners will be disgraced. They will all cover their mouths because there is no answer from God.”