33 "Now when this people or the prophet or a priest asks you saying , 'What is the oracle of the Lord ?' then you shall say to them, 'What oracle ?' The Lord declares , 'I will abandon you.' 34 "Then as for the prophet or the priest or the people who say , 'The oracle of the Lord ,' I will bring punishment upon that man and his household . 35 "Thus will each of you say to his neighbor and to his brother , ' What has the Lord answered ?' or, 'What has the Lord spoken ?' 36 "For you will no longer remember the oracle of the Lord , because every man's own word will become the oracle , and you have perverted the words of the living God , the Lord of hosts , our God 37 "Thus you will say to that prophet , 'What has the Lord answered you?' and, 'What has the Lord spoken ?' 38 "For if you say , 'The oracle of the Lord !' surely thus says the Lord , 'Because you said this word , "The oracle of the Lord !" I have also sent to you, saying , "You shall not say , 'The oracle of the Lord !' " 39 "Therefore behold , I will surely forget you and cast you away from My presence , along with the city which I gave you and your fathers . 40 "I will put an everlasting reproach on you and an everlasting humiliation which will not be forgotten ."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 23:33-40
Commentary on Jeremiah 23:33-40
(Read Jeremiah 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.