Why is the Lord against the prophets who steal his words from one another and say, “Declares the LORD”?

The Lord makes it very clear that he rejects and opposes these false prophets. Three times he says, I am against the prophets, and each time he exposes a different aspect of their falsehood. First, he says that they ”steal my words from one another.” This could either mean that they steal words from true prophets such as Jeremiah and then twist them to suit their own message or they steal words from each other to formulate their message. Either way, they claim for themselves words that were never truly revealed to them by the Lord.¹

Second, these prophets use their tongues and declare, declares the Lord. There is a wordplay in the Hebrew text. The phrase neum yhwh is translated as declares the  Lord, and these prophets say yinamu neum, which is translated as declare, declares the  Lord. The literal meaning is that they declare a declaration. The prophets speak their own words but present them to the people as words that the Lord himself has declared² The literal meaning of use their tongues is that they control their own tongues as opposed to saying what the Lord has revealed.³

Third, the Lord says that they lead his people astray by their lies and recklessness, when I did not send them. So they do not profit my people. These prophets have no concern for what harm their message will do to the Lord’s people. They do not see how preaching a message of peace, because it suits their agenda, will cause the people of Judah to face the Lord’s judgment unprepared. Jeremiah, on the other hand, has faithfully warned the people to turn to the Lord in repentance because judgment is coming.