Through his prophet the Lord instructs his people. They should be asking one another ’What has the Lord answered? or What has the Lord spoken?
It is good and right for the Lord’s people to want to know what the Lord is saying to them, specially as they face the crisis of a foreign invasion. But what the people must not mention is the burden of the Lord.
Again, the interplay of the two meanings of burden
in Judah’s current situation seems to be intended. The burden of the Lord should not be mentioned by false prophets who claim to have an oracle from the Lord, but who speak a message of peace. Similarly, as those who listen to this false message of peace, the people should not reject and mock the burden
of the Lord’s judgment that Jeremiah is proclaiming. In both instances, referring to the "burden of the Lord” means that the burden is every man’s own word.
To claim to speak a word from the Lord when it is not from him or to openly reject his word of judgment means that the speaker’s own words have become a burden to them. They will face the Lord’s judgment for speaking the way that they have because their words pervert the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God.
How foolish and wicked it is to treat the words of the living God in this way. He is not some lifeless idol, but the God who sees and hears everything and has the power to act against those who mock and reject him. He is the Lord, the covenant God of Israel who will not simply watch as his covenant is broken and ignored by a sinful people.1
36 But ‘the burden of the LORD’ you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man’s own word, and you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God.