John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 29:23

"because they have wrought folly in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors` wives, and have spoken words in my name falsely, which I commanded them not; and I am he that knoweth, and am witness, saith Jehovah." — Jeremiah 29:23 (ASV)

We perceive why the Prophet mentions the cause of their death; it was so that the Jews might regard the event, not according to their own thoughts, but so that they might feel assured that God took vengeance on the impiety of those who had falsely invoked His name. For we know that we always look here and there, and that when we find an immediate cause, we neglect and regard the judgments of God as nothing. Therefore, to correct this evil, Jeremiah again repeats that Zedekiah and Ahab were not punished by the king of Babylon, but by God himself, because they committed villany in Israel. Some render, נבלה, nubele, enormity or abomination; but I am inclined to render it villany, or turpitude, or filthiness. They, then, committed a filthy thing. He afterwards specifies two kinds: that they committed adultery with the wives of their friends, and that they falsely prophesied in the name of God.

By the first clause, we see how great the stupidity of the people was, for they did not consider the lives of those who pretended to be witnesses for God, as though they were angels come down from heaven. Their wickedness might indeed have been concealed; but there is no doubt that the Jews were extremely stupid, for they had willingly seized on the vain promises which afforded them gratification. Since, then, they were anxious to return, wished to be restored to their own country as it were against God's will, and sought to break through all obstacles by the force of their own obstinacy, it was a just punishment that they were so blinded as not to see what was yet sufficiently manifest: even that these vaunting prophets were adulterers, and that the filthiness of their life was so great that it was certain they had nothing divine or heavenly in them.

Then another kind of evil is added: that they prophesied falsely in God’s name. This was an atrocious crime; for as his truth is precious to God, so it is a sacrilege that he cannot bear when his truth is turned into falsehood. But as the minds of them all were so corrupted that no one would open his eyes, God testifies that though their adulteries might be unknown to the people, and though their vanity in their false prophecies might not be perceived, yet it was enough that he knew and was a witness.

Now this passage is worthy of special notice, for hypocrites, until they find that they are proved guilty before men, fear nothing; indeed, they haughtily exalt themselves, even when things are justly laid to their charge. Since, then, the hardness and dishonesty of hypocrites are so great, it is necessary to summon them before God’s tribunal, so that they may know that though they may be acquitted a hundred times by the world, this still detracts nothing from God’s judgment.