“But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.”
My Notes
What Does Jeremiah 23:22 Mean?
"If they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way." God describes what the false prophets failed to do: they didn't stand in His counsel. They didn't deliver His actual words. And because they didn't, the people weren't turned from evil.
The phrase "stood in my counsel" (amad b'sodi) means to be present in God's deliberative assembly — the inner circle where decisions are made and truths are revealed. The false prophets weren't there. They didn't have access to God's actual counsel because they never stood in His presence long enough to hear it.
The conditional "if... then" structure implies a devastating counterfactual: if they had been genuine prophets, the people would have repented. The nation's continued sin is partly attributable to prophetic failure. The leaders who should have spoken truth spoke comfort, and the nation that needed confrontation received affirmation. The false prophets didn't just fail themselves — they failed everyone who listened to them.
Reflection Questions
- 1.If you speak about God — to friends, children, anyone — have you 'stood in His counsel' first?
- 2.How do you distinguish between God's actual word and something you've improvised?
- 3.What's the connection between a leader's faithfulness and a community's behavior?
- 4.What would 'standing in God's counsel' look like practically before you give advice?
Devotional
If the prophets had stood in God's counsel — if they'd actually been in the room where God speaks — they would have delivered His words. And if they'd delivered His words, the people would have turned from evil. But they didn't stand there. They didn't hear the real word. They invented their own. And the people continued in their evil.
The chain of causation is clear: false prophets produce unfed people who produce unchanged behavior. The failure starts at the top — with the leaders who should have spoken truth and spoke comfort instead. Every false word from a prophet's mouth keeps a person in their sin who might have turned if they'd heard the truth.
This is one of the heaviest responsibilities in Scripture: if you speak for God, the accuracy of what you say determines whether people change. Get it right, and people turn from evil. Get it wrong, and they stay in it — not because they're beyond reach, but because the word that would have reached them was never delivered.
The phrase "stood in my counsel" is the diagnostic question for anyone who speaks about God: have you been in the room? Have you spent enough time in God's presence to hear His actual word, or are you improvising? The false prophets' failure wasn't malice — it was absence. They hadn't stood where they needed to stand, so they couldn't speak what needed to be spoken.
Where are you standing? And is what you're hearing actually from God's counsel?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
But if they had stood in my counsel,.... As they boasted they did; or, as they reproached the true prophets, and charged…
They should have turned them ... - The work of the true prophet, which is to turn men from evil unto good.
Here is a long lesson for the false prophets. As none were more bitter and spiteful against God's true prophets than…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture