Jeremiah Chapter 23 verse 18 Holy Bible
For who hath stood in the council of Jehovah, that he should perceive and hear his word? who hath marked my word, and heard it?
read chapter 23 in ASV
For which of them has knowledge of the secret of the Lord, and has seen him, and given ear to his word? which of them has taken note of his word and given attention to it?
read chapter 23 in BBE
For who hath stood in the council of Jehovah, so that he hath perceived and heard his word? who hath hearkened to his word and listened?
read chapter 23 in DARBY
For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it?
read chapter 23 in KJV
read chapter 23 in WBT
For who has stood in the council of Yahweh, that he should perceive and hear his word? who has marked my word, and heard it?
read chapter 23 in WEB
For who hath stood in the counsel of Jehovah, And seeth and heareth His word? Who hath regarded My word, and hearkeneth?
read chapter 23 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 18. - For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord; rather, in the council. This verse is connected with ver. 16; it gives the reason why the false prophets were not to be listened to. None of them had been admitted to the secret council of the Lord; the interrogation is here a form of denial. "To stand in the council" is not the same as "to sit" (Psalm 1:1); the latter phrase implies taking an active part in the consultations. It is specially applicable to the true prophets, according to ver. 22, and this, as we gather from other passages, m a twofold sense. Sometimes the prophets had visions, in which their inner eye was granted a sight of Jehovah in consultation with his trusted servants (Isaiah 6:1, comp. 8; 1 Kings 22:19); and the words of Eliphaz, "Weft thou listening in the council of God?" (Job 15:8), appear to be descriptive of a similar experience. But the phrase may also be used in a wider sense of entirely unecstatic revelations. Amos says (Amos 3:7), "Surely the Lord Jehovah will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret counsel unto his servants the prophets; ' and a psalmist extends the term "secret counsel" to the communion which God grants to the pious in general (Psalm 25:14; comp. Proverbs 3:32). Thus there is no hard and-fast line between the experiences of the prophets and those of humbler believers. In so far as the latter are "disciples of Jehovah" (Isaiah 54:13), they too may be truly said to "stand," at least in the doorway, "in the council of Jehovah;" just as a well-known collect inherited from the Latin Church beseeches that "by God's holy inspiration we may think those things that he good." Who hath marked his word? A Jewish tradition, represented by the marginal notes in the Hebrew Bible, has taken offence at this variation in the expression, and would correct the reading to "my word." But such changes of person are of frequent occurrence, and we know that the prophets were thoroughly assured that the word which they spoke was not theirs, but that of him who sent them.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(18) The counsel.--Better, perhaps, the council, the "assembly" of chosen friends with whom a man shares his secret plans. So in Jeremiah 6:11; Jeremiah 15:17; Psalm 89:7, "assembly." Could any of the false prophets say that they had thus been called as into the privy council of Jehovah? (Comp. Amos 3:7; 1Kings 22:19-23.)
