Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.
The passage stands within a broader divine indictment in Jeremiah 23:21-32 against prophets who speak in God's name without His commission, claiming heavenly authority for messages He never entrusted to them. The charge of stealing words from a neighbor describes a practice of taking up and echoing one another's utterances, so that mere human invention and imitation is put forward as if it were revelation from God. These counterfeits are dangerous precisely because they can bear a close likeness to true inspiration, while blending truth with error, mingling sacred things with what is common or even ridiculous, and joining rebuke with flattering promises. By that mixture they deceive those who hear them and turn them aside into false paths.
The passage stands within a broader divine indictment in Jeremiah 23:21-32 against prophets who speak in God's name without His commission, claiming heavenly authority for messages He never entrusted to them. The charge of stealing words from a neighbor describes a practice of taking up and echoing one another's utterances, so that mere human invention and imitation is put forward as if it were revelation from God. These counterfeits are dangerous precisely because they can bear a close likeness to true inspiration, while blending truth with error, mingling sacred things with what is common or even ridiculous, and joining rebuke with flattering promises. By that mixture they deceive those who hear them and turn them aside into false paths.