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So do not listen to your prophets or to those who claim to predict the future by divination,[a] by dreams, by consulting the dead,[b] or by practicing magic. They keep telling you, ‘You do not need to be subject to[c] the king of Babylon.’

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 27:9 sn Various means of divination are alluded to in the OT. For example, Ezek 21:26-27 alludes to throwing down arrows to see which way they fall and consulting the shape of the liver of slaughtered animals. Gen 44:5 alludes to reading the future through pouring liquid in a cup. The means listed in this verse were all classified as pagan and prohibited as illegitimate in Deut 18:10-14. The Lord had promised that he would speak to them through prophets like Moses (Deut 18:15, 18). But even prophets could lie. Hence, the Lord told them that the test of a true prophet was whether what he said came true or not (Deut 18:20-22). An example of false prophesying and a vindication of the true as opposed to the false will be given in the chapter that follows this.
  2. Jeremiah 27:9 sn An example of this is seen in 1 Sam 28.
  3. Jeremiah 27:9 tn The verb in this context is best taken as a negative obligatory imperfect. See IBHS 508-9 §31.4g for discussion and examples. See Exod 4:15 as an example of positive obligation.