Jeremiah 23:31 · World English Bible
Jeremiah 23:31 Meaning Behold
Behold, I am against the prophets,” says Yahweh, “who use their tongues, and say, ‘He says.’
What does Jeremiah 23:31 mean?
The word set against the false prophets is the true inner light standing opposed to the faculties of the mind that manufacture their own utterance and dress it as revelation. The prophets who use their tongues are the mental voices in a person that speak from themselves and then stamp the saying with a borrowed authority, claiming the source spoke when only the self-willed mind moved.
From the Esoteric reading below.
Jeremiah 23:31 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Esoteric
ESOTERIC
Esoteric
The word set against the false prophets is the true inner light standing opposed to the faculties of the mind that manufacture their own utterance and dress it as revelation. The prophets who use their tongues are the mental voices in a person that speak from themselves and then stamp the saying with a borrowed authority, claiming the source spoke when only the self-willed mind moved. The tongue here is the instrument of the lower reasoning that fabricates its own message and lends it a holy name.
What happens is the higher awareness disowning every thought that pretends to divine origin while rising only out of the person's own invention. The self is warned against its inner counterfeit, the part that talks in the voice of truth without the truth ever having spoken through it.
Prophets: the mental voices in a person that speak from the self yet claim a higher source Tongue: the instrument of the lower reasoning that fabricates its own utterance and names it revelation
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Esoteric lens
Live Jeremiah 23:31 today
- Today when you catch yourself thinking something obviously true, add three words in your head: that is my take. Watch how much lighter it gets.
- In a group chat or a conversation, say I think or I am not sure once where you would normally have stated it flat. Borrowed certainty is the most common thing we hand each other.
- In a meeting or an argument, when you hear your own voice get firm and final, pause and name where the claim actually comes from. If the answer is because I said it, that is worth knowing before you keep going.
When I say this is how it is, who in me is really talking?
The same truth in other traditions
Stoicism · Epictetus
The untrained mind announces its guesses as facts and borrows the weight of certainty it has not earned. Training begins with saying it seems so rather than it is so.
Zen
If you meet the authority on the road, see whether it is real or something you dressed up and handed a title. Even an inner voice using sacred words is just a thought using a costume.
Tao Te Ching
Those who truly know do not announce; those who announce most loudly are usually filling a gap. The volume of a claim says nothing about its source.
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