In Jeremiah, chapter five, verse thirty-one, “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” Those who had been entrusted with the spiritual well-being of the nation were guilty of treachery against their God. The prophets had rejected God’s Word and prophesied only good things to come. They made a few moral demands on the people, and the people were happy to have it that way.
The priests governed the people by their own ideas rather than by God’s Word. The prophets and priests thus lulled the nation into a false security. Jeremiah proclaimed that there was no real security before God apart from sincere repentance and a commitment to obey His Word.
The prophets prophesy falsely in that the people would have peace and prosperity, and not be carried captive into Babylon, as Jeremiah and other true prophets of the Lord had predicted: either spreading and dispersing abroad the lies of their idols, particularly Baal, as Jeremiah two, verse eight, or venting their lies in the name of the true God, in Jeremiah four, verse ten. The princes and priests are encouraged to do all their mischiefs, whether it were in corrupting judgment by bribes, or countenancing fraud and oppression, and hardening themselves against God’s threatenings, or whatever else; they were encouraged by the lies of the false prophets, they, and the priests, and the princes combining, and setting themselves against the true prophets of God, as in Jeremiah twety-six, verse eight. And thus the priests in effect take the management of all the affairs into their own hands.
They are very well pleased with the flatteries and lies of the false prophets, not being able to bear the truths that were delivered to them from God, as in Micah two, verse eleven.