Yirmeyahu 29 | How to Identify a False Prophet

The struggle against false prophets was not confined to the borders of the land. Even the exiles of Yehuda who dwelled in Babylon faced false prophets who prophesied the downfall of Babylon and an imminent redemption. Yirmiyahu sent a letter from the land, warning the exiles in Babylon not to listen, urging them to settle in Babylon, and declaring that redemption would come only after seventy years. Yet, the struggle had two sides — just as Yirmiyahu sent letters to Babylon, so too did the Babylonian prophets send letters to the land, demanding that Yirmiyahu be stopped. The very fact that such a letter was sent teaches us about the influence that the Babylonian exiles wielded over those who remained in the land. A prophet or a leader in Babylon had the ability to send instructions to the priest in charge of the Temple and to rebuke him for how he treated Yirmiyahu: “Now, why have you not excoriated Yirmiyahu the Anatotite, who pretended to be a prophet for you?” (29:27).

The problem of false prophets is one of the central challenges in the Book of Yirmiyahu. In a shiur from the Yemei Iyun series, (sources available here) Dr. Yoshi Fargeon presents the issue: The very existence of the concept of “prophet” creates an opening for corruption. Just as true prophets can proclaim "This is what the Lord said" and guide the people toward a certain path, so too can anyone seeking power and influence say, " This is what the Lord said." What, then, are the people of Israel supposed to do? How can they distinguish?

The Torah already addresses this dilemma and presents two ways to determine whether a prophet is true or false. The first test is the sign. When Moshe Rabbeinu worries that the people will not believe him, he says, “They will not believe me. They will not listen to me. They will say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you” (Shemot 4:1). God’s response is to grant him a sign — a miracle that will serve as proof that he has been sent by God. The Rambam, however, minimizes the significance of such signs, and in any case, by the time of Yirmiyahu, miracles had become rare. Indeed, false prophets were unable to perform miracles — but Yirmiyahu himself did not perform any miracles throughout his prophetic mission either.

The second test that the Torah offers is fulfillment. This is how it’s presented in the Book of Devarim: “And may say to yourself, ‘How can we recognize a message that the Lord has not spoken?’ If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message that the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has proclaimed it in wickedness. Do not be afraid of him” (Devarim 18:21–22). If a prophet makes a promise and it does not come to pass, he is understood to be a false prophet. Yet, this test carries an inherent flaw: What is the deadline by which a prophecy must be fulfilled?

If a prophet sets a specific time for fulfillment, then the answer is clear — if that time passes and the prophecy remains unfulfilled, we will know he was a false prophet. But until then, it would seem that he must be believed. If all the prophets declare that Babylon will fall and that the people of Yehuda will be saved, they have not yet been proven wrong — so the people should heed their words. More than that, even if a prophecy fails to materialize at its appointed time, that does not necessarily mean it was false. The Book of Yeshayahu is filled with prophecies of redemption, originally spoken about Chizkiyahu or the returnees to Zion, that were not fully realized. We simply say that these are prophecies that will be fulfilled in the end of days. What prevents any prophet from making the same claim about his unfulfilled words?

This brings us to the unique message of our prophecy. There is no external test by which to distinguish a true prophet from a false one. But if one prophet demands that we improve ourselves, while another proclaims messages that are comfortable to hear — if one prophet cries out on behalf of the weak, while another echoes the claims of the powerful — if one group of prophets consists of righteous men who seek to help and inspire repentance, while another consists of those who profit in status and power from their own prophecies, to the point that it is said of them: “They performed a vile deed in Israel, committing adultery with the wives of others” (29:23) — then a person may have an excuse to claim that he had no way of knowing who truly spoke in the name of God, but in the test of conscience, he should have been able to tell the difference.