False Prophecies

When people or religious leaders ask Jeremiah about 'the burden of the LORD,' he is to answer that the LORD Himself will cast them off. Anyone who keeps using the phrase in that corrupt way will be punished, because each person's own word becomes the burden and they have twisted the speech of the living God.

“³³Now when this people or a prophet or priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the LORD?’ you are to say to them, ‘What burden? I will forsake you, declares the LORD.’ ³⁴As for the prophet or priest or anyone who claims, ‘This is the burden of the LORD,’ I will punish that man and his household. ³⁵This is what each man is to say to his friend and to his brother: ‘What has the LORD answered?’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ ³⁶But refer no more to the burden of the LORD, for each man’s word becomes the burden, so that you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of Hosts, our God.

The right question is what the LORD has answered or spoken, not a theatrical invocation of 'burden.' Since they insist on using the forbidden phrase after being warned, the LORD says He will cast them and the city out of His presence and bring on them everlasting shame and perpetual humiliation.

³⁷Thus you are to say to the prophet: ‘What has the LORD answered you?’ and ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ ³⁸But if you claim, ‘This is the burden of the LORD,’ then this is what the LORD says: Because you have said, ‘This is the burden of the LORD,’ and I specifically told you not to make this claim, ³⁹therefore I will surely forget you and will cast you out of My presence, both you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers. ⁴⁰And I will bring upon you everlasting shame and perpetual humiliation that will never be forgotten.”