Jeremiah 5:13 is a judgment on prophets who claimed to speak for God while speaking words that were not his. The prophet says their words will be blown away like wind, because God never gave them his message at all. Jeremiah spoke these words in the years before Judah fell to Babylon, and he was speaking about the people who had made themselves comfortable with messages that told them what they wanted to hear.
The prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus it will be done to them.”
Jeremiah 5:13 (WEB)
What Jeremiah 5:13 Means
The phrase “the prophets will become wind” is a picture. Wind is loud and seems powerful, yet it has no substance and leaves nothing behind. Jeremiah is saying that the prophets’ speeches sounded impressive, but they amounted to nothing because they were not carrying the word of the LORD. The second half, “the word is not in them,” explains the cause: their message was their own invention, not a message from God.
The verse ends with “Thus it will be done to them,” a plain statement that the consequences would match the emptiness of what they said. Notice what the verse does not promise. It does not describe every preacher who ever makes a mistake, and it does not say God will never use human voices. It speaks about people who deliberately misrepresented God and reassured others that disaster would not come.
The Context of Jeremiah 5:13
The book of Jeremiah is traditionally attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, who ministered in Jerusalem during the late seventh and early sixth centuries BC. His audience was the people of Judah, the southern kingdom, who were facing growing threats from Babylon. Chapter 5 is a sharp indictment of a nation that had grown careless about God’s justice.
In the verses just before, Jeremiah says the people have denied the LORD and insisted that calamity would never reach them. Verse 13 is a quotation of their attitude: the prophets were telling them that no sword or famine was coming, and the people liked hearing it. Verse 14 then answers with God’s response, turning their false words into fire. Reading the verse inside this exchange shows that the prophets were not just wrong; they were feeding a dangerous denial.
Key Phrases in Jeremiah 5:13
Deuteronomy 18:22
When a prophet speaks in the LORD’s name, if the thing doesn’t follow, nor happen, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.
(WEB)
This verse gives an early test for a prophet’s message: if the word spoken does not come to pass, the speaker is not from the LORD. It helps explain why Jeremiah treats false prophecy so seriously and why the people had reason to be skeptical of confident promises of peace.
Jeremiah 23:16
The LORD of Armies says, “Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They teach you vanity. They speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.
(WEB)
Later in the same book, Jeremiah warns against prophets who speak visions from their own minds rather than from the LORD’s mouth. It is a fuller picture of the same problem described in chapter 5, showing that the danger was persistent and not limited to one moment in Judah’s history.
A Short Prayer From Jeremiah 5:13
Lord, you are the one who speaks truth that does not fade. Keep me from trusting words that sound comforting but are not rooted in your word. Give me a careful heart that tests what I hear, and a love for Scripture that anchors me when voices around me are loud and empty. Let my faith rest on what you have actually said, and help me speak only what is true when I speak of you. Amen.
