Jeremiah 5:13 says that the prophets who claimed to speak for God were, in reality, empty. Their words carried no truth, so the judgment they mocked would fall on the very people who listened to them. The verse is spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, who is recording what the people of Judah were saying about the messages he and others delivered, and it is aimed at the religious leaders and ordinary citizens who had embraced comfortable predictions of peace.
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 of emptiness. Wind is noisy and moves things around, but it carries no substance or nourishment. The people were saying that the prophets were all talk, that their warnings were hot air. The second half, “the word is not in them,” shows what Jeremiah believed was really happening: these speakers had not received a message from the LORD at all. Their speech sounded spiritual, but it originated in their own wishes and in what the people wanted to hear.
The final line, “Thus it will be done to them,” is best read as a turn in the argument. The people assumed the prophets would do no harm, but the verse suggests that a false word has consequences. If the prophets’ message was empty, the disaster they denied would still arrive, and the listeners who trusted them would be caught unprepared.
What the verse does not promise is that every religious voice is false or that prophecy has ended. It addresses a specific situation in Judah around 600 BC, where leaders were presenting a reassuring message contrary to what God had revealed. It is a warning about testing what is said in God’s name, not a blanket dismissal of all spiritual speech.
The Context of Jeremiah 5:13
The book of Jeremiah records the ministry of a prophet active in Jerusalem during the final decades before the Babylonian conquest of Judah. Jeremiah himself is traditionally regarded as its author, though the book reflects some later editing. His audience was the kingdom of Judah, and in chapter 5 he is describing how the nation had abandoned its covenant with God and how its leaders were encouraging that rebellion.
The verses immediately before Jeremiah 5:13 show the people denying that the LORD would act, saying “It is not he” and “Evil won’t come on us.” Verse 14 then reverses the situation, announcing that because the people trusted these words, God’s own words would become fire that consumes them. That shift is why the verse reads as a judgment rather than a mere observation: the empty words of the prophets are tied directly to the coming invasion described in verses 15 to 17.
Key Phrases in Jeremiah 5:13
1 John 4:1
Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
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John warns believers to test the spirits because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This echoes Jeremiah’s concern that not every spiritual voice speaks from God, and it gives a practical instruction for discerning what is true.
Deuteronomy 18:21-22
21 You may say in your heart, “How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?” 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)
Moses provides a test for prophecy: if a word spoken in the LORD’s name does not come to pass, it was not spoken by the LORD. Jeremiah’s indictment of the prophets of his day stands on this same principle, rooted in the law given to Israel.
A Short Prayer From Jeremiah 5:13
Lord, you are the source of every true word, and I want my life to be built on what you have actually said. Give me wisdom to recognize voices that offer comfort without truth, and give me the courage to set aside the reassurances I want to hear. Keep my heart anchored in your word so that my hope rests on something that will not blow away. Help me to listen humbly, to test what I hear against your character, and to trust you when your word is hard. Amen.
