פרשת ראה תש"ח - נביא שקר

if a prophet arises among you The meaning of among you is that a prophet must be from the nation of Israel. The common thread connecting this passage with the previous passage is the prohibition against idolatry (the burning of children [12: 31] was an idolatrous practice). The word prophet here denotes someone who claims that God , or a messenger of God , spoke to him while awake . The other possibility is that it occurred in a dream. Some say, that the prophet discussed here is likely one of the “thieves of God ’s words” [cf . Jeremiah 23: 30] — to wit: A true prophet announces that a certain miracle will come, to justify him; someone else overhears this, and then asserts that the miracle applies to himself . Others say, that we do not believe him, even if the signal or marvel comes to pass, because he says things that are contrary to logic. In my opinion, the Hebrew words signal and marvel here have the sense of “sign” [and not any supernatural event — Translator]: 1) The words of Isaiah provide evidence for this interpretation. He said “Behold, I, and the children whom God has given me, are for signs and for portents” [Isaiah 8: 18] (the prophet’s own sign was “…just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot…” [Isaiah 20: 3]; the sons’ signs were their names, each being named after an event which was to occur in his lifetime, i.e., “Immanu כ el” [Isaiah 7: 14], “Maher-Shalal-Ḥash-Baz” [Isaiah 8: 3], and “Sh әכ ar-Yashuv” [Isaiah 7: 3]). 2) With respect to plagues, Scripture says “They will serve you as signs and proofs” [28: 46]. Many similar examples exist.

ובא האות והמופת, these false prophets came by their knowledge by means of their dealings with the necromancers, etc., people whom we are supposed to put to death.

לא תשמע אל הנביא ההוא, do not even turn to listen to find out if his words have even partial substance, for there can be no question that the man is full of lies and tells you things he has made up, all for an evil purpose; כי דבר סרה, for what he portrays as a miracle is nothing but sleight of hand or forgery of some other kind.

או אל חולם החלום ההוא, to see if even part of what he dreamt reflected some truth of what was going to happen; you may be sure that the dreamers did not actually dream any part of what he claimed to have dreamt, but he invented all of it in order to seduce you;

And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azzur the prophet, who was of Gibeon, spoke unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying: