Jeremiah 23:16

"Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they teach you vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of Jehovah. They say continually unto them that despise me, Jehovah hath said, Ye shall have peace; and unto everyone that walketh in the stubbornness of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you. For who hath stood in the council of Jehovah, that they should perceive and hear his word? who hath marked my word, and heard it? Behold, the tempest of Jehovah, even his wrath, is gone forth: it shall burst upon the head of the wicked. The anger of Jehovah shall not return, until he hath executed, and till he hath performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall understand it perfectly. I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I spake not unto them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my council, then had they caused my people to hear my words, and had turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings."

Jeremiah 23:16 carries the meaning that the false prophets, "Gave out the thoughts of their own heart as divine revelation, promising peace and prosperity to all stiff-necked sinners."[21] Were such men popular? Indeed, they were popular among the vast wicked majority of the people. "Here we have the principal earmark of false teaching. False prophets, or teachers, always speak words that quiet the conscience, promise all kinds of good things, and violate with impunity the laws of morality."[22] In our day, the false teachers know nothing except the grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness of God and absolutely nothing about obedience or holiness. Their doctrine is "Smile, something good is going to happen to you" or, "I'm OK, you're OK!"

Jeremiah 23:19-20 occur again almost verbatim in Jeremiah 30:23-24.

"In the latter days ye shall understand it ..." (Jeremiah 23:20). Normally the words. "In the latter days" are used to introduce the subject of the Messianic kingdom, or the eschatological happenings of the end times; but here, "They can hardly mean that. Here they mean that when God's judgment falls upon Judah, the whole nation at that time will understand perfectly what the warnings of Jeremiah and the other prophets were all about."[23] As Jamieson put it, "When the prophesies shall be fulfilled in their Babylonian exile, the people shall consider and see by bitter experience, their sinful folly."[24]