Jeremiah 23:23 · Bible study
Jeremiah 23:23 Commentary: God Near and Far
Hebrew · 9 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Jeremiah 23:23 asks if God is only near. The rhetorical answer confirms His omnipresence, He sees all, near and far.
Research Summary
- Meaning: God rhetorically asks if He is only near (in heaven) and not far (on earth); the implied answer is that He is both, omnipresent and omniscient.
- Key words: “near” (H7138, qarov) and “far” (H7350, rachoq); the prepositions mîn (from) stress spatial origin, affirming God’s presence from any point.
- Main debate: Minimal, the rhetorical force is clear; some traditions note the dual comfort for believers and warning for hypocrites.
- Theological theme: Divine omnipresence as the foundation for both human accountability and divine comfort.
- Best use: Preaching on God’s nature; addressing those who think God is indifferent or limited; comforting those who feel distant from God.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away?”
WEB World English Bible 2000
“Am I a God at hand,” says Yahweh, “and not a God afar off?
KJV King James Version 1769
Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?
ASV American Standard Version 1901
Am I a God at hand, saith Jehovah, and not a God afar off?
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
A God near am I--an affirmation of Jehovah, And not a God afar off?
Darby Darby Bible 1890
Am I a God at hand, saith Jehovah, and not a God afar off?
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
Am I, think ye, a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?
Translations in other languages (10 available)
¿ Soy yo Dios de poco acá, dice Jehová, y no Dios de mucho ha?
Por acaso sou eu Deus apenas de perto,diz o SENHOR, e não também Deus de longe?
Ne suis-je un Dieu que de près, dit l’ Éternel,
Bin ich nur ein Gott, der nahe ist, spricht der HERR, und nicht auch ein Gott von ferneher?
Ben Ik een God van nabij, spreekt de HEERE, en niet een God van verre?
Son io soltanto un Dio da vicino, dice l’Eterno, e non un Dio da lungi?
Izalim Ja tylko Bogiem z bliska? mówi Pan, a nie jestem Bogiem i z daleka?
Разве Я - Бог только вблизи, говорит Господь, а не Бог и вдали?
耶和華 說：「我 豈為近處的 神呢？不 也為遠處的 神嗎？」
Am I only a God who is near, says the Lord, and not a God at a distance?
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Jeremiah 23:23
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators agree that this rhetorical question affirms God’s omnipresence and omniscience. Adam Clarke states simply, ‘Do not I fill the heavens and the earth?’ (Jer 23:24). Barnes notes that God’s power is not limited to things close to Him; it is universal. Calvin explains that hypocrites imagine God to have limited vision, like a person who can see only what is near, but Jeremiah refutes that: God sees what is far as well as what is near. Gill adds that the meaning is clear: God is alike near in every place. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown say the false prophets thought God could only see heavenly things, as if earthly things were too remote. The implied answer from the Lord is that He is indeed a God both near and far, present everywhere and aware of every human thought and action, whether in heaven or on earth.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Low
What is clear: God’s rhetorical question affirms that He is both near and far — present everywhere and aware of all things, including the hidden actions and words of every person.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Divine omnipresence | All traditions agree the verse teaches that God is present everywhere and sees all things. | Some emphasize the comforting aspect (God near to the faithful), others the warning aspect (God sees hidden sin). Neither position denies the other. |
| Context of false prophecy | The verse directly addresses false prophets who thought God could not see their lies. | Interpreters vary on how much of the surrounding passage (Jer 23:9, 40) is original to Jeremiah; higher-criticism views differ from traditional conservative readings, but the meaning of v.23 itself is not disputed. |
| Rhetorical question vs. statement | The verse is a rhetorical question that expects the answer 'No, I am both near and far.' | A few older translations (Septuagint, Arabic) render it as a direct statement. This affects tone but not the core meaning. |
Historical & Cultural Context
Jeremiah prophesied in the final decades of the kingdom of Judah, roughly 627, 586 BC. The nation was caught between the crumbling Assyrian empire and the rising power of Babylon. A central problem was the prevalence of false prophets. They assured the people and the king that Jerusalem was safe, that Yahweh would never abandon His temple, and that the looming threat from Babylon would pass. But their words contradicted Jeremiah’s message of judgment and exile.
Jeremiah 23:23 appears within a larger condemnation of these prophets (Jer 23:9, 40). Earlier, the prophet had compared them to the prophets of Samaria, who led Israel into idolatry (Jer 23:13). Now he confronts their core mistake: they thought God was limited. The specific error echoes an old pagan belief. In 1 Kings 20:23, 28, the Syrians assumed Yahweh was only a ‘god of the hills’ and powerless in the valleys. The false prophets in Judah had a similar blind spot: they imagined God as a deity who only pays attention to the grand affairs of heaven or the temple, not to the secret machinations and sins of people far from His throne.
By asking ‘Am I a God at hand and not a God afar off?’ Yahweh dismantles that assumption. The prophets, who spoke lies in His name and lived immoral lives, acted as if God could not see them. But the God who fills heaven and earth (Jer 23:24) is present in every space and aware of every hidden action. The verse is thus a direct challenge to the false sense of security and secrecy that the prophets relied upon.
Textual Notes
Supplied sources note no significant textual variants for Jeremiah 23:23. The Hebrew is stable across manuscripts. The Septuagint and Arabic versions read the verse as a statement rather than a question (“I am a God near … and not afar off”), which Gill observes but does not adopt. The rhetorical force is retained in the Hebrew and in the majority of translations.
Reception History
Early church fathers like Augustine and Jerome cited this verse to defend God’s omnipresence. It appears in discussions of divine attributes in medieval theology, particularly in Thomas Aquinas’s treatment of God’s presence in all things. During the Reformation, Calvin used it to argue that God is not limited by distance and sees the hidden hypocrisy of the human heart. The verse also resonates in hymns about God’s inescapable presence, such as those based on Psalm 139. In modern pastoral tradition, it is often paired with Deuteronomy 4:7 to offer comfort to believers and with Psalm 139:7, 12 to warn of the futility of hiding sin.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- God’s nearness does not mean He is limited. The false prophets thought that because God is “near” to heaven, He cannot see what happens far from Him on earth. They reduced God to a local deity. Jeremiah corrects them: God’s nearness to one place does not make Him absent from another. He is fully present everywhere at once.
- God’s farness does not mean He is distant or unaware. Some people today think God is “afar off”, remote, unconcerned with daily life, or only interested in big events. But the same God who is near is also far, meaning nothing escapes His notice. He sees the details of our ordinary days as clearly as He sees the movements of the stars.
- The grounding for both comfort and warning. For the faithful, God’s nearness brings help and peace, as Deuteronomy 4:7 says: “What great nation is there that has a god so near to them as Yahweh our God?” For the wicked, God’s farness means He is not blind to their hidden sins. The same truth, omnipresence, is a refuge for the believer and a searchlight for the hypocrite.
Five-point outline
- The rhetorical question exposes the false prophets’ view of God (Jer 23:21, 22).
- God is equally near to all places, nothing is far from Him (v. 23).
- No one can hide from God’s sight (v. 24a).
- God fills heaven and earth with His presence (v. 24b).
- Therefore, the false prophets’ lies and secret sins are fully known and will be judged.
Illustration hooks
- Security cameras. Most people behave differently when they know they are on camera. God is like an all-seeing camera that never blinks. The false prophets acted as if the camera was only pointed at heaven and they were in a blind spot. This verse reminds us that no blind spot exists.
- Video call across continents. When you video call someone on the other side of the world, you see their face and hear their voice as if they were in the same room. Technology enables a kind of “near-and-far” presence. God does not need technology; His actual presence is simultaneously with everyone everywhere.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Does God really see everything I do, even what I do when no one else is watching?
- If God is everywhere, why does He sometimes feel far away?
- How should the truth of God’s omnipresence change the way I live this week?
Leading a Discussion
This verse is a single rhetorical question that forces us to reconsider our view of God. The false prophets had made God small, limited in sight and reach. Jeremiah asks them, and asks us, to think again. The opening is stark: ‘Am I a God at hand … and not a God afar off?’ In a simple question, God declares that He is present everywhere and aware of everything.
Discussion questions
- Read Jeremiah 23:23. Why do you think God asks this as a question rather than a statement?
- What did the false prophets believe about God that made them think He couldn’t see their actions or hear their lies? (Look at the surrounding verses Jer 23:21, 22, 25, 27.)
- How does 1 Kings 20:23, 28 illustrate the same wrong belief about God? What does it reveal about human assumptions about God’s limitations?
- Psalm 139:1, 10 expands on the idea of God’s omnipresence. How do those verses affect your sense of security or your sense of accountability?
- Gill notes that this truth is ‘very comfortable … to the people of God’ and ‘uncomfortable and dreadful to wicked men.’ Why does the same doctrine produce two different reactions?
- In what specific areas of your life do you find it hardest to believe that God is near and sees?
- How might you live differently this week if you truly believed that God is both a God at hand and a God afar off?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| I Kings 20:23 | The servants of the king of Syria said to him, “Their god is a god of the hills; therefore they were stronger than we. But let’s fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they. |
| I Kings 20:28 | A man of God came near and spoke to the king of Israel, and said, “Yahweh says, ‘Because the Syrians have said, “Yahweh is a god of the hills, but he is not a god of the valleys,” therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am Yahweh.’” |
| Psalms 113:5 | Who is like Yahweh, our God, who has his seat on high, |
| Psalms 139:1 | For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me. |
| Psalms 139:10 | even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will hold me. |
| Ezekiel 20:32 | “‘“That which comes into your mind will not be at all, in that you say, ‘We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.’ |
| Ezekiel 20:35 | I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. |
| Jonah 1:3 | But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
7 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Am I a God at hand, - and not a God afar off? - You act as if you thought I could not see you! Am I not omnipresent? Do not I fill the heavens and the earth? Jer 23:24 .
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes argues that when the prophets appeal to God's omnipotence, they show His power is not limited to things close at hand. God's awareness and judgment reach everywhere, not only what is nearby.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin argues that hypocrites deceive themselves by imagining God sees only what is near at hand, like a human with poor vision. They live carelessly in sin because they picture God as blind to distant offenses, not realizing He penetrates the inmost heart and discerns all thoughts.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva Note stresses God's rhetorical question rebukes those who think he only sees what is done openly. They imagined his presence was confined to the temple, but he is equally near in secret places and knows every hidden sin. No one escapes his all-seeing eye.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill argues that God's rhetorical question denies the false prophets' belief that He only concerns Himself with heaven. God's point is that He is equally present everywhere, omniscient and omnipotent, taking direct notice of all people and events on earth as much as in heaven.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
JFB stresses that God is not limited to seeing only heavenly things; He also sees all that happens on earth. The false prophets mistakenly think their secret devices are hidden from Him, but nothing escapes His knowledge.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange focuses on the false prophets' criminal mingling of their own dreams with God's true word, an unfit mixture like straw with grain. God's word alone is like a consuming fire or a hammer that shatters rock, while human inventions are mere empty straw. He charges them with three crimes: stealing God's words, aping genuine prophecy, and leading the people astray.