Jeremiah 42:20
For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us unto the LORD our God; and according unto all that the LORD our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it.
For ye dissembled in your hearts,.... Did not honestly and faithfully declare their intentions; they said one thing with their mouths, and meant another in their minds; they pretended they would act according to the will of God, as it should be made known to them by him, when they were determined to take their own way. Some render it, "ye have deceived me in your hearts" {z}; the prophet, so Kimchi; by that which was in their hearts, not declaring what was their real intention and design: or, "ye have deceived your souls" {a}; you have deceived yourselves and one another; I have not deceived you, nor the Lord, but you have put a cheat upon your own souls: or, "you have used deceit against your souls" {b}; to the hurt of them, to your present ruin and everlasting destruction:
when ye sent me unto the LORD your God; the prophet did not go of himself, they desired him to go:
saying, Pray for us unto the LORD our God; to be directed in the way they should go; so that the prophet did nothing but what they desired him to do:
and according to all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it; they pressed him to a faithful declaration of the will of God to them, and promised they would act according to it. Now he had done all this; he had been wire God, prayed unto him as they requested, and had brought them his mind and will, and made a faithful relation of it, and yet they did not attend to it; so that the deceit was not in him, but in them, as follows:
{z} Mkytwvpnb Mtyeth "seduxistis me animis vestris", so some in Vatablus; "fefellistis me", Munster. So Ben Melech.
{a} "Fecistis errare animas vestras", Pagninus; "fefellistis", Calvin.
{b} "Seduxeritis vos contra animas vestras", Schmidt.