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Could you please explain what burden is being referred to in this passage from the Bible (Jeremiah 23:34): "And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the LORD, I will even punish that man and his house"?

In the days of the prophet Jeremiah (late 7th — early 6th centuries BC), there existed an idiomatic expression in Israel, "the burden of the Lord," which was used to denote any prophecy. The Israelites had become accustomed to the prophets declaring the will of the Almighty by exposing their sins and foretelling various calamities that these sins would bring upon them. In modern language, this expression means "threats." When the Israelites asked the prophet Jeremiah, "What is the burden of the Lord?" they meant, "What else is your God threatening us with?" However, God never simply threatens; furthermore, the use of this expression demonstrated profound disrespect toward God. Therefore, through Jeremiah, God forbade its use. At the same time, the Lord revealed to the prophet the consequence the people of Israel faced for their sinful irreverence toward God: "I will forsake you, says the Lord." The punishment for an irreverent attitude toward God and His Word will thus be that God forsakes such a person.

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