The ultimate condemnation of false prophets—that God has not sent them—withdraws the only legitimacy that could validate their speech, leaving their prophecies as human delusions without divine authority. This verse establishes the fundamental criterion for prophetic authenticity: whether God has actually sent the prophet to speak His word, a criterion knowable retrospectively through the fulfillment of prophecy rather than through intrinsic prophetic markers. The consequences of following false prophets—exile and death—are presented as inevitable outworking of human rebellion against God's word.

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