Jeremiah 23

¹ "Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!" declares the LORD.

² Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: "Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not attended to them, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the LORD.

³ I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their own pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number.

⁴ I will raise up shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing, declares the LORD.

⁵ "The days are coming, declares the LORD,
when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch,
and he will reign as king and act wisely
and do what is just and right in the land.

⁶ In his days Judah will be saved
and Israel will dwell in safety.
This is the name by which he will be called:
The LORD Our Righteousness.

⁷ "So the days are coming, declares the LORD, when people will no longer say, 'As the LORD lives, who brought Israel up out of Egypt,'

⁸ but instead, 'As the LORD lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' Then they will live in their own land."

⁹ Concerning the prophets:
My heart is broken within me;
all my bones tremble.
I am like a drunk man,
like a man overcome by wine,
because of the LORD
and because of his holy words.

¹⁰ For the land is full of adulterers;
because of the curse the land mourns,
the pastures of the wilderness are dried up.
Their course is evil
and their might is not right.

¹¹ "For both prophet and priest are godless;
even in my house I have found their wickedness,
declares the LORD.

¹² Therefore their path will be slippery;
they will be banished to darkness
and there they will fall.
I will bring disaster on them
in the year I punish them,
declares the LORD.

¹³ "Among the prophets of Samaria
I saw something repulsive:
they prophesied by Baal
and led my people Israel astray.

¹⁴ And among the prophets of Jerusalem
I have seen something horrible:
they commit adultery and live a lie;
they strengthen the hands of evildoers
so that not one of them turns from his wickedness.
They are all like Sodom to me;
those who live in Jerusalem are like Gomorrah."

¹⁵ Therefore this is what the LORD of hosts says about the prophets:
"I will feed them bitter wormwood
and give them poisoned water to drink,
for from the prophets of Jerusalem
godlessness has spread throughout the land."

¹⁶ This is what the LORD of hosts says:
"Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you;
they fill you with false hopes.
They speak visions from their own minds,
not from the mouth of the LORD.

¹⁷ They keep saying to those who despise me:
'The LORD says: You will have peace.'
And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say:
'No harm will come to you.'"

¹⁸ But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD
to see or to hear his word?
Who has listened and heard his word?

¹⁹ See, the storm of the LORD!
His wrath has gone out —
a whirling tempest;
it will swirl down on the heads of the wicked.

²⁰ The anger of the LORD will not turn back
until he fully accomplishes
the purposes of his heart.
In days to come
you will understand it clearly.

²¹ I did not send these prophets,
yet they ran;
I did not speak to them,
yet they prophesied.

²² But if they had stood in my council,
they would have proclaimed my words to my people
and would have turned them from their evil ways
and from their evil deeds.

²³ "Am I only a God who is near, declares the LORD,
and not a God far away?

²⁴ Can anyone hide in secret places
so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD.
Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD.

²⁵ I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, 'I had a dream! I had a dream!'

²⁶ How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds?

²⁷ They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their ancestors forgot my name through Baal worship.

²⁸ Let the prophet who has a dream recount the dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain? declares the LORD.

²⁹ "Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD,
and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?

³⁰ "Therefore, here I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me.

³¹ Yes, here I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, 'The LORD declares.'

³² "Here I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the LORD. They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send them or appoint them. They do not benefit this people in the least, declares the LORD.

³³ "And when these people, or a prophet or a priest, ask you, 'What is the oracle of the LORD?' you are to say to them, 'What oracle? I will forsake you, declares the LORD.'

³⁴ And if a prophet or a priest or anyone else claims, 'This is the oracle — the burden — of the LORD,' I will punish that man and his household.

³⁵ This is what each of you keeps saying to your neighbor and to your brother: 'What is the LORD's answer?' or 'What has the LORD spoken?'

³⁶ But you must not mention 'the oracle of the LORD' again, because every man's own word becomes his oracle and so you distort the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God.

³⁷ This is what you keep saying to a prophet: 'What is the LORD's answer to you?' or 'What has the LORD spoken?'

³⁸ Although you claim, 'This is the oracle of the LORD,' this is what the LORD says: Because you used the words 'oracle of the LORD,' I told you that you must not claim, 'This is the oracle of the LORD.'

³⁹ Therefore, I will surely forget you and cast you out of my presence together with the city I gave to you and your ancestors.

⁴⁰ I will bring on you everlasting disgrace — everlasting shame that will not be forgotten."