Old Testament · Jeremiah

Jeremiah 23

David’s Righteous Branch

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

2Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who shepherd my people: You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them; behold, I am visiting upon you the evil of your doings, declares the LORD.

3And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold; and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4And I will raise up over them shepherds who shall shepherd them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, declares the LORD.

5Behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and act wisely, and shall do judgment^a and righteousness in the land.
6In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell securely; and this is his name by which he shall be called: the LORD our Righteousness.

7Therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when they shall no more say, As the LORD lives^b, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 8but, As the LORD lives, who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north land, and out of all the lands where I had driven them; and they shall dwell on their own ground^c.

Lying Prophets

9Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken, all my bones shake; I have become like a man^d drunk, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the LORD, and because of his holy words.

10For the land is full of adulterers; for because of the curse the land mourns, the pastures of the wilderness are dried up; and their course is evil, and their might is not right.
11For both prophet and priest are profane; even in my house I have found their evil, declares the LORD.
12Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery places in the darkness; they shall be thrust down, and fall therein; for I will bring evil upon them, the year of their visitation, declares the LORD.
13And in the prophets of Samaria I have seen folly: they prophesied by Baal, and led my people Israel astray.
14But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: committing adultery, and walking in falsehood; and they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that none returns from his evil; they have all become to me like Sodom, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

15Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts^e concerning the prophets: Behold, I am feeding them wormwood, and making them drink poisoned water; for from the prophets of Jerusalem profaneness has gone forth into all the land.

16Thus says the LORD of hosts: Do not hear the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they make you vain; they speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the LORD.

17They say continually to those who despise me, the LORD has spoken, You shall have peace; and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his heart they say, No evil shall come upon you.
18For who has stood in the council of the LORD, that he should see and hear his word? Who has attended to his word and heard it?
19Behold, a storm of the LORD has gone forth in fury, a whirling storm; upon the head of the wicked it shall whirl.
20The anger of the LORD shall not return until he has done and until he has established the purposes of his heart; in the latter days you shall understand it perfectly.
21I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
22But if they had stood in my council, then they would have caused my people to hear my words, and would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

23Am I a God near at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far off?

24Can a man hide himself in secret places, and I not see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill the heavens and the earth? declares the LORD.

25I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy falsehood in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. 26How long? Is it in the heart of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, and the prophets of the deceit of their own heart, 27who plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams which they tell, every man to his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name for Baal?

28The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has my word, let him speak my word in truth. What has the straw to do with the grain? declares the LORD. 29Is not my word like fire? declares the LORD, and like a hammer that shatters the rock?

30Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who steal my words, every man from his neighbor.

31Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who take their tongue and declare an utterance.

32Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams, declares the LORD, and tell them, and lead my people astray by their lies and by their recklessness; yet I did not send them, nor command^f them; and they profit this people nothing at all, declares the LORD.

False Prophecies

33And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, asks you, saying, What is the burden of the LORD? then you shall say to them, What burden! I will cast you off, declares the LORD.

34And the prophet, and the priest, and the people who say, The burden of the LORD, I will visit upon that man and upon his house.

35Thus shall you say, every man to his neighbor, and every man to his brother, What has the LORD answered? and, What has the LORD spoken? 36And the burden of the LORD you shall mention no more; for the burden shall be to each man his own word; for you have perverted the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God.

37Thus shall you say to the prophet, What has the LORD answered you? and, What has the LORD spoken?

38But if you say, The burden of the LORD, therefore thus says the LORD: Because you say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent to you, saying, You shall not say, The burden of the LORD; 39therefore, behold, I will surely forget you, and I will cast you off, and the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, away from my presence; 40And I will put upon you everlasting reproach, and perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.