Jeremiah 23

¹“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” says the Lord

²Therefore thus says the Lord

³“But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.

⁴I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking,” says the Lord

⁵“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord “That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.

⁶In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

⁷“Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord

⁸but, ‘As the Lord

⁹My heart within me is broken Because of the prophets; All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, 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 a curse the land mourns. The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up. Their course of life is evil, And their might is not right.

¹¹“For both prophet and priest are profane; Yes, in My house I have found their wickedness,” says the Lord

¹²“Therefore their way shall be to them Like slippery ways; In the darkness they shall be driven on And fall in them; For I will bring disaster on them, The year of their punishment,” says the Lord

¹³“And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: They prophesied by Baal And caused My people Israel to err.

¹⁴Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem: They commit adultery and walk in lies; They also strengthen the hands of evildoers, So that no one turns back from his wickedness. All of them are like Sodom to Me, And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

¹⁵“Therefore thus says the Lord ‘Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, And make them drink the water of gall; For from the prophets of Jerusalem Profaneness has gone out into all the land.’ ”

¹⁶Thus says the Lord “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; They speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of the Lord

¹⁷They continually say to those who despise Me, ‘The Lord And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’ ”

¹⁸For who has stood in the counsel of the Lord And has perceived and heard His word? Who has marked His word and heard it?

¹⁹Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord A violent whirlwind! It will fall violently on the head of the wicked.

²⁰The anger of the Lord Until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart. In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.

²¹“I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

²²But if they had stood in My counsel, And had caused My people to hear My words, Then they would have turned them from their evil way And from the evil of their doings.

²³“Am I a God near at hand,” says the Lord “And not a God afar off?

²⁴Can anyone hide himself in secret places, So I shall not see him?” says the Lord “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord

²⁵“I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’

²⁶How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart,

²⁷who try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells his neighbor, as their fathers forgot My name for Baal.

²⁸“The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; And he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?” says the Lord

²⁹“Is not My word like a fire?” says the Lord “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

³⁰“Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says the Lord

³¹Behold, I am against the prophets,” says the Lord

³²Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the Lord

³³“So when these people or the prophet or the priest ask you, saying, ‘What is the oracle of the Lord

³⁴“And as for the prophet and the priest and the people who say, ‘The oracle of the Lord

³⁵Thus every one of you shall say to his neighbor, and every one to his brother, ‘What has the Lord

³⁶And the oracle of the Lord

³⁷Thus you shall say to the prophet, ‘What has the Lord

³⁸But since you say, ‘The oracle of the Lord

³⁹therefore behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you and forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and will cast you out of My presence.

⁴⁰And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.’ ”