Jeremiah 23

1 “Woe to the shepherds who scatter and destroy the sheep of my pasture!”

2 “Therefore this is what the Lord says against those who shepherd my people: You scattered my sheep and drove them out, and you did not look after them. Look — I am taking vengeance on you for your evil conduct.”

3 “And I will take back those who remain of my people from every land where I drove them out, and I will settle them in their pasture, and they will increase and multiply.”

4 “And I will raise up shepherds for them who will shepherd them, and they will not be afraid anymore, and they will not be terrified, says the Lord.”

5 “Look, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Rising: a king will reign and understand, and he will do judgment and righteousness on the earth.”

6 “In his days Judah will be rescued, and Israel will settle down in safety. And this is the name the Lord will call him: Jozadak.”

7 “Therefore, look, days are coming, says the Lord, when they will no longer say, ‘The Lord lives, who brought the house of Israel up out of the land of Egypt,’”

8 “but, ‘The Lord lives, who gathered the whole offspring of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where he drove them out, and restored them to their own land.’”

9 “Because of the prophets my heart is broken within me; all my bones shake. I have become like a shattered man, like a man overcome by wine, because of the Lord and because of the splendor of his glory.”

10 “For because of these men the land has mourned; the pastures of the wilderness have dried up. Their course has become evil, and their strength is not what it should be.”

11 “For priest and prophet have been dirtied; in my own house I have seen their wickedness.”

12 “Therefore let their way become for them a slipping in thick darkness: they will be tripped and fall in it, for I will bring disaster on them in the year I call them to account, says the Lord.”

13 “And in the prophets of Samaria I have seen lawless deeds. They prophesied by Baal, and led my people Israel astray.”

14 “And in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen horrifying things: committing adultery, walking in lies, gripping the hands of evil men so that no one would turn from his own evil way. They have all become to me like Sodom, and those living in her like Gomorrah.”

15 “Therefore this is what the Lord says: Look, I will feed them pain and make them drink bitter water, for from the prophets of Jerusalem defilement has gone out into all the land.”

16 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: Do not listen to the words of the prophets, because they make their vision empty for themselves; they speak from their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord.”

17 “They say to those who push away the word of the Lord, ‘There will be peace for you,’ and to all who walk by their own wants — to everyone walking in the error of his heart — they have said, ‘No harm will come to you.’”

18 “For who has stood in the council of the Lord and seen his word? Who has given ear and heard?”

19 “Look — a shaking from the Lord: anger goes out and becomes an upheaval; it will come whirling down on the ungodly.”

20 “And the Lord’s anger will not turn back until he has done it, until he has made it stand — what his heart set out to do. In the last days they will understand it.”

21 “I did not send the prophets, yet they ran: and I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.”

22 “But if they had stood in my council and listened to my words, they would have turned my people back from their evil conduct.”

23 “I am a God near at hand, says the Lord, and not a God far away.”

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

25 “I have heard what the prophets say — what they prophesy falsely in my name: ‘I dreamed a dream.’”

26 “How long will it stay in the heart of these prophets who prophesy lies, prophesying what their own heart wants?”

27 “They scheme to make people forget my law by the dreams they tell one another, just as their fathers forgot my name for Baal.”

28 “The prophet who has a dream — let him tell his dream; and the one who has my word — let him tell my word truthfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? So are my words, says the Lord.”

29 “Are my words not like a blazing fire, says the Lord, and like an axe that splits rock?”

30 “Therefore, look, I am against the prophets, says the Lord God, who steal my words from one another.”

31 “Look, I am against the prophets who spout prophecies off their own tongue and doze their own dozing.”

32 “Look, I am against the prophets who prophesy false dreams — who recount them and lead my people astray with their lies and their delusions. I did not send them and I did not command them, and they will be no help at all to this people.”

33 “And if this people or a priest or a prophet asks you, ‘What is the message of the Lord?’ — say to them: You are the message, and I will dash you down, says the Lord.”

34 “And the prophet or the priest or the people who say ‘the message of the Lord’ — I will take vengeance on that man and on his house.”

35 “This is what you are to say, each to his neighbor and each to his brother: ‘What has the Lord answered?’ and ‘What has the Lord said?’”

36 “And do not name ‘the message of the Lord’ again, for a man’s own word will be his message.”

37 “And ask: ‘Why has the Lord our God spoken?’”

38 “Therefore this is what the Lord God says: Because you have spoken this phrase, ‘the message of the Lord,’ after I sent word to you saying, You are not to say ‘the message of the Lord,’”

39 “therefore, look, I will take you up and dash you down, together with the city I gave you and your fathers,”

40 “and I will lay on you everlasting disgrace and everlasting dishonor that will never be forgotten.”