Yeremia 23

Shepherds who scatter the flock

¹Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture, declares the LORD. ²So the LORD, the God of Israel, says this about the shepherds who shepherd my people: You have scattered my flock and chased them off, and you have not looked after them. So now I will look after you, and punish the evil you have done, declares the LORD. ³I myself will gather together the remnant of my flock from every country to which I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their grazing land, and they will be fruitful and increase. ⁴I will set shepherds over them who will truly tend them. They will no longer be afraid or terrified, and not one of them will be lost, declares the LORD.

A Branch for David

⁵The days are coming, declares the LORD, \q when I will raise a righteous Branch for David. \q He will reign as king and rule with wisdom, \q and he will do justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶In his days Judah will be saved, \q and Israel will live in safety. \q And this is the name people will give him: “The LORD Is Our Righteousness.”^ab

⁷Therefore, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it will no longer be said, “As surely as the LORD lives, who brought up the Israelites from the land of Egypt,” ⁸but, “As surely as the LORD lives, who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where I had driven them.” Then they will live in their own land.^c

Concerning the prophets

⁹Concerning the prophets: \q My heart is crushed inside me, and all my bones are shaking. \q I am like a drunk man, \q like someone overpowered by wine, \q because of the LORD and because of his holy words. ¹⁰The land is full of adulterers. \q The land mourns under the curse, \q and the wilderness pastures have withered. \q They run their race toward evil, \q and they use their power for what is wrong. ¹¹For both prophet and priest are godless; \q even in my own house I have found their wickedness, declares the LORD. ¹²So their path will become like slippery ground in the dark; \q they will be pushed down, and there they will fall. \q For I will bring disaster on them in the year I punish them, declares the LORD. ¹³Among the prophets of Samaria I saw something repulsive: \q they prophesied by Baal \q and led my people Israel astray.

¹⁴But among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible: \q they commit adultery and live by lies. \q They strengthen the hands of those who do evil, so that no one turns away from wickedness. \q To me they have all become like Sodom, \q and the people of the city like Gomorrah.

¹⁵So the LORD of Armies says this about the prophets: \q I am going to feed them bitter wormwood \q and give them poisoned water to drink, \q because from the prophets of Jerusalem \q godlessness has spread through the whole land.

¹⁶The LORD of Armies says this: Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; \q they are filling you with empty hopes. \q They speak visions that come from their own minds, \q and not from the mouth of the LORD. ¹⁷They keep telling those who despise me, “The LORD says you will have peace.” \q And to all who follow the stubbornness of their own hearts they say, “No disaster will come on you.”^{d 18}For who has stood in the council of the LORD \q to see and to hear his word? \q Who has listened closely to his word and heard it?

¹⁹Look, the storm of the LORD! Fury has burst out, \q a whirlwind spinning around; \q it will crash down on the heads of the wicked. ²⁰The anger of the LORD will not turn away \q until he has fully carried out what he has purposed in his heart. \q In the days ahead \q you will understand it fully. ²¹I did not send these prophets, but they ran anyway. \q I did not speak to them, but they prophesied all the same. ²²But if they had stood in my council, \q they would have announced my words to my people \q and turned them from their evil path \q and from their wicked deeds.

²³Am I a God who is only near, declares the LORD, \q and not a God who is far away?^{e 24}Can anyone hide in secret places where I cannot see them? declares the LORD. \q Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD. ²⁵I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, “I had a dream! I had a dream!” ²⁶How long will this go on in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy lies, who prophesy the deceit of their own minds,^{f 27}who plan to make my people forget my name with the dreams they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name because of Baal? ²⁸Let the prophet who has a dream tell it as a dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What does straw have in common with grain? declares the LORD. ²⁹Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, like a hammer that smashes rock to pieces?

³⁰So I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who steal my words from one another. ³¹I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who speak with their own tongues and then announce, “The LORD declares.” ³²I am against those who prophesy false dreams, declares the LORD. They tell them and lead my people astray with their lies and their reckless boasting, though I did not send them or give them any command. They do this people no good at all, declares the LORD. ³³When this people, or a prophet or a priest, asks you, “What is the LORD’s burden?” you are to say to them, “What burden? I will throw you off, declares the LORD.”^{g 34}If a prophet or a priest or anyone else says, “The LORD’s burden,” I will punish that person and their household. ³⁵This is what each of you is to say to your friends and relatives: “What has the LORD answered?” or “What has the LORD said?” ³⁶But you must never again speak of “the LORD’s burden,” because each person’s own word will become their burden, and you twist the words of the living God, the LORD of Armies, our God.^{h 37}This is how you are to speak to a prophet: “What answer has the LORD given you?” or “What has the LORD said?” ³⁸But if you do say, “The LORD’s burden,” then the LORD says this: Because you have used these words, “The LORD’s burden,” even though I sent word to you and said, “Do not say, ‘The LORD’s burden,’” ³⁹therefore I will forget you completely and throw you away from my presence, you and the city I gave to you and your ancestors,^{i 40}and I will make you a disgrace for all time, an everlasting shame that will never be forgotten.