Jeremiah 23

LITV^{(i) 1} Woe to shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture, says Jehovah. ² Because of this, so says Jehovah the God of Israel against the shepherds who shepherd My people: You have scattered My flock, and have driven them away, and have not visited them. Behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings, says Jehovah. ³ And I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the lands where I have driven them there, and will bring them again to their fold. And they shall be fruitful and multiply. ⁴ And I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them. And they will fear no more, nor be terrified; nor will they be missing anything, says Jehovah. ⁵ Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and act wisely, and shall do justice and righteousness in the earth. ⁶ In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is His name by which He shall be called, Jehovah our Righteousness. ⁷ Behold, so the days come, says Jehovah, that they shall no more say, As Jehovah lives, who brought the sons of Israel up out of the land of Egypt; ⁸ but, As Jehovah lives, who brought up and led the seed of the house of Israel out of the land of the north, and from all the lands where I have driven them there. And they shall dwell on their own land. ⁹ My heart within me is broken concerning the prophets; all my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, and like a man overcome by wine, because of Jehovah, and because of the words of His holiness. ¹⁰ For the land is full of adulterers. For the land mourns because of a curse. The pastures of the wilderness are dried up. And their course is evil, and their might is not right. ¹¹ For both prophet and priest are ungodly; yea, I have found their evil in My house, says Jehovah. ¹² So their way shall be to them as slippery places in the darkness; they shall be driven out and fall by it. For I will bring evil on them, the year of their judgment, says Jehovah. ¹³ And I have seen frivolity among the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal and caused My people Israel to go astray. ¹⁴ I have also seen a horrible thing among the prophets of Jerusalem; they commit adultery and walk in falsehood. And they make the hands of evildoers strong, so that not a man returns from his evil. They are all of them like Sodom to Me, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah. ¹⁵ So Jehovah of Hosts says this concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them wormwood, and make them drink poisonous water, for ungodliness has gone forth from the prophets of Jerusalem into all the land. ¹⁶ So says Jehovah of hosts, do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they make you vain; they speak a vision of their own heart, not out of the mouth of Jehovah. ¹⁷ They say to those who despise Me, Jehovah has said, You shall have peace. And they say to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, Evil shall not come on you. ¹⁸ For who has stood in the counsel of Jehovah, and has seen and heard His word? Who has listened to His word and heard? ¹⁹ Behold, the tempest of Jehovah has gone forth in fury, even a whirling tempest. It will whirl on the head of the wicked. ²⁰ The anger of Jehovah shall not turn back until He has executed, and until He has set up the purposes of His heart. In latter days you shall understand it perfectly. ²¹ I have not sent the prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. ²² But 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 by, says Jehovah, and not a God from afar? ²⁴ Or can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I do not see him, says Jehovah? Do I not fill the heavens and the earth, says Jehovah? ²⁵ I have heard what the prophets said, those who prophesy lies in My name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. ²⁶ How long is this there in the heart of the prophets, the prophets of lies; yea, the prophets of the deceit of their own heart? ²⁷ They plot to cause My people to forget My name by their dreams which they tell, each one to his neighbor, even as their fathers have forgotten 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 has the straw to do with the grain, says Jehovah? ²⁹ Is not My word thus like fire, says Jehovah, and like a hammer which breaks a rock in pieces? ³⁰ Then, Jehovah says, Behold, I am against the prophets who steal My words, each one from his neighbor. ³¹ Jehovah says, Behold, I am against the prophets who use their tongues and say, He says. ³² Jehovah says, Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams, and tell them, and cause My people to go astray by their lies, and by their frivolity. Yet I did not send them nor command them. And they will not profit this people at all, says Jehovah. ³³ And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask you, saying, What is the burden of Jehovah? You shall then say to them, What burden? I will even forsake you, says Jehovah. ³⁴ And the prophet, and the priest, and the people who shall say, The burden of Jehovah, I will even punish that man and his house. ³⁵ And you shall say each one to his neighbor, and each one to his brother, What has Jehovah answered? And what has Jehovah spoken? ³⁶ And you shall not mention the burden of Jehovah again, for each man's word shall be his burden. For you have perverted the words of the living God, of Jehovah of Hosts, our God. ³⁷ So you shall say to the prophet, What has Jehovah answered you? And what has Jehovah spoken? ³⁸ But if you say, The burden of Jehovah, therefore so says Jehovah: Because you say this word, the burden of Jehovah; and I have sent to you saying, You shall not say, The burden of Jehovah; ³⁹ therefore, behold! I, even I will utterly forget you and cast off you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers, away from My face. ⁴⁰ And I will bring an everlasting reproach and never ending shame on you, which shall not be forgotten.