Jeremiah 23

1Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture, declares Yahweh.

2Therefore this is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: You have scattered my flock and driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds, declares Yahweh.

3And I myself 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 pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply.

4And I will raise up over them shepherds who will shepherd them, and they will no longer fear, nor be dismayed, nor will any be missing, declares Yahweh.

5Behold, days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he will reign as king and act wisely, and he will do justice and righteousness in the land.

6In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is the name by which he will be called: Yahweh Is Our Righteousness.

7Therefore, behold, days are coming, declares Yahweh, when they will no longer say, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt,’

8but, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up and who brought in the offspring of the house of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where I had driven them,’ and they shall dwell on their own soil.

9Concerning the prophets: my heart is broken within me; all my bones tremble. I have become like a drunken man, like a strong man overcome by wine, because of Yahweh and because of his holy words.

10For the land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land mourns, and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right.

11For both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in my house I have found their evil, declares Yahweh.

12Therefore their way will be to them like slippery places in the darkness; they will be driven along and fall in it, for I will bring disaster on them in the year of their punishment, declares Yahweh.

13And among the prophets of Samaria I saw something offensive: they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray.

14And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: committing adultery and walking in falsehood; they have strengthened the hands of evildoers, so that no man turns back from his evil. All of them are to me like Sodom, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

15Therefore this is what Yahweh of Armies says concerning the prophets: ‘Look, I am feeding them wormwood and making them drink poisoned water, because from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land.’

16Thus says Yahweh of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they are deluding you. They speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of Yahweh.

17They keep saying to those who despise me, ‘Yahweh has spoken: You will have peace’; and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, ‘No disaster will come upon you.’

18For who has stood in the council of Yahweh, that he should see and hear his word? Who has paid attention to my word and heard it?

19Look, the storm of Yahweh has gone out in wrath, a whirling tempest; it will whirl down on the head of the wicked.

20The anger of Yahweh will not turn back until he has done it, and until he has established the purposes of his heart. In the latter days you will understand it clearly.

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 they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds.

23Am I a God who is near, declares Yahweh, and not a God who is far away?

24Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I do not see him? declares Yahweh. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares Yahweh.

25I have heard what the prophets have said, those 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 falsehood, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart?

27who plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell, each man to his neighbor, just as their fathers forgot my name because of Baal.

28Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word truthfully. What is straw to grain? declares Yahweh.

29Is not my word like fire—oracle of Yahweh—and like a hammer that shatters rock?

30Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares Yahweh, who steal my words, each from his neighbor.

31Behold, I am against the prophets, declares Yahweh, who take their own tongues and declare, ‘Declaration!’

32Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares Yahweh, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and by their recklessness, though I did not send them or command them. They do not profit this people at all, declares Yahweh.

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

34And as for the prophet, the priest, or the people who say, “The burden of Yahweh,” I will punish that man and his household.

35Thus each man shall say to his neighbor, and each man to his brother, ‘What has Yahweh answered?’ and, ‘What has Yahweh spoken?’

36But you shall no longer mention ‘the burden of Yahweh,’ for each man's own word will become his burden, and you have twisted the words of the living God, Yahweh of hosts, our God.

37Thus you shall say to the prophet: ‘What has Yahweh answered you, and what has Yahweh spoken?’

38But if you say, ‘The burden of Yahweh,’ therefore this is what Yahweh says: Because you have said this word, ‘The burden of Yahweh,’ though I sent to you, saying, ‘You shall not say, “The burden of Yahweh,”’

39Therefore, behold, I will surely lift you up and cast you away, you and the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, from before my face.

40And I will put on you everlasting reproach and everlasting disgrace, which will not be forgotten.