Jeremiah Chapter 23    

¹“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” says Yahweh.
  ²Therefore this is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says against the shepherds who feed my people: “You have scattered my flock and driven them away, and have not visited them. Behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings, says Yahweh.
  ³I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds, and they will be fruitful and multiply.
  ⁴I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them, and they will fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor will any be missing, says Yahweh.
  ⁵Behold, the days are coming, says Yahweh, that I will raise for David a righteous Branch, and he will reign as king and deal wisely, and will execute justice and righteousness in the land.
  ⁶In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; and this is his name by which he will be called: ‘Yahweh our righteousness.’
 

⁷Therefore behold, the days are coming, says Yahweh, that they will no longer say, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’
  ⁸but, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ They will live in their own land.”
 

⁹Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me, all my bones tremble; I am like a drunken man, and like a man overcome by wine, because of Yahweh and because of his holy words.
  ¹⁰For the land is full of adulterers; the land mourns because of the curse, the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their way of life is evil and their might is not rightly used.
  ¹¹“For both prophet and priest are ungodly. Even in my house have I found their wickedness, says Yahweh.
  ¹²Therefore their way will be to them like slippery places in the darkness. They will be driven on and fall down there; for I will bring evil on them, even the year of their visitation,” says Yahweh.
  ¹³“I have seen an offensive thing among the prophets of Samaria: they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray.
  ¹⁴Among the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies, and they strengthen the hands of evildoers so that no one turns from his wickedness. All of them have become to me like Sodom, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah.”
  ¹⁵Therefore this is what Yahweh of Armies says concerning the prophets: “Behold, I will feed them with wormwood and make them drink poisonous water, for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone forth into all the land.”
 

¹⁶This is what Yahweh of Armies says, “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They fill you with false hope. They speak visions from their own hearts, and not out of the mouth of Yahweh.
  ¹⁷They keep on saying to those who despise me, ‘Yahweh has said you will have peace.’ And to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, ‘No evil will come on you.’”
  ¹⁸For who has stood in the council of Yahweh, that he should see and hear his word? Who has paid attention to his word, and heard it?
  ¹⁹Behold, the storm of Yahweh! His wrath has gone forth. Yes, a whirling storm. It will burst on the head of the wicked.
  ²⁰The anger of Yahweh will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his heart. In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.
  ²¹“I did not send these prophets, yet they ran with a message. I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
  ²²But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people and they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil things they were doing.
 

²³Am I a God only close at hand, says Yahweh, and not also a God who is far away?
  ²⁴Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? says Yahweh. Do not I fill heaven and earth? says Yahweh.
 

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, even the prophets who prophesy from the deceit of their own heart,
  ²⁷who think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams that they tell to one another, just as their fathers forgot my name because of Baal.
  ²⁸The 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 straw to the wheat? says Yahweh.
  ²⁹Is my word not like fire? says Yahweh, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
  ³⁰Therefore behold, I am against the prophets, says Yahweh, who all steal my words from one another.
  ³¹Behold, I am against the prophets, says Yahweh, who use their tongues, and say, ‘He says.’
  ³²Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says Yahweh, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and by their vain boasting, when I didn’t send them, nor commanded them. They do not benefit this people at all, says Yahweh.
 

³³When this people, or the prophet, or a priest, asks you, saying, ‘What is the burdensome message of Yahweh?’ Then you will tell them, ‘You are the burden! I will cast you away, says Yahweh.’
  ³⁴As for the prophet, and the priest, and the people who say, ‘The burdensome message of Yahweh,’ I will even punish that man and his house.
  ³⁵This is what each man is to say to his neighbor and to his brother, ‘What has Yahweh answered?’ or, ‘What has Yahweh spoken?’
  ³⁶You are to mention the burdensome message of Yahweh no more, for every man’s own word will be his burden; for you have perverted the words of the living God, of Yahweh of Armies, our God.
  ³⁷You must say to the prophet, ‘What has Yahweh answered you?’ or, ‘What has Yahweh spoken?’
  ³⁸But if you say, ‘The burdensome message of Yahweh’, therefore this is what Yahweh says: ‘Because you say this word, “The burdensome message of Yahweh,” and I have sent to you, saying, “You are not to say, ‘The burdensome message of Yahweh,’”
  ³⁹therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast you away, and also the city that I gave to you and to your fathers—away from my presence;
  ⁴⁰and I will bring an everlasting reproach on you, and a perpetual shame that will not be forgotten.’”