The Book of Jeremiah
23: 1Woe unto the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!
saith Jehovah. 23:2Therefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, against the
shepherds that feed my people: Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them
away, and have not visited them; behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your
doings, saith Jehovah. 23:3And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the
countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and
they shall be fruitful and multiply. 23:4And I will set up shepherds over them, who
shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be
lacking, saith Jehovah. 23:5Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will raise
unto David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and
shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 23:6In his days Judah shall be
saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be
called: Jehovah our righteousness. 23:7Therefore, behold, the days come, saith
Jehovah, that they shall no more say, As Jehovah liveth, who brought up the
children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 23:8but, As Jehovah liveth, who brought
up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from
all the countries whither I had driven them. And they shall dwell in their own
land. 23:9Concerning the prophets. My heart within me is broken, all my bones
shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome,
because of Jehovah, and because of his holy words. 23:10For the land is full of
adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pastures of the
wilderness are dried up. And their course is evil, and their might is not right;
23:11for both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their
wickedness, saith Jehovah. 23:12Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery
places in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring
evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith Jehovah. 23:13And I have seen
folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal, and caused my people
Israel to err. 23:14In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they
commit adultery, and walk in lies; and they strengthen the hands of evil-doers, so
that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them become unto me
as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. 23:15Therefore thus saith
Jehovah of hosts concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with
wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall; for from the prophets of
Jerusalem is ungodliness gone forth into all the land. 23:16Thus saith Jehovah of
hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they
teach you vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth
of Jehovah. 23:17They say continually unto them that despise me, Jehovah hath said,
Ye shall have peace; and unto every one that walketh in the stubbornness of his
own heart they say, No evil shall come upon you. 23:18For who hath stood in the
council of Jehovah, that he should perceive and hear his word? who hath marked
my word, and heard it? 23:19Behold, the tempest of Jehovah, even his wrath, is gone
forth, yea, a whirling tempest: it shall burst upon the head of the wicked. 23:20The
anger of Jehovah shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have
performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall understand it
perfectly. 23:21I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I spake not unto them, yet they
prophesied. 23:22But if they had stood in my council, then had they caused my
people to hear my words, and had turned them from their evil way, and from the
evil of their doings. 23:23Am I a God at hand, saith Jehovah, and not a God afar off?
23:24Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? saith Jehovah.
Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith Jehovah. 23:25I have heard what the prophets
have said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.
23:26How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies, even the
prophets of the deceit of their own heart? 23:27that think to cause my people to
forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as
their fathers forgat my name for Baal. 23:28The prophet that hath a dream, let him
tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is
the straw to the wheat? saith Jehovah. 23:29Is not my word like fire? saith Jehovah;
and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? 23:30Therefore, behold, I am
against the prophets, saith Jehovah, that steal my words every one from his
neighbor. 23:31Behold, I am against the prophets, saith Jehovah, that use their
tongues, and say, He saith. 23:32Behold, I am against them that prophesy lying
dreams, saith Jehovah, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies,
and by their vain boasting: yet I sent them not, nor commanded them; neither do
they profit this people at all, saith Jehovah. 23:33And when this people, or the
prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of Jehovah? then
shalt thou say unto them, What burden! I will cast you off, saith Jehovah. 23:34And
as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of
Jehovah, I will even punish that man and his house. 23:35Thus shall ye say every one
to his neighbor, and every one to his brother, What hath Jehovah answered? and,
What hath Jehovah spoken? 23:36And the burden of Jehovah shall ye mention no
more: for every man's own word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the
words of the living God, of Jehovah of hosts our God. 23:37Thus shalt thou say to
the prophet, What hath Jehovah answered thee? and, What hath Jehovah spoken?
23:38But if ye say, The burden of Jehovah; therefore thus saith Jehovah: Because ye
say this word, The burden of Jehovah, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall
not say, The burden of Jehovah; 23:39therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you, and
I will cast you off, and the city that I gave unto you and to your fathers, away
from my presence: 23:40and I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a
perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.