The Book of Jeremiah (WEB)
23: 1Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says Yahweh.
23:2Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, 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. 23:3I 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 shall be
fruitful and multiply. 23:4I will set up shepherds over them, who shall feed them; and they shall fear
no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking, says Yahweh. 23:5Behold, the days come,
says Yahweh, that I will raise to 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: Yahweh our
righteousness. 23:7Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that they shall no more say, As
Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 23:8but, 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 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 has overcome, because of Yahweh, and because of his holy words. 23:10For the
land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourns; the pastures of the wilderness
are dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right; 23:11for both prophet and priest are
profane; yes, in my house have I found their wickedness, says Yahweh. 23:12Therefore their way
shall be to them as slippery places in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein; for I
will bring evil on them, even the year of their visitation, says Yahweh. 23:13I 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 does return from his wickedness: they are
all of them become to me as Sodom, and the inhabitants of it as Gomorrah. 23:15Therefore thus says
Yahweh 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 says Yahweh of Hosts, Don't listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to
you: they teach you vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of
Yahweh. 23:17They say continually to those who despise me, Yahweh has said, You shall have
peace; and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, No evil shall
come on you. 23:18For who has stood in the council of Yahweh, that he should perceive and hear his
word? who has marked my word, and heard it? 23:19Behold, the tempest of Yahweh, even his wrath,
is gone forth, yes, a whirling tempest: it shall burst on the head of the wicked. 23:20The anger of
Yahweh shall not return, until he has executed, and until he have performed the intents of his
heart: in the latter days you shall understand it perfectly. 23:21I sent not these prophets, yet they ran:
I didn't speak to 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, says Yahweh, and not a God afar off? 23:24Can any hide
himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? says Yahweh. Don't I fill heaven and earth?
says Yahweh. 23:25I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying,
I have dreamed, I have dreamed. 23:26How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who
prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart? 23:27who think to cause my people
to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers
forgot my name for Baal. 23:28The 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. 23:29Isn't
my word like fire? says Yahweh; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? 23:30Therefore,
behold, I am against the prophets, says Yahweh, who steal my words everyone from his neighbor.
23:31Behold, I am against the prophets, says Yahweh, who use their tongues, and say, He says.
23:32Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says Yahweh, and do tell them, and
cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting: yet I didn't send them, nor
commanded them; neither do they profit this people at all, says Yahweh. 23:33When this people, or
the prophet, or a priest, shall ask you, saying, What is the burden of Yahweh? then shall you tell
them, What burden! I will cast you off, says Yahweh. 23:34As for the prophet, and the priest, and the
people, who shall say, The burden of Yahweh, I will even punish that man and his house. 23:35Thus
shall you say everyone to his neighbor, and everyone to his brother, What has Yahweh answered?
and, What has Yahweh spoken? 23:36The burden of Yahweh shall you mention no more: for every
man's own word shall be his burden; for you have perverted the words of the living God, of
Yahweh of Hosts our God. 23:37Thus shall you say to the prophet, What has Yahweh answered you?
and, What has Yahweh spoken? 23:38But if you say, The burden of Yahweh; therefore thus says
Yahweh: Because you say this word, The burden of Yahweh, and I have sent to you, saying, You
shall not say, The burden of Yahweh; 23:39therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast
you off, and the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, away from my presence: 23:40and I will
bring an everlasting reproach on you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.
World English Bible