Jeremiah Chapter 23 — The Righteous Branch and False Prophets

¹“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” says the LORD.

²Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, says against the shepherds who feed my people: “You have scattered my flock, driven them away, and have not visited them. Behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings,” says the LORD.

³“I 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. They will no longer be afraid or dismayed, neither will any be lacking,” says the LORD.

⁵“Behold, the days come,” says the LORD,

⁶In his days Judah will be saved,

⁷“Therefore, behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that they will no more say, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;’

⁸but, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up and who led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ Then they will dwell in their own land.”

⁹Concerning the prophets:

¹⁰“For the land is full of adulterers;

¹¹for both prophet and priest are profane.

¹²Therefore their way will be to them as slippery places in the darkness.

¹³“I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria.

¹⁴In the prophets of Jerusalem I have also seen a horrible thing:

¹⁵Therefore the LORD of Armies says concerning the prophets:

¹⁶The LORD of Armies says,

¹⁷They say continually to those who despise me,

¹⁸For who has stood in the council of the LORD,

¹⁹Behold, the LORD’s storm, his wrath, has gone out.

²⁰The LORD’s anger will not return until he has executed

²¹I didn’t send these prophets, yet they ran.

²²But if they had stood in my council,

²³“Am I a God at hand,” says the LORD,

²⁴Can anyone hide himself in secret places

²⁵“I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’

²⁶How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart?

²⁷They intend to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they each tell his neighbor, 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 the LORD.

²⁹“Isn’t my word like fire?” says the LORD; “and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

³⁰“Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who each steal my words from his neighbor.

³¹Behold, I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who use their tongues, and say, ‘He says.’

³²Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams,” says the LORD, “who tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting; yet I didn’t send them or command them. They don’t profit this people at all,” says the LORD.

³³“When this people, or the prophet, or a priest, asks you, saying, ‘What is the message from the LORD?’ Then you shall tell them, ‘ “What message? I will cast you off,” says the LORD.’

³⁴As for the prophet, the priest, and the people, who say, ‘The message from the LORD,’ I will even punish that man and his household.

³⁵You will say everyone to his neighbor, and everyone to his brother, ‘What has the LORD answered?’ and, ‘What has the LORD said?’

³⁶You will mention the message from the LORD no more, for every man’s own word has become his message; for you have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of Armies, our God.

³⁷You will say to the prophet, ‘What has the LORD answered you?’ and, ‘What has the LORD spoken?’

³⁸Although you say, ‘The message from the LORD,’ therefore the LORD says: ‘Because you say this word, “The message from the LORD,” and I have sent to you, telling you not to say, “The message from the LORD,”

³⁹therefore behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast you off with the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, away from my presence.

⁴⁰I will bring an everlasting reproach on you, and a perpetual shame, which will not be forgotten.’ ”