Jeremiah 23
23
The Evil Leaders of Judah
1“How terrible it will be for the leaders of Judah, who are scattering and destroying my people,” says the Lord.
2They are responsible for the people, so the Lord, the God of Israel, says to them: “You have scattered my people and forced them away and not taken care of them. So I will punish you for the evil things you have done,” says the Lord. 3“I sent my people to other countries, but I will gather those who are left alive and bring them back to their own country. Then they will have many children and grow in number. 4I will place new leaders over my people, who will take care of them. And my people will not be afraid or terrified again, and none of them will be lost,” says the Lord.
The Good Branch Will Come
5“The days are coming,” says the Lord,
“when I will raise up a good branch in David’s family.
He will be a king who will rule in a wise way;
he will do what is fair and right in the land.
6In his time Judah will be saved,
and Israel will live in safety.
This will be his name:
The Lord Does What Is Right.
7“So the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when people will not say again: ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought Israel out of Egypt . . . ’ 8But people will say something new: ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the descendants of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where he had sent them away . . . ’ Then the people of Israel will live in their own land.”
False Prophets Will Be Punished
9A message to the prophets:
My heart is broken.
All my bones shake.
I’m like someone who is drunk,
like someone who has been overcome with wine.
This is because of the Lord
and his holy words.
10The land of Judah is full of people who are guilty of adultery.
Because of this, the Lord cursed the land.
It has become a very sad place,
and the pastures have dried up.
The people are evil
and use their power in the wrong way.
11“Both the prophets and the priests live as if there were no God.
I have found them doing evil things even in my own Temple,” says the Lord.
12“So they will be in danger.
They will be forced into darkness
where they will be defeated.
I will bring disaster on them
in the year I punish them,” says the Lord.
13“I saw the prophets of Samaria
do something wrong.
Those prophets prophesied by Baal
and led my people Israel away.
14And I have seen the prophets of Jerusalem
do terrible things.
They are guilty of adultery
and live by lies.
They encourage evil people to keep on doing evil,
so the people don’t stop sinning.
All of those people are like the city of Sodom.
The people of Jerusalem are like the city of Gomorrah to me!”
15So this is what the Lord All-Powerful says about the prophets:
“I will make those prophets eat bitter food
and drink poisoned water,
because the prophets of Jerusalem spread wickedness
through the whole country.”
16This is what the Lord All-Powerful says:
“Don’t pay attention to what those prophets are saying to you.
They are trying to fool you.
They talk about visions their own minds made up,
not about visions from me.
17They say to those who hate me:
‘The Lord says: You will have peace.’
They say to all those who are stubborn and do as they please:
‘Nothing bad will happen to you.’
18But none of these prophets has stood in the meeting of angels
to see or hear the message of the Lord.
None of them has paid close attention to his message.
19Look, the punishment from the Lord
will come like a storm.
His anger will be like a hurricane.
It will come swirling down on the heads of those wicked people.
20The Lord’s anger will not stop
until he finishes what he plans to do.
When that day is over,
you will understand this clearly.
21I did not send those prophets,
but they ran to tell their message.
I did not speak to them,
but they prophesied anyway.
22But if they had stood in the meeting of angels,
they would have told my message to my people.
They would have turned the people from their evil ways
and from doing evil.
23“I am a God who is near,” says the Lord.
“I am also a God who is far away.”
24“No one can hide
where I cannot see him,” says the Lord.
“I fill all of heaven and earth,” says the Lord.
25“I have heard the prophets who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I have had a dream! I have had a dream!’ 26How long will this continue in the minds of these lying prophets? They prophesy from their own wishful thinking. 27They are trying to make the people of Judah forget me by telling each other these dreams. In the same way, their ancestors forgot me and worshiped Baal. 28Is straw the same thing as wheat?” says the Lord. “If a prophet wants to tell about his dreams, let him! But let the person who hears my message speak it truthfully! 29Isn’t my message like a fire?” says the Lord. “Isn’t it like a hammer that smashes a rock?
30“So I am against the false prophets,” says the Lord. “They keep stealing words from each other and say they are from me. 31I am against the false prophets,” says the Lord. “They use their own words and pretend it is a message from me. 32I am against the prophets who prophesy false dreams,” says the Lord. “They mislead my people with their lies and false teachings! I did not send them or command them to do anything for me. They can’t help the people of Judah at all,” says the Lord.
The Sad Message from the Lord
33“Suppose the people of Judah, a prophet, or a priest asks you: ‘Jeremiah, what is the message from the Lord?’ You will answer them and say, ‘You are a heavy load to the Lord, and I will throw you down, says the Lord.’ 34A prophet or a priest or one of the people might say, ‘This is a message from the Lord.’ That person has lied, so I will punish him and his whole family. 35This is what you will say to each other: ‘What did the Lord answer?’ or ‘What did the Lord say?’ 36But you will never again say, ‘The message of the Lord,’ because the only message you speak is your own words. You have changed the words of our God, the living God, the Lord All-Powerful. 37This is how you should speak to the prophets: ‘What answer did the Lord give you?’ or ‘What did the Lord say?’ 38But don’t say, ‘The message from the Lord.’ If you use these words, this is what the Lord says: Because you called it a ‘message from the Lord,’ though I told you not to use those words, 39I will pick you up and throw you away from me, along with Jerusalem, which I gave to your ancestors and to you. 40And I will make a disgrace of you forever; your shame will never be forgotten.”
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Jeremiah 23: NCV
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The Holy Bible, New Century Version, Copyright © 2005 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 23
23
The Branch of Righteousness
1“Woe #Is. 56:9–12; Jer. 10:21to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” says the Lord. 2Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel against the shepherds who feed My people: “You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. #Ex. 32:34Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings,” says the Lord. 3“But #Is. 11:11, 12, 16; Jer. 32:37I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. 4I will set up #Jer. 3:15; (Ezek. 34:23)shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking,” says the Lord.
5“Behold, #Is. 4:2; 11:1; 40:10, 11; Jer. 33:14; (Dan. 9:24; Zech. 6:12); Matt. 1:1, 6; Luke 3:31; (John 1:45; 7:42)the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;
A King shall reign and prosper,
#Ps. 72:2; Is. 9:7; 32:1, 18; (Dan. 9:24)And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
6#Deut. 33:28; Jer. 30:10; Zech. 14:11In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel #Jer. 32:37will dwell safely;
Now #Is. 45:24; Jer. 33:16; (Dan. 9:24; Rom. 3:22; 1 Cor. 1:30)this is His name by which He will be called:
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
7“Therefore, behold, #Is. 43:18, 19; Jer. 16:14the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ 8but, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country #Is. 43:5, 6; Ezek. 34:13; Amos 9:14, 15and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ And they shall dwell in their own #Gen. 12:7; Jer. 16:14, 15; 31:8land.”
False Prophets and Empty Oracles
9My heart within me is broken
Because of the prophets;
#Jer. 8:18; Hab. 3:16All my bones shake.
I am like a drunken man,
And like a man whom wine has overcome,
Because of the Lord,
And because of His holy words.
10For #Jer. 9:2the land is full of adulterers;
For #Hos. 4:2; Mal. 3:5because of a curse the land mourns.
#Ps. 107:34; Jer. 9:10The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up.
Their course of life is evil,
And their might is not right.
11“For #Jer. 6:13; Zeph. 3:4both prophet and priest are profane;
Yes, #Jer. 7:30; 32:34; Ezek. 8:11; 23:39in My house I have found their wickedness,” says the Lord.
12“Therefore#Ps. 35:6; (Prov. 4:19); Jer. 13:16 their way shall be to them
Like slippery ways;
In the darkness they shall be driven on
And fall in them;
For I #Jer. 11:23will bring disaster on them,
The year of their punishment,” says the Lord.
13“And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria:
#1 Kin. 18:18–21; Jer. 2:8They prophesied by Baal
And #Is. 9:16caused My people Israel to err.
14Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem:
#Jer. 29:23They commit adultery and walk in lies;
They also #Jer. 23:22; Ezek. 13:22, 23strengthen the hands of evildoers,
So that no one turns back from his wickedness.
All of them are like #Gen. 18:20; Deut. 32:32; Is. 1:9, 10Sodom to Me,
And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
15“Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets:
‘Behold, I will feed them with #Deut. 29:18; Jer. 9:15wormwood,
And make them drink the water of gall;
For from the prophets of Jerusalem
Profaneness has gone out into all the land.’ ”
16Thus says the Lord of hosts:
“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you.
They make you worthless;
#Jer. 14:14; Ezek. 13:3, 6They speak a vision of their own heart,
Not from the mouth of the Lord.
17They continually say to those who despise Me,
‘The Lord has said, #Jer. 8:11; Ezek. 13:10; Zech. 10:2“You shall have peace” ’;
And to everyone who #Deut. 29:19; Jer. 3:17walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say,
#Jer. 5:12; Amos 9:10; Mic. 3:11‘No evil shall come upon you.’ ”
18For #Job 15:8, 9; (Jer. 23:22; 1 Cor. 2:16)who has stood in the counsel of the Lord,
And has perceived and heard His word?
Who has marked His word and heard it?
19Behold, a #Jer. 25:32; 30:23; Amos 1:14whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury—
A violent whirlwind!
It will fall violently on the head of the wicked.
20The #2 Kin. 23:26, 27; Jer. 30:24anger of the Lord will not turn back
Until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart.
#Gen. 49:1In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.
21“I#Jer. 14:14; 23:32; 27:15 have not sent these prophets, yet they ran.
I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
22But if they had stood in My counsel,
And had caused My people to hear My words,
Then they would have #Jer. 25:5turned them from their evil way
And from the evil of their doings.
23“Am I a God near at hand,” says the Lord,
“And not a God afar off?
24Can anyone #(Ps. 139:7); Amos 9:2, 3hide himself in secret places,
So I shall not see him?” says the Lord;
#(1 Kin. 8:27); Ps. 139:7“Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord.
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? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, 27who try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells his neighbor, #Judg. 3:7as their fathers forgot My name for Baal.
28“The 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 chaff to the wheat?” says the Lord.
29“Is not My word like a #Jer. 5:14fire?” says the Lord,
“And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
30“Therefore behold, #Deut. 18:20; Ps. 34:16; Jer. 14:14, 15; Ezek. 13:8, 9I am against the prophets,” says the Lord, “who steal My words every one from his neighbor. 31Behold, I am #Ezek. 13:9against the prophets,” says the Lord, “who use their tongues and say, ‘He says.’ 32Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the Lord, “and tell them, and cause My people to err by their #Jer. 20:6; 27:10; Lam. 2:14; 3:37lies and by #Zeph. 3:4their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not #Jer. 7:8; Lam. 2:14profit this people at all,” says the Lord.
33“So when these people or the prophet or the priest ask you, saying, ‘What is #Is. 13:1; Nah. 1:1; Hab. 1:1; Zech. 9:1; Mal. 1:1the oracle of the Lord?’ you shall then say to them, ‘What oracle?’ I will even forsake you,” says the Lord. 34“And as for the prophet and the priest and the people who say, ‘The oracle of the Lord!’ I will even punish that man and his house. 35Thus every one of you shall say to his neighbor, and every one to his brother, ‘What has the Lord answered?’ and, ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ 36And the oracle of the Lord you shall mention no more. For every man’s word will be his oracle, for you have #Deut. 4:2perverted the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God. 37Thus you shall say to the prophet, ‘What has the Lord answered you?’ and, ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ 38But since you say, ‘The oracle of the Lord!’ therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Because you say this word, “The oracle of the Lord!” and I have sent to you, saying, “Do not say, ‘The oracle of the Lord!’ ” 39therefore behold, I, even I, #Hos. 4:6will utterly forget you and forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and will cast you out of My presence. 40And I will bring #Jer. 20:11; Ezek. 5:14, 15an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual #Mic. 3:5–7shame, which shall not be forgotten.’ ”
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.