Jeremiah 23
23
Jeremiah 23
1¶ Woe be unto the pastors that waste and scatter the sheep of my pasture! said the Lord.
2Therefore thus hath the Lord God of Israel said unto the pastors that feed my people: Ye have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not visited them; behold, I visit upon you the evil of your doings, said the Lord.
3And I will gather the remnant of my sheep out of all the lands where I have driven them and will cause them to return to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
4And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them; and they shall fear no more nor be dismayed neither shall they be lacking, said the Lord.
5Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
6In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this shall be his name by which they shall call him, THE Lord OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
7Therefore, behold, the days come, said the Lord, and they shall no longer say, The Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
8but, The Lord lives, who caused the seed of the house of Israel to come up and out of the land of the north wind, and from all the lands where I had driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land.
9¶ My heart is broken within me because of the prophets, all my bones shake; I was like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, before the Lord, and before the words of his holiness.
10For the land is full of adulterers; for because of the oath the land is deserted; the booths of the wilderness are dried up, and their course was evil, and their force was not right.
11For both prophet and priest are feigned; even in my house I have found their wickedness, said the Lord.
12Therefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways 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 the Lord.
13And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal and caused my people Israel to err.
14I have also seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem: they committed adultery and walked by lies; they strengthened also the hands of evildoers, that no one is converted from his malice; they are all of them unto me as Sodom and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.
15Therefore, thus hath the Lord of the hosts said against those prophets: Behold, I will cause them to eat wormwood and make them drink the waters of gall, for from the prophets of Jerusalem is hypocrisy gone forth upon all the land.
16Thus hath the Lord of the hosts said, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.
17They say boldly unto those that stir me to anger, The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto anyone that walks after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.
18For who has stood in the secret of the Lord and has seen and heard his word? Who has paid attention to his word and heard it?
19Behold, that the whirlwind of the Lord shall go forth with fury, and the whirlwind which is ready shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.
20The anger of the Lord shall not return until he has executed and until he has performed the thoughts of his heart: in the last of the days ye shall understand it with understanding.
21 I did not send those prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
22But if they had stood in my secret, they would also have caused my people to hear my words, and they would have caused them to return from their evil way and from the evil of their doings.
23 Am I a God of the near only, said the Lord, and not a God of the far?
24Can any hide himself in hiding places that I shall not see him? said the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? said the Lord.
25I have heard what those prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.
26How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies and that prophesy the deceit of their own heart?
27Do they not think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which each one tells his neighbour, so much that their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal?
28The prophet with whom the dream came, let him tell the dream; and he with whom my word came, let him speak my true word. What is the chaff to the wheat? said the Lord.
29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
30Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words each one from his neighbour.
31Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that sweeten their tongues and say, He said.
32Behold, I am against those that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and did tell them, and caused my people to err by their lies, and by their flattery; yet I did not send them, nor command them; and they did not profit this people at all, said the Lord.
33¶ And when this people or the prophet or the priest shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the Lord? thou shalt then say unto them, What burden? I will forsake you, said the Lord.
34And as for the prophet and the priest and the people, that shall say, The burden of the Lord, I will visit upon that man and upon his house.
35Thus shall ye say each one to his neighbour and each one to his brother, What has the Lord answered? and, What has the Lord spoken?
36And never again shall it come to your memory to say, The burden of the Lord; for every man’s word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of the hosts, our God.
37Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What has the Lord answered thee? and, What has the Lord spoken?
38But if ye say, The burden of the Lord; therefore thus hath the Lord said: Because ye say this word, The burden of the Lord, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the Lord;
39therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will uproot you from my presence and the city that I gave you and your fathers:
40and I will place an everlasting reproach upon you, and eternal shame, which shall never be forgotten.
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Jeremiah 23: JUB
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The Jubilee Bible 2000 (JUB) by Ransom Press International
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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The Holy Bible, New Century Version, Copyright © 2005 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.