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
1What trouble is coming to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! declares the Lord.
2This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says about the shepherds who were meant to look after my people: You have scattered my flock. You have chased them away. You didn't take care of them, so now I will take care of you for all the evil you've done, declares the Lord.
3I myself will gather what's left of my flock from all the countries where I exiled them, and I will bring them back to their pasture, where they will increase in number. 4I will put shepherds in charge of them who will take care of them, and they won't be afraid or discouraged anymore, and none of them will be missing, declares the Lord.
5Look, the time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will choose a descendant of David who does what is right. As king he will rule with wisdom and do what is just and right throughout the country. 6When he is king, Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in safety. This is the name he will be called: The Lord Who Makes Us Right.
7Look, the time is coming, declares the Lord, when people won't say anymore, “On the Lord's life, who led the Israelites out of Egypt.” 8Instead they'll say, “On the Lord's life, who led the Israelites back from the northern country and all the other countries where he had exiled them.” Then they'll live in their own country.
9When it comes to the prophets: I'm really disturbed—I'm shaking inside! I stagger like a drunk, like someone who's had too much wine, because of what the Lord is like, because of his holy words.#23:9. Jeremiah is alarmed at the contrast between what he knows of the Lord's nature and the degraded state of the nation—and what this means in terms of the coming disaster. 10For the country is full of people committing adultery so it's under a curse. The land mourns and the desert pastures have dried up. The people live evil lives, using their energy to do wrong. 11Both prophets and priests show no respect for me. I see wickedness even in my Temple, declares the Lord. 12That's why their path will become slippery; they will be chased away in the dark and fall down. I'm going to bring disaster on them at the time when they're punished, declares the Lord.
13I saw the prophets of Samaria doing something really offensive: They prophesied in the name of Baal and led my people Israel to sin.
14But now I see the prophets of Jerusalem doing something even more disgusting: They commit adultery and their lives are a lie. They support the wicked, so no one stops sinning. To me they're all like Sodom; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.
15So this is what the Lord Almighty says about the prophets: I will give them wormwood to eat and poisoned water to drink, because evil has spread across the country from the prophets of Jerusalem.
16This is what the Lord Almighty says: Don't pay attention to what these prophets say when they prophesy to you. They're fooling you with visions they make up in their own minds. They're not from me. 17They keep on telling people who don't respect me, “The Lord says that you'll live in peace,” and to everyone following their own stubborn attitude, “Nothing bad is going to happen to you.”
18But who of them has attended the Lord's council to hear and understand what he's saying? Who has paid attention to his instructions and followed them? 19Watch out! The Lord has sent out a furious storm, a tornado swirling around the heads of the wicked. 20The Lord's anger won't fade until he's finished doing everything he wants. Only then will you really understand.
21I didn't send these prophets, but they run to deliver their messages. I didn't tell them to say anything, but they still go on prophesying. 22Now if they had attended my council, they would have delivered my instructions to my people and brought them back from their evil way of life, from their evil actions.
23Am I only a local God and not a God who operates widely? asks the Lord. 24Can people hide in secret places where I can't see them? asks the Lord. Don't I operate everywhere in heaven and on earth? asks the Lord.
25I've listened to the prophets who prophesy lies in my name. They say, “I've had a dream! I've had a dream!” 26How long will this continue? How long will these prophets go on prophesying these lies which are just the product of their own deluded minds? 27They think the dreams that they repeat to one another will lead my people to forget me, just like their forefathers forgot me by worshiping Baal.
28A prophet who has a dream should say it's just a dream, but anyone I've spoken to should deliver my message faithfully. What is straw in comparison to grain? asks the Lord. 29Doesn't my word burn like fire? asks the Lord. Isn't it like a hammer smashing a rock?
30Pay attention to this, declares the Lord. I'm opposed to those prophets who steal words from one another and then say it's a message from me.
31Pay attention to this, declares the Lord. I'm opposed to those prophets who make up their own stories#23:31. “Make up their own stories”: literally, “take their own tongues.” and then announce, “This is what the Lord says.”
32Pay attention to this, declares the Lord, I'm opposed to those who prophesy fictional dreams. They tell them in order to lead my people into sin with their wild lies. I didn't send them or give them any instructions, and they don't do anybody any good, declares the Lord.
33So when a prophet or priest or anyone else comes and asks you, “What is ‘the burden of the Lord?’”#23:33. “The burden of the Lord” in the sense of some requirement that the Lord is imposing on the people. Clearly the people saw the various laws and regulations as “burdens” and related to the Lord as this legalistic “burden-giver.” Though they lived evil lives it seems they thought that if they observed such “burdens,” including new ones, then the Lord would be satisfied. tell them, I'm not giving you a burden. I'm giving up on you, declares the Lord.
34If a prophet or priest or anyone else claims, “This is the burden of the Lord,” I will punish that person and their family.
35This is what everybody should say to their friends and relatives: “What answer has the Lord given?” or, “What has the Lord said?” 36Don't talk about “the burden of the Lord” anymore, because everybody has different ideas about this “burden,” perverting the words of the living God, the Lord Almighty, our God.
37This is what you are to ask any prophet: “What message has the Lord given you?” and “What has the Lord told you?”
38If they say, “This is the burden of the Lord,” then this is the Lord's response: Because you said, “This is the burden of the Lord,” and I warned you not to, 39now I'm going to pick you up like a burden and throw you away, you and the city that I gave to you and your forefathers. 40I will disgrace you forever, your shame will never be forgotten.
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Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com