Jeremiah 23
23
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,
“that I will raise to David a righteous Branch;
and he will reign as king and deal wisely,
and will execute justice and righteousness in the land.
6 In his days Judah will be saved,
and Israel will dwell safely.
This is his name by which he will be called:
The LORD our righteousness.
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.”
9 Concerning 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 the LORD,
and because of his holy words.
10“For the land is full of adulterers;
for because of the curse the land mourns.
The pastures of the wilderness have dried up.
Their course is evil,
and their might is not right;
11 for both prophet and priest are profane.
Yes, in my house I have found their wickedness,” says the LORD.
12 Therefore their way will be to them as slippery places in the darkness.
They will be driven on,
and fall therein;
for I will bring evil on them,
even the year of their visitation,” says the LORD.
13“I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria.
They prophesied by Baal,
and caused my people Israel to err.
14 In the prophets of Jerusalem I have also seen a horrible thing:
they commit adultery and walk in lies.
They strengthen the hands of evildoers,
so that no one returns from his wickedness.
They have all become to me as Sodom,
and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.”
15 Therefore the LORD of Hosts says concerning the prophets:
“Behold, I will feed them with wormwood,
and make them drink poisoned water;
for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land.”
16 The LORD of Hosts says,
“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 the LORD.
17 They say continually to those who despise me,
‘The LORD has said, “You will have peace;”’
and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say,
‘No evil will come on you.’
18 For who has stood in the council of the LORD,
that he should perceive and hear his word?
Who has listened to my word, and heard it?
19 Behold, the LORD’s storm, his wrath, has gone out.
Yes, a whirling storm!
It will burst on the head of the wicked.
20 The LORD’s anger will not return until he has executed
and performed the intents of his heart.
In the latter days, you will understand it perfectly.
21 I didn’t send these prophets, yet they ran.
I didn’t speak to them, yet they prophesied.
22 But if they had stood in my council,
then they would have caused my people to hear my words,
and would have turned them from their evil way,
and from the evil of their doings.
23“Am I a God at hand,” says the LORD,
“and not a God afar off?
24 Can anyone hide himself in secret places
so that I can’t see him?” says the LORD.
“Don’t I fill heaven and earth?” says the LORD.
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 neighbour, 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 neighbour. 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 neighbour, 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 Hosts, 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.’”
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Jeremiah 23: WMBBE
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Jeremiah 23
23
Hope for the Future
1How terrible will be the LORD's judgement on those rulers who destroy and scatter his people! 2This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says about the rulers who were supposed to take care of his people: “You have not taken care of my people; you have scattered them and driven them away. Now I am going to punish you for the evil you have done. 3I will gather the rest of my people from the countries where I have scattered them, and I will bring them back to their homeland. They will have many children and increase in number. 4I will appoint rulers to take care of them. My people will no longer be afraid or terrified, and I will not punish them again.#23.4 I will not punish them again; or not one of them will be missing. I, the LORD, have spoken.”
5 #
Jer 33.14–16
The LORD says, “The time is coming when I will choose as king a righteous descendant of David. That king will rule wisely and do what is right and just throughout the land. 6When he is king, the people of Judah will be safe, and the people of Israel will live in peace. He will be called ‘The LORD Our Salvation’.
7“The time is coming,” says the LORD, “when people will no longer swear by me as the living God who brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. 8Instead, they will swear by me as the living God who brought the people of Israel out of a northern land and out of all the other countries where I had scattered them. Then they will live in their own land.”
Jeremiah's Message about the Prophets
9My heart is crushed,
and I am trembling.
Because of the LORD,
because of his holy words,
I am like a man who is drunk,
a man who has had too much wine.
10The land is full of people unfaithful to the LORD;
they live wicked lives and misuse their power.
Because of the LORD's curse the land mourns
and the pastures are dry.
11The LORD says,
“The prophets and the priests are godless;
I have caught them doing evil in the Temple itself.
12The paths they follow will be slippery and dark;
I will make them stumble and fall.
I am going to bring disaster on them;
the time of their punishment is coming.
I, the LORD, have spoken.
13I have seen the sin of Samaria's prophets:
they have spoken in the name of Baal
and have led my people astray.
14 #
Gen 18.20; Ezek 16.49 But I have seen the prophets in Jerusalem do even worse:
they commit adultery and tell lies;
they help people to do wrong,
so that no one stops doing what is evil.
To me, they are all as bad
as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.
15“So then, this is what I, the LORD Almighty, say about the prophets of Jerusalem:
I will give them bitter plants to eat
and poison to drink,
because they have spread ungodliness throughout the land.”
16The LORD Almighty said to the people of Jerusalem, “Do not listen to what the prophets say; they are filling you with false hopes. They tell you what they have imagined and not what I have said. 17To the people who refuse to listen to what I have said, they keep saying that all will go well with them. And they tell everyone who is stubborn that disaster will never touch him.”
18I said, “None of these prophets has ever known the LORD's secret thoughts. None of them has ever heard or understood his message, or ever listened or paid attention to what he said. 19His anger is a storm, a furious wind that will rage over the heads of the wicked, 20and it will not end until he has done everything he intends to do. In days to come his people will understand this clearly.”
21The LORD said, “I did not send these prophets, but even so they went. I did not give them any message, but still they spoke in my name. 22If they had known my secret thoughts, then they could have proclaimed my message to my people and could have made them give up the evil lives they live and the wicked things they do.
23“I am a God who is everywhere and not in one place only. 24No one can hide where I cannot see him. Do you not know that I am everywhere in heaven and on earth? 25I know what those prophets have said who speak lies in my name and claim that I have given them my messages in their dreams. 26How much longer will those prophets mislead my people with the lies they have invented? 27They think that the dreams they tell will make my people forget me, just as their ancestors forgot me and turned to Baal. 28The prophet who has had a dream should say it is only a dream, but the prophet who has heard my message should proclaim that message faithfully. What good is straw compared with wheat? 29My message is like a fire, and like a hammer that breaks rocks in pieces. 30I am against those prophets who take each other's words and proclaim them as my message. 31I am also against those prophets who speak their own words and claim they came from me. 32Listen to what I, the LORD, say! I am against the prophets who tell their dreams that are full of lies. They tell these dreams and lead my people astray with their lies and their boasting. I did not send them or order them to go, and they are of no help at all to the people. I, the LORD, have spoken.”
The LORD's Burden
33The LORD said to me, “Jeremiah, when one of my people or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the LORD's message?’ you are to tell him, ‘You are a burden#23.33 The Hebrew word for message and burden is the same. to the LORD, and he is going to get rid of you.’ 34If any of my people or a prophet or a priest even uses the words ‘the LORD's burden’, I will punish them and their families. 35Instead, they should each ask their friends and relatives, ‘What answer has the LORD given? What has the LORD said?’ 36So they must no longer use the words ‘the LORD's burden’, because if anyone does, I will make my message a real burden to him. The people have perverted the words of their God, the living God, the LORD Almighty. 37Jeremiah, ask the prophets, ‘What answer did the LORD give you? What did the LORD say?’ 38And if they disobey my command and use the words ‘the LORD's burden’, then tell them that 39I will certainly pick them up#23.39 The Hebrew verb for pick up comes from the same root as the Hebrew word for message and burden. and throw them far away from me, both them and the city that I gave to them and their ancestors. 40I will bring on them everlasting shame and disgrace that will never be forgotten.”
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.