Jeremiah 23
23
Restoration after Exile
1Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord. 2Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. 3Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord.
The Righteous Branch of David
5The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”
7Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, “As the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt,” 8but “As the Lord lives who brought out and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he#23.8 Gk: Heb I had driven them.” Then they shall live in their own land.
False Prophets of Hope Denounced
9Concerning the prophets:
My heart is crushed within me,
all my bones shake;
I have become like a drunkard,
like one overcome by wine,
because of the Lord
and because of his holy words.
10For the land is full of adulterers;
because of the curse the land mourns,
and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up.
Their course has been evil,
and their might is not right.
11Both prophet and priest are ungodly;
even in my house I have found their wickedness,
says the Lord.
12Therefore their way shall be to them
like slippery paths in the darkness,
into which they shall be driven and fall;
for I will bring disaster upon them
in the year of their punishment,
says the Lord.
13In the prophets of Samaria
I saw a disgusting thing:
they prophesied by Baal
and led my people Israel astray.
14But in the prophets of Jerusalem
I have seen a more shocking thing:
they commit adultery and walk in lies;
they strengthen the hands of evildoers,
so that no one turns from wickedness;
all of them have become like Sodom to me,
and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.
15Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets:
“I am going to make them eat wormwood,
and give them poisoned water to drink;
for from the prophets of Jerusalem
ungodliness has spread throughout the land.”
16Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they are deluding you. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. 17They keep saying to those who despise the word of the Lord, “It shall be well with you”; and to all who stubbornly follow their own stubborn hearts, they say, “No calamity shall come upon you.”
18For who has stood in the council of the Lord
so as to see and to hear his word?
Who has given heed to his word so as to proclaim it?
19Look, the storm of the Lord!
Wrath has gone forth,
a whirling tempest;
it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
20The anger of the Lord will not turn back
until he has executed and accomplished
the intents of his mind.
In the latter days you will understand it clearly.
21I did not send the prophets,
yet they ran;
I did not speak to them,
yet they prophesied.
22But if they had stood in my council,
then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,
and they would have turned them from their evil way,
and from the evil of their doings.
23Am I a God near by, says the Lord, and not a God far off? 24Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord. 25I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, “I have dreamed, I have dreamed!” 26How long? Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back—those who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart? 27They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal. 28Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the Lord. 29Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? 30See, therefore, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who steal my words from one another. 31See, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who use their own tongues and say, “Says the Lord.” 32See, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the Lord, and who tell them, and who lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or appoint them; so they do not profit this people at all, says the Lord.
33When this people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, “What is the burden of the Lord?” you shall say to them, “You are the burden,#23.33 Gk Vg: Heb What burden and I will cast you off, says the Lord.” 34And as for the prophet, priest, or the people who say, “The burden of the Lord,” I will punish them and their households. 35Thus shall you say to one another, among yourselves, “What has the Lord answered?” or “What has the Lord spoken?” 36But “the burden of the Lord” you shall mention no more, for the burden is everyone's own word, and so you pervert the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God. 37Thus you shall ask the prophet, “What has the Lord answered you?” or “What has the Lord spoken?” 38But if you say, “the burden of the Lord,” thus says the Lord: Because you have said these words, “the burden of the Lord,” when I sent to you, saying, You shall not say, “the burden of the Lord,” 39therefore, I will surely lift you up#23.39 Heb Mss Gk Vg: MT forget you and cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your ancestors. 40And I will bring upon you everlasting disgrace and perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.
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Jeremiah 23: NRSV
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New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. 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.