Jeremiah 23

Promise of restoration

1Watch out, you shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, declares the LORD. 2This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, proclaims about the shepherds who “tend to” my people: You are the ones who have scattered my flock and driven them away. You haven’t attended to their needs, so I will take revenge on you for the terrible things you have done to them, declares the LORD. 3I myself will gather the few remaining sheep from all the countries where I have driven them. I will bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply. 4I will place over them shepherds who care for them. Then they will no longer be afraid or dread harm, nor will any be missing, declares the LORD.

Promise of a righteous and just king

5The time is coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up a righteous descendant#23.5 Or branch from David’s line, and he will rule as a wise king. He will do what is just and right in the land. 6During his lifetime, Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And his name will be The LORD Is Our Righteousness.#23.6 Or of Our Righteousness, possibly a play on the name Zedekiah

7So the time is coming, declares the LORD, when no one will say, “As the LORD lives who brought up the Israelites from the land of Egypt.” 8Instead, they will say, “As the LORD lives who brought up the descendants of the people of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where he#23.8 Or I has banished them so that they can live in their own land.”

Oracles against the prophets

9As for the prophets:

My heart inside me is broken;

my body aches.#23.9 Heb uncertain; or my bones shake

I stagger like a drunk

who has had too much wine to drink,

because of the LORD

and because of God’s holy words.

10Because the country teems

with adulterers,

because of them,#23.10 LXX; MT a curse

yes, because their might isn’t right

and their way is evil,

the land dries up,

and the grazing areas in the wilderness wither.#23.10 Heb uncertain

11Both prophet and priest are godless;

I even find their evil in my temple,

declares the LORD.

12Therefore, they will find themselves on slippery ground

and will be thrust into darkness,

where they will collapse.

I will bring disaster upon them,

when their time comes, declares the LORD.

13In the prophets of Samaria

I saw something shocking:

They prophesied by Baal

and led astray my people Israel.

14In the prophets of Jerusalem

I saw something horrible:

They commit adultery and tell lies.

They encourage evildoers

so that no one turns from their wickedness.

In my eyes, they are no better than Sodom;

its people are like Gomorrah.

15Therefore, this is what the LORD of heavenly forces proclaims concerning the prophets:

I’m going to feed them bitter food

and give them poison to drink.

Wickedness has spread from the prophets of Jerusalem

throughout the land.

16The LORD proclaims:

Don’t listen to the prophets

who are speaking to you;

they are deceiving you.

Their visions come from their own hearts,

not from the LORD’s mouth.

17They keep saying to those who scorn God’s message,

“All will go well for you,”

and to those who follow their own willful hearts,

“Nothing bad will happen to you.”

18But who has stood in the LORD’s council

to listen to God’s word?

Who has paid attention to his word and announced it?

19Look! The LORD’s angry storm breaks out;

it whirls around the heads of the wicked.

20The LORD’s fierce anger

won’t turn back

until it accomplishes all that he has planned.

In the days to come,

you will understand what this means.

21I didn’t send the prophets,

yet they ran anyway.

I didn’t speak to them,

yet they prophesied anyway.

22If they had stood in my council,

they would have proclaimed

my words to my people;

they would have turned them

from their evil ways and deeds.

23The LORD declares, Am I a God

who is only nearby and not far off?

24Can people hide themselves in secret places

so I might not see them?

Don’t I fill heaven and earth?

25I have heard the prophets prophesying lies in my name. They claim, “I’ve had a dream; I’ve had a dream!” 26How long will deceitful prophecies dominate the minds of the prophets? Those prophets are treacherous. 27They scheme to make my people forget me by their dreams that people tell each other, just as their ancestors forgot me because of Baal. 28Let the prophet who has a dream declare it, but let the one who has my word proclaim it faithfully.

What a difference between straw and wheat!

declares the LORD.

29Isn’t my word like fire

and like a hammer that shatters rock?

declares the LORD.

30Therefore, I’m against the prophets

who steal my words from each other,

declares the LORD.

31I’m against the prophets

who carelessly deliver oracles,#23.31 Heb uncertain

declares the LORD.

32I’m against the prophets who dream up lies

and then proclaim them,

declares the LORD.

With their reckless lies,

they lead my people astray.

I didn’t send them;

I didn’t commission them.

They are completely useless to these people,

declares the LORD.

33When these people or a prophet or a priest asks you, “What is the LORD’s message?”#23.33 Or burden say to them, “What message? I will cast you off, declares the LORD.” 34I will punish anyone, including prophet or priest, who says, “This is the LORD’s message.” 35This is what you should ask each other: “What has the LORD said?” “What has the LORD declared?” 36But you are no longer to mention the LORD’s message, because everyone thinks they have received a message from the LORD. You destroy the very word of the living God, the LORD of heavenly forces, our God. 37So this is what you should say to the prophet: “What has the LORD said to you?” “What has the LORD declared?” 38But if you insist on saying, “This is the LORD’s message,” the LORD says to you: Because you have made this claim—this is the LORD’s message—when I told you not to proclaim the LORD’s message, 39I will lift you up#23.39 LXX, Syr, Vulg; MT forget you and cast you out of my presence, together with the city that I gave to your ancestors. 40I will make you an object of disgrace and enduring shame that no one will ever forget.

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Jeremiah 23: CEB

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Jeremiah 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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