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.”
Currently Selected:
Jeremiah 23: GNBDC
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
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.
Jeremiah 23
23
Gathering His Flock
1“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!” It is a declaration of Adonai.
2Therefore thus says Adonai, the God of Israel, about the shepherds who feed My people: “You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and have not taken care of them. I will soon visit on you the evil of your deeds.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
3“I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them back to their folds, and they will be fruitful and multiply.
4I will raise up shepherds over them who will feed them. They will no longer be afraid or dismayed, nor will any be missing,” It is a declaration of Adonai.
The Righteous Branch
5“Behold, days are coming” —it is a declaration of Adonai— “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He will reign as king wisely, and execute justice and righteousness in the land.
6In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell in safely; and this is His Name by which He will be called: Adonai our righteousness.
7“Therefore behold, days are coming,” says Adonai, “when they will no longer say: ‘As Adonai lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.’
8Rather, ‘As Adonai lives, who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and from all the lands where He had banished them.’ So they will dwell in their own soil.
Avoid Ungodly Prophets
9As for the prophets: My heart within me is broken, all my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine because of Adonai, because of His holy words.
10For the land is full of adulterers. The land mourns because of a curse. Pastures of the wilderness are dry. Their running is evil, and their might is not right.
11For both prophet and kohen are ungodly. Even in My House I found their evil.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
12“Therefore their way will be for them like slippery places in the gloom. They will be driven away and fall there, for I will bring calamity on them, even the year of their visitation.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
13Moreover, I have seen unseemliness in the prophets of Samaria: they prophesied by Baal, and led My people Israel astray.
14But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: committing adultery and walking in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers. No one turns back from his evil. They are all like Sodom to Me and her inhabitants like Gomorrah.”
15Therefore thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot concerning the prophets: “I myself will feed them wormwood and make them drink poisoned water. For from the prophets of Jerusalem pollution has spread into all the land.”
16Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot: “Do not listen to the words of prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into illusion, speaking a vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of Adonai.
17They keep saying to those who despise Me, ‘Adonai has said, you will have shalom.’ To everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say: ‘No evil will come on you.’”
18For who has stood in the council of Adonai, that he should see and hear His word? Who has heard to His word and obeyed?
19Look, a storm of Adonai goes out in fury, yes, a whirling tempest will swirl down on the head of the wicked.
20The anger of Adonai will not turn until He has executed and fulfilled the purposes of His heart. In the last days you will discern it clearly.
21“I did not send those prophets, yet they ran. I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
22If they have stood in My council, then they would have announced My words to My people, and turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds.”
23“Am I God only when near” —it is a declaration of Adonai— “and not God when far off?
24Can anyone hide himself in places so secret that I will not see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth?” It is a declaration of Adonai.
25“I have heard what the prophets said, who prophesy lies in My Name, saying: ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’
26How long will this continue? Is there anything in the heart of such prophets prophesying lies? These prophets have deception in their heart.
27Through their dreams that they each tell to his companion, that intend to make My people forget My Name—just as their fathers forgot My Name because of Baal.
28“The prophet who has a dream may recount a dream, but let the one who has My word speak My word in truth. For what is straw compared with wheat?” It is a declaration of Adonai.
29“Is not My word like fire?” says Adonai, “or like a hammer that shatters rock?
30“Therefore here I am against the prophets”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“who steal My words from each other.
31Indeed, I am against the prophets”, declares Adonai, “who use their tongues to utter a prophecy, ‘It is a declaration!’
32Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams,” declares Adonai, “and tell them, and so lead My people astray with their lies and with their reckless boasts. Yet I never sent them or commanded them. Nor do they benefit this people at all.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
33“Now when this people or a prophet or a kohen is asking you: ‘What is the burden of Adonai?’ then you are to say to them, ‘What burden? I will cast you off!’” It is a declaration of Adonai.
34“As for the prophet or kohen or people who keep saying, ‘The burden of Adonai!’—I will punish that man and his household.
35Thus each of you may say to his companion and each one to his brother, ‘What has Adonai answered?’ or ‘What has Adonai spoken?’
36But you should no longer remember ‘the burden of Adonai’—for to each one, his own word is becoming ‘the burden’! So you have perverted the words of the living God, of Adonai-Tzva’ot our God.
37“So you are to say to such a prophet, ‘What has Adonai answered you?’ and ‘What has Adonai spoken?’
38But if you say, ‘The burden of Adonai,’” then surely Adonai says, “because you keep saying this word: ‘The burden of Adonai,’ when I sent this word to you, you are not to say ‘The burden of Adonai’—
39therefore, I will surely forget you when I will cast you off, along with the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, away from My presence.
40Then I will bring everlasting disgrace on you and everlasting shame that will not be forgotten.”
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Copyright © 2014 - Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society