Jeremiah 23
23
1 "Woe to the shepherds who scatter and tear apart the sheep of my pasture, says the Lord.
2 Because of this, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to the shepherds who pasture my people: You have scattered my flock, and you have driven them away, and you have not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon you because of your evil pursuits, says the Lord.
3 And I will gather together the remnant of my flock from the entire earth, from the places to which I had cast them out. And I will return them to their own fields. And they will increase and be multiplied.
4 And I will raise up shepherds over them, and they will pasture them. They will no longer dread, and they will no longer fear. And no one among their number will be seeking more, says the Lord.
5 Behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will raise up to David a righteous branch. And a king will reign, and he will be wise. And he will exercise judgment and justice upon the earth.
6 In those days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in confidence. And this is the name that they will call him: 'The Lord, our Just One.'
7 Because of this, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when they will no longer say, 'As the Lord lives, who led the sons of Israel away from the land of Egypt,'
8 but instead, 'As the Lord lives, who led away and brought back the offspring of the house of Israel from the land of the north and from the entire earth,' from the places to which I had cast them out. And they will live in their own land."
9 To the prophets: "My heart is crushed within me. All my bones are trembling. I have become like an inebriated man, and like a man maddened by wine, before the face of the Lord, and before the face of his holy words.
10 For the earth is full of adulterers! And the earth has mourned before the face of evil talk. The plains of the desert have dried up, and their course has become hazardous, and their firmness has become uneven."
11 "For both the prophet and the priest have become polluted, and I have found their wickedness within my own house, says the Lord.
12 For this reason, their way will be like a slippery path in the dark. For they will be impelled forward, and they will fall in it. For I will bring evils over them, in the year of their visitation, says the Lord.
13 And I have seen the foolishness of the prophets of Samaria. They have prophesied in Baal, and they have deceived my people Israel.
14 And in the prophets of Jerusalem, I have seen the likeness of adulterers and the path of falsehood. And they have strengthened the hands of the wicked, so that each one would not convert from his malice. They have all become to me like Sodom, and its inhabitants have become like Gomorrah."
15 Because of this, thus says the Lord of hosts to the prophets: "Behold, I will feed them absinthe, and I will give them gall to drink. For from the prophets of Jerusalem corruption has gone forth over the entire earth."
16 Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Do not choose to listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you and deceive you. They speak a vision from their own heart, and not from the mouth of the Lord.
17 To those who blaspheme me, they say: 'The Lord has said: You shall have peace.' And to every one who walks in the depravity of his own heart, they have said: 'No evil will overwhelm you.' "
18 For who has been present in the counsel of the Lord, and who has seen and heard his word? Who has considered his word and heard it?
19 Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord's indignation will go forth, and a tempest will break out; it will overwhelm the head of the impious.
20 The fury of the Lord will not return until it succeeds, and until it completes the plan of his heart. In the last days, you will understand this counsel.
21 "I did not send these prophets, yet they hurry forward. I was not speaking to them, yet they were prophesying.
22 If they had stood in my counsel, and if I had made my words known to my people, certainly I would have turned them away from their evil ways and from their most wicked plans.
23 Do you not realize that I am a God close by, says the Lord, and not a God far away?
24 If a man is hidden in concealed places, do I not see him, says the Lord? Do I not fill up heaven and earth, says the Lord?
25 I have heard what the prophets have said, prophesying falsehoods in my name, and also saying: 'I have dreamed! I have dreamed!'
26 How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who predict what is false, and who prophesy deceptions from their own heart?
27 They want to cause my people to forget my name, by means of their dreams, which each of them describes to his neighbor, just as their fathers forgot my name for the sake of Baal.
28 The prophet who has had a dream, let him describe the dream. And he who receives my word, let him speak my word in truth. For what has the chaff to do with the wheat, says the Lord?
29 Are not my words like a fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer crushing rock?
30 Therefore, behold: I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who steal my words, each one from his neighbor.
31 Behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who take up their tongues and say: 'The Lord says it.'
32 Behold, I am against the prophets, who dream what is false, says the Lord; who explain and so seduce my people with their falsehoods and with their miracles, though I did not send them, nor did I command them. They have offer nothing beneficial to this people, says the Lord.
33 Therefore, if this people, or a prophet, or a priest questions you, saying, 'What is the burden of the Lord?' you shall say to them, 'You are the burden. And certainly I will cast you away, says the Lord.'
34 And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people who say, 'The burden of the Lord!' I will visit upon that man and upon his house.
35 And then you will speak in this way, each one to his neighbor and to his brother: 'What has the Lord answered? And what has the Lord said?'
36 And the burden of the Lord will be no longer be called to mind. For each one's own word will be a burden. For you have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts, our God.
37 And then you will speak in this way to the prophet: 'What has the Lord answered you? And what has the Lord spoken?'
38 But if you say, 'The burden of the Lord!' then because of this, thus says the Lord: Since you have spoken this word, 'The burden of the Lord!' though I sent to you telling you not to say: 'The burden of the Lord,'
39 because of this, behold, I will take you away, like a burden, and I will forsake you, as well as the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, before my face.
40 And I will give you over to an everlasting reproach and an eternal disgrace, which shall never be wiped away into oblivion."
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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.