Jeremiah 23
23
An Authentic David-Branch
1-4“Doom to the shepherd-leaders who butcher and scatter my sheep!” God’s Decree. “So here is what I, God, Israel’s God, say to the shepherd-leaders who misled my people: ‘You’ve scattered my sheep. You’ve driven them off. You haven’t kept your eye on them. Well, let me tell you, I’m keeping my eye on you, keeping track of your criminal behavior. I’ll take over and gather what’s left of my sheep, gather them in from all the lands where I’ve driven them. I’ll bring them back where they belong, and they’ll recover and flourish. I’ll set shepherd-leaders over them who will take good care of them. They won’t live in fear or panic anymore. All the lost sheep rounded up!’ God’s Decree.
5-6“Time’s coming”—God’s Decree—
“when I’ll establish a truly righteous David-Branch,
A ruler who knows how to rule justly.
He’ll make sure of justice and keep people united.
In his time Judah will be secure again
and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name they’ll give him:
‘God-Who-Puts-Everything-Right.’
7-8“So watch for this. The time’s coming”—God’s Decree—“when no one will say, ‘As sure as God lives, the God who brought the Israelites out of Egypt,’ but, ‘As sure as God lives, the God who brought the descendants of Israel back from the north country and from the other countries where he’d driven them, so that they can live on their own good earth.’”
The “Everything Will Turn Out Fine” Sermon
9My head is reeling,
my limbs are limp,
I’m staggering like a drunk,
seeing double from too much wine—
And all because of God,
because of his holy words.
10-12Now for what God says regarding the lying prophets:
“Can you believe it? A country teeming with adulterers!
faithless, promiscuous idolater-adulterers!
They’re a curse on the land.
The land’s a wasteland.
Their unfaithfulness
is turning the country into a cesspool,
Prophets and priests devoted to desecration.
They have nothing to do with me as their God.
My very own Temple, mind you—
mud-spattered with their crimes.” God’s Decree.
“But they won’t get by with it.
They’ll find themselves on a slippery slope,
Careening into the darkness,
somersaulting into the pitch-black dark.
I’ll make them pay for their crimes.
It will be the Year of Doom.” God’s Decree.
* * *
13-14“Over in Samaria I saw prophets
acting like silly fools—shocking!
They preached using that no-god Baal for a text,
messing with the minds of my people.
And the Jerusalem prophets are even worse—horrible!—
sex-driven, living a lie,
Subsidizing a culture of wickedness,
and never giving it a second thought.
They’re as bad as those wretches in old Sodom,
the degenerates of old Gomorrah.”
15So here’s the Message to the prophets from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
“I’ll cook them a supper of maggoty meat
with after-dinner drinks of strychnine.
The Jerusalem prophets are behind all this.
They’re the cause of the godlessness polluting this country.”
* * *
16-17A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
“Don’t listen to the sermons of the prophets.
It’s all hot air. Lies, lies, and more lies.
They make it all up.
Not a word they speak comes from me.
They preach their ‘Everything Will Turn Out Fine’ sermon
to congregations with no taste for God,
Their ‘Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen to You’ sermon
to people who are set in their own ways.
18-20“Have any of these prophets bothered to meet with me, the true God?
bothered to take in what I have to say?
listened to and then lived out my Word?
Look out! God’s hurricane will be let loose—
my hurricane blast,
Spinning the heads of the wicked like tops!
God’s raging anger won’t let up
Until I’ve made a clean sweep,
completing the job I began.
When the job’s done,
you’ll see that it’s been well done.
Quit the “God Told Me This” Kind of Talk
21-22“I never sent these prophets,
but they ran anyway.
I never spoke to them,
but they preached away.
If they’d have bothered to sit down and meet with me,
they’d have preached my Message to my people.
They’d have gotten them back on the right track,
gotten them out of their evil ruts.
* * *
23-24“Am I not a God near at hand”—God’s Decree—
“and not a God far off?
Can anyone hide out in a corner
where I can’t see him?”
God’s Decree.
“Am I not present everywhere,
whether seen or unseen?”
God’s Decree.
* * *
25-27“I know what they’re saying, all these prophets who preach lies using me as their text, saying ‘I had this dream! I had this dream!’ How long do I have to put up with this? Do these prophets give two cents about me as they preach their lies and spew out their grandiose delusions? They swap dreams with one another, feed on each other’s delusive dreams, trying to distract my people from me just as their ancestors were distracted by the no-god Baal.
28-29“You prophets who do nothing but dream—
go ahead and tell your silly dreams.
But you prophets who have a message from me—
tell it truly and faithfully.
What does straw have in common with wheat?
Nothing else is like God’s Decree.
Isn’t my Message like fire?” God’s Decree.
“Isn’t it like a sledgehammer busting a rock?
30-31“I’ve had it with the ‘prophets’ who get all their sermons secondhand from each other. Yes, I’ve had it with them. They make up stuff and then pretend it’s a real sermon.
32“Oh yes, I’ve had it with the prophets who preach the lies they dream up, spreading them all over the country, ruining the lives of my people with their cheap and reckless lies.
“I never sent these prophets, never authorized a single one of them. They do nothing for this people—nothing!” God’s Decree.
33“And anyone, including prophets and priests, who asks, ‘What’s God got to say about all this, what’s troubling him?’ tell him, ‘You, you’re the trouble, and I’m getting rid of you.’” God’s Decree.
34“And if anyone, including prophets and priests, goes around saying glibly ‘God’s Message! God’s Message!’ I’ll punish him and his family.
35-36“Instead of claiming to know what God says, ask questions of one another, such as ‘How do we understand God in this?’ But don’t go around pretending to know it all, saying ‘God told me this . . . God told me that. . . . ’ I don’t want to hear it anymore. Only the person I authorize speaks for me. Otherwise, my Message gets twisted, the Message of the living God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
37-38“You can ask the prophets, ‘How did God answer you? What did he tell you?’ But don’t pretend that you know all the answers yourselves and talk like you know it all. I’m telling you: Quit the ‘God told me this . . . God told me that . . . ’ kind of talk.
39-40“Are you paying attention? You’d better, because I’m about to take you in hand and throw you to the ground, you and this entire city that I gave to your ancestors. I’ve had it with the lot of you. You’re never going to live this down. You’re going down in history as a disgrace.”
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Jeremiah 23: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
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.