23
1 Woe to the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of their pasture! 2 Therefore thus saith the Lord against them that tend my people; Ye have scattered my sheep, and driven them out, and ye have not visited them: behold, I will take vengeance upon you according to your evil practices. 3 And I will gather in the remnant of my people in every land, whither I have driven them out, and will set them in their pasture; and they shall increase and be multiplied. 4 And I will raise up shepherds to them, who shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be alarmed, saith the Lord.
5 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will raise up to David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and understand, and shall execute judgment and righteousness on the earth. 6 In his days both Juda shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell securely: and this is his name, which the Lord shall call him, Josedec among the prophets.
9 My heart is broken within me; all my bones are shaken: I am become as a broken-down man, and as a man overcome with wine, because of the Lord, and because of the excellence of his glory. 10 For because of these things the land mourns; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up; and their course is become evil, and so also their strength. 11 For priest and prophet are defiled; and I have seen their iniquities in my house. 12 Therefore let their way be to them slippery and dark: and they shall be tripped up and fall in it: for I will bring evils upon them, in the year of their visitation.
13 And in the prophets of Samaria I have seen lawless deeds; they prophesied by Baal, and led my people Israel astray. 14 Also in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen horrible things: as they committed adultery, and walked in lies, and strengthened the hands of many, that they should not return each from his evil way: they are all become to me as Sodoma, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrha.
15 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will feed them with pain, and give them bitter water to drink: for from the prophets of Jerusalem has defilement gone forth into all the land.
16 Thus saith the Lord Almighty, Hearken not to the words of the prophets: for they frame a vain vision for themselves; they speak from their own heart, and not from the mouth of the Lord. 17 They say to them that reject the word of the Lord, There shall be peace to you; and to all that walk after their own lusts, and to every one that walks in the error of his heart, they have said, No evil shall come upon thee. 18 For who has stood in the counsel of the Lord, and seen his word? who has hearkened, and heard? 19 Behold, there is an earthquake from the Lord, and anger proceeds to a convulsion, it shall come violently upon the ungodly. 20 And the Lord's wrath shall return no more, until he have accomplished it, and until he have established it, according to the purpose of his heart: at the end of the days they shall understand it.
21 I sent not the prophets, yet they ran: neither spoke I to them, yet they prophesied. 22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and if they had hearkened to my words, then would they have turned my people from their evil practices.
23 I am a God nigh at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off. 24 Shall any one hide himself in secret places, and I not see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.
25 I have heard what the prophets say, what they prophesy in my name, saying falsely, I have seen a night vision. 26 How long shall these things be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies, when they prophesy the purposes of their own heart? 27 who devise that men may forget my law by their dreams, which they have told every one to his neighbour, as their fathers forgot my name in the worship of Baal. 28 The prophet who has a dream, let him tell his dream; and he in whom is my word spoken to him, let him tell my word truly: what is the chaff to the corn? so are my words, saith the Lord. 29 Behold, are not my words as fire? saith the Lord; and as an axe cutting the rock?
30 Behold, I am therefore against the prophets, saith the Lord God, that steal my words every one from his neighbour. 31 Behold, I am against the prophets that put forth prophecies of mere words, and slumber their sleep. 32 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets that prophesy false dreams, and have not told them truly, and have caused my people to err by their lies, and by their errors; yet I sent them not, and commanded them not; therefore, they shall not profit this people at all.
33 And if this people, or the priest, or the prophet, should ask, What is the burden of the Lord? then thou shalt say to them, Ye are the burden, and I will dash you down, saith the Lord. 34 As for the prophet, and the priests, and the people, who shall say, The burden of the Lord, I will even take vengeance on that man, and on his house. 35 Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What has the Lord answered? and, what has the Lord said? 36 And do ye name no more the burden of the Lord; for his own word shall be a man's burden. 37 But wherefore, say ye, has the Lord our God spoken? 38 Therefore thus saith the Lord our God; Because ye have spoken this word, The burden of the Lord, and I sent to you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the Lord; 39 therefore, behold, I will seize, and dash down you and the city which I gave to you and your fathers. 40 And I will bring upon you an everlasting reproach, and everlasting disgrace, which shall not be forgotten.
40a Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when they shall no more say, The Lord lives, who brought up the house of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 40b but The Lord lives, who has gathered the whole seed of Israel from the north land, and from all the countries whither he had driven them out, and has restored them into their own land.