Jeremiah 23:9-24

Common English Bible

Oracles against the prophets

⁹As for the prophets:
My heart inside me is broken;
    my body aches.^[a]
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,^[b]
        yes, because their might isn’t right
        and their way is evil,
        the land dries up,
        and the grazing areas in the wilderness wither.^[c]
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?