Jeremiah 23

English Standard Version

The Righteous Branch

23 ^(A)“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. ²Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning ^(B)the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. ^(C)Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. ³^(D)Then I will gather the remnant of my flock ^(E)out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, ^(F)and they shall be fruitful and multiply. ⁴^(G)I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.

⁵^(H)“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous ^(I)Branch, and ^(J)he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶In his days Judah will be saved, and ^(K)Israel will ^(L)dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ^(M)‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

⁷^(N)“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ ⁸but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he^[a] had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.”

Lying Prophets

⁹Concerning the prophets:

^(O)My heart is broken within me;
    ^(P)all my bones shake;
I am like a drunken man,
    like a man overcome by wine,
because of the Lord
    and because of his holy words.
¹⁰^(Q)For the land is full of adulterers;
    ^(R)because of the curse ^(S)the land mourns,
    and ^(T)the pastures of the wilderness are dried up.
^(U)Their course is evil,
    and their might is not right.
¹¹^(V)“Both prophet and priest are ungodly;
    even ^(W)in my house I have found their evil,
declares the Lord.
¹²^(X)Therefore their way shall be to them
    like slippery paths ^(Y)in the darkness,
    into which they shall be driven and fall,
for I will bring disaster upon them
    ^(Z)in the year of their punishment,
declares the Lord.
¹³In the prophets of ^(AA)Samaria
    ^(AB)I saw an unsavory thing:
^(AC)they prophesied by Baal
    ^(AD)and led my people Israel astray.
¹⁴But in the prophets of Jerusalem
    I have seen a horrible thing:
^(AE)they commit adultery and walk in lies;
    ^(AF)they strengthen the hands of evildoers,
    so that no one turns from his evil;
^(AG)all of them have become like Sodom to me,
    ^(AH)and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”
¹⁵Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets:
^(AI)“Behold, I will feed them with bitter food
    ^(AJ)and give them ^(AK)poisoned water to drink,
for from the prophets of Jerusalem
    ungodliness 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, ^(AL)filling you with vain hopes. ^(AM)They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. ¹⁷They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ^(AN)‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who ^(AO)stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ^(AP)‘No disaster shall come upon you.’”

¹⁸For ^(AQ)who among them has stood in the council of the Lord
    to see and to hear his word,
    or who has paid attention to his word and listened?
¹⁹^(AR)Behold, the storm of the Lord!
    Wrath has gone forth,
^(AS)a whirling tempest;
    it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
²⁰^(AT)The anger of the Lord will not turn back
    until he has executed and ^(AU)accomplished
    the intents of his heart.
^(AV)In the latter days you will understand it clearly.

²¹^(AW)“I did not send the prophets,
    yet they ran;
I did not speak to them,
    yet they prophesied.
²²^(AX)But if they had stood in my council,
    then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,
^(AY)and they would have turned them from their evil way,
    and ^(AZ)from the evil of their deeds.

²³^(BA)“Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? ²⁴^(BB)Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. ^(BC)Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. ²⁵I have heard what the prophets have said ^(BD)who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ^(BE)‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ ²⁶How long shall there be lies in the heart of ^(BF)the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, ²⁷who think to make my people forget my name ^(BG)by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their ^(BH)fathers forgot my name for Baal? ²⁸^(BI)Let the prophet who has a dream ^(BJ)tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. ^(BK)What has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord. ²⁹^(BL)Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and ^(BM)like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? ³⁰^(BN)Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who steal my words from one another. ³¹Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who use their tongues and declare, ‘declares the Lord.’ ³²Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the Lord, and who tell them and ^(BO)lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when ^(BP)I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the Lord.

³³^(BQ)“When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the Lord?’ you shall say to them, ‘You are the burden,^[b] and ^(BR)I will cast you off, declares the Lord.’ ³⁴And as for the prophet, priest, or one of the people who says, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ ^(BS)I will punish that man and his household. ³⁵Thus shall you say, every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother, ‘What has the Lord answered?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ ³⁶But ‘the burden of the Lord’ you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man's own word, and ^(BT)you pervert the words of ^(BU)the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God. ³⁷Thus you shall say to the prophet, ‘What has the Lord answered you?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ ³⁸But if you say, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have said these words, “The burden of the Lord,” when I sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The burden of the Lord,’” ³⁹therefore, behold, I will surely lift you up^[c] and ^(BV)cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers. ⁴⁰^(BW)And I will bring upon you everlasting reproach and ^(BX)perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.’”