Jeremiah 23:23-39
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
23 Am I a God near by, says the Lord, and not a God far off?(A) 24 Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord.(B) 25 I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, “I have dreamed! I have dreamed!”(C) 26 How long? Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back—those who prophesy lies and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart? 27 They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal.(D) 28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the Lord.(E) 29 Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?(F) 30 See, therefore, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who steal my words from one another.(G) 31 See, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who use their own tongues and say, “Says the Lord.” 32 See, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the Lord, and who tell them and who lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or command them, so they do not profit this people at all, says the Lord.
33 When 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.[a] I will cast you off, says the Lord.”(H) 34 And as for the prophet, priest, or the people who say, “The burden of the Lord,” I will punish them and their households.(I) 35 Thus shall you say to one another, among yourselves, “What has the Lord answered?” or “What has the Lord spoken?”(J) 36 But “the burden of the Lord” you shall mention no more, for the burden is everyone’s own word, and so you pervert the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God.(K) 37 Thus you shall ask the prophet, “What has the Lord answered you?” or “What has the Lord spoken?” 38 But 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,’ ” 39 therefore, I will surely lift you up[b] and cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your ancestors.(L)
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