False Prophets and Empty Oracles

9My heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the Lord, and because of the words of His holiness.

10For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourns; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right.   a curse

11For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in My house have I found their wickedness, says the Lord.

12Wherefore their way shall be to them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, says the Lord.   punishment

13And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused My people Israel to err.

14I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none does return from his wickedness: they are all of them to Me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

15Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.   Jehovah^s.f. Tsebaoth^p.f.; bitterness; bitter or poisonous water; godlessness

16Thus says the Lord of hosts, Hearken not to the words of the prophets that prophesy to you^p: they make you^p vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.   listen

17They say still to them that despise Me, The Lord has said, You^p shall have peace; and they say to every one that walks after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you^p.   stubbornness

18For 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 whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.

20The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He have executed, and till He have performed the thoughts of His heart: in the latter days you^p shall consider it perfectly.

21I 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 should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

23Am I a God at hand, says the Lord, and not a God afar off?

24Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? says the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? says the Lord.

25I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in My name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

26How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;

27Which think to cause My people to forget My name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten My name for Baal.

28The prophet that has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? says the Lord.

29Is not My word like as a fire? says the Lord; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

30Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, that steal My words every one from his neighbor.

31Behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, that use their tongues, and say, He says.

32Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, says the Lord, and do tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, says the Lord.   frivolity

33And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask you, saying, What is the burden of the Lord? you shall then say to them, What burden? I will even forsake you^p, says the Lord.   message

34And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the Lord, I will even punish that man and his house.

35Thus shall you^p say every one to his neighbor, and every one to his brother, What has the Lord answered? and, What has the Lord spoken?

36And the burden of the Lord shall you^p mention no more: for every man’s word shall be his burden; for you^p have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts our God.

37Thus shall you say to the prophet, What has the Lord answered you? and, What has the Lord spoken?

38But since you^p say, The burden of the Lord; therefore thus says the Lord; Because you^p say this word, The burden of the Lord, and I have sent to you^p, saying, You^p shall not say, The burden of the Lord;

39Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you^p, and I will forsake you^p, and the city that I gave you^p and your^p fathers, and cast you^p out of My presence:

40And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you^p, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.