| New King James Version | NET Bible |
| 1“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” says the LORD. | 1The LORD says, "The leaders of my people are sure to be judged. They were supposed to watch over my people like shepherds watch over their sheep. But they are causing my people to be destroyed and scattered. |
| 2Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel against the shepherds who feed My people: “You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings,” says the LORD. | 2So the LORD God of Israel has this to say about the leaders who are ruling over his people: "You have caused my people to be dispersed and driven into exile. You have not taken care of them. So I will punish you for the evil that you have done. I, the LORD, affirm it! |
| 3“But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. | 3Then I myself will regather those of my people who are still alive from all the countries where I have driven them. I will bring them back to their homeland. They will greatly increase in number. |
| 4I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking,” says the LORD. | 4I will install rulers over them who will care for them. Then they will no longer need to fear or be terrified. None of them will turn up missing. I, the LORD, promise it! |
| 5“Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. | 5"I, the LORD, promise that a new time will certainly come when I will raise up for them a righteous branch, a descendant of David. He will rule over them with wisdom and understanding and will do what is just and right in the land. |
| 6In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. | 6Under his rule Judah will enjoy safety and Israel will live in security. This is the name he will go by: 'The LORD has provided us with justice.' |
| 7“Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that they shall no longer say, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ | 7"So I, the LORD, say: 'A new time will certainly come. People now affirm their oaths with "I swear as surely as the LORD lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt." |
| 8but, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ And they shall dwell in their own land.” | 8But at that time they will affirm them with "I swear as surely as the LORD lives who delivered the descendants of the former nation of Israel from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished them." At that time they will live in their own land.'" |
| 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 His holy words. | 9Here is what the LORD says concerning the false prophets: My heart and my mind are deeply disturbed. I tremble all over. I am like a drunk person, like a person who has had too much wine, because of the way the LORD and his holy word are being mistreated. |
| 10For the land is full of adulterers; For because of a curse the land mourns. The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up. Their course of life is evil, And their might is not right. | 10For the land is full of people unfaithful to him. They live wicked lives and they misuse their power. So the land is dried up because it is under his curse. The pastures in the wilderness are withered. |
| 11“For both prophet and priest are profane; Yes, in My house I have found their wickedness,” says the LORD. | 11Moreover, the LORD says, "Both the prophets and priests are godless. I have even found them doing evil in my temple! |
| 12“Therefore their way shall be to them Like slippery ways; In the darkness they shall be driven on And fall in them; For I will bring disaster on them, The year of their punishment,” says the LORD. | 12So the paths they follow will be dark and slippery. They will stumble and fall headlong. For I will bring disaster on them. A day of reckoning is coming for them." The LORD affirms it! |
| 13“And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: They prophesied by Baal And caused My people Israel to err. | 13The LORD says, "I saw the prophets of Samaria doing something that was disgusting. They prophesied in the name of the god Baal and led my people Israel astray. |
| 14Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem: They commit adultery and walk in lies; They also strengthen the hands of evildoers, So that no one turns back from his wickedness. All of them are like Sodom to Me, And her inhabitants like Gomorrah. | 14But I see the prophets of Jerusalem doing something just as shocking. They are unfaithful to me and continually prophesy lies. So they give encouragement to people who are doing evil, with the result that they do not stop their evildoing. I consider all of them as bad as the people of Sodom, and the citizens of Jerusalem as bad as the people of Gomorrah. |
| 15“Therefore 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 Profaneness has gone out into all the land.’ ” | 15So then I, the LORD who rules over all, have something to say concerning the prophets of Jerusalem: 'I will make these prophets eat the bitter food of suffering and drink the poison water of judgment. For the prophets of Jerusalem are the reason that ungodliness has spread throughout the land.'" |
| 16Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; They speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of the LORD. | 16The LORD who rules over all says to the people of Jerusalem: "Do not listen to what those prophets are saying to you. They are filling you with false hopes. They are reporting visions of their own imaginations, not something the LORD has given them to say. |
| 17They continually say to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD has said, “You shall have peace” ’; And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’ ” | 17They continually say to those who reject what the LORD has said, 'Things will go well for you!' They say to all those who follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts, 'Nothing bad will happen to you!' |
| 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? | 18Yet which of them has ever stood in the LORD's inner circle so they could see and hear what he has to say? Which of them have ever paid attention or listened to what he has said? |
| 19Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD has gone forth in fury— A violent whirlwind! It will fall violently on the head of the wicked. | 19But just watch! The wrath of the LORD will come like a storm! Like a raging storm it will rage down on the heads of those who are wicked. |
| 20The anger of the LORD will not turn back Until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart. In the latter days you will understand it perfectly. | 20The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has fully carried out his intended purposes. In days to come you people will come to understand this clearly. |
| 21“I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. | 21I did not send those prophets. Yet they were in a hurry to give their message. I did not tell them anything. Yet they prophesied anyway. |
| 22But if they had stood in My counsel, And had caused My people to hear My words, Then they would have turned them from their evil way And from the evil of their doings. | 22But if they had stood in my inner circle, they would have proclaimed my message to my people. They would have caused my people to turn from their wicked ways and stop doing the evil things they are doing. |
| 23“Am I a God near at hand,” says the LORD, “And not a God afar off? | 23Do you people think that I am some local deity and not the transcendent God?" the LORD asks. |
| 24Can anyone hide himself in secret places, So I shall not see him?” says the LORD; “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the LORD. | 24"Do you really think anyone can hide himself where I cannot see him?" the LORD asks. "Do you not know that I am everywhere?" the LORD asks. |
| 25“I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ | 25The LORD says, "I have heard what those prophets who are prophesying lies in my name are saying. They are saying, 'I have had a dream! I have had a dream!' |
| 26How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, | 26Those prophets are just prophesying lies. They are prophesying the delusions of their own minds. |
| 27who try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells his neighbor, as their fathers forgot My name for Baal. | 27How long will they go on plotting to make my people forget who I am through the dreams they tell one another? That is just as bad as what their ancestors did when they forgot who I am by worshiping the god Baal. |
| 28“The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; And he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?” says the LORD. | 28Let the prophet who has had a dream go ahead and tell his dream. Let the person who has received my message report that message faithfully. What is like straw cannot compare to what is like grain! I, the LORD, affirm it! |
| 29“Is not My word like a fire?” says the LORD, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? | 29My message is like a fire that purges dross! It is like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces! I, the LORD, so affirm it! |
| 30“Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who steal My words every one from his neighbor. | 30So I, the LORD, affirm that I am opposed to those prophets who steal messages from one another that they claim are from me. |
| 31Behold, I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who use their tongues and say, ‘He says.’ | 31I, the LORD, affirm that I am opposed to those prophets who are using their own tongues to declare, 'The LORD declares. . ..' |
| 32Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the LORD, “and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all,” says the LORD. | 32I, the LORD, affirm that I am opposed to those prophets who dream up lies and report them. They are misleading my people with their reckless lies. I did not send them. I did not commission them. They are not helping these people at all. I, the LORD, affirm it!" |
| 33“So when these people or the prophet or the priest ask you, saying, ‘What is the oracle of the LORD?’ you shall then say to them, ‘What oracle?’ I will even forsake you,” says the LORD. | 33The LORD said to me, "Jeremiah, when one of these people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, 'What burdensome message do you have from the LORD?' Tell them, 'You are the burden, and I will cast you away. I, the LORD, affirm it! |
| 34“And as for the prophet and the priest and the people who say, ‘The oracle of the LORD!’ I will even punish that man and his house. | 34I will punish any prophet, priest, or other person who says "The LORD's message is burdensome." I will punish both that person and his whole family.'" |
| 35Thus every one of you shall say to his neighbor, and every one to his brother, ‘What has the LORD answered?’ and, ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ | 35So I, Jeremiah, tell you, "Each of you people should say to his friend or his relative, 'How did the LORD answer? Or what did the LORD say?' |
| 36And the oracle of the LORD you shall mention no more. For every man’s word will be his oracle, for you have perverted the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God. | 36You must no longer say that the LORD's message is burdensome. For what is 'burdensome' really pertains to what a person himself says. You are misrepresenting the words of our God, the living God, the LORD who rules over all. |
| 37Thus you shall say to the prophet, ‘What has the LORD answered you?’ and, ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ | 37Each of you should merely ask the prophet, 'What answer did the LORD give you? Or what did the LORD say?' |
| 38But since you say, ‘The oracle of the LORD!’ therefore thus says the LORD: ‘Because you say this word, “The oracle of the LORD!” and I have sent to you, saying, “Do not say, ‘The oracle of the LORD!’ ” | 38But just suppose you continue to say, 'The message of the LORD is burdensome.' Here is what the LORD says will happen: 'I sent word to you that you must not say, "The LORD's message is burdensome." But you used the words "The LORD's message is burdensome" anyway. |
| 39therefore behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you and forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and will cast you out of My presence. | 39So I will carry you far off and throw you away. I will send both you and the city I gave to you and to your ancestors out of my sight. |
| 40And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.’ ” | 40I will bring on you lasting shame and lasting disgrace which will never be forgotten!'" |
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