Jeremiah 23:1-22 ▼

1 “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!” declares Yahweh.

2 Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who are shepherding My people: “You have scattered My flock and banished them and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds,” declares Yahweh.

3 “Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the land where I have banished them and cause them to return to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply.

4 I will also raise up shepherds over them, and they will shepherd them; and they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be left unattended,” declares Yahweh.

5 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and prosper And do justice and righteousness in the land.

6 In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell securely; And this is His name by which He will be called, ‘Yahweh our righteousness.’

7 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when they will no longer say, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt,’

8 but, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up and brought back the seed of the household of Israel from the north land and from all the lands where I had banished them.’ Then they will live on their own soil.”

9 As for the prophets: My heart is broken within me; All my bones tremble; I have become like a drunken man, Even like a man overcome with wine, Because of Yahweh And because of His holy words.

10 For the land is full of adulterers; For the land mourns because of the curse. The pastures of the wilderness have dried up. Their course also is evil, And their might is not right.

11 “For both prophet and priest are polluted; Even in My house I have found their evil,” declares Yahweh.

12 “Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them; They will be driven away into the thick darkness and fall down in it; For I will bring their evil upon them, The year of their punishment,” declares Yahweh.

13 “Moreover, among the prophets of Samaria I saw an offensive thing: They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray.

14 Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen an appalling thing: The committing of adultery and walking in lying; And they strengthen the hands of evildoers, So that no one has turned back from his evil. All of them have become to Me like Sodom, And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

15 Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts concerning the prophets, ‘Behold, I am going to feed them wormwood And make them drink poisoned water, For from the prophets of Jerusalem Pollution has gone forth into all the land.’”

16 Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into vanity; They speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of Yahweh.

17 They keep saying to those who spurn Me, ‘Yahweh has said, “You will have peace”’; And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, They say, ‘Evil will not come upon you.’

18 But who has stood in the council of Yahweh, That he should see and hear His word? Who has given heed to His word and heard?

19 Behold, the storm of Yahweh has gone forth in wrath, Even a whirling storm; It will whirl down on the head of the wicked.

20 The anger of Yahweh will not turn back Until He has done and established the purposes of His heart; In the last days you will clearly understand it.

21 I did not send these prophets, But they ran. I did not speak to them, But they prophesied.

22 But if they had stood in My council, Then they would have caused My words to be heard by My people And would have turned them back from their evil way And from the evil of their deeds.