Jeremiah 23

Revised Geneva Translation

23 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture,” says the LORD.

² “Therefore, thus says the LORD God of Israel to the shepherds who feed My people: You have scattered My flock, and thrust them out, and have not visited them. Behold, I will reckon with you for the wickedness of your works,” says the LORD.

³ “And I will gather the remnant of My sheep out of all countries where I had driven them and will bring them again to their folds. And they shall grow and increase.

⁴ “And I will set up shepherds over them who shall feed them. And they shall dread no more nor be afraid, nor shall any of them be lacking,” says the LORD.

⁵ “Behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that I will raise to David a righteous Branch. And a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice on the Earth.

⁶ “In His days, Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is the Name by which they shall call Him: The Lord Our Righteousness.

⁷ “Therefore, behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that they shall no longer say, ‘The LORD lives, Who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’

⁸ “but, ‘The LORD lives, Who brought up and led the seed of the House of Israel out of the North country, and from all countries where I had scattered them,’ and they shall dwell in their own land.”

⁹ My heart breaks within me, 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 presence of the LORD and because of His holy Words.

¹⁰ For the land is full of adulterers. Because of oaths, the land mourns, the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right.

¹¹ “For both the Prophet and the Priest do wickedly. And I have found their wickedness in My House,” says the LORD.

¹² “Therefore, their way shall be to them as slippery ways in the darkness. They shall be driven forth and fall in it. For I will bring a plague upon them, the year of their reckoning,” says the LORD.

¹³ “And I have seen foolishness in the prophets of Samaria, who prophesied in Baal and caused My people Israel to err.

¹⁴ “I have also seen filthiness in the prophets of Jerusalem. They commit adultery and walk in lies. They also strengthen the hands of the wicked, so that no one can turn away from his wickedness. They are all to Me as Sodom, and their inhabitants as 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 wickedness has gone forth from the prophets of Jerusalem into all the land.’”

¹⁶ Thus says the LORD of Hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you and teach you vanity. They speak the vision of their own heart, not out of the Mouth of the LORD.

¹⁷ “They continue to say to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD has said, “You shall have peace.”’ And they say to everyone who walks after the stubbornness of his own heart, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’”

¹⁸ For who has stood in the counsel of the LORD, so that he has perceived and heard His Word? Who has marked His Word and heard it?

¹⁹ Behold, the tempest of the LORD goes forth in wrath, and a violent whirlwind shall fall down upon the head of the wicked!

²⁰ The anger of the LORD shall not return until He has executed, and until He has performed, the thoughts of His Heart. In the latter days, you shall understand it plainly.

²¹ “I have not sent these prophets,” says the LORD, “yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, and yet they prophesied.

²² “But if they had stood in My counsel, and had declared My Words to My people, then they would have turned them from their evil way and from the wickedness of their inventions.

²³ “Am I a God near at hand,” says the LORD, “and not a far off God?”

²⁴ “Can anyone hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him,” says the LORD? “Do not I fill Heaven and Earth,” says the LORD?

²⁵ “I have heard what the prophets said who prophesied lies in My Name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed.’

²⁶ “How long do the prophets delight to prophesy lies, even prophesying the deceit of their own heart?

²⁷ “Do they intend to cause My people to forget My Name by their dreams, which everyone tells his neighbor, as their forefathers have forgotten My Name for 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?

²⁹ “Is not My Word like a fire,” says the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks the stone?

³⁰ “Therefore, behold, I will come against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who steal My Word, each one from his neighbor.

³¹ “Behold, I will come against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who have sweet tongues, and say, ‘He says.’

³² “Behold, I will come against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the LORD, “and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies, and by their flatteries. And I did not send them or command them. Therefore, they bring no profit to this people,” says the LORD.

³³ “And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest shall ask you, saying, ‘What is the oracle of the LORD?’ You shall then say to them, ‘What oracle? “I will forsake you,”’” says the LORD.

³⁴ “And as for the prophet, or the priest, or the people who shall say, ‘The oracle of the LORD,’ I will reckon with each one and his house.

³⁵ “Thus each one shall say to his neighbor, and each one to his brother: ‘What has the LORD answered?’ and ‘What has the LORD spoken?’

³⁶ “And you shall no longer mention the oracle of the LORD. For each man’s word shall be his oracle. For you have perverted the Words of the living God, the LORD of Hosts, our God.

³⁷ “Thus shall you say to the Prophet: ‘What has the LORD answered you? And what has the LORD spoken?’

³⁸ “And if you say, ‘The oracle of the LORD,’ then thus says the LORD: Because you say this word, ‘The oracle of the LORD,’ and I have sent to you, saying, ‘You shall not say, ‘The oracle of the LORD,’

³⁹ “Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you. And I will forsake you and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of My presence.

⁴⁰ “And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall never be forgotten.”