Jeremias 23

1 Woe to the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of their pasture!

2 Therefore thus says the Lord against them that tend my people; You have scattered my sheep, and driven them out, and you have not visited them: behold, I [will] take vengeance upon you according to your evil practices.

3 And I will gather in the remnant of my people in every land, whither I have driven them out, and will set them in their pasture; and they shall increase and be multiplied.

4 And I will raise up shepherds to them, who shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be alarmed, says the Lord.

5 Behold, the days come, says the Lord, when I will raise up to David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and understand, and shall execute judgment and righteousness on the earth.

6 In his days both Juda shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell securely: and this is his name, which the Lord shall call him, Josedec among the prophets.

7 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the Lord, when they shall no more say, The Lord lives, who brought up the house of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

8 but The Lord lives, who has gathered the whole seed of Israel from the north land, and from all the countries whither he [had] driven them out, and has restored them into their own land.

9 My heart is broken within me; all my bones are shaken: I am become as a broken-down man, and as a man overcome with wine, because of the Lord, and because of the excellence of his glory.

10 For because of these things the land mourns; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up; and their course is become evil, and so [also] their strength.

11 For priest and prophet are defiled; and I have seen their iniquities in my house.

12 Therefore let their way be to them slippery and dark: and they shall be tripped up and fall in it: for I will bring evils upon them, in the year of their visitation.

13 And in the prophets of Samaria I have seen lawless deeds; they prophesied by Baal, and led my people Israel astray.

14 Also in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen horrible things: as they committed adultery, and walked in lies, and strengthened the hands of many, that they should not return each from his evil way: they are all become to me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrha.

15 Therefore thus says the Lord; Behold, I will feed them with pain, and give them bitter water to drink: for from the prophets of Jerusalem has defilement gone forth [into] all the land.

16 Thus says the Lord Almighty, Listen not to the words of the prophets: for they frame a vain vision for themselves; they speak from their own heart, and not from the mouth of the Lord.

17 They say to them that reject the word of the Lord, There shall be peace to you; and to all that walk after their own lusts, and to everyone that walks in the error of his heart, they have said, No evil shall come upon you.

18 For who has stood in the counsel of the Lord, and seen his word? who has listened, and heard?

19 Behold, [there is] an earthquake from the Lord, and anger proceeds to a convulsion, it shall come violently upon the ungodly.

20 And the Lord's wrath shall return no more, until he have accomplished it, and until he have established it, according to the purpose of his heart: at the end of the days they shall understand it.

21 I sent not the prophets, yet they ran: neither spoke I to them, yet they prophesied.

22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and if they had listened to my words, then would they have turned my people from their evil practices.

23 I am a God near at hand, says the Lord, and not a God afar off.

24 Shall any one hide himself in secret places, and I not see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord.

25 I have heard what the prophets say, what they prophesy in my name, saying falsely, I have seen a night vision.

26 How long shall [these things] be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies, when they prophesy the purposes of their own heart?

27 who devise that [men] may forget my law by their dreams, which they have told every one to his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name in [the worship of] Baal.

28 The prophet who has a dream, let him tell his dream; and [he] in whom is my word [spoken] to him, let him tell my word truly: what is the chaff to the corn? so are my words, says the Lord.

29 Behold, are not my words as fire? says the Lord; and as an axe cutting the rock?

30 Behold, I am therefore against the prophets, says the Lord God, that steal my words every one from his neighbor.

31 Behold, I am against the prophets that put forth prophecies of mere words, and slumber their sleep.

32 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets that prophesy false dreams, and have not told them [truly], and have caused my people to err by their lies, and by their errors; yet I sent them not, and commanded them not; therefore, they shall not profit this people at all.

33 And if this people, or the priest, or the prophet, should ask, What is the burden of the Lord? then you shall say to them, You are the burden, and I will dash you down, says the Lord.

34 [As for] the prophet, and the priests, and the people, who shall say, The burden of the Lord, I will even take vengeance on that man, and on his house.

35 Thus shall you say every one to his neighbor, and every one to his brother, What has the Lord answered? and, what has the Lord said?

36 And do you name no more the burden of the Lord; for his own word shall be a man's burden.

37 But therefore, [say you], has the Lord our God spoken?

38 Therefore thus says the Lord our God; Because you have spoken this word, The burden of the Lord, and I sent to you, saying, you shall not say, The burden of the Lord;

39 therefore, behold, I [will] seize, and dash down you and the city which I gave to you and your fathers.

40 And I will bring upon you an everlasting reproach, and everlasting disgrace, which shall not be forgotten.