²⁴ For there shall no longer be any false vision or flattering divination within the house of Israel.^(A)

²³ therefore you shall no longer see false visions or practice divination; I will save my people from your hand. Then you will know that I am the Lord.^(A)

Idolatry Cut Off

² On that day, says the Lord of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more, and also I will remove from the land the prophets and the unclean spirit.^{(A) 3} And if any prophets appear again, their fathers and mothers who bore them will say to them, “You shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the Lord,” and their fathers and their mothers who bore them shall pierce them through when they prophesy.^{(B) 4} On that day the prophets will be ashamed, every one, of their visions when they prophesy; they will not put on a hairy mantle in order to deceive,^(C)

Denunciation of Lying Prophets

¹³ Then I said: “Ah, Lord God! Here are the prophets saying to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you true peace in this place.’ ”^{(A) 14} And the Lord said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name; I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds.^{(B) 15} Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name though I did not send them and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not come on this land’: By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed.^{(C) 16} And the people to whom they prophesy shall be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword. There shall be no one to bury them—themselves, their wives, their sons, and their daughters—for I will pour out their wickedness upon them.”^(D)

² Even so, many will follow their debaucheries, and because of these teachers^[a] the way of truth will be maligned. ³ And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep.^(A)

⁵ As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed,^(A)

¹⁸ For such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites,^[a] and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded.^(A)

⁶ They have envisioned falsehood and lying divination; they say, “Says the Lord,” when the Lord has not sent them, and yet they wait for the fulfillment of their word!^(A)