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An Oracle about False Prophets

Concerning the prophets:

My heart is broken within me,
    and all my bones shake.
I’m like a drunk man,
    like a person overcome with wine,
because of the Lord,
    and because of his holy words.
10 Indeed, the land is full of adulterers.
    Indeed, the land mourns because of the curse;
        the pastures of the wilderness have dried up.
The adulterers’[a] lifestyles are evil,
    and they use[b] their strength for what[c] is not right.
11 Indeed, both priest and prophet are ungodly.
    Even in my house I find evil,” declares the Lord.
12 Therefore their way will be slippery.
    They’ll be driven out into the darkness,
        where they’ll fall.
For I’ll bring disaster on them,
    the year of their judgment,”
        declares the Lord.

13 “Among the prophets of Samaria I saw a disgusting thing,
    for they prophesied by Baal
        and led my people Israel astray.
14 Among the prophets of Jerusalem I saw a horrible thing,
    for they commit adultery and live a lie.
They strengthen the hands of those who do evil,
    so that no one repents of his evil.
All of them are like Sodom to me,
    and her[d] residents like Gomorrah.”

15 Therefore, this is what the Lord God of the Heavenly Armies says about the prophets,

“I’m about to make them eat wormwood[e]
    and drink poisoned water,
because godlessness has spread from the
    prophets of Jerusalem throughout the land.”

16 This is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies says:

“Don’t listen to the words of the prophets
    who are prophesying to you;
        they’re giving you false hopes.
They declare visions from their own minds—
    they don’t come from the Lord![f]
17 They keep on saying to those who despise me,
    ‘The Lord has said, “You will have peace.”’
To all who stubbornly follow their own desires[g] they say,
    ‘Disaster won’t come upon you.’
18 But who has stood in the Lord’s council
    to see and hear his message?
        Who has paid attention to his message and obeyed it?[h]
19 Look, the storm of the Lord’s wrath has gone forth,
    a whirling tempest,
and it will swirl down
    around the head of the wicked.
20 The Lord’s anger won’t turn back
    until he has accomplished
        what he intended to do.
In the future
    you will clearly understand it.
21 I didn’t send these prophets,[i]
    but they ran anyway.
I didn’t speak to them,
    but they prophesied.
22 If they had stood in my council
    and had delivered my words to my people,
then they would have turned them back
    from their evil way,
        from their evil deeds.”

23 “Am I a God who is near,” declares the Lord,
    “rather than a God who is far away?
24 If a person hides himself in secret places,
    will I not see him?”
        declares the Lord.
“I fill the heavens and the earth, do I not?”
    declares the Lord.

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 23:10 Lit. Their
  2. Jeremiah 23:10 The Heb. lacks they use
  3. Jeremiah 23:10 The Heb. lacks for what
  4. Jeremiah 23:14 I.e. Jerusalem’s
  5. Jeremiah 23:15 Wormwood is a plant with an extremely bitter taste
  6. Jeremiah 23:16 Lit. not from the mouth of the Lord
  7. Jeremiah 23:17 Lit. walk in the stubbornness of their heart
  8. Jeremiah 23:18 Or listened to
  9. Jeremiah 23:21 Lit. prophets