Jeremiah 23:9-24

New King James Version

False Prophets and Empty Oracles

⁹My heart within me is broken
Because of the prophets;
^(A)All my bones shake.
I am like a drunken man,
And like a man whom wine has overcome,
Because of the Lord,
And because of His holy words.
¹⁰For ^(B)the land is full of adulterers;
For ^(C)because of a curse the land mourns.
^(D)The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up.
Their course of life is evil,
And their might is not right.

¹¹“For ^(E)both prophet and priest are profane;
Yes, ^(F)in My house I have found their wickedness,” says the Lord.
¹²“Therefore^(G) their way shall be to them
Like slippery ways;
In the darkness they shall be driven on
And fall in them;
For I ^(H)will bring disaster on them,
The year of their punishment,” says the Lord.
¹³“And I have seen ^[a]folly in the prophets of Samaria:
^(I)They prophesied by Baal
And ^(J)caused My people Israel to err.
¹⁴Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem:
^(K)They commit adultery and walk in lies;
They also ^(L)strengthen the hands of evildoers,
So that no one turns back from his wickedness.
All of them are like ^(M)Sodom to Me,
And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

¹⁵“Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets:

‘Behold, I will feed them with ^(N)wormwood,
And make them drink the water of gall;
For from the prophets of Jerusalem
^[b]Profaneness has gone out into all the land.’ ”

¹⁶Thus says the Lord of hosts:

“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you.
They make you worthless;
^(O)They speak a vision of their own heart,
Not from the mouth of the Lord.
¹⁷They continually say to those who despise Me,
‘The Lord has said, ^(P)“You shall have peace” ’;
And to everyone who ^(Q)walks according to the ^[c]dictates of his own heart, they say,
^(R)‘No evil shall come upon you.’ ”

¹⁸For ^(S)who has stood in the counsel of the Lord,
And has perceived and heard His word?
Who has marked His word and heard it?
¹⁹Behold, a ^(T)whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury—
A violent whirlwind!
It will fall violently on the head of the wicked.
²⁰The ^(U)anger of the Lord will not turn back
Until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart.
^(V)In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.

²¹“I^(W) have not sent these prophets, yet they ran.
I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
²²But if they had stood in My counsel,
And had caused My people to hear My words,
Then they would have ^(X)turned them from their evil way
And from the evil of their doings.

²³“Am I a God near at hand,” says the Lord,
“And not a God afar off?
²⁴Can anyone ^(Y)hide himself in secret places,
So I shall not see him?” says the Lord;
^(Z)“Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord.