Jeremiah 23:5-29

English Standard Version

⁵^(A)“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous ^(B)Branch, and ^(C)he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶In his days Judah will be saved, and ^(D)Israel will ^(E)dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ^(F)‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

⁷^(G)“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ ⁸but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he^[a] had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.”

Lying Prophets

⁹Concerning the prophets:

^(H)My heart is broken within me;
    ^(I)all my bones shake;
I am like a drunken man,
    like a man overcome by wine,
because of the Lord
    and because of his holy words.
¹⁰^(J)For the land is full of adulterers;
    ^(K)because of the curse ^(L)the land mourns,
    and ^(M)the pastures of the wilderness are dried up.
^(N)Their course is evil,
    and their might is not right.
¹¹^(O)“Both prophet and priest are ungodly;
    even ^(P)in my house I have found their evil,
declares the Lord.
¹²^(Q)Therefore their way shall be to them
    like slippery paths ^(R)in the darkness,
    into which they shall be driven and fall,
for I will bring disaster upon them
    ^(S)in the year of their punishment,
declares the Lord.
¹³In the prophets of ^(T)Samaria
    ^(U)I saw an unsavory thing:
^(V)they prophesied by Baal
    ^(W)and led my people Israel astray.
¹⁴But in the prophets of Jerusalem
    I have seen a horrible thing:
^(X)they commit adultery and walk in lies;
    ^(Y)they strengthen the hands of evildoers,
    so that no one turns from his evil;
^(Z)all of them have become like Sodom to me,
    ^(AA)and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”
¹⁵Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets:
^(AB)“Behold, I will feed them with bitter food
    ^(AC)and give them ^(AD)poisoned water to drink,
for from the prophets of Jerusalem
    ungodliness 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, ^(AE)filling you with vain hopes. ^(AF)They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. ¹⁷They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ^(AG)‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who ^(AH)stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ^(AI)‘No disaster shall come upon you.’”

¹⁸For ^(AJ)who among them has stood in the council of the Lord
    to see and to hear his word,
    or who has paid attention to his word and listened?
¹⁹^(AK)Behold, the storm of the Lord!
    Wrath has gone forth,
^(AL)a whirling tempest;
    it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
²⁰^(AM)The anger of the Lord will not turn back
    until he has executed and ^(AN)accomplished
    the intents of his heart.
^(AO)In the latter days you will understand it clearly.

²¹^(AP)“I did not send the prophets,
    yet they ran;
I did not speak to them,
    yet they prophesied.
²²^(AQ)But if they had stood in my council,
    then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,
^(AR)and they would have turned them from their evil way,
    and ^(AS)from the evil of their deeds.

²³^(AT)“Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? ²⁴^(AU)Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. ^(AV)Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. ²⁵I have heard what the prophets have said ^(AW)who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ^(AX)‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ ²⁶How long shall there be lies in the heart of ^(AY)the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, ²⁷who think to make my people forget my name ^(AZ)by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their ^(BA)fathers forgot my name for Baal? ²⁸^(BB)Let the prophet who has a dream ^(BC)tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. ^(BD)What has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord. ²⁹^(BE)Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and ^(BF)like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?