Jeremiah 23:9-24
Evangelical Heritage Version
Against False Prophets
9 Concerning the prophets:
My heart is broken inside me.
All my bones tremble.
I am like a drunken man,
like a man overcome by wine,
because of the Lord,
and because of his holy words.
10 Look, the land is full of adulterers.
Because of the curse, the land mourns.
The pastures in the wilderness are dried up.
Their way of life is evil,
and their use of power is unjust.
11 Both prophet and priest are godless.
I have found their wickedness even in my House,
declares the Lord.
12 Therefore, they will discover that their path
is like slippery places in the darkness.
They will be driven away,
and they will fall there,
because I will bring disaster on them,
the year of their punishment, declares the Lord.
13 Among the prophets of Samaria[a]
I saw something offensive.
They prophesied by Baal
and led my people Israel astray.
14 Now among the prophets of Jerusalem
I have seen something horrifying.
They commit adultery and walk in lies.
They strengthen the hands of evildoers,
so that no one turns away from his wickedness.
They have all become like Sodom to me.
The people who live there are like Gomorrah.
15 So this is what the Lord of Armies says concerning the prophets.
Watch, I will feed them wormwood
and give them bitter water to drink,
because from the prophets of Jerusalem
ungodliness has gone out into all the land.
16 This is what the Lord of Armies says.
Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you.
They are giving you false hope.
They proclaim visions that come from their own hearts
and not from the mouth of the Lord.
17 They keep saying to those who despise me,
“The Lord has said that you will have peace.”
And to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart,
they say, “No harm will come to you.”
18 But have any of them stood in the council of the Lord,
to see and hear his word?
Who has listened to his word and heard it?
19 Look, a storm from the Lord!
His wrath has gone out,
like a whirlwind twisting down,
whirling over the heads of the wicked.
20 The Lord’s anger will not turn back until he has completely fulfilled the purposes of his heart. In later days you will understand it fully.
21 I did not send these prophets, yet they ran.
I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
22 But if they had stood in my council,
they would have made my people hear my words,
and they would have turned them from their evil ways
and from their evil deeds.
23 Am I a God who is only nearby, declares the Lord,
and not a God far away?
24 Can anyone hide in secret places
so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord.
Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 23:13 Samaria fell to the Assyrians in 722 bc because of its idolatry. See 2 Kings 17:7-20.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.