Add parallel Print Page Options

True and False Prophets

“Don’t say such things,”
    the people respond.[a]
“Don’t prophesy like that.
    Such disasters will never come our way!”

Should you talk that way, O family of Israel?[b]
    Will the Lord’s Spirit have patience with such behavior?
If you would do what is right,
    you would find my words comforting.
Yet to this very hour
    my people rise against me like an enemy!
You steal the shirts right off the backs
    of those who trusted you,
making them as ragged as men
    returning from battle.
You have evicted women from their pleasant homes
    and forever stripped their children of all that God would give them.
10 Up! Begone!
    This is no longer your land and home,
for you have filled it with sin
    and ruined it completely.

11 Suppose a prophet full of lies would say to you,
    “I’ll preach to you the joys of wine and alcohol!”
That’s just the kind of prophet you would like!

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 2:6 Or the prophets respond; Hebrew reads they prophesy.
  2. 2:7 Hebrew O house of Jacob? See note on 1:5a.

“Don’t say such things,” the people say. “Don’t harp on things like that. It’s disgraceful, that sort of talk. Such evils surely will not come our way.”

Is that the right reply for you to make, O House of Jacob? Do you think the Spirit of the Lord likes to talk to you so roughly? No! His threats are for your good, to get you on the path again.

Yet to this very hour my people rise against me. For you steal the shirts right off the backs of those who trusted you, who walk in peace.

You have driven out the widows from their homes and stripped their children of every God-given right. 10 Up! Begone! This is no more your land and home, for you have filled it with sin, and it will vomit you out.

11 “I’ll preach to you the joys of wine and drink”—that is the kind of drunken, lying prophet that you like!

Read full chapter