Beginning
The Righteous Branch
23 Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture! says the Lord. 2 Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel against the shepherds that feed My people: You have scattered My flock and driven them away and have not visited them. I am about to punish you for the evil of your deeds, says the Lord. 3 I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries wherever I have driven them and bring them again to their folds, and they shall be fruitful and increase. 4 I will also set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and they will fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor will they be missing, says the Lord.
5 The days are coming, says the Lord,
that I will raise up for David a righteous Branch,
and he shall reign as king and deal wisely,
and shall execute justice and righteousness in the earth.
6 In his days Judah will be saved,
and Israel will dwell safely.
And this is the name by which he will be called:
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
7 Therefore, surely the days are coming, says the Lord, when they will no more say, “As the Lord lives who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,” 8 but, “As the Lord lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel out of the north country and from all countries where I had driven them.” Then they will dwell in their own land.
Lying Prophets
9 My heart is broken within me,
because of the prophets;
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 For the land is full of adulterers;
for the land mourns because of the curse.
The pleasant places of the wilderness have dried up.
And their course is evil
and their might is not right.
11 For both prophet and priest are profane;
indeed, in My house I have found their wickedness,
says the Lord.
12 Therefore their way will be as slippery ways to them;
they shall be driven into the darkness
and fall in it;
for I will bring disaster upon them,
even the year of their punishment,
says the Lord.
13 In addition, I have seen folly
in the prophets of Samaria.
They prophesied by Baal
and caused My people Israel to err.
14 I have seen also among the prophets of Jerusalem
a horrible thing.
They commit adultery and walk in lies.
They also strengthen the hands of evildoers,
so that no one repents from his wickedness.
All of them are as Sodom to Me
and her inhabitants as Gomorrah.
15 Therefore thus says the Lord of Hosts concerning the prophets:
“I will feed them with wormwood
and make them drink the water of gall,
for from the prophets of Jerusalem
profaneness has gone out into all the land.”
16 Thus says the Lord of Hosts:
Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you.
They lead you into vanity;
they speak a vision of their own heart
and not out of the mouth of the Lord.
17 They still say to those who despise Me,
“The Lord has said, ‘You will have peace’ ”;
and they say to everyone who walks after the imagination of his own heart,
“No evil will come upon you.”
18 For who has stood in the counsel of the Lord
and has perceived and heard His word?
Who has given heed to His word and listened to it?
19 Look, a whirlwind of the Lord
has gone forth in fury,
a tempestuous whirlwind.
It will fall tempestuously upon the head of the wicked.
20 The anger of the Lord will not turn back
until He has executed and performed
the thoughts of His heart.
In the latter days
you will understand it perfectly.
21 I have not sent these prophets,
yet they ran.
I have not spoken to them,
yet they prophesied.
22 But if they had stood in My counsel
and had caused My people to hear My words,
then they would have turned them from their evil way
and from the evil of their deeds.
23 Am I a God who is near,
says the Lord,
and not a God far off?
24 Can a man hide himself in secret places
so that I do not see him?
says the Lord.
Do I not fill heaven and earth?
says the Lord.
25 I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, “I had a dream, I had a dream!” 26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, 27 who plan to cause My people to forget My name by their dreams, which they tell to their neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten My name for Baal. 28 The prophet who has a dream, let him tell his dream. And he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? says the Lord. 29 Is not My word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
30 See, therefore I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who steal My words, each from his neighbor. 31 See, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who use their tongues and say, “The Lord says.” 32 See, I am against those who prophesy false dreams, says the Lord, and recount them and cause My people to err by their lies and reckless boasting. Yet I sent them not nor commanded them. Therefore they shall not profit this people at all, says the Lord.
False Prophecy
33 When this people or the prophet or a priest asks you, saying, “What is the oracle of the Lord?” you shall then say to them, “What oracle? I will forsake you, says the Lord.” 34 As for the prophet and the priest and the people who say, “The oracle of the Lord,” I will punish that man and his house. 35 Thus each of you will say to his neighbor and to his brother, “What has the Lord answered?” and, “What has the Lord spoken?” 36 And the oracle of the Lord you shall mention no more, for every man’s word will be his oracle. For you have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of Hosts our God. 37 Thus you will say to that prophet, “What has the Lord answered you?” and, “What has the Lord spoken?” 38 But if you say, “The oracle of the Lord”; therefore thus says the Lord: Because you say this word, “The oracle of the Lord,” I have also sent to you, saying, You shall not say, “The oracle of the Lord.” 39 Therefore, surely, I, even I, will utterly forget you and cast you and the city that I gave you and your fathers out of My presence. 40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you and perpetual shame which shall not be forgotten.
The Good and Bad Figs
24 The Lord showed me two baskets of figs that were set before the temple of the Lord after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the officials of Judah with the carpenters and smiths from Jerusalem and brought them to Babylon. 2 One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe, and the other basket had very rotten figs, which were so rotten they could not be eaten.
3 Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?”
And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good. And the rotten, very rotten, that are so rotten they cannot be eaten.”
4 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 5 Thus says the Lord the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will acknowledge those who are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. 6 For I will set My eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land. And I will build them up and not pull them down. And I will plant them and not pluck them up. 7 I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.
8 But as the rotten figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so rotten, says the Lord, so I will forsake Zedekiah the king of Judah and his officials, and the rest of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. 9 And I will make them a horror and an evil to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places wherever I shall drive them. 10 I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them until they are consumed from off the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.
Seventy Years of Captivity
25 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, 2 which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: 3 From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened.
4 The Lord has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. 5 They said, “Turn now again everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and dwell in the land that the Lord has given to you and to your fathers forever and ever. 6 And do not go after other gods to serve them and to worship them, and provoke Me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no harm.”
7 Yet you have not listened to Me, says the Lord, that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own harm.
8 Therefore thus says the Lord of Hosts: Because you have not obeyed My words, 9 I will send and take all the families of the north, says the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations; I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. 10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of laughter and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the candle. 11 This whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
12 It shall come to pass when seventy years are finished that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, says the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. 13 I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. 14 For many nations and great kings will make slaves of them, even them. And I will recompense them according to their deeds and according to the works of their hands.
The Cup of God’s Wrath
15 For thus says the Lord God of Israel to me: Take the wine cup of this fury at My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it. 16 They will drink, and totter, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.
17 Then I took the cup from the hand of the Lord and made all the nations, to whom the Lord had sent me, drink: 18 Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and the kings and the officials, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day; 19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his officials, and all his people; 20 and all the foreign people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines (even Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod); 21 Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon; 22 and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastlands which are beyond the sea; 23 Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all who cut the corners of their hair; 24 and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the foreign people who dwell in the desert; 25 and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes; 26 and all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the earth which are upon the face of the earth, and the king of Sheshak shall drink after them.
27 Therefore you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Drink and be drunk and spew and fall and rise no more because of the sword which I will send among you. 28 It will be, if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you will say to them: Thus says the Lord of Hosts: You shall certainly drink! 29 For I am starting to bring calamity on the city which is called by My name, and should you be utterly unpunished? You shall not be unpunished. For I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord of Hosts.
30 Therefore prophesy against them all these words, and say to them:
The Lord will roar from on high,
and utter His voice from His holy habitation;
He will mightily roar against His fold.
He will give a shout, as those who tread the grapes,
against all the inhabitants of the earth.
31 A noise shall come even to the remote parts of the earth,
for the Lord has a controversy with the nations;
He shall enter into judgment with all flesh.
He shall give those who are wicked to the sword,
says the Lord.
32 Thus says the Lord of Hosts:
See, disaster shall go forth
from nation to nation,
and a great whirlwind shall be raised up
from the remote parts of the earth.
33 The slain of the Lord on that day will be from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. They will not be lamented or gathered or buried. They will be as dung on the ground.
34 Howl, you shepherds, and cry;
and wallow in the ashes, you leaders of the flock.
For the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished;
and you will fall like a choice vessel.
35 The shepherds will have no way to flee,
nor the leaders of the flock to escape.
36 A voice of the cry of the shepherds
and a howling of the leaders of the flock shall be heard,
for the Lord has devastated their pasture.
37 The peaceable habitations are cut down
because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
38 He has left His lair as the lion;
for their land is desolate
because of the fierceness of the oppressor
and because of His fierce anger.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.