13 Bible Verses about False Prophets Denounced

Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken in my midst. All my bones tremble. I have become like a drunken man, even like a man over whom wine has passed, because of Yahweh, and because of {his holy words}. For the land is full [of] adulterers; for the land mourns because of a curse. [The] pastures of [the] desert are dry, and their evil has been their way of running, and their power [is] not right. "For both prophet as well as priest are godless, even in my temple I have found their wickedness," {declares} Yahweh.read more.
"{Therefore} their way will be to them like the slippery places, they will be pushed in the darkness, and they will fall into it, for I will bring disaster on them [in] the year of their punishment," {declares} Yahweh. "Now in the prophets of Samaria I saw a disgusting thing. They prophesied by Baal and they caused my people Israel to err. And in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible. They commit adultery, and they walk in lies, and they make strong [the] hands of evildoers, [so] that they have not turned back each from his wickedness. All of them have become to me like Sodom, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah. {Therefore} thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets, "Look, I [am] going to let them eat wormwood and I will give them water of poison to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem went out ungodliness to all the land." Thus says Yahweh of hosts, "You must not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They [are] deluding you [with] visions of their {mind}, They do not speak from the mouth of Yahweh. [They are] continually saying to those who disregard the word of Yahweh, 'Peace it will be to you,' and [to] {each one} who walks in the stubbornness of his heart they say, 'Calamity will not come upon you.' For who has stood in the council of Yahweh, that he has seen and heard his word? Who has listened attentively [to] his word and heard [it]? Look, the storm of Yahweh has gone forth [in] wrath, even a whirling tempest. It will whirl upon [the] head of [the] wicked The {anger} of Yahweh will not turn back until his doing and until his keeping the plans of his {mind}. {In latter days} you will look closely at it [with] understanding. I have not sent the prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words [to] my people, and they would have caused them to turn from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds. [Am] I a God from near," {declares} Yahweh, "and not a God from far? Or can a person hide himself in secret places and I cannot see him?" {declares} Yahweh. "[Do] I not fill up the heaven and the earth?" {declares} Yahweh. "I have heard what the prophets who prophesy lies have said in my name, {saying}, 'I have dreamed! I have dreamed!' {How long} [will] this be in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceitfulness of their hearts, who plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell each one to his neighbor, just as their ancestors forgot my name through Baal? The prophet who [has] with him a dream, let him tell [the] dream. But [the prophet] who [has] my word with him, let him speak my word faithfully. {What is straw compared to wheat}?" {declares} Yahweh. "[Is] not my word like fire?" {declares} Yahweh, "and like a blacksmith's hammer [that] breaks a rock into pieces? "{Therefore} look, I [am] against the prophets," {declares} Yahweh, "who steal my words each one from his neighbor. Look, I [am] against the prophets," {declares} Yahweh, "who take their tongues and declare as prophets, '[Yahweh] {declares}.' Look, I [am] against those who prophesy dreams of lies," {declares} Yahweh, "and tell them, and they caused my people to err through their lies, and in their recklessness, when I myself have not sent them nor commanded them, so they profit not this people at all," {declares} Yahweh. "Now when this people, or a prophet, or a priest, ask you, {saying}, 'What [is] the burden of Yahweh?' then you shall say to them, '{You are the burden}, and I will forsake you,'" {declares} Yahweh. "And the prophet, and the priest, and the people who say, 'The burden of Yahweh,' I will punish that man and his house. Thus you shall say, each one to his neighbor and each one to his brother: 'What has Yahweh answered?' or, 'What has Yahweh spoken?' But you shall not mention the burden of Yahweh, for the burden is to each one his word, and so you twist the words of [the] living God, Yahweh of hosts, our God Thus you shall say to that prophet, 'What has Yahweh answered you?' or, 'What has Yahweh spoken?' But if you say, 'The burden of Yahweh,' {therefore} thus says Yahweh, 'because of your saying these words, "The burden of Yahweh," then I will send to you, {saying}, "You shall not say, 'The burden of Yahweh.'" {Therefore} look, here I am, and I will surely lift you up and forsake you and the city that I gave to you and to your ancestors from {my presence}, and I will bring upon you {an everlasting disgrace} and {an everlasting shame} that will not be forgotten."

Thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who are leading my people astray, who are biting with their teeth and proclaim, "Peace," but whoever puts nothing into their mouths they declare war against. Therefore [it will be as] night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination. And the sun will set on the prophets, and the day will grow dark over them. Then the seers will be disgraced, and those practicing divination will be put to shame. All of them will cover their lips, for there is no reply from God.

{And then}, if anyone prophesies again, his father and his mother who bore him will say to him, "You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in the name of Yahweh!" And his father and his mother who bore him will pierce him through when he prophesies.

Your prophets had a vision for you, false and worthless; they have not exposed your sin, to restore your fortune; they have seen oracles for you, false and misleading.

"{Therefore} look, I [am] against the prophets," {declares} Yahweh, "who steal my words each one from his neighbor.

"Son of man, prophesy to the prophets of Israel {who are prophesying}, and you must say to [those who are] prophets out of their own {imagination}, 'Hear the word of Yahweh!'

Thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Alas, for the foolish prophets who [are] going after their [own] spirit, {and they did not see anything}!

"And you, son of man, place your face toward the daughters of your people who prophesy from their {imagination}, and prophesy against them!

"If a prophet stands up in your midst or a dreamer of dreams and he gives to you a sign or wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes [about] that he spoke to you, {saying}, 'Let us go after other gods (those whom you have not known), and let us serve them,' you must not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer, for Yahweh your God {is testing you to know whether you love} Yahweh your God with all of your heart and with all [of] your inner self.

But that prophet or the dreamer of that dream shall be executed, for he spoke falsely about Yahweh your God, the [one] bringing you out from the land of Egypt and the [one] redeeming you from the house of slavery, in order to seduce you from the way that Yahweh your God commanded you to go in it; so [in this way] you shall purge the evil from your midst.

However, the prophet that behaves presumptuously by speaking a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, and who speaks in the name of other gods, then that prophet shall die.'

And you, you must not listen to your prophets, and to your diviners, and to your dreamers, and to your interpreters of signs, and to your sorcerers who are {saying}, 'You will not serve the king of Babylon.'

And you must not listen to the words of the prophets who are speaking to you, {saying}, 'You must not serve the king of Babylon,' for they [are] prophesying a lie to you.