13 Bible Verses about False Prophets Denounced

Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken, all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the LORD, and because of his holy words. For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourns; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. "Their course is evil, and their might is not right; for both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in my house have I found their wickedness," says the LORD.read more.
"Therefore their way shall be to them as slippery places in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil on them, even the year of their visitation," says the LORD. "I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies; and they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that none does return from his wickedness: they are all of them become to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah. Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets: 'Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem is ungodliness gone forth into all the land.' Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you: they teach you vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD. They say continually to those who despise me, "The LORD has said, 'You shall have peace'"; and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, "No evil shall come on you." For who has stood in the council of the LORD, that he should perceive and hear his word? Who has marked my word, and heard it? Behold, the storm of the LORD, his wrath, has gone forth. Yes, a whirling storm. It shall burst on the head of the wicked. The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he has executed, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days you shall understand it perfectly. I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my council, then had they caused my people to hear my words, and had turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. Am I a God at hand,' says the LORD, 'and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him?' says the LORD. 'Do I not fill heaven and earth?' says the LORD. 'I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying, "I have dreamed, I have dreamed." How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart, who think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name for Baal. The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat?' says the LORD. 'Isn't my word like fire?' says the LORD; 'and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,' says the LORD, 'who steal my words everyone from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophets,' says the LORD, 'who use their tongues, and say, "He says." Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams,' says the LORD, 'and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting: yet I did not send them, nor commanded them; neither do they profit this people at all,' says the LORD. 'When this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask you, saying, "What is the burden of the LORD?" Then you shall tell them, "You are the burden, and I will cast you off," says the LORD. As for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, who shall say, "The burden of the LORD," I will even punish that man and his house. You shall say everyone to his neighbor, and everyone to his brother, "What has the LORD answered?" and, "What has the LORD spoken?" You shall mention the burden of the LORD no more: for every man's own word shall be his burden; for you have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God. You shall say to the prophet, "What has the LORD answered you?" and, "What has the LORD spoken?" But if you say, "The burden of the LORD"; therefore thus says the LORD: Because you say this word, "The burden of the LORD," and I have sent to you, saying, "You shall not say, 'The burden of the LORD'"; therefore, behold, I will surely lift you up and I will cast you off, and the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, away from my presence: and I will bring an everlasting reproach on you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.'"

Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray; for those who feed their teeth, they proclaim, "Peace." and whoever doesn't provide for their mouths, they prepare war against him: "Therefore night is over you, with no vision, and it is dark to you, that you may not divine; and the sun will go down on the prophets, and the day will be black over them. The seers shall be disappointed, and the diviners confounded. Yes, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer from God."

It will happen that, when anyone still prophesies, then his father and his mother who bore him will tell him, 'You must die, because you speak lies in the name of the LORD;' and his father and his mother who bore him will stab him when he prophesies.

Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions. They have not uncovered your iniquity, to bring back your captivity, but have seen for you false and misleading oracles.

Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,' says the LORD, 'who steal my words everyone from his neighbor.

"Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart, 'Hear the word of the LORD:

Thus says the Lord GOD, "Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing.

"You, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people, who prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy against them,

If there arise in the midst of you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he give you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, "Let us go after other gods" (which you have not known) "and let us serve them"; you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proves you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

That prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he has spoken rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to draw you aside out of the way which the LORD your God commanded you to walk in. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.

But the prophet, who shall speak a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die."

But as for you, do not listen to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreams, nor to your soothsayers, nor to your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, 'You shall not serve the king of Babylon':

Do not listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, 'You shall not serve the king of Babylon'; for they prophesy a lie to you.