Jeremiah 23:9-40 - The Unfaithful Prophets
9 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 LORD, and because of his holy words. 10 For the land is full of adulterers. For because of swearing the land mourns. The pastures of the wilderness are dried up. And their course is evil, and their might is not right. 11 For both prophet and priest are profane. Yea, in my house I have found their wickedness, says LORD. 12 Therefore their way shall be to them as slippery places in the darkness. They shall be driven on, and fall in it. For I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, says LORD.
13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria. They prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. 14 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 evil-doers, so that none returns from his wickedness. They have all of them become to me as So
15 Therefore thus says 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 ungodliness has gone forth into all the land.
16 Thus says LORD of hosts: Hearken not 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 LORD. 17 They say continually to those who despise me, LORD has said, Ye shall have peace. And to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, No evil shall come upon you.
18 For who has stood in the council of LORD, that he should perceive and hear his word? Who has marked my word, and heard it? 19 Behold, the tempest of LORD, wrath, has gone forth, yea, a whirling tempest. It shall burst upon the head of the wicked. 20 The anger of LORD shall not return until he has executed, and till he has performed the intents of his heart. In the latter days ye shall understand it perfectly.
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, then they would have caused my people to hear my words, and would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
23 Am I a God at hand, says LORD, and not a God afar off? 24 Can any man hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? says LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says LORD.
25 I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. 26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart? 27 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. 28 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 LORD. 29 Is not my word like fire? says LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? 30 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says LORD, who steal my words each one from his neighbor. 31 Behold, I am against the prophets, says LORD, who use their tongues, and say, He says. 32 Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says LORD, and tell them. And cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting. Yet I sent them not, nor commanded them, neither do they profit this people at al
33 And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of LORD? Then thou shall say to them, What burden! I will cast you off, says LORD. 34 And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, who shall say, The burden of LORD, I will even punish that man and his house. 35 Thus ye shall say each one to his neighbor, and each one to his brother: What has LORD answered? and, What has LORD spoken? 36 And the burden of LORD ye shall mention no more, for every man's own word shall be his burden. For ye have perverted the words of the living God, of LORD of hosts our God. 37 Thus thou shall say to the prophet: What has LORD answered thee? and, What has LORD spoken? 38 But if ye say, The burden of LORD, therefore thus says LORD: Because ye say this word, The burden of LORD, and I have sent to you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of LORD, 39 therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you. And I will cast you off, and the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, away from my presence. 40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.