For from the least to the greatest of them,
everyone is making profit dishonestly.
From prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.

Therefore, I will give their wives to other men,
their fields to new occupants,
for from the least to the greatest,
everyone is making profit dishonestly.
From prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.

If I go out to the field,
look—those slain by the sword!
If I enter the city,
look—those ill from famine!
For both prophet and priest
travel to a land they do not know.

Then certain ones said, “Come, let’s make plans against Jeremiah, for instruction will never be lost from the priest, or counsel from the wise, or an oracle from the prophet. Come, let’s denounce him and pay no attention to all his words.”

Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer and chief official in the temple of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent Pashhur son of Malchijah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to Jeremiah, asking,

because both prophet and priest are ungodly,
even in My house I have found their evil.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

“Now when these people or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the Lord?’ you will respond to them: What is the burden? I will throw you away”—this is the Lord’s declaration.

“As for the prophet, priest, or people who say, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ I will punish that man and his household.

“This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: You in your own name have sent out letters to all the people of Jerusalem, to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, and to all the priests, saying:

‘The Lord has appointed you priest in place of Jehoiada the priest to be the chief officer in the temple of the Lord, responsible for every madman who acts like a prophet. You must confine him in the stocks and an iron collar.

Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the hearing of Jeremiah the prophet.

Nevertheless, King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, requesting, “Please pray to the Lord our God for us!”

The commander of the guards also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three doorkeepers.