9 Bible Verses about False Prophets

Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart.

Thus says the Lord GOD; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!

They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The LORD says: and the LORD has not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word.

Therefore hearken not you to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, You shall not serve the king of Babylon:

If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke unto you, and he says, Let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them; You shall not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.

I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are 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 have forgotten my name for Baal. read more.
The prophet that has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? says the LORD.

Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, says the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their recklessness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, says the LORD.

And the messenger that had gone to call Micaiah spoke unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth: let your word, I pray you, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good.

O Israel, your prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.

His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs who can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, everyone for his gain, from his own quarter.

Therefore hearken not you to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, You shall not serve the king of Babylon:

Thus says the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you worthless: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.

You shall not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

For I have not sent them, says the LORD, yet they prophesy a lie in my name; that I might drive you out, and that you might perish, you, and the prophets that prophesy unto you. Also I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus says the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD's house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.

At that time, says the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:

Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.

Therefore thus says the LORD; Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his descendants: he shall not have a man to dwell among this people; neither shall he behold the good that I will do for my people, says the LORD; because he has taught rebellion against the LORD.

Therefore thus says the LORD; Behold, I will cast you from off the face of the earth: this year you shall die, because you have taught rebellion against the LORD.

They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD has said, You shall have peace; and they say unto everyone that walks after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.

They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people lightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar:

Thus says the LORD : Concerning the prophets who make my people stray, who bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that puts nothing into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, of which you have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

And if you say in your heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing follows not, nor comes to pass, that is, the thing which the LORD has not spoken, but the prophet has spoken it presumptuously: you shall not be afraid of him.

If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder,

Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart.

I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus says the LORD concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite; Because Shemaiah has prophesied unto you, and I sent him not, and he caused you to trust in a lie:

And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain magician, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Barjesus:

Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart.

And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus says the Lord GOD, when the LORD has not spoken.

They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD has said, You shall have peace; and they say unto everyone that walks after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you. For who has stood in the counsel of the LORD, and has perceived and heard his word? who has marked his word, and heard it?

Behold, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He says.

I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none does return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.

For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, says the LORD.

How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;

Thus says the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you worthless: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.

The prophet that has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? says the LORD.

Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, says the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their recklessness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, says the LORD.

Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

My God, think you upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear.

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.

Thus says the LORD : Concerning the prophets who make my people stray, who bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that puts nothing into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their own power; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do in the end?

Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none does return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto 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 poisonous water: for from the prophets of Jerusalem has profaneness gone forth into all the land.

You shall not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him. And the LORD said unto him, By what means? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, You shall persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.

Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a worthless thing, and the deceit of their 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 have forgotten my name for Baal.

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

The elder and honorable, he is the head; and the prophet that teaches lies, he is the tail. For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led by them are destroyed.

Her prophets are arrogant and treacherous persons: her priests have profaned the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their own power; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do in the end?

There is a conspiracy of her prophets in her midst, like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in her midst.

And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them.

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

And if the prophet is deceived when he has spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.

O Israel, your prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.

Thus says the Lord GOD; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who shall secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up by wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.

Her heads judge for reward, and her priests teach for hire, and her prophets divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? no evil can come upon us.

Likewise, you son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people, who prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy you against them, And say, Thus says the Lord GOD; Woe to the women that sew charms upon all wrists, and make veils for the heads, of every length, to hunt souls! Will you hunt the souls of my people, and will you save the souls alive that belong to you? And will you profane me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies? read more.
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against your charms, with which you hunt the souls there like birds, and I will tear them from your arms, and will let the souls go, even the souls that you hunt like birds. Your veils also will I tear, and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted; and you shall know that I am the LORD. Because with lies you have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not turn from his wicked way, to save his life: Therefore you shall see no more false visions, nor practice divinations: for I will deliver my people out of your hand: and you shall know that I am the LORD.