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Jeremiah 23:1-40 — The Righteous Branch; False Prophets

Jer.23.1-40

¹Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, declares the LORD. ²Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: You have scattered my flock and driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds, declares the LORD. ³And I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands where I drove them, and I will bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply. ⁴I will raise up over them shepherds who will shepherd them, and they will fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor will any be missing, declares the LORD. ⁵Behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he will reign as king and act wisely, and he will do justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness. ⁷Therefore behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when they will no longer say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,' ⁸but rather, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought up and brought in the offspring of the house of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where I drove them.' Then they will dwell on their own soil. ⁹Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me; all my bones tremble. I have become like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD and because of his holy words. ¹⁰For the land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land mourns, and the pastures of the wilderness have dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right. ¹¹For both prophet and priest are profane; even in my house I have found their wickedness, declares the LORD. ¹²Therefore their way will be to them like slippery places in the darkness; they will be driven along and fall in it. For I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their punishment, declares the LORD. ¹³And among the prophets of Samaria I saw folly: they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray. ¹⁴And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies, and they strengthen the hands of evildoers so that no one turns back from his evil. All of them have become to me like Sodom, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah. ¹⁵Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them wormwood and make them drink poisoned water, for from the prophets of Jerusalem profaneness has spread through all the land. ¹⁶Thus says the LORD of Hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They fill you with false hopes. They speak visions of their own hearts, not from the mouth of the LORD. ¹⁷They keep saying to those who despise me, 'The LORD has spoken: You shall have peace,' and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, 'No evil shall come upon you.' ¹⁸For who has stood in the council of the LORD, to see and hear his word? Who has paid attention to his word and heard? ¹⁹Behold, the storm of the LORD has gone out in wrath, a whirling tempest; upon the head of the wicked it will whirl. ²⁰The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has done it, and until he has established the purposes of his heart. In the latter days you will understand it clearly. ²¹I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. ²²But if they had stood in my council, then they would have caused my people to hear my words, and they would have turned them back from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds. ²³Am I only a God who is near, declares the LORD, and not a God who is far away? ²⁴Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I do not see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill the heavens and the earth? declares the LORD. ²⁵I have heard what the prophets have said, those who prophesy lies in my name, saying, 'I had a dream! I had a dream!' ²⁶How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, prophets of the deceit of their own heart? ²⁷They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they recount, each man to his neighbor, just as their fathers forgot my name through Baal. ²⁸The prophet who has a dream, let him recount the dream; but the one who has my word, let him speak my word truly. What is straw compared to grain? declares the LORD. ²⁹Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that shatters rock? ³⁰Therefore behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, those who steal my words, each one from his neighbor. ³¹Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who use their own tongues and say, 'Declaration of the LORD.' ³²Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the LORD, and recount them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness. But I did not send them, nor did I command them, and they do not benefit this people at all, declares the LORD. ³³And when this people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, saying, 'What is the burden of the LORD ?' then you shall say to them, 'What burden? I will cast you off,' declares the LORD. ³⁴And as for the prophet, or the priest, or the people who say, 'The burden of the LORD,' I will punish that man and his household. ³⁵Thus each one shall say to his neighbor and each one to his brother, 'What has the LORD answered?' and 'What has the LORD spoken?' ³⁶But the burden of the LORD you shall mention no more, for each man's own word becomes his burden , and so you have perverted the words of the living God, the LORD of Hosts, our God. ³⁷Thus you shall say to the prophet, 'What has the LORD answered you?' and 'What has the LORD spoken?' ³⁸But if you say, 'The burden of the LORD,' therefore this is what the LORD says: Because you say this word, 'The burden of the LORD,' though I sent to you, saying, 'You shall not say, “The burden of the LORD,”' ³⁹therefore behold, I will surely forget you and cast you away from my presence, both you and the city that I gave to you and to your fathers. ⁴⁰And I will bring upon you everlasting reproach and perpetual shame, which will not be forgotten.

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4/11/2026

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