Yirmeyahu 23 ירמיהו כ״ג

Woe to the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord.

Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Yisra᾽el against the shepherds that feed my people; You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not taken care of them: behold, I will punish you for the evil of your doings, says the Lord.

And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries into which I have driven them, and will bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.

And I will set up shepherds over them who shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking, says the Lord.

Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise to David a righteous offshoot, and he shall reign as a king and prosper, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the earth.

In his days Yehuda shall be saved, and Yisra᾽el shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord is our righteousness.

Therefore, behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when they shall no more say, As the Lord lives, who brought up the children of Yisra᾽el out of the land of Miżrayim;

but, As the Lord lives, who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Yisra᾽el out of the north country, and from all countries into which I have driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.

My heart within me is broken because of the prophets; 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. For their course was evil, and their force unjust.

For both prophet and priest are hypocrites; even in my house have I found their wickedness, says the Lord.

Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery ways in the darkness: into which they shall be driven, and fall: for I will bring evil upon them, the year of their punishment, says the Lord.

And I have seen folly in the prophets of Shomeron; they prophesied by the Ba῾al, and caused my people Yisra᾽el to err.

But in the prophets of Yerushalayim I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, so that none returns from his wickedness: they are all of them become to me like Sedom, and its inhabitants like ῾Amora.

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 Yerushalayim has hypocrisy gone out to all the land.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, Hearken not to the words of the prophets that prophesy to you: they lead you into vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.

They say still to them that despise me, The Lord has said, You shall have peace; and they say to every one that walks after the stubbornness of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.

For who has stood in the counsel of the Lord, that he might perceive and hear his word? who has marked his word, and heard it?

Behold the storm wind of the Lord, fury has gone forth, a whirling tempest, it shall fall upon the head of the wicked.

The anger of the Lord shall not return, until he has executed, and till he has performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days you shall consider it perfectly.

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

But if they had stood in my counsel, then they should have caused my people to hear my words, and turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

Am I a God near at hand, says the Lord, and not a God afar off?

Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? says the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? says the Lord.

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? Is it in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies and the prophets of the deceit of their own heart;

That think to cause my people to forget My name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers forgot My name for the Ba῾al?

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.

Is not My word like a fire? says the Lord; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, that steal My words every one from his neighbour.

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

Behold, I am against them that 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 sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, says the Lord.

And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the Lord? thou shalt then say to them, What burden? I will forsake you, says the Lord.

And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the Lord, I will even punish that man and his house.

Thus shall you say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What has the Lord answered? and, What has the Lord spoken?

and the burden of the Lord shall you mention no more: for the burden shall belong to the man of his word; but you have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts our God.

Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What has the Lord answered thee? and, What has the Lord spoken?

But if you say, The burden of the Lord; then thus says the Lord, Because you say this thing, The burden of the Lord, and I have sent to you, saying, You shall not say, The burden of the Lord;

therefore, behold, I myself, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence.

And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.