Jeremiah 23 :: Amplified Bible (AMP)

“Woe to the shepherds (civil leaders, rulers) who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!” says the LORD.

“Behold (listen closely), the days are coming,” says the LORD,

“When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch;

And He will reign as King and act wisely

And will do [those things that accomplish] justice and righteousness in the land.

“In His days Judah will be saved,

And Israel will dwell safely;

Now this is His name by which He will be called;

‘The LORD Our Righteousness.’

“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “when they will no longer say, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’

Concerning the prophets:

My heart [says Jeremiah] is broken within me,

All my bones shake;

I have become like a drunken man,

A man whom wine has overcome,

Because of the LORD

And because of His holy words [declared against unfaithful leaders].

For the land is full of adulterers (unfaithful to God);

The land mourns because of the curse [of God upon it].

The pastures of the wilderness have dried up.

The course of action [of the false prophets] is evil and they rush into wickedness;

And their power is not right.

“For both [false] prophet and priest are ungodly (profane, polluted);

Even in My house I have found their wickedness,” says the LORD.

“Therefore their way will be to them like slippery paths

In the dark; they will be pushed and fall into them;

For I will bring disaster on them,

In the year of their punishment,” says the LORD.

“And I have seen a foolish and an offensive thing in the prophets of Samaria:

They prophesied by Baal and caused My people Israel to go astray.

“Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem:

They commit adultery and walk in lies;

They encourage and strengthen the hands of evildoers,

So that no one has turned back from his wickedness.

All of them have become like Sodom to Me,

And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

“Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts in regard to the prophets,

‘Behold, I am going to feed them [the bitterness of] wormwood

And make them drink the poisonous water [of gall],

For from the [counterfeit] prophets of Jerusalem

Profaneness and ungodliness have spread into all the land.’”

Thus says the LORD of hosts,

“Do not listen to the words of the [false] prophets who prophesy to you.

They are teaching you worthless things and are leading you into futility;

They speak a vision of their own mind and imagination

And not [truth] from the mouth of the LORD.

“They are continually saying to those who despise Me [and My word],

‘The Lord has said, “You will have peace”’;

And they say to everyone who walks after the stubbornness of his own heart,

‘No evil will come on you.’

“But who [among them] has stood in the council of the LORD,

That he would perceive and hear His word?

Who has marked His word [noticing and observing and paying attention to it] and has [actually] heard it?

“Behold, the tempest of the LORD has gone forth in wrath,

A whirling tempest;

It will whirl and burst on the heads of the wicked.

“The anger of the LORD will not turn back

Until He has set in motion and accomplished the thoughts and intentions of His heart;

In the last days you will clearly understand it.

“I did not send [these counterfeit] prophets,

Yet they ran;

I did not speak to them,

Yet they prophesied.

“But if they had stood in My council,

Then they would have caused My people to hear My words,

Then they would have turned My people from their evil way

And from the evil of their decisions and deeds.

“Am I a God who is at hand,” says the LORD,

“And not a God far away?”

“Can anyone hide himself in secret places

So that I cannot see him?” says the LORD.

“Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the LORD.

“I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My Name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed [visions when on my bed at night].’

“Now when this people or a prophet or a priest asks you [in jest], ‘What is the [fn]oracle of the LORD [the burden to be lifted up and carried]?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘What oracle [besides the one that declares you people to be the burden]!’ The LORD says, ‘I will unburden Myself and I will abandon you.’