Jeremiah 23:9-38

Denunciation of the Lying Prophets

⁹ Concerning the prophets. My heart within me is broken, all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of Yahweh, and because of his holy words. ¹⁰ For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourns; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right; ¹¹ for both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in my house have I found their wickedness, says Yahweh. ¹² Therefore their way shall be to them as slippery places in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil on them, even the year of their visitation, says Yahweh. ¹³ I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. ¹⁴ In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies; and they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that none does return from his wickedness: they are all of them become to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah. ¹⁵ Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem is ungodliness gone forth into all the land. ¹⁶ Thus says Yahweh of Armies, Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you: they teach you vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of Yahweh. ¹⁷ They say continually to those who despise me, Yahweh has said, You shall have peace; and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, No evil shall come on you. ¹⁸ For who has stood in the council of Yahweh, that he should perceive and hear his word? who has marked my word, and heard it? ¹⁹ Behold, the storm of Yahweh, even his wrath, is gone forth, yes, a whirling storm: it shall burst on the head of the wicked. ²⁰ The anger of Yahweh shall not return, until he has executed, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days you shall understand it perfectly. ²¹ I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I didn’t speak to them, yet they prophesied. ²² But if they had stood in my council, then had they caused my people to hear my words, and had turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. ²³ Am I a God at hand, says Yahweh, and not a God afar off? ²⁴ Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? says Yahweh. Don’t I fill heaven and earth? says Yahweh. ²⁵ I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. ²⁶ How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart? ²⁷ who think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name for Baal. ²⁸ The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat? says Yahweh. ²⁹ Isn’t my word like fire? says Yahweh; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? ³⁰ Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says Yahweh, who steal my words everyone from his neighbor. ³¹ Behold, I am against the prophets, says Yahweh, who use their tongues, and say, He says. ³² Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says Yahweh, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting: yet I didn’t send them, nor commanded them; neither do they profit this people at all, says Yahweh.

³³ When this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask you, saying, What is the burden of Yahweh? Then you shall tell them, What burden! I will cast you off, says Yahweh. ³⁴ As for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, who shall say, The burden of Yahweh, I will even punish that man and his house. ³⁵ You shall say everyone to his neighbor, and everyone to his brother, What has Yahweh answered? and, What has Yahweh spoken? ³⁶ You shall mention the burden of Yahweh no more: for every man’s own word shall be his burden; for you have perverted the words of the living God, of Yahweh of Armies our God. ³⁷ You shall say to the prophet, What has Yahweh answered you? and, What has Yahweh spoken? ³⁸ But if you say, The burden of Yahweh; therefore thus says Yahweh: Because you say this word, The burden of Yahweh, and I have sent to you, saying, You shall not say, The burden of Yahweh;