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1 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD. 2 Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: “You have scattered my sheep and driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Look, I will punish you for the evil of your deeds,” declares the LORD. 3 “I myself will gather the remnant of my sheep from all the lands where I have driven them and bring them back to their pasture. They will be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them. They will no longer fear or be dismayed, and none will be missing,” declares the LORD.
5 “Look, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch. He will reign as king and act wisely, practicing justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. This is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD Our Righteousness.’
7 Therefore look, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when they will no longer say, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought the people of Israel up from the land of Egypt,’ 8 but, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where I had driven them.’ They will dwell in their own land.”
9 Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me;
all my bones tremble.
I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD and his holy words.
10 For the land is full of adulterers;
because of the curse the land mourns, and the wilderness pastures have dried up.
Their course is evil, and their might is not used rightly.
11 “For both prophet and priest are profane;
even in my house I have found their wickedness,” declares the LORD.
12 “Therefore their way will be to them like slippery places in the darkness;
they will be driven on and fall in it.
For I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their punishment,” declares the LORD.
13 “Among the prophets of Samaria I saw folly: they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray.
14 But among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrifying thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies.
They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his wickedness.
To me they are all like Sodom, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
15 Therefore this is what the LORD of hosts says concerning the prophets: Look, I will feed them wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem profaneness has gone out into the whole land.”
16 This is what the LORD of hosts says: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you.
They fill you with empty hopes;
they speak a vision from their own hearts, not from the mouth of the LORD.
17 They keep saying to those who despise me, ‘The LORD has spoken: You will have peace.’ And to everyone who follows the stubbornness of his heart they say, ‘No disaster will come upon you.’
18 For who has stood in the council of the LORD to see and hear his word?
Who has paid attention to my word and heard?
19 Look, the storm of the LORD has gone forth in wrath, a whirling storm;
it will whirl upon the heads of the wicked.
20 The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has carried out and fulfilled the purposes of his heart.
In the latter days you will understand it fully.
21 I did not send the prophets, yet they ran;
I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
22 But if they had stood in my council, they would have made my people hear my words and turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds.
23 Am I a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away?
24 Can a man hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?”
declares the LORD.
“Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?”
declares the LORD.
25 “I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name: ‘I have dreamed! I have dreamed!’ 26 How long will this be in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy lies, prophets of the deceit of their own hearts, 27 who plan to make my people forget my name through the dreams they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal? 28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw to do with grain?” declares the LORD. 29 “Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that shatters rock?
30 Therefore look, I am against the prophets,” declares the LORD, “who steal my words from one another. 31 Look, I am against the prophets,” declares the LORD, “who use their tongues and declare, ‘An oracle!’ 32 Look, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams,” declares the LORD. “They tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness. I did not send them or command them, and they do not benefit this people at all,” declares the LORD. 33 “When this people, or a prophet or a priest, asks you, ‘What is the LORD’s burden?’ tell them, ‘What burden? I will forsake you, declares the LORD.’ 34 As for the prophet or priest or anyone of the people who says, ‘The LORD’s burden,’ I will punish that man and his household. 35 This is what each of you is to say to his neighbor and his brother: ‘What has the LORD answered? What has the LORD spoken?’ 36 But you must no longer mention ‘the LORD’s burden,’ for each man’s own word will be his burden. You have perverted the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God. 37 This is what you are to say to the prophet: ‘What has the LORD answered you? What has the LORD spoken?’ 38 But if you say, ‘The LORD’s burden,’ then this is what the LORD says: Because you have said these words, ‘The LORD’s burden,’ although I sent word to you not to say, ‘The LORD’s burden,’ 39 therefore look, I will utterly forget you and cast you out of my presence, you and the city I gave you and your ancestors. 40 I will bring upon you everlasting reproach and everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten.”