23:1 Woe be to the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of
my pasture! saith the LORD.
23:2 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the
pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and
driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will
visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.
23:3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock from all
countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again
to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
23:4 And I will set shepherds over them who shall feed them: and
they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be
lacking, saith the LORD.
23:5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise to
David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper,
and shall execute judgment and justice upon the earth.
23:6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell in
safety: and this [is] his name by which he shall be called,
JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
23:7 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they
shall no more say, The LORD liveth, who brought the children of
Israel out of the land of Egypt;
23:8 But, the LORD liveth, who brought and who led the seed of
the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all
countries whither I have driven them; and they shall dwell in
their own land.
23:9 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 hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the
words of his holiness.
23:10 For the land is full of adulterers; for because of
swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the
wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their
force [is] not right.
23:11 For both prophet and priest are profane; even in my house
have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.
23:12 Wherefore their way shall be to them as slippery [ways] in
the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I
will bring evil upon them, [even] the year of their visitation,
saith the LORD.
23:13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they
prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.
23:14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible
thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen
also the hands of evil-doers, that none doth return from his
wickedness: they are all of them to me as Sodom, and the
inhabitants of it as Gomorrah.
23:15 Therefore thus saith 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 Jerusalem is
profaneness gone forth into all the land.
23:16 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not to the words of
the prophets that prophesy to you: they make you vain: they
speak a vision of their own heart, [and] not from the mouth of
the LORD.
23:17 They say still to them that despise me, The LORD hath
said, Ye shall have peace; and they say to every one that
walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall
come upon you.
23:18 For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath
perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and
heard [it]?
23:19 Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury,
even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the
head of the wicked.
23:20 The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he shall
have executed, and till he shall have performed the thoughts of
his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.
23:21 I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not
spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
23:22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my
people to hear my words, then they would have turned them from
their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
23:23 [Am] I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar
off.
23:24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see
him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the
LORD.
23:25 I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in
my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.
23:26 How long shall [this] be in the heart of the prophets that
prophesy lies? yes, [they are] prophets of the deceit of their
own heart;
23:27 Who think to cause my people to forget my name by their
dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their
fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.
23:28 The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and
he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What
[is] the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD?
23:29 [Is] not my word like a fire? saith the LORD? and like a
hammer [that] breaketh the rock in pieces?
23:30 Therefore behold, I [am] against the prophets, saith the
LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbor.
23:31 Behold, I [am] against the prophets, saith the LORD, that
use their tongues, and say, He saith.
23:32 Behold, I [am] against them that prophesy false dreams,
saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by
their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor
commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at
all, saith the LORD.
23:33 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 even forsake you, saith
the LORD.
23:34 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.
23:35 Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbor, and every one
to his brother, What hath the LORD answered? and, What hath the
LORD spoken?
23:36 And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for
every man's word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the
words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God.
23:37 Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath the LORD
answered thee? and, What hath the LORD spoken?
23:38 But since ye say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus
saith the LORD; Because ye say this word, The burden of the
LORD, and I have sent to you, saying, Ye shall not say, The
burden of the LORD;
23:39 Therefore behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and
I will forsake you, and the city that I gave to you and your
fathers, [and cast you] out of my presence:
23:40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a
perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.
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