Chapter 23

¹ Woe to the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of their pasture! ² Therefore thus saith the Lord against them that tend my people; Ye have scattered my sheep, and driven them out, and ye have not visited them: behold, I [will] take vengeance upon you according to your evil practices. ³ And I will gather in the remnant of my people in every land, whither I have driven them out, and will set them in their pasture; and they shall increase and be multiplied. ⁴ And I will raise up shepherds to them, who shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be alarmed, saith the Lord.

Jer 23:1-4

⁵ Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will raise up to David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and understand, and shall execute judgment and righteousness on the earth. ⁶ In his days both Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell securely: and this is his name, which the Lord shall call him, Jehozadak among the prophets.

Jer 23:5-6

⁹ My heart is broken within me; all my bones are shaken: I am become as a broken-down man, and as a man overcome with wine, because of the Lord, and because of the excellence of his glory. ¹⁰ For because of these things the land mourns; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up; and their course is become evil, and so [also] their strength. ¹¹ For priest and prophet are defiled; and I have seen their iniquities in my house. ¹² Therefore let their way be to them slippery and dark: and they shall be tripped up and fall in it: for I will bring evils upon them, in the year of their visitation.

Jer 23:9-12

¹³ And in the prophets of Samaria I have seen lawless deeds; they prophesied by Baal, and led my people Israel astray. ¹⁴ Also in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen horrible things: as they committed adultery, and walked in lies, and strengthened the hands of many, that they should not return each from his evil way: they are all become to me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

Jer 23:13-14

¹⁵ Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will feed them with pain, and give them bitter water to drink: for from the prophets of Jerusalem has defilement gone forth [into] all the land.

Jer 23:15

¹⁶ Thus saith the Lord Almighty, Hearken not to the words of the prophets: for they frame a vain vision for themselves; they speak from their own heart, and not from the mouth of the Lord. ¹⁷ They say to them that reject the word of the Lord, There shall be peace to you; and to all that walk after their own lusts, and to every one that walks in the error of his heart, they have said, No evil shall come upon thee. ¹⁸ For who has stood in the counsel of the Lord, and seen his word? who has hearkened, and heard? ¹⁹ Behold, [there is] an earthquake from the Lord, and anger proceeds to a convulsion, it shall come violently upon the ungodly. ²⁰ And the Lord’s wrath shall return no more, until he have accomplished it, and until he have established it, according to the purpose of his heart: at the end of the days they shall understand it.

Jer 23:16-20

²¹ I sent not the prophets, yet they ran: neither spoke I to them, yet they prophesied. ²² But if they had stood in my counsel, and if they had hearkened to my words, then would they have turned my people from their evil practices.

Jer 23:21-22

²³ I am a God nigh at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off. ²⁴ Shall anyone hide himself in secret places, and I not see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.

Jer 23:23-24

²⁵ I have heard what the prophets say, what they prophesy in my name, saying falsely, I have seen a night vision. ²⁶ How long shall [these things] be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies, when they prophesy the purposes of their own heart? ²⁷ who devise that [men] may forget my law by their dreams, which they have told every one to his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name in [the worship of] Baal. ²⁸ The prophet who has a dream, let him tell his dream; and [he] in whom is my word [spoken] to him, let him tell my word truly: what is the chaff to the corn? so are my words, saith the Lord. ²⁹ Behold, are not my words as fire? saith the Lord; and as an axe cutting the rock?

Jer 23:25-29

³⁰ Behold, I am therefore against the prophets, saith the Lord God, that steal my words every one from his neighbor. ³¹ Behold, I am against the prophets that put forth prophecies of mere words, and slumber their sleep. ³² Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets that prophesy false dreams, and have not told them [truly], and have caused my people to err by their lies, and by their errors; yet I sent them not, and commanded them not; therefore, they shall not profit this people at all.

Jer 23:30-32

³³ And if this people, or the priest, or the prophet, should ask, What is the burden of the Lord? then thou shalt say to them, Ye are the burden, and I will dash you down, saith the Lord. ³⁴ [As for] the prophet, and the priests, and the people, who shall say, The burden of the Lord, I will even take vengeance on that man, and on his house. ³⁵ Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbor, and every one to his brother, What has the Lord answered? and, what has the Lord said? ³⁶ And do ye name no more the burden of the Lord; for his own word shall be a man’s burden. ³⁷ But wherefore, [say ye], has the Lord our God spoken? ³⁸ Therefore thus saith the Lord our God; Because ye have spoken this word, The burden of the Lord, and I sent to you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the Lord; ³⁹ therefore, behold, I [will] seize, and dash down you and the city which I gave to you and your fathers. ⁴⁰ And I will bring upon you an everlasting reproach, and everlasting disgrace, which shall not be forgotten.

Jer 23:33-40

⁴⁰ a Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when they shall no more say, The Lord lives, who brought up the house of Israel out of the land of Egypt; ⁴⁰ b but The Lord lives, who has gathered the whole seed of Israel from the north land, and from all the countries whither he [had] driven them out, and has restored them into their own land.

Jer 23:40