Jeremiah 23

The Coming Messiah: the Righteous Branch

1 Jeremiah 23:1 “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!” declares the LORD.

2 Jeremiah 23:2 Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are tending My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds,” declares the LORD.

3 Jeremiah 23:3 “Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply.

4 Jeremiah 23:4 “I will also raise up shepherds over them and they will tend them; and they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the LORD.

5 Jeremiah 23:5 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land.

6 Jeremiah 23:6 “In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell securely; And this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The LORD our righteousness.’

7 Jeremiah 23:7 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when they will no longer say, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt,’

8 Jeremiah 23:8 but, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up and led back the descendants of the household of Israel from the north land and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ Then they will live on their own soil.”

False Prophets Denounced

9 Jeremiah 23:9 As for the prophets: My heart is broken within me, All my bones tremble; I have become like a drunken man, Even like a man overcome with wine, Because of the LORD And because of His holy words.

10 Jeremiah 23:10 For the land is full of adulterers; For the land mourns because of the curse. The pastures of the wilderness have dried up. Their course also is evil And their might is not right.

11 Jeremiah 23:11 “For both prophet and priest are polluted; Even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the LORD.

12 Jeremiah 23:12 “Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them, They will be driven away into the gloom and fall down in it; For I will bring calamity upon them, The year of their punishment,” declares the LORD.

13 Jeremiah 23:13 “Moreover, among the prophets of Samaria I saw an offensive thing: They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray.

14 Jeremiah 23:14 “Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: The committing of adultery and walking in falsehood; And they strengthen the hands of evildoers, So that no one has turned back from his wickedness. All of them have become to Me like Sodom, And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

15 Jeremiah 23:15 “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets, ‘Behold, I am going to feed them wormwood And make them drink poisonous water, For from the prophets of Jerusalem Pollution has gone forth into all the land.’”

16 Jeremiah 23:16 Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility; They speak a vision of their own imagination, Not from the mouth of the LORD.

17 Jeremiah 23:17 “They keep saying to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD has said, “You will have peace”’; And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, They say, ‘Calamity will not come upon you.’

18 Jeremiah 23:18 “But who has stood in the council of the LORD, That he should see and hear His word? Who has given heed to His word and listened?

19 Jeremiah 23:19 “Behold, the storm of the LORD has gone forth in wrath, Even a whirling tempest; It will swirl down on the head of the wicked.

20 Jeremiah 23:20 “The anger of the LORD will not turn back Until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart; In the last days you will clearly understand it.

21 Jeremiah 23:21 “I did not send these prophets, But they ran. I did not speak to them, But they prophesied.

22 Jeremiah 23:22 “But if they had stood in My council, Then they would have announced My words to My people, And would have turned them back from their evil way And from the evil of their deeds.

23 Jeremiah 23:23 “Am I a God who is near,” declares the LORD, “And not a God far off?

24 Jeremiah 23:24 “Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?” declares the LORD. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD.

25 Jeremiah 23:25 “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in My name, saying, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’

26 Jeremiah 23:26 “How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart,

27 Jeremiah 23:27 who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal?

28 Jeremiah 23:28 “The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain?” declares the LORD.

29 Jeremiah 23:29 “Is not My word like fire?” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?

30 Jeremiah 23:30 “Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the LORD, “who steal My words from each other.

31 Jeremiah 23:31 “Behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the LORD, “who use their tongues and declare, ‘The Lord declares.’

32 Jeremiah 23:32 “Behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams,” declares the LORD, “and related them and led My people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting; yet I did not send them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit,” declares the LORD.

33 Jeremiah 23:33 “Now when this people or the prophet or a priest asks you saying, ‘What is the oracle of the LORD?’ then you shall say to them, ‘What oracle?’ The LORD declares, ‘I will abandon you.’

34 Jeremiah 23:34 “Then as for the prophet or the priest or the people who say, ‘The oracle of the LORD,’ I will bring punishment upon that man and his household.

35 Jeremiah 23:35 “Thus will each of you say to his neighbor and to his brother, ‘What has the LORD answered?’ or, ‘What has the LORD spoken?’

36 Jeremiah 23:36 “For you will no longer remember the oracle of the LORD, because every man’s own word will become the oracle, and you have perverted the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God.

37 Jeremiah 23:37 “Thus you will say to that prophet, ‘What has the LORD answered you?’ and, ‘What has the LORD spoken?’

38 Jeremiah 23:38 “For if you say, ‘The oracle of the LORD!’ surely thus says the LORD, ‘Because you said this word, “The oracle of the LORD!” I have also sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The oracle of the LORD!’”’

39 Jeremiah 23:39 “Therefore behold, I will surely forget you and cast you away from My presence, along with the city which I gave you and your fathers.

40 Jeremiah 23:40 “I will put an everlasting reproach on you and an everlasting humiliation which will not be forgotten.”