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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 about the shepherds who shepherd My people: ‘You have scattered My flock, and have driven them away and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil you have done’,” declares the Lord. 3 “But I will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands where I have driven them and bring them back to their pasture; and they will be fruitful and increase in number. 4 I will raise up shepherds over them who will feed them, and they will be afraid no more, nor dismayed, nor will any be missing,” declares the Lord.
5 “Behold, the days are coming,”
declares the Lord,
“when I will raise up to David
a righteous Branch,
a King who will reign wisely,
and administer justice and righteousness in the land.
6 In His days Judah will be saved,
and Israel will dwell safely.
This is the name by which He will be called:
7 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives who brought out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt’, 8 but they will say, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the land of the north and from all the other countries where He had banished them’. Then they will live once more in their own land.”
9 Concerning the prophets:
My heart is broken within me,
and all my bones tremble.
I am like a drunken man,
like a man overcome by wine,
because of the Lord,
and because of the His holy words.
10 For the land is full of adulterers;
because of the curse the land mourns,
and the pleasant pastures of the wilderness are dried up.
Their way of life has become evil,
and they use their power unjustly.
11 “Both prophet and priest are ungodly,
even in My temple I find their wickedness,”
declares the Lord.
12 “Therefore their way will become to them
like slippery paths in the darkness;
they will be driven away and fall in them.
For I will bring disaster on them,
the year of their punishment,”
declares the Lord.
13 “Among the prophets of Samaria
I saw this disgusting thing:
they prophesied by Baal
and led My people Israel astray.
14 Among the prophets of Jerusalem also
I have seen something terrible:
they commit adultery and walk in lies.
They strengthen the hands of evildoers,
so that no one turns back from his wickedness.
They are all like Sodom to Me;
and Jerusalem’s inhabitants are like Gomorrah.”
15 Therefore this is what the Lord of Hosts says concerning the prophets:
“Behold, I will feed them with wormwood,
and make them drink the water of gall;
for from the prophets of Jerusalem
ungodliness has gone out through 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 are deluding you.
They speak visions from their own minds,
not from the mouth of the Lord.
17 They keep saying to those who despise Me:
The Lord says: ‘You will have peace’;
and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart,
they say, ‘No harm will come to you’.
18 But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord,
to see, and to hear His word?
Which of them has listened to His word and received it?”
19 Look! A storm from the Lord!
Wrath has gone forth—
a violent whirlwind swirling down
on the heads of the wicked.
20 The anger of the Lord will not turn back
until He has fully accomplished
the purposes of His heart.
In days to come you will understand it clearly.
21 “I have not sent these prophets,
yet they rushed in;
I have not spoken to them,
yet they prophesied.
22 But if they had stood in My council,
they would have then proclaimed My words to My people.
Then they would have turned them from their evil ways,
and from their evil deeds.
23 “Am I only a God nearby,”
declares the Lord,
“and not a God far away?
24 Can anyone hide himself in secret places
so I will not see him?”
declares the Lord.
“Do I not fill heaven and earth?”
declares the Lord.
25 “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name. They say: ‘I had a dream!’ ‘I had a dream!’ 26 How long will this continue in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy lies, prophets of the delusions of their own minds? 27 They try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they tell each other, just as their fathers forgot My name through Baal worship.
28 “Let the prophet who only has a dream tell his dream, but the one who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. For what has straw to do with wheat?” declares the Lord. 29 “Is not My word like fire?” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?
30 “Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the Lord, “who steal My words from one another.
31 “Behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the Lord, “who wag their tongues and declare, ‘Says the Lord’.
32 “Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams,” declares the Lord, “telling them and leading My people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send them or command them. So they do not benefit this people at all,” declares the Lord.
33 “So when these people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the Lord?’ you are to say to them, ‘What burden?’ I will forsake you,” declares the Lord, 34 “As for the prophet, or the priests, or the people, who say, ‘This is the burden of the Lord’, I will punish that man and his household. 35 This is what each of you must say to his friend, and each one to his brother, ‘What has the Lord answered?’ or, ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ 36 But you must not mention ‘the burden of the Lord’ anymore. For every man’s own words will be his burden, and you pervert the words of the Living God, the Lord of Hosts, our God. 37 This is what you must say to the prophet, ‘What has the Lord answered you?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ 38 But if you claim, ‘The burden of the Lord’, then this is what the Lord says: Because you say these words, ‘The burden of the Lord’, even though I told you that you are not to say, ‘The burden of the Lord’, 39 therefore, behold, I will surely forget you and cast you away from My presence, you and the city that I gave you and your fathers. 40 And I will bring upon you everlasting disgrace and perpetual shame that will not be forgotten.”