23Jeremiah 23

A Message of Hope / The said:

1You leaders of my people are like shepherds that kill and scatter the sheep.Select Jeremiah 23:1

2You were supposed to take care of my people, but instead you chased them away. So now I'll punish you severely and make you pay for your crimes!Select Jeremiah 23:2

3I will bring the rest of my people home from the lands where I have scattered them, and they will grow into a mighty nation.Select Jeremiah 23:3

4I promise to choose leaders who will care for them like real shepherds. All of my people will be there, and they will never again be frightened.Select Jeremiah 23:4

5Someday I will appoint an honest king from the family of David, a king who will be wise and rule with justice.Select Jeremiah 23:5

6As long as he is king, Israel will have peace, and Judah will be safe. The name of this king will be “The Lord Gives Justice.”Select Jeremiah 23:6

7A time will come when you will again worship me. But you will no longer call me the Living God who rescued Israel from Egypt.Select Jeremiah 23:7

8Instead, you will call me the Living God who rescued you from the land in the north and from all the other countries where I had forced you to go. And you will once again live in your own land.Select Jeremiah 23:8

Jeremiah Thinks about Unfaithful Prophets

9When I think of the prophets, I am shocked, and I tremble like someone drunk, because of the Lord and his sacred words.Select Jeremiah 23:9

10Those unfaithful prophets misuse their power all over the country. So God turned the pasturelands into scorching deserts.Select Jeremiah 23:10

The Will Punish Unfaithful Prophets

11The Lord told me to say: You prophets and priests think so little of me, the Lord, that you even sin in my own temple!Select Jeremiah 23:11

12Now I will punish you with disaster, and you will slip and fall in the darkness. I, the Lord, have spoken.Select Jeremiah 23:12

13The prophets in Samaria were repulsive to me, because they preached in the name of Baal and led my people astray.Select Jeremiah 23:13

14And you prophets in Jerusalem are even worse. You're unfaithful in marriage and never tell the truth. You even lead others to sin instead of helping them turn back to me. You and the people of Jerusalem are evil like Sodom and Gomorrah.Select Jeremiah 23:14

15You prophets in Jerusalem have spread evil everywhere. That's why I, the Lord, promise to give you bitter poison to eat and drink.Select Jeremiah 23:15

The Gives a Warning / The said:

16Don't listen to the lies of these false prophets, you people of Judah! The message they preach is something they imagined; it did not come from me, the Lord All-Powerful.Select Jeremiah 23:16

17These prophets go to people who refuse to respect me and who are stubborn and do whatever they please. The prophets tell them, “The Lord has promised everything will be fine.”Select Jeremiah 23:17

18But I, the Lord, tell you that these prophets have never attended a meeting of my council in heaven or heard me speak.Select Jeremiah 23:18

19They are evil! So in my anger I will strike them like a violent storm.Select Jeremiah 23:19

20I won't calm down, until I have finished what I have decided to do. Someday you will understand exactly what I mean.Select Jeremiah 23:20

21I did not send these prophets or speak to them, but they ran to find you and to preach their message.Select Jeremiah 23:21

22If they had been in a meeting of my council in heaven, they would have told you people of Judah to give up your sins and come back to me.Select Jeremiah 23:22

23I am everywhere— both near and far,Select Jeremiah 23:23

24in heaven and on earth. There are no secret places where you can hide from me.Select Jeremiah 23:24

25These unfaithful prophets claim that I have given them a dream or a vision, and then they tell lies in my name.Select Jeremiah 23:25

26But everything they say comes from their own twisted minds. How long can this go on?Select Jeremiah 23:26

27They tell each other their dreams and try to get my people to reject me, just as their ancestors left me and worshiped Baal.Select Jeremiah 23:27

28Their dreams and my truth are as different as straw and wheat. But when prophets speak for me, they must say only what I have told them.Select Jeremiah 23:28

29My words are a powerful fire; they are a hammer that shatters rocks.Select Jeremiah 23:29

32These unfaithful prophets claim I give them their dreams, but it isn't true. I didn't choose them to be my prophets, and yet they babble on and on, speaking in my name, while stealing words from each other. And when my people hear these liars, they are led astray instead of being helped. So I warn you that I am now the enemy of these prophets. I, the Lord, have spoken.Select Jeremiah 23:32

News and Nuisance / The said to me:

33Jeremiah, when a prophet or a priest or anyone else comes to you and asks, “Does the Lord have news for us?” tell them, “You people are a nuisance to the Lord, and he will get rid of you.”Select Jeremiah 23:33

34If any of you say, “Here is news from the Lord,” I will punish you and your families, even if you are a prophet or a priest.Select Jeremiah 23:34

35Instead, you must ask your friends and relatives, “What answer did the Lord give?” or “What has the Lord said?”Select Jeremiah 23:35

36It seems that you each have your own news! So if you say, “Here is news from the Lord,” you are twisting my words into a lie. Remember that I am your God, the Lord All-Powerful.Select Jeremiah 23:36

37If you go to a prophet, it's all right to ask, “What answer did the Lord give to my question?” or “What has the Lord said?”Select Jeremiah 23:37

38But if you disobey me and say, “Here is news from the Lord,”Select Jeremiah 23:38

39I will pick you up and throw you far away. And I will abandon this city of Jerusalem that I gave to your ancestors.Select Jeremiah 23:39

40You will never be free from your shame and disgrace.Select Jeremiah 23:40