David’s Righteous Branch
1 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” says the LORD.
2 Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, says against the shepherds who feed my people, “You have scattered my flock, driven them away and have not attended to them. I will attend to you according to the evil of your deeds,” says the LORD. 3 “I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their folds, and they will be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them. They will no longer be afraid or dismayed, nor will any be lacking,” says the LORD.
5 The day is coming, says the LORD
when I will raise for David, a righteous Branch,
and he will reign as king and deal wisely,
and will execute justice and righteousness in the land.
6 In his days Judah will be saved,
and Israel will dwell safely.
This is his name by which he will be called:
The LORD our Righteousness.
7 Therefore the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that they will no longer say, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the Israelites out of the land of Egypt,’ 8 but, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ Then they will dwell in their own land.”
Lying Prophets
9 Concerning the prophets:
My heart within me is broken.
All my bones shake.
I am like a drunken man,
and like a man whom wine has overcome,
because of the LORD
and because of his holy words.
10 For the land is full of adulterers,
for because of the curse the land mourns.
The pastures of the wilderness have dried up.
Their course is evil,
and their might is not right.
11 For both prophet and priest are profane.
Yes, in my house I have found their wickedness,” says the LORD.
12 Therefore their way will be to them
as slippery places in the darkness.
They will be driven on,
and fall therein,
for I will bring disaster on them,
in the year of their punishment,” says the LORD.
13 “I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria.
They prophesied by Baal
and caused my people Israel to err.
14 In the prophets of Jerusalem,
I have also seen a horrible thing.
They commit adultery and walk in lies.
They strengthen the hands of evildoers,
so that no one returns from his wickedness.
They have all become to me as Sodom,
and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.”
15 Therefore the LORD of Hosts says concerning the prophets:
“I will feed them with wormwood
and make them drink poisoned water,
for from the prophets of Jerusalem
ungodliness has gone out into all the land.”
16 The LORD of Hosts says,
“Do not listen to the words of the prophets
who prophesy to you.
They teach you worthless things.
They speak a vision of their own heart,
and not from the mouth of the LORD.
17 They say continually to those who despise me,
‘The LORD has said, You will have peace,’
and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart
they say, ‘No disaster will come to you.’
18 For who has stood in the council of the LORD,
that he should perceive and hear his word?
Who has listened to my word, and heard it?
19 The storm of the LORD, his wrath, has gone out.
Yes, a whirling storm:
It will burst on the head of the wicked.
20 The anger of the LORD will not return until he has executed
and until he has performed the intentions of his heart.
In the latter days, you will understand it perfectly.
21 I did not send these prophets, yet they ran.
I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
22 But if they had stood in my council,
then they would have caused my people to hear my words
and would have turned them from their evil way,
and from the evil of their actions.
23 “Am I a God close at hand,” says the LORD, “and not a God far off?
24 Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?” says the LORD.
“Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the LORD.
25 “I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ 26 How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart. 27 They intend to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams, which they each tell his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name because of Baal.
28 The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream, and he who has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat?” says the LORD. 29 “Is my word not like fire?” says the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? 30 Therefore, I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who each steal my words from his neighbor.
31 I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who use their tongues and say, ‘He says.’ 32 I am against those who prophesy lying dreams,” says the LORD, “who tell them and cause my people to err by their lies and by their vain boasting, yet I did not send them or command them. They do not profit this people at all,” says the LORD.
False Oracles
33 “When this people, or the prophet, or a priest, asks you, saying, ‘What is the message from the LORD?’ Then you shall tell them, ‘What message? The LORD says, I will cast you off.’
34 As for the prophet, the priest, and the people, who say, ‘The message from the LORD,’ I will punish that man and his household.
35 This is what each man should say to his neighbor and each to his brother, ‘What has the LORD answered?’ or ‘What has the LORD said?’ 36 You will mention the message from the LORD no more, for every man’s own word has become his message, for you have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of Hosts, our God.
37 You will say to the prophet, ‘What has God answered you?’ and, ‘What has God spoken?’
38 Although you say, ‘This is the message from God,’ therefore the LORD says: Because you say this word, ‘The message from the LORD,’ and I have sent to you, telling you not to say, ‘The message from the LORD,’ 39 therefore, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast you off and the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, away from my presence. 40 I will bring an everlasting reproach on you and a perpetual shame which will not be forgotten.”