Jeremiah 23

¹ ‘Doom for the shepherds who allow the flock of my pasture to be destroyed and scattered – it is Yahweh who speaks!

² This, therefore, is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says about the shepherds in charge of my people: You have let my flock be scattered and go wandering and have not taken care of them. Right, I will take care of you for your misdeeds – it is Yahweh who speaks!

³ But the remnant of my flock I myself will gather from all the countries where I have dispersed them, and will bring them back to their pastures: they shall be fruitful and increase in numbers.

⁴ I will raise up shepherds to look after them and pasture them; no fear, no terror for them any more; not one shall be lost – it is Yahweh who speaks!

⁵ ‘See, the days are coming – it is Yahweh who speaks – when I will raise a virtuous Branch for David, who will reign as true king and be wise, practising honesty and integrity in the land.

⁶ In his days Judah will be saved and Israel dwell in confidence. And this is the name he will be called:

⁷ ‘So, then, the days are coming – it is Yahweh who speaks – when people will no longer say, “As Yahweh lives who brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt!”

⁸ but, “As Yahweh lives who led back and brought home the descendants of the House of Israel out of the land of the North and from all the countries to which he had dispersed them, to live on their own soil”.’

⁹ On the prophets. My heart is broken within me, I tremble in all my bones I am like a drunken man, a man overcome with wine – because of Yahweh and his holy words,

¹⁰ ‘The land is full of adulterers (yes, because of these men the land is in mourning and the desert pastures have dried up); ‘they are quick only at doing wrong and powerful only in crime.

¹¹ Yes, even prophet and priest are godless, I have found their wickedness even in my House – it is Yahweh who speaks.

¹² Because of this their way will prove treacherous going for them; in the darkness they are driven, there they will fall. For I will bring disaster down on them when the year comes for me to deal with them – it is Yahweh who speaks.

¹³ ‘In the prophets of Samaria I have seen nauseating things: they prophesised in the name of Baal and led my people Israel astray.

¹⁴ But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen horrors: adultery, persistent lying, such abetting of evil men, that no one renounces his evil-doing; to me they are all like Sodom, its inhabitants all like Gomorrah.

¹⁵ So this is what Yahweh Sabaoth says about the prophets: Now I will give them wormwood for their food, and poisoned water to drink, since from the prophets of Jerusalem godlessness has spread throughout the land.

¹⁶ ‘Yahweh Sabaoth says this: Do not listen to what those prophets say: they are deluding you, they retail visions of their own, and not what comes from the mouth of Yahweh;

¹⁷ to those who reject the word of Yahweh they say, “Peace will be yours”, and to those who follow the dictates of a hardened heart, “No misfortune will touch you”.’

¹⁸ (But who has been present at the council of Yahweh? Who has seen it and heard his word? Who has paid attention to his word in order to proclaim it?)

¹⁹ Now a storm of Yahweh breaks, a tempest whirls, it bursts over the head of the wicked;

²⁰ the anger of Yahweh will not turn aside until he has performed, and has carried out, the decision of his heart. You will understand this clearly in the days to come.

²¹ ‘I have not sent those prophets, yet they are running; I have not spoken to them, yet they are prophesying.

²² Have they been present at my council? If so, let them proclaim my words to my people and turn them from their evil way and from the wickedness of their deeds!

²³ ‘Am I a God when near – it is Yahweh who speaks – and not one when far away?

²⁴ Can anyone hide in a dark corner without my seeing him? – it is Yahweh who speaks. Do I not fill heaven and earth? – it is Yahweh who speaks.

²⁵ ‘I have heard what the prophets say who make their lying prophecies in my name. “I have had a dream,” they say “I have had a dream!”

²⁶ How long will they retain this notion in their hearts, these prophets prophesying lies, who announce their private delusions as prophetic?

²⁷ They hope, by means of the dreams that they keep telling each other, to make my people forget my name, just as their fathers forgot my name in favour of Baal.

²⁸ Let the prophet who has had a dream tell his dream as his own! And let him who receives a word from me, deliver it accurately! ‘What have straw and wheat in common? – it is Yahweh who speaks.

²⁹ Does not my word burn like fire – it is Yahweh who speaks – is it not like a hammer shattering a rock?

³⁰ ‘So, then, I have a quarrel with the prophets – it is Yahweh who speaks – that steal my words from one another.

³¹ I have a quarrel with the prophets – it is Yahweh who speaks – who have only to move their tongues to utter oracles.

³² I have a quarrel with the prophets who make prophecies out of lying dreams – it is Yahweh who speaks – who recount them, and lead my people astray with their lies and their pretensions. I certainly never sent them or commissioned them, and they serve no good purpose for this people – it is Yahweh who speaks.

³³ ‘And when these people, either a prophet or a priest, ask you, “What is the Burden of Yahweh?”[*a] you are to answer, “You, you are the burden of Yahweh; yes, you, and I mean to be rid of you! It is Yahweh who speaks.”

³⁴ ‘And the prophet, priest, or anyone else, who says, “Burden of Yahweh”, I will punish that man, and his household too.

³⁵ This is the way you ought to talk, neighbour to neighbour, brother to brother, “What answer has Yahweh given?” or “What has Yahweh said?”

³⁶ But do not go on using the expression burden of Yahweh or, for the man who uses it, burdensome it will certainly prove, since you twist the words of the living God, of Yahweh Sabaoth, our God.

³⁷ This is the way to speak to a prophet, “What answer has Yahweh given?” or “What has Yahweh said?”

³⁸ But if you say, “Burden of Yahweh”, then thus speaks Yahweh: Since you use these words, “Burden of Yahweh”, when I have warned you to stop saying, “Burden of Yahweh”,

³⁹ I myself will pick you up and fling you out of my sight, both you and the city I gave to you and to your ancestors.

⁴⁰ I will bring down everlasting shame on you, everlasting and unforgettable disgrace.