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Chapter
23
- 23:1
- Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep
of my pasture! saith the LORD.
- 23:2
- Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors
that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven
them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon
you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.
- 23:3
- And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries
whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their
folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
- 23:4
- And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them:
and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall
they be lacking, saith the LORD.
- 23:5
- Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise
unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper,
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
- 23:6
- In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell
safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE
LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
- 23:7
- Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they
shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children
of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
- 23:8
- But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the
seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from
all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell
in their own land.
- 23:9
- Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all
my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom
wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the
words of his holiness.
- 23:10
- For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing
the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are
dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right.
- 23:11
- For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house
have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.
- 23:12
- Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in
the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for
I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation,
saith the LORD.
- 23:13
- And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied
in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.
- 23:14
- I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible
thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen
also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his
wickedness; they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants
thereof as Gomorrah.
- 23:15
- Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets;
Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink
the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness
gone forth into all the land.
- 23:16
- Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words
of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain:
they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth
of the LORD.
- 23:17
- They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said,
Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh
after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon
you.
- 23:18
- For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived
and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it?
- 23:19
- Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even
a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head
of the wicked.
- 23:20
- The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed,
and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the
latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.
- 23:21
- I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not
spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
- 23:22
- But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people
to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their
evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
- 23:23
- Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off?
- 23:24
- Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see
him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the
LORD.
- 23:25
- I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in
my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.
- 23:26
- How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that
prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their
own heart;
- 23:27
- Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their
dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their
fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.
- 23:28
- The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and
he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What
is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD.
- 23:29
- Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a
hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
- 23:30
- Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD,
that steal my words every one from his neighbour.
- 23:31
- Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use
their tongues, and say, He saith.
- 23:32
- Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith
the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their
lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded
them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith
the LORD.
- 23:33
- And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall
ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the LORD? thou shalt
then say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, saith
the LORD.
- 23:34
- And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that
shall say, The burden of the LORD, I will even punish that man
and his house.
- 23:35
- Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one
to his brother, What hath the LORD answered? and, What hath
the LORD spoken?
- 23:36
- And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for
every man's word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted
the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God.
- 23:37
- Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath the LORD answered
thee? and, What hath the LORD spoken?
- 23:38
- But since ye say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus
saith the LORD; Because ye say this word, The burden of the
LORD, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The
burden of the LORD;
- 23:39
- Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and
I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers,
and cast you out of my presence:
- 23:40
- And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a
perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.
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