Jeremiah 23
I Will Raise Up for David a Righteous Branch
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Woe to the Shepherds Who Scatter the Sheep
23:1O shepherds who scatter and destroy the sheep of My pasture!
23:2Therefore thus says the Lord to those shepherding My people: You scattered My sheep and drove them out without visiting them. Look, I am exacting justice from you according to your evil practices.
23:3And I will receive the remnant of My people from all the land where I drove them out, and establish them in their pasture; they will increase and multiply.
23:4And I will raise shepherds for them who will tend them, and they will no longer fear or be frightened, says the Lord.
A Righteous Dawn for David
23:5Look, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will raise up a righteous rising for David. A king will reign and understand, doing judgment and righteousness upon the earth.
23:6In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell confidently. This is his name, which the Lord will call him: Josedek.
23:7Therefore look, days are coming, says the Lord, and they will no longer say, As the Lord lives, who brought Israel’s house up from Egypt’s land,
23:8but, As the Lord lives, who gathered all Israel’s offspring from the northern land and all the countries where He drove them out, and restored them to their land.
Concerning the Prophets: My Heart Was Shattered
23:9Among the prophets my heart was shattered; within me all my bones were shaken. I became like a shattered man, like a person gripped by wine, before the Lord and the splendor of His glory.
23:10Because of these things the land mourned and the wilderness pastures dried up. Their course became evil, and their strength was not so.
23:11Because priest and prophet were defiled, and in My house I saw their evils.
23:12Therefore let their way become a slippery place for them in darkness, and they will be tripped and fall in it, because I will bring evils upon them in their year of visitation, says the Lord.
23:13And among Samaria’s prophets I saw lawless acts: they prophesied through Baal and led My people Israel astray.
23:14And among Jerusalem’s prophets I have seen horrifying things: committing adultery, walking in lies, and supporting evil hands so that no one turns from his evil way. They all became like Sodom to Me, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
23:15Therefore thus says the Lord: Look, I will feed them pain and give them bitter water to drink, because from Jerusalem’s prophets defilement went out into all the land.
23:16Thus says the Lord Almighty: Do not listen to the prophets’ words, because they make a vision futile for themselves. They speak from their own heart and not from the Lord’s mouth.
False Promises of Peace and the Lord’s Whirlwind
23:17They say to those rejecting the Lord’s word, You will have peace. To all who walk according to their own wishes, to everyone walking in the wandering of his heart, they said, No evils will come upon you.
23:18Because who stood in the Lord’s standing place and saw His word? Who gave ear and heard?
23:19Look, a shaking comes from the Lord, and anger goes out into a convulsion; swirling, it will come upon the ungodly.
23:20And the Lord’s fury will no longer turn back until He does it and raises it up from His heart’s undertaking. At the end of the days they will understand these things.
Prophets the Lord Did Not Send
23:21I was not sending the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
23:22And if they had stood in My standing presence and listened to My words, they would have turned My people from their evil practices.
23:23I am a God drawing near, says the Lord, and not a God far away.
23:24If a person hides in hidden places, will I not see him? Do I not fill the heaven and the earth? says the Lord.
I Heard What the False Prophets Speak
23:25I heard what the prophets speak, the false things they prophesy in My name, saying, I dreamed a dream.
23:26How long will it be in the heart of the prophets prophesying false things, and in their prophesying the wishes of their own heart?
23:27They plan to forget My law through their dreams, which each told his neighbor, just as their fathers forgot My name through Baal.
23:28Let the prophet in whom there is a dream tell his dream, and the one to whom My word comes tell My word in truth. What has chaff to do with wheat? So are My words, says the Lord.
23:29Are not My words like blazing fire, says the Lord, and like an axe cutting rock?
23:30Therefore look, I am against the prophets, says the Lord God, who steal My words, each from his neighbor.
23:31Look, I am against the prophets who cast out prophecies of the tongue and doze their own dozing.
23:32Look, I am against the prophets who prophesy false dreams, who told them and led My people astray by their lies and wanderings. I did not send or command them, and they will bring this people no benefit at all.
The Burden of the Lord
23:33And if this people, a priest, or a prophet asks you, What is the Lord’s burden? say to them, You are the burden, and I will dash you down, says the Lord.
23:34And the prophet, priest, or people who say, The Lord’s burden—I will exact justice from that person and his household.
23:35Because say this, each to his neighbor and his brother: What did the Lord answer? What did the Lord speak?
23:36And do not name the Lord’s burden again, because a person’s own word will be his burden.
23:37And why did the Lord our God speak?
23:38Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you said this word, The Lord’s burden, though I sent to you saying, Do not say The Lord’s burden,
23:39therefore look, I take and dash down you and the city I gave to you and your fathers,
23:40and I will put eternal reproach and eternal dishonor upon you, which will not be forgotten.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.