Jeremiah / Condemnation of False Prophets

Condemnation of False Prophets

Jeremiah 23:9-32

Chapter 23

⁹ Concerning the prophets, my heart is broken within me; all my bones flutter. I have become like a drunken man, like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the LORD and because of the words of his Holy One. ¹⁰ For adulterers fill the land, for from the presence of an oath the land mourns, the pastures of the wilderness dry up, and their course is evil and their might is not so. ¹¹ For both prophet and priest are profane; even in my house I have found their evil, says the LORD. ¹² Therefore their way will be to them like slippery places in darkness; they will be thrust and fall in it, for I will bring upon them evil, the year of their visitation—oracle of the LORD. ¹³ And among the prophets of Samaria I saw folly; they prophesied by Baal and led astray my people Israel. ¹⁴ And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen horrible things: adultery and walking in falsehood. They have strengthened the hands of evildoers so as not to turn back any man from his evil. They have all been to me like Sodom and its inhabitants like Gomorrah. ¹⁵ Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets: "Here I am, feeding them wormwood and making them drink water of gall, for from the prophets of Jerusalem has gone out godless hypocrisy to all the land." ¹⁶ Thus says the LORD of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they speak vanities to you; they speak a vision of their heart, not from the mouth of the LORD. ¹⁷ They say to those who despise the word, "The LORD has said, 'You will have peace,'" and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his heart, they say, "No evil will come upon you." ¹⁸ For who has stood in the secret counsel of the LORD and seen and heard his word? Who has paid heed to his word and heard? ¹⁹ Behold, the storm wind of the LORD—wrath—has gone out, a storm wind that writhes upon the head of the wicked; it will whirl. ²⁰ The anger of the LORD will not return until he does it and until he establishes the purposes of his heart. In the latter days you will consider it with understanding. ²¹ I did not send these prophets, yet they ran. I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. ²² And if they had stood in my secret counsel, and had heard my words, and had caused my people to return from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds. ²³ "Am I a God at hand?" declares the LORD. "And not a God afar off?" ²⁴ "If a man hides in secret places and I do not see him," says the LORD. "Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?" says the LORD. ²⁵ I have heard what the prophets have said, the prophets prophesying in my name a lie, saying, "I have dreamed a dream; I have dreamed." ²⁶ How long is there in the heart of the prophets—prophets of falsehood and prophets of the deceit of their heart? ²⁷ the ones reckoning to make my people forget my name in their dream-forgetfulness which they recount man to his companion just as their fathers forgot my name for Baal. ²⁸ The prophet with whom is a dream—let him recount a dream; and he with whom are words of truth—let him speak words of truth. What—to the chaff the wheat? utters the LORD. ²⁹ "Is not my word like fire thus," says the LORD, "and like a hammer that shatters a rock?" ³⁰ Therefore behold, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, the ones who steal a man's words from his companion. ³¹ Behold, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who use their tongue and say, "says the LORD." ³² Behold, I am against the prophets of false dreams, says the LORD. They recount them and lead my people astray with their falsehoods and their recklessness. But I did not send them, and I did not command them, and they profit nothing to this people, says the LORD.