The Coming Messiah: the Righteous Branch

1 “aWoe to the shepherds who are bdestroying and scattering the csheep of My pasture!” declares the Lord.

2 Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are 1tending My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to aattend to you for the bevil of your deeds,” declares the Lord.

3 “Then I Myself will agather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply.

4 “I will also raise up ashepherds over them and they will 1tend them; and they will bnot be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, cnor will any be missing,” declares the Lord.

5 “Behold, the adays are coming,” declares the Lord,

“When I will raise up for David a righteous 1bBranch;

And He will creign as king and 2act wisely

And ddo justice and righteousness in the land.

6 “In His days Judah will be saved,

And aIsrael will dwell securely;

And this is His bname by which He will be called,

‘The cLord our righteousness.’

7 “aTherefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when they will no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt,’

8 abut, ‘As the Lord lives, who bbrought up and led back the descendants of the household of Israel from the north land and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ Then they will live on their own soil.”

False Prophets Denounced

9 As for the prophets:

My aheart is broken within me,

All my bones tremble;

I have become like a drunken man,

Even like a man overcome with wine,

Because of the Lord

And because of His holy words.

10 For the land is full of aadulterers;

For the land bmourns because of the curse.

The cpastures of the wilderness have dried up.

Their course also is evil

And their might is not right.

11 “For aboth prophet and priest are polluted;

Even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the Lord.

12 “Therefore their way will be like aslippery paths to them,

They will be driven away into the bgloom and fall down in it;

For I will bring ccalamity upon them,

The year of their punishment,” declares the Lord.

13 “Moreover, among the prophets of Samaria I saw an aoffensive thing:

They bprophesied by Baal and cled My people Israel astray.

14 “Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a ahorrible thing:

The committing of badultery and walking in falsehood;

And they strengthen the hands of cevildoers,

So that no one has turned back from his wickedness.

All of them have become to Me like dSodom,

And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

15 “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets,

‘Behold, I am going to afeed them wormwood

And make them drink poisonous water,

For from the prophets of Jerusalem

Pollution has gone forth into all the land.’ ”

16 Thus says the Lord of hosts,

“aDo not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you.

They are bleading you into futility;

They speak a cvision of their own 1imagination,

Not dfrom the mouth of the Lord.