Jeremiah 23:9–22

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.

17 “They keep saying to those who adespise Me,

‘The Lord has said, “bYou will have peace” ’;

And as for everyone who walks in the cstubbornness of his own heart,

They say, ‘dCalamity will not come upon you.’

18 “But awho has stood in the council of the Lord,

That he should see and hear His word?

Who has given bheed to 1His word and listened?

19 “Behold, the astorm of the Lord has gone forth in wrath,

Even a whirling tempest;

It will swirl down on the head of the wicked.

20 “The aanger of the Lord will not turn back

Until He has bperformed and carried out the purposes of His heart;

cIn the last days you will clearly understand it.

21 “aI did not send these prophets,

But they ran.

I did not speak to them,

But they prophesied.

22 “But if they had astood in My council,

Then they would have bannounced My words to My people,

And would have turned them back from their evil way

And from the evil of their deeds.