Jeremiah 23:33–40

False Prophecy

³³“When these people, or a prophet or a priest, ask you, ‘What is the message^v from the Lord?’ say to them, ‘What message? I will forsake^w you, declares the Lord.’ ³⁴If a prophet or a priest or anyone else claims, ‘This is a message^x from the Lord,’ I will punish^y them and their household. ³⁵This is what each of you keeps saying to your friends and other Israelites: ‘What is the Lord’s answer?’^z or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ ³⁶But you must not mention ‘a message from the Lord’ again, because each one’s word becomes their own message. So you distort^a the words of the living God,^b the Lord Almighty, our God. ³⁷This is what you keep saying to a prophet: ‘What is the Lord’s answer to you?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ ³⁸Although you claim, ‘This is a message from the Lord,’ this is what the Lord says: You used the words, ‘This is a message from the Lord,’ even though I told you that you must not claim, ‘This is a message from the Lord.’ ³⁹Therefore, I will surely forget you and cast^c you out of my presence along with the city I gave to you and your ancestors. ⁴⁰I will bring on you everlasting disgrace^d—everlasting shame that will not be forgotten.”