Chapter 23

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.

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.

23 “Am I a God who is anear,” declares the Lord,

“And not a God far off?

24 “Can a man ahide himself in hiding places

So I do not see him?” declares the Lord.

“bDo I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.

25 “I have aheard what the prophets have said who bprophesy falsely in My name, saying, ‘I had a cdream, I had a dream!’

26 “How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even these prophets of the adeception of their own heart,

27 who intend to amake My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers bforgot My name because of Baal?

28 “The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has aMy word speak My word in truth. bWhat does straw have in common with grain?” declares the Lord.

29 “Is not My word like afire?” declares the Lord, “and like a bhammer which shatters a rock?

30 “Therefore behold, aI am against the prophets,” declares the Lord, “who steal My words from each other.

31 “Behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the Lord, “who use their tongues and declare, ‘The Lord declares.’

32 “Behold, I am against those who have prophesied afalse dreams,” declares the Lord, “and related them and led My people astray by their falsehoods and breckless boasting; yet cI did not send them or command them, nor do they dfurnish this people the slightest benefit,” declares the Lord.

33 “Now when this people or the prophet or a priest asks you saying, ‘What is the 1aoracle of the Lord?’ then you shall say to them, ‘What 1oracle?’ The Lord declares, ‘I will babandon you.’

34 “Then as for the prophet or the priest or the people who say, ‘The aoracle of the Lord,’ I will bring punishment upon that man and his household.

35 “Thus will each of you say to his neighbor and to his brother, ‘aWhat has the Lord answered?’ or, ‘What has the Lord spoken?’

36 “For you will no longer remember the oracle of the Lord, because every man’s own word will become the oracle, and you have aperverted the words of the bliving God, the Lord of hosts, our God.

37 “Thus you will say to that prophet, ‘What has the Lord answered you?’ and, ‘What has the Lord spoken?’

38 “For if you say, ‘The oracle of the Lord!’ surely thus says the Lord, ‘Because you said this word, “The oracle of the Lord!” I have also sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The oracle of the Lord!’ ” ’

39 “Therefore behold, aI will surely forget you and cast you away from My presence, along with the city which I gave you and your fathers.

40 “I will put an everlasting areproach on you and an everlasting humiliation which will not be forgotten.”