The Branch of Righteousness
23 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep
of My pasture!” says the Lord. 2 Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel
against the shepherds who feed My people: “You have scattered My flock, driven
them away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil
of your doings,” says the Lord. 3 “But I will gather the remnant of My flock
out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their
folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. 4 I will set up shepherds over
them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor
shall they be lacking,” says the Lord.
5 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;
A King shall reign and prosper,
And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
6 In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell safely;
Now this is His name by which He will be called:
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.[a]
7 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“that they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the children
of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ 8 but, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and
led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all
the countries where I had driven them.’ And they shall dwell in their own
land.”
False Prophets and Empty Oracles
9 My heart within me is broken
Because of the prophets;
All my bones shake.
I am like a drunken man,
And like a man whom wine has overcome,
Because of the Lord,
And because of His holy words.
10 For the land is full of adulterers;
For because of a curse the land mourns.
The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up.
Their course of life is evil,
And their might is not right.
11 “For both prophet and priest are profane;
Yes, in My house I have found their wickedness,” says the
Lord.
12 “Therefore their way shall be to them
Like slippery ways;
In the darkness they shall be driven on
And fall in them;
For I will bring disaster on them,
The year of their punishment,” says the Lord.
13 “And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria:
They prophesied by Baal
And caused My people Israel to err.
14 Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of
Jerusalem:
They commit adultery and walk in lies;
They also strengthen the hands of evildoers,
So that no one turns back from his wickedness.
All of them are like Sodom to Me,
And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
15 “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the
prophets:
‘Behold, I will feed them with wormwood,
And make them drink the water of gall;
For from the prophets of Jerusalem
Profaneness has gone out into all the land.’”
16 Thus says the Lord of hosts:
“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to
you.
They make you worthless;
They speak a vision of their own heart,
Not from the mouth of the Lord.
17 They continually say to those who despise Me,
‘The Lord has said, “You shall have peace”’;
And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his
own heart, they say,
‘No evil shall come upon you.’”
18 For who has stood in the counsel of the Lord,
And has perceived and heard His word?
Who has marked His word and heard it?
19 Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury—
A violent whirlwind!
It will fall violently on the head of the wicked.
20 The anger of the Lord will not turn back
Until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His
heart.
In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.
21 “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran.
I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
22 But if they had stood in My counsel,
And had caused My people to hear My words,
Then they would have turned them from their evil way
And from the evil of their doings.
23 “Am I a God near at hand,” says the Lord,
“And not a God afar off?
24 Can anyone hide himself in secret places,
So I shall not see him?” says the Lord;
“Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord.
25 “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy
lies in My name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ 26 How long will
this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are
prophets of the deceit of their own heart, 27 who try to make My people forget My
name by their dreams which everyone tells his neighbor, as their fathers forgot
My name for Baal.
28 “The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream;
And he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully.
What is the chaff to the wheat?” says the Lord.
29 “Is not My word like a fire?” says the Lord,
“And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
30 “Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says the
Lord, “who steal My words every one from his neighbor. 31 Behold, I am against
the prophets,” says the Lord, “who use their tongues and say, ‘He says.’ 32
Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the Lord, “and tell
them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I
did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not profit this people
at all,” says the Lord.
33 “So when these people or the prophet or the priest ask
you, saying, ‘What is the oracle of the Lord?’ you shall then say to them,
‘What oracle?’[b] I will even forsake you,” says the Lord. 34 “And as for the
prophet and the priest and the people who say, ‘The oracle of the Lord!’ I will
even punish that man and his house. 35 Thus every one of you shall say to his
neighbor, and every one to his brother, ‘What has the Lord answered?’ and,
‘What has the Lord spoken?’ 36 And the oracle of the Lord you shall mention no
more. For every man’s word will be his oracle, for you have perverted the words
of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God. 37 Thus you shall say to the
prophet, ‘What has the Lord answered you?’ and, ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ 38
But since you say, ‘The oracle of the Lord!’ therefore thus says the Lord:
‘Because you say this word, “The oracle of the Lord!” and I have sent to you,
saying, “Do not say, ‘The oracle of the Lord!’” 39 therefore behold, I, even I,
will utterly forget you and forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your
fathers, and will cast you out of My presence. 40 And I will bring an
everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be
forgotten.’”
The Sign of Two Baskets of Figs
24 The Lord showed me, and there were two baskets of figs
set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had
carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the
princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought
them to Babylon. 2 One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first
ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they
were so bad. 3 Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?”
And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad,
very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.”
4 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5 “Thus
says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge
those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this
place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. 6 For I will set My eyes
on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them
and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. 7 Then I
will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My
people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole
heart.
8 ‘And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are so
bad’—surely thus says the Lord—‘so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah,
his princes, the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who
dwell in the land of Egypt. 9 I will deliver them to trouble into all the
kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt
and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them. 10 And I will send the
sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed from
the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’”
Seventy Years of Desolation
25 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people
of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah
(which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), 2 which Jeremiah
the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, saying: 3 “From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king
of Judah, even to this day, this is the twenty-third year in which the word of
the Lord has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking,
but you have not listened. 4 And the Lord has sent to you all His servants the
prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined
your ear to hear. 5 They said, ‘Repent now everyone of his evil way and his
evil doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord has given to you and your
fathers forever and ever. 6 Do not go after other gods to serve them and
worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and
I will not harm you.’ 7 Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the Lord, “that
you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.
8 “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Because you have
not heard My words, 9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the
north,’ says the Lord, ‘and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and
will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these
nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an
astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. 10 Moreover I will take
from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the
bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the
light of the lamp. 11 And this whole land shall be a desolation and an
astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
12 ‘Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are
completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of
the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,’ says the Lord; ‘and I will make it a
perpetual desolation. 13 So I will bring on that land all My words which I have
pronounced against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has
prophesied concerning all the nations. 14 (For many nations and great kings
shall be served by them also; and I will repay them according to their deeds
and according to the works of their own hands.)’”
Judgment on the Nations
15 For thus says the Lord God of Israel to me: “Take this
wine cup of fury from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you,
to drink it. 16 And they will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword
that I will send among them.”
17 Then I took the cup from the Lord’s hand, and made all
the nations drink, to whom the Lord had sent me: 18 Jerusalem and the cities of
Judah, its kings and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a
hissing, and a curse, as it is this day; 19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, his
servants, his princes, and all his people; 20 all the mixed multitude, all the
kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the Philistines (namely,
Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod); 21 Edom, Moab, and the
people of Ammon; 22 all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the
kings of the coastlands which are across the sea; 23 Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all
who are in the farthest corners; 24 all the kings of Arabia and all the kings
of the mixed multitude who dwell in the desert; 25 all the kings of Zimri, all
the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes; 26 all the kings of the
north, far and near, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the world which
are on the face of the earth. Also the king of Sheshach[c] shall drink after
them.
27 “Therefore you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of
hosts, the God of Israel: “Drink, be drunk, and vomit! Fall and rise no more,
because of the sword which I will send among you.”’ 28 And it shall be, if they
refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them,
‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “You shall certainly drink! 29 For behold, I
begin to bring calamity on the city which is called by My name, and should you
be utterly unpunished? You shall not be unpunished, for I will call for a sword
on all the inhabitants of the earth,” says the Lord of hosts.’
30 “Therefore prophesy against them all these words, and say
to them:
‘The Lord will roar from on high,
And utter His voice from His holy habitation;
He will roar mightily against His fold.
He will give a shout, as those who tread the grapes,
Against all the inhabitants of the earth.
31 A noise will come to the ends of the earth—
For the Lord has a controversy with the nations;
He will plead His case with all flesh.
He will give those who are wicked to the sword,’ says the
Lord.”
32 Thus says the Lord of hosts:
“Behold, disaster shall go forth
From nation to nation,
And a great whirlwind shall be raised up
From the farthest parts of the earth.
33 And at that day the slain of the Lord shall be from one
end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. They shall not be
lamented, or gathered, or buried; they shall become refuse on the ground.
34 “Wail, shepherds, and cry!
Roll about in the ashes,
You leaders of the flock!
For the days of your slaughter and your dispersions are
fulfilled;
You shall fall like a precious vessel.
35 And the shepherds will have no way to flee,
Nor the leaders of the flock to escape.
36 A voice of the cry of the shepherds,
And a wailing of the leaders to the flock will be heard.
For the Lord has plundered their pasture,
37 And the peaceful dwellings are cut down
Because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
38 He has left His lair like the lion;
For their land is desolate
Because of the fierceness of the Oppressor,
And because of His fierce anger.”
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