1 "Woe to shepherds who ruin and scatter the flock of my pasture!" declares the LORD.
2 So thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who tend my people: "You have scattered my flock and pushed them away, and you have not attended to them. See, I will attend to you for the evil of your deeds, declares the LORD.
3 I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands where I have driven them, and bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and increase.
4 I will set over them shepherds who will tend them; they will fear no more, nor be terrified, nor will any be lost, declares the LORD.
5 "The days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he will reign as king and deal wisely, and he will practice justice and righteousness in the land.
6 In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety; and this is the name by which he will be called: The LORD is our righteousness.
7 "Therefore the days are coming, declares the LORD, when they will no longer say, 'As the LORD lives, who brought the children of Israel up out of the land of Egypt,'
8 but rather, 'As the LORD lives, who brought up and led the seed of the house of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands to which I had driven them.' And they will live on their own soil."
9 About the prophets: My heart is broken inside me; all my bones tremble; I have become like a drunk man, 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; because of the curse the land mourns, the pastures of the desert have dried up. Their running is evil, and their strength is not right.
11 "For both prophet and priest are profane; even in my house I have found their evil, declares the LORD.
12 So their way will become to them like slippery places in the gloom; they will be pushed and fall in it; for I will bring evil on them, the year of their punishment, declares the LORD.
13 In the prophets of Samaria I saw something unseemly: they prophesied by Baal and made my people Israel go astray.
14 But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible: committing adultery and walking in falsehood; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that none turns back from his evil. They have all become to me like Sodom, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah."
15 So thus says the LORD of hosts about the prophets: "See, I am feeding them wormwood, and I will make them drink poisoned water; 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 are filling you with empty hopes. They speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the LORD.
17 They keep on saying to those who despise me, 'The LORD has spoken: Peace will be yours'; and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his heart they say, 'Evil will not come upon you.'"
18 For who has stood in the council of the LORD, that he should see and hear his word? Who has heeded his word and listened?
19 Look, the storm of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling storm; it will whirl onto the head of the wicked.
20 The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has done and carried out the purposes of his heart. In the last days you will understand it fully.
21 "I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
22 If they had stood in my council, they would have let my people hear my words and turned them back from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds.
23 "Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far off?
24 Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I do not see him? declares the LORD. Is it not I who fill the heavens and the earth? declares the LORD.
25 I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy falsehood in my name: 'I had a dream, I had a dream!'
26 How long will this go on in the heart of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, prophets of their own heart's deceit,
27 who plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams which they tell each other, as their fathers forgot my name through Baal?
28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell a dream; but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What does straw have in common with wheat? declares the LORD.
29 Is not my word just like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that shatters a rock?
30 Therefore I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who steal my words, each from his neighbor.
31 I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who take up their own tongue and say, 'He declares.'
32 I am against those who prophesy false dreams, declares the LORD, and recount them and lead my people astray with their lies and their boasting, though I did not send them or command them; they are of no benefit at all to this people, declares the LORD.
33 "When this people, or a prophet or a priest, asks you, 'What is the burden of the LORD?' say to them, 'What burden? I will cast you off, declares the LORD.'
34 As for the prophet, the priest or the people who say, 'The burden of the LORD,' I will punish that man and his house.
35 This is how you are to speak, each to his neighbor and each to his brother: 'What did the LORD answer?' and 'What did the LORD say?'
36 But 'the burden of the LORD' you must not mention again, for the burden will be each man's own word, and you have twisted the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God.
37 This is how you are to speak to the prophet: 'What did the LORD answer you?' and 'What did the LORD say?'
38 But if you say, 'The burden of the LORD,' then thus says the LORD: Because you have spoken this word, 'The burden of the LORD,' though I sent to you saying, 'Do not say, The burden of the LORD,'
39 therefore, see, I will surely forget you and throw you away from my presence, you and the city which I gave to you and your fathers.
40 I will lay on you an everlasting reproach and an everlasting humiliation that will not be forgotten."