Bible Time

¹WOE to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture. Says Yahvah. ²Therefore, thus speaks Yahvah God of Israel against the shepherds who feed my people: You have scattered my flock, and have caused them to go astray, and have not visited them; look, I will punish you according to your evil actions, says Yahvah. ³And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them again to their folds; and they will be fruitful and increase. ⁴And I will set shepherds over them, who will feed them; and they will not fear, nor be scattered, nor will they go astray any longer, says Yahvah. ⁵Look, the days are coming, says Yahvah, when I will raise up for David a righteous Heir, and he will reign over the kingdom with understanding, and will execute justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live securely; and this is the name by which he will be called, YAHVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. ⁷Therefore, the days are coming, says Yahvah, when it will never be said again, Yahvah lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; ⁸But, Yahvah lives, who brought up and led the house of Israel out of the north country and from all the countries where they had been scattered; and they will live in their own land.

⁹My heart is broken inside me because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunk man and like a man who is overcome by wine, because of the presence of Yahvah and because of the words of his holiness. ¹⁰For the land is full of adulterers and robbers; because of these men the land mourns and the pastures of the shepherds in the wilderness are dried up, and their yield has been poor, and they did not flourish. ¹¹For both prophets and priests have become pagans; yes, even in my house I have found their wickedness, says Yahvah. ¹²Therefore, their ways will be to them as slippery ways in the darkness; they will be driven on, and fall in them; for I will bring evil on them, even the year of their punishment, says Yahvah. ¹³And I have seen falsehood in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal and caused my people Israel to err. ¹⁴I have also seen in the prophets of Jerusalem folly; they commit adultery and walk in lies; they also strengthen the hands of their friends, so that no one turns from his evil way; they are all of them to me like Sodom, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah. ¹⁵Therefore, thus says Yahvah of hosts concerning the prophets: Look. I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink bitter water; for from the prophets of Jerusalem paganism has gone forth throughout all the land. ¹⁶Thus says Yahvah of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the false prophets who prophesy to you and mislead you; they tell a vision of the imagination of their own hearts, and not from the mouth of Yahvah. ¹⁷They still say to those who provoke me, Yahvah has said, You will have peace; and they say to each one who walks after the imagination of his own heart, No evil will come on you. ¹⁸For who has stood in the counsel of Yahvah and has seen him and heard his word? Who has given ear to his word and heard him? ¹⁹Look, the punishment of Yahvah is gone forth in fury, and the punishment will be kindled; it will fall on the head of the wicked. ²⁰The wrathful indignation of Yahvah will not turn back until he has executed his devices, until he has performed the thoughts of his mind; in the latter days you will discern it perfectly. ²¹I have not sent these prophets, yet they have gone forth; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. ²²But 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 ways and from the evil of their actions. ²³I am the God who is near, says Yahvah God, and not a God far away. ²⁴If any man should hide himself in secret places, I will see him, says Yahvah; look, heaven and earth are filled with me, says Yahvah of hosts. ²⁵I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed a dream. ²⁶How long will there be in the mouth of the false prophets, prophecies of lies, and prophecies of deceit from their own heart? ²⁷Who think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name and served Baal. ²⁸The prophet who sees a dream, let him tell a dream; but he who has my words, let him speak my words faithfully. Yahvah says, Why do you mix chaff with the wheat? ²⁹Look, my words issue like a fire, says Yahvah, and like a hammer which breaks the rock in pieces. ³⁰Therefore, look, I am against the prophets, says Yahvah, who steal my words, each one from his neighbor. ³¹Look, I am against the prophets, says Yahvah, who pervert their tongues, and say, Thus says Yahvah. ³²Look, I am against the prophets who see false dreams, says Yahvah, and tell them, and lead my people astray by their lies and their wantonness; yet I did not command them nor send them; so they do not profit this people at all.

³³And when this people, or a prophet or a priest, will ask you, and say to you, What is the word of Yahvah? You will say to them, This is the word of Yahvah: I will utterly uproot you, says Yahvah. ³⁴And as for the prophet or the priest or the people who will speak the word of Yahvah, I will punish that man and his house. ³⁵So each one will say to his neighbor, and each one to his brother: What has Yahvah answered? What has Yahvah spoken? ³⁶And you will not mention the words of Yahvah any longer; for every man's word will be his prophecy, for you pervert the words of the living God, Yahvah of hosts, our God. ³⁷So you will say to that person: What has Yahvah answered you? What has Yahvah spoken? ³⁸But if you speak the word of Yahvah, therefore, thus says Yahvah, Because you have said this word, The words of Yahvah, and I have sent you, saying, You will not say, The words of Yahvah; ³⁹Therefore, look, I will surely remove you, and I will cast you away, both you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers; ⁴⁰And I will bring an everlasting disgrace on you, and a perpetual shame which will not be forgotten.