¹“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my flock, says the Lord.” ²That is why this is what the Lord God of Israel says against the shepherds who shepherd my people: “You have scattered my sheep and driven them out, and you have not taken care of them. I am about to appoint over you the evil of your deeds, says the Lord. ³And I will gather the remainder of my sheep from all the countries into which I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply. ⁴And I will set up shepherds over them, and they will shepherd them. And they will no longer fear, and they will not be afraid, and they will not be missing, says the Lord.

⁵Behold, the days are coming,

Says the Lord,

When I will raise a righteous branch to David,

And he will reign as king,

And he will act wisely

And administer justice and righteousness in the land.

⁶In his days Judah will be saved,

And Israel will dwell securely,

And this is his name by which he will be called:

The Lord our Righteousness.

⁷Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when they will no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought the sons of Israel up out of the land of Egypt’, ⁸but rather, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up and who brought in the seed of the house of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands into which I had driven them, and they will dwell on their own land.’ ”

⁹As for the prophets, my heart inside me is broken;

All my bones tremble.

I am like a drunkard

And like a man whom wine has overcome,

Because of the Lord

And because of his holy words.

¹⁰For the land is full of adulterers,

For on account of a curse,

The land is mourning.

The places of pasturage in the desert have dried up.

And their oppression is evil,

And their boldness is out of place.

¹¹“For both prophet and priest have become profaned.

Even in my house I have found their evil,

Says the Lord,

¹²Which is why their way will be like slippery places for them in pitch dark.

They will be pushed down

And will fall in it.

For I will bring trouble on them

– The year of their visitation –

Says the Lord.

¹³And among the prophets of Samaria,

I have seen superstition.

They have prophesied by Baal;

They have misled my people Israel.

¹⁴And among the prophets of Jerusalem,

I have seen a horrible thing.

They commit adultery and walk in falsehood,

And they strengthen the hands of those who do wrong,

So that no-one turns away from his evil.

They are all like Sodom,

And its inhabitants are like Gomorrah to me.

¹⁵That is why this is what the Lord of hosts says against the prophets:

‘I am about to feed them with wormwood

And to give them hemlock water to drink,

For profanity from the prophets of Jerusalem

Has pervaded the whole of the land.’ ”

¹⁶This is what the Lord of hosts says:

“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you.

They are causing you to act vainly;

They speak the vision of their own heart,

Not from the mouth of the Lord.

¹⁷They gravely say to those who despise me,

‘The Lord has said,

«You will have peace.» ’

And to everyone who walks in the obstinacy of his heart, they say,

‘No harm will come over you.’ ”

¹⁸For who has stood in consultation with the Lord

And seen and heard his word?

Who has listened to his word

And heard it?

¹⁹Behold the Lord's storm.

Fury has gone out,

And a storm is breaking out;

It will rage on the head of the wicked.

²⁰The Lord's anger will not relent

Until he has carried out and until he has set up

The purposes of his heart.

In the last days

You will consider it assiduously.

²¹“I did not send these prophets,

But they ran.

I did not speak to them,

But they prophesied.

²²But if they had stood in consultation with me,

Then they would have proclaimed my words to my people

And turned them away from their evil way

And from the wickedness of their deeds.

²³Am I a God who is nearby,

Says the Lord,

And not a God who is far away?

²⁴If a man hides in secret places,

Will I not see him?

Says the Lord.

Do I not fill the heavens

And the earth?

Says the Lord.”

²⁵“I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesied falsely in my name and said, ‘I have had a dream, I have had a dream.’ ²⁶How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy falsely, and of the prophets of the deceit of their heart? ²⁷– who think to cause my people to forget my name, by their dreams which each relates to his neighbour, just as their fathers forgot my name in favour of Baal.

²⁸Let the prophet who has a dream

Relate the dream,

And let him who has my word

Relate my word faithfully.

What has straw

Got to do with the grain?

Says the Lord.

²⁹Is my word not therefore like fire?

Says the Lord,

And like a hammer

Which can shatter rock?

³⁰That is why I am quite against the prophets, says the Lord, who steal my words, each one from his neighbour. ³¹I am quite against the prophets, says the Lord, who wrest their tongue and declare, ‘He says.’ ³²I am quite against those who prophesy false dreams, says the Lord, and who relate them and mislead my people with their lies and their pretension, when I did not send them and did not command them, and they have not benefited this people at all, says the Lord. ³³And if this people, or the prophet, or a priest, should ask you, ‘What is the oracle of the Lord’, then you will say to them, ‘What oracle? That I will 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 visit that man and his household. ³⁵This is what you will be saying one to another, and a man to his brother: ‘What has the Lord answered?’ and, ‘What has the Lord said?’ ³⁶And you will no longer call the oracle of the Lord to mind, for the oracle will be each man's own word, for you have overturned the words of the living God – the Lord of hosts our God. ³⁷This is what you will say to the prophet: ‘What has the Lord answered you?’, and, ‘What has the Lord said?’ ³⁸And if you folk say, ‘The oracle of the Lord’, then this is what the Lord will say: ‘Because of you saying these words: «The oracle of the Lord», when I had word sent to you and had said, «You shall not say, ‹The oracle of the Lord› », ³⁹because of that, look, I will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you and the city which I gave you and your fathers, leaving you out of my presence. ⁴⁰And I will set over you an age-abiding reproach, and age-abiding ignominy, which will not be forgotten.’ ”

Reference(s) in Chapter 23: v.5 ↔ John 7:42.