The Righteous Branch
“aWoe to the shepherds who are bdestroying and scattering the csheep of My pasture!” declares Yahweh. 2 Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who are shepherding My people: “You have scattered My flock and banished them and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to aattend to you for the bevil of your deeds,” declares Yahweh. 3 “Then I Myself will agather the remnant of My flock out of all the land where I have banished them and cause them to return to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will also raise up ashepherds over them, and they will shepherd them; and they will bnot be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, cnor will any be left unattended,” declares Yahweh.
5 “Behold, the adays are coming,” declares Yahweh,
“When I will raise up for David a righteous bBranch;
And He will creign as king and prosper
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,
‘cYahweh our righteousness.’
7 “aTherefore behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when they will no longer say, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ 8 abut, ‘As Yahweh lives, who bbrought up and brought back the seed of the household of Israel from the north land and from all the lands where I had banished them.’ Then they will live on their own soil.”
False Prophets Condemned
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 Yahweh
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 evil,” declares Yahweh.
12 “Therefore their way will be like aslippery paths to them;
They will be driven away into the bthick darkness and fall down in it;
For I will bring their cevil upon them,
The year of their punishment,” declares Yahweh.
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 an aappalling thing:
The committing of badultery and walking in lying;
And they strengthen the hands of cevildoers,
So that no one has turned back from his evil.
All of them have become to Me like dSodom,
And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
15 Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts concerning the prophets,
‘Behold, I am going to afeed them wormwood
And make them drink poisoned water,
For from the prophets of Jerusalem
Pollution has gone forth into all the land.’”
16 Thus says Yahweh of hosts,
“aDo not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you.
They are bleading you into vanity;
They speak a cvision of their own heart,
Not dfrom the mouth of Yahweh.
17 They keep saying to those who aspurn Me,
‘Yahweh has said, “bYou will have peace”’;
And as for everyone who walks in the cstubbornness of his own heart,
They say, ‘dEvil will not come upon you.’
18 But awho has stood in the council of Yahweh,
That he should see and hear His word?
Who has given bheed to His word and heard?
19 Behold, the astorm of Yahweh has gone forth in wrath,
Even a whirling storm;
It will whirl down on the head of the wicked.
20 The aanger of Yahweh will not turn back
Until He has bdone and established 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 bcaused My words to be heard by 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 Yahweh,
“And not a God far off?
24 Can a man ahide himself in hiding places
So I do not see him?” declares Yahweh.
“bDo I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares Yahweh.
25 “I have aheard what the prophets have said who bprophesy a lie 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 a lie, 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 recount to one another, just as their fathers bforgot My name because of Baal? 28 The prophet who has a dream may recount his dream, but let him who has aMy word speak My word in truth. bWhat does straw have in common with grain?” declares Yahweh. 29 “Is not My word like afire?” declares Yahweh, “and like a bhammer which shatters a rock? 30 Therefore behold, aI am against the prophets,” declares Yahweh, “who steal My words from each other. 31 Behold, I am against the prophets,” declares Yahweh, “who take their tongues and declare, ‘Yahweh declares.’ 32 Behold, I am against those who have prophesied alying dreams,” declares Yahweh, “and who recounted them and led My people astray by their lying and breckless boasting; yet cI did not send them, and I did not command them, and they do not dfurnish this people the slightest benefit,” declares Yahweh.
33 “Now when this people or the prophet or a priest asks you, saying, ‘What is the aoracle of Yahweh?’ then you shall say to them, ‘What oracle?’ Yahweh declares, ‘I will babandon you.’ 34 Then as for the prophet or the priest or the people who say, ‘The aoracle of Yahweh,’ 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 Yahweh answered?’ or, ‘What has Yahweh spoken?’ 36 For you will no longer remember the oracle of Yahweh because every man’s own word will become the oracle, and you have aperverted the words of the bliving God, Yahweh of hosts, our God. 37 Thus you will say to that prophet, ‘What has Yahweh answered you?’ and, ‘What has Yahweh spoken?’ 38 For if you all say, ‘The oracle of Yahweh!’ surely thus says Yahweh, ‘Because you said this word, “The oracle of Yahweh!” I have also sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The oracle of Yahweh!’”’ 39 Therefore behold, aI will surely forget you and abandon you, along with the city which I gave you and your fathers, so that you are out of My presence. 40 I will put an everlasting areproach on you and an everlasting humiliation which will not be forgotten.”