Jeremiah:23-24

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* Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture ! saith the LORD . * Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people ; Ye have scattered my flock , and driven them away , and have not visited them : behold , I will visit upon you the evil of your doings , saith the LORD . * And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them , and will bring them again to their folds ; and they shall be fruitful and increase . * And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them : and they shall fear no more , nor be dismayed , neither shall they be lacking , saith the LORD . * Behold , the days come , saith the LORD , that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch , and a King shall reign and prosper , and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth . * In his days Judah shall be saved , and Israel shall dwell safely : and this is his name whereby he shall be called , THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS . * Therefore , behold , the days come , saith the LORD , that they shall no more say , The LORD liveth , which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt ; * But , The LORD liveth , which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country , and from all countries whither I had driven them ; and they shall dwell in their own land . * Mine 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 hath overcome , because of the LORD , and because of the words of his holiness . * For the land is full of adulterers ; for because of swearing the land mourneth ; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up , and their course is evil , and their force is not right . * For both prophet and priest are profane ; yea , in my house have I found their wickedness , saith the LORD . * Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness : they shall be driven on , and fall therein : for I will bring evil upon them , even the year of their visitation , saith the LORD . * And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria ; they prophesied in Baal , and caused my people Israel to err . * I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing : they commit adultery , and walk in lies : they strengthen also the hands of evildoers , that none doth return from his wickedness : they are all of them unto me as Sodom , and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah . * Therefore thus saith 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 is profaneness gone forth into all the land . * Thus saith the LORD of hosts , Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you : they make you vain : they speak a vision of their own heart , and not out of the mouth of the LORD . * They say still unto them that despise me , The LORD hath said , Ye shall have peace ; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart , No evil shall come upon you . * For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD , and hath perceived and heard his word ? who hath marked his word , and heard it ? * Behold , a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury , even a grievous whirlwind : it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked . * The anger of the LORD shall not return , until he have executed , and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart : in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly . * I have not sent these prophets , yet they ran : I have not spoken to them , yet they prophesied . * But if they had stood in my counsel , and had caused my people to hear my words , then they should have turned them from their evil way , and from the evil of their doings . * Am I a God at hand , saith the LORD , and not a God afar off ? * Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him ? saith the LORD . Do not I fill heaven and earth ? saith the LORD . * I have heard what the prophets said , that prophesy lies in my name , saying , I have dreamed , I have dreamed . * How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies ? yea , they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart ; * Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour , as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal . * The prophet that hath a dream , let him tell a dream ; and he that hath my word , let him speak my word faithfully . What is the chaff to the wheat ? saith the LORD . * Is not my word like as a fire ? saith the LORD ; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces ? * Therefore , behold , I am against the prophets , saith the LORD , that steal my words every one from his neighbour . * Behold , I am against the prophets , saith the LORD , that use their tongues , and say , He saith . * Behold , I am against them that prophesy false dreams , saith the LORD , and do tell them , and cause my people to err by their lies , and by their lightness ; yet I sent them not , nor commanded them : therefore they shall not profit this people at all , saith the LORD . * And when this people , or the prophet , or a priest , shall ask thee , saying , What is the burden of the LORD ? thou shalt then say unto them , What burden ? I will even forsake you , saith the LORD . * And as for the prophet , and the priest , and the people , that shall say , The burden of the LORD , I will even punish that man and his house . * Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour , and every one to his brother , What hath the LORD answered ? and , What hath the LORD spoken ? * And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more : for every man 's word shall be his burden ; for ye have perverted the words of the living God , of the LORD of hosts our God . * Thus shalt thou say to the prophet , What hath the LORD answered thee ? and , What hath the LORD spoken ? * But since ye say , The burden of the LORD ; therefore thus saith the LORD ; Because ye say this word , The burden of the LORD , and I have sent unto you , saying , Ye shall not say , The burden of the LORD ; * Therefore , behold , I , even I , will utterly forget you , and I will forsake you , and the city that I gave you and your fathers , and cast you out of my presence : * And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you , and a perpetual shame , which shall not be forgotten . * The LORD shewed me , and , behold , two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD , after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah , and the princes of Judah , with the carpenters and smiths , from Jerusalem , and had brought them to Babylon . * One basket had very good figs , even like the figs that are first ripe : and the other basket had very naughty figs , which could not be eaten , they were so bad . * Then said the LORD unto me , What seest thou , Jeremiah ? And I said , Figs ; the good figs , very good ; and the evil , very evil , that cannot be eaten , they are so evil . * Again the word of the LORD came unto me , saying , * Thus saith the LORD , the God of Israel ; Like these good figs , so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah , whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good . * For I will set mine eyes upon them for good , and I will bring them again to this land : and I will build them , and not pull them down ; and I will plant them , and not pluck them up . * And I will give them an 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 unto me with their whole heart . * And as the evil figs , which cannot be eaten , they are so evil ; surely thus saith the LORD , So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah , and his princes , and the residue of Jerusalem , that remain in this land , and them that dwell in the land of Egypt : * And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt , to be a reproach and a proverb , a taunt and a curse , in all places whither I shall drive them . * And I will send the sword , the famine , and the pestilence , among them , till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers . * 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 , that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon ;

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