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Jeremiah 23 ESV
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Jeremiah 23 ESV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/jeremiah/23.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/jeremiah/23-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">ESV</a> > Jeremiah 23</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../jeremiah/22.htm" title="Jeremiah 22">◄</a> Jeremiah 23 <a href="../jeremiah/24.htm" title="Jeremiah 24">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">English Standard Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/esv/nas/jeremiah/23.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div></a><div class="chap"><p class="heading">The Righteous Branch</p><p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>Therefore thus says the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>“Behold, the days are coming, declares the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> is our righteousness.’</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>but ‘As the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Septuagint; Hebrew I">a</a></sup></span> had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.”</p> <p class="heading">Lying Prophets</p><p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>Concerning the prophets:</p><span class="block-indent"><p class="line-group"><span class="ln-group">My heart is broken within me;</span><br /><span class="indent">all my bones shake;</span><br /><span class="ln-group">I am like a drunken man,</span><br /><span class="indent">like a man overcome by wine,</span><br /><span class="ln-group">because of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span></span><br /><span class="indent">and because of his holy words.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">For the land is full of adulterers;</span><br /><span class="indent">because of the curse the land mourns,</span><br /><span class="indent">and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up.</span><br /><span class="ln-group">Their course is evil,</span><br /><span class="indent">and their might is not right.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">“Both prophet and priest are ungodly;</span><br /><span class="indent">even in my house I have found their evil,</span><br /><begin-line class="declares"/>declares the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Therefore their way shall be to them</span><br /><span class="indent">like slippery paths in the darkness,</span><br /><span class="indent">into which they shall be driven and fall,</span><br /><span class="ln-group">for I will bring disaster upon them</span><br /><span class="indent">in the year of their punishment,</span><br /><begin-line class="declares"/>declares the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">In the prophets of Samaria</span><br /><span class="indent">I saw an unsavory thing:</span><br /><span class="ln-group">they prophesied by Baal</span><br /><span class="indent">and led my people Israel astray.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">But in the prophets of Jerusalem</span><br /><span class="indent">I have seen a horrible thing:</span><br /><span class="ln-group">they commit adultery and walk in lies;</span><br /><span class="indent">they strengthen the hands of evildoers,</span><br /><span class="indent">so that no one turns from his evil;</span><br /><span class="ln-group">all of them have become like Sodom to me,</span><br /><span class="indent">and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Therefore thus says the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> of hosts concerning the prophets:</span><br /><span class="ln-group">“Behold, I will feed them with bitter food</span><br /><span class="indent">and give them poisoned water to drink,</span><br /><span class="ln-group">for from the prophets of Jerusalem</span><br /><span class="indent">ungodliness has gone out into all the land.”</span></p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>Thus says the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>They say continually to those who despise the word of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’”</p> <span class="block-indent"><p class="line-group"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">For who among them has stood in the council of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span></span><br /><span class="indent">to see and to hear his word,</span><br /><span class="indent">or who has paid attention to his word and listened?</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Behold, the storm of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>!</span><br /><span class="indent">Wrath has gone forth,</span><br /><span class="ln-group">a whirling tempest;</span><br /><span class="indent">it will burst upon the head of the wicked.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">The anger of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> will not turn back</span><br /><span class="indent">until he has executed and accomplished</span><br /><span class="indent">the intents of his heart.</span><br /><span class="ln-group">In the latter days you will understand it clearly.</span></p> <p class="line-group"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">“I did not send the prophets,</span><br /><span class="indent">yet they ran;</span><br /><span class="ln-group">I did not speak to them,</span><br /><span class="indent">yet they prophesied.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">But if they had stood in my council,</span><br /><span class="indent">then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,</span><br /><span class="ln-group">and they would have turned them from their evil way,</span><br /><span class="indent">and from the evil of their deeds.</span></p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>“Am I a God at hand, declares the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, and not a God far away? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span>I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span>How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span>who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span>Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span>Is not my word like fire, declares the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-30.htm"><b>30</b></a></span>Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, who steal my words from one another. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-31.htm"><b>31</b></a></span>Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, who use their tongues and declare, ‘declares the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>.’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-32.htm"><b>32</b></a></span>Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-33.htm"><b>33</b></a></span>“When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>?’ you shall say to them, ‘You are the burden,<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Septuagint, Vulgate; Hebrew What burden?">b</a></sup></span> and I will cast you off, declares the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>.’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-34.htm"><b>34</b></a></span>And as for the prophet, priest, or one of the people who says, ‘The burden of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>,’ I will punish that man and his household. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-35.htm"><b>35</b></a></span>Thus shall you say, every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother, ‘What has the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> answered?’ or ‘What has the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> spoken?’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-36.htm"><b>36</b></a></span>But ‘the burden of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>’ you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man’s own word, and you pervert the words of the living God, the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> of hosts, our God. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-37.htm"><b>37</b></a></span>Thus you shall say to the prophet, ‘What has the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> answered you?’ or ‘What has the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> spoken?’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-38.htm"><b>38</b></a></span>But if you say, ‘The burden of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>,’ thus says the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, ‘Because you have said these words, “The burden of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>,” when I sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The burden of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>,’” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-39.htm"><b>39</b></a></span>therefore, behold, I will surely lift you up<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or surely forget you">c</a></sup></span> and cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/23-40.htm"><b>40</b></a></span>And I will bring upon you everlasting reproach and perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.’”</p><A name="footnotes"></a><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="footnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">8</span> Septuagint; Hebrew <i>I</i><br /><span class="footnotesbot">b</span> <span class="fnverse">33</span> Septuagint, Vulgate; Hebrew <i>What burden?</i><br /><span class="footnotesbot">c</span> <span class="fnverse">39</span> Or <i>surely forget you</i><br /></span></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">ESV Text Edition® (2016).<br /><br />The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by <a href="http://www.crossway.org/home/esv/">Crossway Bibles</a>, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. 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