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Restoration after Exile23 Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the L ord. 2Therefore thus says the L ord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the L ord. 3Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the L ord. The Righteous Branch of David5 The days are surely coming, says the L ord, 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. 6In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The L ord is our righteousness.” 7 Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the L ord, when it shall no longer be said, “As the L ord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt,” 8but “As the L ord lives who brought out and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had driven them.” Then they shall live in their own land.
False Prophets of Hope Denounced9 Concerning the prophets: My heart is crushed within me, all my bones shake; I have become like a drunkard, like one overcome by wine, because of the L ord and because of his holy words. 10 For the land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land mourns, and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their course has been evil, and their might is not right. 11 Both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in my house I have found their wickedness, says the L ord. 12 Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery paths in the darkness, into which they shall be driven and fall; for I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their punishment, says the L ord. 13 In the prophets of Samaria I saw a disgusting thing: they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray. 14 But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a more shocking thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from wickedness; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah. 15 Therefore thus says the L ord of hosts concerning the prophets: “I am going to make them eat wormwood, and give them poisoned water to drink; for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has spread throughout the land.”
16 Thus says the L ord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they are deluding you. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the L ord. 17They keep saying to those who despise the word of the L ord, “It shall be well with you”; and to all who stubbornly follow their own stubborn hearts, they say, “No calamity shall come upon you.”
18 For who has stood in the council of the L ord so as to see and to hear his word? Who has given heed to his word so as to proclaim it? 19 Look, the storm of the L ord! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked. 20 The anger of the L ord will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his mind. In the latter days you will understand it clearly.
21 I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. 22 But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
23 Am I a God near by, says the L ord, and not a God far off? 24Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the L ord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the L ord. 25I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, “I have dreamed, I have dreamed!” 26How long? Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back—those who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart? 27They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal. 28Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the L ord. 29Is not my word like fire, says the L ord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? 30See, therefore, I am against the prophets, says the L ord, who steal my words from one another. 31See, I am against the prophets, says the L ord, who use their own tongues and say, “Says the L ord.” 32See, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the L ord, and who tell them, and who lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or appoint them; so they do not profit this people at all, says the L ord. 33 When this people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, “What is the burden of the L ord?” you shall say to them, “You are the burden, and I will cast you off, says the L ord.” 34And as for the prophet, priest, or the people who say, “The burden of the L ord,” I will punish them and their households. 35Thus shall you say to one another, among yourselves, “What has the L ord answered?” or “What has the L ord spoken?” 36But “the burden of the L ord” you shall mention no more, for the burden is everyone’s own word, and so you pervert the words of the living God, the L ord of hosts, our God. 37Thus you shall ask the prophet, “What has the L ord answered you?” or “What has the L ord spoken?” 38But if you say, “the burden of the L ord,” thus says the L ord: Because you have said these words, “the burden of the L ord,” when I sent to you, saying, You shall not say, “the burden of the L ord,” 39therefore, I will surely lift you up and cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your ancestors. 40And I will bring upon you everlasting disgrace and perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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Here he declares to false prophets and unfaithful priests that the Lord’s judgment was nigh at hand, because they had deceived the people. But he speaks figuratively when he says, that their way would be to them as lubricities. By way he understands the means which they thought to be of the best kind, as elsewhere, nearly in
the same sense, what is deemed delectable, or what conduces to sustain life, is called “the table” of the wicked. (Psalm 69:22.) The meaning then is, that when they thought all things prosperous, as if one made his way through a plain, they would find themselves on a slippery ground. Their way, then, would be to them as lubricities,
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Such is the word literally; but there is here an ellipsis, not uncommon in Hebrew; the word way is left out before “lubricities” or slipperinesses. The word being plural, and a reduplicate, expresses what is extreme — “most slippery,” or, wholly slippery, —
The reason follows, even because the Lord was displeased with them. They could not then escape ruin, for they had to do with God. But as the ungodly derive false confidence from God’s forbearance, so that they dare to glory in their wickedness, he adds, the year of their visitation Though, then, God would not immediately put forth his hand to punish them, yet their time was to come; for the year of visitation means the suitable time which God has determined within himself. He indeed defers punishment; but when hypocrites and his despisers have long abused his forbearance, he then suddenly begins to thunder against them; and this is the year of visitation. It follows, — |