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Restoration after Exile

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 David

⁵ 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 Denounced

⁹ 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.

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.

Both prophet and priest are ungodly;

even in my house I have found their wickedness,

says the L ord.

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.

In the prophets of Samaria

I saw a disgusting thing:

they prophesied by Baal

and led my people Israel astray.

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.

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.”

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?

Look, the storm of the L ord!

Wrath has gone forth,

a whirling tempest;

it will burst upon the head of the wicked.

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.

I did not send the prophets,

yet they ran;

I did not speak to them,

yet they prophesied.

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.

He adds, secondly, Behold, I am against the prophets, who mollify their own tongue Almost all interpreters take לקה, lekech, as signifying to render sweet or soft; and they understand that the false prophets are condemned, because they flattered the wicked for the sake of gain; for had they offended or exasperated them, they could not have attached them to themselves. They then think that to mollify their tongue means here that they used their tongue in speaking smooth and flattering things. But others give another explanation, — that they mollified their tongue because they polished their words in imitation of God’s servants, so that their speech was sweeter than honey. But as לקה, lekech, means to receive and to take, and sometimes to raise on high, and sometimes to carry, I see not why it should not be taken in its proper meaning. I certainly see no reason to turn its meaning to a metaphor, when it can be taken in its plain sense of raising their tongue; they elevated themselves, and in high terms boasted that the office of teaching had been committed to them, for we know how haughtily false teachers elevate themselves. Therefore the verse may be taken thus, that God would punish those impostors who raised their tongue, that is, who proudly boasted and boldly arrogated to themselves authority, as though they were messengers from heaven. ¹¹⁴¹¹⁴ There are those who, with Houbigant, suppose a transposition in the word, the ח being put last instead of being first; and then it would mean to render smooth. But this does not suit the passage. The probable idea is what is given paraphrastically by the Sept., “who send forth the prophecies of the tongue;” they derived their prophecies from their own hearts and their own tongues, and said that they came from God. They took or used their tongues only, and at the same time professed to speak God’s words. Or we may consider the taking or using the tongue as meaning only profession, as though it was said, “who profess and say, ‘He saith.’”
The Syr. is, “who pervert their own tongues,” which means that they used them falsely; and the Targ., “who prophesy according to the will of their own heart.” — Ed.

It afterwards follows, And they say, נאם, nam, he saith. We know that it was a common thing for all the prophets to add, נאם יהוה, nam Jeve, the saying of Jehovah, or the word of Jehovah, in order to shew that they said nothing but what they had received from above. And if we read this verse as connected together, we shall find true what I have said — that the verb לקה, lekech, does not mean the smoothness or adulation used, but, the lofty vaunting of the false teachers, who wished to be deemed the organs of the Holy Spirit, and assumed to themselves all the authority of God. For their elation was this, that they confidently boasted that God himself had spoken, and said that it was the word; and they did this, that whatever they prattled might appear indisputed, though it was sufficiently evident that they falsely pretended the name of God.

¹¹⁴ There are those who, with Houbigant, suppose a transposition in the word, the ח being put last instead of being first; and then it would mean to render smooth. But this does not suit the passage. The probable idea is what is given paraphrastically by the Sept., “who send forth the prophecies of the tongue;” they derived their prophecies from their own hearts and their own tongues, and said that they came from God. They took or used their tongues only, and at the same time professed to speak God’s words. Or we may consider the taking or using the tongue as meaning only profession, as though it was said, “who profess and say, ‘He saith.’” The Syr. is, “who pervert their own tongues,” which means that they used them falsely; and the Targ., “who prophesy according to the will of their own heart.” — Ed.