The Righteous Branch
Jeremiah 23“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” says YHWH. Therefore YHWH, the God of Israel, says against the shepherds who feed my people: “Y’all have scattered my flock, driven them away, and have not attended to them. Look! I am about to attend to y’all for y’all’s evil deeds,” says YHWH. “I will gather the remnant of my flock from all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds, and they will be fruitful and multiply. I will set up shepherds over them who will shepherd them. They will no longer be afraid or broken, nor will any be missing,” says YHWH.
“Look! The days are coming,” says YHWH, “when I will raise for David a righteous Branch. And he will reign as king and deal wisely, and will do what is just and righteous in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely. This is his name by which he will be called: YHWH our righteousness.
“Therefore look, the days are coming,” says YHWH, “when they will no more say, ‘As YHWH lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but, ‘As YHWH lives, who brought up and who led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ Then they will dwell in their own land.”
Lying Prophets Condemned
Concerning the prophets:
My heart is broken within me. All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of YHWH, and because of his holy words. “For the land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land mourns. The pastures of the wilderness have dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right. For both prophet and priest are profane. Yes, in my house I have found their wickedness,” says YHWH. Therefore their way will be to them as slippery places in the darkness. They will be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil on them, even the year of their visitation,” says YHWH.“I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria. They prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. In the prophets of Jerusalem I have also seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one returns from his wickedness. They have all become to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.”
Therefore YHWH Almighty says concerning the prophets:
“Surely, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink poisoned water; for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land.”YHWH Almighty says,
“Y’all must not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to y’all. They teach y’all vanity. They speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of YHWH. They say-and-say to those who despise me, ‘YHWH has said, “Y’all will have peace;”’ and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, ‘No disaster will come to y’all.’ For who has stood in the council of YHWH, that he should perceive and hear his word? Who has listened to my word, and heard it? Look, YHWH’s storm, his wrath, has gone forth. Yes, a whirling storm! It will burst on the head of the wicked. YHWH’s anger will not return until he has executed and performed the purposes of his heart. In the days to come, y’all will understand it completely. I didn’t send these prophets, yet they ran. I didn’t speak to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my council, then they would have caused my people to hear my words, and would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.“Am I a God at hand,” says YHWH, “and not a God afar off? Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I can’t see him?” says YHWH. “Don’t I fill heaven and earth?” says YHWH.
“I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart? They intend to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they each tell his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name because of Baal. The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat?” says YHWH. “Isn’t my word like fire?” says YHWH; “and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
“Therefore, see how I am against the prophets,” says YHWH, “who each steal my words from his neighbor. See how I am against the prophets,” says YHWH, “who use their tongues, and say, ‘He says.’ See how I am against those who prophesy lying dreams,” says YHWH, “who tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting; yet I didn’t send them or command them. They don’t profit this people at all,” says YHWH.
What Has YHWH Said?
“When this people, or the prophet, or a priest, asks y’all, saying, ‘What is the message from YHWH?’ Then you are to tell them, ‘“What message? I will abandon y’all,” says YHWH.’ As for the prophet, the priest, and the people, who say, ‘This message is from YHWH,’ I will even punish them and their household. Thus each of y’all are to say to your neighbor, and everyone to their relative, ‘What has YHWH answered?’ and, ‘What has YHWH said?’ You will no longer remember the message from YHWH, for every person’s own word has become their own message, because y’all have perverted the words of the living God, of YHWH Almighty, our God. You should say to the prophet, ‘What has YHWH answered you?’ and, ‘What has YHWH spoken?’ Although y’all say, ‘This is a message from YHWH,’ YHWH says: ‘Because y’all say, “This is a message from YHWH,” when I told telling y’all not to say, “This is a message from YHWH,” therefore, I will utterly forget y’all, and I will cast y’all away from my presence along with the city that I gave to y’all and to y’all’s ancestors. I will bring an everlasting disgrace and a perpetual shame on y’all that will not be forgotten.’”