1 Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture! says Jehovah.

2 Therefore thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed My people, You have scattered My flock, and have driven them away, and have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings, says Jehovah.

3 And I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and will bring them back to their folds. And they shall be fruitful and multiply.

4 And I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them. And they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed; nor shall they be lacking, says Jehovah.

5 Behold, the days are coming, says Jehovah, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King who shall reign and act prudently, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the earth.

6 In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is His name by which He shall be called, JEHOVAH, OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

7 Therefore, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that they shall no longer say, Jehovah lives, who brought the sons of Israel up out of the land of Egypt;

8 but, Jehovah lives, who brought up and led the seed of the house of Israel out of the land of the north, and from all lands where I have driven them. And they shall dwell in their own land.

9 My 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 has overcome, because of Jehovah, and because of the Words of His holiness.

10 For the land is full of adulterers. Yes, because of cursing the land mourns; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their strength is not right.

11 For both prophet and priest are corrupt; yes, in My house I have found their evil, says Jehovah.

12 So their way shall be to them as slippery ways in the darkness; they shall be driven on, and fall in them; for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their punishment, says Jehovah.

13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal and caused My people Israel to go astray.

14 I have also seen in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing; they commit adultery and walk in falsehood. They also strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns back from his evil; they are all of them like Sodom to Me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.

15 Therefore thus says Jehovah of Hosts concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them wormwood, and make them drink bitter water; for godlessness has gone forth from the prophets of Jerusalem into all the land.

16 Thus says Jehovah of Hosts, Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They fill you with vanities; they speak a vision from their own heart, not out of the mouth of Jehovah.

17 They speak to those who despise Me, promising, Jehovah has said, You shall have peace! And they say to everyone who walks after the stubbornness of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you!

18 For who has stood in the counsel of Jehovah, and has perceived and heard His Word? Who has paid attention to His Word and heeded it?

19 Behold, a tempest from Jehovah has gone forth in fury, a whirling tempest. It shall whirl upon the head of the wicked.

20 The anger of Jehovah shall not turn back, until He has executed and until He has fulfilled the purposes of His heart; in the latter days you shall diligently consider it with understanding.

21 I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

22 But if they had stood in My counsel and had caused My people to hear My Words, then they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings.

23 Am I a God near by, says Jehovah, and not a God afar off?

24 Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? says Jehovah. Do I not fill the heavens and earth? says Jehovah.

25 I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in My name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart,

27 who think to cause My people to forget My name by their dreams which they tell, each one to his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten My name for Baal.

28 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 chaff to the wheat? says Jehovah.

29 Is not My Word like a fire? says Jehovah; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

30 Therefore thus says Jehovah, Behold, I am against the prophets who steal My Words each one from his neighbor.

31 Jehovah says, Behold, I am against the prophets who use their tongues and say, He says.

32 Jehovah says, Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams and tell them, and cause My people to go astray by their lies and by their foolishness. Yet I did not send them nor command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all, says Jehovah.

33 And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask you, saying, What is the burden of Jehovah? You shall then say to them, What burden? I will even forsake you, says Jehovah.

34 And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, who shall say, The burden of Jehovah! I will even punish that man and his house.

35 And you shall say each one to his neighbor, and each one to his brother, What has Jehovah answered? and, What has Jehovah spoken?

36 And you shall mention the burden of Jehovah no more. For every man’s word shall be his burden; for you have perverted the Words of the living God, of Jehovah of Hosts our God.

37 Thus you shall say to the prophet, What has Jehovah answered you? and, What has Jehovah spoken?

38 But since you say, The burden of Jehovah! therefore thus says Jehovah, Because you say this word (The burden of Jehovah), and I have sent to you saying, You shall not say, The burden of Jehovah;

39 therefore behold, I, even I, will completely forget you, and I will forsake you and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and will cast you out of My presence.

40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.