1 “Woe to the shepherds destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!” declares יהוה.
2 Therefore thus said יהוה Elohim of Yisra’ĕl against the shepherds who feed My people, “You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and have not tended them. See, I am punishing you for the evil of your deeds,” declares יהוה.
3 “Therefore I shall gather the remnant of My flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and shall bring them back to their fold. And they shall bear and increase.
4 “And I shall raise up shepherds over them, and they shall feed them. And they shall fear no more, nor be discouraged, nor shall they be lacking,” declares יהוה.
5 “See, the days are coming,” declares יהוה, “when I shall raise for Dawiḏ a Branch of righteousness, and a Sovereign shall reign and act wisely, and shall do right-ruling and righteousness in the earth.
6 “In His days Yehuḏah shall be saved, and Yisra’ĕl dwell safely. And this is His Name whereby He shall be called: ‘יהוה our Righteousness.’
7 “Therefore, see, the days are coming,” declares יהוה, “when they shall say no more, ‘As יהוה lives who brought up the children of Yisra’ĕl out of the land of Mitsrayim,’
8 but, ‘As יהוה lives who brought up and led the seed of the house of Yisra’ĕl out of the land of the north and from all the lands where I had driven them.’ And they shall dwell on their own soil.”
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 overcome by wine, because of יהוה, and because of His set-apart words.
10 For the land is filled with adulterers; for the land mourns because of a curse. The pastures of the wilderness are dried up. And their course is evil, and their might is not right.
11 “For both prophet and priest have become defiled. Even in My house I have found their evil,” declares יהוה.
12 “Therefore their way is to them like slippery ways in the dark. They are driven on and they shall fall in them. For I bring evil on them, the year of their punishment,” declares יהוה.
13 “And I have seen folly in the prophets of Shomeron: they prophesied by Ba‛al and led My people Yisra’ĕl astray.
14 “And among the prophets of Yerushalayim I have seen a horrible matter: committing adultery and walking in falsehood. And they strengthen the hands of evil ones, so that no one turns back from his evil. All of them are like Seḏom to Me, and her inhabitants like Amorah.
15 “Therefore thus said יהוה of hosts concerning the prophets, ‘See, I am making them eat wormwood, and shall make them drink poisoned water. For defilement has gone out into all the land from the prophets of Yerushalayim.’ ”
16 Thus said יהוה of hosts, “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, they lead you astray. They speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of יהוה.
17 “They keep on saying to those who despise Me, ‘יהוה has said you shall have peace.’ And to all who walk according to the stubbornness of their own heart they say, ‘No evil comes upon you.’ ”
18 For who has stood in the counsel of יהוה, and has seen and heard His word? Who has listened to His word and obeyed it?
19 See, a storm of יהוה shall go forth in a rage, a whirling storm! It whirls on the head of the wrong.
20 The displeasure of יהוה shall not turn back until He has done and established the purposes of His heart. In the latter days you shall understand it perfectly.
21 “I did not send these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
22 “But if they had stood in My counsel, then they would have let My people hear My Words, and they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds.
23 “Am I an Elohim close by,” declares יהוה, “and not an Elohim afar off?
24 “If anyone is hidden in secret places, would I not see him?” declares יהוה. “Do I not fill the heavens and earth?” declares יהוה.
25 “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsehood in My Name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’
26 “Till when shall it be in the heart of the prophets? – the prophets of falsehood and prophets of the deceit of their own heart,
27 who try to make My people forget My Name by their dreams which everyone relates to his neighbour, as their fathers forgot My Name for Ba‛al.
28 “The prophet who has a dream, let him relate the dream, and he who has My Word, let him speak My Word in truth. What is the chaff to the wheat?” declares יהוה.
29 “Is not My Word like a fire?” declares יהוה, “and like a hammer that shatters a rock?
30 “Therefore see, I am against the prophets,” declares יהוה, “who steal My Words every one from his neighbour.
31 “See, I am against the prophets,” declares יהוה, “who use their tongues and say, ‘He declares.’
32 “See, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” declares יהוה, “and relate them, and lead My people astray by their falsehoods and by their reckless boasting. But I Myself did not send them nor have I commanded them. And they do not profit this people at all,” declares יהוה.
33 “And when these people or the prophet or the priest ask you, saying, ‘What is the message of יהוה?’ then you shall say to them, ‘What message?’ I shall forsake you,” declares יהוה.
34 “As for the prophet and the priest and the people who say, ‘The message of יהוה,’ I shall punish that man and his house.
35 “This is what each one says to his neighbour, and each one to his brother, ‘What has יהוה answered?’ and, ‘What has יהוה spoken?’
36 “But the message of יהוה you no longer remember! For every man’s message is his own word, for you have changed the Words of the living Elohim, יהוה of hosts, our Elohim!
37 “This is what you say to the prophet, ‘What has יהוה answered you?’ and, ‘What has יהוה spoken?’
38 “But since you say, ‘The message of יהוה!’ therefore thus said יהוה, ‘Because you say this word, “The message of יהוה!” and I have sent to you, saying, “Do not say, ‘The message of יהוה!’ ”
39 therefore see, I, I shall utterly forget you and cast you away from My presence, along with the city that I gave you and your fathers.
40 ‘And I shall put an everlasting reproach on you, and an everlasting shame that is not forgotten.’ ”