“Woe to the shepherds (civil leaders, rulers) who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!” says the LORD. Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, in regard to the shepherds who care for and feed My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them; hear this, I am about to visit and attend to you for the evil of your deeds,” says the LORD. “Then I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries to which I have driven them and bring them back to their folds and pastures; and they will be fruitful and multiply. I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them. And they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be missing,” says the LORD.
¶“Behold (listen closely), the days are coming,” says the LORD,
“When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch;
And He will reign as King and act wisely
And will do [those things that accomplish] justice and righteousness in the land.
“In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell safely;
Now this is His name by which He will be called;
‘The LORD Our Righteousness.’ [Matt 1:21-23; Rom 3:22]
“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “when they will no longer say, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ but [they will say], ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up and led back the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries to which I had driven them.’ Then they will live in their own land.” [Jer 16:14, 15]
¶Concerning the prophets:
My heart [says Jeremiah] is broken within me,
All my bones shake;
I have become like a drunken man,
A man whom wine has overcome,
Because of the LORD
And because of His holy words [declared against unfaithful leaders].
For the land is full of adulterers (unfaithful to God);
The land mourns because of the curse [of God upon it].
The pastures of the wilderness have dried up.
The course of action [of the false prophets] is evil and they rush into wickedness;
And their power is not right.
“For both [false] prophet and priest are ungodly (profane, polluted);
Even in My house I have found their wickedness,” says the LORD.
“Therefore their way will be to them like slippery paths
In the dark; they will be pushed and fall into them;
For I will bring disaster on them,
In the year of their punishment,” says the LORD.
¶“And I have seen a foolish and an offensive thing in the prophets of Samaria:
They prophesied by Baal and caused My people Israel to go astray.
“Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem:
They commit adultery and walk in lies;
They encourage and strengthen the hands of evildoers,
So that no one has turned back from his wickedness.
All of them have become like Sodom to Me,
And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts in regard to the prophets,
‘Behold, I am going to feed them [the bitterness of] wormwood
And make them drink the poisonous water [of gall],
For from the [counterfeit] prophets of Jerusalem
Profaneness and ungodliness have spread into all the land.’ ”
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