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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 Lord
   and because of his holy words.
¹⁰ 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.
¹¹ Both prophet and priest are ungodly;
   even in my house I have found their wickedness,

says the Lord.
¹² 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 Lord.
¹³ In the prophets of Samaria
   I saw a disgusting thing:
they prophesied by Baal
   and led my people Israel astray.
¹⁴ 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.
¹⁵ Therefore thus says the Lord 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 Lord 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 Lord. ¹⁷They keep saying to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to all who stubbornly follow their own stubborn hearts, they say, ‘No calamity shall come upon you.’

¹⁸ For who has stood in the council of the Lord
   so as to see and to hear his word?
   Who has given heed to his word so as to proclaim it?
¹⁹ Look, the storm of the Lord!
   Wrath has gone forth,
a whirling tempest;
   it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
²⁰ The anger of the Lord will not turn back
   until he has executed and accomplished
   the intents of his mind.
In the latter days you will understand it clearly.

²¹ I did not send the prophets,
   yet they ran;
I did not speak to them,
   yet they prophesied.
²² 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 Lord, and not a God far off? ²⁴Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord. 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 Lord. ²⁹Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? ³⁰See, therefore, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who steal my words from one another. ³¹See, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who use their own tongues and say, ‘Says the Lord.’ ³²See, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the Lord, 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 Lord.