The Hebrew Prophets

I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied.

But if they had stood in My council, they would have proclaimed My words to My people and turned them back from their evil ways and deeds.”

“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away?”

“Can a man hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD.

“I have heard the sayings of the prophets who prophesy lies in My name: ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’

How long will this continue in the hearts of these prophets who prophesy falsehood, these prophets of the delusion of their own minds?

They suppose the dreams that they tell one another will make My people forget My name, just as their fathers forgot My name through the worship of Baal.

Let the prophet who has a dream retell it, but let him who has My word speak it truthfully. For what is straw compared to grain?” declares the LORD.

“Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?”

“Therefore behold,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words they attribute to Me.”

“Yes,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and proclaim, ‘The LORD declares it.’”

“Indeed,” declares the LORD, “I am against those who prophesy false dreams and retell them to lead My people astray with their reckless lies. It was not I who sent them or commanded them, and they are of no benefit at all to these people,” declares the LORD.

“Now when this people or a prophet or priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the LORD?’ you are to say to them, ‘What burden? I will forsake you, declares the LORD.’

As for the prophet or priest or anyone who claims, ‘This is the burden of the LORD,’ I will punish that man and his household.

This is what each man is to say to his friend and to his brother: ‘What has the LORD answered?’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’

But refer no more to the burden of the LORD, for each man’s word becomes the burden, so that you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of Hosts, our God.

Thus you are to say to the prophet: ‘What has the LORD answered you?’ and ‘What has the LORD spoken?’

But if you claim, ‘This is the burden of the LORD,’ then this is what the LORD says: Because you have said, ‘This is the burden of the LORD,’ and I specifically told you not to make this claim,

therefore I will surely forget you and will cast you out of My presence, both you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers.

And I will bring upon you everlasting shame and perpetual humiliation that will never be forgotten.”

After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, as well as the officials of Judah and the craftsmen and metalsmiths from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the LORD.

One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early, but the other basket contained very poor figs, so bad they could not be eaten.

“Jeremiah,” the LORD asked, “what do you see?” “Figs!” I replied. “The good figs are very good, but the bad figs are very bad, so bad they cannot be eaten.”

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, so I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans.