Jeremiah 10:21

²“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and tell them, even the shepherds, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Shouldn’t the shepherds feed the sheep? ³You eat the fat. You clothe yourself with the wool. You kill the fatlings, but you don’t feed the sheep. ⁴You haven’t strengthened the diseased. You haven’t healed that which was sick. You haven’t bound up that which was broken. You haven’t brought back that which was driven away. You haven’t sought that which was lost, but you have ruled over them with force and with rigor. ⁵They were scattered, because there was no shepherd. They became food to all the animals of the field, and were scattered. ⁶My sheep wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill. Yes, my sheep were scattered on all the surface of the earth. There was no one who searched or sought.”

⁷“‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the LORD’s word: ⁸“As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “surely because my sheep became a prey, and my sheep became food to all the animals of the field, because there was no shepherd, and my shepherds didn’t search for my sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves, and didn’t feed my sheep, ⁹therefore, you shepherds, hear the LORD’s word!” ¹⁰The Lord GOD says: “Behold, I am against the shepherds. I will require my sheep at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the sheep. The shepherds won’t feed themselves any more. I will deliver my sheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them.”

¹⁰Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard. They have trodden my portion under foot. They have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.

¹“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” says the LORD. ²Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, says against the shepherds who feed my people: “You have scattered my flock, driven them away, and have not visited them. Behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings,” says the LORD.

⁹Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken. All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the LORD, and because of his holy words. ¹⁰“For the land is full of adulterers; for because of the curse the land mourns. The pastures of the wilderness have dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right; ¹¹for both prophet and priest are profane. Yes, in my house I have found their wickedness,” says the LORD. ¹²Therefore their way will be to them as slippery places in the darkness. They will be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil on them, even the year of their visitation,” says the LORD. ¹³“I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria. They prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. ¹⁴In the prophets of Jerusalem I have also seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one returns from his wickedness. They have all become to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.”

¹⁵Therefore the LORD of Armies says concerning the prophets: “Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink poisoned water; for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land.”

¹⁶The LORD of Armies says, “Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They teach you vanity. They speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD. ¹⁷They say continually to those who despise me, ‘The LORD has said, “You will have peace;”’ and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, ‘No evil will come on you.’ ¹⁸For who has stood in the council of the LORD, that he should perceive and hear his word? Who has listened to my word, and heard it? ¹⁹Behold, the LORD’s storm, his wrath, has gone out. Yes, a whirling storm! It will burst on the head of the wicked. ²⁰The LORD’s anger will not return until he has executed and performed the intents of his heart. In the latter days, you will understand it perfectly. ²¹I didn’t send these prophets, yet they ran. I didn’t speak to them, yet they prophesied. ²²But if they had stood in my council, then they would have caused my people to hear my words, and would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. ²³“Am I a God at hand,” says the LORD, “and not a God afar off? ²⁴Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I can’t see him?” says the LORD. “Don’t I fill heaven and earth?” says the LORD.

²⁵“I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ ²⁶How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart? ²⁷They intend to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they each tell his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name because of Baal. ²⁸The 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 straw to the wheat?” says the LORD. ²⁹“Isn’t my word like fire?” says the LORD; “and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

³⁰“Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who each steal my words from his neighbor. ³¹Behold, I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who use their tongues, and say, ‘He says.’ ³²Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams,” says the LORD, “who tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting; yet I didn’t send them or command them. They don’t profit this people at all,” says the LORD.

¹²He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them. ¹³The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care for the sheep.

¹²As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered abroad, so I will seek out my sheep. I will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.

¹⁰His watchmen are blind. They are all without knowledge. They are all mute dogs. They can’t bark— dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber. ¹¹Yes, the dogs are greedy. They can never have enough. They are shepherds who can’t understand. They have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter. ¹²“Come,” they say, “I will get wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be as today, great beyond measure.”

³My anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the male goats, for the LORD of Armies has visited his flock, the house of Judah, and will make them as his majestic horse in the battle.

⁹The wise men are disappointed. They are dismayed and trapped. Behold, they have rejected the LORD’s word. What kind of wisdom is in them?

⁷“Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me,” says the LORD of Armies. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn my hand against the little ones.