Micah 3:5

¹⁴Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I didn’t send them. I didn’t command them. I didn’t speak to them. They prophesy to you a lying vision, divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart. ¹⁵Therefore the LORD says concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, but I didn’t send them, yet they say, ‘Sword and famine will not be in this land.’ Those prophets will be consumed by sword and famine.

¹⁴They have healed also the hurt of my people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace.

²⁵There is a conspiracy of her prophets within it, like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They take treasure and precious things. They have made many widows within it. ²⁶Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths. So I am profaned among them. ²⁷Her princes within it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain. ²⁸Her prophets have plastered for them with whitewash, seeing false visions, and divining lies to them, saying, ‘The Lord GOD says,’ when the LORD has not spoken. ²⁹The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery. Yes, they have troubled the poor and needy, and have oppressed the foreigner wrongfully.

¹⁰“‘Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, “Peace;” and there is no peace. When one builds up a wall, behold, they plaster it with whitewash. ¹¹Tell those who plaster it with whitewash that it will fall. There will be an overflowing shower; and you, great hailstones, will fall. A stormy wind will tear it. ¹²Behold, when the wall has fallen, won’t it be said to you, “Where is the plaster with which you have plastered it?”

¹³“‘Therefore the Lord GOD says: “I will even tear it with a stormy wind in my wrath. There will be an overflowing shower in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath to consume it. ¹⁴So I will break down the wall that you have plastered with whitewash, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be uncovered. It will fall, and you will be consumed in the middle of it. Then you will know that I am the LORD. ¹⁵Thus I will accomplish my wrath on the wall, and on those who have plastered it with whitewash. I will tell you, ‘The wall is no more, nor those who plastered it— ¹⁶to wit, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace,’” says the Lord GOD.’”

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.

¹⁵The elder and the honorable man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail. ¹⁶For those who lead this people lead them astray; and those who are led by them are destroyed.

¹⁸For those who are such don’t serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the innocent.

¹⁵Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen, Hananiah! The LORD has not sent you, but you make this people trust in a lie. ¹⁶Therefore the LORD says, ‘Behold, I will send you away from off the surface of the earth. This year you will die, because you have spoken rebellion against the LORD.’”

¹⁷So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

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.’

⁸But you have turned away from the path. You have caused many to stumble in the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of Armies.