99 passages · Jesus and the church
If a prophet or dreamer performs a sign but urges Israel to follow other gods, they must not listen. God is testing their love, and such a prophet is to be put to death.
An old prophet of Bethel goes after the man of God and lies, claiming an angel told him to bring the man home to eat. The man of God goes with him.
Four hundred prophets, led by Zedekiah, predict victory. Micaiah at first says the same, but Ahab presses him, and he describes Israel scattered like sheep without a shepherd.
Micaiah describes seeing the LORD on his throne and a spirit sent to deceive Ahab's prophets. Zedekiah strikes him, and Ahab has him jailed, but Micaiah says Ahab's return will prove him right.
Four hundred prophets, led by Zedekiah, promise victory. Micaiah at first echoes them, then when pressed tells of a vision of Israel scattered like sheep without a shepherd.
The people say the LORD will do nothing and the prophets are just wind. God answers that His words will become a fire in Jeremiah's mouth and that a foreign nation will devour their harvest and fortified cities.
Jeremiah says no one will listen and he is full of God's wrath. God says all, from prophet to priest, are greedy and deceitful, treating wounds with 'Peace, peace' when there is no peace.
At the temple gate, Jeremiah is to tell Judah that they may stay in the land only if they reform and act justly. They cannot commit crimes and then claim safety because 'this is the temple of the LORD', which has become a den of robbers.
God says He will not accept a people who love to wander, and tells Jeremiah not to pray for them. When Jeremiah says the prophets promise peace, God says He did not send them and they will die by the sword and famine.
Jeremiah is told to speak of his tears for his shattered people. In country and city he sees the sword and famine, and even prophets and priests are carried off.
Jeremiah is shaken by the ungodliness of prophets and priests. God says prophets in Samaria and Jerusalem are corrupt, comparing Jerusalem to Sodom, and He will feed them wormwood.
God warns the people not to heed prophets who promise peace from their own minds. None stood in His council; had they done so, they would have turned the people from evil.
God says He fills heaven and earth and hears prophets claiming dreams. His word is like fire and a hammer compared to straw, and He is against prophets who steal or invent words in His name.
God tells Jeremiah how to answer anyone who asks about the 'burden of the LORD': there is no burden except that God will forsake them. People should ask instead what the LORD has answered, or face everlasting shame.
After Jeremiah finishes, the priests, prophets and people seize him and say he must die for prophesying against the temple and city. Officials come to the New Gate and the priests press their accusation.
Any nation refusing Babylon's yoke will suffer sword, famine and plague. The nations are told not to trust prophets, diviners and sorcerers who say they will not serve Babylon, since those are lies that lead to exile.
Jeremiah repeats the message to King Zedekiah: submit to Babylon and live. He warns him not to listen to prophets who promise otherwise, for God has not sent them.
Jeremiah tells the priests and people that prophets promising the quick return of the temple articles are lying. The remaining temple furnishings will also be carried to Babylon until God chooses to restore them.
In the temple, the prophet Hananiah claims in God's name that within two years the temple articles and exiles will return and Babylon's yoke will be broken.
Jeremiah says he wishes Hananiah were right, but notes prophets of old warned of war and disaster. A prophet of peace will be known as truly sent only if his word comes true.
Hananiah takes the yoke from Jeremiah's neck and breaks it, saying God will do the same to Babylon's yoke in two years. Jeremiah goes on his way.
God tells Jeremiah that a wooden yoke has been replaced by an iron one. Jeremiah tells Hananiah that God did not send him and that he will die that year, and Hananiah dies two months later.
The exiles are told not to assume prophets in Babylon speak for God. Those remaining in Jerusalem will face sword, famine and plague and be like rotten figs, since they have ignored the prophets.
God says two prophets in Babylon, Ahab and Zedekiah, are speaking lies in his name and committing adultery. Nebuchadnezzar will execute them, and their fate will become a curse.
Shemaiah wrote from Babylon urging the priest Zephaniah to punish Jeremiah for his letter. God announces that Shemaiah and his descendants will be punished for preaching rebellion and misleading the people.
The poet says the prophets' visions were empty and never exposed the people's guilt. Passersby and enemies jeer, and the poet states that the LORD has carried out what he planned long ago.
The LORD's anger has burned Zion, something the world thought impossible. The poet blames the sins of prophets and priests who shed innocent blood, so that people fled, shunned as unclean, and scattered.
God denounces prophets who speak their own inventions and see nothing, compared to foxes among ruins who never repair the wall to stand in battle on the day of the LORD.
Because they say 'peace' when there is no peace and whitewash a flimsy wall, God will send a storm that topples it, and the prophets will be cut off from the people.
God speaks against women who use charms and veils to hunt down lives, killing those who should not die and keeping alive those who should not live, and he will free his people from them.