Study Desk

Therefore thus says the Lord , the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: "You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord .

I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord .

"Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord , when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

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 is evil, and their might is not right.

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, declares the Lord .

Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets: "Behold, I will feed them with bitter food and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land."

For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened?

who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal?

And as for the prophet, priest, or one of the people who says, ‘The burden of the Lord ,' I will punish that man and his household.

But ‘the burden of the Lord ' you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man's own word, and you pervert the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God.

I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up.

I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord , and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

"For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened.

behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord , and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.

Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord , making the land an everlasting waste.

For many nations and great kings shall make slaves even of them, and I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands."

For behold, I begin to work disaster at the city that is called by my name, and shall you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the Lord of hosts.'

The clamor will resound to the ends of the earth, for the Lord has an indictment against the nations; he is entering into judgment with all flesh, and the wicked he will put to the sword, declares the Lord .'

"Wail, you shepherds, and cry out, and roll in ashes, you lords of the flock, for the days of your slaughter and dispersion have come, and you shall fall like a choice vessel.

No refuge will remain for the shepherds, nor escape for the lords of the flock.