Armiya 23
Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says Allah. 2Therefore thus says Allah, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people: You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them; behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings, says Allah. 3I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4I will set up shepherds over them, who shall feed them; and they shall not fear anymore, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking, says Allah. 5Behold, the days come, says Allah, that I will raise to Dawud a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name by which he shall be called: Allah our Righteousness. 7Therefore, behold, the days come, says Allah, that they shall no more say, As Allah lives, who brought up Bani-Israel out of the land of Egypt. 8Rather they shall say, As Allah lives, who brought up and led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries where I had driven them. They shall dwell in their own land. 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 Allah, and because of his holy words. 10For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourns; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right. 11For both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in my house have I found their wickedness, says Allah. 12Therefore their way shall be to them as slippery places in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil on them, even the year of their visitation, says Allah. 13I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. 14In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies; and they strengthen the hands of evil-doers, so that no one returns from his wickedness: they are all of them become to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah. 15Therefore thus says Allah, Lord of the universe concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem has ungodliness gone forth into all the land. 16Thus says Allah, Lord of the universe, Do not 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 Allah. 17They say continually to those who despise me, Allah has said you shall have peace; and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, No evil shall come on you. 18For who has stood in the council of Allah, that he should perceive and hear his word? Who has marked my word, and heard it? 19Behold, the tempest of Allah, even his wrath, is gone forth, yes, a whirling tempest: it shall burst on the head of the wicked. 20The anger of Allah shall not return, until he has executed, and until he has performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days you shall understand it perfectly. 21I did not send these prophets, yet they ran: I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. 22But if they had listened to my counsel, then they would have caused my people to hear my words, and turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. 23Am I only God nearby, says Allah, and not God far away? 24Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? says Allah. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says Allah. 25I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. 26How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart? 27They think they will cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers forgot my name for 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 Allah. 29Isn't my word like fire? says Allah; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? 30Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says Allah, who steal my words everyone from his neighbour. 31Behold, I am against the prophets, says Allah, who use their tongues, and say, He says. 32Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says Allah, and tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting: yet I did not send them, nor did I command them; neither do they profit this people at all, says Allah. 33When this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask you, saying, What is the message of Allah? Then you shall tell them, What message? I will cast you off, says Allah. 34As for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, who shall say, This is the messsage of Allah, I will even punish that man and his house. 35Thus everyone shall say to his neighbour, and everyone to his brother, What has Allah answered? What has Allah spoken? 36You shall say "the message of Allah" no more: for every man's own word shall be his message; for you have perverted the words of the living God, of Allah, Lord of the universe our God. 37Thus shall you say to the prophet, What has Allah answered you? And, What has Allah spoken? 38But if you say, The message of Allah; therefore thus says Allah: Because you say this word, The message of Allah, and I have sent to you, saying, You shall not say, The message of Allah; 39therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast you off, and the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, away from my presence: 40and I will bring an everlasting reproach on you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.