^2 (A)If there arises in your midst a prophet or a dreamer^[a] who promises you a sign or wonder, ³ saying, “Let us go after other gods,” whom you have not known, “and let us serve them,” and the sign or wonder foretold to you comes to pass, ⁴ do not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer; for the Lord, your God, is testing you to know whether you really love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and soul.^{(B) 5} The Lord, your God, shall you follow, and him shall you fear; his commandments shall you observe, and to his voice shall you listen; him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.^{(C) 6} But that prophet or that dreamer shall be put to death, because, in order to lead you astray from the way which the Lord, your God, has commanded you to take, the prophet or dreamer has spoken apostasy against the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.^(D)

Chapter 22

Ahab’s Defeat by Aram.^{[a] 1} Three years passed without war between Aram and Israel. ² In the third year, however, King Jehoshaphat of Judah came down to the king of Israel. ³ The king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you not know that Ramoth-gilead is ours and we are doing nothing to take it from the king of Aram?” ⁴ He asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you come with me to fight against Ramoth-gilead?” Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, “You and I are as one, and your people and my people, your horses and my horses as well.”

Prophetic Condemnation. ⁵ Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “Seek the word of the Lord at once.” ⁶ The king of Israel assembled the prophets, about four hundred of them, and asked, “Shall I go to fight against Ramoth-gilead or shall I refrain?” They said, “Attack. The Lord will give it into the power of the king.”^{[b] 7} But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there no other prophet of the Lord here we might consult?” ⁸ The king of Israel answered, “There is one other man through whom we might consult the Lord; but I hate him because he prophesies not good but evil about me. He is Micaiah, son of Imlah.” Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say that.” ⁹ So the king of Israel called an official and said to him, “Get Micaiah, son of Imlah, at once.”

¹⁰ The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, were seated, each on his throne, clothed in their robes of state in the square at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them. ^11 (A)Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, made himself two horns of iron^[c] and said, “The Lord says, With these you shall gore Aram until you have destroyed them.” ¹² The other prophets prophesied in a similar vein, saying: “Attack Ramoth-gilead and conquer! The Lord will give it into the power of the king.”

¹³ Meanwhile, the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah said to him, “Look now, the prophets are unanimously predicting good for the king. Let your word be the same as any of theirs; speak a good word.” ¹⁴ Micaiah said, “As the Lord lives, I shall speak whatever the Lord tells me.”

¹⁵ When he came to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to fight at Ramoth-gilead, or shall we refrain?” He said, “Attack and conquer! The Lord will give it into the power of the king.” ¹⁶ But the king answered him, “How many times must I adjure you to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” ^17 [d]So Micaiah said:

¹⁸ The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you, he does not prophesy good about me, but only evil?” ^19 [e]Micaiah continued: “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord seated on his throne, with the whole host of heaven standing to his right and to his left. ²⁰ The Lord asked: Who will deceive Ahab, so that he will go up and fall on Ramoth-gilead?^[f] And one said this, another that, ²¹ until this spirit came forth and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will deceive him.’ The Lord asked: How? ²² He answered, ‘I will go forth and become a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’ The Lord replied: You shall succeed in deceiving him. Go forth and do this. ²³ So now, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours; the Lord himself has decreed evil against you.”

²⁴ Thereupon Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, came up and struck Micaiah on the cheek, saying, “Has the spirit of the Lord, then, left me to speak with you?” ²⁵ Micaiah said, “You shall find out on the day you go into an inner room to hide.” ²⁶ The king of Israel then said, “Seize Micaiah and take him back to Amon, prefect of the city, and to Joash, the king’s son, ²⁷ and say, ‘This is the king’s order: Put this man in prison and feed him scanty rations of bread and water until I come back in safety.’” ^28 (B)But Micaiah said, “If you return in safety, the Lord has not spoken through me.” (He also said, “Hear, O peoples, all of you.”)^[g]

Ahab at Ramoth-gilead. ²⁹ The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, went up to Ramoth-gilead, ³⁰ and the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and go into battle, but you put on your own robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and entered the battle. ³¹ In the meantime the king of Aram had given his thirty-two chariot commanders the order, “Do not fight with anyone, great or small, except the king of Israel alone.”

³² When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they cried out, “There is the king of Israel!” and wheeled to fight him. But Jehoshaphat cried out, ³³ and the chariot commanders, seeing that he was not the king of Israel, turned away from him. ³⁴ But someone drew his bow at random, and hit the king of Israel between the joints of his breastplate. He ordered his charioteer, “Rein about and take me out of the ranks, for I am wounded.”

^35 (C)The battle grew fierce during the day, and the king, who was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans, died in the evening. The blood from his wound flowed to the bottom of the chariot. ³⁶ At sunset a cry went through the army, “Every man to his city, every man to his land!”

³⁷ And so the king died, and came back to Samaria, and they buried him there. ^38 (D)When they washed out the chariot at the pool of Samaria, the dogs licked up his blood and prostitutes bathed there, as the Lord had prophesied.

³⁹ The rest of the acts of Ahab, with all that he did, including the ivory house he built and all the cities he built, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. ⁴⁰ Ahab rested with his ancestors, and his son Ahaziah succeeded him as king.

¹³ “Ah! Lord God,” I replied, “it is the prophets who say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword; famine shall not befall you. Indeed, I will give you lasting peace in this place.’”^(A)

¹⁴ These prophets utter lies in my name, the Lord said to me: I did not send them; I gave them no command, nor did I speak to them. They prophesy to you lying visions, foolish divination, deceptions from their own imagination.^{(B) 15} Therefore, thus says the Lord: Concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, though I did not send them, and who say, “Sword and famine shall not befall this land”: by sword and famine shall these prophets meet their end.^{(C) 16} The people to whom they prophesy shall be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of famine and the sword. No one shall bury them, their wives, their sons, or their daughters, for I will pour out upon them their own wickedness.^(D)

The False Prophets^[a]

¹⁵ Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts against the prophets:

²⁵ I have heard the prophets who prophesy lies in my name say, “I had a dream! I had a dream!” ²⁶ How long? Will the hearts of the prophets who prophesy lies and their own deceitful fancies ever turn back? ²⁷ By the dreams they tell each other, they plan to make my people forget my name, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal.^{(M) 28} Let the prophets who have dreams tell their dreams; let those who have my word speak my word truthfully!

³⁰ Therefore I am against the prophets—oracle of the Lord—those who steal my words from each other.^{(O) 31} Yes, I am against the prophets—oracle of the Lord—those who compose their own speeches and call them oracles. ³² Yes, I am against the prophets who tell lying dreams—oracle of the Lord—those who lead my people astray by recounting their reckless lies. It was not I who sent them or commanded them; they do this people no good at all—oracle of the Lord.^(P)

^33 [f]And when this people or a prophet or a priest asks you, “What is the burden of the Lord?” you shall answer, “You are the burden, and I cast you off”—oracle of the Lord. ³⁴ If a prophet or a priest or anyone else mentions “the burden of the Lord,” I will punish that man and his household. ³⁵ Thus you shall ask, when speaking to one another, “What answer did the Lord give?” or “What did the Lord say?” ³⁶ But “the burden of the Lord” you shall mention no more. For each of you, your own word becomes the burden so that you pervert the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God. ³⁷ Thus shall you ask the prophet, “What answer did the Lord give?” or “What did the Lord say?” ³⁸ But if you ask about “the burden of the Lord,” then thus says the Lord: Because you use this phrase, “the burden of the Lord,” though I forbade you to use it, ³⁹ therefore I will lift you on high and cast you from my presence, you and the city which I gave to you and your ancestors. ⁴⁰ And I will bring upon you eternal reproach, eternal shame, never to be forgotten.^(Q)

Chapter 28

The Two Yokes. ¹ That same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, Hananiah the prophet, son of Azzur, from Gibeon, said to me in the house of the Lord in the sight of the priests and all the people: ² “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. ³ Within two years I will restore to this place all the vessels of the house of the Lord which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took from this place and carried away to Babylon. ⁴ And Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles of Judah who went to Babylon, I will bring back to this place—oracle of the Lord—for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.”

⁵ Jeremiah the prophet answered the prophet Hananiah in the sight of the priests and all the people standing in the house of the Lord, ⁶ and said: Amen! thus may the Lord do! May the Lord fulfill your words that you have prophesied, by bringing back the vessels of the house of the Lord and all the exiles from Babylon to this place! ⁷ But now, listen to the word I am about to speak in your hearing and the hearing of all the people. ⁸ In the past, the prophets who came before you and me prophesied war, disaster, and pestilence against many lands and mighty kingdoms. ⁹ But the prophet who prophesies peace is recognized as the prophet whom the Lord has truly sent only when his word comes to pass.^(A)

¹⁰ Thereupon Hananiah the prophet took the yoke bar from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke it. ¹¹ He said in the sight of all the people: “Thus says the Lord: Like this, within two years I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, from the neck of all the nations.” At that, the prophet Jeremiah went on his way.

¹² After Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke bar off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ¹³ Go tell Hananiah this: Thus says the Lord: By breaking a wooden yoke bar, you make an iron yoke! ¹⁴ For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: A yoke of iron I have placed on the necks of all these nations serving Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and they shall serve him; even the wild animals I have given him.^{(B) 15} And Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet: Listen to this, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you, and you have led this people to rely on deception. ¹⁶ For this, says the Lord, I am sending you from the face of the earth; this very year you shall die, because you have preached rebellion against the Lord.^{(C) 17} Hananiah the prophet died in that year, in the seventh month.

Chapter 13

Against the Prophets of Peace. ¹ The word of the Lord came to me: ² Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel, prophesy! Say to those who prophesy their own thoughts: Hear the word of the Lord!^{(A) 3} Thus says the Lord God: Woe to those prophets, the fools who follow their own spirit and see nothing.^{(B) 4} Like foxes among ruins are your prophets, Israel! ⁵ You did not step into the breach, nor repair the wall around the house of Israel so it would stand firm against attack on the day of the Lord. ⁶ False visions! Lying divinations! They say, “The oracle of the Lord,” even though the Lord did not send them. Then they expect their word to be confirmed!^{(C) 7} Was not the vision you saw false? Did you not report a lying divination when you said, “Oracle of the Lord,” even though I never spoke? ⁸ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have spoken falsehood and seen lying visions, therefore, for certain I am coming at you—oracle of the Lord God. ⁹ My hand is against the prophets who see false visions and who make lying divinations. They shall not belong to the community of my people. They shall not be written in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel. Thus you shall know that I am the Lord.^(D)

¹⁰ Because they led my people astray, saying, “Peace!” when there is no peace, and when a wall is built, they cover it with whitewash,^{[a] 11} say then to the whitewashers: I will bring down a flooding rain; hailstones shall fall, and a stormwind shall break forth.^{(E) 12} When the wall has fallen, will you not be asked: “Where is the whitewash you spread on it?”

¹³ Therefore thus says the Lord God: In my fury I will let loose stormwinds; because of my anger there will be flooding rain, and hailstones will fall with destructive wrath.^{(F) 14} I will tear down the wall you whitewashed and level it to the ground, laying bare its foundations. When it falls, you shall be crushed beneath it. Thus you shall know that I am the Lord. ¹⁵ When I have poured out my fury on the wall and its whitewashers, it will fall. Then I will say to you: No wall! No whitewashers— ¹⁶ the prophets of Israel who prophesy to Jerusalem and see visions of peace for it when there is no peace—oracle of the Lord God.^(G)

Against Witches. ¹⁷ As for you, son of man, now set your face against the daughters of your people who play the prophet from their own thoughts, and prophesy against them.^{(H) 18} You shall say, Thus says the Lord God: Woe to those who sew amulets for the wrists of every arm and make veils^[b] for every head size to snare lives! You ensnare the lives of my people, even as you preserve your own lives! ¹⁹ You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and crumbs of bread,^[c] slaying those who should not be slain, and keeping alive those who should not live, lying to my people, who listen to lies. ²⁰ Therefore thus says the Lord God: See! I am coming after your amulets by which you ensnare lives like prey. I will tear them from your arms and set free the lives of those you have ensnared like prey.^{(I) 21} I will tear off your veils and deliver my people from your power, so that they shall never again be ensnared by your hands. Thus you shall know that I am the Lord. ²² Because you discourage the righteous with lies when I did not want them to be distressed, and encourage the wicked so they do not turn from their evil ways and save their lives,^{(J) 23} therefore you shall no longer see false visions or practice divination again. I will deliver my people from your hand. Thus you shall know that I am the Lord.