23:6 Under his rule ¹  Judah will enjoy safety ² 

and Israel will live in security. ³ 

This is the name he will go by:

‘The Lord has provided us with justice.’ ⁴ 

23:7 “So I, the Lord, say: ⁵  ‘A new time will certainly come. ⁶  People now affirm their oaths with “I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt.” 23:8 But at that time they will affirm them with “I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the descendants of the former nation of Israel ⁷  from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished ⁸  them.” ⁹  At that time they will live in their own land.’”

23:9 Here is what the Lord says concerning the false prophets: ¹¹ 

My heart and my mind are deeply disturbed.

I tremble all over. ¹² 

I am like a drunk person,

like a person who has had too much wine, ¹³ 

because of the way the Lord

and his holy word are being mistreated. ¹⁴ 

23:10 For the land is full of people unfaithful to him. ¹⁵ 

They live wicked lives and they misuse their power. ¹⁶ 

So the land is dried up ¹⁷  because it is under his curse. ¹⁸ 

The pastures in the wilderness are withered.

23:11 Moreover, ¹⁹  the Lord says, ²⁰ 

“Both the prophets and priests are godless.

I have even found them doing evil in my temple!

23:12 So the paths they follow will be dark and slippery.

They will stumble and fall headlong.

For I will bring disaster on them.

A day of reckoning is coming for them.” ²¹ 

The Lord affirms it! ²² 

23:13 The Lord says, ²³  “I saw the prophets of Samaria ²⁴ 

doing something that was disgusting. ²⁵ 

They prophesied in the name of the god Baal

and led my people Israel astray. ²⁶ 

23:14 But I see the prophets of Jerusalem ²⁷ 

doing something just as shocking.

They are unfaithful to me

and continually prophesy lies. ²⁸ 

So they give encouragement to people who are doing evil,

with the result that they do not stop their evildoing. ²⁹ 

I consider all of them as bad as the people of Sodom,

and the citizens of Jerusalem as bad as the people of Gomorrah. ³⁰ 

23:15 So then I, the Lord who rules over all, ³¹ 

have something to say concerning the prophets of Jerusalem: ³² 

‘I will make these prophets eat the bitter food of suffering

and drink the poison water of judgment. ³³ 

For the prophets of Jerusalem are the reason ³⁴ 

that ungodliness ³⁵  has spread throughout the land.’”

23:16 The Lord who rules over all ³⁶  says to the people of Jerusalem: ³⁷ 

“Do not listen to what

those prophets are saying to you.

They are filling you with false hopes.

They are reporting visions of their own imaginations,

not something the Lord has given them to say. ³⁸ 

1:14 God said, “Let there be lights ¹  in the expanse ²  of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs ³  to indicate seasons and days and years, 1:15 and let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” It was so. 1:16 God made two great lights ⁴  – the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night. He made the stars also. ⁵  1:17 God placed the lights ⁶  in the expanse of the sky to shine on the earth,