I answered, "Sovereign LORD, I don't know how to speak; I am too young."

Then I said, "Sovereign LORD, you know that the prophets are telling the people that there will be no war or starvation, because you have promised, they say, that there will be only peace in our land."

"Sovereign LORD, you made the earth and the sky by your great power and might; nothing is too difficult for you.

While I was prophesying, Pelatiah dropped dead. I threw myself face downward on the ground and shouted, "No, Sovereign LORD! Are you going to kill everyone left in Israel?"

Then I said, "Sovereign LORD, you know that the prophets are telling the people that there will be no war or starvation, because you have promised, they say, that there will be only peace in our land."

But the LORD replied, "The prophets are telling lies in my name; I did not send them, nor did I give them any orders or speak one word to them. The visions they talk about have not come from me; their predictions are worthless things that they have imagined.

The LORD asked, 'Who will deceive Ahab so that he will go and be killed at Ramoth?' Some of the angels said one thing, and others said something else,

'How?' the LORD asked. The spirit replied, 'I will go and make all of Ahab's prophets tell lies.' The LORD said, 'Go and deceive him. You will succeed.' "

Why do you let us stray from your ways? Why do you make us so stubborn that we turn away from you? Come back, for the sake of those who serve you, for the sake of the people who have always been yours.

"If any prophets are deceived into giving a false answer, it is because I, the LORD, have deceived them. I will remove them from the people of Israel.

Both prophets and anyone who consults them will get the same punishment.

And so God has given those people over to do the filthy things their hearts desire, and they do shameful things with each other.

Because they do this, God has given them over to shameful passions. Even the women pervert the natural use of their sex by unnatural acts.

Because those people refuse to keep in mind the true knowledge about God, he has given them over to corrupted minds, so that they do the things that they should not do.

The Wicked One will come with the power of Satan and perform all kinds of false miracles and wonders,

And so God sends the power of error to work in them so that they believe what is false.

The LORD's people have denied him and have said, "He won't really do anything. We won't have hard times; we won't have war or famine."

They act as if my people's wounds were only scratches. 'All is well,' they say, when all is not well.

They act as if my people's wounds were only scratches. 'All is well,' they say, when all is not well.

To the people who refuse to listen to what I have said, they keep saying that all will go well with them. And they tell everyone who is stubborn that disaster will never touch them."

They tell the prophets to keep quiet. They say, "Don't talk to us about what's right. Tell us what we want to hear. Let us keep our illusions.

I will defend this city and protect it, for the sake of my own honor and because of the promise I made to my servant David.' "

Judah, you have brought this on yourself by the way you have lived and by the things you have done. Your sin has caused this suffering; it has stabbed you through the heart.

This time I will punish not only your officials and your people, but I will punish you as well, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the world.

Young and old alike lie dead in the streets, Young men and women, killed by enemy swords. You slaughtered them without mercy on the day of your anger.