3. “I sent my sheep to other countries. But I will gather together my sheep that are left, and I will bring them back to their pasture. When my sheep are back in their pasture, they will have many children and grow in number.
4. I will place new shepherds over my sheep. They will take care of my sheep, and my sheep will never again feel afraid. None of my sheep will be lost.” This message is from the Lord.
5. This message is from the Lord: “The time is coming, when I will raise up a good ‘branch’ from David’s family. He will be a king who will rule in a wise way. He will do what is fair and right in the land.
6. When he rules, Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in safety. This will be his name: The Lord Makes Things Right for Us.
7. “So the time is coming,” says the Lord, “when people will not make a promise by saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, the one who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt ….’
8. But people will say something new: ‘As surely as the Lord lives, the one who brought the Israelites out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had sent them ….’ Then the people of Israel will live in their own land.”
9. A message to the prophets: I am very sad—my heart is broken. All my bones are shaking. Because of the Lord and his holy words, I am like a man who is drunk.
10. The land of Judah is full of people who commit adultery. They are unfaithful in many ways. So God cursed the land, and it became very dry. The plants are dried and dying in the pastures. The fields have become like the desert. The prophets are evil. They use their influence and power in the wrong way.
11. This message is from the Lord: “The prophets and even the priests are evil. I have seen them doing evil things in my own Temple.
12. I will stop giving my messages to them. They will walk in darkness. The road will be slippery for those prophets and priests, and they will fall in that darkness. I will bring disaster on them; I will punish them.” This message is from the Lord.
13. “I saw the prophets of Samaria doing wrong things. I saw them prophesy in the name of the false god Baal. They led the people of Israel away from me.
14. I have even seen the prophets of Jerusalem doing sinful things. They are committing adultery and living a life of lies. They support their fellow prophets and never stop doing evil. They have become like Sodom; they are all like Gomorrah.”