Wicked Rulers and Prophets

3 And I said:

“Hear now, O heads of Jacob,

And you arulers of the house of Israel:

bIs it not for you to know justice?

2 You who hate good and love evil;

Who strip the skin from 1My people,

And the flesh from their bones;

3 Who also ceat the flesh of My people,

Flay their skin from them,

Break their bones,

And chop them in pieces

Like meat for the pot,

dLike flesh in the caldron.”

4 Then ethey will cry to the Lord,

But He will not hear them;

He will even hide His face from them at that time,

Because they have been evil in their deeds.

5 Thus says the Lord fconcerning the prophets

Who make my people stray;

Who chant 2“Peace”

3While they gchew with their teeth,

But who prepare war against him

hWho puts nothing into their mouths:

6 “Therefore iyou shall have night without 4vision,

And you shall have darkness without divination;

The sun shall go down on the prophets,

And the day shall be dark for jthem.

7 So the seers shall be ashamed,

And the diviners abashed;

Indeed they shall all cover their lips;

kFor there is no answer from God.”

8 But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord,

And of justice and might,

lTo declare to Jacob his transgression

And to Israel his sin.

9 Now hear this,

You heads of the house of Jacob

And rulers of the house of Israel,

Who abhor justice

And 5pervert all equity,

10 mWho build up Zion with nbloodshed

And Jerusalem with iniquity:

11 oHer heads judge for a bribe,

pHer priests teach for pay,

And her prophets divine for 6money.

qYet they lean on the Lord, and say,

“Is not the Lord among us?

No harm can come upon us.”

12 Therefore because of you

Zion shall be rplowed like a field,

sJerusalem shall become heaps of ruins,

And tthe mountain of the 7temple

Like the bare hills of the forest.