Micah 3

Wicked Rulers and Prophets

³And I said:

Listen, you heads of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel!

Should you not know justice?—^*

²you who hate the good and love the evil,

who tear the skin off my people^h

and the flesh off their bones,^*

³who eat the flesh of my people,

flay their skin off them,

break their bones in pieces,

and chop them up like meatⁱ in a kettle,

like flesh in a caldron.^*

⁴Then they will cry to the Lord,

but he will not answer them;

he will hide his face from them at that time

because they have acted wickedly.^*

⁵Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets

who lead my people astray,

who cry “Peace”

when they have something to eat

but declare war against those

who put nothing into their mouths.^*

⁶Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,

and darkness to you, without revelation.

The sun shall go down upon the prophets,

and the day shall be black over them;^*

⁷the seers shall be disgraced

and the diviners put to shame;

they shall all cover their lips,

for there is no answer from God.^*

⁸But as for me, I am filled with power,

with the spirit of the Lord,

and with justice and might,

to declare to Jacob his transgression

and to Israel his sin.^*

⁹Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob

and chiefs of the house of Israel,

who abhor justice

and pervert all equity,^*

¹⁰who build Zion with blood

and Jerusalem with wrong!^*

¹¹Its rulers give judgment for a bribe;

its priests teach for a price;

its prophets give oracles for money;

yet they lean upon the Lord and say,

“Surely the Lord is with us!

No harm shall come upon us.”^*

¹²Therefore because of you

Zion shall be plowed as a field;

Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,

and the mountain of the temple a wooded height.^*