Micah 3

1 Then I said, “Please listen, leaders of the descendants of Jacob, people of Israel. You are meant to know the difference between right and wrong,

And I said, Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel: Is it not for you to know judgment?

2 you who hate good and love evil! You tear off their skin, and rip the flesh from their bones.

Ye who hate the good, and love evil; who pluck off their skin from them, and their flesh from off their bones;

3 You eat the flesh of my people, you strip off their skin, you break their bones. You chop them up like meat for the saucepan, like flesh for the cooking pot.”

and who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces as for the pot, and as flesh within the cauldron.

4 Then they'll cry out to the Lord, but he won't answer them. He will turn away from them at that time because of the evil things they have done.

Then shall they cry unto Jehovah, but he will not answer them; and he will hide his face from them at that time, according as they have wrought evil in their doings.

5 This is what the Lord says about the prophets who deceive my people. To those who feed them they prophesy peace to them, while to those who do not they prophesy war against them.

Thus saith Jehovah concerning the prophets that cause my people to err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace! but whoso putteth not into their mouths they prepare war against him:

6 Therefore it will be like night for you, with no visions; dark, with no predictions. The sun will set on these prophets; their day will end in darkness.

therefore ye shall have night without a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, without divination; and the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them.

7 The seers will be disgraced, the fortune-tellers put to shame, and they will cover their faces because none of them receive any answer from God.

And the seers shall be ashamed, and the diviners confounded; and they shall all cover their lips, for there will be no answer of God.

8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the spirit of the Lord. I am filled with justice and strength to make clear to the descendants of Jacob their rebellion, and to the people of Israel their sin.

But truly I am filled with power by the Spirit of Jehovah, and with judgment and with might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.

9 Listen to me, leaders of the descendants of Jacob and the people of Israel, you who hate justice and distort all that is right.

Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity,

10 You are building Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with evil.

that build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with unrighteousness.

11 Your leaders judge for a bribe, and your priests teach for a price, and your prophets only prophesy for pay. Yet they all lean on the Lord saying, “Isn't the Lord here with us? Nothing bad can happen to us!”

The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money; yet do they lean upon Jehovah, and say, Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? no evil shall come upon us.

12 Therefore because of you Zion will become a ploughed field and Jerusalem a heap of rubble, and the Temple mount will be overgrown.

Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed [as] a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.