Micah 3

1 Then said I, Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, and ye judges of the house of Israel, —Is it not yours to know justice?

And I said, Give ear, now, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the people of Israel: is it not for you to have knowledge of what is right?

2 Ye haters of right, and lovers of wrong, —tearing away their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;

You who are haters of good and lovers of evil, pulling off their skin from them and their flesh from their bones;

3 Who indeed have eaten the flesh of my people, and, their skin from off them, have stript, and, their bones, have they broken in pieces, —and will spread them out, as flesh with a fork, and as flesh, in the midst of a pot.

Like meat they take the flesh of my people for their food, skinning them and crushing their bones, yes, cutting them up as if for the pot, like flesh inside the cooking-pot.

4 Then, shall they make outcry unto Yahweh, but he will not answer them, —that he may hide his face from them, at that time, even as they have made wicked their doings.

Then they will be crying to the Lord for help, but he will not give them an answer: yes, he will keep his face veiled from them at that time, because their acts have been evil.

5 Thus, saith Yahweh, concerning the prophets who are leading astray my people, —who bite with their teeth, and then cry—Prosper! and whoso holdeth not to their mouth, they hallow against him a war!

This is what the Lord has said about the prophets by whom my people have been turned from the right way; who, biting with their teeth, say, Peace; and if anyone puts nothing in their mouths they make ready for war against him.

6 Therefore, shall it be night to you, for lack of vision, and darkness to you, for lack of divination, —and the sun, shall go in, over the prophets, and the day, shall be overcast because of them;

For this cause it will be night for you, without a vision; and it will be dark for you, without knowledge of the future; the sun will go down over the prophets, and the day will be black over them.

7 And the men of vision, shall turn pale, and the diviners, shall blush, and shall put a covering upon their lip, all of them, —because there is no answer of God.

And the seers will be shamed, and the readers of the future will be at a loss, all of them covering their lips; for there is no answer from God.

8 But, in very deed, I, am full of vigour, with the spirit of Yahweh, and of justice and of valour, —to declare to Jacob, his transgression, and to Israel, his sin.

But I truly am full of the spirit of the Lord, with power of judging and with strength to make clear to Jacob his wrongdoing and to Israel his sin.

9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and ye judges of the house of Israel, —who abhor justice, and, all right, do pervert:

Then give ear to this, you heads of the children of Jacob, you rulers of the children of Israel, hating what is right, twisting what is straight.

10 Building Zion, with deeds of blood, —and Jerusalem, with perversity.

They are building up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with evil-doing.

11 Her heads, for a bribe, pronounce sentence, and, her priests, for a price, give direction, and, her prophets, for silver, divine, —yet, on Yahweh, they lean, saying, Is not, Yahweh, in our midst? there shall not come upon us, calamity.

Its heads take rewards for judging, and the priests take payment for teaching, and the prophets get silver for reading the future: but still, supporting themselves on the Lord, they say, Is not the Lord among us? no evil will overtake us.

12 Wherefore, for your sake, Zion, as a field, shall be ploughed, and, Jerusalem, unto heaps of ruins, shall be turned, —and, the mountain of the house, shall [be] like mounds in a jungle.

For this reason, Zion will be ploughed like a field because of you, and Jerusalem will become a mass of broken walls, and the mountain of the house like a high place in the woods.