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?

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,

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 hate good and love evil! You tear off their skin, and rip the 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.

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.”

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'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.

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 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.

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;

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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:

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

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

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

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.

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!”

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.

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