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Wicked Rulers and Prophets

And I said:
Listen, you heads of Jacob
    and rulers of the house of Israel!
Should you not know justice?—(A)
    you who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin off my people[a]
    and the flesh off their bones,(B)
who eat the flesh of my people,
    flay their skin off them,
break their bones in pieces,
    and chop them up like meat[b] in a kettle,
    like flesh in a caldron.(C)

Then 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.(D)

Thus 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.(E)
Therefore 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;(F)
the seers shall be disgraced
    and the diviners put to shame;
they shall all cover their lips,
    for there is no answer from God.(G)
But 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.(H)

Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob
    and chiefs of the house of Israel,
who abhor justice
    and pervert all equity,(I)
10 who build Zion with blood
    and Jerusalem with wrong!(J)
11 Its 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.”(K)
12 Therefore 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.(L)

Footnotes

  1. 3.2 Heb from them
  2. 3.3 Gk: Heb as