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Listen to this, you leaders of the family[a] of Jacob,
you rulers of the nation[b] of Israel!
You[c] hate justice
and pervert all that is right.
10 You[d] build Zion through bloody crimes,[e]
Jerusalem through unjust violence.
11 Her[f] leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases,[g]
her priests proclaim rulings for profit,
and her prophets read omens for pay.
Yet they claim to trust[h] the Lord and say,
“The Lord is among us.[i]
Disaster will not overtake[j] us!”
12 Therefore, because of you,[k] Zion will be plowed up like[l] a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,
and the Temple Mount[m] will become a hill overgrown with brush![n]

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Footnotes

  1. Micah 3:9 tn Heb “house.”
  2. Micah 3:9 tn Heb “house.”
  3. Micah 3:9 tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons (also at the beginning of v. 10).
  4. Micah 3:10 tn Heb “who.”
  5. Micah 3:10 tn Heb “bloodshed” (so NAB, NASB, NIV); NLT “murder.”
  6. Micah 3:11 sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).
  7. Micah 3:11 tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”
  8. Micah 3:11 tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”
  9. Micah 3:11 tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”
  10. Micah 3:11 tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”
  11. Micah 3:12 tn The plural pronoun refers to the leaders, priests, and prophets mentioned in the preceding verse.
  12. Micah 3:12 tn Or “into” (an adverbial accusative of result).
  13. Micah 3:12 tn Heb “the mountain of the house” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).
  14. Micah 3:12 tn Heb “a high place of overgrowth.”

Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob
    and chiefs of the house of Israel,
who abhor justice
    and pervert all equity,(A)
10 who build Zion with blood
    and Jerusalem with wrong!(B)
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.”(C)
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.(D)

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