Wicked Rulers and Prophets

1And I said:

Listen, you heads of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel!

Should you not know justice?—

2you who hate the good and love the evil,

who tear the skin off my people,3.2 Heb from them

and the flesh off their bones;

3who eat the flesh of my people,

flay their skin off them,

break their bones in pieces,

and chop them up like meat3.3 Gk: Heb as in a kettle,

like flesh in a cauldron.

4Then 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.

5Thus 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.

6Therefore 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;

7the seers shall be disgraced,

and the diviners put to shame;

they shall all cover their lips,

for there is no answer from God.

8But 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.

9Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob

and chiefs of the house of Israel,

who abhor justice

and pervert all equity,

10who build Zion with blood

and Jerusalem with wrong!

11Its rulers give judgement 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.’

12Therefore because of you

Zion shall be ploughed as a field;

Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,

and the mountain of the house a wooded height.