Jerusalem, city of blood

1And I said:

Hear, you heads of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel!

Is it not for you to know justice? —

2you who hate the good and love the evil,

who tear the skin from off my people,

and their flesh from off their bones;

3who eat the flesh of my people,

and flay their skin from off them,

and break their bones in pieces,

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

like flesh in a caldron.

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 made their deeds evil.

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 him

who puts nothing into their mouths.

6Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,

and darkness to you, without divination.

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 heads of the house of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel,

who abhor justice

and pervert all equity,

10who build Zion with blood

and Jerusalem with wrong.

11Its heads give judgment for a bribe,

its priests teach for hire,

its prophets divine for money;

yet they lean upon the LORD and say,

“Is not the LORD in the midst of us?

No evil 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.