< Micah 3 >
1 And I said, Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel. Is it not for you to know justice?
2 Ye who hate the good, and love the evil, who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones,
3 who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.
4 Then they shall cry to Jehovah, but he will not answer them. Yea, he will hide his face from them at that time, according as they have wrought evil in their doings.
5 Thus says Jehovah concerning the prophets who make my people to err, who bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace. And he who does not put into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.
6 Therefore it shall be night to you, that ye shall have no vision. And it shall be dark to you, that ye shall not divine. And the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them.
7 And the seers shall be put to shame, and the diviners confounded. Yea, they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.
8 But as for me, I am full of power by the Spirit of Jehovah, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.
9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity.
10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 The heads of it judge for a bribe, and the priests of it teach for a wage, and the prophets of it divine for money. Yet they lean upon Jehovah, and say, Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? No evil shall come upon us.
12 Therefore for your sake Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.