Micah 3
1 Then I said: “Hear now, O leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Should you not know justice?
And I said, Hear, I pray you, O ye heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know what is justice?
2 You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin from my people and strip the flesh from their bones.
[But they are those] who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;
3 You eat the flesh of my people after stripping off their skin and breaking their bones. You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot, like meat in a cauldron.”
Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and who crush their bones, and chop them in pieces, as that to be put in a pot, and as flesh within a caldron.
4 Then they will cry out to the LORD, but He will not answer them. At that time He will hide His face from them because of the evil they have done.
Then will they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them; and he will hide his face from them at that time, as they have committed their evil deeds.
5 This is what the LORD says: “As for the prophets who lead My people astray, who proclaim peace while they chew with their teeth, but declare war against one who puts nothing in their mouths:
Thus hath said the Lord concerning the prophets that mislead my people, who, when they have something to bite with their teeth, cry, Peace; but who prepare war against him who putteth nothing in their mouth:
6 Therefore night will come over you without visions, and darkness without divination. The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn black over them.
Therefore shall the night be unto you, without a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, without divining; and the sun shall go down around the prophets, and the day shall be obscured around them.
7 Then the seers will be ashamed and the diviners will be disgraced. They will all cover their mouths because there is no answer from God.”
Thus shall the seers be made ashamed, and the diviners be put to the blush: yea, they shall all wrap themselves up to the upper lip; for there is no answer of God.
8 As for me, however, I am filled with power by the Spirit of the LORD, with justice and courage, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.
But truly I am indeed full of strength by the spirit of the Lord, and [of power] of judging, and of might, to tell unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.
9 Now hear this, O leaders of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who despise justice and pervert all that is right,
Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel, that abhor justice, and make crooked all that is straight.
10 who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity.
They build up Zion with blood-guiltiness, and Jerusalem with wrong.
11 Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean upon the LORD, saying, “Is not the LORD among us? No disaster can come upon us.”
Her heads judge for bribes, and her priests teach for reward, and her prophets divine for money: and yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? evil cannot come over us.
12 Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.
Therefore for your sake shall Zion be ploughed up as a field, and Jerusalem shall become ruinous heaps, and the mount of the house, forest-covered high-places.
