Micah 3
1 Then I said, “Please listen, leaders of the descendants of Jacob, people of Israel. You are meant to know the difference between right and wrong,
And he shall say, Hear now these words, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and ye remnant of the house of Israel; is it not for you to know judgment?
2 you who hate good and love evil! You tear off their skin, and rip the flesh from their bones.
[who] hate good, and seek evil; [who] tear their skins off them, and their flesh off their bones:
3 You eat the flesh of my people, you strip off their skin, you break their bones. You chop them up like meat for the saucepan, like flesh for the cooking pot.”
even as they devoured the flesh of my people, and stripped their skins off them, and broke their bones, and divided [them] as flesh for the caldron, and as meat for the pot,
4 Then they'll cry out to the Lord, but he won't answer them. He will turn away from them at that time because of the evil things they have done.
thus they shall cry to the Lord, but he shall not hearken to them; and he shall turn away his face from them at that time, because they have done wickedly in their practices against themselves.
5 This is what the Lord says about the prophets who deceive my people. To those who feed them they prophesy peace to them, while to those who do not they prophesy war against them.
Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that lead my people astray, that bit with their teeth, and proclaim peace to them; and [when] nothing was put into their mouth, they raised up war against them:
6 Therefore it will be like night for you, with no visions; dark, with no predictions. The sun will set on these prophets; their day will end in darkness.
therefore there shall be night to you instead of a vision, and there shall be to you darkness instead of prophecy; and the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be dark upon them.
7 The seers will be disgraced, the fortune-tellers put to shame, and they will cover their faces because none of them receive any answer from God.
And the seers of night-visions shall be ashamed, and the prophets shall be laughed to scorn: and all the people shall speak against them, because there shall be none to hearken to them.
8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the spirit of the Lord. I am filled with justice and strength to make clear to the descendants of Jacob their rebellion, and to the people of Israel their sin.
Surely I will strengthen myself with the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of power, to declare to Jacob his transgressions, and to Israel his sins.
9 Listen to me, leaders of the descendants of Jacob and the people of Israel, you who hate justice and distort all that is right.
Hear now these words, ye chiefs of the house of Jacob, and the remnant of the house of Israel, who hate judgment, and pervert all righteousness;
10 You are building Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with evil.
who build up Sion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 Your leaders judge for a bribe, and your priests teach for a price, and your prophets only prophesy for pay. Yet they all lean on the Lord saying, “Isn't the Lord here with us? Nothing bad can happen to us!”
The heads thereof have judged for gifts, and the priests thereof have answered for hire, and her prophets have divined for silver: and [yet] they have rested on the Lord, saying, Is not the Lord among us? no evil shall come upon us.
12 Therefore because of you Zion will become a ploughed field and Jerusalem a heap of rubble, and the Temple mount will be overgrown.
Therefore on your account Sion shall be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be as a storehouse of fruits, and the mountain of the house as a grove of the forest.
