Micah 3

1 Then I said, “You Israeli [MTY] leaders, listen [to what I say]! You should certainly [RHQ] know what things are right [to do] [and what things are wrong],

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,

2 but you hate what is good and you love what is evil. [You act like butchers]: [it is as though] you strip the skin off my people and [tear] the flesh from their bones.

you who hate good and love evil! You tear off their skin, and rip the flesh from their bones.

3 [It is as though] you chop them into pieces like [SIM] meat [to be cooked] in a pot.

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.”

4 Then, [when you have troubles], you plead to Yahweh [to help you], but he will not answer you. At that time, he will turn away from you because of the evil things that you have done.”

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.

5 This is what Yahweh says about your [false] prophets who are deceiving the people: “If someone gives them food, those prophets say that things will go well for him. But they declare war against anyone who does not give them food.

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.

6 So [now it is as though] [MET] night will descend on you prophets; you will not receive any [more] visions. [It is as though] [MET] the sun will set for you; the time [when you are greatly honored] will end.

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.

7 [Then] you (seers/people who predict what will happen in the future) [DOU] will be disgraced; you will cover your faces [because you will be ashamed], because when you ask me [what will happen], there will be no answer from me.”

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.

8 But as for me, I am full of [God’s] power, [power] from the Spirit of Yahweh. I am courageous and strong to declare to the Israeli people [MTY, DOU] that they have sinned and rebelled [against Yahweh].

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.

9 You leaders of the people [MTY] of Israel, listen to this! You hate [it when people do] what is just; and [when people say] what is true, you distort it, [saying it is false].

Listen to me, leaders of the descendants of Jacob and the people of Israel, you who hate justice and distort all that is right.

10 [It is as though] you are building [houses in] Jerusalem on foundations that consist of murdering people and doing what is corrupt.

You are building Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with evil.

11 Your leaders make [favorable] decisions [only if they receive] bribes. Your priests teach people only if [those people] pay them [well]. Your [false] prophets require people to pay them to tell people what will happen [to them] in the future. Those prophets say, “Yahweh is telling us [what we should say], and [we say that] we will not experience any disasters.”

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!”

12 Because of what you [leaders do], Zion [Hill] will be plowed like a field; it will become a heap of ruins/rubble; the top of the hill, where the temple is [now], will be covered with bushes.

Therefore because of you Zion will become a ploughed field and Jerusalem a heap of rubble, and the Temple mount will be overgrown.