Micah 3

1 I said, “Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn’t it for you to know justice?

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 You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones;

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

3 who also eat the flesh of my people, and peel their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as meat within the cauldron.

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 they will cry to the LORD, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they made their deeds evil.”

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 The LORD says concerning the prophets who lead my people astray—for those who feed their teeth, they proclaim, “Peace!” and whoever doesn’t provide for their mouths, they prepare war against him:

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 “Therefore night is over you, with no vision, and it is dark to you, that you may not divine; and the sun will go down on the prophets, and the day will be black over them.

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 The seers shall be disappointed, and the diviners confounded. Yes, they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.”

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 power by the LORD’s Spirit, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Jacob his disobedience, and to Israel his sin.

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 Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity,

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 who build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

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

11 Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money; yet they lean on the LORD, and say, “Isn’t the LORD among us? No disaster will come on us.”

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 Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.

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