1. Then I said, “Now listen, leaders of Jacob,you rulers of the house of Israel.Aren’t you supposed to know what is just?
2. You hate good and love evil.You tear off people’s skin and strip their flesh from their bones.
3. You eat the flesh of my peopleafter you strip their skin from themand break their bones.You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot,like meat in a cauldron.”
4. Then they will cry out to the Lord,but He will not answer them.He will hide His face from them at that time because of the crimes they have committed.
5. This is what the Lord saysconcerning the prophetswho lead my people astray, who proclaim peacewhen they have food to sink their teeth intobut declare war against the onewho puts nothing in their mouths.
6. Therefore, it will be night for you —without visions;it will grow dark for you —without divination. The sun will set on these prophets,and the daylight will turn black over them.
7. Then the seers will be ashamed and the diviners disappointed. They will all cover their mouths because there will be no answer from God.
8. As for me, however, I am filled with power by the Spirit of the Lord,with justice and courage,to proclaim to Jacob his rebellionand to Israel his sin.
9. Listen to this, leaders of the house of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel,who abhor justice and pervert everything that is right,
10. who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with injustice.
11. Her leaders issue rulings for a bribe, her priests teach for payment, and her prophets practice divination for money.Yet they lean on the Lord, saying,“Isn’t the Lord among us?No disaster will overtake us.”
12. Therefore, because of you,Zion will be plowed like a field,Jerusalem will become ruins, and the hill of the temple mount will be a thicket.