Micah 3

1Then I said: Listen, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not your duty to know justice?

2You hate good and love evil; you tear the skin off my people and the flesh from their bones.

3You eat the flesh of my people, strip their skin off them, break their bones, and chop them up like meat for the pot, like flesh for the cauldron.

4Then they will cry out to Yahweh, but he will not answer them. He will hide his face from them at that time, because of the evil they have done.

5This is what Yahweh says concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry “Peace” when they have something to bite with their teeth, but declare war against anyone who puts nothing in their mouths:

6Therefore night will come over you, without vision, and darkness, without divination. The sun will go down on the prophets, and the day will turn black over them.

7The seers will be ashamed, and the diviners disgraced. They will all cover their mouths, for there is no answer from God.

8But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of Yahweh, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.

9Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice and twist everything that is straight,

10who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with wickedness.

11Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a fee, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they lean on Yahweh and say, “Is not Yahweh among us? No disaster will come upon us.”

12Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the temple mount a hill overgrown with thickets.