micah

Rulers and Prophets Denounced

And I said:
(A)Hear, you heads of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel!
(B)Is it not for you to know justice?—
you ©who hate the good and love the evil,
(D)who tear the skin from off my people[a]
and their flesh from off their bones,
(E)who eat the flesh of my people,
and flay their skin from off them,
and break their bones in pieces
and chop them up like meat in a pot,
like flesh in a cauldron.

(F)Then they will cry to the Lord,
but he will not answer them;
(G)he will hide his face from them at that time,
because they have made their deeds evil.

Thus says the Lord concerning (H)the prophets
who lead my people astray,
(I)who cry “Peace”
when they have something to eat,
but declare war against him
who puts nothing into their mouths.
Therefore (J)it shall be night to you, without vision,
and darkness to you, without divination.
(K)The sun shall go down on the prophets,
and the day shall be black over them;
(L)the seers shall be disgraced,
and the diviners put to shame;
(M)they shall all cover their lips,
for (N)there is no answer from God.
But as for me, (O)I am filled with power,
with the Spirit of the Lord,
and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob (P)his transgression
and to Israel his sin.

(Q)Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel,
®who detest justice
and make crooked all that is straight,
10 (S)who build Zion with blood
and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 (T)Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
(U)its priests teach for a price;
(V)its prophets practice divination for money;
(W)yet they lean on the Lord and (X)say,
“Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
(Y)No disaster shall come upon us.”
12 Therefore because of you
(Z)Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem (AA)shall become a heap of ruins,
and (AB)the mountain of the house (AC)a wooded height.

Footnotes

  1. Micah 3:2 Hebrew from off them