Chapter 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 ?
2 You who hate the good , and love the evil ; who tear off their skin , and their flesh from off 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.
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 ."
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 :
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 .
7 The seers shall be disappointed, and the diviners confounded . Yes , they shall all cover their lips , for there is no answer from God." " (Elohim).
8 But as for me , I am full of power by the LORD ’s Spirit , and of judgement, and of might , to declare to Jacob his disobedience, and to Israel his 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 ,
10 who build up Zion with blood , and Jerusalem with iniquity .
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 amongst us ? No disaster will come on us ."
12 Therefore Zion for your sake will be ploughed like a field , and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest .