Wicked Rulers and Prophets
1 And I said:
“Hear now, O heads of Jacob,
# And yourulers of the house of Israel:
# Isitnot for you to know justice?
2 You who hate good and love evil;
Who strip the skin from My people,
And the flesh from their bones;
3 Who alsoeat the flesh of My people,
Flay their skin from them,
Break their bones,
And chopthemin pieces
Likemeatfor the pot,
# Like flesh in the caldron.”
4 Thenthey will cry to theLord,
But He will not hear them;
He will even hide His face from them at that time,
Because they have been evil in their deeds.
5 Thus says theLordconcerning the prophets
Who make my people stray;
Who chant “Peace”
# While theychew with their teeth,
But who prepare war against him
# Who puts nothing into their mouths:
6 “Thereforeyou shall have night without vision,
And you shall have darkness without divination;
The sun shall go down on the prophets,
# And the day shall be dark forthem.
7 So the seers shall be ashamed,
And the diviners abashed;
Indeed they shall all cover their lips;
# Forthereisno answer from God.”
8 But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of theLord,
And of justice and might,
# To declare to Jacob his transgression
And to Israel his sin.
9 Now hear 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 withbloodshed
And Jerusalem with iniquity:
11 Her heads judge for a bribe,
# Her priests teach for pay,
And her prophets divine for money.
# Yet they lean on theLord, and say,
“Is not theLordamong us?
No harm can come upon us.”
12 Therefore because of you
# Zion shall beplowedlikea field,
# Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins,
# Andthe mountain of the temple
Like the bare hills of the forest.