Wicked Rulers and Prophets

3 And I said:

“Hear now, O heads of Jacob,And you rulers of the house of Israel:Is it not for you to know justice?² You who hate good and love evil;Who strip the skin from My people,^[a]And the flesh from their bones;³ Who also eat the flesh of My people,Flay their skin from them,Break their bones,And chop them in piecesLike meat for the pot,Like flesh in the caldron.”

⁴ Then they will cry to the Lord,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 the Lord concerning the prophetsWho make my people stray;Who chant “Peace”While they chew with their teeth,But who prepare war against himWho puts nothing into their mouths:⁶ “Therefore you 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 for them.⁷ So the seers shall be ashamed,And the diviners abashed;Indeed they shall all cover their lips;For there is no answer from God.”

⁸ But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord,And of justice and might,To declare to Jacob his transgressionAnd to Israel his sin.⁹ Now hear this,You heads of the house of JacobAnd rulers of the house of Israel,Who abhor justiceAnd pervert all equity,¹⁰ Who build up Zion with bloodshedAnd 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 the Lord, and say,“Is not the Lord among us?No harm can come upon us.”¹² Therefore because of youZion shall be plowed like a field,Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins,And the mountain of the temple^[b]Like the bare hills of the forest.