Rulers and Prophets Condemned

1Then I said:

“Hear now, O leaders of Jacob,

you rulers of the house of Israel.

Should you not know justice?

2You hate good and love evil.

You tear the skin from my people

and strip the flesh from their bones.

3You eat the flesh of my people

after stripping off their skin

and breaking their bones.

You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot,

like meat in a cauldron.”

4Then they will cry out to the LORD,

but He will not answer them.

At that time He will hide His face from them

because of the evil they have done.

5This is what the LORD says:

“As for the prophets

who lead My people astray,

who proclaim peace

while they chew with their teeth,

but declare war against one

who puts nothing in their mouths:

6Therefore night will come over you without visions,

and darkness without divination.

The sun will set on these prophets,

and the daylight will turn black over them.

7Then the seers will be ashamed

and the diviners will be disgraced.

They will all cover their mouths

because there is no answer from God.”

8As for me, however, I am filled with power

by the Spirit of the LORD,

with justice and courage,

to declare to Jacob his transgression

and to Israel his sin.

9Now hear this, O leaders of the house of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel,

who despise justice

and pervert all that is right,

10who build Zion with bloodshed

and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11Her leaders judge for a bribe,

her priests teach for a price,

and her prophets practice divination for money.

Yet they lean upon the LORD, saying,

“Is not the LORD among us?

No disaster can come upon us.”

12Therefore, because of you,

Zion will be plowed like a field,

Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble,

and the temple mount a wooded ridge.