1 Then I said: Listen, I beg you, leaders of Jacob, rulers of the house of Israel! Are you not the ones who ought to know what justice is?
2 Yet you hate good and love evil; you rip the skin off them and the flesh off their bones;
3 you devour my people's flesh, peel their skin from them, crack their bones and cut them up like something for the pot, like meat in a kettle.
4 When that time comes they will call out to the LORD, and he will give them no answer; he will turn his face away from them then, since their deeds have been evil.
5 This is what the LORD says about the prophets who mislead my people: as long as they have something to chew on, they announce "Peace"; but if anyone fails to feed them, they proclaim a holy war against him.
6 So night will fall on you, with no vision, and darkness, with no divining; the sun will set on the prophets, and the daylight will turn black above them.
7 Then the seers will be embarrassed and the diviners humiliated; they will all cover their mouths, since God gives no answer.
8 But I, for my part, am full of strength through the Spirit of the LORD, full of justice and courage, to make known to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.
9 Listen to this, I beg you, leaders of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, you who loathe justice and bend whatever is straight,
10 building Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrongdoing.
11 Her leaders hand down verdicts for a bribe, her priests give instruction for pay, her prophets tell fortunes for silver; and still they lean on the LORD, saying, "Isn't the LORD among us? No calamity can reach us."
12 So, on your account, Zion will be plowed up like a field, Jerusalem will be reduced to rubble, and the mountain of the house will become a hill overgrown with thickets.