Micah, 3

¹ I said: “Hear, please, you heads of Jacob And you commanders of the house of Israel. Should you not know what is just?

² But you hate what is good and love what is bad; You tear off the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones.

³ You also eat the flesh of my people And strip off their skin, Smashing their bones, crushing them to pieces, Like what is cooked in a pot,^*1 like meat in a cooking pot.

⁴ At that time they will call to Jehovah for help, But he will not answer them. He will hide his face from them at that time, Because of their wicked deeds.

⁵ This is what Jehovah says against the prophets who are leading my people astray, Who proclaim ‘Peace!’ while they bite^*1 with their teeth But who declare^*2 war against him who puts nothing into their mouths:

⁶ ‘You will have night; there will be no vision; There will only be darkness for you, no divination. The sun will set on the prophets, And the day will turn dark for them.

⁷ The visionaries will be put to shame, And the diviners will be disappointed. All of them will have to cover over the mustache,^*1 For there is no answer from God.’”

⁸ As for me, I am filled with power by the spirit of Jehovah, And with justice and might, To tell to Jacob his revolt and to Israel his sin.

⁹ Hear this, please, you heads of the house of Jacob And you commanders of the house of Israel, Who detest justice and who make crooked all that is straight,

¹⁰ Who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with unrighteousness.

¹¹ Her leaders^*1 judge for a bribe, Her priests instruct for a price, And her prophets practice divination for money.^*2 And yet they lean on Jehovah,^*3 saying: “Is not Jehovah with us? No calamity will come upon us.”

¹² So because of you, Zion will be plowed up as a field, Jerusalem will become heaps of ruins, And the mountain of the House^*1 will become like high places in a forest.^*2