Micah 3

1. And I said, “Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob and magistrates of the house of Israel. Is it not for you to know justice?

2. You who hate the good and love the evil; who tear the skin off My people and strip the flesh from their bones;

3. Who also eat the flesh of My people, and tear their skin off them—and break their bones and chop them into pieces, like meat for the pot, and like flesh for the caldron.”

4. Then they shall cry to the LORD, but He will not answer them. He will even hide His face from them at that time, as they have done evil in their doings.

5. Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who mislead the people, who bite with their teeth and cry, “Peace!”— and even prepare war against those who do not put something in their mouths:

6. “Therefore night shall be to you without a vision; and darkness and not divination. And the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be darkness over them.

7. And the seers shall be ashamed, and the diviners confounded; yea, they shall all cover their mouths, for there is no answer from God.”

8. But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.

9. Hear this, I pray you, you heads of the house of Jacob, and magistrates of the house of Israel, who hate judgment and pervert all equity.

10. They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11. Her heads judge for a bribe, and her priests teach for pay, and her prophets divine for silver, yet they will lean on the LORD and say, “Is not the LORD among us? No evil can come on us!”

12. Therefore, on account of you, Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the temple as high places of the forest.