Micah, 3

1. Then I said, 'Kindly listen, you leaders of the House of Jacob, you princes of the House of Israel. Surely you are the ones who ought to know what is right,

1. And I said: Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice? --

2. and yet you hate what is good and love what is evil, skinning people alive, pulling the flesh off their bones,

2. you who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my people, and their flesh from off their bones;

3. eating my people's flesh, stripping off their skin, breaking up their bones, chopping them up small like flesh for the pot, like meat in the stew-pan?'

3. who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones in pieces, and chop them up like meat in a kettle, like flesh in a caldron.

4. Then they will call to Yahweh, but he will not answer them. When the time comes he will hide his face from them because of the crimes they have committed.

4. Then they will cry to the LORD, but he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil.

5. Yahweh says this against the prophets who lead my people astray: So long as they have something to eat they cry 'Peace'. But on anyone who puts nothing into their mouths they declare war.

5. Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry "Peace" when they have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths.

6. And so, for you, night will be without vision and for you the darkness without divination. The sun will set for the prophets, the daylight will go black above them.

6. Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination. The sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them;

7. Then the seers will be covered with shame, the diviners with confusion; they will all put their hands over their mouths because there is no answer from God.

7. the seers shall be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame; they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.

8. Not so with me, I am full of strength (full of Yahweh's spirit), of the sense of right, of energy to accuse Jacob of his crime and Israel of his sin.

8. But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.

9. Kindly listen to this, you leaders of the House of Jacob, you princes of the House of Israel, who detest justice, wresting it from its honest course,

9. Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity,

10. who build Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity!

10. who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong.

11. Her leaders give verdicts for presents, her priests take a fee for their rulings, her prophets divine for money and yet they rely on Yahweh! 'Isn't Yahweh among us?' they say, 'No disaster is going to overtake us.'

11. Its heads give judgment for a bribe, its priests teach for hire, its prophets divine for money; yet they lean upon the LORD and say, "Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No evil shall come upon us."

12. That is why, thanks to you, Zion will become ploughland, Jerusalem a heap of rubble and the Temple Mount a wooded height.

12. Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.