Micah 003

English Standard Version

Rulers and Prophets Denounced

3 And I said:
^(A)Hear, you heads of Jacob
    and rulers of the house of Israel!
^(B)Is it not for you to know justice?—
²    you ^(C)who hate the good and love the evil,
^(D)who tear the skin from off my people^[a]
    and their flesh from off their bones,
³^(E)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 pot,
    like flesh in a cauldron.

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

⁵Thus says the Lord concerning ^(H)the prophets
    who lead my people astray,
^(I)who cry “Peace”
    when they have something to eat,
but declare war against him
    who puts nothing into their mouths.
⁶Therefore ^(J)it shall be night to you, without vision,
    and darkness to you, without divination.
^(K)The sun shall go down on the prophets,
    and the day shall be black over them;
⁷^(L)the seers shall be disgraced,
    and the diviners put to shame;
^(M)they shall all cover their lips,
    for ^(N)there is no answer from God.
⁸But as for me, ^(O)I am filled with power,
    with the Spirit of the Lord,
    and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob ^(P)his transgression
    and to Israel his sin.

⁹^(Q)Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
    and rulers of the house of Israel,
^(R)who detest justice
    and make crooked all that is straight,
¹⁰^(S)who build Zion with blood
    and Jerusalem with iniquity.
¹¹^(T)Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
    ^(U)its priests teach for a price;
    ^(V)its prophets practice divination for money;
^(W)yet they lean on the Lord and ^(X)say,
    “Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
    ^(Y)No disaster shall come upon us.”
¹²Therefore because of you
    ^(Z)Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem ^(AA)shall become a heap of ruins,
    and ^(AB)the mountain of the house ^(AC)a wooded height.