Israel’s Rulers and Prophets Rebuked
Micah 3I said,
“Y’all must listen now, heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Shouldn’t y’all know justice? You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones; who also eat the flesh of my people, and peel their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as meat within the cauldron. Then they will cry to YHWH, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they made their deeds evil.”YHWH says concerning the prophets who lead my people astray—for those who feed their teeth, they proclaim, “Peace!” and whoever doesn’t provide for their mouths, they prepare war against him:
y’all, without visions, “Therefore night will come for and it will become dark for y’all, without divination, and the sun will go down on the prophets, and the day will be black over them. The seers will be ashamed, and the diviners humiliated. Yes, they will all cover their mouths, for there is no answer from God.” But as for me, I am full of power by the Spirit of YHWH, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Jacob his disobedience, and to Israel his sin. Y’all listen to this, heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and twist everything right, who build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money; yet they lean on YHWH, and say, “Isn’t YHWH among us? No disaster will come on us.” y’all, Zion will be plowed like a field, Therefore because of and Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.