| 1 | And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel: Is it not for you to know judgment? |
| 2 | Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from them, and their flesh from off their bones; |
| 3 | Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. |
| 4 | Then shall they cry to the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. |
| 5 | Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him: |
| 6 | Therefore night shall be to you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark to you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. |
| 7 | Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yes, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of 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, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. |
| 10 | They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. |
| 11 | Her heads judge for reward, and her priests teach for hire, and her prophets divine for money; yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? no evil can come upon us. |
| 12 | Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. |
