1  And I said:

Hear, you heads of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel!

Is it not for you to ^zknow justice?—

2  you who hate the good and love the evil,

who tear the skin from off my people¹

and their flesh from off their bones,

3  who ^aeat the flesh of my people,

and flay their skin from off them,

and break their bones in pieces

and chop them up ^blike meat in a pot,

like flesh in a cauldron.

4  Then they will cry to the Lord,

^cbut he will not answer them;

^dhe will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have made their deeds evil.

5  Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets

who ^elead my people astray,

who cry ^f“Peace”

when they have something to eat,

but declare war against him

who puts nothing into their mouths.

6  Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,

and darkness to you, without divination.

The sun shall go down on the prophets,

and the day shall be black over them;

7  the seers shall be disgraced,

and the diviners put to shame;

they shall all ^gcover their lips,

for there is no answer from God.

8  But as for me, I am filled with power,

with the Spirit of the Lord,

and with justice and might,

to ^hdeclare to Jacob his transgression

and to Israel his sin.

9  Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel,

who detest justice

and make crooked all that is straight,

10  who ⁱbuild Zion with blood

and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11  Its heads give judgment for a ^jbribe;

its priests teach for a price;

its prophets practice divination for money;

yet they lean on the Lord and say,

“Is not the Lord in the midst of us?

^kNo disaster shall come upon us.”

3  Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;

the prince and the judge ask for a ⁿbribe,

and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;

thus they weave it together.