1Then I said, “Please listen, leaders of the descendants of Jacob, people of Israel. You are meant to know the difference between right and wrong,

2you who hate good and love evil! You tear off their skin, and rip the flesh from their bones.

3You eat the flesh of my people, you strip off their skin, you break their bones. You chop them up like meat for the saucepan, like flesh for the cooking pot.”

4Then they'll cry out to the Lord, but he won't answer them. He will turn away ¹⁴from them at that time because of the evil things they have done.

5This is what the Lord says about the prophets who deceive my people. To those who feed ¹⁵them they prophesy peace to them, while to those who do not they prophesy war against them.

6Therefore it will be like night for you, with no visions; dark, with no predictions. The sun will set on these prophets; their day will end in darkness.

7The seers will be disgraced, the fortune-tellers put to shame, and they will cover their faces because none of them receive any answer from God.

8But as for me, I am filled with power, with the spirit of the Lord. I am filled with justice and strength to make clear to the descendants of Jacob their rebellion, and to the people of Israel their sin.

9Listen to me, leaders of the descendants of Jacob and the people of Israel, you who hate justice and distort all that is right.

10You are building Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with evil.

11Your leaders judge for a bribe, and your priests teach for a price, and your prophets only prophesy for pay. Yet they all lean on the Lord saying, “Isn't the Lord here with us? Nothing bad can happen to us!”

12Therefore because of you Zion will become a plowed field and Jerusalem a heap of rubble, and the Temple mount will be overgrown.