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Wicked Rulers and Prophets

And I said:

Listen, you heads of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel!

Should you not know justice?—

you who hate the good and love the evil,

who tear the skin off my people,

and the flesh off their bones;

who eat the flesh of my people,

flay their skin off them,

break their bones in pieces,

and chop them up like meat in a kettle,

like flesh in a caldron.

Then they will cry to the L ord,

but he will not answer them;

he will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have acted wickedly.

Thus says the L ord concerning the prophets

who lead my people astray,

who cry “Peace”

when they have something to eat,

but declare war against those

who put nothing into their mouths.

Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,

and darkness to you, without revelation.

The sun shall go down upon the prophets,

and the day shall be black over them;

the seers shall be disgraced,

and the diviners put to shame;

they shall all cover their lips,

for there is no answer from God.

But as for me, I am filled with power,

with the spirit of the L ord,

and with justice and might,

to declare to Jacob his transgression

and to Israel his sin.

Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob

and chiefs of the house of Israel,

who abhor justice

and pervert all equity,

who build Zion with blood

and Jerusalem with wrong!

Its rulers give judgment for a bribe,

its priests teach for a price,

its prophets give oracles for money;

yet they lean upon the L ord and say,

“Surely the L ord is with us!

No harm shall come upon us.”

Therefore because of you

Zion shall be plowed as a field;

Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,

and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

He afterwards subjoins, But they hate good, and love evil, and pull off the skin ⁹⁴⁹⁴     Their skin, literally. The antecedent (which is not unusual in Hebrew) is mentioned afterwards: it is the word, people, which follows.
   The idea of sheep or flock, to which the people are compared in the last chapter, is still retained here. Adam Clarke quotes from Suetonius a striking answer of Tiberius, the Emperor, to some governors, who solicited him to increase the taxes, — “It is the property of a good shepherd to shear his sheep, not to skin them” — Boni pastoris esse tondere pectus, non deglubere
   To “hate good, and to love evil,” in the former sentence, betokens a character dreadful in the extreme; for good here, טוב means kindness, benevolence, the doing of good to others; this they hated: and evil, רעה, means wrong, mischief, injury, the doing of harm, of wrong, and of injustice to others; and this they loved. How transmuted they were in their spirit into that of very fiends! “They hate to do good, hate to have any good done, and hate those that are good; and they love the evil, delight in mischief, and in those that do mischief.” These words of Henry, no doubt, convey a correct view of the sentence. It might therefore be rendered, “Haters of benevolence, and lovers of mischief.” — Ed. from my people, the flesh from their bones; that is, they leave nothing, he says, sound and safe, their rapacity being so furious. The Prophet conveys first a general reproof, — that they not only perverted justice, but were also given to wickedness and hated good. He means then that they were openly wicked and ungodly, and also that they with a fixed purpose carried on war against every thing just and right. We hence learn how great and how abominable was the corruption of the people, when they were still the peculiar possession and heritage of God. Inasmuch then as the state of this ancient people had become so degenerated, let us learn to walk in solicitude and fear, while the Lord governs us by pious magistrates and faithful pastors: for what happened to the Jews might soon happen to us, so that wolves might bear rule over us, as indeed experience has proved even in this our city. The Prophet afterwards adds the kinds of cruelty which prevailed; of which he speaks in hyperbolical terms, though no doubt he sets before our eyes the state of things as it was. He compares the judges to wolves or to lions, or to other savage beasts. He says not that they sought the property of the people, or pillaged their houses; but he says that they devoured their flesh even to the very bones; he says that they pulled off their skin: and this he confirms in the next verse.

⁹⁴ Their skin, literally. The antecedent (which is not unusual in Hebrew) is mentioned afterwards: it is the word, people, which follows. The idea of sheep or flock, to which the people are compared in the last chapter, is still retained here. Adam Clarke quotes from Suetonius a striking answer of Tiberius, the Emperor, to some governors, who solicited him to increase the taxes, — “It is the property of a good shepherd to shear his sheep, not to skin them” — Boni pastoris esse tondere pectus, non deglubere To “hate good, and to love evil,” in the former sentence, betokens a character dreadful in the extreme; for good here, טוב means kindness, benevolence, the doing of good to others; this they hated: and evil, רעה, means wrong, mischief, injury, the doing of harm, of wrong, and of injustice to others; and this they loved. How transmuted they were in their spirit into that of very fiends! “They hate to do good, hate to have any good done, and hate those that are good; and they love the evil, delight in mischief, and in those that do mischief.” These words of Henry, no doubt, convey a correct view of the sentence. It might therefore be rendered, “Haters of benevolence, and lovers of mischief.” — Ed.