CHAPTER 3

1 And I said, “Hear, I pray, ye princes of Jacob; And ye rulers of the house of Israel: Is it not for you to know judgment?”

2 But they hate good and love evil; They pull off the skin from them, And the flesh from their bones:

3 Yea, they devour the flesh of my people, And their skin they strip from them, And their bones they break, And make them small as for the pot, And their flesh for the cauldron.

4 They shall then cry to Jehovah, And he will not answer them, But he will hide his face from them at that time, As they have acted perversely in their doings.

5 Thus saith Jehovah to the Prophets, Who deceive my people, And bite with their teeth, and cry, “Peace;” And when any one putteth not in their mouth, Against him they declare war;

6 Night shall therefore be to you instead of a vision, And darkness shall be to you instead of divination;’ And set shall the sun on the Prophets, And darkened over them shall be the day: (227)

7 And ashamed shall be the seers, And confounded shall be the diviners; And they shall all cover their lips, For there will be no answer from God.

8 But I indeed am filled with power, By the Spirit of Jehovah, yea, with judgment and courage, To declare to Jacob his wickedness, And to Israel his sin.

9 Hear this, I pray, ye princes of the house of Jacob, And ye rulers of the house of Israel, Who abominate judgment, And all rectitude pervert; (237)

10 Who build Zion by blood, And Jerusalem by iniquity.

11 Its princes judge for reward, And its priests for wages teach, And its prophets for money divine; And on Jehovah they lean, saying, “Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? Come upon us shall no evil.”

12 Therefore for you Zion as a field shall be plowed, And Jerusalem shall be a heap, And the mount of the house as the heights of a forest.