| [1]And I say, `Hear, I pray you, heads of Jacob, And ye judges  of the house of Israel, Is it not for you to know the  judgment?
          [2]Ye who are hating good, and loving evil, Taking violently  their skin from off them, And their flesh from off their bones,
          [3]And who have eaten the flesh of My people, And their skin  from off them have stript, And their bones they have broken,  And they have spread [them] out as in a pot, And as flesh in  the midst of a caldron.
          [4]Then do they cry unto Jehovah, And He doth not answer them,  And hideth His face from them at that time, As they have made  evil their doings.
          [5]Thus said Jehovah concerning the prophets Who are causing My  people to err, Who are biting with their teeth, And have cried  `Peace,' And he who doth not give unto their mouth, They have  sanctified against him war.
          [6]Therefore a night ye have without vision, And darkness ye  have without divination, And gone in hath the sun on the  prophets, And black over them hath been the day.
          [7]And ashamed have been the seers, And confounded have been  the diviners, And covered their lip have all of them, For their  is no answer, O God.
          [8]And yet I have been full of power by the Spirit of Jehovah,  And of judgment, and of might, To declare to Jacob his  transgression, And to Israel his sin.
          [9]Hear this, I pray you, heads of the house of Jacob, And ye  judges of the house of Israel, Who are making judgment  abominable, And all uprightness do pervert.
          [10]Building up Zion with blood, And Jerusalem with iniquity.
          [11]Her heads for a bribe do judge, And her priests for hire do  teach, And her prophets for silver divine, And on Jehovah they  lean, saying, `Is not Jehovah in our midst? Evil doth not come  in upon us.'
          [12]Therefore, for your sake, Zion is ploughed a field, and  Jerusalem is heaps, And the mount of the house [is] for high  places of a forest! |