Rulers and Prophets Denounced
1 And I said:
See ch. 1:2Hear, you heads of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel!
Jer. 5:5;[Ezek. 22:6,27]Is it not for you to know justice?—
2 you [ver. 9] who hate the good and love the evil,
[Ezek. 34:3]who tear the skin from off my people3:2 Hebrew from off them
and their flesh from off their bones,
3 [Ps. 14:4;Isa. 3:15]who eat the flesh of my people,
and flay their skin from off them,
and break their bones in pieces
and chop them up like meat in a pot,
like flesh in a cauldron.
4 See Prov. 1:28Then they will cry to the Lord,
but he will not answer them;
Isa. 1:15;See Deut. 31:17he will hide his face from them at that time,
because they have made their deeds evil.
5 Thus says the Lord concerning Jer. 23:13,32;Ezek. 13:10the prophets
who lead my people astray,
[Jer. 6:14]who cry "Peace"
when they have something to eat,
but declare war against him
who puts nothing into their mouths.
6 Therefore Ezek. 12:24;13:23it shall be night to you, without vision,
and darkness to you, without divination.
See Amos 8:9The sun shall go down on the prophets,
and the day shall be black over them;
7 Zech. 13:4;[Jer. 37:19] the seers shall be disgraced,
and the diviners put to shame;
[Lev. 13:45] they shall all cover their lips,
for See Amos 8:11there is no answer from God.
8 But as for me, [Jer. 6:11] I am filled with power,
with the Spirit of the Lord,
and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob ch. 1:5;Isa. 58:1;[Ezek. 23:36]his transgression
and to Israel his sin.
9 See ch. 1:2Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel,
[ver. 2]who detest justice
and make crooked all that is straight,
10 Jer. 22:13;Ezek. 22:27;Hab. 2:12who build Zion with blood
and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 ch. 7:3;Isa. 1:23Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
See Jer. 6:13its priests teach for a price;
[ver. 5; Ezek. 22:25] its prophets practice divination for money;
Isa. 48:2yet they lean on the Lord and Jer. 7:4;[Amos 5:14] say,
"Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
[Jer. 23:17;Amos 9:10]No disaster shall come upon us."
12 Therefore because of you
Cited Jer. 26:18Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem [ch. 1:6] shall become a heap of ruins,
and ch. 4:2the mountain of the house [Luke 13:35]a wooded height.