1 Then I said, “Hear now, you heads of Jacob and rulers {qetsinei: governing officials} of the house of Israel: is it not for you to know what is just {mishpat: binding decision}?”
2 You who hate good and love evil {ra: moral wrong}, who plunder the skin {oram: protective layer} from them and the flesh from their bones.
3 Who eat the flesh of my people and strip {hifshitu: brutal stripping} their skin from them, and break their bones {atsmoteihem: their bones} in pieces, and chop them up as meat in a pot, and like flesh within a cauldron.
4 Then they will cry out to the LORD {YHWH, Hidden Judge}, but He will not answer them; at that time He will hide His face from them, because they have made their deeds {ma'alal: actions} evil.
5 Thus says the LORD {YHWH, Judge of Prophets} concerning the prophets who lead my people astray: when they bite with their teeth, they call out “Peace,” yet against anyone who puts nothing into their mouth {al pihem: into their mouths}, they consecrate war.
6 Therefore, it will be night for you without vision, and darkness for you without divination {qesem: forbidden omens}; the sun will go down over the prophets {neviim: public proclaimers}, and the day will grow dark over them.
7 The seers will be ashamed {boshu: public humiliation}, and the diviners will be disgraced; they will all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God {Elohim, Divine Silence}.
8 But as for me, I am filled with power by the Spirit of the LORD {YHWH, Prophetic Empowerer}, with justice {mishpat: right verdicts} and with might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.
9 Hear now this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, you who abhor justice {mishpat: rightful judgment} and pervert all that is straight {hayesharah: uprightness}.
10 They build Zion with blood {damim: violent deeds} and Jerusalem with injustice {avlah: perversion of justice}.
11 For bribes they deliver verdicts, for fees the priests instruct, and the prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the LORD {YHWH, Just Judge}, declaring, “Is not the LORD in our midst? Disaster {ra'ah: coming harm} will not befall us.”
12 Therefore, because of you, Zion shall turn into farmland {sadeh: worked ground} and Jerusalem shall lie as heaps {iyin: ruin mounds}, and the mountain of the house shall be left as forested highlands.