| English Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1And I said: Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice?— | 1I said, "Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the nation of Israel! You ought to know what is just, |
| 2you who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my people and their flesh from off their bones, | 2yet you hate what is good, and love what is evil. You flay my people's skin and rip the flesh from their bones. |
| 3who 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. | 3You devour my people's flesh, strip off their skin, and crush their bones. You chop them up like flesh in a pot--like meat in a kettle. |
| 4Then they will cry to the LORD, but he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil. | 4Someday these sinners will cry to the LORD for help, but he will not answer them. He will hide his face from them at that time, because they have done such wicked deeds." |
| 5Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry “Peace” when they have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths. | 5This is what the LORD says: "The prophets who mislead my people are as good as dead. If someone gives them enough to eat, they offer an oracle of peace. But if someone does not give them food, they are ready to declare war on him. |
| 6Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination. The sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be black over them; | 6Therefore night will fall, and you will receive no visions; it will grow dark, and you will no longer be able to read the omens. The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn to darkness over their heads. |
| 7the seers shall be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame; they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God. | 7The prophets will be ashamed; the omen readers will be humiliated. All of them will cover their mouths, for they will receive no divine oracles." |
| 8But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. | 8But I am full of the courage that the LORD's Spirit gives, and have a strong commitment to justice. This enables me to confront Jacob with its rebellion, and Israel with its sin. |
| 9Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight, | 9Listen to this, you leaders of the family of Jacob, you rulers of the nation of Israel! You hate justice and pervert all that is right. |
| 10who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. | 10You build Zion through bloody crimes, Jerusalem through unjust violence. |
| 11Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the LORD and say, “Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.” | 11Her leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, her priests proclaim rulings for profit, and her prophets read omens for pay. Yet they claim to trust the LORD and say, "The LORD is among us. Disaster will not overtake us!" |
| 12Therefore 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. | 12Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed up like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the Temple Mount will become a hill overgrown with brush! |
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