^3:1 And I said, Hear, I beseech you^*, you^* heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel. Is it not for you^* to know justice? ^3:2 You^* who hate the good and love the evil, who pluck off their skin from them and their flesh from their bones, ^3:3 who also eat the flesh of my people and flay their skin from them and break their bones and chop them in pieces, as for the pot and as flesh within the caldron.

    ^3:4 Then they will cry to Jehovah, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, just-as they have worked evil in their practices.

    ^3:5 Jehovah says thus concerning the prophets who make my people go-astray, who bite with their teeth and cry, Peace. And he who does not put into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

    ^3:6 Therefore it will be night to you^*, that you^* will have no vision. And it will be dark to you^*, that you^* will not divine. And the sun will go down upon the prophets and the day will be black over them. ^3:7And the seers will be put to shame and diviners confounded. Yes, they will all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.

    ^3:8 But as for me, I am 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.

    ^3:9 Hear this, I beseech you^*, you^* heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity. ^3:10 They build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with unrighteousness. ^3:11 The heads of it judge for a bribe and the priests of it teach for a wage and the prophets of it divine for money.

    Yet they lean upon Jehovah and say, Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? No evil will come upon us. ^3:12 Therefore for your^* sake Zion will be plowed as a field and Jerusalem will become heaps and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.