Micah 3

God Will Judge Judah’s Sinful Leaders

3:1 I said,

“Listen, you leaders1 of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation2 of Israel!

You ought to know what is just,3

3:2 yet you4 hate what is good,5

and love what is evil.6

You flay my people’s skin7

and rip the flesh from their bones.8

3:3 You9 devour my people’s flesh,

strip off their skin,

and crush their bones.

You chop them up like flesh in a pot10

like meat in a kettle.

3:4 Someday these sinners will cry to the Lord for help,11

but he will not answer them.

He will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have done such wicked deeds.”

3:5 This is what the Lord says: “The prophets who mislead my people

are as good as dead.12

If someone gives them enough to eat,

they offer an oracle of peace.13

But if someone does not give them food,

they are ready to declare war on him.14

3:6 Therefore night will fall, and you will receive no visions;15

it will grow dark, and you will no longer be able to read the omens.16

The sun will set on these prophets,

and the daylight will turn to darkness over their heads.17

3:7 The prophets18 will be ashamed;

the omen readers will be humiliated.

All of them will cover their mouths,19

for they will receive no divine oracles.”20

3:8 But I21 am full of the courage that the Lord’s Spirit gives,

and have a strong commitment to justice.22

This enables me to confront Jacob with its rebellion,

and Israel with its sin.23

3:9 Listen to this, you leaders of the family24 of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation25 of Israel!

You26 hate justice

and pervert all that is right.

3:10 You27 build Zion through bloody crimes,28

Jerusalem29 through unjust violence.

3:11 Her30 leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases,31

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust32 the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us.33

Disaster will not overtake34 us!”

3:12 Therefore, because of you,35 Zion will be plowed up like36 a field,

Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,

and the Temple Mount37 will become a hill overgrown with brush!38

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