Micah

I said:Listen, you rulers of Jacob,You chiefs of the House of Israel!For you ought to know what is right,

aSyntax of this verse and the next uncertain. But you hate good and love evil.

You have devoured My people’s flesh;You have flayed the skin off them,And after tearing their skins off them,And their flesh off their bones,bAnd after tearing their skins off them, / And their flesh off their bones Moved down from v. 2 for clarity. And breaking their bones to bits,You have cut it up as intocas into Meaning of Heb. uncertain; Septuagint and Syriac read “like flesh in.” a pot,Like meat in a cauldron.

Someday they shall cry out to GOD,But they will not be answered;At that time the divine face will be hidden,In accordance with the wrongs they have done.

Thus said GOD to the prophetsWho lead My people astray,Who cry “Peace!”When they have something to chew,But launch a war on thoseWho fail to fill their mouths:

Assuredly,It shall be night for youSo that you cannot prophesy,And it shall be dark for youSo that you cannot divine;The sun shall set on the prophets,And the day shall be darkened for them.

The seers shall be shamedAnd the diviners confounded;They shall cover their upper lips,dcover their upper lips As a sign of mourning; cf. Ezek. 24.17, 22; Lev. 13.45. Because no response comes from God.

But I,I am filled with strength by the spirit of GOD,And with judgment and courage,To declare to Jacob his transgressionsAnd to Israel his sin.

Hear this, you rulers of the House of Jacob,You chiefs of the House of Israel,Who detest justiceAnd make crooked all that is straight,

Who build Zion with crime,Jerusalem with iniquity!

Her rulers judge for gifts,Her priests give rulings for a fee,And her prophets divine for pay;Yet they rely upon GOD, saying,“ GOD is in our midst;No calamity shall overtake us.”

Assuredly, because of youZion shall be plowed as a field,Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruinsAnd the Temple Mount a shrine in the woods.