For the sins of the rich oppressing the poor, of false prophets
flattering for lucre, and of judges perverting justice, Jerusalem and
the temple shall be destroyed.
3:1. And I said: Hear, O ye princes of Jacob, and ye chiefs of the
house of Israel: Is it not your part to know judgment,
3:2. You that hate good, and love evil: that violently pluck off their
skins from them and their flesh from their bones?
3:3. Who have eaten the flesh of my people, and have flayed their skin
off them: and have broken, and chopped their bones as for the kettle,
and as flesh in the midst of the pot.
3:4. Then shall they cry to the Lord, and he will not hear them: and he
will hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved
wickedly in their devices.
3:5. Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people
err: that bite with their teeth, and preach peace: and if a man give
not something into their mouth, they prepare war against him.
3:6. Therefore night shall be to you instead of vision, and darkness to
you instead of divination: and the sun shall go down upon the prophets,
and the day shall be darkened over them.
3:7. And they shall be confounded that see visions, and the diviners
shall be confounded: and they shall all cover their faces, because
there is no answer of God.
3:8. But yet I am filled with the strength of the spirit of the Lord,
with judgment and power: to declare unto Jacob his wickedness and to
Israel his sin.
3:9. Hear this, ye princes of the house of Jacob, and ye judges of the
house of Israel: you that abhor judgment and pervert all that is right.
3:10. You that build up Sion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
3:11. Her princes have judged for bribes: and her priests have taught
for hire, and her prophets divined for money: and they leaned upon the
Lord, saying: Is not the Lord in the midst of us? no evil shall come
upon us.
3:12. Therefore because of you, Sion shall be ploughed as a field, and
Jerusalem shall be as a heap of stones, and the mountain of the temple
as the high places of the forests.