| 3:1 | I said, “Listen, you leaders* of Jacob, you rulers of the nation* of Israel! You ought to know what is just,* |
| 3:2 | yet you* hate what is good,* and love what is evil.* You flay my people’s skin* and rip the flesh from their bones.* |
| 3:3 | You* 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. |
| 3:4 | Someday 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.” |
| 3:5 | This 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.* |
| 3:6 | Therefore 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.* |
| 3:7 | The prophets* will be ashamed; the omen readers will be humiliated. All of them will cover their mouths,* for they will receive no divine oracles.”* |
| 3:8 | But 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.* |
| 3:9 | Listen 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. |
| 3:10 | You* build Zion through bloody crimes,* Jerusalem* through unjust violence. |
| 3:11 | Her* 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!” |
| 3:12 | Therefore, 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!* |
Micah 3 - NET Bible [draft]
