Leaders Who Devour Their People
3 1 Then I said: Listen, you leaders of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Isn't it your duty to know what justice is 2 you who hate good and love evil, who tear the skin from my people and their flesh from their bones; 3 who eat the flesh of my people, strip off their skin, and break their bones in pieces; who chop them up like meat for the pot, like flesh inside the cauldron. 4 Then they will cry out to our Father, but he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them at that time, because of the evil they have done.
5 Thus says our Father concerning the prophets who lead my people astray: when they have something to eat, they proclaim "Peace," but they declare war on anyone who gives them nothing to eat. 6 Therefore night will come over you, without vision; darkness for you, without divination. The sun will set on the prophets, and the day will go dark over them. 7 The seers will be ashamed and the diviners disgraced; they will all cover their mouths in shame, for there is no answer from our Father.
8 But as for me, I am filled with power— with the Spirit of our Father— and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his rebellion and to Israel his sin. 9 Hear this, you leaders of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who despise justice and pervert everything that is right, 10 who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with wrongdoing. 11 Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets divine for silver; yet they lean on our Father and say, "Is not our Father among us? No disaster can come upon us. 12 Therefore because of you Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the temple mount a forested hilltop. a a v12 This prophecy was later cited during Jeremiah's ministry (Jeremiah 26:18) as evidence that genuine repentance can avert judgment.