3:1 I said,
“Listen, you leaders 1 of Jacob,
you rulers of the nation 2 of Israel!
You ought to know what is just, 3
3:2 yet you 4 hate what is good, 5
and love what is evil. 6
You flay my people’s skin 7
and rip the flesh from their bones. 8
3:3 You 9 devour my people’s flesh,
strip off their skin,
and crush their bones.
You chop them up like flesh in a pot 10 –
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.”
3:9 Listen to this, you leaders of the family 12 of Jacob,
you rulers of the nation 13 of Israel!
You 14 hate justice
and pervert all that is right.
3:10 You 15 build Zion through bloody crimes, 16
Jerusalem 17 through unjust violence.
3:11 Her 18 leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, 19
her priests proclaim rulings for profit,
and her prophets read omens for pay.
Yet they claim to trust 20 the Lord and say,
“The Lord is among us. 21
Disaster will not overtake 22 us!”