Micah 3 · The Lantern

Rulers and Prophets Condemned

And I said: Hear, please, heads of Jacob and chiefs of the house of Israel. Is it not for you to know judgment?

For the Prophets ever rebuked them, saying, "Hear, ye rulers of Sodom"; and, "Thy rulers are disobedient"; and again, "Is it not for you to know judgment?" And everywhere they attack them vehemently. What then? Shall one blame God for this? Away with the thought. This blame is theirs. And what other proof can a man bring of your not knowing the Law than your not obeying it?

(Chapter III, verses 1 and following) And I said: Listen, leaders of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel. Is it not for you to know judgment, you who hate good and love evil, who violently take off their skin from them, and their flesh from their bones, who have eaten the flesh of my people, and have stripped off their skin from them, and have broken their bones and cut th…

He delivers this address to the leaders: those entrusted with judgment trampled on justice; hence he puts it in the form of a question, Was it not you who had responsibility for judging, for punishing the guilty and letting the innocent go free without blame?

You who hate good and love evil, who tear their skin from off them and their flesh from off their bones;

and who have eaten the flesh of my people, and have stripped their skin from off them and broken their bones in pieces, and spread them out as in a pot, and like meat in the midst of a cauldron.

Then they will cry out to the LORD, and he will not answer them. And he will hide his face from them at that time, as they have done evil in their deeds.

Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who bite with their teeth and call out “Peace,” and against the one who does not put into their mouths they consecrate war:

Therefore night is yours, without vision, and darkness is yours, without divination. And the sun will go down over the prophets, and the day will be dark over them.

And the seers will be ashamed and the diviners will be disgraced; and all of them will cover their mustache, for there is no answer from God.

But as for me, I am filled with power — with the spirit of the LORD — and with judgment and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.

Hear this, please, heads of the house of Jacob and chiefs of the house of Israel, who abhor judgment and twist all that is straight;

building Zion with blood and Jerusalem with injustice.

Her heads judge for a bribe and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets divine for silver; yet they lean on the LORD, saying, “Is not the LORD in our midst? Evil will not come upon us.”

Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps, and the mountain of the house high places of a forest.

Micah3

Rulers and Prophets Condemned