The Message Bible MSG
English Standard Version ESV
1 Then I said: "Listen, leaders of Jacob, leaders of Israel: Don't you know anything of justice?
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And I said: Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice? —
2 Haters of good, lovers of evil: Isn't justice in your job description? But you skin my people alive. You rip the meat off their bones.
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you who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my people and their flesh from off their bones,
3 You break up the bones, chop the meat, and throw it in a pot for cannibal stew."
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who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones in pieces and chop them up like meat in a pot, like flesh in a cauldron.
4 The time's coming, though, when these same leaders will cry out for help to God, but he won't listen. He'll turn his face the other way because of their history of evil.
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Then they will cry to the Lord, but he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil.
5 Here is God's Message to the prophets, the preachers who lie to my people: "For as long as they're well paid and well fed, the prophets preach, 'Isn't life wonderful! Peace to all!' But if you don't pay up and jump on their bandwagon, their 'God bless you' turns into 'God damn you.'
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Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry “Peace”when they have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths.
6 Therefore, you're going blind. You'll see nothing. You'll live in deep shadows and know nothing. The sun has set on the prophets. They've had their day; from now on it's night.
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Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination. The sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be black over them;
7 Visionaries will be confused, experts will be all mixed up. They'll hide behind their reputations and make lame excuses to cover up their God-ignorance."
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the seers shall be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame; they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.
8 But me - I'm filled with God's power, filled with God's Spirit of justice and strength, Ready to confront Jacob's crime and Israel's sin.
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But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.
9 The leaders of Jacob and the leaders of Israel are Leaders contemptuous of justice, who twist and distort right living,
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Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight,
10 Leaders who build Zion by killing people, who expand Jerusalem by committing crimes.
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who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 Judges sell verdicts to the highest bidder, priests mass-market their teaching, prophets preach for high fees, All the while posturing and pretending dependence on God: "We've got God on our side. He'll protect us from disaster."
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Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the Lord and say, “Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us. ”
12 Because of people like you, Zion will be turned back into farmland, Jerusalem end up as a pile of rubble, and instead of the Temple on the mountain, a few scraggly scrub pines.
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Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2025