Parallel Bible results for "micah 3"

Micah 3

New Living Translation NLT

1 I said, “Listen, you leaders of Israel! You are supposed to know right from wrong,

2 but you are the very ones who hate good and love evil. You skin my people alive and tear the flesh from their bones.

3 Yes, you eat my people’s flesh, strip off their skin, and break their bones. You chop them up like meat for the cooking pot.

4 Then you beg the LORD for help in times of trouble! Do you really expect him to answer? After all the evil you have done, he won’t even look at you!”

5 This is what the LORD says: “You false prophets are leading my people astray! You promise peace for those who give you food, but you declare war on those who refuse to feed you.

6 Now the night will close around you, cutting off all your visions. Darkness will cover you, putting an end to your predictions. The sun will set for you prophets, and your day will come to an end.

7 Then you seers will be put to shame, and you fortune-tellers will be disgraced. And you will cover your faces because there is no answer from God.”

8 But as for me, I am filled with power— with the Spirit of the LORD . I am filled with justice and strength to boldly declare Israel’s sin and rebellion.

9 Listen to me, you leaders of Israel! You hate justice and twist all that is right.

10 You are building Jerusalem on a foundation of murder and corruption.

11 You rulers make decisions based on bribes; you priests teach God’s laws only for a price; you prophets won’t prophesy unless you are paid. Yet all of you claim to depend on the LORD . “No harm can come to us,” you say, “for the LORD is here among us.”

12 Because of you, Mount Zion will be plowed like an open field; Jerusalem will be reduced to ruins! A thicket will grow on the heights where the Temple now stands.

The Message Bible MSG

1 Then I said: "Listen, leaders of Jacob, leaders of Israel: Don't you know anything of 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.

3 You break up the bones, chop the meat, and throw it in a pot for cannibal stew."

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.

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.'

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.

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."

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.

9 The leaders of Jacob and the leaders of Israel are Leaders contemptuous of justice, who twist and distort right living,

10 Leaders who build Zion by killing people, who expand Jerusalem by committing crimes.

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."

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.