False prophets

⁶ ‘Do not prophesy,’ their prophets say.
    ‘Do not prophesy about these things;
    disgrace will not overtake us.’
⁷ You descendants of Jacob, should it be said,
    ‘Does the Lord become impatient?
    Does he do such things?’

‘Do not my words do good
    to the one whose ways are upright?
⁸ Lately my people have risen up
    like an enemy.
You strip off the rich robe
    from those who pass by without a care,
    like men returning from battle.
⁹ You drive the women of my people
    from their pleasant homes.
You take away my blessing
    from their children for ever.
¹⁰ Get up, go away!
    For this is not your resting place,
because it is defiled,
    it is ruined, beyond all remedy.
¹¹ If a liar and deceiver comes and says,
    “I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,”
    that would be just the prophet for this people!

Deliverance promised

¹² ‘I will surely gather all of you, Jacob;
    I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel.
I will bring them together like sheep in a sheepfold,
    like a flock in its pasture;
    the place will throng with people.
¹³ The One who breaks open the way will go up before them;
    they will break through the gate and go out.
Their King will pass through before them,
    the Lord at their head.’

Leaders and prophets rebuked

3 Then I said,

‘Listen, you leaders of Jacob,
    you rulers of Israel.
Should you not embrace justice,
²     you who hate good and love evil;
who tear the skin from my people
    and the flesh from their bones;
³ who eat my people’s flesh,
    strip off their skin
    and break their bones in pieces;
who chop them up like meat for the pan,
    like flesh for the pot.’

⁴ Then they will cry out to the Lord,
    but he will not answer them.
At that time he will hide his face from them
    because of the evil they have done.

⁵ This is what the Lord says:

‘As for the prophets
    who lead my people astray,
they proclaim “peace”
    if they have something to eat,
but prepare to wage war against anyone
    who refuses to feed them.
⁶ Therefore night will come over you, without visions,
    and darkness, without divination.
The sun will set for the prophets,
    and the day will go dark for them.
⁷ The seers will be ashamed
    and the diviners disgraced.
They will all cover their faces
    because there is no answer from God.’
⁸ 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,
    to Israel his sin.

⁹ Hear this, you leaders of Jacob,
    you rulers of Israel,
who despise justice
    and distort all that is right;
¹⁰ who build Zion with bloodshed,
    and Jerusalem with wickedness.
¹¹ Her leaders judge for a bribe,
    her priests teach for a price,
    and her prophets tell fortunes for money.
Yet they look for the Lord’s support and say,
    ‘Is not the Lord among us?
    No disaster will come upon us.’
¹² Therefore because of you,
    Zion will be ploughed like a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble,
    the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.