Haters of Good, Lovers of Evil

1-3 Then I said:

“Listen, leaders of Jacob, leaders of Israel:
    Don’t you know anything of justice?
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.
You break up the bones, chop the meat,
    and throw it in a pot for cannibal stew.”

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.

* * *

5-7 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.’
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.
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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who eat my people’s flesh,(A)
    strip off their skin
    and break their bones in pieces;(B)
who chop(C) them up like meat for the pan,
    like flesh for the pot?(D)

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

This is what the Lord says:

“As for the prophets
    who lead my people astray,(H)
they proclaim ‘peace’(I)
    if they have something to eat,
but prepare to wage war against anyone
    who refuses to feed them.

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