the Fourth Week of Advent
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Read the Bible
Complete Jewish Bible
Micah 3
1 "I said, ‘Please listen, leaders of Ya‘akov,
rulers of the house of Isra'el:
Shouldn't you know what justice is?
2 Yet you hate what is good and love what is bad.
You strip off their skin from them
and their flesh from their bones,
3 you eat the flesh of my people,
skin them alive, break their bones;
yes, they chop them in pieces,
like flesh in a caldron, like meat in a pot.'"
4 Then they will call to Adonai,
but he will not answer them;
when that time comes, he will hide his face from them,
because their deeds were so wicked.
5 Here is what Adonai says in regard to the prophets who cause my people to go astray, who cry, "Peace" as soon as they are given food to eat but prepare war against anyone who fails to put something in their mouths:
6 "Therefore you will have night, not vision,
darkness and not divination;
the sun will go down on the prophets,
over them the day will be black."
7 The seers will be put to shame,
the diviners will be disgraced.
They will have to cover their mouths,
because there will be no answer from God.
8 On the other hand, I am full of power
by the Spirit of Adonai,
full of justice and full of might,
to declare to Ya‘akov his crime,
to Isra'el his sin.
9 Hear this, please, leaders of the house of Ya‘akov,
rulers of the house of Isra'el,
you who abhor what is just
and pervert anything that is right,
10 who build up Tziyon with blood
and Yerushalayim with wickedness.
11 Her leaders sell verdicts for bribes,
her cohanim teach for a price,
her prophets divine for money —
yet they claim to rely on Adonai!
"Isn't Adonai here with us?" they say.
"No evil can come upon us."
12 Therefore, because of you,
Tziyon will be plowed under like a field,
Yerushalayim will become heaps of ruins,
and the mountain of the house like a forested height.
