“Hear now, O heads of Jacob,
And you ^(A)rulers of the house of Israel:
^(B)Is it not for you to know justice?
² You who hate good and love evil;
Who strip the skin from ^[a]My people,
And the flesh from their bones;
³ Who also ^(C)eat the flesh of My people,
Flay their skin from them,
Break their bones,
And chop them in pieces
Like meat for the pot,
^(D)Like flesh in the caldron.”

⁴ Then ^(E)they will cry to the Lord,
But He will not hear them;
He will even hide His face from them at that time,
Because they have been evil in their deeds.

⁵ Thus says the Lord ^(F)concerning the prophets
Who make my people stray;
Who chant ^[b]“Peace”
^[c]While they ^(G)chew with their teeth,
But who prepare war against him
^(H)Who puts nothing into their mouths:
⁶ “Therefore^(I) you shall have night without ^[d]vision,
And you shall have darkness without divination;
The sun shall go down on the prophets,
And the day shall be dark for ^(J)them.
⁷ So the seers shall be ashamed,
And the diviners abashed;
Indeed they shall all cover their lips;
^(K)For there is no answer from God.”

⁸ But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord,
And of justice and might,
^(L)To declare to Jacob his transgression
And to Israel his sin.
⁹ Now hear this,
You heads of the house of Jacob
And rulers of the house of Israel,
Who abhor justice
And ^[e]pervert all equity,
^10 (M)Who build up Zion with ^(N)bloodshed
And Jerusalem with iniquity:
^11 (O)Her heads judge for a bribe,
^(P)Her priests teach for pay,
And her prophets divine for ^[f]money.
^(Q)Yet they lean on the Lord, and say,
“Is not the Lord among us?
No harm can come upon us.”
¹² Therefore because of you
Zion shall be ^(R)plowed like a field,
^(S)Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins,
And ^(T)the mountain of the ^[g]temple
Like the bare hills of the forest.

³ Therefore He shall give them up,
Until the time that ^(H)she who is in labor has given birth;
Then ^(I)the remnant of His brethren
Shall return to the children of Israel.
⁴ And He shall stand and ^(J)feed^[b] His flock
In the strength of the Lord,
In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God;
And they shall abide,
For now He ^(K)shall be great
To the ends of the earth;
⁵ And this One ^(L)shall be peace.

¹⁵ “As^(B) in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,
I will show ^[b]them ^(C)wonders.”

¹⁶ The nations ^(D)shall see and be ashamed of all their might;
^(E)They shall put their hand over their mouth;
Their ears shall be deaf.
¹⁷ They shall lick the ^(F)dust like a serpent;
^(G)They shall crawl from their holes like ^[c]snakes of the earth.
^(H)They shall be afraid of the Lord our God,
And shall fear because of You.
^18 (I)Who is a God like You,
^(J)Pardoning iniquity
And passing over the transgression of ^(K)the remnant of His heritage?

^(L)He does not retain His anger forever,
Because He delights in ^(M)mercy.^[d]
19 He will again have compassion on us,
And will subdue our iniquities.

You will cast all ^[e]our sins
Into the depths of the sea.
^20 (N)You will give truth to Jacob
And ^[f]mercy to Abraham,
^(O)Which You have sworn to our fathers
From days of old.