Ezekiel 22:27-29

22:27 Her officials are like wolves in her midst rending their prey – shedding blood and destroying lives – so they can get dishonest profit. 22:28 Her prophets coat their messages with whitewash.¹ They see false visions and announce lying omens for them, saying, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ when the Lord has not spoken. 22:29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have wronged the poor and needy; they have oppressed the foreigner who lives among them and denied them justice.²

Micah 3:1-3

God Will Judge Judah’s Sinful Leaders

3:1 I said,

“Listen, you leaders³ of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation⁴ of Israel!

You ought to know what is just,⁵

3:2 yet you⁶ hate what is good,⁷

and love what is evil.⁸

You flay my people’s skin⁹

and rip the flesh from their bones.¹⁰

3:3 You¹¹ devour my people’s flesh,

strip off their skin,

and crush their bones.

You chop them up like flesh in a pot¹² –

like meat in a kettle.

Micah 7:3-4

7:3 They are determined to be experts at doing evil;¹³

government officials and judges take bribes,¹⁴

prominent men make demands,

and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them.¹⁵

7:4 The best of them is like a thorn;

the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes.¹⁶

The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen –

your appointed time of punishment – is on the way,¹⁷

and then you will experience confusion.¹⁸

¹tn Heb “her prophets coat for themselves with whitewash.” The expression may be based on Ezek 13:10-15.

²tn Heb “and the foreigner they have oppressed without justice.”

³tn Heb “heads.”

⁴tn Heb “house.”

⁵tn Heb “Should you not know justice?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you should!”

⁶tn Heb “the ones who.”

⁷tn Or “good.”

⁸tn Or “evil.”

⁹tn Heb “their skin from upon them.” The referent of the pronoun (“my people,” referring to Jacob and/or the house of Israel, with the Lord as the speaker) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰tn Heb “and their flesh from their bones.”

¹¹tn Heb “who.”

¹²tc The MT reads “and they chop up as in a pot.” The translation assumes an emendation of כַּאֲשֶׁר (ka’asher, “as”) to כִּשְׁאֵר (kish’er, “like flesh”).

¹³tn Heb “upon evil [are their] hands to do [it] well.”

¹⁴tn Heb “the official asks – and the judge – for a bribe.”

¹⁵tn More literally, “the great one announces what his appetite desires and they weave it together.” Apparently this means that subordinates plot and maneuver to make sure the prominent man’s desires materialize.

¹⁶tn Heb “[the] godly from a row of thorn bushes.” The preposition מִן (min) is comparative and the comparative element (perhaps “sharper” is the idea) is omitted. See BDB 582 s.v. 6 and GKC 431 §133.e.

¹⁷tn Heb “the day of your watchmen, your appointed [time], is coming.” The present translation takes “watchmen” to refer to actual sentries. However, the “watchmen” could refer figuratively to the prophets who had warned Judah of approaching judgment. In this case one could translate, “The day your prophets warned about – your appointed time of punishment – is on the way.”

¹⁸tn Heb “and now will be their confusion.”