Isaiah 1:23

1:23 Your officials are rebels,

they associate with thieves.

All of them love bribery,

and look for payoffs.

They do not take up the cause of the orphan,

or defend the rights of the widow.

Nehemiah 9:34

9:34 Our kings, our leaders, our priests, and our ancestors have not kept your law. They have not paid attention to your commandments or your testimonies by which you have solemnly admonished them.

Jeremiah 5:5

5:5 I will go to the leaders

and speak with them.

Surely they know what the Lord demands.

Surely they know what their God requires of them.”

Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority

and refuse to submit to him.

Jeremiah 5:31

5:31 The prophets prophesy lies.

The priests exercise power by their own authority.

And my people love to have it this way.

But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes!

Daniel 9:8-11

9:8 O LORD, we have been humiliated – our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors – because we have sinned against you. 9:9 Yet the Lord our God is compassionate and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him. 9:10 We have not obeyed the LORD our God by living according to his laws that he set before us through his servants the prophets.

9:11 “All Israel has broken your law and turned away by not obeying you. Therefore you have poured out on us the judgment solemnly threatened in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against you.

Zephaniah 3:1-4

Jerusalem is Corrupt

3:1 The filthy, stained city is as good as dead;

the city filled with oppressors is finished!

3:2 She is disobedient;

she refuses correction.

She does not trust the Lord;

she does not seek the advice of her God.

3:3 Her princes are as fierce as roaring lions;

her rulers are as hungry as wolves in the desert,

who completely devour their prey by morning.

3:4 Her prophets are proud;

they are deceitful men.

Her priests defile what is holy;

they break God’s laws.