Residents of Shaphir, pass by in nakedness and humiliation! The residents of Zaanan can't leave their city. Beth Ezel mourns, "He takes from you what he desires."

I said, "Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the nation of Israel! You ought to know what is just,

yet you hate what is good, and love what is evil. You flay my people's skin and rip the flesh from their bones.

This is what the Lord says: "The prophets who mislead my people are as good as dead. If someone gives them enough to eat, they offer an oracle of peace. But if someone does not give them food, they are ready to declare war on him.

But they do not know what the Lord is planning; they do not understand his strategy. He has gathered them like stalks of grain to be threshed at the threshing floor.

I will remove your idols and sacred pillars from your midst; you will no longer worship what your own hands made.

Listen to what the Lord says: "Get up! Defend yourself before the mountains! Present your case before the hills!"

With what should I enter the Lord's presence? With what should I bow before the sovereign God? Should I enter his presence with burnt offerings, with year-old calves?

He has told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord really wants from you: He wants you to promote justice, to be faithful, and to live obediently before your God.

They are determined to be experts at doing evil; government officials and judges take bribes, prominent men make demands, and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them.

The earth will become desolate because of what its inhabitants have done.