I will go to the great men, and will speak to them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much according to all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.
Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loves gifts, and follows after rewards: they do not judge the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.
For since long ago I have broken your yoke, and burst your bonds; and you said, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree you wander, playing the harlot.
O generation, see the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? a land of darkness? why do my people say, We are lords; we will come no more unto you?
All your lovers have forgotten you; they do not seek you; for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of your iniquity; because your sins were increased.
For from the least of them even to the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest every one deals falsely.
Yea, the stork in the heaven knows her appointed times; and the turtledove and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people do not know the judgment of the LORD.
And they bend their tongues like their bow to speak lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says the LORD.
Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are in the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.
Their heads judge for reward, and their priests teach for wages, and their prophets divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? no evil can come upon us.