Your princes are rebels and comrades of thieves; Each one of them loves a bribe and looks for gifts. The fatherless they do not defend, the widow’s plea does not reach them.
See, the Lord goes forth from his place, to punish the wickedness of the earth’s inhabitants; The earth will reveal the blood shed upon it, and no longer conceal the slain.
My people are fools, they do not know me; They are senseless children, without understanding; They are wise at evil, but they do not know how to do good.
Therefore, I will give their wives to other men, their fields to new owners. Small and great alike, all are greedy for gain, prophet and priest, all practice fraud.
There are those in you who take bribes to shed blood. You exact interest and usury; you extort profit from your neighbor by violence. But me you have forgotten—oracle of the Lord God.
He answered me: The guilt of the house of Israel and the house of Judah is too great to measure; the land is filled with bloodshed, the city with lawlessness. They think that the Lord has abandoned the land, that he does not see them.
But you rise up against my people as an enemy: you have stripped off the garment from the peaceful, From those who go their way in confidence, as though it were spoils of war.
Its leaders render judgment for a bribe, the priests teach for pay, the prophets divine for money, While they rely on the Lord, saying, “Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No evil can come upon us!”
Therefore, do not make any judgment before the appointed time, until the Lord comes, for he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will manifest the motives of our hearts, and then everyone will receive praise from God. Paul’s Life as Pattern.