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.
You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and crumbs of bread, slaying those who should not be slain, and keeping alive those who should not live, lying to my people, who listen to lies.
that you may remember and be ashamed, and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, when I pardon you for all you have done—oracle of the Lord God.
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!”
Thus says the Lord regarding the prophets: O you who lead my people astray, When your teeth have something to bite you announce peace, But proclaim war against the one who fails to put something in your mouth.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the kingdom of heaven before human beings. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter. [
A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them.
Now we know that what the law says is addressed to those under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world stand accountable to God,
And furthermore, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers but gossips and busybodies as well, talking about things that ought not to be mentioned.
But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let these first learn to perform their religious duty to their own family and to make recompense to their parents, for this is pleasing to God.