“Let me go to the great men and speak to them, for they have known the way of יהוה, the right-ruling of their Elohim.” But these have altogether broken the yoke and torn off the bonds.
“For of old you have broken your yoke and tore of your bonds. And you said, ‘I am not serving You,’ when on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down, a whore.
Her heads judge for a bribe, her priests teach for pay, and her prophets divine for a price. Yet they lean on יהוה, and say, “Is not יהוה in our midst? Evil does not come upon us.”
Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Shomeron, who are oppressing the poor, who are crushing the needy, who are saying to their masters, “Bring wine, let us drink!”
“And they bend their tongue like a bow. Falsehood, and not truth, prevails on the earth. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they have not known Me,” declares יהוה.
Also, all the heads of the priests and the people trespassed more and more, according to all the abominations of the gentiles, and they defiled the House of יהוה which He had set apart in Yerushalayim.
Your rulers are stubborn, and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes, and runs after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, nor does the cause of the widow reach them.
“Even a stork in the heavens knows her appointed times. And a turtledove, and a swallow, and a thrush observe the time of their coming. But My people do not know the right-ruling of יהוה.
‘All those loving you have forgotten you, they do not seek you. For I smote you as an enemy smites, with cruel chastisement, because your crookedness is great, your sins have increased.
Woe to those at ease in Tsiyon, and those trusting in Mount Shomeron, the distinguished ones among the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Yisra’ĕ