Isa 1:23, Eze 19:3-6, 22:6, 45:9, Hos 7:1-7, Mic 3:2-3, 9-11, 7:8 | ESV | STEP | Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves . Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts . They do not bring justice to the fatherless , and the widow’s cause does not come to them.

Isaiah 1:23

23 Your princes are rebels
and companions of thieves.
Everyone ^aloves a bribe
and runs after gifts.
^bThey do not bring justice to the fatherless,
and the widow’s cause does not come to them.

Ezekiel 19:3-6

3 And she brought up one of her cubs;
^che became a young lion,
^dand he learned to catch prey;
he devoured men.
4 The nations heard about him;
^ehe was caught in their pit,
^fand they brought him with hooks
to the land of Egypt.
5 When she saw that she waited in vain,
that her hope was lost,
^gshe took another of her cubs
and made him a young lion.
6 He prowled among the lions;
he became a young lion,
and he learned to catch prey;
he devoured men,

Ezekiel 22:6

6 “Behold, ^hthe princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood.

Ezekiel 45:9

9 “Thus says the Lord God: ⁱEnough, O princes of Israel! Put away violence and oppression, and execute justice and righteousness. Cease ^jyour evictions of my people, declares the Lord God.

Hosea 7:1-7

1 ^kwhen I would heal Israel,
the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,
and the evil deeds of ^lSamaria,
for ^mthey deal falsely;
the thief breaks in,
and the bandits raid outside.
2 But they do not consider
that ⁿI remember all their evil.
Now ^otheir deeds surround them;
^pthey are before my face.
3 By their evil ^qthey make ^rthe king glad,
and the princes by their treachery.
4 ^sThey are all adulterers;
they are like a heated oven
whose baker ceases to stir the fire,
from the kneading of the dough
until it is leavened.
5 On the day of ^tour king, the princes
became sick with the heat of wine;
he stretched out his hand with mockers.
6 For with hearts like an oven ^uthey approach their intrigue;
all night their anger smolders;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
7 All of them are hot as an oven,
and they devour their rulers.
All ^vtheir kings ^whave fallen,
and none of them calls upon me.

Micah 3:2-3

2 you ^xwho hate the good and love the evil,
^ywho tear the skin from off my people ^{▼▼Hebrew from off them}
and their flesh from off their bones,
3 ^aawho eat the flesh of my people,
and flay their skin from off them,
and break their bones in pieces
and chop them up like meat in a pot,
like flesh in a cauldron.

Micah 3:9-11

9 ^abHear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel,
^acwho detest justice
and make crooked all that is straight,
10 ^adwho build Zion with blood
and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 ^aeIts heads give judgment for a bribe;
^afits priests teach for a price;
^agits prophets practice divination for money;
^ahyet they lean on the Lord and ^aisay,
“Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
^ajNo disaster shall come upon us.”

Micah 7:8

8 ^akRejoice not over me, O ^almy enemy;
^amwhen I fall, I shall rise;
^anwhen I sit in darkness,
the Lord will be a light to me.