HaShem blames Yisrael's leaders.
The princes' cruelty
3:1 And I said, Shema, I pray you, O heads of Yaakov, and ye princes of the Beit Yisrael; [Is it] not for you to know mishpat?
3:2 Who hate the Tov, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;
3:3 Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.
3:4 Then shall they cry unto YHWH (יהוה), but he will not Shema them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.
3:5 Thus saith YHWH (יהוה) concerning the Neviim that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.
3:6 Therefore night [shall be] unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the Neviim, and the day shall be dark over them.
3:7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for [there is] no answer of Elohim (אלהים).
3:8 But truly I am full of power by the spirit of YHWH (יהוה), and of mishpat, and of might, to declare unto Yaakov his pesha (transgression), and to Yisrael his sin.
3:9 Shema this, I pray you, ye heads of the Beit Yaakov, and princes of the Beit Yisrael, that abhor mishpat, and pervert all equity.
3:10 They build up Tzyon with blood, and Yerushalayim with iniquity.
3:11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the Neviim thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon YHWH (יהוה), and say, [Is] not YHWH (יהוה) among us? none evil can come upon us.
3:12 Therefore shall Tzyon for your sake be plowed [as] a field, and Yerushalayim shall become heaps, and the mountain of the Beit as the high places of the forest.