The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.

Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them.

Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again unto the LORD; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear.

And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD.

Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.

I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their power to shed blood.

Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths.

In thee have they discovered their fathers' nakedness: in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution.

In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord GOD.

We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:

Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.

All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters.

And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?

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.

And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes,

And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?

If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole;

This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.

Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul: he heareth cursing, and bewrayeth it not.

And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.

He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.

Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.

A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment.

But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord GOD.

Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give ye.

That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.

Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;

To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!

They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.

Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.

And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.

Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:

And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;