Zephaniah 3:3

⁸Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly as an eagle that hurries to devour.

²⁵There is a conspiracy of her prophets within it, like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They take treasure and precious things. They have made many widows within it. ²⁶Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths. So I am profaned among them. ²⁷Her princes within it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.

⁶Therefore a lion out of the forest will kill them. A wolf of the evenings will destroy them. A leopard will watch against their cities. Everyone who goes out there will be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backsliding has increased.

²³Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes and follows after rewards. They don’t defend the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.

⁸According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble, reap the same. ⁹By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are they consumed. ¹⁰The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken. ¹¹The old lion perishes for lack of prey. The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad.

⁹Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity, ¹⁰who build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. ¹¹Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money; yet they lean on the LORD, and say, “Isn’t the LORD among us? No disaster will come on us.”

⁶“‘“Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his power, have been in you to shed blood.

¹I said, “Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn’t it for you to know justice? ²You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones; ³who also eat the flesh of my people, and peel their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as meat within the cauldron. ⁴Then they will cry to the LORD, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they made their deeds evil.”

¹⁵As a roaring lion or a charging bear, so is a wicked ruler over helpless people.

⁸He lies in wait near the villages. From ambushes, he murders the innocent. His eyes are secretly set against the helpless. ⁹He lurks in secret as a lion in his ambush. He lies in wait to catch the helpless. He catches the helpless when he draws him in his net. ¹⁰The helpless are crushed. They collapse. They fall under his strength.