Micah 3:1-11

Rulers and Prophets Denounced

1 And I said: ¹Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! ²Is it not for you to know justice?--

2 you ³who hate the good and love the evil, ⁴who tear the skin from off my people^[a] and their flesh from off their bones,

3 ⁵who 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.

4 ⁶Then they will cry to the LORD, but he will not answer them; ⁷he will hide his face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil.

5 Thus says the LORD concerning ⁸the prophets who lead my people astray, ⁹who cry "Peace" when they have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths.

6 Therefore ¹⁰it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination. ¹¹The sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be black over them;

7 ¹²the seers shall be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame; ¹³they shall all cover their lips, for ¹⁴there is no answer from God.

8 But as for me, ¹⁵I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob ¹⁶his transgression and to Israel his sin.

9 ¹⁷Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, ¹⁸who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight,

10 ¹⁹who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11 ²⁰Its heads give judgment for a bribe; ²¹its priests teach for a price; ²²its prophets practice divination for money; ²³yet they lean on the LORD and ²⁴say, "Is not the LORD in the midst of us? ²⁵No disaster shall come upon us."

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Micah 3:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO MICAH 3

In this chapter the prophet reproves and threatens both princes and prophets, first separately, and then conjunctly; first the heads and princes of the people, civil magistrates, for their ignorance of justice, and hatred of good, and love of evil, and for their oppression and cruelty; and they are threatened with distress when they should cry unto the Lord, and should not be heard by him, Mic 3:1-4; next the prophets are taken to task, for their voraciousness, avarice, and false prophesying; and are threatened with darkness, with want of vision, and of an answer from the Lord, and with shame and confusion, Mic 3:5-7; and the prophet being full of the Spirit and power of God, to declare the sins and transgressions of Jacob and Israel, Mic 3:8, very freely declaims against princes, priests, and prophets, all together; who, though guilty of very notorious crimes, yet were in great security, and promised themselves impunity, Mic 3:9-11; wherefore the city and temple of Jerusalem are threatened with an utter desolation, Mic 3:12.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 25

1. See Micah 1:2
2. Jeremiah 5:5; [Ezekiel 22:6, 27]
3. [ver. 9]
4. [Ezekiel 34:3]
5. [Psalms 14:4; Isaiah 3:15]
6. See Proverbs 1:28
7. Isaiah 1:15; See Deuteronomy 31:17
8. Jeremiah 23:13, 32; Ezekiel 13:10
9. [Jeremiah 6:14]
10. Ezekiel 12:24; Ezekiel 13:23
11. See Amos 8:9
12. Zechariah 13:4; [Jeremiah 37:19]
13. [Leviticus 13:45]
14. See Amos 8:11
15. [Jeremiah 6:11]
16. Micah 1:5; Isaiah 58:1; [Ezekiel 23:36]
17. See Micah 1:2
18. [ver. 2]
19. Jeremiah 22:13; Ezekiel 22:27; Habakkuk 2:12
20. Micah 7:3; Isaiah 1:23
21. See Jeremiah 6:13
22. [ver. 5; Ezekiel 22:25]
23. Isaiah 48:2
24. Jeremiah 7:4; [Amos 5:14]
25. [Jeremiah 23:17; Amos 9:10]

Footnotes 1

[a]. Hebrew from off them

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.