Micah 6:12

12 in a city whose wealthy are full of violence and whose inhabitants speak falsehood with lying tongues in their mouths?

Micah 6:12 Meaning and Commentary

Micah 6:12

For the rich men thereof are full of violence
That is, the rich men of the city, to whom the voice of the Lord cried, ( Micah 6:9 ) . Jerusalem or Samaria, or any or all the cities of Israel and Judah; the rich men of these cities, who had enough of the world, and were under no temptation to do an ill thing, to get money; and yet their hands and their houses, and their treasuries, as the Targum, were full of goods gotten by violent measures, by the oppression of the poor and needy: and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies;
the rest of the inhabitants, who were not so rich as others, and who had it not in the power of their hands to oppress as others had; yet used deceitful and fraudulent methods to cheat their neighbours in buying and selling; and, to do this, did not stick to tell downright deliberate lies: and their tongue [is] deceitful in their mouth;
say one thing, and mean another; deceive their neighbours with their tongues in trade and commerce; averting things for truth they know to be false.

Micah 6:12 In-Context

10 Are the treasures of wickedness still in the house of wickedness, while the shorted basket is denounced?

11 Can I approve wicked scales and a bag of false weights

12 in a city whose wealthy are full of violence and whose inhabitants speak falsehood with lying tongues in their mouths?

13 So I have made you sick by striking you! I have struck you because of your sins.

14 You devour, but you aren't satisfied; a gnawing emptiness is within you. You put something aside, but you don't keep it safe. That which you do try to keep safe, I will give to the sword.

Footnotes

• [a] Heb lacks in a city.