Micah 3

1 Then I said: Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the nation of Israel. You should know justice.

2 You hate good and love evil. You strip the skin off my people and the flesh off their bones.

3 You eat my people's flesh. You strip off their skin. You break their bones to pieces. You chop them up like meat for a pot, like stew meat for a kettle.

4 Then you will cry to the LORD, but he will not answer you. He will hide his face from you at that time because you have done evil things.

5 This is what the LORD says about the prophets who mislead my people: When they have something to eat, they say, "All is well!" But they declare a holy war against those who don't feed them.

6 That is why you will have nights without visions. You will have darkness without revelations. The sun will set on the prophets, and the day will turn dark for them.

7 Seers will be put to shame. Those who practice witchcraft will be disgraced. All of them will cover their faces, because God won't answer them.

8 But I am filled with the power of the LORD's Spirit, with justice, and with strength. So I will tell [the descendants of] Jacob about their crimes and [the nation of] Israel about its sins.

9 Listen to this, you leaders of the descendants of Jacob, you rulers of the nation of Israel. You despise justice and pervert everything that is right.

10 You build Zion on bloodshed and Jerusalem on wickedness.

11 Your leaders exchange justice for bribes. Your priests teach for a price. Your prophets tell the future for money. But they rely on the LORD when they say, "After all, the LORD is with us. Nothing bad will happen to us."

12 Because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a pile of rubble, and the temple mountain will become a worship site covered with trees.

Micah 3 Commentary

Chapter 3

The cruelty of the princes, and the falsehood of the prophets. (1-8) Their false security. (9-12)

Verses 1-8 Men cannot expect to do ill, and fare well; but to find that done to them which they did to others. How seldom do wholesome truths reach the ears of those in high stations or in authority! Those who deceive others are preparing confusion for their own faces. The prophet had ardent love to God and to the souls of men; deep concern for his glory and their salvation, and zeal against sin. The difficulties he met with did not drive him from his work. He had this strength; not from and of himself, but he was full of power by the Spirit of the Lord. Those who act honestly, may act boldly. And those who come to hear the word of God, must be willing to be told of their faults, must take it kindly, and be thankful.

Verses 9-12 Zion's walls owe no thanks to those that build them up with blood and iniquity. The sin of man works not the righteousness of God. Even when men do that which in itself is good, but do it for filthy lucre, it becomes abomination both to God and man. Faith rests in the Lord as the soul's foundation: presumption only leans upon the Lord as a prop, and would use him to serve a turn. If men's having the Lord among them will not keep them from doing evil, it never can secure them from suffering evil for so doing. See the doom of wicked Jacob; Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field. This was exactly fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and is so at this day. If sacred places are polluted by sin, they will be wasted and ruined by the judgments of God.

Chapter Summary

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.