Micah 3

1 Listen, you rulers of Israel! You are supposed to be concerned about justice,

2 yet you hate what is good and you love what is evil. You skin my people alive and tear the flesh off their bones.

3 You eat my people up. You strip off their skin, break their bones, and chop them up like meat for the pot.

4 The time is coming when you will cry out to the Lord, but he will not answer you. He will not listen to your prayers, for you have done evil.

5 My people are deceived by prophets who promise peace to those who pay them, but threaten war for those who don't. To these prophets the Lord says,

6 "Prophets, your day is almost over; the sun is going down on you. Because you mislead my people, you will have no more prophetic visions, and you will not be able to predict anything."

7 Those who predict the future will be disgraced by their failure. They will all be humiliated because God does not answer them.

8 But as for me, the Lord fills me with his spirit and power, and gives me a sense of justice and the courage to tell the people of Israel what their sins are.

9 Listen to me, you rulers of Israel, you that hate justice and turn right into wrong.

10 You are building God's city, Jerusalem, on a foundation of murder and injustice.

11 The city's rulers govern for bribes, the priests interpret the Law for pay, the prophets give their revelations for money - and they all claim that the Lord is with them. "No harm will come to us," they say. "The Lord is with us."

12 And so, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins, and the Temple hill will become a forest. ¹

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.

Cross References

• 1. 3.12Jeremiah 26.18.

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.