Micah 3

Leaders and Prophets Rebuked

1 Then I said, “Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel. Should you not embrace justice,

2 you who hate good and love evil; who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones;

3 who eat my people’s flesh, strip off their skin and break their bones in pieces; who chop them up like meat for the pan, like flesh for the pot?”

4 Then they will cry out to the LORD, but he will not answer them. At that time he will hide his face from them because of the evil they have done.

5 This is what the LORD says: “As for the prophets who lead my people astray, they proclaim ‘peace’ if they have something to eat, but prepare to wage war against anyone who refuses to feed them.

6 Therefore night will come over you, without visions, and darkness, without divination. The sun will set for the prophets, and the day will go dark for them.

7 The seers will be ashamed and the diviners disgraced. They will all cover their faces because there is no answer from God.”

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

9 Hear this, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right;

10 who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness.

11 Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they look for the LORD’s support and say, “Is not the LORD among us? No disaster will come upon us.”

12 Therefore because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.

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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.

Taken from Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise)

Cross References 32

1. S Jeremiah 5:5
2. Psalms 53:4; S Ezekiel 22:27
3. S Psalms 14:4
4. S Ezekiel 34:4; Zephaniah 3:3
5. S Job 24:14
6. S Ezekiel 11:7; S Ezekiel 24:4-5
7. S Deuteronomy 1:45; S 1 Samuel 8:18; S Isaiah 58:4; S Jeremiah 11:11; Psalms 18:41; Isaiah 1:15
8. S Deuteronomy 31:17
9. S Job 15:31; S Ezekiel 8:18
10. S Isaiah 3:12; S Isaiah 9:16; S Isaiah 53:6
11. S Jeremiah 4:10
12. Isaiah 8:19-22; S Ezekiel 12:24
13. Isaiah 29:10
14. S Ezekiel 7:26; S Amos 8:11
15. S Jeremiah 6:15; Micah 7:16
16. S Isaiah 44:25
17. S Esther 6:12
18. S Leviticus 13:45
19. S Ezekiel 20:3
20. S Isaiah 57:12; Isaiah 61:2; Isaiah 58:1
21. Psalms 58:1-2; S Isaiah 1:23
22. S Jeremiah 22:13
23. Isaiah 59:7; Micah 7:2; Nahum 3:1; Habakkuk 2:12
24. Jeremiah 22:17; S Ezekiel 22:27
25. S Exodus 23:8; S Leviticus 19:15; Malachi 2:9
26. S Ezekiel 13:19
27. Isaiah 1:23; S Isaiah 56:11; Jeremiah 6:13; S Lamentations 4:13; S Hosea 4:8,18
28. S Isaiah 10:20
29. Jeremiah 7:4; S Ezekiel 34:2
30. S 2 Kings 25:9; S Isaiah 6:11; Jeremiah 26:18
31. S Jeremiah 52:13
32. S Leviticus 26:31; S Jeremiah 17:3; S Jeremiah 22:6; S Lamentations 5:18; S Ezekiel 5:14

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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible