Old Testament Commentary - Micah 3

by Don R. Hender


Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
Commentary & Explanation
Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
           CHAPTER 3              

Priests who teach for hire, and prophets who divine for money, bring a curse upon the people.

 1 AND I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?
 2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;
 3 Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.
 4 Then shall they acry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.
 5 ¶ Thus saith the LORD concerning the aprophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, bPeace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare cwar against him.
 6 Therefore anight shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto youa, that ye shall not bdivine; and the csun shall go down over the dprophets, and the day shall be dark over them.
 7 Then shall the seers be aashamed, and the bdiviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is cno answer of God.
 6a ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you This is the same as was said by Amos that there would be a famine in the land from hearing the words of the LORD (Amos 8:11). The Lord would withdraw himself from Israel and there would be a time of apostasy when the power of God would not attend the people either in vision or by prophet leadership. This is the condition of sacttered Israel who the Lord did turn his back upon.
 8 ¶ But truly I am full of apower by the bspirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his ctransgression, and to Israel his sin.
 9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.
 10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
 11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the aprophets thereof divine for bmoney: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
 12 Therefore shall Zion for your asake be bplowed as a field, and cJerusalem shall become eheaps, and the mountain of ethe house as the high places of the forest.