Wicked Leaders Who Devour the People
Study note
Micah uses shocking language to describe how the rulers treat the common people. He compares the leaders to butchers who skin and eat their own people. These leaders should have known right from wrong, but they chose evil. When disaster comes, God will not answer their cries for help.
1 Then I said, "Listen, you leaders of Jacob! You rulers of Israel! You are supposed to be the ones who understand justice." 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 "But instead, you love evil and hate good. You skin my people alive and rip the flesh right off their bones." Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;
3 "You devour my people's flesh, tear off their skin, and crush their bones. You treat them like chunks of meat for your cooking pot." 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 "Someday they will cry out to the LORD for help, but he will not answer. He will look the other way because of the terrible things they have done." Then shall they cry 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.
False Prophets Condemned
Study note
Micah turns his attention to the prophets who lead people astray. These false prophets preach peace to those who pay them, but declare war against those who do not. God will take away their ability to receive visions. They will be put to shame because God will no longer speak through them.
5 The LORD says this about the prophets who are leading his people down the wrong path: "When someone feeds them, they preach 'Peace and prosperity!' But when someone does not pay them, they declare war on that person." Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.
6 "So darkness will swallow you up — no more visions. Everything will go black for you — no more predictions. The sun will set on these so-called prophets, and their days will turn permanently dark." Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.
7 "The visionaries will be embarrassed. The fortune-tellers will be humiliated. They will cover their faces in shame because God will not answer them." Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.
Micah's True Calling and Jerusalem's Doom
Study note
In contrast to the false prophets, Micah declares that he is filled with the Spirit of the LORD and speaks the truth boldly. He condemns the leaders who build Jerusalem through bloodshed and injustice. Judges take bribes, priests teach for money, and prophets tell fortunes for pay. Because of this corruption, Jerusalem and its temple will be completely destroyed.
8 "But I am filled with power from the LORD's Spirit. I am filled with a sense of what is right and with courage. I will call out Jacob's sin and Israel's wrongs right to their faces." But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.
9 Listen to this, you leaders of Jacob's house! You rulers of Israel! You despise justice and bend everything that is straight into a pretzel. 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 You are building Zion with innocent blood and Jerusalem with crime. They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 Your leaders take bribes before they make a ruling. Your priests only teach if you pay them first. Your prophets will not speak without a fee. Yet they lean on the LORD and say, "The LORD is with us! Nothing bad will happen here." The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
12 Because of you, Zion will be plowed under like a farmer's field. Jerusalem will be reduced to a heap of stones. And the temple hill will become an overgrown wilderness. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.