Micah 3BSB

In This Chapter 3 people 9 places 45 terms

People

Places

Key Terms

Rulers and Prophets Condemned

Micah relentlessly indicted the leaders of Israel because...

Micah relentlessly indicted the leaders of Israel because they were responsible for the peoples’ well-being. The horrors here depict the terrors of a people under siege (cp. Deut 28:53; 2 Kgs 6:29).

This message indicts the evil leaders who were...

This message indicts the evil leaders who were destroying God’s people and contrasts them with a glorious vision of God’s kingdom and the reign of a righteous king. After suffering judgment and exile, a purified people of Israel would return and experience God’s blessings.

1Then I said:

“Hear now, O leaders of Jacob,you rulers of the house of Israel.Should you not know justice?
The leaders, like wild animals, destroyed their own...

The leaders, like wild animals, destroyed their own people.

2You hate good and love evil.You tear the skin from my peopleand strip the flesh from their bones.3You eat the flesh of my peopleafter stripping off their skinand breaking their bones.You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot,like meat in a cauldron.”
4Then they will cry out to the LORD,but He will not answer them.At that time He will hide His face from thembecause of the evil they have done.

5This is what the LORD says:

“As for the prophetswho lead My people astray,who proclaim peacewhile they chew with their teeth,but declare war against onewho puts nothing in their mouths:
Micah announced God’s judgment on the false prophets....

Micah announced God’s judgment on the false prophets. Without God’s special communications, these seers and fortune-tellers were like the pagan court prophets of such nations as Babylon, Mari, and especially Assyria, who were expected to toe the party line but who had no real revelation from the Lord (cp. 1 Sam 28:6; Amos 8:11–12).

6Therefore night will come over you without visions,and darkness without divination.The sun will set on these prophets,and the daylight will turn black over them.7Then the seers will be ashamedand the diviners will be disgraced.They will all cover their mouthsbecause there is no answer from God.”
8As for me, however, I am filled with powerby the Spirit of the LORD,with justice and courage,to declare to Jacob his transgressionand to Israel his sin.
The leaders of Israel were building Jerusalem on...

The leaders of Israel were building Jerusalem on a foundation of murder and corruption. Because of this, the city would be dismantled; it would be reduced to wilderness and ruins (3:12).

9Now hear this, O leaders of the house of Jacoband rulers of the house of Israel,who despise justiceand pervert all that is right,10who build Zion with bloodshedand Jerusalem with iniquity.11Her leaders judge for a bribe,her priests teach for a price,and her prophets practice divination for money.Yet they lean upon the LORD, saying,“Is not the LORD among us?No disaster can come upon us.”12Therefore, because of you,Zion will be plowed like a field,Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble,and the temple mount a wooded ridge.