CHAPTER 3

(710 B.C.)

THE SINS OF THE RULERS OF ISRAEL

¹And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and you princes of the House of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? (This Scripture is addressed to the Magistrates. The question, Is it not for you to know judgment?, refers to the fact that they, of all men, should know and practice what is just and fair.)

²Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones (the first phrase proclaims these Magistrates as hating the Bible and loving their own laws and ways, which were evil. The last phrase speaks of greatly oppressing the poor, charging exorbitant rates of interest, and being bribed in order to circumvent the law, etc.);

³Who 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. (The idea is: the people are treated as animals, such as cattle or sheep, etc., chopped and broken up as meat for the cook-pot. Once the Word of God, as here, is violated, cruelty becomes the norm.)

JUDGMENT ON ISRAELS LEADERS

⁴Then 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. (The pronoun they refers to the Magistrates. But He will not hear them, is fearsome indeed, in that their only hope of help is now cut off. He will even hide His Face from them at that time, refers to the time of the coming Assyrian invasion. It refers back to 2:3. The last phrase, As they have behaved themselves ill in their doings, means that men cannot do ill and fare well.)

JUDGMENT ON THE PROPHETS

⁵Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who make My People err, who bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he who puts not into their mouths, they even prepare war against Him. (The first phrase refers to the lying prophets of whom Jeremiah also complained [Lam. 2:14]. Who bite with their teeth, refers to an abundance of food, and is another way of expressing the peace and prosperity proclaimed by these false prophets.

And cry, Peace, refers to the fashionable preacher proclaiming Peace, i.e., that there is no future Wrath of God, no Lake of Fire, and no Judgment to come. The True Preacher, as in Verse 8, denounces sin and announces Judgment. And he who puts not into their mouths, pertains to these preachers who preach for large salaries; they, therefore, trim their message according to what they are paid.

They even prepare war against him, pertains to the false prophets being at war with the True Prophets.)

⁶Therefore night shall be unto you, that you shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that you shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. (The gist of this Verse is: at the time of this coming judgment, all the false preachers shall be confounded. They shall cover their lips, i.e., be compelled to silence, for they shall have no answer from God.)

⁷Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yes, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God. (Then shall the seers be ashamed, refers to the false prophets, who prognosticated peace and prosperity, but instead saw the very opposite. They will be ashamed because their oracles are proved to be delusive.

And the diviner confounded, pertains to the fact that everything they said was utterly wrong. For there is no answer of God, means that what the false prophets said was not from God, even though they claimed it was. It was instead out of their own minds.)

MICAH, A TRUE PROPHET

⁸But 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. (In contrast to the false prophets, Micah says the very opposite; actually, he claims three things in the Text, and the Holy Spirit says it is so:

1. Full of Power by the Spirit.

2. A Correct Judgment of the Word of God.

3. And of Might, which refers to the Anointing of the Holy Spirit, Who helped him to deliver the Message.)

SINS OF THE LEADERS

⁹Hear this, I pray you, you heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the House of Israel, who abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. (Micah, after projecting what the future will be for these false prophets and their followers, now reverts back to the present. He plainly and bluntly advises the Spiritual leadership of both Israel and Judah to hear this. As usual, it would not be a Message they desired to hear, but instead one which angered them greatly!)

¹⁰They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. (The idea is: great palaces were built with money gained by extortion, rape, and judicial murders, like that of Naboth [I Ki., Chpt. 21]. The phrase, And Jerusalem with iniquity, refers to gain, but by unlawful means.)

¹¹The 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. (The heads thereof judge for reward, means that they took bribes. The priests taught what the people wanted to hear instead of what they needed to hear. They were thereby paid well. Also, the false prophets sold their revelations, pretending they came from God. They divine for money!

In all of this, they claimed they were doing the Will of the Lord and that no evil can come upon us. They claimed God as the Author of their prosperity, and that Micahs predictions of coming judgment were facetious.)

DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM AND THE TEMPLE

¹²Therefore 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. (This is the Prophecy quoted by the elders to King Jehoiakim [Jer. 26:18]. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, was not fulfilled when Nebuchadnezzar later took the city, but was fulfilled with its destruction by Titus in A.D. 70. At that time, the Temple was completely razed, with plows actually run over the very ground on which it sat.

The destruction on Samaria [1:6] and that on Jerusalem were similar both a heap of stones but the causes, dissimilar. Doctrine doomed Samaria; conduct, Jerusalem.)