Micah 3 -- Old Testament -- Gospel Daily

Micah

Chapter 3

Judgment on Corrupt Leaders

Micah addresses the heads of Jacob and princes of Israel, accusing them of hating good and loving evil, flaying the skin and eating the flesh of God's people as if they were meat for a pot. When they cry to the LORD in their affliction, he will not hear them but will hide his face because of their evil deeds. False prophets who bite with their teeth and cry peace shall have no vision; darkness will cover the seers and diviners. Though Micah is full of power by the LORD's spirit to declare Jacob's transgression, corrupt leaders judge for reward, priests teach for hire, and prophets divine for money, yet they claim the LORD is among them. Therefore Zion shall be plowed as a field and Jerusalem become heaps.

Corrupt judgesOppression of peopleFalse prophets silencedZion destroyed

¹And 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?

²Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;

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.

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.

⁵Thus 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.

⁶Therefore 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.

⁷Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.

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.

⁹Hear 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.

¹⁰They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

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.

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.