Micah 3:1-8 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Reader Related Verse
Bible Comments

The Unjust Rulers and False Prophets of Judah. Micah first addresses those whose official duty it is to know justice, i.e. sympathetically, and declares that in fact they love its opposite, and cruelly oppress (cf. Isaiah 3:15) those they govern. In their (coming) distress, Yahweh will not heed them (cf. Isaiah 1:15). Micah then turns to the false prophets, whose utterances are dictated by self-interest, and proclaims against them, instead of the well-being they have foretold, the darkness of the Day of Yahweh (Amos 5:18), when there shall be no response to the diviners, and they shall go mourning. In contrast with them, Micah declares that Yahweh's Spirit has given him the inner qualities of independent strength and of justice, which underlie true prophecy, and are seen in the rebuke of sin.

Micah 3:2. pluck off their skin, etc.: the description is, of course, figurative.

Micah 3:5. J. M. P. Smith aptly compares the test of disinterestedness applied to prophets by the Didache, 11:3- 6.

Micah 3:7. cover their lips: a sign of mourning (cf. Ezekiel 24:17; Ezekiel 24:22; Leviticus 13:45).

Micah 3:8. Cf. Micaiah ben Imlah in 1 Kings 22; by the Spirit of the Lord is perhaps a gloss, though a correct one.

Related Commentaries of Micah 3:1

Micah 3:1-8

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 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.

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

8 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.