Chapter Three

1–4. Condemnation of princes and judges for violating justice. 5–7. Condemnation of false prophets for their flattering, reassuring speeches. 8. The character of Micah’s preaching. 9–12. Proclamation of the destruction of Jerusalem for the ungodliness of the Jews.

Chapter III, like the preceding one, has a condemnatory character. The prophet addresses the princes and false prophets. To the former he proclaims God’s wrath for the violation of justice and oppression. Micah condemns false prophets for their flattering attitude toward the people, because they, driven by greed, proclaimed peace to the people when disaster was impending. As a true servant of Jehovah, Micah comes forward with open condemnation of the people’s crimes and proclaims the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.

Micah 3:1. And I said: Listen, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel—is it not your responsibility to know justice? Instead of “and I said” (vaomar), the LXX reads καὶ ἐρεῖ, the Slavic “and he shall speak.” Accordingly, verses 1–4 in the Slavic text represent speech from the mouth of the Lord, whose name the prophet mentioned at the end of chapter II. According to the Russian text, verses 1–4 contain the words of the prophet himself and begin a new speech, which, as is clear from Jer 26:18, was delivered in the time of Hezekiah and made a strong impression on the people. “The heads of Jacob and the rulers of the house of Israel,” as is evident from what follows (Mic 3:10-12), denote Judah: heads and rulers are chiefs of clans, judges, commanders of thousands, and others. “Is it not your responsibility to know justice” (or “judgment” in the Slavic): the prophet speaks not of theoretical knowledge of justice, but of its practical implementation; is it not your responsibility to know justice—is it not your responsibility to care for justice? In place of the name Jacob, the LXX read beth Jaakov, hence in the Slavic “the authorities of the house of Jacob.” The Hebrew kezinej (rulers) the LXX apparently derived from kazah (to end) and translated with the word οἱ κατριλαποι, in Slavic “those who remain in the house of Israel.”

Micah 3:2. But you hate good and love evil; you flay the skin from them and flesh from their bones, “You flay the skin from them”: the prophet wishes to point out the oppression of the people by the leaders and rulers.

Micah 3:3. You eat the flesh of my people, and flay the skin from them, and break their bones, and cut them up as into a pot, and their flesh as into a kettle. The prophet expresses figuratively in verse 3 the thought of oppression of the people. The images in verse 3 represent a development of the image used in Mic 2:12 with respect to the people of a flock.

Micah 3:4. And they shall cry to the Lord, but he shall not hear them, and he shall hide his face from them at that time, because they have done wickedly. The punishment for the oppressors of the people will be that the Lord will not hear them in time of need, that is, on the day of judgment.

Micah 3:5. Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who bite with their teeth and proclaim peace, but against him who does not put food in their mouth, they declare war. In verses 5–7 the prophet condemns false prophets, and his condemnations are similar to the condemnations of Jeremiah (Jer 6:14) and Ezekiel (Ezek 13:10-19). Micah addresses those false prophets who were guided in their activity not by any convictions different from those of true prophets (Jer 7:4), but purely by greed. Taking advantage of the people’s trust, they comforted some by proclaiming abundance—wine and strong drink—and were hostile to others. “Bite with their teeth”: that is, they receive bread (compare Amos 6:14) for their predictions (Yungerov: “bold of tongue”). Against him who does not put food in their mouth, they declare war, from Hebrew “consecrate (kidschu) war,” that is, they give it a God-pleasing character. The prophet wants to say that false prophets covered their personal enmity toward those who “did not put food in their mouths” with the mask of serving God.

Micah 3:6. Therefore night shall come over you without visions, and darkness without divination; the sun shall set over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. The images of “night” and “darkness” in the Bible are used to express the thought of calamities (Isa 5:20). Micah proclaims that the false prophets will be overtaken by calamities for their greedy predictions.

Micah 3:7. And the seers shall be ashamed, and the diviners shall be abashed, and all of them shall cover their lips, because there is no answer from God. The onset of calamities will serve as proof of the falseness of the predictions of the false prophets who lulled the people with their promises of prosperity. The false prophets will cease to be trusted, and also because there will be no answer from the Lord at all, that is, revelation through the prophets will cease (compare Amos 8:12; Lam 2:4; Ps 73:9). “Cover their lips” (ol—sapham): from Hebrew, cover their beards (compare Lev 13:45; Ezek 24:17-22), that is, cover them as a sign of mourning on account of calamity. The LXX expressed the last thought differently: according to the Greek-Slavic text, given the exposure of the falseness of the predictions of the false prophets, “all will speak against them,” that is, everyone will condemn them. Instead of the words “because there is no answer from God” in the Slavic “because there will be none to hear them”: maaneh elogim (answer of God) the LXX read as maaneh elejhem.

Micah 3:8. But I am filled with power by the Spirit of the Lord, with justice and courage, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. The prophet points out the authority of his words, which proceed from the power of the Holy Spirit, and indicates the character of his preaching. In the Slavic text, instead of the affirmative form of speech, there is a conditional one: “if I do not fill myself with the power of the Spirit of the Lord.”

Micah 3:9. Listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert everything straight, Micah 3:10. Who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity! From verse 9 the prophet returns to the beginning of his speech and again condemns the heads and rulers of the house of Jacob (compare Mic 3:1). “Who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity”: the prophet condemns the rulers in that they built their houses, which constitute the beauty of Zion, from the means obtained by oppression and injustice; one can give the prophet’s words a more general sense: the princes commit so much violence and injustice that Zion and all Jerusalem seem to be built out of them.

Micah 3:11. Its heads judge for a bribe, and its priests teach for pay, and its prophets divine for money; yet they lean on the Lord and say, “Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No disaster shall overtake us! The prophet continues to enumerate the sins that will provoke the wrath of Jehovah. “Its priests teach for pay”: according to the Mosaic law, in difficult judicial cases, judges were supposed to consult the priests and act “according to the law that they teach you and according to the ruling that they give” (Deut 17:8-11). Clearly, the priests took bribes and perverted the law, issuing unjust rulings, for which the prophet condemns them. The severity of the crimes condemned by the prophet was particularly increased by the fact that those responsible for them considered themselves true worshippers of the Lord, were confident in the Lord’s dwelling in their midst and in His protection from calamities. With such false convictions, Jeremiah had later to contend (Jer 7:4).

Micah 3:12. Therefore, because of you, Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house shall become a wooded hill. For the sins of the rulers, the prophet proclaims the complete destruction of Jerusalem. “Zion” is the name of the fortress of the Jebusites, located on the southern part of the eastern hill of Jerusalem, and later the name of the entire eastern hill and even all of Jerusalem. “The mountain of the house”—the mountain of the temple, that is, the same Zion or that part of Zion where the temple stood. The LXX transmitted verse 12 in accordance with the Masoretes, except that the word “heap” (“pile of ruins”) was translated by them, as in Mic 1:6, as ὀπωροφυλάκιον, Slavic “vegetable storage,” and the word bamoth (“hill”) as ἄλσος, a grove (Slavic “and the mountain of the house like a sacred grove”). Micah’s prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem is also cited in the Book of Jeremiah (Jer 26:18). From the Book of Jeremiah, we learn that the prophecy under consideration was uttered in the time of Hezekiah, made an impression on the king and the people, and prompted them to turn to the Lord. As a result of this repentance, the Lord “averted the disaster.” Thus, while the prophet’s threats were expressed in a definitive form, they had a conditional character. Moreover, the Book of Jeremiah reports that the fact of Micah’s prophesying concerning the destruction of Jerusalem served to save the prophet Jeremiah from death, to which they wanted to condemn him because he prophesied against the city (Jer 26:11-19).