Hosea Chapter One s2

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MICAH – CHAPTER 3 – WICKED RULERS AND PROPHETS

Micah 3:1-7

1 AND I [Micah] said, Hear, I pray you, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice? — 2 You who hate the good and love the evil, who pluck and steal the skin from off [My people] and their flesh from off their bones; 3 Yes, you who eat the flesh of my people and strip their skin from off them, who break their bones and chop them in pieces as for the pot, like meat in a big kettle. 4 Then will they cry to the Lord, but He will not answer them; He will even hide His face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil. [Isaiah 1:15.] 5 Thus says the Lord: Concerning the false prophets who make My people err, when they have anything good to bite with their teeth they cry, Peace; and whoever gives them nothing to chew, against him they declare a sanctified war. 6 Therefore it shall be night to you, so that you shall have no vision; yes, it shall be dark to you without divination. And the sun shall go down over the false prophets, and the day shall be black over them. 7 And the seers shall be put to shame and the diviners shall blush and be confounded; yes, they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God. AMP

Corrupt Leaders

3:2-3. Cannibal analogy. The rapacious nature of the leaders and judges of Judah is compared to a cannibalistic feast in which the people fall victim to the economic knives and voracious appetite of these corrupt officials. The realistic aspects of preparing the flesh and cracking the bones for their marrow may well be based on the necessities of survival during famines or military sieges (see comment on 2 Kings 6:29). (IVP Bible Background Commentary)

3:5-7. Unsuccessful prophets. A failed or unsuccessful prophet is one who no longer receives any communication from God (see the "famine" of God's words in Amos 8:11-12). This has been brought about by the greed of the prophets who sell their deceptive prophecies rather than speaking them freely in response to God's prompting. The commercialization of prophetic speech assures "peace" or prosperity for the merchants and the nobility who give the prophets "bread" and brings down threats of ruin, allegorized here as "war," on those who fail to bribe them. Micah, who was not a member of the prophetic guild, but, like Amos, simply a man chosen by God to speak (Amos 7:1-15), replaces their failed rituals and divinatory practices with the true word of God. Prophets of this period in Assyria were often in the employ of the royal court and were expected to support the legitimacy of the regime. We would use the expression that it was important for them to recognize which side their bread was buttered on.

Micah 3:6

[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] The 5th prophesy in Micah (Micah 3:6-7, fulfilled). Next, Micah 3:12.

Five Predictions — Fulfilled:

1. You will have such darkness that you will not be able to divine (Micah 3:6).

2. The sun will go down upon your prophets, and the day will be dark over them.

3. Then the seers will be ashamed (Micah 3:7).

4. The diviners will be confounded.

5. There will be no message from God through any of them.

MICAH CHAPTER THREE

A RULER IS COMING!

Micah 3-5

Micah's second message is at the heart of the book and focuses on Israel's future. First, Micah rebuked the leaders of the nation for their sinful conduct, which God would judge (3), and he outlined the events that would usher in the promised kingdom (4-5). Knowing that God has such a glorious future planned for their nation should have motivated the leaders to turn from their sins and obey the Lord. "Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure" (1 John 3:3 NIV). Alas, they didn't even pay attention to the sermon!

1. Rebuke: the sins of the leaders (Micah 3)

As with Micah's other two messages, this second message opens with a call for the people to "hear" what the Lord would say through His servant (1:2; 6:1). It's as though Micah had shouted, "Listen! God is speaking! This is important!"

(a) The statement reminds us of the Lord's repeated admonition, "Who has ears to hear, let him hear!" or the warning in Hebrews 12:25; "See that you do not refuse Him who speaks" (NKJV).

(b) It's a dangerous thing to turn a deaf ear to the voice of God when He speaks through His Word. "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts" (3:7-8 NKJV).

(d) Yet the Father lovingly says to us, "Now therefore, listen to Me, My children; pay attention to the words of My mouth" (Proverbs 7:24 NKJV).

Micah opened his message by rebuking the civil authorities (Micah 3:1-4); men who were not only permitting the wealthy to exploit the poor but were also doing it themselves! Leaders are supposed to love the good and hate the evil, but these men were just the opposite: they "hate the good, and love the evil" (v. 2).

Ideal leaders are described as "able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness" (Exodus 18:21 NKJV). Micah's contemporary Amos wrote, "Seek good and not evil, that you may live.... Hate evil, love good; establish justice in the gate" (Amos 5:14-15 NKJV; see Proverbs 8:13). The city gate was the place where the elders met to settle disputes and make official decisions (Ruth 4:1 ff). If there was no justice in the cities, there could be no justice in the land.

The description of these rulers' actions reminds you more of ravenous beasts than of human beings. Instead of being faithful shepherds who protected the flock (Micah 2:12; 7:14), they attacked the sheep, skinned them alive, butchered them, chopped them up, and made stew out of them! But the day would come when these wolves in shepherd's clothing would cry out for God's mercy, but no mercy would be given. "Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured" (Deuteronomy 31:17).

Micah then turned to rebuke the false prophets (Micah 3:5-8), whose lies made it easy for the corrupt officials to carry on their evil deeds. "An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so" (Jeremiah 5:30-31 KJV). When God is left out of human government, it's easy for officials to use their authority selfishly to exploit the people. (The Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament)

MICAH CHAPTER THREE

[General Information - 3:1-12 the failures of leadership that led to the fall of Jerusalem.] The destruction of Jerusalem is explained as due to the failures of its leaders. The high value attached to the loss of Jerusalem demands a highly negative description of the leadership (cf. Talmud b. Yoma 9b).

The structure of the unit is ABA:

1. The rulers and chiefs are condemned in the first and third sections (A: 1-4, 9-12),

2. And the prophets in the middle section (B: 5-8).

3. The issue of wrong, “hopeful” theology is also revisited (A: 3:11; cf. 2:6-7). [JSB]

3:2-3 The translation reflects some rearrangement of the Hebrew but this does not affect the main picture:

1. The incredible violence perpetrated by the rulers of Jacob against Jacob,

2. Or in the theological term advanced in the book, “My people.” [JSB]

3:4 The Targum understands He will hide His face from them, as “He will remove His Shekhinah from them.” On the concept of the Lord’s hiding the divine face, (see Deuteronomy 31:17). The concept, common in biblical texts, was developed later in Judaism and served to bridge the tension between divine goodness and acute suffering. [Jewish Study Bible]

Note: As you study the Targums you will find that the Shekinah is also called the Memra [Word] sounds familiar as the Apostle John tells us that the Word [Memra Aramaic or Logos Greek] is none other than the Jehovah of the Old Testament who the Jews call Yeshua and we call Jesus of Nazareth I have studied the Targums. (Reference The Targums by J.W. Etheridge and John chapter 1)

Paul the Learner

3:5: When they have something to chew, or more literally, “when they have something to bite with their teeth.” The point is not so much that prophets received gifts from their “clients.” This behavior seems to have been widely accepted (see 1 Samuel 9:8; 1 Kings 14:3; 2 Kings 4:42; 8:8-9; Amos 7:12), and the prophets needed their bread too. Rather, these prophets shaped or announced their prophecies to please their clients, so as to increase the gifts they received from them. By doing so they prevented their office (and the Lord’s trust) for material gain. The precise choice of words in the Hebrew implies additional powerful connotations.

The choice of expression “bite with their teeth” allows not only the word – play between teeth and mouths, but also a description of the behavior of the prophets that evokes the animal behavior of other leaders (verse 3). The verb “nashakh,” “to bite,” has a sound reminiscent to that of “nahash,” “snake.” The same verb “nashakh” means in other contexts “to charge interest” and carries negative connotations (cf. Habakkuk 2:7; Deuteronomy 23:20). To some extent, the text suggests that they are like beastly creditors or snakes that bite the flesh of Israel with their teeth (cf. verse 3).

[Jewish Study Bible]

(C). Denunciation of the Leaders of the People 3:1-7.

1) Micah's Answer to the False Prophets and Oppressors 3:1.

Micah 3:1

Micah calls to the rulers of both nations to hear with understanding so as to heed. First attacking the political leaders, he asks if it is not their duty to know justice by experience. The question implies an affirmative answer. (From The Wycliffe Bible Commentary)

MICAH CHAPTER THREE

Micah 3:1

The Second Division (Micah 3-5) begins with the same summons as the first, "Hear you." Abruptly, the prophet passes from the glorious promises at the close of the first division, Micah 2:12-13, in order to imply that they must not hope to have an interest in these promises unless they forsake their sins, which he proceeds to denounce, and become true children "of Jacob."

And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes - magistrates or judges.

Is it not for you? Is it not for your special function (Jeremiah 5:4-5, "I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; because they have known the way of the Lord: but these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds").

To know judgment - justice. Ye sit in judgment on others; surely, then, ye ought to know the judgment for injustice, which awaits yourselves (Romans 2:1).

Micah 3:2, 3

(2) Character of Wicked Oppressors Described. 3:2, 3.

Instead of knowing justice, they are habitual haters of good and lovers of evil. They treat the poor as cannibals do victims in their feasts. (From The Wycliffe Bible Commentary)

Micah 3:2

Who pluck off them skin from off them, and their flesh - rob their fellow-countrymen of all their substance (Psalms 14:4, "Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they eat bread;" Proverbs 30:14, "There is a generation whose teeth are as swords and their jaw-teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men").

Micah 3:3

And they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron - manifold species of cruel oppressions. Compare Ezekiel 24:3 ("Set on a pot; set it on, and also pour water into it: gather the pieces thereof into it, with every good piece, the thigh, and the shoulder, fill it with the choice bones"), containing, as to the coming punishment, the same figure as is here used of the sin: implying that the sin and punishment exactly correspond. (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown)

Micah 3:5-7

(4) Character of False Prophets 3:5.

When these prophets had plenty to eat (biting with their teeth), they preached peace. The implication is that the rich oppressors protected and supported the false prophets. And, if the spokesmen did not get their support, a holy war would be declared against the benefactors.

(5) False Prophets To Be Discredited. 3:6, 7.

The false prophets, Jehovah declares, will not have visions nor be able to divine. This frustration will be as the darkness of night to them. The discredited prophets will be ashamed (AV; lit., turn red); they will cover their lips; there will be nothing to say. And the people will be left groping in religious darkness. (From The Wycliffe Bible Commentary)