Micah 3:1-12
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.
9 Hear 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.
10 They build up Zion with blood,b and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 The 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,c Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
12 Therefore 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.
Micah 3:10. They build up Zion with blood. The Chaldaic reads, they build up the houses of Zion with blood. They oppress the poor to a premature death, in order to build their town and country houses, their villas and mansions.
Micah 3:12. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field. This is a memorable prediction, one that Jeremiah alleged in self-defence: chap. 26:18. Josephus, a spectator of the burning of the temple, says, it was burned on the tenth day of the fifth month. The Romans entered it on the seventh day, and on the eighth put fire to the cloisters, or porches. On the ninth day, Titus called a council of war, and by three voices carried his motion, that the temple should be spared. Alas, on that day, a fresh commotion happening among the jews, a soldier in the evening carried the fire into the temple, which continued burning all the night, and all the tenth day till sunset. This happened on the same day that the Chaldeans had burned and desolated the city. The Jews therefore regard that as an unlucky day, for the wicked Turnus Rufus on that very day caused the plowshare to pass over the scite of the temple, and places adjacent, and literally fulfilled this prediction of Micah. Dr. Lightfoot. Vide Talmud in Taanith per 4. Halac. 6. Maimonides in Taanith per 5.
Joh. Heinrich Mayr, the German traveller, says, that David's palace, now converted into a fortress, stands outside of the present Jerusalem, and is very elevated. Our Dr. Richardson adds, that in one part of Zion “he saw barley growing.” By consequence, the sentence of the plowshare is not yet removed.
REFLECTIONS.
Wicked as the jewish rulers were in griping away the lands of the poor, the prophet addresses them with respectful entreaties to do justice, to be fathers to the poor, and avengers of crimes.
The false prophets, ever speaking the language of the carnal heart, always sung the beguiling song of fine harvests, plenty of wine, the defeat of enemies, and prosperous seasons. They did their utmost, in envy and malice, to expose the Lord's prophets to persecution and contempt. The rulers, by these lying prophets, were encouraged to go on with bribery on the bench, and corruptions at the altar. Micah therefore pronounced their sentence, that in the third and fourth generation, Zion should for their sake be plowed as a field. But he left not the saints in despair, for in the next chapter he foretels the erection of the spiritual temple in gospel times. Now, if Eli's sons lost the ark; if the jewish priests twice lost their temple; if the French clergy in 1789 lost their churches, what have not we to fear from similar offences?