Micah 3:1

The rulers of *Israel had not brought the people together. (They were like *shepherds that had not gathered their sheep together.) The rulers had caused the people to scatter in many directions. They had destroyed the way in which families lived. There was no peace in their neighbourhoods. So Micah speaks an urgent message to the leaders of Jacob’s people. Here ‘Jacob’s people’ and ‘*Israel’ include Judah and its capital Jerusalem (Micah 3:12).

There was a law for every situation. The words ‘be fair’ here refer to the law. That means the law that God gave to Moses (Exodus 21:1-23). It also referred to decisions that the *priests made (Deuteronomy 17:8-11). And it was about fair decisions (1 Kings 3:28; 1 Kings 7:7). Earlier, there was a case when two mothers argued about a baby. This baby had just been born. The king himself settled that argument (1 Kings 3:28). Many people have responsibilities that have a relationship to the law. Judges have a lot of responsibility in their job. They should be very serious about their responsibilities.

All rulers and judges should know how to be fair. They should know the words that the law contains. But ‘know’ here does not only mean knowledge in the mind. When someone has done something wrong to another person, the judge should have sympathy for this other person. He must make things right. He must punish a person if that person is guilty. He must make a fair decision. The person that suffered will then feel content.

v2 But you hate what is good. And you love what is evil. You do not care about my people. Instead, you behave like butchers. It is as if you tear off the skin. You tear the meat from the bones. v3 You eat the meat. You take the skin and you break the bones. You chop the bones up like meat to put in the pot.