INTRODUCTION TO MICAH 3 In this chapter the prophet reproves and threatens both princes and prophets, first separately, and then conjunctly; first the heads and princes of the people, civil magistrates, for their ignorance of justice, and hatred of good, and love of evil, and for their oppression a... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I SAID, HEAR, I PRAY YOU, O HEADS OF JACOB, AND YE PRINCES OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL,.... This seems to be a new sermon or discourse, delivered at another time and to another people than the preceding for, as that chiefly concerns the ten tribes, this the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and was s... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO HATE THE GOOD, AND LOVE THE EVIL,.... Instead of knowing and doing what was just and right; or, directly contrary to their light and knowledge, and the duty of their office, they hated that which is good, which is agreeable to the law, nature, and will of God, and loved that which is evil, which... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO ALSO EAT THE FLESH OF MY PEOPLE, AND FLAY THEIR SKINS FROM OFF THEM,.... Like cannibals, flay them alive, and then eat their flesh: this signifies, as before, devouring their substance, only expressed in terms which still more set forth their savageness, inhumanity, barbarity, and cruelty. So th... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN SHALL THEY CRY UNTO THE LORD, BUT HE WILL NOT HEAR THEM,.... When all the above evils threatened them in the preceding Chapter s shall come upon them; when the enemy shall invade their hind, besiege their cities, and take them, and they, their families and substance, just ready to fall into the... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS SAITH THE LORD, CONCERNING THE PROPHETS THAT MAKE MY PEOPLE ERR,.... The false prophets, as the Targum; and as the description given of them shows; who, instead of directing the people in the right way, as by their office and characters as prophets they should have done, they led them into mist... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE NIGHT [SHALL BE] UNTO YOU, THAT YE SHALL NOT HAVE A VISION,.... Not that those outward gifts and illuminations, and that prophetic light they had, or seemed to have should be taken away from them, and it should be quite a night with them; because these men were never sent of God, or receiv... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN SHALL THE SEERS BE ASHAMED, AND THE DIVINERS CONFOUNDED,.... When the events of things will make it most clearly appear to all that their visions, divinations, and prophecies, are false; they will not be able to lift up their heads, or show their faces, but shame and confusion will cover them:... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT TRULY I AM FULL OF POWER BY THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD,.... Or, "full of power, even, the Spirit of the Lord", as Gussetius f, by way of contrast, and as explaining what is meant by power; for so the Spirit is sometimes called from his gifts and graces, which are powerful in men; see Luke 24:47. The... [ Continue Reading ]
HEAR THIS, I PRAY YOU, YE HEADS OF THE HOUSE OF JACOB, AND PRINCES OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL,.... As an instance of his boldness, courage, and impartiality, he begins with the principal men of the land, and charges them with sins, and reproves for them, and denounces judgments on account of them; Micah... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY BUILD UP ZION WITH BLOOD, AND JERUSALEM WITH INIQUITY. Or, "O thou that buildest up" g, c. or "everyone of them that buildeth up" h, c. for the word is in the singular number but, be fire words rendered either of these ways, they respect the heads and princes of the people who either repaired t... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HEADS THEREOF JUDGE FOR REWARD,.... That is, the heads or principal men of Zion and Jerusalem; the kings, or sanhedrim, according to Kimchi; but as this prophecy was delivered in the times of Hezekiah, Jeremiah 26:18, be who was so good a king must be excepted from this charge; perhaps it was d... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE SHALL ZION FOR YOUR SAKE BE PLOUGHED [AS] A FIELD,.... That is, for your sins, as the Targum; for the bloodshed, injustice, and avarice of the princes, priests, and prophets; not that the common people were free from crimes; but these are particularly mentioned, as being ringleaders into s... [ Continue Reading ]