Micah 3:11

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, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us. THE HEADS THEREOF - the princes of Jerusalem. JUDGE FOR REWARD - take bribes as judges (). AND THE PRIESTS THEREOF TEACH FOR HIRE. It was their duty to teach the law and decide controversies gratuitously (; ; ; , "The priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is...

The Prophet shows here first, how gross and supine was the hypocrisy of princes as well as of the priests and prophets: and then he declares that they were greatly deceived in thus soothing themselves with vain flatteries; for the Lord would punish them for their sins since he had in his forbearance spared them, and found that they did not repent. But he does not address here the common people or the multitude, but he attacks the chief men: for he has previously told us, that he was endued with the spirit of courage. It was indeed necessary for the Prophet to be prepared with invincible firmness that he might freely and boldly declare the judgment of God, especially as he had to do with the great and the powerful, who, as it is well known, will not easily, or with unruffled minds, bear their crimes to be exposed; for they wish to be privileged above the ordinary class of men. But the Pro...

9-12 Zion's walls owe no thanks to those that build them up with blood and iniquity. The sin of man works not the righteousness of God. Even when men do that which in itself is good, but do it for filthy lucre, it becomes abomination both to God and man. Faith rests in the Lord as the soul's foundation: presumption only leans upon the Lord as a prop, and would use him to serve a turn. If men's having the Lord among them will not keep them from doing evil, it never can secure them from suffering evil for so doing. See the doom of wicked Jacob; Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field. This was exactly fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and is so at this day. If sacred places are polluted by sin, they will be wasted and ruined by the judgments of God....

Verse Micah 3:11. _THE HEADS THEREOF JUDGE FOR REWARD_] This does not apply to the _regular law officers_, who have their proper _salaries_ for giving up their whole time and attention to the conscientious discharge of the duties of their office; but to those who take a _reward_, who take BRIBES, for the perversion of justice; who will decide in favour of those from whom they get the _greatest reward_. _THE PROPHETS - DIVINE FOR MONEY_] These are evidently the false prophets; for none, professing to be sent by God, used any kind of _divination_. _YET WILL THEY LEAN UPON THE LORD_] They will prescribe fasts and public thanksgivings, while not one sin is repented of or forsaken, and not one public grievance is redressed. Is _NOT THE LORD AMONG US?_] Here is his _temple_, here a

THE HEADS THEREOF JUDGE FOR REWARD - Every class was corrupted. One sin, the root of all evil 1 Timothy 6:10, covetousness, entered into all they did. It, not God, was their one end, and so their God. Her heads, the secular authority who Acts 23:3 sat to judge according to the law, judged, contrary to the law, “for rewards.” They sat as the representatives of the Majesty of God, in whose Name they judged, whose righteous Judgment and correcting Providence law exhibits and executes, and they profaned it. “To judge for rewards” was in itself sin, forbidden by the law Exodus 23:8; Deuteronomy 16:19. To refuse j

EXPOSITION VERSE 3:1-5:15 Part II. DENUNCIATION OF THE CRIMES OF THE GRANDEES, FOLLOWED BY A PROMISE OF THE GLORIFICATION OF ZION, THE BIRTH OF MESSIAH, AND THE HIGHEST EXALTATION OF THE PEOPLE. MICAH 3:1 § 1. _Sins of the rulers, and their punishment._ MICAH 3:1 The

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 delivered in the beginning of his reign, before a reformation was made, and might be the occasion of it: the former reign was a very wicked one; and very likely the public officers, judges, and civil magistrates, were as yet continued, and who went on in the same course of injustice, giving the cause not on the right side, but to them that gave them most money, or bribed highest, contrary to the law of God, Deuteronomy 16:19; AND THE PRIESTS THEREOF TEACH FOR HIRE; for

THE SECOND PROPHETIC MESSAGE CHAPTER 3 _ 1. Address to the godless princes and judges (Micah 3:1) _ 2. Address to the false prophets (Micah 3:5) 3. The verdict of judgment (Micah 3:9) Micah 3:1. The second prophetic message of Micah contains the great Messianic prophecies. But first the prophet gives a description of the degradation of the nation, the moral corruption of the leaders and judges, as well as the false prophets. It is all summed up in one sentence, “who hate the good, and love the evil.” The princes and judges robbed the people, treated them like cattle ...

FALSE CONFIDENCE ISSUING IN THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. Micah again addresses the rulers, who have founded the prosperity of the capital on violence and injustice (Micah 3:9 f.;_ cf._ Jeremiah 22:13 ff.). The sentence of the judge, the oracle of the priest, the divination of the prophet, are dictated by gain, not God; yet they flatter themselves that all is well, since Yahweh is in their midst (being visibly represented by His dwelling-place, the Temple; _cf._ Isaiah 1:10 ff., Amos 5:21 ff., Jeremiah 7:4). But Yahweh will lay Jerusalem in ruins, and the Temp

JUDGE FOR REWARD, &C. Reference to Pentateuch (Exodus 23:8; Deuteronomy 10:17; Deuteronomy 16:19; Deuteronomy 27:25. The same word in all these passages). App-92....