Micah 3:12

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. 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. quotes this verse. Jeremiah describes the powerful effect of Micah's prophecy on Hezekiah (), "Did he not tear the Lord, and besought the Lord, and the Lord repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against him?" See my Introduction to Micah, on this verse. Its effect on Hezekiah was such that a thorough reformation of his kingdom ensued, which caused the averting of the execution of God's judgments on Jerusalem for more than 100 y...

Now follows a threatening, _Therefore, on your account, Zion as a field shall be plowed, and Jerusalem a heap shall be, and the mount of the house as the high places of a forest _We here see how intolerable to God hypocrites are; for it was no ordinary proof of a dreadful vengeance, that the Lord should expose to reproach the holy city, and mount Zion, and his own temple. This revenge, then, being so severe, shows that to God there is nothing less tolerable than that false confidence with which hypocrites swell, for it brings dishonor on God himself; for they could not boast that they were God’s people without aspersing him with many reproaches. What then is the meaning of this, “God is in the midst of us,” except that they thereby declared that they were the representatives (_vicarios_) of God, that the kingdom was sacred and also the priesthood? Since then they boasted that they did no...

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 3:12. _THEREFORE SHALL ZION - BE PLOUGHED_ AS _A FIELD_] It shall undergo a variety of reverses and sackages, till at last _there_ _shall not be one stone left on the top of another, that shall not_ _be pulled down_; and then a _plough_ shall be drawn along the site of the walls, to signify an irreparable and endless destruction. Of this ancient custom _Horace_ speaks, _Odar_. lib. i., Od. 16, ver. 18. Altis urbibus ultimae Stetere causae cur perirent Funditus, imprimeretque muris Hostile aratrum exercitus insolens "From hence proud cities date their utter falls;...

THEREFORE SHALL ZION FOR YOUR SAKE - for your sake shall Zion BE PLOWED AS A FIELD - They thought to be its builders; they were its destroyers. They imagined to advance or secure its temporal prosperity by bloods; they (as men ever do first or last,) ruined it. Zion might have stood, but for these its acute, far-sighted politicians, who scorned the warnings of the prophets, as well-meant ignorance of the world or of the necessities of the state. They taught, perhaps they thought, that “for Zion’s sake” they, (act as they might,) were secure. Practical Antinomians! God says, that, “for their sake,” Zion, defiled by their deeds, should be destroyed. The fulfillment of the prophecy was delayed by the repentance under Hezekiah. Did he not, the elders ask Jeremiah 26:19, fear the Lord and besought the Lord, and the Lord

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

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 sin, and who ought to have set better examples; as also to take off their vain confidence in themselves, who thought that Zion and Jerusalem would be built up and established by them, and preserved for their sakes; as well as to show the prophet's boldness and intrepidity in his rebukes and menaces of them: now this was prophesied of in the days of Hezekiah, before the invasion of Judea and siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib; it was deferred upon the repentance and reformation of the people; and was fulfilled in part at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, when the city was reduced to...

THEREFORE Prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem, fulfilled A.D. 70. Compare (Daniel 9:26)....

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