Charles Ellicott Commentary Micah 3
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Micah 3
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Micah 3
"And I said, Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: is it not for you to know justice?" — Micah 3:1 (ASV)
Hear, I pray you. —In the second division of his prophecy, Micah protests against the evil influences affecting the people from high places. The princes, the prophets, and the priests, to whom their interests were entrusted, were guilty of wrong, oppression, and robbery.
Ye princes. —Rather, judges, magistrates; but a different word is used than the one that was given to the chiefs in the old days “when the judges ruled.”
"ye who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron." — Micah 3:2-3 (ASV)
Who hate the good. —The judges, instead of fulfilling the obligations of their office, by which they should be for the people to God-ward, perpetrated the most flagrant cruelty upon them. Micah compares it to the process of preparing food, in which every part of the animal, even to the bones, is utilised. So the judges robbed the people until there was nothing left to them.
"Then shall they cry unto Jehovah, but he will not answer them; yea, he will hide his face from them at that time, according as they have wrought evil in their doings." — Micah 3:4 (ASV)
Then shall they cry. —“Then”—i.e., in the day of retribution—“then they will call upon me, says the Lord, but I will not hear; they will seek me early, but they will not find me; and that because they hated knowledge, and did not receive the fear of the Lord, but abhorred my counsel and despised my correction. Then it will be too late to knock when the door will be shut, and too late to cry for mercy when it is the time of justice” (Commination Service).
So also Isaiah declared (Isaiah 1:15): When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
"Thus saith Jehovah concerning the prophets that make my people to err; that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and whoso putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him:" — Micah 3:5 (ASV)
That bite with their teeth. —The concluding statement that the false prophets declare war against those who do not put into their mouth indicates the meaning of the former expression, namely, “they say peace to those who feed and bribe them.” The Hebrew word, nashak, which is rendered “bite,” is strictly applied to serpents, to an adder in the path, and is therefore especially appropriate to the false and lying nature of the prophets.
"And the seers shall be put to shame, and the diviners confounded; yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God." — Micah 3:7 (ASV)
They shall all cover their lips. —As the lepers, who were cut off from all communication with men, so also these false prophets, being cut off from all communion with God, were to put a covering upon the upper lip. It was also a sign of mourning for one dead, and Ezekiel was commanded to awaken the astonishment of the people by omitting to cover his upper lip when his wife died.
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