2 You who are haters of good and lovers of evil, pulling off their skin from them and their flesh from their bones;
Her rulers in her are like wolves violently taking their food; putting men to death and causing the destruction of souls, so that they may get their profit.
Have the workers of evil no knowledge? they take my people for food, as they would take bread; they make no prayer to God.
But his people had no love for him, and sent representatives after him, saying, We will not have this man for our ruler.
Without natural love, bitter haters, saying evil of others, violent and uncontrolled, hating all good,
Who, though they have knowledge of the law of God, that the fate of those who do these things is death, not only go on doing these things themselves, but give approval to those who do them.
You whose hearts are hard and whose ears are shut to me; you are ever working against the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets was not cruelly attacked by your fathers? and they put to death those who gave them the news of the coming of the Upright One; whom you have now given up and put to death;
He who has hate for me has hate for my Father. If I had not done among them the works which no other man ever did, they would have had no sin: but now they have seen, and they have had hate in their hearts for me and my Father.
If you are hated by the world, keep in mind that I was hated by the world before you. If you were of the world, you would be loved by the world: but because you are not of the world, but I have taken you out of the world, you are hated by the world.
And Ahab said to Elijah, Have you come face to face with me, O my hater? And he said, I have come to you because you have given yourself up to do evil in the eyes of the Lord.
This is what the Lord my God has said: Take care of the flock of death; Whose owners put them to death and have no sense of sin; and those who get a price for them say, May the Lord be praised for I have much wealth: and the keepers of the flock have no pity for them.
Give ear to this, you who are crushing the poor, and whose purpose is to put an end to those who are in need in the land, Saying, When will the new moon be gone, so that we may do trade in grain? and the Sabbath, so that we may put out in the market the produce of our fields? making the measure small and the price great, and trading falsely with scales of deceit; Getting the poor for silver, and him who is in need for the price of two shoes, and taking a price for the waste parts of the grain.
They have hate for him who makes protest against evil in the public place, and he whose words are upright is disgusting to them. So because the poor man is crushed under your feet, and you take taxes from him of grain: you have made for yourselves houses of cut stone, but you will not take your rest in them; the fair vine-gardens planted by your hands will not give you wine. For I have seen how your evil-doing is increased and how strong are your sins, you troublers of the upright, who take rewards and do wrong to the cause of the poor in the public place. So the wise will say nothing in that time; for it is an evil time. Go after good and not evil, so that life may be yours: and so the Lord, the God of armies, will be with you, as you say.
Those who have no respect for the law give praise to the evil-doer; but such as keep the law are against him.
Are not your haters hated by me, O Lord? are not those who are lifted up against you a cause of grief to me? My hate for them is complete; my thoughts of them are as if they were making war on me.
And Jehu, the son of Hanani the seer, went to King Jehoshaphat and said to him, Is it right for you to go to the help of evil-doers, loving the haters of the Lord? because of this, the wrath of the Lord has come on you.
So the king of Israel got all the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, Am I to go to Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And they said, Go up: for the Lord will give it into the hands of the king. But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no other prophet of the Lord here from whom we may get directions? And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is still one man by whom we may get directions from the Lord, Micaiah, son of Imlah; but I have no love for him, for he is a prophet of evil to me and not of good. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Micah 3
Commentary on Micah 3 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 3
What the apostle says of another of the prophets is true of this, who was also his contemporary-"Esaias is very bold,' Rom. 10:20. So, in this chapter, Micah is very bold in reproving and threatening the great men that were the ringleaders in sin; and he gives the reason (v. 8) why he was so bold, because he had commission and instruction from God to say what he said, and was carried out in it by a higher spirit and power than his own. Magistracy and ministry are two great ordinances of God, for good to his church, but these were both corrupted and the intentions of them perverted; and upon those that abused them, and so abused the church with them, the prophet is very severe, and justly so.
Mic 3:1-7
Princes and prophets, when they faithfully discharge the duty of their office, are to be highly honoured above other men; but when they betray their trust, and act contrary to it, they should hear of their faults as well as others, and shall be made to know that there is a God above them, to whom they are accountable; at his bar the prophet here, in his name, arraigns them.
Mic 3:8-12
Here,