rd

Micah 3

Against the tyrannie of princes and false prophetes.
1.And I said, Hear, I pray you, ô heads of Jaakób, & ye princes of the house of Israél: should not ye know ajudgement?
2.But they hate the good, and love the evil: they pluck off their skins from them, and their flesh from their bones.
3.And they eat also the bflesh of my people, and flay off their skin from them, and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.
4.Then cshal they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, because they have done wickedly in their works.
5.Thus saith the Lord, Concerning the prophets that deceive my people, and dbit them with their teeth, and cry peace, but if a man put not into their mouths, they prepare war against him,
6.Therefore enight shalbe unto you for a vision, and darkness shalbe unto you for a divination, and the sun shal go down over the Prophets, and the day shalbe dark over them.
7.Then shal the Seers be ashamed, and the sothesaiers confounded: yea, they shal all cover ftheir lips, for they have none answer of God.
8.Yet notwithstanding I am ful gof power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgement and of strength to declare unto Jaakób his transgression, and to Israél his sin.
9.Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jaakób, and princes of the house of Israél: they abhor judgement, and pervert all equity.
10.They build up Zión with hblood, and Jerusalém with iniquity.
11.The heads thereof judge for rewards, and the Priests thereof teach for hire, and the Prophets thereof prophecie for money: yet will they ilean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? no evil can come upon us.
12.Therefore shal Zión for your sake be kplowed as a field, and Jerusalém shal be an heap, and the mountain of the house, as the hie places of the forest.

Notes

1-a.
That thing which is just and lawful, both to govern my people aright, and also to discharge your own conscience?
3-b.
The Prophet condemns the wicked governors not only of covetous- ness, theft, and murder, but compares them to wolves, lions, and most cruel beasts.
4-c.
That is, when I shall visit their wickedness: for though I hear the godly before they cry, Is. 65.24, yet I will not hear these though they cry, Is. 1.15, Jam. 2.13, 1 Pet. 3.11.
5-d.
They devour all their substance, and then flatter them, promising that all shall go well: but if one restrain from their bellies, then they invent all ways to mischief.
6-e.
As you have loved to walk in darkness, and to prophesy lies so God shall reward you with gross blindness and ignorance, so that when all others shall see the bright beams of God’s graces, you shall as blind men grope as in the night.
7-f.
When God shall discover them to the world, they shall be afraid to speak: for all shall know that they were but false prophets, and did belie the word of God.
8-g.
The Prophet being assured of his vocation by the Spirit of God, sets himself alone against all the wicked, showing how God both gave him gifts, abilities, and knowledge, to discern between good and evil, and also constancy to reprove the sins of the people, and not to flatter them.
10-h.
They build them houses by bribery, which he calls blood & iniquity.
11-i.
They will say, that they are the people of God, and abuse his Name as a pretence to cloak their hypocrisy.
12-k.
Read Jeremiah 26.18.