Micah 3:1-2

God Will Judge Judah’s Sinful Leaders

3:1 I said,

“Listen, you leaders of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation of Israel!

You ought to know what is just,

3:2 yet you hate what is good,

and love what is evil.

You flay my people’s skin

and rip the flesh from their bones.


tn Heb “heads.”

tn Heb “house.”

tn Heb “Should you not know justice?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you should!”

tn Heb “the ones who.”

tn Or “good.”

tn Or “evil.”

tn Heb “their skin from upon them.” The referent of the pronoun (“my people,” referring to Jacob and/or the house of Israel, with the Lord as the speaker) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

tn Heb “and their flesh from their bones.”

sn Micah compares the social injustice perpetrated by the house of Jacob/Israel to cannibalism, because it threatens the very lives of the oppressed.