Micah 3:1-4

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.

3:3 You devour my people’s flesh,

strip off their skin,

and crush their bones.

You chop them up like flesh in a pot 10 

like meat in a kettle.

3:4 Someday these sinners will cry to the Lord for help, 11 

but he will not answer them.

He will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have done such wicked deeds.”

Micah 3:9

3:9 Listen to this, you leaders of the family 12  of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation 13  of Israel!

You 14  hate justice

and pervert all that is right.


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.

tn Heb “who.”

10 tc The MT reads “and they chop up as in a pot.” The translation assumes an emendation of כַּאֲשֶׁר (kaasher, “as”) to כִּשְׁאֵר (kisher, “like flesh”).

11 tn Heb “then they will cry out to the Lord.” The words “Someday these sinners” have been supplied in the translation for clarification.

12 tn Heb “house.”

13 tn Heb “house.”

14 tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons (also at the beginning of v. 10).