Micah 3:1-3

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.

Micah 3:9-11

3:9 Listen to this, you leaders of the family 11  of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation 12  of Israel!

You 13  hate justice

and pervert all that is right.

3:10 You 14  build Zion through bloody crimes, 15 

Jerusalem 16  through unjust violence.

3:11 Her 17  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, 18 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust 19  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. 20 

Disaster will not overtake 21  us!”


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.”

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 “house.”

12 tn Heb “house.”

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

14 tn Heb “who.”

15 tn Heb “bloodshed” (so NAB, NASB, NIV); NLT “murder.”

16 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

17 sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

18 tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

19 tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

20 tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

21 tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”