Micah

Micah 3 – Skeptic's Annotated Bible answered

A response and reply to the notes on Micah 3 in the Skeptic's Annotated Bible (SAB).

King James Version

SAB comment

My comment

1 And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?

2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;

(3:2-4) Plucking off skin, flesh from bones, eating human flesh, flaying off skin, breaking bones, chopping bodies in pieces, making human stew. All this and more will happen to God's favorite people. But when they "cry unto the Lord he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time."
What the Bible says about cannibalism
Will those who call on the Lord be delivered?

This is not about literal cannibalism, but a metaphor for what those evil people did. They, as it were, skinned the people. We still use that phrase, and no literal skinning is meant.

3 Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

4 Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.

The promise of hearing them that call on the Lord is made to the Lord's people, not to do those we want to be delivered in order to continue in sin.

5 Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

Watch out for lying prophets that bite (with their teeth).

There always have been false prophets, that is why the Bible repeatedly warns against them, and provides a test to distinguish true ones from false ones, see Deut. 18:21-22.
Biting here indicates that while they speak enchanting and hypnotising words with their mouth, the bite would surely follow.

6 Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.

7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.

8 But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.

9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.

(3:9-12) Because the leaders of the nation were corrupt, God punishes everyone.

It was the elite that was taken to Babylon, see 2 Kg. 24:15.
But many of the people followed false Gods also. But those that had not, indeed had to suffer as well. But for them it was not punishment, and God protected them, see for example Daniel and his three friends.

10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.

"The prophets thereof divine for money." Some things never change.

See verse 5.

12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.