Commentari biblici

This chapter is the continuation of the preceding. The offences of the great men are depicted in still more glaring colours; a bitter spirit, reminding us of Dante’s Inferno, pervades the description in Micah 3:2-3. Next follows first, a reference to the judgment (Micah 3:4, as in Micah 2:5; Micah 2:10); then, a digression on the evil prophets (Micah 3:5-7, as in Micah 2:6; Micah 2:11), whose work is contrasted with the strictly ethical character of the true revelation (Micah 3:8, comp. Micah 2:7). The close of the entire prophecy is formed by an apostrophe to the grandees (Micah 3:9-11), and the declaration that Jerusalem will be utterly destroyed on account of its sins (Micah 3:12).

1–4. Chiefly a description of the savage behaviour of the ruling class

1. O heads of Jacob] The prophet addresses the official class of all Israel, especially the judges, who appear from Jeremiah 21:11-12 to have been (in Judah at any rate) chiefly members of the royal family (a numerous body in Judah as well as in Egypt).

2. who pluck off their skin from off them] The description is figurative. We may infer that cannibalism was not unknown to the Israelites by hearsay or tradition, but not necessarily that it was practised by the ancestors of the Israelites, much less by the Israelites themselves. The meaning of the figure plainly is that the peasantry had lost their old independence, and fallen into a condition like that of the peasants of the Turkish empire. This arose from a change in the social organism. “The nobles of Israel were no longer great farmers, as Saul and Nabal had been, living among the peasantry and sharing their toil … The introduction of such a commerce, throwing the Hebrews into immediate relations with the great emporium of international traffic (Tyre), necessarily led to accumulation of wealth in a few hands, and to the corresponding impoverishment of the class without capital, as exportation raised the price of the necessaries of life” (Prof. Robertson Smith, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, p. 347).

their skin] i.e. the skin of the house of Israel.

4. Then shall they cry] We must suppose that, when Micah delivered this prophecy (of which we can have but a summary), he introduced between Micah 3:3 and Micah 3:4 a description of ‘the day of the Lord,’ the day of just retribution.

5–8. The fate of the false prophets, whose unauthorized smooth-speaking Micah contrasts with his own divinely inspired courage

5. that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace] i.e. who, when they are given something to eat, cry, Peace. To ‘bite with the teeth’ is a quaint, rough expression in harmony with the foregoing image from cannibalism. Choice language would have been thrown away on such seared consciences. Comp. the description of the priests, 1 Samuel 2:13-16.

they even prepare war against him] Lit., they consecrate war, a prophetic formula (Jeremiah 4:4, Joel 3:9, comp. Isaiah 13:3, ‘my consecrated ones’). The meaning is, that if at any time the rulers of the people are behindhand with the accustomed fee to these mercenary prophets, the tone of the latter at once begins to change. Instead of announcing peace, they declare that Jehovah is wroth with his people, and will send war. Strictly speaking, to ‘consecrate war’ is to open a campaign (with sacred rites), but here the antithesis with ‘that cry, Peace’ requires us to take it in a modified sense.

6. night shall be unto you, &c.] The prophet is still addressing the rulers. Because of their rapacity, and their league with false prophets, their land shall be overshadowed by adversity, and there shall be no prophecy, whether false or true, to guide them. The false prophets will be ashamed, because of the non-fulfilment of their oracles; and the true will have no fresh revelation till the old cycle of prophecies has been fulfilled. Comp. Lamentations 2:9.

7. their lips] Rather, their beard; the phrase includes the face up to the nose. A sign of mourning, Leviticus 13:45, Ezekiel 24:17; Ezekiel 24:22.

8. But truly, &c.] The sign of a fresh paragraph, placed here in most editions, should rather be at the beginning of Micah 3:9.