Rulers and Prophets Condemned
1Then I said:
“Hear now, O leaders of Jacob,
you rulers of the house of Israel.
Should you not know justice?
2You hate good and love evil.
You tear the skin from my people
and strip the flesh from their bones.
3You eat the flesh of my people
after stripping off their skin
and breaking their bones.
You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot,
like meat in a cauldron.”
4Then they will cry out to Yahweh,
but He will not answer them.
At that time He will hide His face from them
because of the evil they have done.
5This is what Yahweh says:
“As for the prophets
who lead My people astray,
who proclaim peace
while they chew with their teeth,
but declare war against one
who puts nothing in their mouths:
6Therefore night will come over you without visions,
and darkness without divination.
The sun will set on these prophets,
and the daylight will turn black over them.
- MIC 3:6[DEMONIC]False prophets lose their visions and the diviners are disgraced
7Then the seers will be ashamed
and the diviners will be disgraced.
They will all cover their mouths
because there is no answer from God.”
8As for me, however, I am filled with power
by the Spirit of Yahweh,
with justice and courage,
to declare to Jacob his transgression
and to Israel his sin.
9Now hear this, O leaders of the house of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel,
who despise justice
and pervert all that is right,
10who build Zion with bloodshed
and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11Her leaders judge for a bribe,
her priests teach for a price,
and her prophets practice divination for money.
Yet they lean upon Yahweh, saying,
“Is not Yahweh among us?
No disaster can come upon us.”
- MIC 3:11[DEMONIC]Jerusalem's prophets practice divination for money
12Therefore, because of you,
Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble,
and the temple mount a wooded ridge.
- MIC 3:12[PROPHECY]Zion would be plowed like a field; Jerusalem become a heap of ruins → 2KI 25:9-10; JER 26:18