Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Micah · About this commentary
Zion Plowed as a Field
Micah 3:9-12
9 Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity, · WEB
Three offices are named with the price each charged, and the sentence that follows is the one line of this book that Scripture elsewhere quotes back.
The summons is repeated in verse 9 with the charge attached: these are men who detest justice H4941 and twist everything straight. Verse 10 states the result in four words of Hebrew — Zion built with blood, Jerusalem with wrong. The construction is itself the crime, because of what paid for it.
Verse 11 lists three offices and the going rate for each: rulers judging for a bribe, priests teaching for a price, prophets divining for silver. Then comes the most revealing line in the chapter. All three lean on Yahweh and say, is not Yahweh among us? No harm can come upon us. The presence of God has been converted into an insurance policy, and the doctrine they cite is entirely sound. It is their confidence that is the offense.
Verse 12 answers it. Because of you, Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.
That sentence had a long life. More than a century later, when another prophet stood trial for saying the temple would fall, the elders of the land quoted this verse word for word, named its author and his village, and asked whether Hezekiah had put him to death Jeremiah 26:18–19. He had not, and the man on trial was spared.
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