Micah 3:11 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Micah 3:11
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.
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
come
תָב֥וֹאta.Vo'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 6:13 For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest ever…
Isaiah 1:23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, n…
Micah 3:5 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 int…
Jeremiah 7:4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.
Acts 8:18-20 And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money,
Titus 1:11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.
Isaiah 48:2 For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is his name.
Micah 7:3 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mi…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Micah 3:8–end
Here, I. The prophet experiences a divine power going along with him in his work, and he makes a solemn profession and protestation of it, as that which would justify him, and bear him out, in his plain dealing with the princes and rulers. He would not, he durst not, make thus bold with the great men, but that he was carried out to do it by a prophetical impulse and impression. It was not he that said it, but God by him, and he could not but speak the word that God put into his mouth. It comes in likewise by way of opposition to the false prophets, who were full of shame when they lived to see themselves proved liars, and who never had courage to deal faithfully with the people, but flattere…
heads thereof--the princes of Jerusalem.
judge for reward--take bribes as judges (Mic 7:3).
priests teach for hire--It was their duty to teach the law and to decide controversies gratuitously (Lev 10:11; Deu 17:11; Mal 2:7; compare Jer 6:13; Jde 1:11).
prophets . . . divine--that is, false prophets.
Is not the Lord among us?--namely in the temple (Isa 48:2; Jer 7:4, Jer 7:8-11).
Adam Clarke on Micah 3:11
The heads thereof judge for reward - This does not apply to the regular law officers, who have their proper salaries for giving up their whole time and attention to the conscientious discharge of the duties of their office; but to those who take a reward, who take Bribes, for the perversion of justice; who will decide in favor of those from whom they get the greatest reward.
The prophets - divine for money - These are evidently the false prophets; for none, professing to be sent by God, used any kind of divination.
Yet will they lean upon the Lord - They will prescribe fasts and public thanksgivings, while not one sin is repented of or forsaken, and not one public grievance is redressed.
Is…
The Apostle Paul: Those who serve the altar, he says, partake of the altar and live by it (1 Corinthians 9:13). It is permitted for you, O priest, to live by the altar, not to indulge in luxury. The mouth of the ox that treads out the grain is not muzzled (ibid., 9). We know these things, and yet the Apostle does not abuse this permission: he is content with food and clothing. He labors night and day with his own hands so as not to be a burden to anyone. And he swears in his letters that he has lived in a holy and unselfish manner in the gospel of Christ, and not only of himself, but also of his disciples. He asserts that he has not sent anyone to ask for anything from the churches, nor has he desired to receive anything (1 Thessalonians 3). But if he rejoices in certain Epistles, and calls the gifts of those who send them the kindness of God, he does not collect them so much for himself as for the poor of the saints, who were in Jerusalem. But the holy poor, these were in Jerusalem, who first believed in Christ from the Jews, and were driven out by their parents and relatives, as well as by their affinities, wasting both possessions and all the furnishings of the temple, and had lost everything. If they are such poor people, let them receive. But if a few houses become enriched under the guise of the poor, and we eat gold with glass and clay dishes, or exchange treasures and clothing, or if a poor person does not seek the riches of senators in their attire. What profit is there in not having a linen cloth around the neck to wipe away sweat? What good is it to be a monk and prefer poverty in dress, when our purse is envied by the entire crowd of the poor? Because of this, the reason for our existence, we who are such, who build Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity, who judge for bribes, who answer for rewards, who divine in money, and claiming a false sanctity for ourselves, we say: No evil will come upon us. Let us heed the judgment of the Lord that follows: Zion and Jerusalem, and the mountain of the temple, a watchtower, and a vision of peace, and the temple of Christ in its fulfillment, and in the end, when charity grows cold, and faith becomes rare, as if a field were plowed and turned into mounds, and it will become a high forest or a keeper of fruits: so that where once there were spacious houses and countless heaps of grain, there will…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Divination — Of false prophets (Deut. 18:10, 14; Micah 3:6, 7, 11), of necromancers (1 Sam. 28:8), of the Philistine priests and diviners (1 Sam. 6:2), of Balaam (Josh. 13:22). Three kinds of divination are…
Hypocrisy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Ministers · When unfaithful: Seek gain — When unfaithful: Seek gain
Money · 5:4; — 5:4;
Prophets, False · Described as: Covetous — Described as: Covetous
Selfishness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The heads thereof judge for reward,.... That is, the heads or principal men of Zion and Jerusalem; the kings, or sanhedrim, according to Kimchi; but as this prophecy was delivered in the times of Hezekiah, Jeremiah 26:18, be who was so good a king must be excepted from this charge; perhaps it was delivered in the beginning of his reign, before a reformation was made, and might be the occasion of it: the former reign was a very wicked one; and very likely the public officers, judges, and civil magistrates, were as yet continued, and who went on in the same course of injustice, giving the cause not on the right side, but to them that gave them most money, or bribed highest, contrary to the law…
Micah 3:11-12
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.
11. Principes ejus pro munere judicant, et sacerdotes ejus mercede docent, et prophetae ejus pecunia divinant, et super Jehova nituntur, dicendo, Annon Jehova in medio nostri? Non veniet super nos malum.
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.
12. Itaque propter vos Sion ut ager arabitur, et Jerusalem acervus erit, et mons domus in excelsa…
Third strophe. - Mic 3:9. "Hear this, I pray, O he heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, who abhor right, and bend all that is straight. Mic 3:10. Building Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with wickedness. Mic 3:11. Their heads, they judge for reward; and their priests, they teach for hire; and their prophets, they divine for money, and lean upon Jehovah, saying, Is not Jehovah among us? evil will not come upon us." With the words "Hear this, I pray," the address returns to its starting-point in Mic 3:1, but only to announce to the leaders of the people the threat of punishment for which the way has been prepared by Mic 3:2-7. To this end their God-forgetting conduct…
the Lord is here among us: This expression indicates the Lord’s approval (see Exod 3:12, 14; 25:8; Mic 2:5; Zech 2:11) and his dwelling among his people. The false prophets wrongly claimed God’s presence.
Rashi on Micah 3:7
statement of God Heb. מַעֲנֵה is vowelized with a kamatz [meaning a zeirah] since it is attached to God’s Name.
