MICAH
Micah (Hebrew - Mikayahu- “Who is like the Lord?”) is considered as one of the 12 “Minor Prophets” in the Hebrew Bible. He lived between 750-700 B.C., and was born in the small town of Moresheth in south-central Judah.
Between 734 and 727 B.C., Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III had rampaged across the Middle East, making Israel, Judah, and the Philistines into puppet kingdoms, reducing the Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites into sending tribute payments of gold and silver to Assyria, and totally absorbing Syria into his empire.
In 724 B.C. the 10 tribes of the Northern kingdom of Israel (Samaria) rebelled and in 721 B.C. Sargon II of Assyria destroyed the nation, deporting the survivors to Assyria and lands eastward of Assyria. Sargon then imported people from Assyria and surrounding lands into Samaria who then became the Biblical Samaritans.
As the Samaritans were foreigners, the Jews had few dealings with them and friction continued between them even up to Jesus’ time on Earth, ending only when the Romans destroyed the entire nations of Judea and Samaria in 70 A.D.
MICAH 1:1-5
1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2 Hear, all you peoples! Listen, O earth, and all that is in it! Let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple.
3 For behold, the Lord is coming out of His place; He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.
4 The mountains will melt under Him, and the valleys will split like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place.
5 All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?
Micah uses allegories to describe God’s coming wrath on both kingdoms of Israel for their rebellion against Him and His laws and for their blatant idolatry. The Northern kingdom had set up two golden calves for worship, and Judah had built altars to foreign gods on the high hills and mountains (high places).
MICAH 1:6-7
6 “Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the field, places for planting a vineyard; I will pour down her stones into the valley, and I will uncover her foundations.
7 All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her pay as a harlot shall be burned with the fire; all her idols I will lay desolate, for she gathered it from the pay of a harlot, and they shall return to the pay of a harlot.”
In ancient times, cities were built on hills for easier defense and Samaria, the capital of the Northern kingdom of Israel was no different. God promises to raze Samaria to its foundations and many times conquerors in their fury would throw the stones of the fortified walls downhill to graphically show the city’s destruction to any passers-by.
God promises the destruction of their idols, and as the idols were shaped of gold and silver acquired through wickedness, they would be destroyed and returned to the mere metal they were made from.
MICAH 1:8-13
8 Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the jackals and a mourning like the ostriches,
9 For her wounds are incurable. for it has come to Judah; it has come to the gate of My people— to Jerusalem.
10 Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all; in Beth Aphrah roll yourself in the dust.
11 Pass by in naked shame, you inhabitant of Shaphir; the inhabitant of Zaanan does not go out. Beth Ezel mourns; its place to stand is taken away from you.
12 For the inhabitant of Maroth pined for good, but disaster came down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 O inhabitant of Lachish, harness the chariot to the swift steeds (she was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion), for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.
Conquered peoples were deported, naked and in chains to their destinations to shame them and reinforce the concept of their subjugation to them. The captives in turn would weep and wail in sorrow, bitterness and terror, not knowing what awaited them.
The towns listed above are all in Judah, and God is warning them that the destruction of Samaria will come to them too, which occurred in 701 B.C. The major fortified city of Lachish is especially mentioned as the idolatrous practices and wickedness of the Northern kingdom of Israel were rampant in that city and had spread throughout Judah.
MICAH 1:14-16
14 Therefore you shall give presents to Moresheth Gath; the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.
15 I will yet bring an heir to you, O inhabitant of Mareshah; the glory of Israel shall come to Adullam.
16 Make yourself bald and cut off your hair, because of your precious children; enlarge your baldness like an eagle, for they shall go from you into captivity.
In ancient times it was customary to bring a gift to a prophet if you wished for him to enquire of the Lord (future king Saul did this with the prophet Samuel in I Samuel), and Micah lived in Moresheth Gath. Oddly enough, Achzib was in the far north of Israel and the fact that it is included in this verse indicates that false prophets may have dwelt there.
God speaks of the inhabitants of Mareshah and Adullam as going into captivity, I think to show that all of Judah will fall to the Assyrians as both cities were in south-central Judah. And men shaving their heads was usually an outward sign of sorrow and grief.
MICAH 2:1-4
1 Woe to those who devise iniquity, and work out evil on their beds! At morning light they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand.
2 They covet fields and take them by violence, also houses, and seize them. So they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.
3 Therefore thus says the Lord: “Behold, against this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks; nor shall you walk haughtily, for this is an evil time.
4 In that day one shall take up a proverb against you, and lament with a bitter lamentation, saying: ‘We are utterly destroyed! He has changed the heritage of my people; how He has removed it from me! To a turncoat He has divided our fields.’ ”
This points to the evil and corruption of Judah in that greedy and violent men carefully plan on how to swindle or take by violence the wealth and possessions of their neighbors. Houses and fields were given by lot when Israel entered and conquered Canaan and were perpetual inheritances for families and were not to be sold as a permanent possession to others.
Around the same time, God told the prophet Isaiah of men like this, saying;
ISAIAH 5:8
8 Woe to those who join house to house; they add field to field, till there is no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!
Contemporary prophet Amos also spoke of these kinds of individuals when God told him;
AMOS 2:7
7 They pant after the dust of the earth which is on the head of the poor, and pervert the way of the humble. A man and his father go in to the same girl, to defile My holy name.
These men were so greedy that they coveted after the very dust on the heads of the poor!!!
MICAH 2:5-9
5 Therefore you will have no one to determine boundaries by lot in the assembly of the Lord.
6 “Do not prattle,” you say to those who prophesy. So they shall not prophesy to you; they shall not return insult for insult.
7 You who are named the house of Jacob: “Is the Spirit of the Lord restricted? Are these His doings? Do not My words do good to him who walks uprightly?
8 “Lately My people have risen up as an enemy— You pull off the robe with the garment from those who trust you, as they pass by, like men returned from war.
9 The women of My people you cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children. You have taken away My glory forever.
When entering Canaan, individual tribes were allotted sections of land by casting of lots and boundaries were given to families by dividing up allotted territories. The boundaries and lot results were carefully recorded so that no one could claim anyone else’s land and were not to be permanently sold to another. God is saying that the wicked would not live to inherit the lands of their ancestors.
In verse 6, the people didn’t want to hear the word of the Lord from His prophets, and considered His words to be idle talk. The Lord spoke of this to the prophet Isaiah when He said;
ISAIAH 30:9-11
9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the Lord;
10 Who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things; speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.
11 Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.”
(In ancient times, prophets were also called “Seers”.)
The people were so greedy that they even took the clothing of others away by suing them, and threw poor widows and children from their homes, callously taking them by lawsuit.
MICAH 2:10-11
10 “Arise and depart, for this is not your rest; because it is defiled, it shall destroy, yes, with utter destruction.
11 If a man should walk in a false spirit and speak a lie, saying, ‘I will prophesy to you of wine and drink,’ even he would be the prattler of this people.
God grimly tells the people that Jerusalem will no longer be a place of rest and prosperity for them, that they will be taken away. He also accuses them of desiring false prophets and prophecies rather than desiring the truth.
MICAH 2:12-13
12 “I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob, I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together like sheep of the fold, like a flock in the midst of their pasture; they shall make a loud noise because of so many people.
13 The one who breaks open will come up before them; they will break out, pass through the gate, and go out by it; their king will pass before them, with the Lord at their head.”
God promises that Israel will be gathered and restored after their captivity.
MICAH 3:1-4
1 And I said: “Hear now, O heads of Jacob, and you rulers of the house of Israel: is it not for you to know justice?
2 You who hate good and love evil; who strip the skin from My people, and the flesh from their bones;
3 Who also eat the flesh of My people, flay their skin from them, break their bones, and chop them in pieces like meat for the pot, like flesh in the caldron.”
4 Then they will cry to the Lord, but He will not hear them; He will even hide His face from them at that time, because they have been evil in their deeds.
God compares the wicked of Jerusalem to greedy gluttons who eat without restraint, consuming the goods of others with a ravenous appetite.
God lamented concerning the covetousness of these people when He said to Isaiah;
ISAIAH 5:8
8 Woe to those who join house to house; they add field to field, till there is no place, where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!
And;
ISAIAH 5:11
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may follow intoxicating drink; who continue until night, till wine inflames them!
With the result that;
ISAIAH 5:13-14
13 Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
14 Therefore Hell has enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure; their glory and their multitude and their pomp, and he who is jubilant, shall descend into it.
The people were hungry and thirsty for the knowledge of the Lord, but their corrupt prophets, priests and teachers fed them lies and deceit instead. The majority of the people of that time were illiterate and relied what they were told concerning the of Law Moses by their educated scribes and teachers.
As the apostle Paul would later lament concerning the knowledge of Jesus Christ;
ROMANS 10:14-15
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”
MICAH 3:5-7
5 Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who make my people stray; who chant “Peace” while they chew with their teeth, but who prepare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths:
6 “Therefore you shall have night without vision, and you shall have darkness without divination; the sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be dark for them.
7 So the seers shall be ashamed, and the diviners abashed; indeed they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer from God.”
The “prophets” prophesied falsely for pay, and the people invited them to feasts thinking to honor them, not knowing that the prophets were prophesying lies to them. And in turn, these “prophets” hated those who didn’t support them.
Much of what they “prophesied” came from dreams and their own imagined visions, causing God to say to the prophet Jeremiah;
JEREMIAH 23:25-27
25 “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’
26 How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart,
27 who try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells his neighbor, as their fathers forgot My name for Baal.
God promised to take away even their dreams, to try to get them to stop their lies.
A similar event happened over 100 years before when God was seeking to destroy idolatrous, wicked king Ahab, husband of murderous queen Jezebel, who ruled the corrupt Northern kingdom of Israel.
Ahab was about to go to war against Syria, and his “prophets” who prophesied by the Canaanite god Ba‘al had prophesied victory. Yet a prophet of God named Micaiah told a different story;
2 CHRONICLES 18:18-22
18 Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing on His right hand and His left.
19 And the Lord said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab king of Israel to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner.
20 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ The Lord said to him, ‘In what way?’
21 So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the Lord said, ‘You shall persuade him and also prevail; go out and do so.’
22 Therefore look! The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster against you.”
Satan had volunteered to be a lying spirit of prophecy to the prophets of Ba’al, and God had allowed it. Scripture records that king Ahab was indeed killed by the Syrians in battle. More than likely something similar happened here.
MICAH 3:8-12
8 But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.
9 Now hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity,
10 Who build up Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity:
11 Her heads judge for a bribe, her priests teach for pay, and her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord, and say, “Is not the Lord among us? No harm can come upon us.”
12 Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the temple like the bare hills of the forest.
Priests and prophets and rulers were NEVER to charge the people for their services! Priests had the sacrifices of the Temple as food, and the prophets all had jobs that they performed. The priests were also given tithes of wool, thread, dyed cloth and money for whatever else they needed. So by charging for their services they were enriching themselves at the expense of the people.
When developing Bible studies for this Web site, I had thought about publishing them in books, but God told me; “I gave you the information free of charge, you will offer it to others free of charge.”
God then promises the complete destruction of Jerusalem and Judah because of the wickedness of its people.
MICAH 4:1-5
1 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it.
2 Many nations shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
3 He shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
4 But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
5 For all people walk each in the name of his god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.
The elevation of Mount Zion is referred to in several places in Scripture. The terrain around Jerusalem is mountainous, and in several places in Scripture a massive earthquake is prophesied when Jesus returns which could point to the leveling of the surrounding mountainous terrain.
Isaiah prophesied;
ISAIAH 24:19-20
19 The earth is violently broken, the earth is split open, the earth is shaken exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall totter like a hut; its transgression shall be heavy upon it, and it will fall, and not rise again.
The prophet Zechariah also said;
ZECHARIAH 14:3-4
3 Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle.
4 And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south.
(The Mount of Olives actually has a east-west fault running beneath it. When Jesus returns this fault will activate, splitting the mountain in two.)
And;
ZECHARIAH 14:10-11
10 All the land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be raised up and inhabited in her place from Benjamin’s Gate to the place of the First Gate and the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses.
11 The people shall dwell in it; and no longer shall there be utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.
The book of Revelation speaks of a mighty earthquake, possibly referring to the passage in Isaiah 24 above, which speaks of an earthquake strong enough to “break the Earth”. The apostle John prophesied;
REVELATION 16:17-18
17 Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done!”
18 And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth.
When Jesus returns to rule the Earth, Mankind will finally enjoy universal peace. The curse that God placed on Creation after Adam’s fall will be removed and predatory animals will lose their carnivorous instincts. As Isaiah prophesied;
ISAIAH 11:6-9
6 “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.
9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Also;
ISAIAH 65:25
25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,” says the Lord.
The judging of the nations in Micah 4:3 above is also spoken of in Matthew, when Jesus said;
MATTHEW 25:31-33
31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.
32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.
33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.
Those on the right hand will live into Jesus’ 1,000 year reign on Earth, those on the left will be immediately cast into Hell to await the Great Judgment.
MICAH 4:6-13
6 “In that day,” says the Lord, “I will assemble the lame, I will gather the outcast and those whom I have afflicted;
7 I will make the lame a remnant, and the outcast a strong nation; so the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from now on, even forever.
8 And you, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, even the former dominion shall come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.”
9 Now why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in your midst? Has your counselor perished? For pangs have seized you like a woman in labor.
10 Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in birth pangs. For now you shall go forth from the city, you shall dwell in the field, and to Babylon you shall go. There you shall be delivered; there the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.
11 Now also many nations have gathered against you, who say, “Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion.”
12 But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord, nor do they understand His counsel; for He will gather them like sheaves to the threshing floor.
13 “Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hooves bronze; you shall beat in pieces many peoples; I will consecrate their gain to the Lord, and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.”
God promises that the Jews will be taken to Babylon, but He will not abandon them there. He also speaks of their future triumph over their enemies at the Battle of Armageddon;
ZECHARIAH 12:1-2; 8-9
1 The burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. Thus says the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him:
2 “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem.
8 In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the Lord before them.
9 It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
MICAH 5:1-4
1 Now gather yourself in troops, O daughter of troops; He has laid siege against us; they will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.
2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.”
3 Therefore He shall give them up, until the time that she who is in labor has given birth; then the remnant of His brethren shall return to the children of Israel.
4 And He shall stand and feed His flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God; and they shall abide, for now He shall be great to the ends of the earth;
The “daughter of troops” is possibly referring to Babylon and its coming attack against Judah. But verse 2 holds out hope for it defines the city in which the future Messiah, Jesus Christ will be born, indicating that Judah’s coming destruction will not be permanent.
The future hope of the Jews will be realized when Jesus returns, for Israel will at last be at peace, protected by God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ.
MICAH 5:5-6
5 And this One shall be peace. When the Assyrian comes into our land, and when he treads in our palaces, then we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight princely men.
6 They shall waste with the sword the land of Assyria, and the land of Nimrod at its entrances; thus He shall deliver us from the Assyrian, when he comes into our land and when he treads within our borders.
This seems to refer to the eventual destruction of Babylon which fell to a coalition of Persians, Medes and Elamites in 539 B.C. The reference to “the Assyrian” could be that Babylon was originally a vassal city of the Assyrians and was sometimes classed with the Assyrians.
The seven shepherds and eight princely men seems to be a cultural reference, referring to deliverers of the Jews, and by the context of the verse, the deliverers may not be Jewish in origin.
The Assyrians led by king Sennacherib had laid waste to Judah in 701 B.C., but had failed to conquer Jerusalem, as prophesied and recorded in Isaiah, chapter 37.
The Assyrian capital, Nineveh, was later destroyed in 612 B.C. by a coalition of Babylonians, Medes, Chaldeans, Persians, Scythians, Cimmerians and Elamites. (The “seven shepherds”?)
MICAH 5:7-15
7 Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples, like dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass, that tarry for no man nor wait for the sons of men.
8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among flocks of sheep, who, if he passes through, both treads down and tears in pieces, and none can deliver.
9 Your hand shall be lifted against your adversaries, and all your enemies shall be cut off.
10 “And it shall be in that day,” says the Lord, “that I will cut off your horses from your midst and destroy your chariots.
11 I will cut off the cities of your land and throw down all your strongholds.
12 I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no soothsayers.
13 Your carved images I will also cut off, and your sacred pillars from your midst; you shall no more worship the work of your hands;
14 I will pluck your wooden images from your midst; thus I will destroy your cities.
15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury on the nations that have not heard.”
When Jesus returns to rule the Earth, believing Jews and Gentiles who are transformed into immortal bodies at His return will be sent as rulers under His authority throughout the Earth. Through them, God will exact vengeance on the wicked and Jesus’ words will be fulfilled, when He said;
REVELATION 2:26-29
26 And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—
27 ‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’—as I also have received from My Father;
28 and I will give him the morning star.
29 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’
Jesus’ rule and those ruling under His authority will be hard, but fair, with wickedness being swiftly punished.
MICAH 6:1-5
1 Hear now what the Lord says: “Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.
2 Hear, O you mountains, the Lord’s complaint, and you strong foundations of the earth; for the Lord has a complaint against His people, and He will contend with Israel.
3 “O My people, what have I done to you? And how have I wearied you? Testify against Me.
4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, I redeemed you from the house of bondage; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
5 O My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab counseled, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, from Acacia Grove to Gilgal, that you may know the righteousness of the Lord.”
Israel has a long history of rebellion and complaining against God’s laws, as they are meant to restrain Man’s natural desire to sin and do evil. Yet God points out some of the many times that He has blessed and protected Israel and asks Israel to present their case against Him, asking His Creation to bear witness of His righteous works.
When Israel came out of Egypt, king Balak of Moab had hired idolatrous “prophet” Balaam three times to curse Israel, but all three times God caused Balaam to bless Israel instead.
God had said of Israel through the prophet Ezekiel;
EZEKIEL 18:29-32
29 Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ O house of Israel, is it not My ways which are fair, and your ways which are not fair?
30 “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways,” says the Lord God. “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin.
31 Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel?
32 For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!”
MICAH 6:6-8
6 With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
The sacrifices and offerings of the Law could never remove sin, they were a visible reminder of the ghastly price of sin, namely that an innocent life had to be given to pay the consequences for sin. But they were only symbolic, they could never remove sins or pay the price for sin.
God in His mercy took His own punishment for sin within Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, who willingly lived a perfect life under the Law and paid for our sins with His own blood, satisfying God’s righteous judgment against sin by spending three days in the lowest (and worst) part of Hell so that we won’t have to go there ourselves.
Verse 8 details in a nutshell God’s requirements of Man to have a righteous relationship with Him.
MICAH 6:9-16
9 The Lord’s voice cries to the city— Wisdom shall see Your name: “Hear the rod! Who has appointed it?
10 Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the short measure that is an abomination?
11 Shall I count pure those with the wicked scales, and with the bag of deceitful weights?
12 For her rich men are full of violence, her inhabitants have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
13 “Therefore I will also make you sick by striking you, by making you desolate because of your sins.
14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied; hunger shall be in your midst. you may carry some away, but shall not save them; and what you do rescue I will give over to the sword.
15 “You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread the olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; and make sweet wine, but not drink wine.
16 For the statutes of Omri are kept; all the works of Ahab’s house are done; and you walk in their counsels, that I may make you a desolation, and your inhabitants a hissing. Therefore you shall bear the reproach of My people.”
In ancient times gold and silver coins were weighed to determine their worth, as unscrupulous people would “trim” metal from the edges of the coins making them less than their declared value. They would also alloy the precious metals with baser metals making them worth less than their declared values. (An example is mixing gold with copper, giving the gold a reddish tinge, referred to as “red gold”.)
Weights of known and verified values were put on balancing scales as standards so that a declared amount of gold or silver could be verified. Yet merchants would tamper with scales or standard weights so as to cheat their customers.
In similar fashion, grains and flour were sold by standardized measure, yet merchants would sell their products that were short of standard to cheat their customers.
God rails against the oppression of the poor by the rich who use fraud, deceit and violence to enrich themselves, promising destruction to them because of their sinful ways.
God compares them to the wicked, idolatrous, despicable kings of the destroyed Northern kingdom of Israel, destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. God singles out king Omri and his son king Ahab, husband of detestable queen Jezebel as examples, promising that the unrighteous rich would suffer His wrath.
MICAH 7:1-7
1 Woe is me! For I am like those who gather summer fruits, like those who glean vintage grapes; there is no cluster to eat, of the first-ripe fruit which my soul desires.
2 The faithful man has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net.
3 That they may successfully do evil with both hands— the prince asks for gifts, the judge seeks a bribe, and the great man utters his evil desire; so they scheme together.
4 The best of them is like a brier; the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge; the day of your watchman and your punishment comes; now shall be their perplexity.
5 Do not trust in a friend; do not put your confidence in a companion; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your bosom.
6 For son dishonors father, daughter rises against her mother, daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own household.
7 Therefore I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.
God lists the sins of the people, from the unrighteous rulers and judges to a man’s own wife. Do not tell secrets or give information to anyone that might be used against you.
MICAH 7:8-13
8 Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; when I fall, I will arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.
9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him, until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me forth to the light; I will see His righteousness.
10 Then she who is my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, “Where is the Lord your God?” My eyes will see her; now she will be trampled down like mud in the streets.
11 In the day when your walls are to be built, in that day the decree shall go far and wide.
12 In that day they shall come to you from Assyria and the fortified cities, from the fortress to the River, from sea to sea, and mountain to mountain.
13 Yet the land shall be desolate because of those who dwell in it, and for the fruit of their deeds.
Jerusalem repents of its wickedness, acknowledging that its people are suffering God’s righteous judgment. They warn their oppressors to not mock the city’s fall, as even though God used them to destroy Jerusalem, God will in turn punish the wickedness of their oppressors.
Verse 10 seems to be a warning to Babylon to remember what happened to Assyria when king Sennacherib tried to destroy all of Judah. In 701 B.C. an officer of the besieging Assyrian army had stood outside of the walls of Jerusalem and had taunted king Hezekiah and the people, saying;
2 KINGS 18:31-35
31 Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make peace with me by a present and come out to me; and every one of you eat from his own vine and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern;
32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive groves and honey, that you may live and not die. But do not listen to Hezekiah, lest he persuade you, saying, “The Lord will deliver us.”
33 Has any of the gods of the nations at all delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria?
34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim and Hena and Ivah? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
35 Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’ ”
Hezekiah cried out to the Lord, and the Lord responded through the prophet Isaiah, saying;
ISAIAH 10:12
12 Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Lord has performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his haughty looks.”
And indeed, that night the Lord destroyed 185,000 soldiers of the Assyrian army, forcing Sennacherib to return to Assyria where he was assassinated 20 years later (681 B.C.) by his own sons. And in 612 B.C. Assyria fell to a coalition of Babylonians and Medes.
Micah 7:11-13 above seem to refer to the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls after the 70 year Babylonian captivity was finished, detailed in the Biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
The land was desolate because of the sins of the people after they returned, as recorded by the prophet Haggai. The returnees had built their own houses, but had resisted rebuilding Solomon’s Temple which had been destroyed by the Babylonians. God had said;
HAGGAI 1:1-6
1 In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,
2 “Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying: ‘This people says, “The time has not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.” ’ ”
3 Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying,
4 “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?”
5 Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways!
6 “You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”
Even after they returned, the Jews were still self-centered and more concerned with their own comfort and pursuits than in rebuilding the Temple of the Lord who had brought them back. Therefore God withdrew His blessings on them to remind them from Whom their prosperity truly came.
MICAH 7:14-20
14 Shepherd Your people with Your staff, the flock of Your heritage, who dwell solitarily in a woodland, in the midst of Carmel; let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in days of old.
15 “As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them wonders.”
16 The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall put their hand over their mouth; their ears shall be deaf.
17 They shall lick the dust like a serpent; they shall crawl from their holes like snakes of the earth. They shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of You.
18 Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy.
19 He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
20 You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which You have sworn to our fathers from days of old.
God promises to multiply and shepherd Israel in accordance with His promises to Abraham, and will cause their enemies to fear Him. The Lord also shows His attributes as being different from the gods of the nations in that He forgives sins and is merciful to sinners. His wrath, though fearsome, is only temporary and is used for correction when needed.
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