1 And I said:
Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice?—
2 you who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my people and their flesh from off their bones,
3 who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones in pieces and chop them up like meat in a pot, like flesh in a cauldron.
4 Then they will cry to the LORD, but he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil.
5 Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry “Peace” when they have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths.
6 Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination. The sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be black over them;
7 the seers shall be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame; they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.
8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.
9 Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel,
who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight,
10 who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the LORD and say, “Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.”
12 Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.
Comment: I will try to make verse by verse comment. Vv1-3. Obviously directed at the leaders and after a pretty political introduction in v1 it becomes too dramatic to show pictures on nightly TV! Although in the main it was metaphorical, describing how it left the underdog socially, some times they would send their minders in to press the point! V4 – too late to escape punishment – maybe pardoning applies later! Vv 5-7 – Those who were supposed to be able to see beyond this world into the unseen world are accused of rampant bribery and ignorance. The sentence ‘they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.‘ obviously means that they must be silent because God reveals nothing to them! v8 – has Micah defending himself when I can imagine people saying that, as he was one of the prophets, he was therefore tarred with the same brush with which he was painting the rotten prophets and their cohorts! Vv 9-12. Repeats God’s accusations against those in authority as leaders and prophets and underlines in red with asterisks, before and after, what is going to happen. **Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.** (The house referred to here is almost certainly Jerusalem!)
Proverbs 22: 22-23 – Do not rob the poor, because he is poor, for the LORD will plead their cause and rob of life those who rob them.
Prayer: Your Justice might seem delayed O God But thank You that You are both Merciful and Just!
As I read it! 