The Prophet in this chapter assails and severely reproves the chief men as well as the teachers; for both were given to avarice and cruelty, to plunder, and, in short, to all other vices.

He afterwards subjoins, But they hate good, and love evil, and pull off the skin from my people, the flesh from their bones; that is, they leave nothing, he says, sound and safe, their rapacity being so furious.

They devour, he says, the flesh of my people, and their skin they strip off from them, and their bones they break in pieces and make small, as that which into the pot is thrown, and which is in the midst of the caldron For when any one throws meat into the pot, he does not take the whole ox, but…

Micah now denounces judgment on the chief men, such as they deserved. He says, They shall cry then to Jehovah The adverb אז, az, is often put indefinitely in Hebrew, and has the force of a demonstrative, and may be taken as pointing out a thing, (δεικτικως – demonstratively) then, or there, as…

Micah accuses here the Prophets, in the first place, of avarice and of a desire for filthy lucre. But he begins by saying that he spoke by God’s command, and as it were from his mouth, in order that his combination might have more weight and power.

God declares here to the false teachers by the mouth of Micah, that he would inflict punishment on them, so that they should be exposed to the reproach of all.

He confirms the same thing in the next verse, And ashamed shall be the seers and confounded the diviners, and they shall cover their lip; that is they will put veils on their mouths.

Here Micah, in a courageous spirit, stands up alone against all the false teachers even when he saw that they were a large number, and that they appealed to their number, according to their usual practice, as their shield.

The Prophet begins really to prove what he had stated, – that he was filled with the power of the Holy Spirit: and it was, as they say, an actual proof, when the Prophet dreaded no worldly power, but boldly addressed the princes and provoked their rage against him, Hear, he says, ye heads, ye…

Then when he says, that Zion was built by blood, and Jerusalem by iniquity, it is the same as though the Prophet had said, that whatever the great men expended on their palaces had been procured, and, as it were, scraped together from blood and plunder.

The Prophet shows here first, how gross and supine was the hypocrisy of princes as well as of the priests and prophets: and then he declares that they were greatly deceived in thus soothing themselves with vain flatteries; for the Lord would punish them for their sins since he had in his…

Now follows a threatening, Therefore, on your account, Zion as a field shall be plowed, and Jerusalem a heap shall be, and the mount of the house as the high places of a forest We here see how intolerable to God hypocrites are; for it was no ordinary proof of a dreadful vengeance, that the Lord…