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God Will Judge Judah’s Sinful Leaders

I said,
“Listen, you leaders[a] of Jacob,
you rulers of the nation[b] of Israel!
You ought to know what is just,[c]
yet you[d] hate what is good[e]
and love what is evil.[f]
You flay my people’s skin[g]
and rip the flesh from their bones.[h]
You[i] devour my people’s flesh,
strip off their skin,
and crush their bones.
You chop them up like flesh in a pot[j]
like meat in a kettle.

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Footnotes

  1. Micah 3:1 tn Heb “heads.”
  2. Micah 3:1 tn Heb “house.”
  3. Micah 3:1 tn Heb “Should you not know justice?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you should!”
  4. Micah 3:2 tn Heb “the ones who.”
  5. Micah 3:2 tn Or “good.”
  6. Micah 3:2 tn Or “evil.”
  7. Micah 3:2 tn Heb “their skin from upon them.” The referent of the pronoun (“my people,” referring to Jacob and/or the house of Israel, with the Lord as the speaker) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  8. Micah 3:2 tn Heb “and their flesh from their bones.”sn Micah compares the social injustice perpetrated by the house of Jacob/Israel to cannibalism, because it threatens the very lives of the oppressed.
  9. Micah 3:3 tn Heb “who.”
  10. Micah 3:3 tc The MT reads “and they chop up as in a pot.” The translation assumes an emendation of כַּאֲשֶׁר (ka’asher, “as”) to כִּשְׁאֵר (kishʾer, “like flesh”).