Mikha 3:1-2

God Will Judge Judah’s Sinful Leaders

3:1 I said,

“Listen, you leaders ¹  of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation ²  of Israel!

You ought to know what is just, ³ 

3:2 yet you ⁴  hate what is good, ⁵ 

and love what is evil. ⁶ 

You flay my people’s skin ⁷ 

and rip the flesh from their bones. ⁸ 

[3:1]  ¹ tn Heb “heads.”

[3:1]  ² tn Heb “house.”

[3:1]  ³ tn Heb “Should you not know justice?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you should!”

[3:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “the ones who.”

[3:2]  ⁵ tn Or “good.”

[3:2]  ⁶ tn Or “evil.”

[3:2]  ⁷ 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.

[3:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “and their flesh from their bones.”

[3:2]  sn Micah compares the social injustice perpetrated by the house of Jacob/Israel to cannibalism, because it threatens the very lives of the oppressed.