---
title: "Micah 3 - Study King James Bible with barnes notes on the whole bible"
description: "Read Micah 3 with barnes notes on the whole bible commentary. 1 And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? 2 Who hate the good, and love"
image: "/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/barnes-notes-on-the-whole-bible/micah/3"
---

[ Read](/kjv/micah/3)[ Commentary](/study/micah/3)[ Interlinear](/interlinear/micah/3) Audio

 1 And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; *Is it* not for you to know judgment?

 2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;

 3 Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

 4 Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.

 5 ¶ Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

 6 Therefore night *shall be* unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.**

 7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for *there is* no answer of God.*

 8 ¶ But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.

 9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.

 10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.*

 11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, *Is* not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.*

 12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed *as* a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.
 
[Micah 2](/study/micah/2) [Micah 4](/study/micah/4)

## Commentary

 To verse 1
 
**And I said -**God’s love for us is the great incitement, constrainer, vivifier of His creature’s love. Micah had just spoken of God’s love of Israel; how He would gather them into one fold under One Shepherd, guard them, lead them, remove all difficulties before them, be Himself their Head and enable them to follow Him. He turns then to them. These are God’s doings; this, God has in store for you hereafter. Even when mercy itself shall require chastisement, He doth not cast off forever. The desolation is but the forerunner of future mercy. What then do ye? The prophet appeals to them, class by class. There was one general corruption of every order of men, through whom Judah could be preserved, princes [Micah 3:1-4](/kjv/micah/3/1-4), prophets [Micah 3:5-7](/kjv/micah/3/5-7), priests [Micah 3:11](/kjv/micah/3/11). The salt had lost its savor; wherewith could it be seasoned? whereby could the decaying mass of the people be kept from entire corruption? 

**Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel -**He arraigns them by the same name, under which He had first promised mercy. He had first promised mercy to all Jacob and the remnant of Israel. So now he upraids the “heads of Jacob, and the princes of the house of Israel,” lest they should deceive themselves. At the same time he recalls them to the deeds of their father. Judah had succeeded to the birthright, forfeited by Reuben, Simeon and Levi; and in Judah all the promises of the Messiah were laid up. But he was not like the three great patriarchs, the father of the faithful (Abraham), or the meek Isaac, or the much-tried Jacob. The name then had not the reminiscences, or force of appeal, contained in the titles, seed of Abraham, or Isaac, or Israel. 

**Is it not for you to know judgment? -**It is a great increase of guilt, when persons neglect or pervert what it is their special duty and office to guard; as when teachers corrupt doctrine, or preachers give in to a low standard of morals, or judges pervert judgment. The “princes” here spoken or are so named from judging, “deciding” causes. They are the same its the “rulers,” whom Isaiah at the same time upbraids, as being, from their sins, rulers of Sodom , whose hands were full of blood [Isaiah 1:15](/kjv/isaiah/1/15). They who do not right, in time cease, in great measure, to know it. As God withdraws His grace, the mind is darkened and can no longer see it. So it is said of Eli’s sons, they were sons of Belial, they knew not the Lord [1 Samuel 2:12](/kjv/1-samuel/2/12); and, Into a malicious soul Wisdom shall not enter, nor dwell in a body that is subject unto sin (Wisd. 1:4). Such , “attain not to know the judgments of God which are a great deep: and the depth of His justice the evil mind findeth not.” But if men will not “know judgment” by doing it, they shall by suffering it.

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