2You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones;
3who also eat the flesh of my people, and peel their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as meat within the cauldron.
4Then they will cry to Yahweh, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they made their deeds evil.”
2 You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones;
3 who also eat the flesh of my people, and peel their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as meat within the cauldron.
4 Then they will cry to Yahweh, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they made their deeds evil.”
KJVKing James Version
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.
Show all 3 translations
JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; who rob 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 break their bones; yea, they chop them in pieces, as that which is in the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.
4 Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but He will not answer them; yea, He will hide His face from them at that time, according as they have wrought evil in their doings.
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Does God help in times of need?Multiple psalms and prophetic texts have Yahweh actively hiding his face, refusing to hear prayers, and abandoning those who cry out (Ps 10:1; 22:1; 88:14; Isa…
Proverbs 1:28(v4)Then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me;
Isaiah 1:15(v4)When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of…
Ezekiel 22:27(v2)Her princes within it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.
Psalms 14:4(v3)Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on Yahweh?
Psalms 18:41(v4)They cried, but there was no one to save; even to Yahweh, but he didn’t answer them.
Show all 45 cross-references
Ezekiel 8:18(v4)Therefore I will also deal in wrath. My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will…
Psalms 53:4(v2)Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on God?
Proverbs 28:4(v2)Those who forsake the law praise the wicked; but those who keep the law contend with them.
Deuteronomy 31:17-18(v4)Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be…
Deuteronomy 32:19-20(v4)Yahweh saw and abhorred, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters. He said, “I will hide my face from them. I will see what…
1 Kings 21:20(v2)Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, my enemy?” He answered, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do that which is evil…
1 Kings 22:6-8(v2)Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Should I go against Ramoth Gilead to…
2 Chronicles 19:2(v2)Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the wicked, and love those who hate…
Ezekiel 11:3(v3)who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses. This is the cauldron, and we are the meat.’
Ezekiel 11:6-7(v3)You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled its streets with the slain. “ ‘Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: “Your slain…
Matthew 7:22(v4)Many will tell me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty…
Romans 12:9(v2)Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil. Cling to that which is good.
Isaiah 3:11(v4)Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them; for the deeds of his hands will be paid back to him.
Isaiah 59:1-15(v4)Behold, Yahweh’s hand is not shortened, that it can’t save; nor his ear dull, that it can’t hear. But your iniquities have separated you…
Micah 2:3-4(v4)Therefore Yahweh says: “Behold, I am planning against these people a disaster, from which you will not remove your necks, neither will you…
Zechariah 7:13(v4)It has come to pass that, as he called, and they refused to listen, so they will call, and I will not listen,” said Yahweh of Armies;
John 9:31(v4)We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God, and does his will, he listens to him.
Acts 7:51-52(v2)“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do. Which of the…
Romans 1:32(v2)who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those…
2 Timothy 3:3(v2)without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, not lovers of good,
James 2:13(v4)For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Zephaniah 3:3(vv2–3)Her princes within her are roaring lions. Her judges are evening wolves. They leave nothing until the next day.
Psalms 15:4(v2)in whose eyes a vile man is despised, but who honors those who fear Yahweh; he who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and doesn’t change;
Psalms 139:21-22(v2)Yahweh, don’t I hate those who hate you? Am I not grieved with those who rise up against you? I hate them with perfect hatred. They have…
Proverbs 28:9(v4)He who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.
Isaiah 3:15(v2)What do you mean that you crush my people, and grind the face of the poor?” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.
Jeremiah 2:27-28(v4)who tell wood, ‘You are my father,’ and a stone, ‘You have given birth to me,’ for they have turned their back to me, and not their face;…
Jeremiah 5:31(v4)The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end…
Jeremiah 33:5(v4)while men come to fight with the Chaldeans, and to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have killed in my anger and in my wrath,…
Ezekiel 34:3(v2)You eat the fat. You clothe yourself with the wool. You kill the fatlings, but you don’t feed the sheep.
Amos 5:10-14(v2)They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly. Therefore, because you trample on the poor, and take…
Amos 8:4-6(v2)Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail, Saying, ‘When will the new moon be gone, that we…
Zechariah 11:4-5(v2)Yahweh my God says: “Feed the flock of slaughter. Their buyers slaughter them, and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be…
Luke 13:25(v4)When once the master of the house has risen up, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying,…
Luke 19:14(v2)But his citizens hated him, and sent an envoy after him, saying, ‘We don’t want this man to reign over us.’
John 7:7(v2)The world can’t hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its works are evil.
John 15:18-19(v2)If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But…
John 15:23-24(v2)He who hates me, hates my Father also. If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now…
John 18:40(v2)Then they all shouted again, saying, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber.
Romans 2:8-9(v4)but to those who are self-seeking, and don’t obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath, indignation, oppression, and anguish…
45 distinct cross-references across this passage (46 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (16 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv2–4He afterwards subjoins, But they hate good, and love…
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. The Prophet conveys first a general reproof, — that they not only perverted justice, but were also given to wickedness and hated good. He means then that they were openly wicked and ungodly, and also that they with a fixed purpose carried on war against every thing just and right. We hence learn how great and how abominable was the corruption of the people, when they were still the peculiar possession and heritage of God. Inasmuch then as the state of this ancient people had become so degenerated, let us learn to walk in solicitude and fear, while the Lord governs us by pious magistrates and faithful pastors: for what happened to the Jews might soon happen to us, so that wolves might bear rule over us, as indeed experience has proved even in this our city. The Prophet afterwards adds the kinds of cruelty which prevailed; of which he speaks in hyperbolical terms, though no doubt he sets before our eyes the state of things as it was. He compares the judges to wolves or to lions, or to other savage beasts. He says not that they sought the property of the people, or pillaged their houses; but he says that they devoured their flesh even to the very bones; he says that they pulled off their skin: and this he confirms in the next verse.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv2, 4The Prophet condemneth the wicked governors not only of…
The Prophet condemneth the wicked governors not only of covetousness, theft, and murder, but compareth them to wolves, lions, and most cruel beasts.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv2–4Mic 3:2 Who hate the good, and love the…
Mic 3:2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;
Ver. 2. Who hate the good, and love the evil] q.d. That you know not judgment, but are men ignorant of the truth which is according to godliness, appeareth by your wicked practices. For you stand across to what God requireth, hating what you should love, and loving where you should hate, Homo est inversus decalogus. Goodness is in itself amiable and attractive but you are perfect strangers to it, and therefore hate it and those that profess it. Evil is of the devil, and must therefore needs be loathsome; and yet you love it, allow it, and wallow in it; whereas you should "abhor that which is evil," hate it as hell, αποστυγουντες, "and cleave," or be fast glued, κολλωμενοι, "to that which is good," Rom 12:9. You are direct antipodes to the godly, Psa 15:4, and have nothing in you of the Divine nature, 2Pe 1:4, or of the spot of God’s children, but are a "perverse and crooked generation," Deu 32:3.
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Who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones] Like so many carnivorous cannibals or truculent wild beasts. As the ossifrage, or breakbone, pursueth the prey, tears off the flesh, breaks the bones, and sucks out the marrow: such were these griping tyrants, their furious rapacity surmounted all bounds of humanity. Such a one was Verres among the Romans, as Cicero describeth him; that tiger, Tiberius, those Romish usurers in King John’s time here, called Caursini, quasi capientes ursi (quoth Paris), devouring bears, who left not so much money in the whole kingdom as they either carried with them or sent to Rome before them. Money and lands are here called men’s skin, flesh, and bones; and a poor man’s substance is his life. See Mar 12:44 Luk 8:48. Hence oppression is called a bony sin, Amo 5:12; Amo 5:18, and oppressors, men eaters, Psa 14:4, and murderers, Hab 2:12. Cyprian cries out, Ferae parcunt Danieli, Ayes pascunt Eliam, homines saeviunt; Lions spare Daniel, ravens feed Elias, but men rage and are worse than both. Melancthon makes mention of a certain prince, some few years before his time, who, to get money out of his subjects, would send for them, and by knocking out first one tooth, and then another (threatening to leave them toothless else), would extort from them what sums soever he pleased. Our King John’s exactors received from his subjects no less sums of curses than of coin, saith the chronicler; and so did Cardinal Woisey, under Henry VIII, by his importable subsidies, which caused Suffolk to rise up in arms, making poverty their captain.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv2–4Who hate the good: in practice and affection these…
Who hate the good: in practice and affection these rulers were directly contrary to what they should have been and done, they hated not only to do good, but they hated the good which was to be done, and those that did it; and what kind of men may we judge they were who hated good men, and what was good, and by consequence hated also God himself?
Love the evil; choose, embrace, encourage, delight in, and prefer both evil works and evil workers, and take pleasure to do evil yourselves: the worst character that can be given of any sort of men.
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Who pluck off their skin from off them: you by office are shepherds, and should feed, guide, heal, protect, and love the flock, but you use them as cruelly as the shepherd, who, instead of shearing of the fleece, would pluck off the skin, arid flay them.
And their flesh from off their bones; another proverbial speech of the same import, and chargeth highest injustice and inhumanity upon these princes and rulers: see Eze 22:27; Zep 3:3.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv2–4Who hate the good, and love the evil,.... Instead…
Who hate the good, and love the evil,.... Instead of knowing and doing what was just and right; or, directly contrary to their light and knowledge, and the duty of their office, they hated that which is good, which is agreeable to the law, nature, and will of God, and loved that which is evil, which is contrary thereunto; or they hated to do good, and loved to do evil, as the Targum; as men do who are averse to good, and prone to evil; or they hated a good man, as Aben Ezra, and loved the evil man; not only delighted in committing sin themselves, but took pleasure in those that did it; and could not endure the company and conversation of holy and good men:
who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones: like wild beasts that tear off skin and flesh from the bones, and then devour them; or like cruel shepherds, that, not content to fleece their flocks, skin them, and take their flesh also, and feed themselves, and not the flock; or like butchers, that first take off the skin off a beast, and then cut up its flesh. The design of the expressions is to show what rigour, cruelty, and oppressions, these rulers exercised on the people and by their heavy taxes and levies, and exorbitant penalties and fines, pillaged and plundered them of all they had in the world, and left them quite bare, as bones stripped of their skin and flesh. So the Targum,
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"seizing on their substance by violence, and their precious mammon they take away.''
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv2–4The good - Ye who hate not only to…
The good - Ye who hate not only to do good, but the good which is done, and those that do it. The evil - Chuse, and delight in, both evil works and evil workers. Who pluck it off - Ye who use the flock as cruelly as the shepherd, who instead of shearing the fleece, would pluck off the skin and flesh.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn v4Verse 4. Then shall they cry] When calamity comes…
Verse 4. Then shall they cry] When calamity comes upon these oppressors, they shall cry for deliverance: but they shall not be heard; because, in their unjust exactions upon the people, they went on ruthlessly, and would not hear the cry of the oppressed.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv2, 4Who hate the good and love the evil -…
Who hate the good and love the evil - that is, they hate, for its own sake, that which is good, and love that which is evil. The prophet is not here speaking of their “hating good” men, or “loving evil” men, but of their hating goodness and loving wickedness . : “It is sin not to love good; what guilt to hate it! it is faulty, not to flee from evil, what ungodliness to love it!” Man, at first, loves and admires the good, even while he cloth it not; he hates the evil, even while he does it, or as soon as he has done it. But man cannot bear to he at strife with his conscience, and so he ends it, by excusing himself and telling lies to himself. And then, he hates the truth or good with a bitter hatred, because it disturbs the darkness of the false peace with which he would envelop himself. At first, men love only the pleasure connected with the evil; then they make whom they can, evil, because goodness is a reproach to them: in the end, they love evil for its own sake Rom 1:32. pagan morality too distinguished between the incontinent and the unprincipled , the man who sinned under force of temptation, and the man who had lost the sense of right and wrong Joh 3:20. “Everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light. Whoso longeth for things unlawful, hateth the righteousness which rebuketh and punisheth” .
Who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones - He had described the Good Shepherd; now, in contrast, he describes those who ought to be “shepherds of the people,” to feed, guard, direct them, but who were their butchers; who did not shear them, but flayed them; who fed on them, not fed them. He heaps up their guilt, act by act. First they flay, that is, take away their outer goods; then they break their bones in pieces, the most solid parts, on which the whole frame of their body depends, to get at the very marrow of their life, and so feed themselves upon them. And not unlike, though still more fearfully, do they sin, who first remove the skin, as it were, or outward tender fences of God’s graces; (such as is modesty, in regard to inward purity; outward demeanor, of inward virtue; outward forms, of inward devotion;) and so break the strong bones of the sterner virtues, which hold the whole soul together; and with them the whole flesh, or softer graces, becomes one shapeless mass, shred to pieces and consumed. So Ezekiel says; “Woe to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves; should not the shepherds feed the flock? Ye eat the fat and ye clothe you, with the wool, ye kill them that are fed, ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened ...” (Eze 34:2-4, add Eze 34:5-10).
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn v2Skins. When some exhorted Tiberius to lay on more…
Skins. When some exhorted Tiberius to lay on more taxes, he replied: "a good shepherd must shear the flock, and not tear off the skin." (Suetorius xxxii.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv2–4pluck off their skin . . . flesh--rob their…
pluck off their skin . . . flesh--rob their fellow countrymen of all their substance (Psa 14:4; Pro 30:14).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn v44. Such criminals Jehovah will forsake in the hour…
4. Such criminals Jehovah will forsake in the hour of judgment.
Not hear — They will cry unto him for deliverance, but he will leave them to their terrible fate. As they would not heed the cry of the oppressed, so Jehovah will not heed them.
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Hide his face — In anger (compare Hos_5:15).
Then… at that time — The context leaves no doubt that these words refer to the time of judgment. Cheyne says, “We must suppose that, when Micah delivered this prophecy (of which we can have but a summary), he introduced between Mic_3:3-4 a description of the ‘day of Jehovah,’ the day of just retribution.” That we have but a summary of the prophet’s message is probably true, but it is not so certain that a description of the day of Jehovah, or even a specific reference to it, was needed; the people would comprehend the prophet’s meaning without it (compare the use of “now” in Amo_6:7; Hos_2:10).
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv2, 42. who pluck off their skin from off them]…
2. who pluck off their skin from off them] The description is figurative. We may infer that cannibalism was not unknown to the Israelites by hearsay or tradition, but not necessarily that it was practised by the ancestors of the Israelites, much less by the Israelites themselves. The meaning of the figure plainly is that the peasantry had lost their old independence, and fallen into a condition like that of the peasants of the Turkish empire. This arose from a change in the social organism. “The nobles of Israel were no longer great farmers, as Saul and Nabal had been, living among the peasantry and sharing their toil … The introduction of such a commerce, throwing the Hebrews into immediate relations with the great emporium of international traffic (Tyre), necessarily led to accumulation of wealth in a few hands, and to the corresponding impoverishment of the class without capital, as exportation raised the price of the necessaries of life” (Prof. Robertson Smith, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, p. 347).
their skin] i.e. the skin of the house of Israel.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv2, 4(2, 3) Who hate the good.—The judges, instead of…
(2, 3) Who hate the good.—The judges, instead of fulfilling the obligations of their office, whereby they should be “for the people to God-ward,” perpetrated the most flagrant cruelty upon them. Micah compares it to the process of preparing food, in which every part of the animal, even to the bones, is utilised. So the judges robbed the people until there was nothing left to them.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv2–4The good...the evil; i.e. goodness and wickedness. Septuagint, ta…
The good...the evil; i.e. goodness and wickedness. Septuagint, ta kala ta ponhra . (Amo_5:14, etc.; Joh_3:20 Rom_1:32) Who pluck off their skin from off them. They are not shepherds, but butchers. We have the same figurative expression for merciless extortion and pillage. Ezekiel makes a similar complaint. (Eze_34:2-4) Cheyne sees in this and the following verse a possible allusion to cannibalism as at least known to the Israelites by hearsay or tradition. There is a passage in Wisdom (RAPC Wis 12:5) which somewhat countenances the idea that the Canaanites were guilty of this enormity, but it is probably only a rhetorical exaggeration of the writer. In the present passage the terms seem to be simply metaphors taken from the preparation of meat for human food. Such an allusion is natural in the mouth of one who had just been speaking of Israel as a flock. (Mic_2:12)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On v4General Information:
General Information:
Micah continues speaking.
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cry out to Yahweh
"shout to Yahweh for help"
he will not answer you
"he will not do what you ask him to do"
He will hide his face from you
Hiding the face is a metaphor for refusing to listen. AT: "He will turn his face away from you and cover it" or "You will see that he has no desire to help you" (See: Metaphor)
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv2–4 He afterwards subjoins, But they hate good, and love…
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. The Prophet conveys first a general reproof, — that they not only perverted justice, but were also given to wickedness and hated good. He means then that they were openly wicked and ungodly, and also that they with a fixed purpose carried on war against every thing just and right. We hence learn how great and how abominable was the corruption of the people, when they were still the peculiar possession and heritage of God. Inasmuch then as the state of this ancient people had become so degenerated, let us learn to walk in solicitude and fear, while the Lord governs us by pious magistrates and faithful pastors: for what happened to the Jews might soon happen to us, so that wolves might bear rule over us, as indeed experience has proved even in this our city. The Prophet afterwards adds the kinds of cruelty which prevailed; of which he speaks in hyperbolical terms, though no doubt he sets before our eyes the state of things as it was. He compares the judges to wolves or to lions, or to other savage beasts. He says not that they sought the property of the people, or pillaged their houses; but he says that they devoured their flesh even to the very bones; he says that they pulled off their skin: and this he confirms in the next verse.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 4 The Prophet condemneth the wicked governors not only of…
The Prophet condemneth the wicked governors not only of covetousness, theft, and murder, but compareth them to wolves, lions, and most cruel beasts.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Mic 3:2 Who hate the good, and love the…
Mic 3:2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;
Ver. 2. Who hate the good, and love the evil] q.d. That you know not judgment, but are men ignorant of the truth which is according to godliness, appeareth by your wicked practices. For you stand across to what God requireth, hating what you should love, and loving where you should hate, Homo est inversus decalogus. Goodness is in itself amiable and attractive but you are perfect strangers to it, and therefore hate it and those that profess it. Evil is of the devil, and must therefore needs be loathsome; and yet you love it, allow it, and wallow in it; whereas you should "abhor that which is evil," hate it as hell, αποστυγουντες, "and cleave," or be fast glued, κολλωμενοι, "to that which is good," Rom 12:9. You are direct antipodes to the godly, Psa 15:4, and have nothing in you of the Divine nature, 2Pe 1:4, or of the spot of God’s children, but are a "perverse and crooked generation," Deu 32:3.
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Who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones] Like so many carnivorous cannibals or truculent wild beasts. As the ossifrage, or breakbone, pursueth the prey, tears off the flesh, breaks the bones, and sucks out the marrow: such were these griping tyrants, their furious rapacity surmounted all bounds of humanity. Such a one was Verres among the Romans, as Cicero describeth him; that tiger, Tiberius, those Romish usurers in King John’s time here, called Caursini, quasi capientes ursi (quoth Paris), devouring bears, who left not so much money in the whole kingdom as they either carried with them or sent to Rome before them. Money and lands are here called men’s skin, flesh, and bones; and a poor man’s substance is his life. See Mar 12:44 Luk 8:48. Hence oppression is called a bony sin, Amo 5:12; Amo 5:18, and oppressors, men eaters, Psa 14:4, and murderers, Hab 2:12. Cyprian cries out, Ferae parcunt Danieli, Ayes pascunt Eliam, homines saeviunt; Lions spare Daniel, ravens feed Elias, but men rage and are worse than both. Melancthon makes mention of a certain prince, some few years before his time, who, to get money out of his subjects, would send for them, and by knocking out first one tooth, and then another (threatening to leave them toothless else), would extort from them what sums soever he pleased. Our King John’s exactors received from his subjects no less sums of curses than of coin, saith the chronicler; and so did Cardinal Woisey, under Henry VIII, by his importable subsidies, which caused Suffolk to rise up in arms, making poverty their captain.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Who hate the good: in practice and affection these…
Who hate the good: in practice and affection these rulers were directly contrary to what they should have been and done, they hated not only to do good, but they hated the good which was to be done, and those that did it; and what kind of men may we judge they were who hated good men, and what was good, and by consequence hated also God himself?
Love the evil; choose, embrace, encourage, delight in, and prefer both evil works and evil workers, and take pleasure to do evil yourselves: the worst character that can be given of any sort of men.
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Who pluck off their skin from off them: you by office are shepherds, and should feed, guide, heal, protect, and love the flock, but you use them as cruelly as the shepherd, who, instead of shearing of the fleece, would pluck off the skin, arid flay them.
And their flesh from off their bones; another proverbial speech of the same import, and chargeth highest injustice and inhumanity upon these princes and rulers: see Eze 22:27; Zep 3:3.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Who hate the good, and love the evil,.... Instead…
Who hate the good, and love the evil,.... Instead of knowing and doing what was just and right; or, directly contrary to their light and knowledge, and the duty of their office, they hated that which is good, which is agreeable to the law, nature, and will of God, and loved that which is evil, which is contrary thereunto; or they hated to do good, and loved to do evil, as the Targum; as men do who are averse to good, and prone to evil; or they hated a good man, as Aben Ezra, and loved the evil man; not only delighted in committing sin themselves, but took pleasure in those that did it; and could not endure the company and conversation of holy and good men:
who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones: like wild beasts that tear off skin and flesh from the bones, and then devour them; or like cruel shepherds, that, not content to fleece their flocks, skin them, and take their flesh also, and feed themselves, and not the flock; or like butchers, that first take off the skin off a beast, and then cut up its flesh. The design of the expressions is to show what rigour, cruelty, and oppressions, these rulers exercised on the people and by their heavy taxes and levies, and exorbitant penalties and fines, pillaged and plundered them of all they had in the world, and left them quite bare, as bones stripped of their skin and flesh. So the Targum,
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"seizing on their substance by violence, and their precious mammon they take away.''
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv2–4 The good - Ye who hate not only to…
The good - Ye who hate not only to do good, but the good which is done, and those that do it. The evil - Chuse, and delight in, both evil works and evil workers. Who pluck it off - Ye who use the flock as cruelly as the shepherd, who instead of shearing the fleece, would pluck off the skin and flesh.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v4 Verse 4. Then shall they cry] When calamity comes…
Verse 4. Then shall they cry] When calamity comes upon these oppressors, they shall cry for deliverance: but they shall not be heard; because, in their unjust exactions upon the people, they went on ruthlessly, and would not hear the cry of the oppressed.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv2, 4 Who hate the good and love the evil -…
Who hate the good and love the evil - that is, they hate, for its own sake, that which is good, and love that which is evil. The prophet is not here speaking of their “hating good” men, or “loving evil” men, but of their hating goodness and loving wickedness . : “It is sin not to love good; what guilt to hate it! it is faulty, not to flee from evil, what ungodliness to love it!” Man, at first, loves and admires the good, even while he cloth it not; he hates the evil, even while he does it, or as soon as he has done it. But man cannot bear to he at strife with his conscience, and so he ends it, by excusing himself and telling lies to himself. And then, he hates the truth or good with a bitter hatred, because it disturbs the darkness of the false peace with which he would envelop himself. At first, men love only the pleasure connected with the evil; then they make whom they can, evil, because goodness is a reproach to them: in the end, they love evil for its own sake Rom 1:32. pagan morality too distinguished between the incontinent and the unprincipled , the man who sinned under force of temptation, and the man who had lost the sense of right and wrong Joh 3:20. “Everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light. Whoso longeth for things unlawful, hateth the righteousness which rebuketh and punisheth” .
Who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones - He had described the Good Shepherd; now, in contrast, he describes those who ought to be “shepherds of the people,” to feed, guard, direct them, but who were their butchers; who did not shear them, but flayed them; who fed on them, not fed them. He heaps up their guilt, act by act. First they flay, that is, take away their outer goods; then they break their bones in pieces, the most solid parts, on which the whole frame of their body depends, to get at the very marrow of their life, and so feed themselves upon them. And not unlike, though still more fearfully, do they sin, who first remove the skin, as it were, or outward tender fences of God’s graces; (such as is modesty, in regard to inward purity; outward demeanor, of inward virtue; outward forms, of inward devotion;) and so break the strong bones of the sterner virtues, which hold the whole soul together; and with them the whole flesh, or softer graces, becomes one shapeless mass, shred to pieces and consumed. So Ezekiel says; “Woe to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves; should not the shepherds feed the flock? Ye eat the fat and ye clothe you, with the wool, ye kill them that are fed, ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened ...” (Eze 34:2-4, add Eze 34:5-10).
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v2 Skins. When some exhorted Tiberius to lay on more…
Skins. When some exhorted Tiberius to lay on more taxes, he replied: "a good shepherd must shear the flock, and not tear off the skin." (Suetorius xxxii.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–4 pluck off their skin . . . flesh--rob their…
pluck off their skin . . . flesh--rob their fellow countrymen of all their substance (Psa 14:4; Pro 30:14).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v4 4. Such criminals Jehovah will forsake in the hour…
4. Such criminals Jehovah will forsake in the hour of judgment.
Not hear — They will cry unto him for deliverance, but he will leave them to their terrible fate. As they would not heed the cry of the oppressed, so Jehovah will not heed them.
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Hide his face — In anger (compare Hos_5:15).
Then… at that time — The context leaves no doubt that these words refer to the time of judgment. Cheyne says, “We must suppose that, when Micah delivered this prophecy (of which we can have but a summary), he introduced between Mic_3:3-4 a description of the ‘day of Jehovah,’ the day of just retribution.” That we have but a summary of the prophet’s message is probably true, but it is not so certain that a description of the day of Jehovah, or even a specific reference to it, was needed; the people would comprehend the prophet’s meaning without it (compare the use of “now” in Amo_6:7; Hos_2:10).
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv2, 4 2. who pluck off their skin from off them]…
2. who pluck off their skin from off them] The description is figurative. We may infer that cannibalism was not unknown to the Israelites by hearsay or tradition, but not necessarily that it was practised by the ancestors of the Israelites, much less by the Israelites themselves. The meaning of the figure plainly is that the peasantry had lost their old independence, and fallen into a condition like that of the peasants of the Turkish empire. This arose from a change in the social organism. “The nobles of Israel were no longer great farmers, as Saul and Nabal had been, living among the peasantry and sharing their toil … The introduction of such a commerce, throwing the Hebrews into immediate relations with the great emporium of international traffic (Tyre), necessarily led to accumulation of wealth in a few hands, and to the corresponding impoverishment of the class without capital, as exportation raised the price of the necessaries of life” (Prof. Robertson Smith, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, p. 347).
their skin] i.e. the skin of the house of Israel.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv2, 4 (2, 3) Who hate the good.—The judges, instead of…
(2, 3) Who hate the good.—The judges, instead of fulfilling the obligations of their office, whereby they should be “for the people to God-ward,” perpetrated the most flagrant cruelty upon them. Micah compares it to the process of preparing food, in which every part of the animal, even to the bones, is utilised. So the judges robbed the people until there was nothing left to them.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv2–4 The good...the evil; i.e. goodness and wickedness. Septuagint, ta…
The good...the evil; i.e. goodness and wickedness. Septuagint, ta kala ta ponhra . (Amo_5:14, etc.; Joh_3:20 Rom_1:32) Who pluck off their skin from off them. They are not shepherds, but butchers. We have the same figurative expression for merciless extortion and pillage. Ezekiel makes a similar complaint. (Eze_34:2-4) Cheyne sees in this and the following verse a possible allusion to cannibalism as at least known to the Israelites by hearsay or tradition. There is a passage in Wisdom (RAPC Wis 12:5) which somewhat countenances the idea that the Canaanites were guilty of this enormity, but it is probably only a rhetorical exaggeration of the writer. In the present passage the terms seem to be simply metaphors taken from the preparation of meat for human food. Such an allusion is natural in the mouth of one who had just been speaking of Israel as a flock. (Mic_2:12)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v4 General Information:
General Information:
Micah continues speaking.
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cry out to Yahweh
"shout to Yahweh for help"
he will not answer you
"he will not do what you ask him to do"
He will hide his face from you
Hiding the face is a metaphor for refusing to listen. AT: "He will turn his face away from you and cover it" or "You will see that he has no desire to help you" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
rule
Yahweh
face
evil
works
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv2, 4 3:2-3 The leaders, like wild animals, destroyed their own…
3:2-3 The leaders, like wild animals, destroyed their own people.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.