Passage

Micah 3.2

Book: Micah · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

And I said, Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: is it not for you to know justice?

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

who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. 4. Then shall they cry unto Jehovah, 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. (Micah 3:1-4, ASV)

WEB

I said, “Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn’t it for you to know justice?

2. You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones;

who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay 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.” (Micah 3:1-4, WEB)

KJV

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;

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. (Micah 3:1-4, KJV)

YLT

And I say, 'Hear, I pray you, heads of Jacob, And ye judges of the house of Israel, Is it not for you to know the judgment?

2. Ye who are hating good, and loving evil, Taking violently their skin from off them, And their flesh from off their bones,

And who have eaten the flesh of My people, And their skin from off them have stript, And their bones they have broken, And they have spread [them] out as in a pot, And as flesh in the midst of a caldron. 4. Then do they cry unto Jehovah, And He doth not answer them, And hideth His face from them at that time, As they have made evil their doings. (Micah 3:1-4, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Micah: "And I said, Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel" (Micah 3:1).
Audience: The "heads of Jacob" and "rulers of the house of Israel," the leaders responsible for justice. The parallel address in 3:9-10 ("They build up Zion with blood") shows that Jerusalem's rulers are in view.
Location: Jerusalem, the seat of the rulers addressed.
Time period: Late eighth century BC. This sequence of oracles ends in Micah 3:12, the sentence on Zion that Jeremiah 26:18 places "in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah."

Theological reading

Inverted moral vision. "Ye who hate the good, and love the evil." The rulers had just been asked, "is it not for you to know justice?" (3:1). Amos, a generation earlier, had commanded the reverse: "Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish justice in the gate" (Amos 5:15). Micah locates the rulers' failure in their affections, what they love and hate, before he describes what they do.

Butchery as a picture of oppression. They "pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones," and 3:3 carries the image to the cooking pot. The language is figurative; the charge is that those appointed to protect the people consume them instead. Ezekiel later turns the same accusation on Israel's shepherds: "Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill the fatlings; but ye feed not the sheep" (Ezekiel 34:3).

"My people." In 3:3 the victims are "my people." Oppression of the weak is treated as an assault on those who belong to God, and the consequence follows directly: "Then shall they cry unto Jehovah, but he will not answer them" (3:4). Rulers who would not hear the cry of the oppressed will find their own cry unanswered.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

H2896 - tov, tov, Strong's H2896

Quoted in

Lexicon:

H2896 - tov

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.