Micah 3:10
in Micah 3who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
KJV
They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
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This verse in Micah 3
Commentary
9 notes on this verseThey build up Zion with blood - They might cry out loudly against that butchery practiced by Pekah, king of Israel, and Pul coadjutor of Rezie, against the Jews. See on Mic 2:9 (note). But these were by no means clear themselves; for if they strengthened the city, or decorated the temple, it was by the produce of their exactions and oppressions of the people.
This site's exposition
Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob
on Micah 3:9-11
The chapter's third indictment gathers heads, priests and prophets together, judging for reward, teaching for hire, divining for money, three offices meant to serve the people now serving only themselves. Verse 10 states the plainest charge in the shortest sentence in the chapter, they build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity, the holy city's very construction funded by injustice. Verse 11 exposes the self-deception underneath it, corrupt leaders who still lean upon the Lord and ask is not the Lord among us, none evil can come upon us, presuming on God's presence while defying everything his presence requires.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 9 onwards) Hear this, rulers of the house of Jacob, and judges of the house of Israel: you who abhor justice and pervert all that is right, who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity. Its rulers give judgment for a bribe, its priests teach for a fee, its prophets divine for money, yet they lean upon the Lord and say, 'Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.'
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
They - The heads and great ones enlarge, beautify, and fortify, the house in Zion, particularly the temple and the royal palace. Blood - With wealth, which they made themselves masters of by violence, taking away the life of the owners.
) that they build up Zion with blood. "They pretend, in justification of their extortion and oppressions, that they build up Zion and Jerusalem; they add new streets and squares to the holy cities, and adorn them; they establish and advance the public interests both in church and state, and think that therein they do God and Israel good service.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens+odd-straight-quotes
They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
Princes and prophets, when they faithfully discharge the duty of their office, are to be highly honoured above other men; but when they betray their trust, and act contrary to it, they should hear of their faults as well as others, and shall be made to know that there is a God above them, to whom they are accountable; at his bar the prophet here, in his name, arraigns them.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
They--change of person from "ye" (Mic 3:9); the third person puts them to a greater distance as estranged from Him. It is, literally, "Whosoever builds," singular. build up Zion with blood--build on it stately mansions with wealth obtained by the condemnation and murder of the innocent (Jer 22:13;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
They build up - (literally, building, sing.) Zion with blood This may be taken literally on both sides, that, the rich built their palaces, “with wealth gotten by bloodshed , by rapine of the poor, by slaughter of the saints,” as Ezekiel says, ‘her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves, to shed blood, to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain’ Eze 22:27. Or by blood he may mean that they indirectly took away life, in that, through wrong judgments, extortion, usury, fraud, oppression, reducing wages or detaining them, they took away what was necessary to support life. So it is said; ‘The bread of the needy is their life, he that defraudeth him thereof is a man of blood. He that taketh away his neighbor’s living slayeth him, and he that defraudeth the laborer of his hire is a bloodshedder’ (Ecclus. 34:21, 22). Or it may be, that as David prayed to God, ‘Build Thou the walls of Jerusalem, asking Him thereby to maintain or increase its well-being’ Psa 51:18, so these men thought to promote the temporal prosperity of Jerusalem by doings which were unjust, oppressive, crushing to their inferiors. So Solomon, in His degenerate days, made the yoke upon his people and his service grievious 1Ki 12:4. So ambitious monarchs by large standing-armies or filling their exchequers drain the life-blood of their people. The physical condition and stature of the poorer population in much of France was lowered permanently by the conscriptions under the first Emperor. In our wealthy nation, the term poverty describes a condition of other days. We have had to coin a new name to designate the misery, offspring of our material prosperity. […]
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| בֹּנֶ֥ה | boneh | [who] build | H1129 → | |
| צִיּ֖וֹן | tziyon | Zion | H6726 → | 154 times |
| בְּדָמִ֑ים | bedamim | with blood<s> | H1818 → | |
| וִירוּשָׁלִַ֖ם | virushalim | and Jerusalem | H3389 → | 643 times |
| בְּעַוְלָֽה׃ | beavlah | with injustice | H5766 → |
בֹּנֶ֥ה[who] build
bonehH1129 →
צִיּ֖וֹןZion
tziyonH6726 →154 times
בְּדָמִ֑יםwith blood<s>
bedamimH1818 →
וִירוּשָׁלִַ֖םand Jerusalem
virushalimH3389 →643 times
בְּעַוְלָֽה׃with injustice
beavlahH5766 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Matthew 27:25All the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”
it leads to
- Joshua 2:19
If anyone goes out the door of your house into the street, his blood will be on his own head, and we will be innocent. But if a hand is laid on anyone with…
- Acts 5:28
“We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us responsible for this man’s blood.”
- Acts 7:52
Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—
- Deuteronomy 19:10
Thus innocent blood will not be shed in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed.
- 1 Thessalonians 2:15–16
who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men,
- Joshua 2:19
Through
John 11:50You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
it leads to
- John 18:14
Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it would be better if one man died for the people.
- Luke 24:46
And He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,
- Romans 3:8
Why not say, as some slanderously claim that we say, “Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is deserved!
- John 18:14
About Micah
Who and where
2 names in this verse with a page on the site.
- PlaceJerusalemZionThe eastern ridge David took from the Jebusites and made his stronghold, the name the Psalms and the prophets give the city the LO…
- PlaceJerusalemJerusalemThe city David took from the Jebusites and made his capital, where Solomon built the temple, where Christ was crucified and rose,…
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Micah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.