Micah 3:3
in Micah 3You eat the flesh of my people after stripping off their skin and breaking their bones. You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot, like meat in a cauldron.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
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.
KJV
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.
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This verse in Micah 3
Commentary
5 notes on this verseWho also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skins from off them,.... Like cannibals, flay them alive, and then eat their flesh: this signifies, as before, devouring their substance, only expressed in terms which still more set forth their savageness, inhumanity, barbarity, and cruelty.
This site's exposition
Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob
on Micah 3:1-3
Micah turns from prophets and land-grabbers to the nation's judges themselves, heads of Jacob and princes of the house of Israel whose very office is to know judgment, to weigh right and wrong for the people. Verses 2 and 3 answer the question with an image of cannibalism, plucking skin from off my people, flaying their flesh, breaking their bones and chopping them as for the pot, the commentators reading this not as literal butchery but as legal and economic oppression described in the most visceral terms available. The horror of the figure is deliberate, judges who should protect the vulnerable instead consuming them.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Chapter III, verses 1 and following) And I said: Listen, leaders of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel. Is it not for you to know judgment, you who hate good and love evil, who violently take off their skin from them, and their flesh from their bones, who have eaten the flesh of my people, and have stripped off their skin from them, and have broken their bones and cut them up like meat in a pot.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
(2.) Very barbarous and cruel to those that were under them, not caring whom they beggared, so they could but enrich themselves; such evil is the love of money the root of. How they might expect that God should deal with them, since they had been thus cruel to his subjects. The rule is fixed, Those shall have judgment without mercy that have shown no mercy (
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The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
pot . . . flesh within . . . caldron--manifold species of cruel oppressions. Compare Eze 24:3, &c., containing, as to the coming punishment, the same figure as is here used of the sin: implying that the sin and punishment exactly correspond.
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How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
who rob their skin —[I.e., the skin] of the house of Israel, over whom they are heads and officers, as the prophet says: The heads of the house of Jacob and the officers of the house of Israel.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 7 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
16 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַאֲשֶׁ֣ר | vaasher | and [those] who | H834 → | 5497 times |
| אָכְלוּ֮ | ʾakhelu | they have eaten | H398 → | 810 times |
| שְׁאֵ֣ר | sheer | [the] flesh of | H7607 → | |
| עַמִּי֒ | ʾami | people my | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| וְעוֹרָם֙ | veoram | and skin their | H5785 → | |
| מֵעֲלֵיהֶ֣ם | mealeihem | from on <the> them | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| הִפְשִׁ֔יטוּ | hifshitu | they have stripped off | H6584 → | |
| וְאֶת־ | veet | and <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| עַצְמֹֽתֵיהֶ֖ם | ʾatzmoteihem | bones their | H6106 → | |
| פִּצֵּ֑חוּ | pitzechu | they have broken in pieces | H6476 → | |
| וּפָרְשׂוּ֙ | ufaresu | and they have chopped [them] up | H6566 → | |
| כַּאֲשֶׁ֣ר | kaasher | just as | H834 → | 5497 times |
| בַּסִּ֔יר | basir | in the pot | H5518 → | |
| וּכְבָשָׂ֖ר | ukhevasar | and like meat | H1320 → | |
| בְּת֥וֹךְ | betokh | in [the] midst of | H8432 → | 418 times |
| קַלָּֽחַת׃ | kalachat | a caldron | H7037 → |
וַאֲשֶׁ֣רand [those] who
vaasherH834 →5497 times
אָכְלוּ֮they have eaten
ʾakheluH398 →810 times
שְׁאֵ֣ר[the] flesh of
sheerH7607 →
עַמִּי֒people my
ʾamiH5971 →1873 times
וְעוֹרָם֙and skin their
veoramH5785 →
מֵעֲלֵיהֶ֣םfrom on <the> them
mealeihemH5921 →5755 times
הִפְשִׁ֔יטוּthey have stripped off
hifshituH6584 →
וְאֶת־and <obj.>
veetH853 →10935 times
עַצְמֹֽתֵיהֶ֖םbones their
ʾatzmoteihemH6106 →
פִּצֵּ֑חוּthey have broken in pieces
pitzechuH6476 →
וּפָרְשׂוּ֙and they have chopped [them] up
ufaresuH6566 →
כַּאֲשֶׁ֣רjust as
kaasherH834 →5497 times
בַּסִּ֔ירin the pot
basirH5518 →
וּכְבָשָׂ֖רand like meat
ukhevasarH1320 →
בְּת֥וֹךְin [the] midst of
betokhH8432 →418 times
קַלָּֽחַת׃a caldron
kalachatH7037 →
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
Psalms 14:4Will the workers of iniquity never learn? They devour my people like bread; they refuse to call upon the LORD.
it leads to
- Psalms 79:6
Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge You, on the kingdoms that refuse to call on Your name,
- Jeremiah 10:25
Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge You, and on the families that do not call on Your name. For they have devoured Jacob; they have consumed him and finished…
- Psalms 82:5
They do not know or understand; they wander in the darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
- Romans 1:28
Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
- Isaiah 64:7
No one calls on Your name or strives to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us and delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
- Psalms 79:6
Through
Zephaniah 3:3Her princes are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves, leaving nothing for the morning.
it leads to
- Habakkuk 1:8
Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves of the night. Their horsemen charge ahead, and their cavalry comes from afar. They fly like a vulture, swooping down to devour.
- Habakkuk 1:8
Through
Ezekiel 11:3They are saying, ‘Is not the time near to build houses? The city is the cooking pot, and we are the meat.’
it leads to
- Ezekiel 12:22
“Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel: ‘The days go by, and every vision fails’?
- Ezekiel 12:27
“Son of man, take note that the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision that he sees is for many years from now; he prophesies about the distant future.’
- Ezekiel 12:22
About Micah
This page draws on 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) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.