Micah 3:1

CHAPTER III

In this chapter the prophet inveighs with great boldness and

spirit against the princes and prophets of Judah; and foretells

the destruction of Jerusalem as the consequence of their

iniquity, 1-12.

The last verse was fulfilled to a certain extent by

Nebuchadnezzar; but most fully and literally by the Romans

under Titus. See Josephus.

NOTES ON CHAP. III

Verse Micah 3:1. Hear - O heads of Jacob] The metaphor of the flock is still carried on. The chiefs of Jacob, and the princes of Israel, instead of taking care of the flocks, defending them, and finding them pasture, oppressed them in various ways. They are like wolves, who tear the skin of the sheep, and the flesh off their bones. This applies to all unjust and oppressive rulers.

Suetonius tells us, in his Life of Tiberius, that when the governors of provinces wrote to the emperor, entreating him to increase the tributes, he wrote back: "It is the property of a good shepherd to shear his sheep, not to skin them." Praesidibus onerandas tributo provincias suadentibus rescripsit: BONI PASTORIS esse TONDERE pecus, non DEGLUBERE. This is a maxim which many rulers of the earth do not seem to understand.