9 Now hear this , heads of the house of Jacob And rulers of the house of Israel , Who abhor justice And twist everything that is straight , 10 Who build Zion with bloodshed And Jerusalem with violent injustice . 11 Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe , Her priests instruct for a price And her prophets divine for money . Yet they lean on the Lord saying , " Is not the Lord in our midst ? Calamity will not come upon us." 12 Therefore , on account of you Zion will be plowed as a field , Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins , And the mountain of the temple will become high places of a forest .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Micah 3:9-12
Commentary on Micah 3:9-12
(Read Micah 3:9-12)
Zion's walls owe no thanks to those that build them up with blood and iniquity. The sin of man works not the righteousness of God. Even when men do that which in itself is good, but do it for filthy lucre, it becomes abomination both to God and man. Faith rests in the Lord as the soul's foundation: presumption only leans upon the Lord as a prop, and would use him to serve a turn. If men's having the Lord among them will not keep them from doing evil, it never can secure them from suffering evil for so doing. See the doom of wicked Jacob; Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field. This was exactly fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and is so at this day. If sacred places are polluted by sin, they will be wasted and ruined by the judgments of God.