You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin from my people and strip the flesh from their bones.
Parallel translations
- WEB You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones;
- KJV Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;
- NKJV You who hate good and love evil; Who strip the skin from My people, And the flesh from their bones;
- NASB “You who hate good and love evil, Who tear off their skin from them And their flesh from their bones,
- NLT but you are the very ones who hate good and love evil. You skin my people alive and tear the flesh from their bones.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
These leaders hate good and love evil, savagely exploiting the people. It uses graphic imagery to portray their brutality.
Overview
Micah accuses the rulers of a moral inversion, loving what God hates, and of treating the people like animals to be butchered. 'Tearing skin from bones' depicts oppression so violent it consumes the very lives of the vulnerable. Such cannibalistic imagery shows how monstrous injustice appears in God's sight.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 23
- Ezek 22:27Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives for dishonest gain.
- Ps 53:4Will the workers of iniquity never learn? They devour my people like bread; they refuse to call upon God.
- Prov 28:4Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law resist them.
- 1 Kgs 21:20When Elijah arrived, Ahab said to him, “So you have found me out, my enemy.” He replied, “I have found you out because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the LORD.
- 2 Chr 19:2Jehu son of Hanani the seer went out to confront him and said to King Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD? Because of this, the wrath of the LORD is upon you.
- 1 Kgs 22:6–8So the king of Israel assembled the prophets, about four hundred men, and asked them, “Should I go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should I refrain?” “Go up,” they replied, “and the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.”
- Rom 12:9Love must be sincere. Detest what is evil; cling to what is good.
- Acts 7:51–52You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.
- 2 Tim 3:3unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, without love of good,
- Rom 1:32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them.
- Zech 11:4–5This is what the LORD my God says: “Pasture the flock marked for slaughter,
- Amos 8:4–6Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land,
- John 15:23–24Whoever hates Me hates My Father as well.
- Ps 15:4who despises the vile but honors those who fear the LORD, who does not revise a costly oath,
- Ezek 34:3You eat the fat, wear the wool, and butcher the fattened sheep, but you do not feed the flock.
- John 18:40“Not this man,” they shouted, “but Barabbas!” (Now Barabbas was an insurrectionist.)
- John 15:18–19If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first.
- Amos 5:10–14There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gate and despise him who speaks with integrity.
- Zeph 3:3Her princes are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves, leaving nothing for the morning.
- Ps 139:21–22Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD, and detest those who rise against You?
- Isa 3:15Why do you crush My people and grind the faces of the poor?” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.
- Luke 19:14But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We do not want this man to rule over us.’
- John 7:7The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me, because I testify that its works are evil.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Micah names the town — 'But you, Bethlehem... from you shall come forth one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origins are from of old' — the birthplace of the eternal King.
How Micah 3:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.