Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off 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;
- BSB You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin from my people and strip the flesh from 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 princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
- Ps 53:4Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God.
- Prov 28:4They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them.
- 1 Kgs 21:20And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the LORD.
- 2 Chr 19:2And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD.
- 1 Kgs 22:6–8Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the LORD shall deliver it into the hand of the king.
- Rom 12:9Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
- Acts 7:51–52Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
- 2 Tim 3:3Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
- Rom 1:32Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
- Zech 11:4–5Thus saith the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;
- Amos 8:4–6Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,
- John 15:23–24He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
- Ps 15:4In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.
- Ezek 34:3Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.
- John 18:40Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.
- John 15:18–19If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
- Amos 5:10–14They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
- Zeph 3:3Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow.
- Ps 139:21–22Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
- Isa 3:15What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
- Luke 19:14But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.
- John 7:7The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof 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.