Micah 1-3
The strain begins with anticipations of judgment, specially on Samaria, but not entirely overlooking Jerusalem, and then details the sins which led to this; thus, in prophetic style, telling us what we may have already read in the historic style, in that chapter referred to, 2 Kings 17.
Judah had transgressed as well as Israel, and the Assyrian rod, now prepared by the Lord in righteous anger, is raised against Jerusalem as well as Samaria. The day of Ahaz there, had been as the day of Hoshea here. But Hezekiah, who came after Ahaz, did right in the sight of the Lord, and therefore the Lord debated with His rod, and the Assyrian did not prevail over Judah, as he had over Israel.
Such was the condition of things in those days, and he spoke as the Lord’s watchman.
Princes (Mic. 3:1-4), priests (Mic. 3:11), prophets (Mic. 3:5-7) and people (Mic. 3:5) are all severally challenged by him, and are all found guilty and condemned. That land which had been redeemed out of the hand of the Amorites, and been made the clean vessel among the nations, and the Lord’s dwelling place, has now acquired for itself another character altogether; and now, if there is any ear to hear, any circumcised heart among the people, they are addressed in these words, concerning this land, “arise, depart, for this is not your rest, it is polluted” (Mic. 2:10). Strange and humbling indeed! How has the fine gold become dim!
Waste and desolation are to follow in the train of pollution. But in the midst of all this, the prophet himself is full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and he talks of judgment in the hearing of the nations. “Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field; and Jerusalem shall become heaps upon the mountains of the house of Israel, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest” (Mic. 3:12).