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Micah 3:1. And he says, “Hear ye now unto the powers of Jacob, and unto them that are left unto the house of Israel: is it not unto you that ye know the judgment?” Micah 3:2. Hating good, and seeking evil, stealing their skins from them, and their flesh from their bones. Micah 3:3. For I have eaten the flesh of My people, and torn off their skins, and crushed their bones, and crushed them like flesh into a horse, and like meat into a mountain: Micah 3:4. Thus they will cry out to the Lord, and will not listen to them: and will turn away His face from them at that time, because she has been deceitful in her undertakings against her. The prophet turns his word to the authorities, because, having been appointed to judge, they have trampled on justice. Therefore, he speaks to them, asking the question: Isn’t the power to judge given to you in order to punish the criminals and let the innocent go without being held accountable? therefore, how, having been appointed to be guardians of the laws, did you turn away from doing good deeds and eagerly turned to evil deeds? Did you treat the poor with such covetousness that you deprived them of all their property? And God expressed this in the Prophet, saying: “those who stole their skins from them, and their flesh from their bones.” Having dared to do this, even if you seek My help a thousand times, you will not receive any help from Me. After this threat to the authorities, he turns his word to the Prophets. Micah 3:5. This is what the Lord says about the flattering prophets of My people, who gnaw their teeth and preach peace against them, and without giving into their mouth, they sanctified the army against them. The flattering Prophets, prophesying lies, with deceitful words, as if with teeth, caused harm to the people, speaking contrary to My Prophets and promising people peace. But their words were peace, but their deeds show war. Those who proclaimed peace, having become an obstacle for the people to resort to repentance, became the perpetrators of disasters caused by war. It is said: they consecrated an army against them instead: they separated them, that is, they formed them. Micah 3:6. For this reason, you will have night because of vision, and you will have darkness because of sorcery, and the sun will set on the Prophets, and the day will be darkened on her: Micah 3:7. And those who sit in sleep will be afraid, and they will ridicule them, and all these things will speak against them, but they will not listen to them. When in reality the opposite turns out to be true, and instead of the peace they proclaim, battles will be visible; then those who prophesy false things will be ridiculed; Those who advised trusting dreams will go ashamed; in the middle of the day they will remain in darkness and honor the day at night, struck by the fear of what is visible, and many curses will be showered upon them by those deceived by their prophecies. Micah 3:8. And I am filled with power by the Spirit of the Lord, and with judgment and power, to tell Jacob his wickedness, and to the house of Israel his sins. I will not dare to act like these lawless ones, but, excited by the grace of the Holy Spirit and filled with such power, I will boldly expose the wickedness of the people. And having made such a promise to openly expose those iniquities that the people dared to commit, the Prophet immediately cried out: Micah 3:9. Hear this, the elders of the house of Jacob, and those who are left behind to the house of Israel, who abhor judgment, and corrupt all righteousness, Micah 3:10. Those who build Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with wickedness. Having been appointed as judges, says the Prophet, you did not want to hold the scales of truth steadily, but you did not show any respect for the just, you tried to show the unjust to the just, and in this thought you filled Jerusalem with unjustly shed blood. The princes allowed them to be bribed with gifts, the priests gave answers for money about what was legal, and did not want to perform divine services for nothing. And the prophets, possessed by opposing spirits, made false prophecies for a bribe, deceived for gifts, and in doing this, they imagined that they were using God’s assistance, and said: Micah 3:11. Isn't there the Lord in us? no evil will come against us. So, since, living in all lawlessness, you strengthened yourselves in vain with the name of God, you will know that Micah 3:12. For this reason, for your sake, Zion will be divided like a field, and Jerusalem will be like a vegetable storehouse, and the mountain of a house will be like an oak meadow. Such desolation, says the Prophet, will befall this glorious city that the house of God will be filled with plants and become like an oak grove; all the space inside the city walls, where previously it was crowded with inhabitants, like fields outside the city walls, will be plowed and sown, and Jerusalem will not differ in any way from a vegetable storehouse, which, after collecting the fruits, when the one who guards it goes home, remains empty. This also came to fruition under Nebuchadnezzar, who, having taken the city, took its inhabitants together with the king as captives; but with greater accuracy one can see the fulfillment of the prophecy after the fury and fury with which the Jews treated our Savior. For that glorious church, devastated to the ground, has to this day been abandoned to complete desolation, and those who come to see do not know where the site of the former sanctuary is. Thus, divine grace, having predicted this church through prophetic lips, foretells the glory of the Church that believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. It says the following: Blessed Theodoret reads ἡγἰαοω instead of ἡγειρω (vostavisha)