Micah 3:10

Hebrew Bible

8 But I am full of the courage that the Lord’s Spirit gives and have a strong commitment to justice. This enables me to confront Jacob with its rebellion and Israel with its sin. 9 Listen to this, you leaders of the family of Jacob, you rulers of the nation of Israel! You hate justice and pervert all that is right. 10 You build Zion through bloody crimes, Jerusalem through unjust violence. 11 Her leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, her priests proclaim rulings for profit, and her prophets read omens for pay. Yet they claim to trust the Lord and say, “The Lord is among us. Disaster will not overtake us!” 12 Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed up like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the Temple Mount will become a hill overgrown with brush!

Habakkuk 2:12

Hebrew Bible

10 Your schemes will bring shame to your house. Because you destroyed many nations, you will self-destruct. 11 For the stones in the walls will cry out, and the wooden rafters will answer back. 12Woe to the one who builds a city by bloodshed—he who starts a town by unjust deeds. 13 Be sure of this! The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has decreed: The nations’ efforts will go up in smoke; their exhausting work will be for nothing. 14 For recognition of the Lord’s sovereign majesty will fill the earth just as the waters fill up the sea.

 Notes and References

"... the woe oracles are the content of the mocking riddles pronounced by the oppressed nations. The irony is created when the oppressor becomes the object of mockery and the oppressed ones are the ones who pronounce judgment on him. This irony is further illustrated by the woe oracles that follow: the creditor becomes the debtor (2:6b-7), the plunderer becomes the one being plundered (2:8), the one who acquires gains by evil means acquires shame (2:9), and the one who intoxicates others will end up drinking the cup of wrath from the Lord (2:13-16). The interjection of doxology by Habakkuk in 2:14 and 2:20 also heightens the irony. Habakkuk interrupts the nations at strategic points to show the truthfulness of Yahweh: at the end of the third woe which may be a quotation from other prophets, and after the fifth woe to contrast with the idols. (Scholars have long noticed that the third woe is reminiscent of other prophetic sayings such as Micah 3:10; Jeremiah 51:58; and Isaiah 11:9) ..."

Ko, Grace Theodicy in Habakkuk (p. 60) University of St. Michael's College, 2009

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