{"id":78204,"date":"2020-07-28T15:12:27","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T12:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=78204"},"modified":"2020-07-28T15:12:27","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T12:12:27","slug":"judge-the-judges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/judge-the-judges\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge The Judges"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"78204","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":73524,"related_cahpter":"535","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"And the political leaders, and the prophets, and the priests...\u00a0\u00a0\r\n\r\n","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chapter 3 appears to be a continuation and a recapitulation of Micah&#8217;s thoughts from chapter 2. The overriding themes, however, are different. Chapter 2 was fundamentally an attack on the worse vices of human nature. However, greed and selfishness will exist in all times and eras, no matter the economic system. Micah is aware that a person motivated by avarice could not succeed without the encouragement of the authorities responsible for maintaining the social order (or at least a willingness to turn a blind eye to corruption). In chapter 3, Micah turns his fury towards these authorities. No longer does Micah attack human nature, but he raises the question of whether the society had become so corrupt that it lost its right to exist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chapter 3 is organized into three short speeches of judgment, each four verses long. Micah spares no one \u2013 the first section attacks the political leadership, the second section attacks religious guides. The third section combines the targets of the first two \u2013 Israel\u2019s political leaders (compare verses 1 and 9) and the false prophets (compare verses 5-6, 11), and includes a new group for condemnation \u2013 the priests (v. 11) . He reprises both the issue of justice corrupted and of rampant bribery, but emphasizes what Micah considers their underlying fault: their misunderstanding of what God wants from them. He then predicts that Jerusalem will suffer the same fate as Samaria (compare 1:7 with 3:12).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Micah&#8217;s final critique of political and religious leaders amplifies his previous attack \u2013 not only do they hate good and love evil, now these despise justice and twist all that is straight. He mocks them with their own words \u2013 &#8220;The LORD is in our midst; no calamity shall overtake us,&#8221; and then delivers his sentence \u2013total and utter destruction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Talmud learns from here the power and influence that the judges have on the state of the nation and the world:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rabbi Yose ben Elisha says, \u201cIf you see a generation upon which many troubles come \u2013 go and examine the deeds of the judges of Israel, because misfortune\/sufferings come to the world only on account of corrupt judges in Israel, as it is written (3:9-11): \u201cHear this, you rulers of the House of Jacob, You chiefs of the House of Israel, Who detest justice And make crooked all that is straight, Who build Zion with crime, Jerusalem with iniquity! Her rulers judge for gifts, Her priests give rulings for a fee, And her prophets divine for pay; Yet they rely upon the LORD, saying, \u201cThe LORD is in our midst; No calamity shall overtake us.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2026 Therefore the Lord brings upon them three types of suffering, according to the three sins of their hands as it is written (3:12): \u201cTherefore, because of you, Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the house like the high places of the forest.\u201d (Shabbat 139a).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":78205,"id":78205,"title":"mic3-judge","filename":"mic3-judge.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic3-judge.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/judge-the-judges\/mic3-judge\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"mic3-judge","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":78204,"date":"2020-07-28 12:12:04","modified":"2023-09-23 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