Lectionary Calendar
Wednesday, August 13th, 2025
the Week of Proper 14 / Ordinary 19
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Read the Bible

Brenton's Septuagint

Micah 3:10

who build up Sion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Government;   Rulers;   The Topic Concordance - Government;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Cities;   Jerusalem;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Election;   Judah, tribe and kingdom;   Micah, book of;   Zion;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Justice;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Jehoiakim;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Micah, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Magic, Divination, and Sorcery;   Micah;   Micah, Book of;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Zion, Sion, Mount Zion;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Dan;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Habakkuk;   Zion;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
who build Zion with bloodshedand Jerusalem with injustice.
Hebrew Names Version
They build up Tziyon with blood, And Yerushalayim with iniquity.
King James Version (1611)
They build vp Zion with blood, and Ierusalem with iniquitie.
King James Version
They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
English Standard Version
who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.
New American Standard Bible
Who build Zion with bloodshed, And Jerusalem with malice.
New Century Version
You build Jerusalem by murdering people; you build it with evil.
Amplified Bible
Who build Zion with blood [and extortion and murder] And Jerusalem with violent injustice.
Geneva Bible (1587)
They build vp Zion with blood, and Ierusalem with iniquitie.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Who build Zion with bloodshed And Jerusalem with violent injustice.
Legacy Standard Bible
Who build Zion with bloodshedAnd Jerusalem with violent injustice.
Berean Standard Bible
who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity.
Contemporary English Version
You make cruelty and murder a way of life in Jerusalem.
Complete Jewish Bible
who build up Tziyon with blood and Yerushalayim with wickedness.
Darby Translation
that build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with unrighteousness.
Easy-to-Read Version
You build Zion by murdering people. You build Jerusalem by cheating people!
George Lamsa Translation
Who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity;
Good News Translation
You are building God's city, Jerusalem, on a foundation of murder and injustice.
Lexham English Bible
he who builds Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wickedness.
Literal Translation
those building up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity:
American Standard Version
They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
Bible in Basic English
They are building up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with evil-doing.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
That build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
They builde vp Sion with blood, and Hierusalem with iniquitie.
English Revised Version
They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
World English Bible
They build up Zion with blood, And Jerusalem with iniquity.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
whiche bilden Sion in bloodis, and Jerusalem in wickidnesse.
Update Bible Version
They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
Webster's Bible Translation
They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
New English Translation
You build Zion through bloody crimes, Jerusalem through unjust violence.
New King James Version
Who build up Zion with bloodshed And Jerusalem with iniquity:
New Living Translation
You are building Jerusalem on a foundation of murder and corruption.
New Life Bible
You built Zion with blood and Jerusalem with much wrong-doing.
New Revised Standard
who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong!
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Building Zion, with deeds of blood, - and Jerusalem, with perversity.
Douay-Rheims Bible
You that build up Sion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
Revised Standard Version
who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong.
Young's Literal Translation
Building up Zion with blood, And Jerusalem with iniquity.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Ye that buylde vp Sion with bloude, and Ierusalem with doynge wronge.

Contextual Overview

8 Surely I will strengthen myself with the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of power, to declare to Jacob his transgressions, and to Israel his sins. 9 Hear now these words, ye chiefs of the house of Jacob, and the remnant of the house of Israel, who hate judgment, and pervert all righteousness; 10 who build up Sion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. 11 The heads thereof have judged for gifts, and the priests thereof have answered for hire, and her prophets have divined for silver: and yet they have rested on the Lord, saying, Is not the Lord among us? no evil shall come upon us. 12 Therefore on your account Sion shall be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be as a storehouse of fruits, and the mountain of the house as a grove of the forest.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

build up Zion: Jeremiah 22:13-17, Ezekiel 22:25-28, Habakkuk 2:9-12, Zephaniah 3:3, Matthew 27:25, John 11:50

blood: Heb. bloods

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 27:25 - General Proverbs 1:19 - every Isaiah 26:10 - in the Isaiah 59:3 - your hands Ezekiel 11:6 - General Ezekiel 12:19 - because Ezekiel 21:24 - your transgressions Ezekiel 23:37 - and blood Micah 3:1 - Hear Habakkuk 2:12 - him John 18:28 - and they

Cross-References

Genesis 3:7
And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes to look upon and beautiful to contemplate, and having taken of its fruit she ate, and she gave to her husband also with her, and they ate.
Genesis 3:17
And to the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy pains and thy groanings; in pain thou shalt bring forth children, and thy submission shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Genesis 3:18
And to Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and eaten of the tree concerning which I charged thee of it only not to eat—of that thou hast eaten, cursed is the ground in thy labours, in pain shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
Exodus 3:6
And he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraam, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and Moses turned away his face, for he was afraid to gaze at God.
Exodus 32:25
And when Moses saw that the people was scattered, —for Aaron had scattered them so as to be a rejoicing to their enemies, —
Job 23:15
Therefore am I troubled at him; and when I was reproved, I thought of him. Therefore let me take good heed before him: I will consider, and be afraid of him.
Psalms 119:120
Penetrate my flesh with thy fear; for I am afraid of thy judgments.
Isaiah 33:14
The sinners in Sion have departed; trembling shall seize the ungodly. Who will tell you that a fire is kindled? Who will tell you of the eternal place?
Isaiah 47:3
Thy shame shall be uncovered, thy reproaches shall be brought to light: I will exact of thee due vengeance, I will no longer deliver thee to men.
Isaiah 57:11
Through dread of whom hast thou feared, and lied against me, and has not remembered, nor considered me, nor regarded me, yea, though when I see thee I pass they by, yet thou hast not feared me.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. Or, "O thou that buildest up" g, c. or "everyone of them that buildeth up" h, c. for the word is in the singular number but, be fire words rendered either of these ways, they respect the heads and princes of the people who either repaired the temple on Zion, or ornamented the king's palace, or built themselves fine stately houses in Jerusalem, or large streets there, by money they took of murderers to save them, as Kimchi; or by money got by rapine and oppression, by spoiling the poor of their goods and their livelihood, for them and their families, which was all one as shedding innocent blood; and by money obtained by bribes, for the perversion of justice, and such like illegal proceedings, truly called iniquity. The Targum is,

"who build their houses in Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with deceits.''

g בונה "aedificans", Montanus, Munster, Burkius. h "Quisque eorum aedificat", Vatablus, Piscator, Drusius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They build up - (literally, building, sing.) Zion with blood This may be taken literally on both sides, that, the rich built their palaces, “with wealth gotten by bloodshed , by rapine of the poor, by slaughter of the saints,” as Ezekiel says, ‘her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves, to shed blood, to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain’ Ezekiel 22:27. Or by blood he may mean that they indirectly took away life, in that, through wrong judgments, extortion, usury, fraud, oppression, reducing wages or detaining them, they took away what was necessary to support life. So it is said; ‘The bread of the needy is their life, he that defraudeth him thereof is a man of blood. He that taketh away his neighbor’s living slayeth him, and he that defraudeth the laborer of his hire is a bloodshedder’ (Ecclus. 34:21, 22). Or it may be, that as David prayed to God, ‘Build Thou the walls of Jerusalem, asking Him thereby to maintain or increase its well-being’ Psalms 51:18, so these men thought to promote the temporal prosperity of Jerusalem by doings which were unjust, oppressive, crushing to their inferiors.

So Solomon, in His degenerate days, made the yoke upon his people and his service grievious 1 Kings 12:4. So ambitious monarchs by large standing-armies or filling their exchequers drain the life-blood of their people. The physical condition and stature of the poorer population in much of France was lowered permanently by the conscriptions under the first Emperor. In our wealthy nation, the term poverty describes a condition of other days. We have had to coin a new name to designate the misery, offspring of our material prosperity. From our wealthy towns, (as from those of Flanders,) ascends to heaven against us , “the cry of ‘pauperism’ that is, the cry of distress, arrived at a condition of system and of power, and, by an unexpected curse, issuing from the very development of wealth. The political economy of unbelief has been crushed by facts on all the theaters of human activity and industry.”

Truly we “build up Zion with blood,” when we cheapen luxuries and comforts at the price of souls, use Christian toil like brute strength, tempt men to dishonesty and women to other sin, to eke out the scanty wages which alone our selfish thirst for cheapness allows, heedless of every thing save of our individual gratification, or the commercial prosperity, which we have made our god. Most awfully was “Zion built with blood,” when the Jews shed the innocent Blood, that John 11:48 the Romans might not take away their place and nation. But since He has said, “Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye did it not unto Me” Matthew 25:45, and, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” Acts 9:4, when Saul was persecuting Christ’s members, then, in this waste of lives and of souls, we are not only wasting the Price of His Blood in ourselves and others, but are slaying Christ anew, and that, from the same motives as those who crucified Him 1 Corinthians 8:12. When ye sin (against the members, ye sin against Christ. Our commercial greatness is the Price of His Blood Matthew 27:6. In the judgments on the Jews, we may read our own national future; in the woe on those through whom the weak brother perishes for whom Christ died 1 Corinthians 8:11, we, if we partake or connive at it, may read our own.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Micah 3:10. They build up Zion with blood — They might cry out loudly against that butchery practised by Pekah, king of Israel, and Pul coadjutor of Rezie, against the Jews. See on Micah 2:9. But these were by no means clear themselves; for if they strengthened the city, or decorated the temple, it was by the produce of their exactions and oppressions of the people.

I do not know a text more applicable than this to slave-dealers; or to any who have made their fortunes by such wrongs as affect the life of man; especially the former, who by the gains of this diabolic traffic have built houses, c. for, following up the prophet's metaphor, the timbers, c., are the bones of the hapless Africans and the mortar, the blood of the defenceless progeny of Ham. What an account must all those who have any hand in or profit from this detestable, degrading, and inhuman traffic, give to Him who will shortly judge the quick and dead!


 
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