Micah's tyrants, too, had religion to support them. A number of the hireling prophets, whom we have seen both Amos and Hosea attack, gave their blessing to this social system, which crushed the poor, for they shared its profits. They lived upon the alms of the rich, and flattered according as they were fed. To them Micah devotes the second oracle of chap. iii., and we find confirmed by his words the principle we laid down before, that in that age the one great difference between the false and the true prophet was what it has been in every age since then till now--an ethical difference; and not a difference of dogma, or tradition, or ecclesiastical note. The false prophet spoke, consciously or unconsciously, for himself and his living. He sided with the rich; he shut his eyes to the social condition of the people; he did not attack the sins of the day. This made him _false_--robbed him of insight and the power of prediction. But the true prophet exposed the sins of his people. Ethical insight and courage, burning indignation of wrong, clear vision of the facts of the day--this was what Jehovah's spirit put into him, this was what Micah felt to be inspiration.
The prophet speaks:--
_Thus saith Jehovah against the prophets who lead my people astray,_ _Who while they have ought between their teeth proclaim peace._ _But against him who will not lay to their mouths they sanctify war!_ _Wherefore night shall be yours without vision,_ _And yours shall be darkness without divination;_ _And the sun shall go down on the prophets,_ _And the day shall darken about them;_ _And the seers shall be put to the blush,_ _And the diviners be ashamed:_ _All of them shall cover the beard,_ _For there shall be no answer from God._ _But I--I am full of power by the spirit of Jehovah, and justice and might,_ _To declare to Jacob his transgressions and to Israel his sin._
In the third oracle of this chapter rulers and prophets are combined--how close the conspiracy between them! It is remarkable that, in harmony with Isaiah, Micah speaks no word against the king. But evidently Hezekiah had not power to restrain the nobles and the rich. When this oracle was uttered it was a time of peace, and the lavish building, which we have seen to be so marked a characteristic of Israel in the eighth century,[860] was in process. Jerusalem was larger and finer than ever. Ah, it was a building of God's own city _in blood_! Judges, priests and prophets were all alike mercenary, and the poor were oppressed for a reward. No walls, however sacred, could stand on such foundations. Did they say that they built her so grandly, for Jehovah's sake? Did they believe her to be inviolate because He was in her? They should see. Zion--yes, Zion--should be ploughed like a field, and the Mountain of the Lord's Temple become desolate.
The prophet speaks:--
_Hear now this, O chiefs of the house of Jacob,_ _And rulers of the house of Israel,_ _Who spurn justice and twist all that is straight,_ _Building Zion in blood, and Jerusalem with crime!_ _Her chiefs give judgment for a bribe,_ _And her priests oracles for a reward,_ _And her prophets divine for silver;_ _And on Jehovah they lean, saying:_ "_Is not Jehovah in the midst of us?_ _Evil cannot come at us._" _Therefore for your sakes shall Zion be ploughed like a field,_ _And Jerusalem become heaps,_ _And the Mount of the House mounds in a jungle._
It is extremely difficult for us to place ourselves in a state of society in which bribery is prevalent, and the fingers both of justice and of religion are gilded by their suitors. But this corruption has always been common in the East. "An Oriental state can never altogether prevent the abuse by which officials, small and great, enrich themselves in illicit ways."[861] The strongest government takes the bribery for granted, and periodically prunes the rank fortunes of its great officials. A weak government lets them alone. But in either case the poor suffer from unjust taxation and from laggard or perverted justice. Bribery has always been found, even in the more primitive and puritan forms of Semitic life. Mr. Doughty has borne testimony with regard to this among the austere Wahabees of Central Arabia. "When I asked if there were no handling of bribes at Hâyil by those who are nigh the prince's ear, it was answered, 'Nay.' The Byzantine corruption cannot enter into the eternal and noble simplicity of this people's (airy) life, in the poor nomad country; but (we have seen) the art is not unknown to the subtle-headed Shammar princes, who thereby help themselves with the neighbour Turkish governments."[862] The bribes of the ruler of Hâyil "are, according to the shifting weather of the world, to great Ottoman government men; and now on account of Kheybar, he was gilding some of their crooked fingers in Medina."[863] Nothing marks the difference of Western government more than the absence of all this, especially from our courts of justice. Yet the improvement has only come about within comparatively recent centuries. What a large space, for instance, does Langland give to the arraigning of "Mede," the corrupter of all authorities and influences in the society of his day! Let us quote his words, for again they provide a most exact parallel to Micah's, and may enable us to realise a state of life so contrary to our own. It is Conscience who arraigns Mede before the King:--