Why I Think the Graphic Comparison of Corruption with Cannibalism is Used in Micah 3:1-3
Micah 3:1-3 contains a very graphic description of the corruption of the Northern Kingdom. Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah, Hosea, and Amos. Micah as introduced in the first chapter was God's man during the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah in the Kingdom of Judah. A renunciation of the Northern Kingdom was brought in as follows:
And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes (rulers, emphasis mine) of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? 2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; 3 Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.
The description is very graphic. The context may not be literal (or could be literal). The problem was that wickedness abounded in the Kingdom of Israel during the Divided Kingdom era. The nobles of the house of Israel were utterly corrupt. They were self-serving and didn't do the LORD's work. The metaphor of cannibalism was used to describe such utter corruption. This is to show that God didn't approve of cannibalism as some skeptics may want to make it look like.
The Bible did warn about the curse of cannibalism in Leviticus 26:29 and Deuteronomy 28:53-57 way before the kingdom era began. The curse had a warning that disobedience to God will cause people to eat even their own children. In Numbers 13:32, we also read the phrase that the land devoured its inhabitants. It almost seems to suggest that cannibalism was practiced by the Canaanites. It seems that the word cannibal is a contraction of Canaan and Baal. However, the origin also traces to the Spanish word "caribes" or the Carib, a West Indies tribe known for eating human beings. Regardless, we can see that God hates cannibalism.
Later, we read in 2 Kings 6:28-29 the following degrading act during the reign of Joram of Israel, son of Ahab:
28 And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. 29 So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.
The situation was that famine was really there as a result of the corruption of the House of Ahab. I can't imagine how this terrible wickedness. People even ate a donkey's head (2 Kings 6:24-25) which was sold for a ridiculous price. Even so, the donkey was an unclean animal in Leviticus 11. People resorted to eating their own family members as a result of the curse of sin. It's amazing how Joram of Israel even felt Elisha was to blame. The rotten values of the House of Ahab didn't fall down far either. Joram of Israel may have set aside the Baal images but still continued in calf worship. The fact that King Joram was even there in the abominable act may have been in Micah's mind (which came down later) even if the rulers were already from the House of Jehu (during the reign of Jotham up to Hezekiah). Jehu wasn't a good king either. Jehu may have wiped out Baal from Israel but he didn't get rid of the calf worship that Jeroboam set up. Amazingly, Jehu's great-grandson was also named Jeroboam.
The use of revolting language wasn't anything new. Elijah probably mocked Baal to be out there sitting on the toilet (seeg is the Hebrew word for pursuing or relieving himself, meaning removal of dross). The KJV translators used "pisseth against the wall" to describe those who were marked for judgment six times in the Old Testament in 1 Samuel 25:22, 1 Samuel 25:34, 1 Kings 14:10, 1 Kings 16:11, 1 Kings 21:21, and 2 Kings 9:8. If Baal worship was compared to the filth of the toilet, if the wicked men were termed as "pisseth against the wall" by the KJV translators (which later translators simply used "every male person" instead), and if Isaiah 64:6's rags actually mean menstruous cloths then it's no surprise that corrupt officials' cruelty is compared to cannibalism.
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