Bible Strands
Micah 3:7
Then the seers will be ashamed and the diviners will be disgraced. They will all cover their mouths because there is no answer from God.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Micah pronounces judgment on corrupt spiritual leaders during a time of national crisis. He declares that God will withhold revelation from those who rely on divination rather than His word.
The words — The Hebrew בֹשׁוּ (boshu) and חָפְרוּ (chafaru) both mean to be put to shame or abashed, while עָטוּ (atu) means to cover. These verbs describe the physical silencing of seers and diviners who face divine silence.
The thread — This theme of silenced false prophets recurs in Isaiah 44:25 and Zechariah 13:4, where God confounds diviners and prophets are ashamed of their visions. The gesture of covering the mouth parallels the ritual isolation prescribed for the unclean in Leviticus 13:45.
Why it lands — The text states that reliance on human divination ends in shame when God withholds His answer. Readers must abandon occult practices and submit to God’s direct revelation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 44:25 who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who confounds the wise and turns their knowledge into nonsense,
- Zechariah 13:4 And on that day every prophet who prophesies will be ashamed of his vision, and he will not put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive.
- Leviticus 13:45 A diseased person must wear torn clothes and let his hair hang loose, and he must cover his mouth and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’
- 1 Samuel 28:6 He inquired of the LORD, but the LORD did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets.
- Isaiah 47:12 So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!
- Ezekiel 24:17 Groan quietly; do not mourn for the dead. Put on your turban and strap your sandals on your feet; do not cover your lips or eat the bread of mourners.”
- Amos 8:11 Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
- Exodus 8:18 The magicians tried to produce gnats using their magic arts, but they could not. And the gnats remained on man and beast.
- Exodus 9:11 The magicians could not stand before Moses, because the boils had broken out on them and on all the Egyptians.
- 1 Samuel 9:9 (Formerly in Israel, a man on his way to inquire of God would say, “Come, let us go to the seer.” For the prophet of today was formerly called the seer.)