12. In Micah 3:9–4:1, what bad religious condition did the prophet describe, and what changes did he foretell about “the mountain of the house of Jehovah”?

¹² “Hear, please, this, you head ones of the house of Jacob and you commanders of the house of Israel, the ones detesting justice and the ones who make even everything that is straight crooked; building Zion with acts of bloodshed and Jerusalem with unrighteousness. Her own head ones judge merely for a bribe, and her own priests instruct just for a price, and her own prophets practice divination simply for money; yet upon Jehovah they keep supporting themselves, saying: ‘Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? There will come upon us no calamity.’ Therefore on account of you men Zion will be plowed up as a mere field, and Jerusalem herself will become mere heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the house will be as the high places of a forest. And it must occur in the final part of the days that the mountain of the house of Jehovah will become firmly established above the top of the mountains, and it will certainly be lifted up above the hills; and to it peoples must stream.”​—Mic. 3:9 through 4:1.

13. When did that turn of events take place in ancient times?

¹³ Does that quotation from Micah sound like a sharp turn in the events of a nation? There can be no question of doubt that the grand final part of this prophecy must come true, for the words of prophecy introducing it most certainly came true. Recorded history is there to show it. In the year 607 B.C.E., near the beginning of what would be our month of October, the city over there in the Middle East that is poetically called “Zion” did lie like a mere field that had been plowed up. Yes, the national capital Jerusalem was left lying as mere heaps of ruins.

14. (a) What did “the mountain of the house of Jehovah” then begin to look like? (b) Because of what judicial and religious practices had Jehovah willed that this take place?

¹⁴ And what about the 2,500-foot-high mountain upon which Jehovah’s house of worship that had been built by King Solomon used to stand in awe-striking beauty? That sacred mountain began to look like “the high places of a forest.” It was deserted like a forested hilltop. Was that a disgrace for Jehovah God? Seemingly so. And yet he had willed it to be so, for he inspired his prophet Micah to be the first one to foretell such a religious calamity. He had all the reason in the world for doing so, especially since Jerusalem was being filled with unrighteousness and defiled by unjustified acts of bloodshed. What else could be expected for a city when her headmen let their eyes be blinded to justice by accepting bribes, when the temple priests carried on religious instruction for a fixed price and when imitation prophets carried on demonistic divination to make money off the gullible people? And yet those religious hypocrites felt that they were walking in the name of Jehovah, or that Jehovah would continue to be in their midst at his temple, to protect them against calamity! No wonder that Micah’s prophecy, although so shocking, came true.

15. (a) What means did Jehovah use to bring the foretold national calamity, and when? (b) What happened to governmental and religious things at Jerusalem, and what happened to Jehovah’s rating as a god?

¹⁵ Religion is no defense for hypocrites. The religious hypocrites were disappointed in what they wrongly expected of Jehovah, in spite of what Micah was used to foretell. By what means, then, did Jehovah bring a national calamity upon them in 607 B.C.E.? It was by means of the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar. After about eighteen months of besieging Jerusalem, the Babylonian army broke into the city, plundered it and its temple, led off the miserable survivors captive, and burned down the holy city. The royal throne, “Jehovah’s throne,” as it was called, upon which the line of kings of the royal family of David sat, vanished, as well as Jehovah’s “ark of the covenant” that had been located in the innermost compartment, “the Most Holy,” of the temple. Thus the kingdom of David, then 463 years old at Jerusalem, was broken down. Also, the full-scale worship of Jehovah at his temple was interrupted. Jehovah’s rating as a god dropped sharply among the pagan nations. The worship of Him nosedived to a deep low in the estimation of the world nations. His holy name seemed profaned.

16. What were observing pagan nations led to believe about the rising of Jehovah’s worship again at Jerusalem, and why?

¹⁶ Would Jehovah’s worship ever rise again? That was doubtless the question in the minds of many interested pagans. If they had known and believed the prophecies of Micah and Isaiah and Jeremiah and other prophets of Jehovah they would have known the answer to be Yes! But the unbelieving pagans and those who despised the worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob thought not. Year after year wore on, up to the seventieth year, and there was no restoration of Jehovah’s worship at the holy city. Jerusalem continued to be a heap of ruins; Zion continued to be like a mere field all roughed up as if by plowing. The temple mountain was like a deserted mound in a jungle. Instead of temple instrumental music and songs, the harsh, untuneful calls of birds and wild animals rose up therefrom. The observing pagans round about seemed to have reason to believe that, with Jehovah’s people in exile largely in Babylon, His worship would die out.

17. What turn of events happened regarding Babylon, and how did another branch of the human family assume world power?

¹⁷ Yet, never let anyone think that worship of the true God can be wiped out! Little did those who drew satisfaction from the calamitous decline in the worship of Jehovah realize that a turn of events was at hand. In a startling way it came. At the end of sixty-eight years of Jerusalem’s lying desolate without man or domestic beast, the mighty Third World Power of Bible history fell. As foretold by the prophets of the God who never lies, Jehovah, the empire of Babylon fell. Babylon by her terrifying armies had destroyed Jehovah’s temple at Jerusalem by his permission, but she did not get away unpunished with that presumptuous act of insult to the one living and true God. World power by Semitic rulers ceased. By a turn of events, world power by Aryan or Japhetic rulers began, to continue on down till our own day. The Persian conqueror, Cyrus the Great, became king of Babylon and of the Fourth World Power of Bible history. Babylonian religion now took a tumble. Her chief god, Merodach or Marduk, crashed in disgrace.

18. (a) What prophecy of Jeremiah regarding Babylon’s god and her land was then due to begin fulfillment? (b) How has Babylon’s desolation compared with that which she caused to Jerusalem?

¹⁸ It became the time for the prophet Jeremiah’s words to be carried out: “Tell it among the nations and publish it. And lift up a signal; publish it. Hide nothing, O men. Say, ‘Babylon has been captured. Bel [The Lord] has been put to shame. Merodach has become terrified. . . . For against her a nation has come up from the north. It is the one that makes her land an object of astonishment, so that there proves to be no one dwelling in her. Both man and domestic animal have taken flight. They have gone away.”’ (Jer. 50:2, 3) This prophecy has meaning for us today. Where, we can ask, is Babylon on the Euphrates River in what is today the land of Iraq? It is nothing but a desolate ruin, suffering a fate like that which she had inflicted upon ancient Jerusalem, only her desolation has continued for centuries more than a thousand years, whereas Jerusalem’s desolation lasted just seventy years.

In the year 537 B.C.E., the seventieth year of the desolation of Jerusalem and its temple, Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to decree that the temple should be rebuilt at Jerusalem. To that end Cyrus decreed that the exiles in Babylon who would volunteer for this temple work should be released from Babylon and go back to “the mountain of the house of Jehovah.” (2 Chron. 36:20-23; Ezra 1:1-4) By the end of that seventieth year of Jerusalem’s desolation a faithful remnant of temple-work volunteers were back in the land of Judah, bringing to an end its desolation.