This and the next chapter should be read in connexion. They form a single prophecy, the subject of which is the cause of the coming judgment, viz. the sins of the great men and the rulers. The sins and their punishment are over and over again described with increasing intensity. First of all in Mica... [ Continue Reading ]
Sin and its corresponding Punishment 1. _and work evil_ To -work," as distinguished from -devise" and to -practise" or -execute," is to prepare ways and means (see Isaiah 41:4). Obs., it is no mere act of thoughtlessness, or passionate impulse, which is here denounced, but a set purpose of disposse... [ Continue Reading ]
_And they covet fields_, &c. -To covet" is itself a gross offence against the law of God, as the deepest of all the Ten Commandments shews (Exodus 20:17). Large additions to one's estates were diametrically opposed to the spirit, if not always to the letter, of the law of land-tenure among the Israe... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore_, &c. The -devising" of the dishonest grandees is met by the -devising" of Jehovah; oppression is punished by oppression. Comp. the striking correspondences between sins and their punishments in Isaiah 5. _against this family_ The grandees, as the heads and representatives of the nation ... [ Continue Reading ]
_shall one take up a parable_ Or, A TAUNTING SONG (as probably Isaiah 14:4; Habakkuk 2:6). The Hebr. _mâshâl_means properly a saying characterized by parallelism -the parallelism may consist either in the moral application of emblems, or simply in the parallel disposition of the lines and the sense.... [ Continue Reading ]