The foregoing prophecy closed with the final cleansing of the Church and the wrath of God resting on the wicked, when, as Paul saith, “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our... [ Continue Reading ]
HEAR YE NOW WHAT THE LORD SAITH - If ye will not hear the rebuke of man, hear now at last the word of God. “Arise thou, Micah.” The prophet was not willing to be the herald of woe to his people; but had to arise at the bidding of God, that he might not “be rebellious like that rebellious house” Ezek... [ Continue Reading ]
HEAR, YE STRONG (OR, IT MAY BE, YE ENDURING,) FOUNDATIONS OF THE EARTH - Mountains and rocks carry the soul to times far away, before and after. They change net, like the habitable, cultivated, surface of the earth. There they were, before the existence of our short-lived generations; there they wil... [ Continue Reading ]
O MY PEOPLE - This one tender word, twice repeated , contains in one a whole volume of reproof. It sets before the eyes God’s choice of them of His free grace, and the whole history of His loving-kindness, if so they could be ashamed of their thanklessness and turn to Him. “Mine,” He says, “ye are b... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I BROUGHT THEE UP OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, AND REDEEMED THEE OUT OF THE HOARSE OF SERVANTS - What wert thou? What art thou? Who made thee what thou art? God reminds them. They were slaves; they are His people in the heritage of the pagan, and that by His outstretched arm. God mentions some head... [ Continue Reading ]
REMEMBER NOW - The word translated now is a very tender one, like our “do now remember” or “do remember,” beseeching instead of commanding. Dionysius: “I might command, but I speak tenderly, that I may lead thee to own the truth.” “What Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor a... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREWITH SHALL I COME BEFORE THE LORD? - The people, thus arraigned, bursts in, as men do, with professions that they would be no more ungrateful; that they will do anything, everything - but what they ought. With them it shall be but “Ask and have.” They wish only to know, with what they shall com... [ Continue Reading ]
HE HATH SHEWED THEE - Micah does not tell them now, as for the first time; which would have excused them. He says, “He hath shewed thee;” He, about whose mind and will and pleasure they were pretending to enquire, the Lord their God. He had shewn it to them. The law was full of it. He shewed it to t... [ Continue Reading ]
THE VOICE OF THE LORD CRIETH UNTO THE CITY - that is, Jerusalem, as the metropolis of their wealth and their sin, the head and heart of their offending. “Crieth,” aloud, earnestly, intently, so that all might hear. So God says, “Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding pat forth her voice? She crieth... [ Continue Reading ]
ARE THERE YET - Still after all the warnings and long-suffering of God, “the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked?” “Treasures of wickedness” are treasures gotten by wickedness; yet it means too that he wicked shall have no treasure, no fruit, but his wickedness. He treasureth up treas... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL I COUNT THEM PURE? - Rather, (as the English margin) “Shall I be pure?” The prophet takes for the time their person and bids them judge themselves in him. If it would defile me, how are ye, with all your other sins, not defiled? All these things were expressly forbidden in the law. “Ye shall d... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE RICH MEN THEREOF - that is, “of the city, Micah 6:9 are full of violence.” It bad been little, had thieves and robbers lived by violence, but now, (as Isaiah at the same time upbraids them,) “her princes were become companions of thieves” Isaiah 1:23. Not the poor out of distress, but the ri... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE ALSO WILL I - (Literally, And I too,) that is, this dost thou, and thus will I too do. Pococke: “As thou madest sick the heart of the poor oppressed, so will I, by My grievous and severe punishments, make thee sick,” or make thy wound incurable, as in Nahum, “thy wound is grievous,” (Nahum... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT EAT, BUT NOT BE SATISFIED - The correspondence of the punishment with the sin shall shew that it is not by chance, but from the just judgment of God. The curse of God shall go with what they eat, and it shall not nourish them. The word, thou, is thrice repeated . As God had just said, I t... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT SOW, BUT THOU SHALT NOT REAP - Micah renews the threatenings of the law Leviticus 26:16; Deuteronomy 28:30, Deuteronomy 28:38, which they had been habitually breaking. Those prophecies had been fulfilled before, throughout their history; they have been fulfilled lately in Israel for the l... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE STATUTES OF OMRI ARE KEPT - Rather, (like the English margin he doth much keep,) And he doth keep diligently for himself. Both ways express much diligence in evil . To “keep God’s commandments” was the familiar phrase, in which Israel was exhorted, by every motive of hope and fear, to obedie... [ Continue Reading ]