Micah 6:3-5

I beg the Reader particularly to notice in the very commencement of the Lord's discourse, that the covenant relation between the Lord and his Israel, is kept in remembrance. O my people! do not, I beg you, forget this, for it is most gracious and most blessed. Of all the parts of scripture, these are certainly what come home most powerfully to the heart; the Lord's appeal to his people concerning his unalterable goodness, and their continued rebellion. Jeremiah's prophecy is full of this. See Jeremiah 2:1. In a short compass the Lord here sums up the outlines of the whole eventful history of his grace over Israel, in bringing them out of Egypt, and bringing them through the wilderness. And in the last of these verses the Lord as briefly sums up the blessings he had manifested to them, when bringing them into the promised land, and his special mercy in the case of Balaam and Barak, on the borders of it. Numbers 22:1; Numbers 23:1; Numbers 24:1; Numbers 25:1. But I beg more particularly the Reader to observe with me, what the Lord here saith was his gracious design in all this; that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord; or, as it might be read, the righteousnesses of the Lord; for this doth not consist in one, or two, or ten thousand acts, but it is in all acts. The Hebrews delight in plurals in this way. So in the first Psalm, the word is blessedness is the man, that is the Man Christ Jesus. Meaning that he, and he alone, is blessedness, for there is blessing in no other. See Psalms 1:1 and Psalms 72:17. I must observe once more on this part of the Prophet's verse, in the reason assigned that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord; that the Syriac version applies this to the enemies of Israel, that they might know, that is Balak, and Balaam, and the rest of the reprobate crew, might know the righteousness of the God of Israel. And if read thus, it is equally beautiful. It is as if the Lord had said, that they shall know my love to my people, and my justice in punishing the malice of their unprovoked foes.