Micah 7:4

The best of them is as a brier Comp. 2 Samuel 23:6 -and good-for-nothing men are all of them as thorns thrust away." -Thorns" are in the Bible symbols of sin and its effects, and of the temptations which beset man's path. But the Hebrew text has not the appearance of being sound.

the day of thy watchmen i.e. the day foreseen by thy prophets. A prophet is stationed to look out for the approach of the -day of Jehovah;" comp. Isaiah 21:6 (where the same form is used in the Hebrew as here), Jeremiah 6:17 (a different form).

thy visitation i.e. thy punishment.

now shall be their perplexity -Now," i.e. when this day has come. Wild confusion shall prevail, even among the faithful servants of Jehovah, when the long-predicted -day of Jehovah" shall dawn. For the first result to the faithful Israel will be, not happiness, but misery the chastisement due to past sins. The change of persons from the second to the third is harsh, but not unexampled.