VI. (1) HEAR YE NOW WHAT THE LORD SAITH. — The third portion of Micah’s prophecy opens with a solemn appeal to Nature to hear the Lord pleading with His people. A similar summons is found in Deuteronomy 32:1 : “Give ear, O ye heavens, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.”... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I BROUGHT THEE UP. — There seems a pause intended; but Israel, abashed, remains silent. So the Lord continues to plead: “Thou dost not testify against me? No; for I showed thee the greatest mercies: I redeemed thee out of Egypt, the house of bondage.” Moses, Aaron, and Miriam are mentioned as th... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT BALAAM THE SON OF BEOR ANSWERED. — This incident is adduced in the “pleading” as a signal instance of the controlling power of God, exercised in an unmistakable manner in behalf of the Israelites. Balaam was constrained to bless when he had the highest conceivable motive to curse the Israelites... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREWITH SHALL I COME...?_ — _This has been taken by some commentators as Balak’s question to Balaam, who gives his reply in Micah 6:8. Dean Stanley writes, after his picturesque manner, of “the short dialogue preserved, not by the Mosaic historian, but by the Prophet Micah, which at once exhibits... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FRUIT OF MY BODY. — Will God require the sacrifice of such a precious possession, as Isaac was to Abraham, to atone for my wrong-doing? There may possibly be an allusion to human sacrifices, such as Ahaz offered to Molech, or to the act of Mesha, King of Moab, who “took his eldest son, that shou... [ Continue Reading ]
TO DO JUSTLY... — God “setteth more by mercy than by sacrifice.” So also in Ecclesiastes: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man.”... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTO THE CITY — _i.e._, Jerusalem, the metropolis of the wealth and sinfulness of Judah. THE MAN OF WISDOM SHALL SEE THY NAME — _i.e.,_ will regard it. The sentence may be thrown in parenthetically, as in the warning, “Whoso readeth, let him understand.” And he will perceive the hand of God in the... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SCANT MEASURE. — Literally, _the hateful ephah of leanness_ — _i.e._, less than it should be. The Jews were much addicted to the falsification of weights and measures. They made “the ephah small, and the shekel great, falsifying the balances by deceit” (Amos 8:5).... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL I COUNT THEM PURE? — Rather, _Can I be innocent with the deceitful balances?_ The enactments about weights were very stringently expressed in the Law, both affirmatively and negatively: _e.g.,_ in Leviticus 19:35, “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measu... [ Continue Reading ]
THE RICH MEN THEREOF — _i.e._, of the city. The sins of spoliation and fraud were practised by men who had not even the pitiable excuse of poverty and distress.... [ Continue Reading ]
THY CASTING DOWN. — The Hebrew word is found only in this passage. It comes from an unused root, meaning to be void, empty. Hence it may be translated _hunger._ THOU SHALT TAKE HOLD. — Thou shalt collect thy property for flight, to save it from the enemy; but in vain: it shall be captured.... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT TREAD THE OLIVES — _i.e._, as wheat upon the threshing-floor. Oil was regarded as indispensable for personal comfort. In Jotham’s parable of the trees in council about the choice of a king, the olive-tree was regarded first in estimation, before even the vine and fig-tree.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE STATUTES OF OMRI. — The people of Judah, instead of keeping the commandments of the Lord diligently, adopted the statutes of the house of Omri, the founder of the idolatrous dynasty of Ahab. They reproduced the sins of the northern kingdom, and their conduct was aggravated by the advantages vouc... [ Continue Reading ]