Micah 6:11

Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights? SHALL I COUNT THEM PURE - literally, 'Shall I be pure with,' etc. With the pure, God shows Himself pure; but with the froward, God shows Himself froward (). Men often are changeable in their judgments, But God, in the case of the impure, who use 'wicked balances,' cannot be pure - i:e., cannot deal with them as He would with the pure. Vatablus and Henderson make the "I" to be 'any one:' 'Can I (i:e., one) be innocent with wicked balances?' But as "I" in refers to Yahweh, it must refer to Him also here. AND WITH THE BAG OF DECEITFUL WEIGHTS? - in which weights used to be carried as well as money ...

_Shall I justify? etc. _(174) This verse is connected with the last, and is added as an explanation. For God having come forth as a Judge, now shows what sort of Judge he is, even one who is not biased by favor, who does not change his judgment, who shows no respect of persons. But men, for the most part, greatly deceive themselves, when they transform God according to their own will, and promise to themselves that he will be propitious to them, provided they only make false pretensions to him. God then here declares, that he differs widely from earthly judges, who now incline to one side and then to another, who are changeable, and often deviate from the right course: but, on the contrary, he says here_, Shall I justify wicked balances? shall I justify weights of fraud, _or deceitful? that is, “Shake off all those delusions by which ye are wont to deceive yourselves; for I do not change...

9-16 God, having showed how necessary it was that they should do justly, here shows how plain it was that they had done unjustly. This voice of the Lord says to all, Hear the rod when it is coming, before you see it, and feel it. Hear the rod when it is come, and you are sensible of the smart; hear what counsels, what cautions it speaks. The voice of God is to be heard in the rod of God. Those who are dishonest in their dealings shall never be reckoned pure, whatever shows of devotion they may make. What is got by fraud and oppression, cannot be kept or enjoyed with satisfaction. What we hold closest we commonly lose soonest. Sin is a root of bitterness, soon planted, but not soon plucked up again. Their being the people of God in name and profession, while they kept themselves in his love, was an honour to them; but now, being backsliders, their having been once the people of God turns...

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 do no unrighteousness in judgment, in mete-yard, in weight or in measure. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah and a just him, shall ye have” Leviticus 19:35; and, “Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteousness are an abomination unto the Lord thy God” (Deuteronomy 25:13,...

EXPOSITION VERSE 6:1-7:20 Part III. In this address, which is later than the preceding parts, the prophet sets forth the way of salvation: PUNISHMENT IS THE CONSEQUENCE OF SIN; REPENTANCE IS THE ONLY GROUND FOR HOPE OF PARTICIPATING IN THE COVENANT MERCIES. MICAH 6:1 1. _God_'_s controversy with his people for their ingratitude._ MICAH 6:1 HEAR YE NOW. The whol

SHALL I COUNT [THEM] PURE WITH THE WICKED BALANCES,.... These are the words either of the prophet, or rather of God, signifying that he could not, and would not, allow, countenance, and approve of persons that used false scales or balances; or justify and reckon them just, as they would be thought to be, but condemn them, and pronounce them very wicked men, and deserving of punishment here and hereafter: AND WITH THE BAG OF DECEITFUL WEIGHTS? or "stones" o; which were used in weighing goods, and which were deceitful, when a heavier was used in buying, and a lighter in selling. So the Targum, "and with the bag, in which are weights greater and lesser;'' condemned in Deuteronomy 25:13. o אבני מרמה "lapidum doli", Piscator; "lapidum fraudis", Montanus....

Micah 6:1. _Hear ye now what the LORD saith;_ And yet some doubt the infallible inspiration of Scripture. I would commence every reading of the Scripture with such a word of admonition as this: «Hear ye now what the Lord saith.» That is what the prophet said; but God spake by the prophet: «Hear ye now what the Lord saith.» Micah 6:1. _Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice._ As men were hardened, and turned away their ears, the prophet was bidden to speak to the mountains, those mountains which had been disfigured with the shrines of idols, with altars on every high hill, or, perhaps, those higher hills that were never cultivated, and that remained untouched by the defiling hand of men. God makes an appeal to these ancient things....

THE THIRD PROPHETIC DISCOURSE (6-7) CHAPTER 6 _ 1. The words of Jehovah to His people (Micah 6:1) _ 2. Israel's answer (Micah 6:6) 3. The moral demands of Jehovah (Micah 6:8) 4. The Lord must judge them (Micah 6:9) Micah 6:1. This chapter is cast in the form of a controversy. The utterance has been called by some the most important in the prophetic literature. It is hardly this, nor is, as critics claim, the eighth verse a definition of religion, “the greatest saying in the Old Testament.” The beginning is sublime, “Hear ye now what

COMMERCIAL DISHONESTY AND ITS PUNISHMENT. This rather corrupt passage is quite distinct from Micah 6:1. It may have been written by Micah, and forms a parallel to his denunciation of agrarian dishonesty in Micah 2:1 ff. But it might equally well belong, _e.g._ to the time of Malachi 3:5 (c. 450) in respect of the sins which are denounced and the threat of their punishment. Let Jerusalem listen to Yahweh, who asks concerning the wealth of the wicked, and the dishonest means by which it has been acquired (Deuteronomy 25:14; Proverbs 20:10;...

THEM. Supply [her]: i.e. the wicked city. THE WICKED BALANCES. Hebrew balances of wickedness. Reference to Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 25:13). App-92....