Micah 6:16

For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people. FOR THE STATUTES OF OMRI ARE KEPT - the founder of Samaria, who overthrew and supplanted Zimri, the conspirator and regicide, and of Ahab's wicked house; and a supporter of Jeroboam's superstitions (). This verse is a recapitulation of what was more fully stated before, Judah's sins and consequent punishment. Judah, though at variance with Israel on all things else, imitated her impiety. This was true of the reign of Ahaz, king of Judah, especially, who "walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and made also molten images for Baalim;" which was the special sin of the house of Ahab ...

Some read the words in the future tense, “And they will observe the statutes of Omri,” etc., and gather this meaning, — that the Prophet now foresees by the Spirit, that the people would continue so perverse in their sins, as to exclude every hope that they could be reformed by any punishments. The meaning then would be, “The Lord has indeed determined to punish sharply and severely the wickedness of this people; but they will not repent; they will nevertheless remain stupid in their obstinacy, and go on in their superstitions, which they have learned from the kings of Israel.” There is however another view, and one more generally approved and that is, — that the Jews, having forsaken God, and despised his Law, had turned aside to the superstitions of the kingdom of Israel. Hence he says, that _observed were the decrees of Omri, and every work of the house of Ahab _Omri was the father of...

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...

Verse Micah 6:16. _THE STATUTES OF OMRI ARE KEPT_] _Omri_, king of Israel, the father of Ahab, was one of the worst kings the Israelites ever had; and _Ahab_ followed in his wicked father's steps. The _statutes_ of those kings were the very grossest _idolatry_. _Jezebel_, wife of the latter, and daughter of _Ithobaal_, king of Tyre, had no fellow on earth. From her Shakespeare seems to have drawn the character of _Lady Macbeth_; a woman, like her prototype, mixed up of _tigress_ and _fiend_, without _addition_. Omri Ahab, and Jezebel, were the _models_ followed by the Israelites in the days of this prophet. _THE INHABITANTS THEREOF A HISSING_] לשרקה _lishrekah_, "for a _shriek_;" because those who should see them should be both _astonished_ and _affrighted_ at them. There

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 obedience to God. “I know him,” God says of Abraham, “that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do judgment and justice” Genesis 18:19. This was the fundamental commandment immediately after the deliverance from Eyypt upon their first murmuring. “The Lord made there” (at Marah) “for them a statute and ordinance, and said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put no

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

FOR THE STATUTES OF OMRI ARE KEPT,.... Who of a captain of the army was made king of Israel, and proved a wicked prince; he built Samaria, and set up idolatrous worship there, after the example of Jeroboam, in whose ways he walked, and, as it seems, established the same by laws and edicts; and which were everyone of them observed by the Israelites, in the times of the prophet, though at the distance of many years from the first making of them, which aggravated their sin; nor would it be any excuse of them that what they practised was enjoined by royal authority, since it was contrary to the command of God; for the breach of which, and their observance of the statutes of such a wicked prince, they are threatened with the judgments of God; see 1 Kings 16:16; AND ALL THE WORKS OF THE HOUSE OF AHAB; who was the son of Omri, and introduced the worship of Baal, and added to t

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;...