Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Micah 7:15
According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto him marvelous [things].
15. The divine answer to the prayer of the church. It carries us back to a still earlier time than David’s the time of the redemption of Israel from the house of bondage.
unto him ] viz. unto the people; see Mic 7:14.
marvellous things ] The word used in Exo 3:20 of the ‘plagues of Egypt.’ It conveys the idea of the supernatural. The deliverance of poor oppressed Israel, from the grip of a mighty world-empire is no less exceptional than the dividing of the sea.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt – God answers the prayer, beginning with its closing words . Micah had prayed, Turn Thy people like the days of old; God answers, like the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt. Micah had said, in the name of his people, I shall behold His Righteousness; God answers, I will make him to behold marvelous things . The word marvelous things was used of Gods great marvels in the physical world Job 5:9; Job 37:5, Job 37:14, or the marvelous mercies of His Providence toward individuals or nations (Psa 9:2; Psa 26:7; Psa 71:17; Psa 72:18, etc.), and especially of those great miracles, which were accumulated at the deliverance from Egypt Exo 3:20; Jdg 6:13; Neh 9:17; Psa 78:4, Psa 78:11, Psa 78:32; Psa 105:2, Psa 105:5; Psa 106:7, Psa 106:22, and the entrance of the promised land which was its completion.
The reference to the Exodus must have led them to think of actual miracles; since, in regard to the Exodus, it is used of nothing else. But there were no miracles at the return from the captivity. When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion Psa 126:1, Psa 126:3, said a Psalmist of the returned people, we were like them that dream. The Lord hath done great things for us; we are glad. Great things, but not miraculous. The promise then kept the people looking onward, until He came, a prophet mighty in word and deed Luk 24:19, as to whom Peter appealed to the people, that He was approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know Act 2:22; who gave also to them who believed on Him power to do greater works than He did Joh 14:12, through His own power, because He went to His Father; and when they believed, He shewed to him, namely, to the whole people gathered into the One Church, Jew and Gentile, yet more marvelous things, things, every way more marvelous and beyond nature than those of old, the unsearchable riches of Christ, the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God Eph 3:8-9.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 15. According to the days] This is the answer to the prophet’s prayer; and God says he will protect, save, defend, and work miracles for them in their restoration, such as he wrought for their fathers in their return from Egypt to the promised land.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
These words are by all looked on as the answer made to the prayer made in the 14th verse. You Jews do often reflect on the wonders your fathers saw in Egypt some hundreds of years since, and some of you think that such wonders would both establish your hope and engage your obedience for ever to God, you pray that you may be fed as in days of old; it shall be so, according to what I have done I will again do. There I slew the first-born ere they would let thee go free; that stroke of the angel I will parallel with the destruction of Sennacheribs host in one night, and so I will preserve my people and city. Pharaoh and his host were drowned in the Red Sea, and the Babylonish kingdom shall be swallowed up by Medes and Persians to make way for my ransomed ones.
Show unto him; the person changed, as is usual in Scripture.
Marvellous things; as indeed the rescuing Jerusalem from the Assyrian power was marvellous, and the bringing Israel out of Babylon was a marvellous work of God, stirring up the spirit of Cyrus and Darius and others to release, and set free, nay, to furnish this captive people with necessaries for their journey, and for the work they were to do. So Psa 126:2, it was a work all wondered at; by those passages, Jer 16:14,15; 23:7,8, it seems more wonderful; but the great redemption by the Messiah here typified is a most wonderful fulfilling of this.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. thy . . . himbothreferring to Israel. So in Mic 7:19the person is changed from the first to the third, “us . . . our. . . their.” Jehovah here answers Micah’s prayer in Mic7:14, assuring him, that as He delivered His people from Egypt bymiraculous power, so He would again “show” it in theirbehalf (Jer 16:14; Jer 16:15).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt,…. This is an answer of the Lord to the prayer of the prophet, assuring him, and the church he represents, and on whose account he applies, that there would be as great a deliverance wrought for them, and as wonderful things done, as when Israel was brought out of the land of Egypt, which was effected with a mighty hand, and an outstretched arm, and was attended with amazing events; as the plagues in Egypt; the passage of the Israelites through the Red see, and the destruction of the Egyptians in it:
will I show unto him marvellous [things]; that is, unto the people of the Lord, the flock of his heritage, the solitary and peculiar people, fed and preserved by him: as the deliverance out of Egypt; was the Lord’s work, so the deliverance from Babylon; as the one was the work of his power upon the heart of Pharaoh to let the people go, so the other as great an act of his power working upon the mind of Cyrus, stirring him up to let the captives go free, without price or reward; yea, to furnish them with necessaries by the way, and to rebuild their city and temple: and as Pharaoh and his host were drowned in the Red sea, so the kingdom of Babylon was swallowed up by the Medes and Persians; yea, in some respects the latter deliverance exceeded the former, and erased the remembrance of it; see Jer 16:14; and that redemption by Christ, which both these were typical of, was greater and more marvellous than either, being a deliverance from, and an abolition and destruction of sin, Satan, the law, hell, and death, and attended with things the most wonderful and surprising; as the birth of Christ of a virgin; the miracles done by him in life, and at death; the doctrines of the Gospel preached by him and his apostles, and the amazing success of them, especially in the Gentile world, being testified and confirmed by signs, wonders, miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost. This passage, both by ancient and modern Jews k, is applied to the times of the Messiah. So in an ancient l book of theirs, speaking of the times of the Messiah, they say,
“from that day all the signs and wonders, and mighty works, which the Lord did in Egypt, he will do for Israel, as it is said, “according to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt”, c.”
It is also said, by a modern writer m of theirs,
“because of the miracles and wonders which shall be in the days of the Messiah, such as the gathering of the captives, the resurrection of the dead, and the destruction of Gog and Magog, besides other miracles and wonders, the end of the redemption is called the end of wonders in Da 12:6 and this is that which God has promised by his prophets, particularly Micah, Mic 7:15; “according to the days”, c. and from what follows, with the rest of the verses to the end of the book, it is manifest that these promises are not yet fulfilled, but will be fulfilled in the days of the Messiah.”
From whence it appears, that it was the sense of the ancient Jews, as well as some modern ones, that miracles would be wrought in the days of the Messiah though some of them reject them, and look not for them; particularly Maimonides n says,
“let it not enter into thine heart that the King Messiah hath need to do signs and wonders; as that he shall renew things in the world, or raise the dead, and the like; these are things which fools speak of; the thing is not so.”
But however, certain it is, the ancient Jews expected miracles to be done by the Messiah; hence some, in the times of Jesus, said, “when Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done?” Joh 7:31; and accordingly the miracles Jesus did were full proofs of his being the Messiah, and were wrought for that purpose, and owned as such; wherefore the above Jew, though he is right in the application of this passage to the times of the Messiah, yet is wrong in saying these promises are not yet fulfilled, since they have had a full accomplishment in the Messiah Jesus; nor is another to be looked for, or such miracles to be hereafter wrought.
k Zohar in Gen. fol. 16. 1. 2. & in Exod. fol. 4. 2. & in Deut. 99. 2. & 118. 3. Chizzuk Emunah, par. 1. c. 32. p. 277. l Zohar in Exod. fol. 4. 2. Vid. ib. in Gen. fol. 16. 1. 2. & in Numb. fol. 99. 2. & in Deut. 118. 3. m R. Isaac Chizzuk Emunah, par. 1. c. 32. p. 277. n Hilchot Melachim, c. 11. sect. 3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Prophet here introduces God as the speaker; and he so speaks as to give an answer to his prayer. God then promises that he will be wonderful in his works, and give such evidences of his power, as he exhibited when he brought up his people from the land of Egypt. We now see that there is more force in this passage, than if the Prophet had at first said, that God would become the deliverer of his people: for he interposed entreaty and prayer and God now shows that he will be merciful to his people; and at the same time the faithful are reminded, that they must be instant in prayer, if they desire to be preserved by God.
Now God says that he will show wonderful things, as when the people formerly came out of Egypt. (197) That redemption, we know, was a perpetual monument of God’s power in the preservation of his Church; so that whenever he designs to give some hope of deliverances he reminds the faithful of those miracles that they may feel assured that there will be no obstacles to prevent them from continuing in a state of safety, provided God will be pleased to help them, for his power is not diminished.
And this deserves to be noticed; for though we all allow the omnipotence of God, yet when we struggle with trials, we tremble, as though all the avenues to our preservation had been closed up against God. As soon then as any impediment is thrown in our way, we think that there is no hope. Whence is this? It is because we make no account of God’s power, which yet we confess to be greater than that of the whole world.
This is the reason why God now refers to the miracles which he wrought at the coming forth of the people. They ought to have known, that God ever continues like himself, and that his power remains as perfect as it was formerly; and there is in him sufficient support to encourage the hope of assistance. We now perceive the object of the Prophet. He indeed changes the persons; for in the beginning he addresses the people, according to the days of thy going forth, and then he adds, אראני, aranu, ‘I will make him to see;’ but this change does not obscure the meaning, for God only means, that his power was sufficiently known formerly to his people, and that there was a memorable proof of it in their redemption, so that the people could not have doubted respecting their safety, without being ungrateful to God, and without burying in oblivion that so memorable a benefit, which God once conferred on their fathers. It follows —
(197) “The Prophet prayed that God would feed them, and do kind things for them; but God answers, that he will show them marvelous things, will outdo their hopes and expectations. — Their deliverance from Babylon shall be a work of wonder and grace, not inferior to their deliverance out of Egypt, nay, it shall eclipse the luster of that, Jer 16:14. — God’s former favors to his Church are patterns of future favors, and shall again be copied out as there is occasion.” — Henry.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(15) According to the days of thy coming out.The promise of Jehovah, in reply to the prophets supplication, graciously recalls His interposition in the land of Egypt. This interposition shall be repeated.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
YHWH Makes His Reply ( Mic 7:15 ).
Mic 7:15
‘As in the days of your coming forth out of the land of Egypt,
Will I show to them marvellous things.
YHWH’s response is to promise that just as He had when He had delivered them from Egypt, so would He once again so marvellous things for them. He will reach out with His powerful hand and His mighty arm, so as to deliver His people.
And certainly the future restoration of His people from many places of exile to Palestine, and the later establishment of a powerful and widespread Jewish nation, was evidence that He kept His word. And even more marvellous things were done when the Messiah came among them and healed all who came to Him, preparing them for their inheritance to come. In Hebrews this picture of inheriting the land is finally seen in terms of the new Heaven and earth, when Abraham will receive the fulfilment of God’s promises in a city which had foundations, whose builder and maker was God (Heb 11:10), and where his descendants will receive a better country, that is a heavenly (Heb 11:16).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mic 7:15 According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous [things].
Ver. 15. According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt ] Here is a present and full answer to the Church’s prayer; so ready is the Lord to fulfil the desires of the righteous. It is but ask and have; and they are worthily miserable that will not make themselves happy by asking. The sum of Christ’s answer is this: As I led Joseph like a flock out of Egypt through the wilderness, and fed them there daily and daintily, with angels’ food (never was prince so served in his greatest pomp), so will I show thee marvellous things at Babylon, and bring thee thence with a mighty hand, Eze 20:34 , to make me a glorious name, Isa 63:14 , and both these deliverances shall be a most certain type of thy spiritual redemption by Christ. Lo, thus will I do for thee as in the days of old, Mic 7:14 , and so fit mine answer, ad cardinem desiderii, give thee not only the desire of thine heart, but the request of thy lips, Psa 21:2 , let it be to thee even as thou wilt, Mat 15:28 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
According, &c. Verses 15-17 are Jehovah’s answer as to the subjugation of Israel’s enemies. Reference to Pentateuch. See note on Mic 6:4. App-92. Not the continuation of Micah’s prayer.
will I shew unto him. Reference to Pentateuch (Exo 34:10).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 68:22, Psa 78:12-72, Isa 11:16, Isa 51:9, Isa 63:11-15, Jer 23:7, Jer 23:8
Reciprocal: Exo 7:3 – multiply Num 23:23 – according Psa 77:5 – General Isa 11:11 – set his hand Isa 35:2 – the excellency Isa 64:2 – that the nations Jer 33:3 – show Jer 33:7 – and will Eze 34:13 – and feed Eze 36:36 – know Eze 38:16 – that the Dan 11:32 – shall be Zec 12:3 – in that Act 3:19 – when Act 13:17 – and with Rom 11:26 – all Rev 11:18 – the nations
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Mic 7:15. The reference to ‘the day of Egypt is for comparison. Israel was brought out of bondage in that country. and she will also be released from Babylonian captivity.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mic 7:15-16. According to the days of thy coming These words are an answer to the prophets prayer in the foregoing verse; wherein God tells him that the wonders he will perform in bringing back his people into their own country shall be as conspicuous as those which he showed in their deliverance out of Egypt, and giving them the first possession of it. The sense is equivalent to that of Psa 68:22, The Lord hath said, I will bring my people again, as I did from Bashan, &c. The nations shall see, and be confounded at all their might The heathen shall feel the same confusion as men do under a great disappointment. Or, the meaning may be, They shall be ashamed of their might; namely, to see all the might of the Chaldean empire so soon laid low. This seems to be spoken of the nations in alliance with, or who were friends to, the Chaldeans. Others, by their might, understand the might and power of Gods people, whom no force will be able to withstand: see Mic 5:8. They shall lay their hand upon their mouth The evident tokens of Gods presence with his people shall strike their adversaries with astonishment. Their ears shall be deaf They shall be so struck with surprise, as not to hear what is said to them: or, they shall hardly believe their own ears, when they hear of those wonderful works which God will work for his servants.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
7:15 {o} According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous [things].
(o) God promises to be favourable to his people, as he had been before.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Lord replied to Micah’s prayer. He promised that He would show Israel miracles again, as when He sent the plagues on Egypt just before the Exodus (cf. Exo 3:20; Exo 15:11). The Jews’ liberation from Gentile domination and return to their own land at the beginning of the Millennium will be another miraculous Exodus (cf. Hos 9:3; Hos 11:5; Hos 11:11; Hos 12:9).