Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Micah 1:4
And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, [and] as the waters [that are] poured down a steep place.
4. the mountains shall be molten ] The figure is that of a storm, but no ordinary storm. Lightning descends, and dissolves the very mountains, and torrents of rain scoop out channels in the valleys. Similar symbolic descriptions occur in Jdg 5:5, Isa 64:1, Hab 3:6; comp. Exo 19:18.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And the mountains shall be molten under Him – It has been thought that this is imagery, taken from volcanic eruptions ; but, although there is a very remarkable volcanic district just outside of Gilead, it is not thought to have been active at times so late as these; nor were the people to whom the words were said, familiar with it. Fire, the real agent at the end of the world, is, meanwhile, the symbol of Gods anger, as being the most terrible of His instruments of destruction: whence God revealed Himself as a consuming fire Deu 4:24, and at this same time said by Isaiah; For behold, the Lord will come with fire … to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire Isa 66:15.
And the valleys shall be cleft as wax before the fire – It seems natural that the mountains should be cleft; but the valleys , so low already! This speaks of a yet deeper dissolution; of lower depths beyond our sight or knowledge, into the very heart of the earth. Sanch.: This should they fear, who will to be so low; who, so far from lifting themselves to heavenly things, pour out their affections on things of earth, meditate on and love earthly things, and forgetful of the heavenly, choose to fix their eyes on earth. These the wide gaping of the earth which they loved, shall swallow: to them the cleft valleys shall open an everlasting sepulchre, and, having received them, shall never part with them.
Highest and lowest, first and last, shall perish before Him. The pride of the highest, kings and princes, priests and judges, shall sink and melt away beneath the weight and Majesty of His glory; the hardness of the lowest, which would not open itself to Him, shall be cleft in twain before Him.
As wax before the fire – (See Psa 97:5), melting away before Him by whom they were not softened, vanishing into nothingness. Metals melt, changing their form only; wax, so as to cease to be.
As the waters poured down – (As a stream or cataract, so the word means .)
A steep place – Down to the very edge, it is borne along, one strong, smooth, unbroken current; then, at once, it seems to gather its strength, for one great effort. But to what end? To fall, with the greater force, headlong, scattered in spray, foam and froth; dissipated, at times, into vapor, or reeling in giddy eddies, never to return. In Judea, where the autumn rains set in with great vehemence, the waters must have been often seen pouring in their little tumultuous brooklets down the mountain side , hastening to disappear, and disappearing the faster, the more vehemently they rolled along . Both images exhibit the inward emptiness of sinners, mans utter helplessness before God. They need no outward impulse to their destruction. Jerome: Wax endureth not the nearness of the fire, and the waters are carried headlong. So all of the ungodly, when the Lord cometh, shall be dissolved and disappear. At the end of the world, they shall be gathered into bundles, and cast away.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
The mountains shall be molten: if literally understood, we know it hath been so: when God will kindle that fire which shall burn up the earth, and the works of it, as he will when he cometh finally to judge the world, it shall be done again. But figuratively mountains are mighty states and kingdoms, flourishing with prosperity, and which do think the foundation of this sure as mountains. So Amo 6:1,2; Hab 3:6; Isa 2:14, Or possibly these mountains may be, by a synecdoche, put for those who dwell on them, mountaineers, who were usually more fierce, secure hardy, and of difficult access, and therefore less regardful of threats and punishments.
Shall be molten under him: which way soever you take mountains, yet the effect of Gods powerful anger and justice shall be this, they shall be no more able to bear his indignation, or withstand it, than that which like wax melts before a strong fire.
The valleys; which either are emblems of the lower sort of men, or the men that dwell in the valleys with their cities built there, which might hope to escape the storm, lying more under covert. But such shall be the sweeping, searching, and rapid storm of Gods judgments, that no places, no persons shall either withstand or divert them.
Shall be cleft; or rent in sunder, broken up, as the word Gen 7:11, and slide away.
As wax, which doth easily and speedily dissolve, and run before the fire.
And as the waters that are poured down a steep place; which immediately spreads itself and runs down the precipice, not able to keep together in one body, but scattered one part from other, loseth itself without remedy; so shall the glory and strength of Samaria melt away before the fire of Gods displeasure executed by Shalmaneser, and by Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar on Judah.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. Imagery from earthquakes andvolcanic agency, to describe the terrors which attend Jehovah’scoming in judgment (compare Jud 5:5).Neither men of high degree, as the mountains, nor men of low degree,as the valleys, can secure themselves or their land from thejudgments of God.
as wax (Ps97:5; compare Isa64:1-3). The third clause, “as wax,” c., answers to thefirst in the parallelism, “the mountains shall be molten”the fourth, “as the waters,” c., to the second, “thevalleys shall be cleft.” As wax melts by fire, so the mountainsbefore God, at His approach and as waters poured down a steep cannotstand but are diffused abroad, so the valleys shall be cleft beforeJehovah.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the mountains shall be molten under him,…. As Sinai was when he descended on it, and as all nations will be at the general conflagration; but here the words are to be taken, not literally, but figuratively, for the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and for the kings, and princes, and great men in them, that lifted up their heads as high, and thought themselves as secure, as mountains; yet when the judgments of God should fall upon them, their hearts would melt through fear under him; as well as all their glory and greatness depart from them, and they be no more what they were before, but levelled with the meanest subject:
and the valleys shall be cleft: have chasms made in them by the melting of the mountains, or by the flow of water from the hills: these may design the lower sort of people, who shall have their share in this calamity; the inhabitants of the valleys and country villages; who, though mean and low, shall be lower still, and lose that little substance, that liberty and those privileges, they had; as valleys may be cleft, and open, and sink into the lower parts of the earth; so it is signified that these people should be in a more depressed state and condition:
as wax before the fire; melts, and cannot stand the force of it; so the mountains should melt at the presence of the Lord; and kingdoms and states, and the greatest and mightiest of men in them, would not be able to stand before the fierceness of his wrath; see Ps 68:2;
[and] as the waters [that are] poured down a steep place; that run with great swiftness, force, and rapidity, and there is no stopping them; so should the judgments of God come down upon the lower sort of people, the inhabitants of the valleys; neither high nor low would escape the indignation of the Lord, or be able to stand against it, or stand up under it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
And he afterwards adds, that this going forth of God would be terrible, Melt, he says, shall the mountains under him It hence appears, that the Prophet did not speak in the last verse of the departure of God, as though he was going to forsake his own temple, but that he, on the contrary, described his going forth from the temple, that he might ascend his tribunal and execute punishment on the whole people, and thus, in reality, prove that he would be a judge, because he had been very daringly despised. Hence he says, Melt shall the mountains under him, the valleys shall be rent, or cleave, as wax before the fire, as waters rolling into a lower place (63) The Prophets do not often describe God in a manner so awful; but this representation is to be referred to the circumstance of this passage, for he sets forth God here as the judge of the people: it was therefore necessary that he should be exhibited as furnished and armed with powers that he might stake such vengeance on the Jews as they deserved. And other similar passages we shall hereafter meet with, and like to those which we found in Hosea. God then is said to melt the mountains, and he is said to strike the valleys with such terror that they cleave under him; in short, he is said so to terrify all elements, that the very mountains, however stony they may be, melt like wax or like waters which flow, — because he could not otherwise produce a real impression on a people so obstinate, and who, as it has been said, so flattered themselves even in their vices.
We may further easily learn what application to make of this truth in our day. We find the Papists boasting of the title Church, and, in a manner, with vain confidence, binding God to themselves, because they have baptism, though they have adulterated it with their superstitions; and then, they think that they have Christ, because they still retain the name of a Church. Had the Lord promised that his dwelling would be at Rome, we yet see how foolish and frivolous would be such boasting: for though the temple was at Jerusalem, yet the Lord went forth thence to punish the sins of the people, yea, even of the chosen people. We further know, that it is folly to bind God now to one place, for it is his will that his name should be celebrated without any difference through the whole world. Wheresoever, then, the voice of the Gospel sounds, God would have us to know that he is present there. What the Papists then proudly boast of — that Christ is joined to them — will turn out to their own condemnation; — why so? Because the Lord will prove that he is the avenger of so impious and shameful a profanation, as they not only presumptuously lay claim to his name, but also tear it in pieces, and contaminate it with their sacrilegious abominations.
Again, since God is said to melt the mountains with his presence, let us hence learn to rouse up all our feelings whenever God comes forth not that we may flee to a distance from him, but that we may reverently receive his word, so that he may afterwards appear to us a kind and reconciled Father. For when we become humble, and the pride and height of our flesh is subdued, he then immediately receives us, as it were, into his gentle bosom, and gives us an easy access to him, yea, he invites us to himself with all possible kindness. That the Lord then may thus kindly receive us, let us learn to fear as soon as he utters his voice: but let not this fear make us to flee away but only humble us, so that we may render true obedience to the word of the Lord. It follows —
(63) These two similes, as observed by Marckius and others, refer not to the same thing, but to the two things previously mentioned,—the wax, to the mountains,—and the waters, to the valleys. This kind of order, in a sentence, is common in Hebrew. The Septuagint presents an instance, not uncommon, of an attempt to reconcile what, from not apprehending the sense, appeared incongruous; for motion is ascribed to the mountains— σαλευθησεται τα ορη, and melting to the valleys— τακησονται, quite contrary to the meaning of the words in Hebrew. Newcome renders the last line thus, —
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As waters poured down a steep place.”
Henderson renders the last word, “a precipice;” and Marckius, declive —”a declivity.” I would give this version of the whole verse, —
For, behold, Jehovah shall go forth from his place; Yea, he shall descend and tread on the high places of the land; And dissolve shall the mountains under him, And the valleys shall burst forth; Like the wax before the fire, Like waters rolling down a declivity.
The verb בקע is applied to express the bursting out of waters from a fountain, of the young when emerging from the egg, and of light dispelling darkness. It is here in Hithpael, and only in one other place, Jos 9:13; where it means the bursting of wine bottles, made of leather. The word מורד is going down, descent, declivity, καταβασις, Sept. See Jos 10:11; Jer 48:5
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Do men trust to the height and strength of mountains, as if they were sufficient to bear up their hopes and bear off their fears? They shall be molten under him. — Do they trust to the fruitfulness of the valleys and their products? They shall be cleft, or rent, — and be wasted away as the ground is by the waters that are poured down a steep place.” — Henry.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(4) The mountains shall be molten.The manifestations of the presence of God are taken from the description of the giving of the Law, when the hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth (Psa. 97:5). Dean Stanley refers the imagery to the memorable earthquake mentioned in Amo. 1:1 :Mountains and valleys are cleft asunder, and melt as in a furnace; the earth heaving like the rising waters of the Nile; the sea bursting over the land; the ground shaking and sliding as, with a succession of shocks, its solid framework reels to and fro like a drunkard (Jewish Church, Lect. 37).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Mic 1:4. The valleys shall be cleft Shall be dissolved like water, &c. Houbigant.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mic 1:4 And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, [and] as the waters [that are] poured down a steep place.
Ver. 4. And the mountains shall be molten under him ] This is to the self same sense; though men swell, in their own eyes, to the size of so many mountains; and though, gotten upon their hill of ice, they think they shall never be moved, Psa 30:6-7 ; yet, when God, with his devouring fire and everlasting burnings, comes in presence, these craggy mountains shall soon dissolve and melt as wax, they shall be as waters poured down a descent, they shall flow as a land flood. By which similitudes, and familiar comparisons, is notably set forth the irresistible wrath of God for the frightening of hard hearted sinners, that they may take hold of his strength, and make peace with him, Isa 27:5 .
The valleys also shall be deft
as wax before the fire, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the mountains, &c. This verse foretells the calamities of 2Ki 17 and 25.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the mountains: Jdg 5:4, Psa 97:5, Isa 64:1-3, Amo 9:5, Nah 1:5, Hab 3:6, Hab 3:10, 2Pe 3:10-12, Rev 20:11
the valleys: Zec 14:4
as wax: Psa 68:2
a steep place: Heb. a descent
Reciprocal: Deu 32:22 – foundations 1Sa 5:4 – of Dagon Psa 46:3 – mountains Psa 95:4 – the strength of the hills is his also Psa 114:4 – General Isa 2:19 – when he Isa 5:25 – the hills Isa 17:3 – fortress Isa 30:30 – the flame Jer 4:24 – mountains Jer 10:10 – at Hos 13:16 – Samaria Amo 7:4 – called Mic 6:1 – before Zec 4:7 – O great Mat 27:51 – the earth 2Pe 3:12 – melt
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Mic 1:4. The power of God is illustrated by the figurative melting of mountains and cleaving of the alleys. AH of the material events mentioned in this verse are for the same purpose, to indicate that God can do as he wills with kingdoms of men.