Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Micah 1:7
And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered [it] of the hire of a harlot, and they shall return to the hire of a harlot.
7. the hires ] i.e. the rich votive offerings in the sanctuaries, shortly afterwards called ‘the hire of a harlot,’ with reference to the shameful practices of heathenish religion (Deu 23:17-18).
shall return ] i.e. shall again become (as Gen 3:19 ‘unto dust shalt thou return’). The material of the costly images acquired through the offerings of devotees shall again be used for votive offerings in other no less shameful religions, based, like those of heathen Syria, on the worship of the powers and processes of nature.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces – Its idols in whom she trusts, so far from protecting her, shall themselves go into captivity, broken up for the gold and silver whereof they were made. The wars of the Assyrians being religious wars , the idolatry of Assyria destroyed the idolatry and idols of Israel.
And all the hires thereof shall be burned with fire – All forsaking of God being spiritual fornication from Him who made His creatures for Himself, the hires are all which man would gain by that desertion of his God, employed in mans contact with his idols, whether as bribing his idols to give him what are the gifts of God, or as himself bribed by them. For there is no pure service, save that of the love of God. God alone can be loved purely, for Himself; offerings to Him alone are the creatures pure homage to the Creator, going out of itself, not looking back to itself, not seeking itself, but stretching forth to Him and seeking Him for Himself. Whatever man gives to or hopes from his idols, man himself is alike his object in both. The hire then is, alike what he gives to his idols, the gold whereof he makes his Baal , the offerings which the pagan used to lay up in their temples, and what, as he thought, he himself received back. For he gave only earthly things, in order to receive back things of earth. He hired their service to him, and his earthly gains were his hire. It is a strong mockery in the mouth of God, that they had these things from their idols. He speaks to them after their thoughts. Yet it is true that, although God overrules all, man does receive from Satan Mat 4:9, the god of this world 2Co 4:4, all which he gains amiss. It is the price for which he sells his soul and profanes himself. Yet herein were the pagan more religious than the Christian worldling. The pagan did offer an ignorant service to they knew not what. Our idolatry of mammon, as being less abstract, is more evident self-worship, a more visible ignoring and so a more open dethroning of God, a worship of a material prosperity, of which we seem ourselves to be the authors, and to which we habitually immolate the souls of men, so habitually that we have ceased to be conscious of it.
And all the idols thereof will I lay desolate – Literally, make a desolation. They, now thronged by their worshipers, should be deserted; their place and temple, a waste. He thrice repeats all; all her graven images, all her hires, all her idols; all should be destroyed. He subjoins a threefold destruction which should overtake them; so that, while the Assyrian broke and carried off the more precious, or burned what could be burned, and, what could not be burned, nor was worth transporting, should be left desolate, all should come to an end. He sets the whole the more vividly before the mind; exhibiting to us so many separate pictures of the mode of destruction.
For from the hire of a harlot she gathered them, and to the hire of a harlot they shall return – Jerome: The wealth and manifold provision which (as she thought) were gained by fornication with her idols, shall go to another harlot, Nineveh; so that, as they went a whoring in their own land, they should go to another land of idols and fornication, the Assyrians. They Rom 1:23 turned their glory into shame, changing the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man; and so it should turn to them into shame. It sprung out of their shame, and should turn to it again. Ill got, ill spent. Evil gain, cursed in its origin, has the curse of God upon it, and makes its gainer a curse, and ends accursedly. Make not ill gains, says even a pagan. (H. 354. L), ill gains are equal to losses; and another , Unlawful sweetness a most bitter end awaiteth.
Probably, the most literal sense is not to be excluded. The degrading idolatrous custom, related of Babylon and Cyprus , still continued among the Babylonians at the date of the book of Baruch (Baruch 6:43), and to the Christian era . Augustine speaks of it as having existed among the Phoenicians, and Theodoret says that it was still practiced by some in Syria. The existence of the idolatrous custom is presupposed by the prohibition by Moses Deu 23:18; and, in the time of Hosea self-desecration was an idolatrous rite in Israel . In the day of Judgment, when the foundation of those who build their house upon the sand, shall be laid bare, the riches which they gained unlawfully shall be burned up; all the idols, which they set up instead of God , the vain thoughts, and useless fancies, and hurtful forms and images which they picture in their mind, defiling it, and hindering it from the steadfast contemplation of divine things, will be punished. They were the hire of the soul which went astray from God, and they who conceived them will, with them, become the prey again of that infernal host which is unceasingly turned from God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. All the hires thereof shall be burned] Multitudes of women gave the money they gained by their public prostitution at the temples for the support of the priesthood, the ornamenting of the walls, altars, and images. So that these things, and perhaps several of the images themselves, were literally the hire of the harlots: and God threatens here to deliver all into the hands of enemies who should seize on this wealth, and literally spend it in the same way in which it was acquired; so that “to the hire of a harlot these things should return.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
All the graven images; erected in honour to the idols they worshipped, which usually were the images or similitudes resembling their idols, their gods of silver, gold, or stone and brass, or wood.
Shall be beaten to pieces; pulled out of their chapels, shrines, or repositories by the conquering Assyrians, who would as was customary with such nations, deal with the gods as with enemies conquered, trample upon them, and use them most contemptibly; and when they break into pieces idols of rich materials, it was to carry them away with them as their booty; others were broken in contempt of them.
All the hires, or rewards, or gifts, which idolaters thought their idols gave them, as Hos 2:5; or the rich gifts given for the honour and service of the idols by deceived idolaters; or all the wealth Israel got by leagues with idolaters.
Shall be burnt with the fire; when their cities or temples are burnt, as no doubt many were burnt by the Assyrian before he could reduce them to obedience, in which conflagrations many rich donatives belonging to idols were consumed to ashes, or melted down.
And all the idols thereof will I lay desolate; thus shall the idols of Samaria be made desolate, i.e. their temples burnt, their images either beaten in pieces in contempt, or to be carried away (if the materials they were made of were worth the carriage); however, they shall neither remain, nor be worshipped any more in Israel or Samaria, but be carried away captives with their captive worshippers.
For she, the kingdom of the ten tribes, or Samaria, gathered it, their wealth, or the rich presents made to their idols, or both, of the hire of a harlot; as harlots get rich gifts of their lovers, so did this deceived people think, and say, that their idols gave them the wealth they had; or else as impudent adulteresses, that hire lewd men to come in to them; so this hire was that these blind idolaters (like shameless adulteresses) gave to their idols.
And they, these rich presents,
shall return to the hire of an harlot; shall be either turned by the Assyrians to the service and honour of their idols, presented as gifts in acknowledgment of their greatness and prosperity, to be the blessings their idols have. given to them, as Hos 10:6; or else thus, as what is got by harlots brings shame and a curse with it, and never continues long, but is as basely wasted as it was gotten, so shall it be with all the ill-gotten goods of these Samaritan idolaters, and all their wealth.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. all the hiresthe wealthwhich Israel boasted of receiving from her idols as the “rewards”or “hire” for worshipping them (Hos 2:5;Hos 2:12).
idols . . . will I . . .desolatethat is, give them up to the foe to strip off thesilver and gold with which they are overlaid.
she gathered it of the hireof an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlotIsraelgathered (made for herself) her idols from the gold and silverreceived from false gods, as she thought, the “hire” of herworshipping them; and they shall again become what they had beenbefore, the hire of spiritual harlotry, that is, the prosperity ofthe foe, who also being worshippers of idols will ascribe theacquisition to their idols [MAURER].GROTIUS explains it, Theofferings sent to Israel’s temple by the Assyrians, whoseidolatry Israel adopted, shall go back to the Assyrians, her teachersin idolatry, as the hire or fee for having taught it. Theimage of a harlot’s hire for the supposed temporal reward ofspiritual fornication, is more common in Scripture (Ho9:1).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces,…. By the Assyrian army, for the sake of the gold and silver of which they were, made, or with which they were adorned, as was usually done by conquerors to the gods of the nations they conquered; these were the calf of Samaria, and other idols; and not only those in the city of Samaria, but in all the other cities of Israel which fell into the hands of the Assyrian monarch; see Isa 10:11;
and all the hires thereof shall be burnt with fire; this the Targum also interprets of idols; such as escaped the plunder of the soldiers should be burnt with fire: Kimchi, by “hires”, understands the beautiful garments, and other ornaments, with which they adorned their idols, which were gifts unto them; and they committing spiritual adultery with them, these are compared to the hire of a harlot: or it may design their fine houses, and the furniture of them, all their substance and riches, which they looked upon as obtained by entering into alliances with idolatrous nations, and as the hire and reward of their idolatry; all these should be consumed by fire when the city was taken:
and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate; such as were not broke to pieces, nor burnt, should be thrown down, and trampled upon, and made no account of, or carried away with other spoil. The Targum interprets it of the houses or temples of their idols, which should be demolished. By this and the preceding clause it appears, that, besides the golden calf, there were other idols worshipped in Samaria. In the times of Ahab was the image of Baal, with others, for which he built an altar and a temple in Samaria, and a grove, 1Ki 16:31; and at the time it was taken by Shalmaneser there were idols in it, as appears from Isa 10:10; and there were still more after a colony of the Babylonians and others were introduced into it; the names of which were Succothbenoth, Nergal, Ashima, Nibhaz, Tartak, Adrammelech, and Anammelech. The first of these is thought, by Selden e to be Venus; and the two last, both by him and Braunius f, to be the same with Moloch, having the signification of a king in them, as that word signifies, and children being burnt unto them: they are all difficult to be understood. The account the Jews g give of them is, that “Succothbenoth” were images of a hen and chickens; “Nergal”, a cock; “Ashima”, a goat without hair; “Nibhaz”, or “Nibchan”, as sometimes read, a dog; and “Tartak”, an ass; “Adrammelech”, a mule, or a peacock; and “Anammelech”, a horse, or a pheasant. And it was not unusual for some of these creatures to be worshipped by the Heathens, as a cock by the Syrians, and others; a goat by the Mendesians; and the dog Anubis, perhaps the same with Nibhaz, by the Egyptians h. And though the inhabitants of Samaria might be better instructed, after Manasseh and other Jews came to reside among them in later times, still they retained idolatrous practices; and, even in the times of our Lord, they were ignorant of the true object of religious worship, Joh 4:22; and they are charged by the Jewish writers i with worshipping the image of a dove on Mount Gerizim, and also such strange gods, the teraphim, which Jacob hid under the oak at Sichem; however, let their idols be what they will they worshipped, they are now utterly destroyed, according to this prophecy;
for she gathered [it] of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot; as all the riches of Samaria and its inhabitants were gathered together as the reward of their idolatry, as they imagined, so they should return to idolaters, the Assyrians; to Nineveh, called the well favoured harlot, Na 3:4; the metropolis of the Assyrian empire; and to the house or temple of those that worshipped idols, as the Targum; with which they should adorn their idols, or use them in idolatrous worship: or the sense in general is, that as their riches were ill gotten, as the hire of a harlot, and which never prospers, so theirs should come to nothing; as it came, so it should go: according to our proverb, “lightly come, lightly go”. The allusion seems to be to harlots prostituting themselves in the temples of idols, which was common among the Heathens, as at Comana and Corinth, as Strabo k relates; and particularly among the Babylonians and Assyrians, which may be here referred to: for Herodotus l says, it was a law with the Babylonians that every woman of that country should once in her life sit in the temple of Venus, and lie with a strange man: here women used to sit with a crown upon their heads: nor might they return home until some stranger threw money into their laps, and took them out of the temple, and lay with them; and he that cast it must say, I implore the goddess Mylitta for thee; the name by which the Assyrians call Venus; nor was it lawful to reject the price or the money, be it what it would, for it was converted to holy uses, and Strabo m affirms much the same. So the Phoenician women used to prostitute themselves in the temples of their idols, and dedicate there the hire of their bodies to their gods, thinking thereby to appease their deities, and obtain good things for themselves n.
e De Dis Syris Syntagm. 2. c. 7. p. 309. f Selecta Sacra, l. 4. c. 8. sect. 117. p. 465. g T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 63. 2. Vid. etiam T. Hieros. Avoda Zara, fol. 42. 3, 4. h Vid. Godwin’s Moses and Aaron, l. 4. c. 7. i Maimon. in Misn. Beracot, c. 8. sect. 11. & Bartenora in ib. c. 7. sect. 1. & in Nidda, c. 4. sect. 1. Shalshelet Hakabala, fol. 15. 2. k Geograph. l. 12. p. 385. l Clio, sive l. 1. c. 199. m Ibid. l. 16. p. 513. n Athanasius contra Gentes, p. 21.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Prophet goes on with the same subject, and says, that the ruin of Samaria was at hand, so that its idols would be broken, and also, that its wealth would be destroyed which she had gathered by illegitimate means, and which she thought to be the reward of her idolatry. But God mentions idols here expressly by his Prophet, in order to confirm what we noticed yesterday — that the cause of vengeance was, because Samaria had abandoned itself to ungodly forms of worship, and had departed from the Law. That the Israelites might then understand the cause for which God would so severely punish them, the Prophet here makes express mention of their graven images and idols. God is not indeed angry with stones and wood; but he observes the abuse and the perversion of them, when men pollute themselves by wickedly worshipping such things. This is the reason why God says here that the graven images of Samaria would be broken in pieces, and that its idols would be destroyed.
With regard to the wages, the Prophet no doubt designed to stamp with disgrace all the wealth of Samaria. אתנן, atanen, is properly a gift or a present. But as he twice repeats it, and says, that what Samaria possessed was the reward of an harlot, and then, that it would return to the reward of an harlot, he, in the first place, I have no doubt, upbraids the Israelites, because they, after the manner of harlots and strumpets, had heaped together their great riches: and this was done by Jeroboam, who constructed a new form of worship, in order to secure his own kingdom. The Israelites then began to flourish; and we also know how wealthy that kingdom became, and how proud they were on account of their riches. As, then, the Israelites despised the kingdom of Judah, and thought themselves in every way happy, and as they ascribed all this, as we have seen in Hosea, to their superstitions, Micah speaks here according to their view of things, when he says, Idolatry has been gainful to you, this splendor dazzles your eyes; but your rewards I have already doomed to the burning: they shall then be burnt, and thus perish. Hosea also, as we have seen, made use of the same comparison, — that the children of Israel felicitated themselves in their impiety, like a harlot, who, while she gains many presents from those who admire her beauty, seems not conscious of her turpitude and baseness: such were the Israelites. The Prophets therefore does not say, without reason, Behold, your rewards, by burning, shall perish, or, be consumed with fire. Why so? Because ye have gathered them, he says, from the reward of an harlot, and all this shall return to the reward of an harlot.
This last clause ought to be restricted to the gifts or wealth of Samaria; for it cannot properly be applied to idols or graven images. The import of the whole then is that God would be the avenger of idolatry with regard to the city of Samaria and the whole kingdom of Israel. Besides, as the Israelites boasted that their ungodly forms of worship turned out to their happiness and prosperity, God declares that the whole of this success would be evanescent, like that of the harlot, who amasses great wealth, which soon vanishes away: and we see that thus it commonly happens.
Some explain the passage thus, — that the gifts, with which the Israelites adorned their temples, would return to be the reward of an harlot, that is, would he transferred to Chaldea, and that the Babylonians would, in their turn, adorn with them their idols. But this view is not suitable to the place; for the Prophet does not say that what Samaria had gathered would be a prey or a spoil to enemies but that it would perish by fire. (66) He speaks therefore, proverbially when he says that the produce, from the reward of an harlot, would return to be the reward of an harlot, that is, that it would become nothing; for the Lord sets a curse on such riches as strumpets gain by their baseness, while they prostitute themselves. Since, then, the whole of such wealth is under the curse of God, it must necessarily soon pass away like smoke: and this, in my view, is the real meaning of the Prophet. It now follows —
(66) The view given above is the one embraced by Henderson; but the reason given here is improbable. Newcome mentions the above, and also the following, “She imputed her wealth to her spiritual idolatry, and her conquerors shall distribute it as the reward of harlots in the literal sense.” But inasmuch as it is said, that her rewards would be burnt, it is more consistent to take the last clause as a proverbial expression, signifying the destruction of all the wealth that was ascribed to idolatry as its source.
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It is common,” says Henry, “that what is squeezed out by one lust, is squandered away by another.” — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) And all the hires thereof.The falling away of Israel from her loyalty to God is compared generally by the prophets to a wife deserting her husband; and these hires are the offerings made to the shrines of the idols to which the Israelites forsaking Jehovah had transferred their worship. All these treasures shall be destroyed; the Assyrians shall carry them off for the adornment of their temples.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Mic 1:7. And all the hires thereof The love-presents, &c. The meaning is, “As your temples have been enriched with the presents offered by these shameless idol worshippers, to their riches shall return into the hands of the Assyrians, who shall make the like use of them in the temples of their gods.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mic 1:7 And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered [it] of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.
Ver. 7. And all the graven images thereof ] Upon these the jealous God will execute vengeance: so to show his hatred of idolatry. “The stones of the altars he will make as chalk stones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and the images shall not stand up,” Isa 27:9 . As for those that “worship them, and repent not of the works of their hands,” Rev 9:20 , they shall smart surely for their idolatries, as did those of old in the wilderness; and the more ingenuous of their posterity acknowledge at this day, that there is no punishment befalleth them in which there is not still an ounce of that golden calf. True it is, that the Samaritan superstition which was grosser at first (and for which they were carried captive by the Assyrian), was afterwards refined by Manasseh, a Jewish priest, that in Alexander’s time made a defection to him, and brought many Jews with him, but that saved them not from utter destruction.
And all the hires thereof shall be burnt with fire
For she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, &c. graven images. Hebrew. pesilim. Reference to Pentateuch (Exo 20:4). App-92.
hires. The technical Pentateuchal word for a harlot’s hire, to which idolatry is compared. Compare Hos 8:9, Hos 8:10; Hos 9:1. Reference to Pentateuch (Deu 23:18). App-92.
they shall return, &c.: i.e. the wealth gained by idolatry shall be taken away by the Assyrian idolaters.
all the graven: Lev 26:30, 2Ki 23:14, 2Ki 23:15, 2Ch 31:1, 2Ch 34:6, 2Ch 34:7, Isa 27:9, Hos 8:6, Hos 10:5, Hos 10:6
the hires: Jer 44:17, Jer 44:18, Hos 2:5, Hos 2:12
for: Deu 23:18, Joe 3:3, Rev 18:3, Rev 18:9, Rev 18:12, Rev 18:13
Reciprocal: 1Sa 5:4 – the head Isa 23:17 – and she shall Eze 6:6 – your altars Eze 16:33 – give Amo 3:14 – I will
Mic 1:7. Gods complaint against his people was about their idolatry, and he was determined to abolish it through the agency of the Assyrians. The hires thereof refers to the possessions of the people of Israel which they claimed they had obtained by the help of their gods. Hire of an harlot. idolatry was compared to adultery in ancient times, and the gains that were claimed to have been acquired through the favor of the gods is here likened to the money that a harlot would receive in payment for her service to Immoral men. Shall return to the hire of an harlot. Israel claimed to have received these material possessions through the favor of the gods. The italicized clause means that the heathen nations from whom the people of Israel learned the corrupt practice of idolatry would come upon the country and take possession of these very goods that were claimed to have been received through the favor of the gods.
1:7 And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the {f} hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered [it] of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return {g} to the hire of an harlot.
(f) Which they gathered by evil practices, and thought that their idols had enriched them with these wages because of their service to them.
(g) The gain that came by their idols will be consumed as a thing of nothing: for as the wages or riches of harlots are wickedly gotten, so are they vilely and quickly spent.
God would smash Samaria’s idols proving them incapable of defending themselves much less helping others. He would burn the luxurious ornaments that the people offered as temple gifts in the conflagration that would accompany Samaria’s overthrow. All the pagan images that the people had made would perish. The Lord viewed these physical treasures as the earnings of harlot Israel who had been unfaithful to Him (cf. Hosea). The Israelites had committed adultery with temple prostitutes, but the Assyrians would destroy the gifts that they had brought into their temples and use them for their own idolatrous worship.
"The reference is probably to the gold and silver plating on the images, melted down from the dirty money handed over for the use of religious brothels. Invading soldiers are to tear it off as loot and spend it as currency for further prostitution, as soldiers will." [Note: Allen, p. 274.]
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)