Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Micah 7:10
Then [she that is] mine enemy shall see [it], and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
Then – (And) she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is He, He of whom thou boastest, the Lord thy God? The cause of her gladness then is, that the blasphemies of the enemy of God were to cease. This was the bitterest portion of her cup, that they said daily, Where is now thy God? let Him come and save thee; as though He could not, or as though He loved her not, and she vainly presumed on His help. Even when fallen, it was for His sake that she was hated, who seemed to be overcome in her: as He was hated in His Martyrs, and they asked, , Where is the God of the Christians? Now the taunt was closed, and turned back on those who used it. The wheel, which they had turned against her, rolled round on themselves. They who had said, Let our eye look on Zion, now were ashamed that their hope had failed. They had longed to feed their sight on her miseries; Zion had her reverent gladness in gazing on the righteous hess of God. Babylon was trodden down by the Medes and Persians, and they whom she had let captive beheld it. Daniel was in the palace, when Belshazzar was slain.
The soul of one, who has known the chastening of God, cannot but read its own history here. The sinful soul is at once the object of the love of God and hath that about it which God hates. God hates the evil in us, even while lie loves us, being, or having been, evil. He forgives, but chastens. His displeasure is the channel of His goodpleasure. Nathan said to David, The Lord hath put away thy sin 2Sa 12:10, 2Sa 12:13, but also, the sword shall never depart from thy house. It is part of His forgiveness to cleanse the soul with a spirit of burning Isa 4:4. It seemeth to me, says Jerome, that Jerusalem is every soul, which had been the temple of the Lord, and had had the vision of peace and the knowledge of Scripture, and which afterward, overcome by sins, hath fallen captive by its own consent, parting from that which is right in the sight of God, and allowing itself to sink among the pleasures of the world.
So then captive, and tortured, she saith to Babylon, that is, the confusion of this world and the power of the enemy which ruleth over the world, and sin who lordeth it over her, Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arise; Dionysius: from sin by repentance, and from tribulation by the consolation of the Holy Spirit, who, after weeping, poureth in joy. For the Lord helpeth them that are fallen Psa 146:8, and saith by the prophet, Shall they fall and not arise? Jer 8:4. and, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. If I walk in darkness, the Lord is my light! Eze 33:11. For although the rulers of the darkness of this world Eph 6:12 have deceived me, and I sit in darkness and in the shadow of death Psa 107:10, and my feet stumble upon the dark mountains Jer 13:16, yet to them who sit in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up Isa 9:2, and light shineth in darkness Joh 1:5, and the Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear? Psa 27:1. and I will speak to Him and will say, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path Psa 119:105 He draweth me from the darkness of ignorance and from the black night of sin, and giveth a clear view of future bliss, and brighteneth the very inmost soul within.
Dionysius: Even if a mist have come upon me and I have been in darkness, I too shall find the light, that is, Christ; and the Sun of Righteousness arising on my mind shall make it white. I will betty patiently, yet gladly, the indignation of the Lord, (Dionysius): all adversity, trial, tribulation, persecution, which can happen in this life; because I have sinned against Him, and such is the enormity of sin, offered to the Majesty and dishonoring the Holiness of God, and such punishment doth it deserve in the world to come, that if we weigh it well, we shall bear with joy whatever adversity can befall us. Cyril: For although for a short time I be out of His Presence, and be; given to an undistinguishing mind Rom 1:28, yet, seeing I suffer this rejection justly, I will bear the judgment, for I am not chastened in vain. All chastening for the present seemeth not to be joyous but grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousncss unto them who are exercised thereby Heb 12:11.
Jerome: The soul, feeling that it hath sinned, and hath the wounds of sins and is living in dead flesh and needs the cautery, says firmly to the Physician, Burn my flesh, cut open my wounds, all my imposthumes. It was my fault, that I was wounded; be it my pain, to endure such sufferings and to regain health. And the true Physician shews to her, when whole, the cause of His treatment, and that He did rightly what He did. Then after these sufferings, the soul, being brought out of outer darkness, saith, I shall behold His Righteousness, and say, Thou, O Lord, art upright; Rightous are Thy judgments, O God Psa 119:137. But if Christ is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption 1Co 1:30, he who, after the indignation of God, saith that He shall see His Righteousness, promiseth to himself the sight of Christ. Cyril: Then, having considered in her mind the grace of the righteousness in Christ and the overthrow of sin, the soul, in full possession of herself, crieth out, Mine enemy shall see it, etc. For, after that Christ came unto us, justifying sinners through faith, the mouth of the ungodly One is stopped, and the Author of sin is put to shame. He hath lost his rule over us, and sin is trodden down, like mire in the streets, being subjected to the feet of the saints. But the blotting-out of sin is the Day of Christ. Jerome: And, because the end of all punishment is the beginning of good, God saith to the poor, penitent, tossed, soul, the walls of virtues shall be built up in thee, and thou shalt be guarded on all sides, and the rule of thine oppressors shall be far removed, and thy King and God shall come unto thee, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God. Dionysius: All this shall be most fully seen in the Day of Judgment.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 10. Then she that is mine enemy] This may refer particularly to the city of Babylon.
Shall she be trodden down] Literally fulfilled in the sackage of that city by the Persians, and its consequent total ruin. It became as mire; its walls, formed of brick kneaded with straw and baked in the sun, becoming exposed to the wet, dissolved, so that a vestige of the city remains not, except a few bricks digged from under the rubbish, several pieces of which now lie before me, and show the perishing materials of which the head of this proud empire was composed.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Then; in the time of this hoped deliverance, when God shall, as I expect he will, plead my cause.
Mine enemy; what nation or people soever, whether Assyria, Edom, or Babylon, or whoever.
Shall see; as they did when Hezekiah was miraculously saved, and Jerusalem with him, out of the hand of the Assyrian, and as in the return out of Babylon, when the heathen said among themselves,
The Lord hath done great things for them, Psa 126:2.
Shame, reproach and confusion, self-condemning reflections,
shall cover her; shall on all sides be cast upon her for her pride, cruelty, and inhumanity against the Israel of God.
Which said unto me, Where is the Lord thy God? which with insulting pride and atheism derided my faith and my God. So the heathen either denied the omnipresence and omnipotence of the true God, or preferred their idols above him, and as if he had been a conquered and captived God, as well as his people were a captive people. So Psa 115:2; Joe 2:17.
Mine eyes: the church speaketh assured of the truth of Gods avenging her upon her enemies.
Shall behold her; with delight, or well-pleasedness, the people of God shall see their enemies laid as low for their cruelty against them, as ever God suffered the enemy to lay his people low for their sins against him and his mercies. See the like expression, Psa 59:10; Mic 4:11.
Now shall she; either shortly she shall; or else, when that time of full deliverance is come, the church shall in that day rejoice in her God, and say
Now. Be trodden down as the mire of the streets; be accounted and used as most contemptible and useless, the conquering enemy shall then tread the Babylonians in the dirt, and use them despitefully, and without more regard than that we have for the dirt under our feet; and this was accomplished by the Medes and Persians in their conquest of Babylon.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. shame shall cover herinseeing how utterly mistaken she was in supposing that I was utterlyruined.
Where is . . . thy God(Psa 42:3; Psa 42:10).If He be “thy God,” as thou sayest, let Him come nowand deliver thee. So as to Israel’s representative, Messiah (Mt27:43).
mine eyes shall behold herajust retribution in kind upon the foe who had said, “Let our eyelook upon Zion.” Zion shall behold her foe prostrate, notwith the carnal joy of revenge, but with spiritual joy in God’svindicating His own righteousness (Isa 66:24;Rev 16:5-7).
shall she be troddendownherself, who had trodden down me.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then [she that is] mine enemy shall see [it],…. The Chaldeans and Edomites shall see people of the Jews rising out of their calamities, brought out of the darkness of their captivity in Babylon, and enjoying the light of peace and prosperity in their own land. Some editions of the Targum, and Jarchi and Kimchi, have, in their glosses on this verse and Mic 7:9, Rome, of whom they interpret this enemy, as Mr. Pocock observes; and so R. Elias d says the Targum is, “then shall Rome see”; by which they mean the Christians, in opposition to the Jews; otherwise it would not be amiss to interpret it of Rome Papal, or antichrist, in opposition to the church of God; seeing the antichristian party will see witnesses of Christ, slain for his sake, rise again, and ascend to heaven, or be brought into a glorious and comfortable state; see Re 11:12; and may be applied to any age of the church, and to any particular saints raised out of a state of darkness and affliction into a prosperous one, in the sight of their enemies, and in spite of them, to their great mortification; see Ps 23:4;
and shame shall cover her which said unto me, where is the Lord thy God? as the Heathens; the Chaldeans, did to the Jews, Ps 115:2; and which must be very cutting to them, as it was to David, Ps 42:10; when they flouting and jeering said, where is thy God thou boastedst of, and didst put thy trust and confidence in, that he would deliver and save thee? what is become of him, and of thy confidence in him? The Targum is,
“where art thou that art redeemed by the Word of the Lord thy God?”
but when they shall see that the Lord God has returned unto them, and wrought salvation for them, they will be ashamed of their flouts and jeers; and by reason of their sad disappointment, add the change of things for the worse to them, who now will be brought into calamity and distress themselves:
mine eyes shall behold her; the enemy: their fall, as the Targum; being in a most despicable and ruinous condition, under the vengeance of the Almighty; and that with pleasure and satisfaction, not from a private spirit of revenge, but because of the glory of divine justice, which will be displayed in their righteous destruction; see Ps 58:10;
now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets; that is, entirely conquered, and utterly destroyed; reduced to, the utmost meanness, and had in the greatest contempt: this was fulfilled when Babylon was taken by the Medea and Persians; and when the Edomites were conquered and brought into subjection to the Jews by the Maccabees; and will be the case of all the enemies of Christ and his church, of all the antichristian states, one day.
d In Tishbi, p. 227.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In the last lecture I repeated the tenth verse of the last chapter, in which the prophet adds, as a cause of the greatest joy, that the enemies of the Church shall see granted, to their great mortification, the wonderful favor of which the Prophet had been speaking. But he describes these enemies, under the character of an envious woman, as the Church of God is also compared to a woman: and this mode of speaking is common in Scripture. He then calls Jerusalem his rival, or Babylon, or some city of his enemies.
And he says, Covered shall she be with shame We know that the ungodly grow insolent when fortune smiles on them: hence in prosperity they keep within no bounds, for they think that God is under their feet. If prosperity most commonly has the effect of making the godly to forget God and even themselves, it is no wonder that the unbelieving become more and more hardened, when God is indulgent to them. With regard then to such a pride, the Prophet now says, When my enemy shall see, shame shall cover her; that is, she will not continue in her usual manner, to elate herself with her own boastings: nay, she will be compelled for shame to hide herself; for she will see that she had been greatly deceived, in thinking that I should be wholly ruined.
He afterwards adds, Who said to me, Where is Jehovah thy God? The Church of God in her turn triumphs here over the unbelieving, having been delivered by divine power; nor does she do this for her own sake, but because the ungodly expose the holy name of God to reproach, which is very common: for whenever God afflicts his people, the unbelieving immediately raise their crests, and pour forth their blasphemies against God, when yet they ought, on the contrary, to humble themselves under his hand. But since God executes his judgments on the faithful, what can be expected by his ungodly despisers? If God’s vengeance be manifested in a dreadful manner with regard to the green tree, what will become of the dry wood? And the ungodly are like the dry wood. But as they are blind as to God’s judgments, they petulantly deride his name, whenever they see the Church afflicted, as though adversities were not the evidences of God’s displeasure: for he chastises his own children, to show that he is the judge of the world. But, as I have already said, the ungodly so harden themselves in their stupor, that they are wholly thoughtless. The faithful, therefore, after having found God to be their deliverer, do here undertake his cause; they do not regard themselves nor their own character, but defend the righteousness of God. Such is this triumphant language, Who said, Where is now Jehovah thy God? “I can really show that I worship the true God, who deserts not his people in extreme necessity: after he has assisted me, my enemy, who dared to rise up against God, now seeks hiding-places.”
She shall now, he says, be trodden under foot as the mire of the streets; and my eyes shall see her. What the Prophet declares in the name of the Church, that the unbelieving shall be like mire, is connected with the promise, which we already noticed; for God so appears as the deliverer of his Church, as not to leave its enemies unpunished. God then, while he aids his own people, leads the ungodly to punishment. Hence the Church, while embracing the deliverance offered to her, at the same time sees the near ruin, which impends on all the despisers of God. But what is stated, See shall my eyes, ought not to be so taken, as though the faithful exult with carnal joy, when they see the ungodly suffering the punishment which they have deserved; for the word to see is to be taken metaphorically, as signifying a pleasant and joyful sight, according to what it means in many other places; and as it is a phrase which often occurs, its meaning must be well known. See then shall my eyes, that is, “I shall enjoy to look on that calamity, which now impends over all the ungodly.” But, as I have already said, carnal joy is not what is here intended, which intemperately exults, but that pure joy which the faithful experience on seeing the grace of God displayed and also his judgment. But this joy cannot enter into our hearts until they be cleansed from unruly passions; for we are ever excessive in fear and sorrow, as well as in hope and joy, except the Lord holds us in, as it were, with a bridle. We shall therefore be only then capable of this spiritual joy, of which the Prophet speaks, when we shall put off all disordered feelings, and God shall subdue us by his Spirit: then only shall we be able to retain moderation in our joy. The Prophet proceeds —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) Now shall she be trodden down.The enemy that had taunted the Jews with the powerlessness of Jehovah should be trodden down when the Jews were delivered. Such was the experience of Sennacherib, who inquired contemptuously whether the Lord could deliver Jerusalem out of his hand.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Mic 7:10 Then [she that is] mine enemy shall see [it], and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
Ver. 10. Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, &c. ] Not only shall I behold his righteousness (as before), but mine enemy shall see it, and feel it too, to her small comfort. They shall see it when it is too late to remedy it; as they say the mole never opens her eyes till pangs of death are upon her.
And shame shall cover her
Which said unto me, Where is the Lord thy God?
Mine eyes shall behold her
Now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Then she, &c. So shall she [who had been] mine enemy: i.e. Assyria (in Mic 7:12).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Then: etc. or, And thou wilt see her that is mine enemy, and cover her with shame
she that: Psa 137:8, Psa 137:9, Isa 47:5-9, Jer 50:33, Jer 50:34, Jer 51:8-10, Jer 51:24, Nah 2:1 – Nah 3:19, Rev 17:1-7
shame: Psa 35:26, Psa 109:29, Jer 51:51, Eze 7:18, Oba 1:10
Where: Psa 42:3, Psa 42:10, Psa 79:10, Psa 115:2, Isa 37:10, Isa 37:11, Dan 3:15, Joe 2:17, Mat 27:43
mine: Mic 4:11, Psa 58:10, Mal 1:5, Rev 18:20
now: 2Sa 22:43, 2Ki 9:33-37, Psa 18:42, Isa 25:10-12, Isa 26:5, Isa 26:6, Isa 41:15, Isa 41:16, Isa 51:22, Isa 51:23, Isa 63:2, Isa 63:3, Zec 10:5, Mal 4:3
trodden down: Heb. for a treading down
Reciprocal: Jdg 5:21 – O my soul 2Ki 7:17 – the people trode upon him Neh 2:10 – it grieved Psa 9:6 – O thou Psa 89:45 – thou Pro 14:19 – General Isa 10:6 – tread them Isa 41:25 – come upon Jer 30:16 – General Jer 49:15 – General Jer 50:26 – cast her up Jer 51:10 – brought Lam 1:15 – trodden Lam 1:21 – they shall Eze 16:6 – polluted Oba 1:2 – General Zep 3:15 – he hath Zep 3:19 – I will undo Zec 2:8 – the nations Act 16:39 – came Heb 10:29 – trodden
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Mic 7:10. Not only would Israel see the justice in the punishment she had suffered, but. the nation that had been used as the instrument of God for such a purpose will be brought to see it, and shame shall cover her which said. Where is the Lord thy Godf The fulfillment of this predic-tion may be seen in Daniel 5.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mic 7:10-13. Then she that is mine enemy Namely, the Chaldean nation. Which said unto me, (namely, when she held me captive,) Where is the Lord thy God? Where is now Jehovah, whom thou worshippest, and sayest is the only God? Why does he not now deliver thee? Why does he not free thee from my hands, who am not his worshipper? Mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down, &c. As the heathen beheld the desolations of Gods church and temple with delight, (see Mic 4:11,) so it shall come to my turn to see Gods judgments executed upon the Babylonish empire, which shall be brought down to as low a condition as ever they had reduced Gods people. In the day that thy walls shall be built, &c. When God shall visit his people, and repair their decayed estate, (compare Amo 9:11,) then the tyrannical edicts of their persecutors shall be utterly abolished. This may partly relate to the recalling those edicts, which put a stop to the rebuilding of the city and temple of Jerusalem: see Ezr 4:23-24; Ezr 6:14; Neh 2:8; Neh 2:17. In that day At that time also; he shall come even to thee from Assyria, &c. This may be rendered, They shall come, &c.; that is, thy restored inhabitants; and from the fortress Or rather, from Egypt, even unto the river That is, the Euphrates; for the word , which we translate fortress, likewise means Egypt. All this signifies the return of the Jews from the various parts to which they had been scattered. Notwithstanding, the land shall be desolate, &c. Nevertheless the land shall, before this, be reduced to a state of desolation, on account of the heinous wickedness of those who at present inhabit it.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Then Micah’s enemies would see God’s rightness and feel ashamed for accusing Yahweh of abandoning His watchman. Micah would also see these enemies humiliated and brought low, trodden down like mud in the street (cf. Jos 10:24; Psa 110:1).