8 16<\/strong>. Micah’s Lamentation<\/p>\n 8<\/strong>. Therefore I will wail<\/em> ] Such exuberance of emotion specially characterizes the Jews and the Arabs; it reminds us of the Homeric heroes. The prophets did not cease to be men when they received the gift of inspiration. Sometimes they seem to have had a kind of double consciousness, uniting them on the one hand with the inspiring Spirit, and on the other with their much-loved people. Hence their abrupt transitions from stern denunciation to tender compassion.<\/p>\n stript and naked<\/em> ] i.e. without an outer garment; comp. 1Sa 19:24<\/span>, Amo 2:16<\/span>, Joh 21:7<\/span>. It seems to be a single symbolic act which is referred to (comp. Isa 20:2<\/span>). The word ‘stripped’ indicates that the appearance of the prophet is significant of the enforced nakedness of his people on their way to captivity (Isa 20:3-4<\/span>).<\/p>\n dragons owls<\/em> ] Rather, jackals ostriches<\/strong> (comp. Job 30:29<\/span>). The Hebrew poets are fond of likening the note of lamentation to those of animals. In Isaiah the swift, the crane, the dove, and the bear are referred to (Isa 38:14<\/span>; Isa 59:11<\/span>); while here it is the ‘long, piteous cry’ of the jackal, and the ‘fearful screech’ of the ostrich which furnish the object of comparison.<\/p>\n Therefore I will – <\/B>Therefore I would<\/P> Wail – <\/B>(properly, beat, that is, on the breast).<\/P> And howl – <\/B>Let me alone, he would say, that I may vent my sorrow in all ways of expressing sorrow, beating on the breast and wailing, using all acts and sounds of grief. It is as we would say, Let me mourn on, a mourning inexhaustible, because the woe too and the cause of grief was unceasing. The prophet becomes in words, probably in acts too, an image of his people, doing as they should do hereafter. He mourns, because and as they would have to mourn, bearing chastisement, bereft of all outward comeliness, an example also of repentance, since what he did were the chief outward tokens of mourning.<\/P> I will (would) go stripped – <\/B>despoiled .<\/P> And naked – <\/B>He explains the acts, that they represented no mere voluntary mourning. Not only would he, representing them, go bared of all garments of beauty, as we say half-naked but despoiled also, the proper term of those plundered and stripped by an enemy. He speaks of his doing, what we know that Isaiah did, by Gods command, representing in act what his people should thereafter do. : Wouldest thou that I should weep, thou must thyself grieve the first. Micah doubtless went about, not speaking only of grief, but grieving, in the habit of one mourning and bereft of all. He prolongs in these words the voice of wailing, choosing unaccustomed forms of words, to carry on the sound of grief. <\/P> I will make a wailing like the dragons – <\/B>(jackals). <\/P> And mourning as the owls – <\/B>(ostriches). The cry of both, as heard at night, is very piteous. Both are doleful creatures, dwelling in desert and lonely places. The jackals make a lamentable howling noise, so that travelers unacquainted with them would think that a company of people, women or children, were howling, one to another.<\/P> Its howl, says an Arabic natural historian , is like the crying of an infant. We heard them, says another , through the night, wandering around the villages, with a continual, prolonged, mournful cry. The ostrich, forsaking its young Job 39:16<\/span>, is an image of bereavement. Jerome: As the ostrich forgets her eggs and leaves them as though they were not hers, to be trampled by the feet of wild beasts, so too shall I go childless, spoiled and naked. Its screech is spoken of by travelers as fearful, aftrighting. : During the lonesome part of the night they often make a doleful and piteous noise. I have often heard them groan, as if they were in the greatest agonies.<\/P> Dionysius: I will grieve from the heart over those who perish, mourning for the hardness of the ungodly, as the Apostle had Rom 9:1<\/span> great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart for his brethren, the impenitent and unbelieving Jews. Again he saith, who is weak and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not? 2Co 11:29<\/span>. For by how much the soul is nobler than the body, and by how much eternal damnation is heavier than any temporal punishment, so much more vehemently should we grieve and weep for the peril and perpetual damnation of souls, than for bodily sickness or any temporal evil.<\/P> <\/p>\n Mic 1:8-9<\/span><\/p>\n For her wound is incurable <\/em><\/p>\n Moral incurableness<\/strong><\/p>\n Samaria and Jerusalem were, in a material and political sense, in a desperate and hopeless condition.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Mental philosophy shows this. Such is the constitution of the human mind, that the repetition of an act can generate an uncontrollable tendency to repeat it; and the repetition of a sin deadens altogether that moral sensibility which constitutionally recoils from the wrong. The mind often makes habit, not only second nature, but the sovereign of nature.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Observation shows this. That mans circle of acquaintance must be exceedingly limited who does not know men who become morally incurable. There are incurable liars, incurable misers, incurable sensualists, and incurable drunkards. No moral logician, however great his dialectic skill, can forge an argument strong enough to move them from their old ways, even when urged by the seraphic fervour of the highest rhetoric.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>The Bible shows this. Speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes. We often speak of retribution as if it always lay beyond the grave, and the day of grace as extending through the whole life of man; but such is not the fact. Retribution begins with many men here.<\/p>\n An incurable wound<\/strong><\/p>\n The late Dr. A.J. Gordon gave the following anecdote in one of the last sermons he preached: Dr. Westmoreland, an eminent army surgeon, tells of a soldier who was shot in the neck, the ball just grazing and wounding the carotid artery. The doctor knew that his life hung on a hair, and one day as he was dressing the wound the walls of the artery gave way. Instantly the surgeon pressed his finger upon the artery, and held the blood in check; and the patient asked, What does this mean? It means that you are a dead man, answered the doctor. How long can I live? As long as I keep my hand on the artery. Can I have time to dictate a letter to my wife and child? Yes. And so the letter was written for him, full of tender farewell messages, and when all was finished he calmly closed his eyes and said I am ready, doctor. The purple tide ebbed quickly away and all was over. What a parable is here of a far more solemn fact. Oh, unsaved one, you are by nature dead through trespasses and sins! But God keeps His hand upon your pulse, preserving your life that you may have an opportunity to repent and be saved.<\/p>\n Verse 8. I will make a wailing like the dragons<\/B><\/I>] Newcome<\/I> translates: –<\/P> <\/P> I will make a wailing like the foxes, (or jackals,)<\/P> <\/P> And mourning like the daughters of the ostrich. This beast, the jackal<\/I> or shiagal<\/I>, we have often met with in the prophets. Travellers inform us that its howlings<\/I> by night are most lamentable; and as to the ostrich<\/I>, it is remarkable for its fearful shrieking<\/I> and agonizing groanings<\/I> after night. Dr. Shaw says he has often heard them groan as if they were in the greatest agonies.<\/P> <\/p>\n Therefore, because of those dreadful slaughters and devastations made in Israel and Samaria, <\/P> I will wail, solemnly, as when they who are skilful in lamentation do at funerals bewail in most affective manner to stir up the like sorrow in others: see Amo 5:16<\/span>. <\/P> And howl; the same in a word of like sense, to ascertain the thing, and to intimate the doubled sorrow, the multiplied miseries of this people. <\/P> I will go stripped and naked; as one spoiled of his clothes by force, or as one that in bitterness of passion hath cast off his upper garment, or as if discomposed in mind through the greatness of his vexations; now this the prophet either speaks as fellow sufferer with them, or as intimating what they should be reduced to at last: so Isa 20:2<\/span>,3<\/span>; whether of these, or whether both, I determine not. <\/P> Dragons: see Mal 1:3<\/span>; rather jackals, which haunt desolate places, and make great and hideous noise by night, by their wailing, or doleful cries, in which it is said they answer one another, and fill the air with the sound and travellers with fear: these creatures are between a fox and wolf for bigness, and seem somewhat like each in qualities, and probably their noise may be as mixed of the barking of the fox and howling of the wolf. It is possible the prophet by this kind of wailing would intimate the near approach of the Assyrian lion, hungering and thirsting, and pursuing the prey; as the jackal runs a little before the lion, so this wailing of the prophet should be followed very suddenly with the roaring of the lion. <\/P> Owls; a melancholy creature, and loves night, and makes a most unpleasant noise, haunts desolate places, and so fitly is an emblem of Israels doleful, desolate state: others render it ostrich, which makes a doleful cry in the deserts: either will fit the place. <\/P> <\/p>\n 8. Therefore I will wail<\/B>Theprophet first shows how the coming judgment affects himself, in orderthat he might affect the minds of his countrymen similarly. <\/P> stripped<\/B>that is, ofshoes,<\/I> or sandals,<\/I> as the Septuagint<\/I> translates.Otherwise “naked” would be a tautology. <\/P> naked<\/B>“Naked”means divested of the upper garment<\/I> (Isa20:2<\/span>). “Naked and barefoot,” the sign of mourning (2Sa15:30<\/span>). The prophet’s upper garment was usually rough andcoarse-haired (2Ki 1:8<\/span>; Zec 13:4<\/span>).<\/P> like the dragons<\/B>soJEROME. Rather, “thewild dogs,” jackals or wolves, which wail like an infant when indistress or alone [MAURER].(See on Job 30:29<\/span>). <\/P> owls<\/B>rather,”ostriches,” which give a shrill and long-drawn, sigh-likecry, especially at night.<\/P><\/p>\n Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked<\/strong>,…. To his shut, putting off his upper garment; the rough one, such as the prophets used to wear; which he did as the greater sign of his mourning: sometimes, in such cases, they rent their garments; at other times they stripped themselves of them, and walked naked, as Isaiah did, Isa 20:3<\/span>; he went about like a madman, one disturbed in his mind, bereft of his senses, because of the desolation coming upon Israel; and without his clothes, as such persons often do: so the word rendered “stripped” signifies, as the Jewish commentators observe. This lamentation, and with these circumstances, the prophet made in his own person, to show the reality and certainty of their ruin, and to represent to them the desolate condition they would be in, destitute of all good things, and to them with it; as well as to express the sympathy of his heart, and thereby to assure them that it was not out of ill will to them, or a spirit of revenge, that he delivered such a message: or this he did in the person of all the people, showing what they would do, and that this would be their case shortly. So the Targum,<\/p>\n “for this they shall wail and howl, and go naked among the spoilers;”<\/p>\n I will make a wailing like the dragons<\/strong>; as in their fight with elephants, at which time they make a hideous noise n; and whose hissings have been very terrible to large bodies of men. Aelianus o speaks of a dragon in India, which, when it perceived Alexander’s army near at hand, gave such a prodigious hiss and blast, that it greatly frightened and disturbed the whole army: and he relates p of another, that was in a valley near Mount Pellenaeus, in the isle of Chios, whose hissing was very terrible to the inhabitants of that place; and Bochart q conjectures that this their hissing is here referred to; and who observes of the whale, that it has its name from a word in the Hebrew tongue, which signifies to lament; and which word is here used, and is frequently used of large fishes, as whales, sea calves, dolphins, c. which make a great noise and bellowing, as the sea calf particularly the balaena, which is one kind of a whale, and makes such a large and continued noise, as to be heard at the distance of two miles, as Rondeletius r says; and dolphins are said to make a moan and groaning like human creatures, as Pliny s and Solinus t report: and Peter Gillius relates, from his own experience, that lodging one night in a vessel, in which many dolphins were taken, there were such weeping and mourning, that he could not sleep for them; he thought they deplored their condition with mourning, lamentation, and a large flow of tears, as men do, and therefore could not help pitying their case; and, while the fisherman was asleep, took that which was next him, that seemed to mourn most, and cast it into the sea; but this was of no avail, for the rest increased their mourning more and more, and seemed plainly to desire the like deliverance; so that all the night he was in the midst of the most bitter moaning: wherefore Bochart, who quotes these instances, elsewhere u thinks that the prophet compares his mourning with the mourning of these creatures, rather than with the hissing of dragons. Some w think crocodiles are here meant; and of them it is reported x, that when they have eaten the body of a creature, which they do first, and come to the head, they weep over it with tears; hence the proverb of crocodiles tears, for hypocritical ones; but it cannot well be thought, surely, that the prophet would compare his mourning to that of such a creature. The learned Pocock thinks it more reasonable that the “jackals” are meant, called by the Arabians “ebn awi”, rather than dragons; a creature of a size between a fox and a wolf, or a dog and a fox, which makes a dreadful howling in the night; by which travellers, unacquainted with it, would think a company of women or children were howling, and goes before the lion as his provider;<\/p>\n and mourning as the owls<\/strong>; or “daughters of the owl” y; which is a night bird, and makes a very frightful noise, especially the screech owl. The Targum interprets it of the ostrich z; and it may be meant either of the mourning it makes when its young are about to be taken away, and it exposes itself to danger on their account, and perishes in the attempt. Aelianus a reports that they are taken by sharp iron spikes fixed about their nest, when they are returning to their young, after having been in quest of food for them; and, though they see the shining iron, yet such is their vehement desire after their young, that they spread their wings like sails, and with great swiftness and noise rush into the nest, where they are transfixed with the spikes, and die: and not only Vatablus observes, that these creatures have a very mournful voice; but Bochart b has shown, from the Arabic writers, that they frequently cry and howl; and from John de Laet, who affirms that those in the parts about Brazil cry so loud as to be heard half a mile; and indeed they have their name from crying and howling. The Targum renders it by a word which signifies pleasant; and so Onkelos on<\/p>\n Le 11:16<\/span>, by an antiphrasis, because its voice is so very unpleasant. Or, since the words may be rendered, “the daughters of the ostrich” c, it may be understood of the mourning of its young, when left by her, when they make a hideous noise and miserable moan, as some observe d.<\/p>\n n Aelian. de Animal. l. 6. c. 22. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 11. o Ib. l. 15. c. 21. p Ib. l. 16. c. 39. q Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 3. c. 14. col. 437. r Apud Bochart. ib. par. 1. l. 1. c. 7. col. 47. s Nat. Hist. l. 9. c. 9. t Polyhistor. c. 22. u Ut supra, (Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 3. c. 14.) col. 48. w Ludolphus apud Burkium in loc. x Vid. Frantzii Hist. Animal. Sacr. par. 1. c. 26. sect. 2. y “ut filiae ululae”, Piscator, Burkius; “instar filiarum. ululae”, Cocceius. So Montanus. z So the Vulgate Latin, Munster, Pagninus, Drusius, Bochartus, and others. a De Animal. l. 14. c. 7. b Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 2. c. 14. col. c. 228. c “Filiarum struthionis”, Pagninus; “juvenes struthiones”, Tigurine version. d Vid. Frantz. Hist. Animal. Sacr. par. 2. c. 2. p. 339, 342.<\/p>\n The judgment will not stop at Samaria, however, but spread over Judah. The prophet depicts this by saying that he will go about mourning as a prisoner, to set forth the misery that will come upon Judah (Mic 1:8<\/span>, Mic 1:9<\/span>); and then, to confirm this, he announces to a series of cities the fate awaiting them, or rather awaiting the kingdom, by a continued play upon words founded upon their names (Mic 1:10-15<\/span>); and finally he summons Zion to deep mourning (Mic 1:16<\/span>). Mic 1:8<\/span>. “Therefore will I lament and howl, I will go spoiled and naked: I will keep lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches.<\/em> Mic 1:9<\/span>. For her stripes are malignant; for it comes to Judah, reaches to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.” <\/em> points back to what precedes, and is then explained in Mic 1:9<\/span>. The prophet will lament over the destruction of Samaria, because the judgment which has befallen this city will come upon Judah also. Micah does not speak in his own name here as a patriot (Hitzig), but in the name of his nation, with which he identifies himself as being a member thereof. This is indisputably evident from the expression , which describes the costume of a prisoner, not that of a mourner. The form with appears to have been simply suggested by . is formed like in Isa 16:9-10<\/span>, and other similar words (see Olshausen, Gramm<\/em>. p. 342). The Masoretes have substituted , after Job 12:17<\/span>, but without the slightest reason. It does not mean “barefooted,” (lxx), for which there was already in the language (2Sa 15:30<\/span>; Isa 20:2-3<\/span>; Jer 2:25<\/span>), but plundered, spoiled. , naked, i.e., without upper garment (see my comm. on 1Sa 19:24<\/span>), not merely vestitu solido et decente privatus <\/em>. Mourners do indeed go barefooted ( yacheph <\/em>, see 2Sa 15:30<\/span>), and in deep mourning in a hairy garment ( saq <\/em>, 2Sa 3:31<\/span>; Gen 37:34<\/span>, etc.), but not plundered and naked. The assertion, however, that a man was called arom <\/em> when he had put on a mourning garment ( saq <\/em>, sackcloth) in the place of his upper garment, derives no support from Isa 20:2<\/span>, but rather a refutation. For there the prophet does not go about arom v e yacheph <\/em>, i.e., in the dress of a prisoner, to symbolize the captivity of Egypt, till after he has loosened the hairy garment ( saq <\/em>) from his loins, i.e., taken it off. And here also the plundering of the prophet and his walking naked are to be understood in the same way. Micah’s intention is not only to exhibit publicly his mourning fore the approaching calamity of Judah, but also to set forth in a symbolical form the fate that awaits the Judaeans. And he can only do this by including himself in the nation, and exhibiting the fate of the nation in his own person. Wailing like jackals and ostriches is a loud, strong, mournful cry, those animals being distinguished by a mournful wail; see the comm. on Job 30:29<\/span>, which passage may possibly have floated before the prophet’s mind. Thus shall Judah wail, because the stroke which falls upon Samaria is a malignant, i.e., incurable (the suffix attached to refers to Shom e ron <\/em>, Samaria, in Mic 1:6<\/span> and Mic 1:7<\/span>. For the singular of the predicate before a subject in the plural, see Ewald, 295, a<\/em>, and 317, a). It reaches to Judah, yea, to Jerusalem. Jerusalem, as the capital, is called the “gate of my people,” because in it par excellence<\/em> the people went out and in. That is not exclusive here, but inclusive, embracing the terminus ad quem <\/em>, is evident from the parallel “even to Judah;” for if it only reached to the border of Judah, it would not have been able to come to Jerusalem; and still more clearly so from the description in Mic 1:10<\/span>. The fact that Jerusalem is not mentioned till after Judah is to be interpreted rhetorically, and not geographically. Even the capital, where the temple of Jehovah stood, would not be spared.<\/p>\n Judgments Predicted.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/I><\/span><\/P> <\/TD> B. C.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN> 743.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/FONT><\/P> <\/TD> <\/TR> <\/TABLE> 8 Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls. 9 For her wound is<\/I> incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even<\/I> to Jerusalem. 10 Declare ye it<\/I> not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust. 11 Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir, having thy shame naked: the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Beth-ezel; he shall receive of you his standing. 12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came down from the LORD<\/B> unto the gate of Jerusalem. 13 O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast: she is<\/I> the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee. 14 Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moresheth-gath: the houses of Achzib shall be<\/I> a lie to the kings of Israel. 15 Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel. 16 Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.<\/P> We have here a long train of mourners attending the funeral of a ruined kingdom.<\/P> I. The prophet is himself chief mourner (Mic 1:8<\/span>; Mic 1:9<\/span>): I will wail and howl; I will go stripped and naked,<\/I> as a man distracted with grief. The prophets usually expressed their own grief for the public grievances, partly to mollify the predictions of them, and to make it appear that is was not out of ill-will that they denounced the judgments of God (so far were they from desiring the woeful day that they dreaded it more than any thing), partly to show how very dreadful and mournful the calamities would be, and to stir up in the people a holy fear of them, that by repentance they might turn away the wrath of God. Note, We ought to lament the punishments of sinners as well as the sufferings of saints in this world; the weeping prophet did so (Jer. ix. 1<\/span>); so did this prophet. He makes a wailing like the dragons,<\/I> or rather the jackals,<\/I> ravenous beasts that in those countries used to meet in the night, and howl,<\/I> and make hideous noises;<\/I> he mourns as the owls,<\/I> the screech-owls,<\/I> or ostriches,<\/I> as some read it. Two things the prophet here thus dolefully laments:– 1. That Israel’s case is desperate: Her wound is incurable;<\/I> it is ruin without remedy; man cannot help her; God will not, because she will not by repentance and reformation help herself. There is indeed balm in Gilead and a physician there; but they will not apply to the physician, nor apply the balm to themselves, and therefore the wound is incurable.<\/I> 2. That Judah likewise is in danger. The cup is going round, and is now put into Judah’s hand: The enemy has come to the gate of Jerusalem.<\/I> Soon after the destruction of Samaria and the ten tribes, the Assyrian army, under Sennacherib, laid siege to Jerusalem, came to the gate, but could not force their way any further; however, it was with great concern and trouble that the prophet foresaw the fright, so dearly did he love the peace of Jerusalem.<\/P> II. Several places are here brought in mourning, and are called upon to mourn; but with this proviso, that they should not let the Philistines hear them (v.<\/I><\/span> 10<\/span>): Declare it not in Gath;<\/I> this is borrowed from David’s lamentation for Saul and Jonathan (2 Sam. i. 20<\/span>), Tell it not in Gath,<\/I> for the uncircumcised will triumph in Israel’s tears. Note, One would not, if it could be helped, gratify those that make themselves and their companions merry with the sins or with the sorrows of God’s Israel. David was silent, and stifled his griefs, when the wicked were before him,<\/I> Ps. xxxix. 1<\/I><\/span>. But, though it may be prudent not to give way to a noisy sorrow, yet it is duty to admit a silent one when the church of God is in distress. “Roll thyself in the dust<\/I>” (as great mourners used to do) “and so let the house of Judah and every house in Jerusalem become a house of Aphrah,<\/I> a house of dust,<\/I> covered with dust, crumbled into dust.” When God makes the house dust it becomes us to humble ourselves under his mighty hand, and to put our mouths in the dust, thus accommodating ourselves to the providences that concern us. Dust we are; God brings us to the dust, that we may know it, and own it. Divers other places are here named that should be sharers in this universal mourning, the names of some of which we do not find elsewhere, whence it is conjectured that they are names put upon them by the prophet, the signification of which might either indicate or aggravate the miseries coming upon them, thereby to awaken this secure and stupid people to a holy fear of divine wrath. We find Sennacherib’s invasion thus described, in the prediction of it, by the impressions of terror it should make upon the several cities that fell in his way, Isa 10:28<\/span>; Isa 10:29<\/span>, c. Let us observe the particulars here, 1. The inhabitants of Saphir,<\/I> which signifies neat<\/I> and beautiful (thou that dwellest fairly,<\/I> so the margin reads it), shall pass away<\/I> into captivity, or be forced to flee, stripped of all their ornaments and having their shame naked.<\/I> Note, Those who appear ever so fine and delicate know not what contempt they may be exposed to and the more grievous will the shame be to those who have been inhabitants of Saphir. 2. The inhabitants of Zaanan,<\/I> which signifies the country of flocks,<\/I> a populous country, where the people are as numerous and thick as flocks of sheep, shall yet be so taken up with their own calamities, felt or feared, that they shall not come forth in the mourning of Bethezel,<\/I> which signifies a place near,<\/I> shall not condole with, nor bring any succour to, their next neighbours in distress; for he shall receive of you his standing;<\/I> the enemy shall encamp among you, O inhabitants of Zaanan! shall take up a station there, shall find footing among you. Those may well think themselves excused from helping their neighbours who find they have enough to do to help themselves and to hold their own. 3. As for the inhabitants of Maroth<\/I> (which, some think, is put for Ramoth, others that it signifies the rough places<\/I>), they waited carefully for good,<\/I> and were grieved for the want of it, but were disappointed; for evil came from the Lord unto the gate of Jerusalem,<\/I> when the Assyrian army besieged it, v.<\/I><\/span> 12<\/span>. The inhabitants of Maroth might well overlook their own particular grievances when they saw the holy city itself in danger, and might well overlook the Assyrian, that was the instrument, when they saw the evil coming from the Lord.<\/I> 4. Lachish was a city of Judah, which Sennacherib laid siege to, Isa 36:1<\/span>; Isa 36:2<\/span>. The inhabitants of that city are called to bind the chariot to the swift beast,<\/I> to prepare for a speedy flight, as having no other way left to secure themselves and their families; or it is spoken ironically: “You have had your chariots and your swift beasts, but where are they now?” God’s quarrel with Lachish is that she is the beginning of sin,<\/I> probably the sin of idolatry, to the daughter of Zion<\/I> (v.<\/I><\/span> 13<\/span>); they had learned it from the ten tribes, their near neighbours, and so infected the two tribes with it. Note, Those that help to bring sin into a country do but thereby prepare for the throwing of themselves out of it. Those must expect to be first in the punishment who have been ringleaders in sin. The transgressions of Israel were found in thee;<\/I> when they came to be traced up to their original they were found to take rise very much from that city. God knows at whose door to lay the blame of the transgressions of Israel, and whom to find guilty. Lachish, having been so much accessory to the sin of Israel, shall certainly be reckoned with: Thou shalt give presents to Moresheth-gath,<\/I> a city of the Philistines, which perhaps had a dependence upon Gath, that famous Philistine city; thou shalt send to court those of that city to assist thee, but it shall be in vain, for (v.<\/I><\/span> 14<\/span>) the houses of Achzib<\/I> (a city which joined to Mareshah, or Moresheth, and is mentioned with it, Josh. xv. 44<\/span>) shall be a lie to the kings of Israel;<\/I> though they depend upon their strength, yet they shall fail them. Here there is an allusion to the name. Achzib<\/I> signifies a lie,<\/I> and so it shall prove to those that trust in it. 5. Mareshah, that could not, or would not, help Israel, shall herself be made a prey (v.<\/I><\/span> 15<\/span>): “I will bring a heir<\/I> (that is, an enemy) that shall take possession of thy lands, with as much assurance as if he were heir at law to them, and he shall come to Adullam,<\/I> and to the glory of Israel,<\/I> that is, to Jerusalem the head city;” or “The glory of Israel<\/I> shall come to be as Adullam, a poor despicable place;” or, “The king of Assyria, whom Israel had gloried in, shall come to Adullam, in laying the country waste.” 6. The whole land of Judah seems to be spoken to (v.<\/I><\/span> 16<\/span>) and called to weeping and mourning: “Make thee bald,<\/I> by tearing thy hair and shaving thy head; poll thee for thy delicate children,<\/I> that had been tenderly and nicely brought up; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle<\/I> when she casts her feathers and is all over bald; for they have gone into captivity from thee,<\/I> and are not likely to return; and their captivity will be the more grievous to them because they have been brought up delicately and have not been inured to hardship.” Or this is directed particularly to the inhabitants of Mareshah,<\/I> as v.<\/I><\/span> 15<\/span>. That was the prophet’s own city, and yet he denounces the judgments of God against it; for it shall be an aggravation of its sin that it had such a prophet, and knew not the day of its visitation. Its being thus privileged, since it improved not the privilege, shall not procure favour for it either with God or with his prophet.<\/P><\/p>\n The Prophet here assumes the character of a mourner, that he might more deeply impress the Israelites; for we have seen that they were almost insensible in their torpidity. It was therefore necessary that they should be brought to view the scene itself, that, seeing their destruction before their eyes they might be touched both with grief and fear. Lamentations of this kind are everywhere to be met with in the Prophets, and they ought to be carefully noticed; for we hence gather how great was the torpor of men, inasmuch as it was necessary to awaken them, by this form of speech, in order to convince them that they had to do with God: they would have otherwise continued to flatter themselves with delusions. Though indeed the Prophet here addresses the Israelites, we ought yet to apply this to ourselves; for we are not much unlike the ancient people: for however God may terrify us with dreadful threatening, we still remain quiet in our filth. It is therefore needful that we should be severely treated, for we are almost void of feeling. <\/p>\n But the Prophets sometimes assumed mourning, and sometimes they were touched with real grief: for when they spoke of aliens and also of the enemies of the Church, they introduce these lamentations. When a mention is made of Babylon or of Egypt, they sometimes say, Behold, I will mourn, and my bowels shall be as a timbrel. The Prophets did not then really grieve; but, as I have said, they transferred to themselves the sorrows of others, and ever with this object, that they might persuade men that God’s threatenings were not vain, and that God did not trifle with men when he declared that he was angry with them. But when the discourse was respecting the Church and the faithful, then the Prophets did not put on grief. The representation here is then to be taken in such a way as that we may understand that the Prophet was in real mourning, when he saw that a dreadful ruin was impending over the whole kingdom of Israel. For though they had perfidiously departed from the Law, they were yet a part of the holy race, they were the children of Abraham, whom God had received into favor. The Prophet, therefore, could not refrain from mourning unfeignedly for them. And the Prophet does here these two things, — he shows the fraternal love which he entertained for the children of Israel, as they were his kindred, and a part of the chosen people, — and he also discharges his own duty; for this lamentation was, as it were, the mirror in which he sets before them the vengeance of God towards men so extremely torpid. He therefore exhibits to them this representation, that they might perceive that God was by no means trifling with men, when he thus denounced punishment on the wicked and such as were apostates. <\/p>\n Moreover, he speaks not of a common lamentation, but says, I will wail and howl, and then, I will go spoiled The word אנושה, shulal, some take as meaning one out of his mind or insane, as though he said, “I shall be now as one not possessed of a sound mind.” But as this metaphor is rather unnatural, I prefer the sense of being spoiled; for it was the custom with mourners, as it is well known, to tear and to throw away their garments from them. I will then go spoiled and naked; and also, I will make wailing, not like that of men, but like the wailing of dragons: I will mourn, he says, as the ostriches are wont to do. In short, the Prophet by these forms of speech intimates, that the coming evil would by no means be of an ordinary kind: for if he adopted the usual manner of men, he could not have set forth the dreadfulness of God’s vengeance that was impending. <\/p>\n (8) Dragons . . . owls.<\/strong>Literally, jackals and ostriches.<\/em> They are selected by reason of the dismal howls and screeches they make during the night.<\/p>\n Lament over the fall of Judah, <\/em> 8-16.<\/p>\n The sins of the south (Mic 1:5<\/span>) demand the punishment of Judah. The judgment is already present to the vision of the prophet, and in Mic 1:8-16<\/span> he gives expression to his grief over the fall of the southern kingdom. In a series of plays upon their names he pictures in 10-15 the fate awaiting the cities and villages in the south. In 16 he calls upon Zion to mourn, because her children have gone into exile.<\/p>\n The speaker in Mic 1:8<\/span> is the prophet as an individual, not the nation with which the prophet may identify himself. He bewails the calamity that has befallen Samaria, in part because he sympathizes with the inhabitants of the north as fellow Israelites, but chiefly because he realizes the danger threatening his native state (Mic 1:9<\/span>), “for it is come even unto Judah; it reacheth unto the gate of my <\/em> people, even to Jerusalem.” Micah was a native of Judah, hence it is but natural that he should enter with deeper compassion into the experiences of his own people. In a similar manner, Hosea, a native of Israel, feels more deeply for the north than Amos, a native of Judah. <\/p>\n Go stripped and naked <\/strong> This is to be understood not in the sense of being stripped of all clothing and entirely naked, but in the sense of barefooted and stripped of the upper garment (compare Isa 20:2<\/span>). This act was a symbol both of mourning and of exile; by it the prophet gives expression to his grief, and at the same time seeks to exhibit the fate which the nation must suffer. <\/p>\n Dragons, owls <\/strong> Better, R.V., “jackals, ostriches.” The long piteous cry of the jackal, which Riehm describes as a “heart-rending wail, sometimes like the whimpering and the loud cry of children,” and which in its penetration is “suggestive of a lost soul,” and the “fearful screech” of the ostrich, a “peculiar call, now a shrill outcry, now a low moan,” aptly describe the mournful wail of the grief-stricken prophet (for similar comparisons see Job 30:29<\/span>; Isa 38:14<\/span>; Isa 59:11<\/span>).<\/p>\n Lamentation Over Judah’s Chastisement<\/p>\n v. 8. Therefore,<\/strong> on account of the calamity which would strike Samaria and Judah, I will wail and howl,<\/strong> in a most bitter and mournful cry, I will go stripped and naked,<\/strong> robbed by the enemies and deprived of his upper garment, that is, in the condition of a captive; I will make a wailing like the dragons,<\/strong> like the jackals of the desert, and mourning as the owls,<\/strong> like ostriches crying in pain. Cf Job 30:29<\/span>. <\/p>\n v. 9. For her wound is incurable,<\/strong> deadly her strokes, for it is come unto Judah,<\/strong> the territory which harbored the Sanctuary of the Lord being included in the general ruin; he is come unto the gate of My people,<\/strong> to the place where the solemn assemblies of Jehovah were held, even to Jerusalem. <\/p>\n v. 10. Declare ye it not in Gath,<\/strong> one of the chief cities of the Philistines, weep ye not at all,<\/strong> lest the message cause these enemies to rejoice; in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust,<\/strong> literally, “in Beth-leaphra I wallow in the dust,” for such scattering of dust was a sign of deep grief. Throughout this paragraph the prophet, in the Hebrew, uses puns, for Gath means “announcement” and Ophra “dust-house. ” <\/p>\n v. 11. Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir<\/strong> (fair-view), having thy shame naked,<\/strong> in shameful nakedness, also robbed by the enemy; the inhabitant of Zaanan<\/strong> (outlet). came not forth in the mourning of Beth-ezel; he shall receive of you his standing,<\/strong> rather, “not has gone out the inhabitant of Zaanan,” since she did not have the courage to face the enemy in the open field, “the mourning of Beth-haezel [house of separation] takes you away from its standing-place”; for its inhabitants would not permit the Jews to seek shelter behind its walls. <\/p>\n v. 12. For the inhabitants of Maroth<\/strong> (bitterness). waited carefully for good,<\/strong> being anxiously and bitterly concerned about it, writhing in grief and pain on account of her lost prosperity; but evil came down from the Lord unto the gate of Jerusalem. <\/strong> But while all these towns were in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, the prophet next shows that the punishment would not be confined to the immediate neighborhood of the capital. <\/p>\n v. 13. O thou inhabitant of Lachish,<\/strong> a fortified city in the plain toward the southwest, bind the chariot to the swift beast,<\/strong> to the fastest horses, namely, to escape the impending punishment; she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion, for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee,<\/strong> she was the first city of Judah to introduce the idol-worship of the northern kingdom. <\/p>\n v. 14. Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moresheth-gath<\/strong> (the betrothed of Gath), the daughter of Zion being obliged to dismiss or release this city to the enemy, like the gift of a marriage portion; the houses of Achzib<\/strong> (deception). shall be a lie to the kings of Israel,<\/strong> a deceitful brook, which offers no refreshment to the thirsty wanderer; just so the city would slip from the grasp of the kings of Judah (the southern kingdom being meant in this instance), so that it would no longer be in their possession. <\/p>\n v. 15. Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah<\/strong> (town of inheritance), for Israel had been the heir obtaining it from the Canaanites, and the enemy would now be the heir receiving it from the people of Judah; he shall come unto Adullam, the glory of Israel,<\/strong> rather, “even unto Adullam will the nobility of Israel come,” to hide themselves in the cave in which David once sought refuge from Saul. Cf 1Sa 22:1<\/span>. <\/p>\n v. 16. Make thee bald,<\/strong> Zion as the mother of the nation being addressed, and poll thee,<\/strong> shearing her head, for thy delicate children,<\/strong> in deep grief and sorrowful lamentation; Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I. <\/strong>Moral incurableness is a condition into which men may fall.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>It is a condition for the profoundest lamentation. Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked. I will make a wailing like the dragons and mourning as the owls. Christ wept when He considered the moral incurableness of the men of Jerusalem. There is no sight more distressing than the sight of a morally incurable soul. There is no building that I pass that strikes me with greater sadness than the Hospital for Incurables; but what are incurable bodies, compared to morally incurable souls? There are anodynes that may deaden their pains, and death will relieve them of their torture; but a morally incurable soul is destined to pass into anguish, intense and more intense as existence runs on, and peradventure without end. The incurable body may not necessarily be an injury to others; but a morally incurable soul must be a curse as long as it lives. (Homilist.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\nFuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n