1 5<\/strong>. Sin and its corresponding Punishment<\/p>\n 1<\/strong>. and work evil<\/em> ] To ‘work,’ as distinguished from ‘devise’ and to ‘practise’ or ‘execute,’ is to prepare ways and means (see Isa 41:4<\/span>). Obs., it is no mere act of thoughtlessness, or passionate impulse, which is here denounced, but a set purpose of dispossessing the small proprietors.<\/p>\n upon their beds<\/em> ] The natural place for reflexion, whether in a bad sense (as here and Psa 36:4<\/span>), or in a good (as Psa 63:6<\/span>).<\/p>\n it is in the power of their hand<\/em> ] A doubt as to the meaning has arisen from the fact that the word el<\/em> here rendered ‘power’ is more commonly used for ‘god.’ But Lagarde has shewn that the root meaning of el<\/em> is ‘that to which one reaches out.’ Comp. Act 17:27<\/span>.<\/p>\n The prophet had declared that evil should come down on Samaria and Jerusalem for their sins. He had pronounced them sinners against God; he now speaks of their hard unlovingness toward man, as our Blessed Lord in the Gospel speaks of sins against Himself in His members, as the ground of the condemnation of the wicked. The time of warning is past. He speaks as in the person of the Judge, declaring the righteous judgments of God, pronouncing sentence on the hardened, but blessing on those who follow Christ. The sins thus visited were done with a high hand; first, with forethought:<\/P> Woe – <\/B>All woe, woe from God ; the woe of temporal captivity; and, unless ye repent, the woe of eternal damnation, hangeth over you. Woe to them that devise iniquity. They devise it , they are not led into it by others, but invent it out of their own hearts. They plot and forecast and fulfill it even in thought, before it comes to act. And work evil upon their beds. Thoughts and imaginations of evil are works of the soul Psa 58:2<\/span>. Upon their beds (see Psa 36:4<\/span>), which ought to be the place of holy thought, and of communing with their own hearts and with God Psa 4:4<\/span>. Stillness must be filled with thought, good or bad; if not with good, then with bad. The chamber, if not the sanctuary of holy thoughts, is filled with unholy purposes and imaginations. Mans last and first thoughts, if not of good, are especially of vanity and evil. The Psalmist says, Lord, have I not remembered Thee in my bed, and thought upon Thee when I was waking? Psa 63:6<\/span>. These men thought of sin on their bed, and did it on waking. When the morning is light, literally in the light of the morning, that is, instantly, shamelessly, not shrinking from the light of day, not ignorantly, but knowingly, deliberately, in full light. Nor again through infirmity, but in the wantonness of might, because it is in the power of their hand , as, of old, God said, This they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do Gen 11:6<\/span>. Rup.: Impiously mighty, and mighty in impiety.<\/P> Lap.: See the need of the daily prayer, Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin; and Almighty God, who hast brought us to the beginning of this day, defend us in the same by Thy mighty power, that we may fall into no sin, etc. The illusions of the night, if such be permitted, have no power against the prayer of the morning.<\/P><\/p>\n Mic 2:1-4<\/span><\/p>\n And they covet fields, and take them by violence <\/em><\/p>\n Avarice<\/strong><\/p>\n Greed is the spring and spirit of all oppression.<\/p>\n Here rapacious avarice is presented in three aspects.<\/p>\n The wrong which Micah attacks<\/strong><\/p>\n Micah <\/em>scourges the avarice of the landowner, and the injustice which oppresses the peasant. Social wrongs are always felt most acutely, not in the town, but in the country. It was so in the days of Rome, whose earliest social revolts were agrarian. It was so in the Middle Ages; the fourteenth century saw both the Jacquerie in France and the Peasants rising in England; Langland, who was equally familiar with town and country, expends nearly all his sympathy upon the poverty of the latter, the poure folk in cotes. It was so after the Reformation, under the new spirit of which the first social revolt was the Peasants war in Germany. It was so at the French Revolution, which began with the march of the starving peasants into Paris. And it is so still, for our new era of social legislation has been forced upon us, not by the poor of London and the large cities, but by the peasantry of Ireland and the crofters of the Scottish Highlands. Political discontent and religious heresy take their start among industrial and manufacturing centres, but the first springs of the social revolt are nearly always found among rural populations. Why the country should begin to feel the acuteness of social wrong before the town is sufficiently obvious. In the town there are mitigations, and there are escapes. If the conditions of one trade become oppressive, it is easier to pass to another. The workers are better educated and better organised; there is a middle class, and the tyrant dare not bring matters to so high a crisis. The might of the wealthy, too, is divided; the poor mans employer is seldom at the same time his landlord. But in the country power easily gathers into the hands of the few. The labourers opportunities and means of work, his house, his very standing ground are often all the property of one man. In the country the rich have a real power of life and death, and are less hampered by competition with each other, and by the force of public opinion. One man cannot hold a city in fee, but one man can affect for evil or for good almost as large a population as a citys, when it is scattered across a country side. This is precisely the state of wrong which Micah attacks. This is the evil, the ease with which wrong is done in the country. It lies to the power of their hands; they covet and seize. Micah feels that by themselves the economic wrongs explain and justify the doom impending on the nation. (G. A. Smith, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n CHAPTER II <\/P> Here the prophet denounces a wo against the plotters of<\/I><\/P> wickedness, the covetous and the oppressor<\/I>, 1, 2.<\/P> God is represented as devising their ruin<\/I>, 3.<\/P> An Israelite is then introduced as a mourner, personating his<\/I><\/P> people, and lamenting their fate<\/I>, 4.<\/P> Their total expulsion is now threatened on account of their<\/I><\/P> very numerous offences<\/I>, 5-10.<\/P> Great infatuation of the people in favour of those pretenders<\/I><\/P> to Divine inspiration who prophesied to them peace and plenty<\/I>,<\/P> 11.<\/P> The chapter concludes with a gracious promise of the<\/I><\/P> restoration of the posterity of Jacob from captivity; possibly<\/I><\/P> alluding to their deliverance from the Chaldean yoke, an event<\/I><\/P> which was about<\/I> two hundred years in futurity at the delivery<\/I><\/P> of this prophecy<\/I>, 12, 13. <\/P> NOTES ON CHAP. II<\/P> <\/P> Verse 1<\/span>. Wo to them that devise iniquity<\/B><\/I>] Who lay schemes<\/I> and plans<\/I> for transgressions; who make it their study<\/I> to find out new modes of sinning; and make these things their nocturnal<\/I> meditations, that, having fixed their plan, they may begin to execute it as soon as it is light<\/I> in the morning<\/I>.<\/P> <\/P> Because it is in the power of their hand.<\/B><\/I>] They think they may<\/I> do whatever they have power and opportunity<\/I> to do.<\/P> <\/p>\n The prophet now denounceth judgment against oppressors in particular, of which sort of men Judah had too many, and Israel had many more at that day. <\/P> That devise iniquity; contrive and frame mischiefs to others, how they may be ruined, as appears Mic 2:2<\/span>, and all the gain that can be made of their fall may be brought into the hand of the contrivers; which was the sin of the great ones in Israel, who for near forty years together were plotting to undo one another. And work evil: here is a dislocation of the words, unless the prophet would intimate to us, that in Gods account the resolving to do evil is doing it. <\/P> Upon their beds; when they should rest from making trouble to others, as well as rest from their labour and troubles of the day, when they should praise God for their own ease, safety, and rest, then their inhumanity and cruelty is forecasting how to grieve, vex, and swallow up others. <\/P> When the morning is light; so soon as they rise, and that is early; when such practices are in design, these cannot sleep till they make them fall on whom they fix their designs. <\/P> They practise it; finish or execute their mischievous purposes. Because it is in the power of their hand; they care not whether there be either justice or reason for what they do; if they have power enough to do, they will take confidence to do it, and never blush. <\/P> <\/p>\n 1. devise . . . work . . .practise<\/B>They do evil not merely on a sudden impulse, but withdeliberate design. As in the former chapter sins against the firsttable are reproved, so in this chapter sins against the second table.A gradation: “devise” is the conception<\/I> of the evilpurpose; “work” (Ps58:2<\/span>), or “fabricate,” the maturing<\/I> of thescheme; “practise,” or “effect,” the execution<\/I>of it. <\/P> because it is in the power oftheir hand<\/B>for the phrase see Gen 31:29<\/span>;Pro 3:27<\/span>. Might, not right, iswhat regulates their conduct. Where they can, they commit oppression;where they do not, it is because they cannot.<\/P><\/p>\n Woe to them that devise iniquity<\/strong>,…. Any kind of iniquity; idolatry, or worshipping of idols, for the word is used sometimes for an idol; or the sin of uncleanness, on which the thoughts too often dwell in the night season; or coveting of neighbours’ goods, and oppressing the poor; sins which are instanced in Mic 2:2<\/span>; and every thing that is vain, foolish, and wicked, and in the issue brings trouble and distress: now a woe is denounced against such that think on such things, and please themselves with them in their imaginations, and contrive ways and means to commit them:<\/p>\n and work evil upon their beds<\/strong>; when, the senses being less engaged, the thoughts are more free; but should not be employed about evil; but either in meditating on the divine goodness, and praising the Lord for his mercies; or in examining a man’s heart, state, and case, and mourning over his sins, and applying to God for the remission of them; but, instead of this, the persons here threatened are said to “work evil on their beds”, when they should be asleep and at rest, or engaged in the above things; that is, they plot and contrive how to accomplish the evil they meditate; they determine upon doing it, and are as sure of effecting it as if it was actually done; and do act it over in their own minds, as if it was real; see Ps 36:4<\/span>;<\/p>\n when the morning is light, they practise it<\/strong>; they wish and wait for the morning light, and as soon as it appears they rise; and, instead of blessing God for the mercies of the night, and going about their lawful business, they endeavour to put in practice with all rigour and diligence, and as expeditiously as they can, what they have projected and schemed in the night season;<\/p>\n because it is in the power of their hand<\/strong>; to commit it; and they have no principle of goodness in them, nor fear of God before them, to restrain them from it: or, “because their hand is unto power” b; it is stretched out, and made use of in the commission of sin to the utmost of their power, without any regard to God or man. The Vulgate Latin version is, “because their hand is against God”; their hearts are enmity to God, and therefore they oppose him with both their hands, and care not what iniquity they commit; they are rebels against him, and will not be subject to him. The Septuagint and Arabic versions are, “because they lift not up their hands to God”; they do not pray to him, and therefore are bold and daring to perpetrate the grossest iniquity, which a praying man dared not do; but the Syriac version is the reverse, “they do lift up their hands to God”; make a show of religion and devotion, when their hearts and their hands are deeply engaged in, sinning; which shows their impudence and hypocrisy; but the passages in<\/p>\n Ge 31:29<\/span> favour and confirm our version, and the sense of it; so the Targum.<\/p>\n b “quia est ad potentiam manus ipsorum”, Calvin.<\/p>\n The violent acts of the great men would be punished by God with the withdrawal of the inheritance of His people, or the loss of Canaan. Mic 2:1<\/span>. “Woe to those who devise mischief, and prepare evil upon their beds! In the light of the morning they carry it out, for their hand is their God.<\/em> Mic 2:2<\/span>. They covet fields and plunder; them, and houses and take them; and oppress the man and his house, the man and his inheritance.” <\/em> The woe applies to the great and mighty of the nation, who by acts of injustice deprive the common people of the inheritance conferred upon them by the Lord (cf. Isa 5:8<\/span>). The prophet describes them as those who devise plans by night upon their beds for robbing the poor, and carry them out as soon as the day dawns. denotes the sketching out of plans (see Psa 36:5<\/span>); and , to work evil, the preparation of the ways and means for carrying out their wicked plans. , the preparation, is distinguished from , the execution, as in Isa 41:4<\/span>, for which and are also used (e.g., Isa 43:7<\/span>). “Upon their beds,” i.e., by night, the time of quiet reflection (Psa 4:5<\/span>; cf. Job 4:13<\/span>). “By the light of the morning,” i.e., at daybreak, without delay. , lit., “for their hand is for a god,” i.e., their power passes as a god to them; they know of no higher power than their own arm; whatever they wish it is in their power to do (cf. Gen 31:29<\/span>; Pro 3:27<\/span>; Hab 1:11<\/span>; Job 12:6<\/span>). Ewald and Rckert weaken the thought by adopting the rendering, “because it stands free in their hand;” and Hitzig’s rendering, “if it stands in their hand,” is decidedly false. K <\/em> cannot be a conditional particle here, because the thought would thereby be weakened in a manner quite irreconcilable with the context. In Mic 2:2<\/span> the evil which they plan by night, and carry out by day, is still more precisely defined. By force and injustice they seize upon the property (fields, houses) of the poor, the possessions which the Lord has given to His people for their inheritance. Chamad <\/em> points to the command against coveting (Exo 20:14-17<\/span>; cf. Deu 5:18<\/span>). The second half of the verse (Mic 2:2<\/span>) contains a conclusion drawn from the first: “and so they practise violence upon the man and his property.” Beth <\/em> answers to bottm <\/em>, and nachalah <\/em> to the Sadoth <\/em>, as their hereditary portion in the land – the portion of land which each family received when Canaan was divided.<\/p>\n The Sins of the People.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/I><\/span><\/P> <\/TD> B. C.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN> 740.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/P> <\/TD> <\/TR> <\/TABLE> 1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand. 2 And they covet fields, and take them<\/I> by violence; and houses, and take them<\/I> away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. 3 Therefore thus saith the LORD<\/B>; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye go haughtily: for this time is<\/I> evil. 4 In that day shall one<\/I> take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and<\/I> say, We be utterly spoiled: he hath changed the portion of my people: how hath he removed it<\/I> from me! turning away he hath divided our fields. 5 Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the LORD<\/B>.<\/P> Here is, I. The injustice of man contriving the evil of sin, Mic 2:1<\/span>; Mic 2:2<\/span>. God was coming forth against this people to destroy them, and here he shows what was the ground of his controversy with them; it is that which is often mentioned as a sin that hastens the ruin of nations and families as much as any, the sin of oppression. Let us see the steps of it. 1. They eagerly desire that which is not their own–that is the root of bitterness,<\/I> the root of all evil, v.<\/I><\/span> 2<\/span>. They covet fields and houses,<\/I> as Ahab did Naboth’s vineyard. “Oh that such a one’s field and house were mine! It lies convenient for me, and I would manage it better than he does; it is fitter for me than for him.” 2. They set their wits on work to invent ways of accomplishing their desire (v.<\/I><\/span> 4<\/span>); they devise iniquity with a great deal of cursed art and policy; they plot how to do it effectually, and yet so as not to expose themselves, or bring themselves into danger, or under reproach, by it. This is called working evil!<\/I> they are working it in their heads, in their families, and are as intent upon it, and with as much pleasure, as if they were doing it, and are as confident of their success (so wisely do they think they have laid the scheme) as if it were assuredly done. Note, It is bad to do mischief upon a sudden thought, but much worse to devise it, to do it with design and deliberation; when the craft and subtlety of the old serpent appear with his poison and venom, it is wickedness in perfection. They devised it upon their beds,<\/I> when they should have been asleep; care to compass a mischievous design held their eyes waking. Upon their beds,<\/I> where they should have been remembering God, and meditating upon him, where they should have been communing with their own hearts<\/I> and examining them, they were devising iniquity.<\/I> It is of great consequence to improve and employ the hours of our retirement and solitude in a proper manner. 3. They employ their power in executing what they have designed and contrived; they practise the iniquity they have devised, because it is in the power of their hand;<\/I> they find that they can compass it by the help of their wealth, and the authority and interest they have, and that none dare control them, or call them to an account for it; and this, they think, will justify them and bear them out in it. Note, It is the mistake of many to think that as they can do they may do; whereas no power is given for destruction, but all for edification. 4. They are industrious and very expeditious in accomplishing the iniquity they have devised; when they have settled the matter in their thoughts, in their beds, they lose no time, but as soon as the morning is light<\/I> they practice it; they are up early in the prosecution of their designs, and what ill their hand finds to do they do it with all their might,<\/I> which shames our slothfulness and dilatoriness in doing good, and should shame us out of them. In the service of God, and our generation, let it never be said that we left that to be done to-morrow which we could do to-day. 5. They stick at nothing to compass their designs; what they covet<\/I> they take away,<\/I> if they can, and, (1.) They care not what wrong they do, though it be ever so gross and open; they take away men’s fields by violence, not only by fraud, and underhand practices and colour of law, but by force and with a high hand. (2.) They care not to whom they do wrong nor how far the iniquity extends which they devise: They oppress a man and his house;<\/I> they rob and ruin those that have numerous families to maintain, and are not concerned though they send them and their wives and children a begging. They oppress a man and his heritage;<\/I> they take away from men that which they have an unquestionable title to, having received it from their ancestors, and which they have but in trust, to transmit it to their posterity; but those oppressors care not how many they impoverish, so they may but enrich themselves. Note, If covetousness reigns in the heart, commonly all compassion is banished from it; and if any man love this world,<\/I> as the love of the Father,<\/I> so the love of his neighbour is not in him.<\/I><\/P> II. The justice of God contriving the evil of punishment for this sin (v.<\/I><\/span> 3<\/span>): Therefore thus saith the Lord,<\/I> the righteous God, that judges between man and man, and is an avenger on those that do wrong, Behold, against this family do I devise an evil,<\/I> that is, against the whole kingdom, the house of Israel,<\/I> and particularly those families in it that were cruel and oppressive. They unjustly devise evil against their brethren, and God will justly devise evil against them. Infinite Wisdom will so contrive the punishment of their sin that it shall be very sure, and such as cannot be avoided, very severe, and such as they cannot bear, very signal and remarkable, and such as shall be universally observed to answer to the sin. The more there appears of a wicked wit in the sin the more there shall appear of a holy wisdom and fitness in the punishment; for the Lord will be known by the judgments he executes;<\/I> he will be owned by them. 1. He finds them very secure, and confident that they shall in some way or other escape the judgment, or, though they fall under it, shall soon throw it off and get clear of it, and therefore he tells them, It is an evil from which they shall not remove their neck.<\/I> They were children of Belial,<\/I> that would not endure the easy yoke of God’s righteous commands, but broke those bonds<\/I> asunder, and cast away those cords from them;<\/I> and therefore God will lay upon them the heavy yoke of his righteous judgments, and they shall not be able to withdraw their necks from that; those that will not be overruled shall be overcome. 2. He finds them very proud and stately, and therefore he tells them that they shall not go haughtily, with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go<\/I> (Isa. iii. 16<\/span>); for this time is evil,<\/I> and the events of it are very humbling and mortifying, and such as will bring down the stoutest spirit. 3. He finds them very merry and jovial, and therefore tells them their note shall be changed, their laughter shall be turned into mourning and their joy into heaviness (v.<\/I><\/span> 4<\/span>): In that day,<\/I> when God comes to punish you for your oppression, shall one take up a parable against you,<\/I> and lament with a doleful lamentation,<\/I> with a lamentation of lamentations<\/I> (so the word is), a most lamentable lamentation, as a song of songs is a most pleasing song. Their enemies shall insult over them, and make a jest of their griefs, for they shall take up a parable against them.<\/I> Their friends shall mourn over them, and lay to heart their calamities, and this shall be the general cry, “We are utterly spoiled;<\/I> we are all undone.” Note, Those that were most haughty and secure in their prosperity are commonly most dejected and most ready to despair in their adversity. 4. He finds them very rich in houses and lands, which they have gained by oppression, and therefore tells them that they shall be stripped of all. (1.) They shall, in their despair, give it all up; they shall say, We are utterly spoiled; he has changed the portion of my people,<\/I> so that it is now no longer theirs, but it is in the possession and occupation of their enemies: How has he removed it from me!<\/I> How suddenly, how powerfully! What is unjustly got by us will not long continue with us; the righteous God will remove it. Turning away<\/I> from us in wrath, he has divided our fields,<\/I> and given them into the hands of strangers. Woe to those from whom God turns away. The margin reads it, “Instead of restoring, he has divided our fields;<\/I> instead of putting us again in the possession of our estates, he has confirmed those in the possession of them that have taken them from us.” Note, It is just with God that those who have dealt fraudulently and violently with others should themselves be dealt fraudulently and violently with. (2.) God shall ratify what they say in their despair (v.<\/I><\/span> 5<\/span>); so it shall be: Thou shalt have none to cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the Lord,<\/I> none to divide inheritances, because there shall be no inheritances to divide, no courts to try titles to lands, or determine controversies about them, or cast lots upon them, as in Joshua’s time, for all shall be in the enemies’ hand. This land, which should be taken from them, they had not only an unquestionable title to, but a very comfortable enjoyment of, for it was in the congregation of the Lord,<\/I> or rather the congregation of the Lord was in it; it was God’s land; it was a holy land, and therefore it was the more grievous to them to be turned out of it. Note, Those are to be considered the sorest calamities which cut us off from the congregation of the Lord, or cut us short in the enjoyment of the privileges of it.<\/P> <\/p>\n MICAH – CHAPTER 2<\/strong><\/p>\n BRUTALITY OF THEIR RULERS<\/strong><\/p>\n Verses 1-11:<\/p>\n Verse 1 begins <\/strong>a description of specific sins that the nobles of Israel have committed, for which, judgment is to fall. Woe is pronounced on those who “devise” or plan to do deeds of lawlessness, even while upon their beds at night. They work “work out” methods by which they plan to do the evil the following day, beginning as soon as day breaks. This is termed pre-meditated evil, Psa 36:5<\/span>; Psa 4:5<\/span>; Job 4:13<\/span>; It was fabricated by rulers, by night, then executed by their hands and choice by day, Psa 48:2<\/span>; Gen 31:29<\/span>; Pro 3:27<\/span>.<\/p>\n Verse 2 charges <\/strong>that civil leaders, nobles, coveted fields of people in Israel, then took them by violence. They oppressed a man of their own race, then defrauded his heritage of land and houses for their own use and pleasure. Such was forbidden in the very law of God they were supposed to be upholding, Exo 20:15<\/span>; Exo 20:17<\/span>; Deu 5:21<\/span>.<\/p>\n Verse 3 warns <\/strong>that Almighty God has done some “devising”, planning, in response to the willful sins of His people. Against this family or nation of Israel this evil (or judgment) He has devised, Exo 21:23<\/span>; Isa 33:1<\/span>; Jer 8:3<\/span>. To punish their devised deeds of v. 1, 2. He threatens certain retribution, from which yoke of bondage they can not remove their necks, contrasted with the Lord’s “easy yoke” for the obedient, Mat 11:29-30<\/span>. Neither will they longer be permitted to go or walk with haughty slanderers, unpunished, Jer 6:28<\/span>; Psa 58:9<\/span>. Because the time was an evil time, abhorrent to the Lord, Amo 5:13<\/span>; Eph 5:16<\/span>.<\/p>\n Verse 4 prophecies <\/strong>that punishment, because of their wickedness, will be a matter of common conversation and confession among the people of the national Israel, when it is too late. They shall then take up a lamentation of despair, repeating it one after another in their captivity, when mercy’s day they have passed by, by willful choice. They charge injustice against God, because God, in judgment, assigns their land to other nations, as He had warned He would do if they rebelled against His laws, Deuteronomy ch. 28, 29, 30: Because of their backsliding, He turned away from them in mercy to judgment, Jer 49:4<\/span>; Isa 47:10-11<\/span>.<\/p>\n Verse 5 warns <\/strong>that because of their sins, described v. 1, 2, they shall have none that shall have a cord, a measured out lot of heritage land any longer, as described Jos 13:6<\/span>. Such a distribution was now about to be made by Israel’s enemies, not by her civil or religious leaders any more, in the congregation of the Lord. By covetousness and violence they had forfeited the inheritance of their own people, v. 4. For they shall no longer be reckoned in, but excluded from, the congregation of the Lord, where the inheritances of Israel were assigned.<\/p>\n Verse 6 explains <\/strong>that the people, the false prophets, and the politicians forbade God and Micah to prophesy. But God spoke through Micah reciting their prohibitions to them, forewarning them of their consequence. They were as hearers, having itching ears, wanting to hear only good things that might be coming to them. But shame is to come to them, Amo 2:12<\/span>; Amo 7:16<\/span>; See also Isa 30:10<\/span>; 2Ti 4:2-3<\/span>.<\/p>\n Verse 7 addressed <\/strong>the house of Jacob with rhetoric inquiry, suggesting God is not unjust, unrighteous, or changed in His nature, is He? Exo 34:6<\/span>. Is His Spirit now with less compassion, narrower than in the past, so that He would delight in your punishment? Psa 77:7-9<\/span>; Isa 59:1-2<\/span>. Are these judgment threats because God has changed? Or are they not because of your behavior? “My words still do good to those who walk uprightly, don’t they?” Certainly so! Psa 18:26<\/span>; Mat 11:19<\/span>; Joh 7:17<\/span>.<\/p>\n Verse 8 charges <\/strong>that of late, or recently, the people had stood up, taken an hostile or obstinate stand, like an enemy, against the precepts of the Lord, Isa 30:33<\/span>; Jos 3:4<\/span>. They are charged with greedily robbing travelers who passed by of ornamental robes, their finer clothes, Mat 5:40<\/span>; Those who innocently passed by, the Israelites pounced upon, and robbed them of all they had, including their best outer garments, as enemies would for spoils of war.<\/p>\n Verse 9 further <\/strong>charges the nobles and rulers with evicting widows, whose husbands were slain in battle, from their own modest homes, seizing the property for themselves, v. 2, even as Jesus charged Pharisees with devouring widow’s houses or estates, Mat 23:24<\/span>; Mar 12:40<\/span>; Luk 20:47<\/span>. From these orphans and widows these rulers in Samaria had taken away God’s glory forever, depriving them of dignity of life and honor to God, making them as abject slaves. The pledge garment was to be returned to the poor by sunset, but these rulers simply kept them for themselves, breaking the Mosaic law they were supposed to administer, Exo 22:26-27<\/span>.<\/p>\n Verse 10 calls <\/strong>upon the rulers to arise and prepare for a surrender to the Assyrian enemy. As they had made abject slaves of their own widows and orphans and seized their properties, so were they to become captives under the oppressive Assyrians, “reaping what they had sown,” with their “sins finding them out,” without rest, away from their homes and homeland, Gal 6:7-8<\/span>; Num 32:23<\/span>. Because they had polluted the land with their lust, greed, covetousness, and idolatry, they were to be deprived of their land of rest, once given of the Lord, yet to be restored after final dispersion, Lev 18:25-28<\/span>; Jer 3:2<\/span>; Eze 36:12-14<\/span>.<\/p>\n Verse 11 warns <\/strong>that if a prophet should walk in the spirit, (claim inspiration, blowing like the wind), prophesying good things, speaking with optimism, he would simply be lying, telling them what they wanted to hear, not by inspiration, Eze 13:3<\/span>; Hos 9:7<\/span>. Though they prophesy of good crops of grapes and new wine for the people they would be doing it falsely, as lying prophets, not able to escape Divine judgment, Jer 5:31<\/span>; See also Isa 26:18<\/span>; Isa 41:29<\/span>. Their days of glory were gone.<\/p>\n The Prophet does not here speak only against the Israelites, as some think, who have incorrectly confined this part of his teaching to the ten tribes; but he, on the contrary, (in discharging his office, addresses also the Jews. He refers not here to idolatry, as in the last chapter; but inveighs against sins condemned in the second table. As then the Jews had not only polluted the worship of God, but also gave loose reins to many iniquities, so that they dealt wrongfully with their neighbors, and there was among them no attention to justice and equity, so the prophet inveighs here as we shall see, against avarice, robberies, and cruelty: and his discourse is full of vehemence; for there was no doubt such licentiousness then prevailing among the people, that there was need of severe and sharp reproofs. It is at the same time easy to perceive that his discourse is mainly directed against the chief men, who exercised authority, and turned it to wrong purposes. <\/p>\n Woe, he says, to those who meditate on iniquity, and devise (78) evil on their beds, that, when the morning shines, they may execute it Here the Prophet describes to the life the character and manners of those who were given to gain, and were intent only on raising themselves. He says, that in their beds they were meditating on iniquity, and devising wickedness. Doubtless the time of night has been given to men entirely for rest; but they ought also to use this kindness of God for the purpose of restraining themselves from what is wicked: for he who refreshes his strength by nightly rest, ought to think within himself, that it is an unbecoming thing and even monstrous, that he should in the meantime devise frauds, and guiles, and iniquities. For why does the Lord intend that we should rest, except that all evil things should rest also? Hence the Prophet shows here, by implication, that those who are intent on devising frauds, while they ought to rest, subvert as it were the course of nature; for they have no regard for that rest, which has been granted to men for this end, — that they may not trouble and annoy one another. <\/p>\n He afterwards shows how great was their desire to do mischief, When it shines in the morning, he says, they execute it He might have said only, They do in the daytime what they contrive in the night: but he says, In the morning; as though he had said, that they were so heated by avarice, that they rested not a moment; as soon as it shone, they were immediately ready to perpetrate the frauds they had thought of in the night. We now then apprehend the import of the Prophet’s meaning. <\/p>\n He now subjoins, For according to their power is their hand As אל, al, means God, an old interpreter has given this rendering, Against God is their hand: but this does not suit the passage. Others have explained it thus, For strength is in their hand: and almost all those well-skilled in Hebrew agree in this explanation. Those who had power, they think, are here pointed out by the Prophet, — that as they had strength, they dared to do whatever they pleased. But the Hebrew phrase is not translated by them; and I greatly wonder that they have mistaken in a thing so clear: for it is not, There is power in their hand; but their hand is to power. The same mode of speaking is found in Pro 3:0<\/span>, and there also many interpreters are wrong; for Solomon there forbids us to withhold from our neighbor his right, When thine hand, he says, is for power; some say, When there is power to help the miserable. But Solomon means no such thing; for he on the contrary means this, When thine hand is ready to execute any evil, abstain. So also the Lord says in Deu 28:0<\/span>, <\/p>\n “<\/p>\n When the enemy shall take away thy spoils, thy hand will not be for power;” <\/p>\n that is, “Thou wilt not dare to move a finger to restrain thy enemies; when they will plunder thee and rob thee of thy substance, thou wilt stand in dread, for thy hand will be as though it were dead.” I come now to the present passage, Their hand is for power: (79) the Prophet means, that they dared to try what they could, and that therefore their hand was always ready; whenever there was hope of lucre or gains the hand was immediately prepared. How so? Because they were restrained neither by the fear of God nor by any regard for justice; but their hand was for power, that is, what they could, they dared to do. We now then see what the Prophet means as far as I can judge. He afterwards adds — <\/p>\n (78) Literally, work; but פעל means to work not only with the hands, but also with the mind; and hence, to contrive, to devise, to machinate. Henderson has “fabricate,” while Newcome, less suitably, retains the word, “work.” Marckius justly observes, that the working here is not external but internal, the framing, the setting in order, the preparation of evil in the mind. The Prophet points out here that source from which outward evils proceed. What numberless schemes, both good and evil, are concocted and arranged by men on their beds! “They set their wits on work to invent ways of accomplishing their desire. They devise iniquity with a great deal of cursed art and policy; they plot how to do it effectually, and yet so as not to expose themselves. This is called working evil; they are working it in their heads.” — Henry. <\/p>\n (79) The original is, כי יש-לאל ידם Marckius after having referred to Calvin’s version, says, that he prefers that of Junius and Tremelius which is as follows: “ Quum est in potestate manus ipsoram — When it is in the power of their hand,” כי is taken as an adverb of time. The phrase is found in four other places, — Gen 31:29<\/span>; Deu 28:32<\/span>; Neh 5:5<\/span>; and Pro 3:27<\/span>. So that to render אל here “God,” as it is done by the Septuagint, Theodoret, and Jerome, and some others, must be wrong. כי is rendered “because” both by Newcome and Henderson, but not so suitably as to the sense. — Ed. <\/p>\n MICAH: THE FAITHFUL AND FAR-SEEING MINISTER OF GOD.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span>Mic 1:1<\/strong><\/span> to Mic 7:20<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n THERE is every reason to believe that this Book wears its authors name. Micah was a native of Morasthi, near Gath, and probably belonged to the time of Hosea, Amos, and Isaiah. His message is all the more marvelous when one remembers that he was a villager. Born doubtless in a humble house, brought up in a despised burg, bred in no college, he would have been unequal to the modern denominational Editors demands for the ministry. But he does illustrate a Divine custom expressed in Sacred Scripture viz. that, Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.<\/em><\/p>\n God has never seen fit to limit Himself to the great financial or intellectual minds of the world. He is dependent upon no mans money; and just as independent of conceited minds. He can take Peter, the unlettered fisherman, and by instructing him in the Scripture and sending upon him His Holy Spirit, make of him a minister in whose presence the Pope himself would seem a pigmy by comparison.<\/p>\n It is related that when the Emperor Domitian was persecuting believers he heard of two men reputed to be akin to Jesus, and he sent for them, intending to put them to death. But when they came, and he saw their horny hands and realized that they were evidently day-laborers, he dismissed them saying, From such slaves we have nothing to fear.<\/p>\n And yet, those men belonged to the very class who rocked Domitians empire to its foundation, and spread the knowledge of the Gospel to the ends of the known earth; and, their humble station notwithstanding, have had few worthy successors in the ministry of the Truth. Let us not object to Micah because he is from a village and does not carry a graduates diploma. If he is Divinely appointed, and Divinely endued, his work will be well done.<\/p>\n The exact date of this Book, as that of other Minor Prophets, is in dispute, and it would in no wise help you to review the opinions of Hitzig, Wellhausen, Stade, Vatke, Kuenen, Driver, Von Ryssel, and the rest.<\/p>\n We are more interested in his message, or messages; and to those I invite your attention.<\/p>\n <\/span>HE UNCOVERS THE CHURCH OF HIS TIMES<\/strong><\/p>\n When I speak of the Church of his times I do not mean to say that there was any organized body of baptized believers in Micahs day; but I do mean to say that there was an ecclesia, not in the New Testament use of the term, but in the natural interpretation of that word, namely, a called out body.<\/p>\n In the opening part of this prophecy he deals with that body:<\/p>\n Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from His holy Temple.<\/em><\/p>\n For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of His place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.<\/p>\n 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 (Mic 1:2-4<\/em><\/span>).<\/em><\/p>\n <\/span>He indicts the churchman; not the worldling.<\/strong><\/p>\n For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the House of Israel.<\/em><\/p>\n It is a good place for the minister to begin. Gods people must be set right before the minister can make any headway with the world. There is many a true prophet of God who is preaching his heart out in a church where the professed followers of the Lord Jesus Christ are, by their wickedness, bringing his every word to naught. It is not an exceptional experience for preachers to be requested to resign because the church is receiving no accessions, when the very men who make the request have rendered it impossible for any kind of preaching to bring converts into the church of which they are members. Rev. E. A. Whittier, in an old issue of The Watchman once remarked When Rev. Frank Remington came to the First Baptist Church in Lawrence many years ago the spiritual tide ebbed low. For six months he preached searching sermons to Gods people. It was like the voice of one of the old Prophets. The dry bones lived again. In about six months he turned to the unsaved, and the flood gates of Heaven were opened. In about three years he baptized nearly 500 converts in Lawrence and Andover, and organized the Second Baptist Church. Remington began at the right place. And Micah was Gods faithful minister, dealing first of all with Gods professed followers. Given a clean, consecrated membership, and accessions to the church of new converts is comparatively easy.<\/p>\n He arraigned the prospered;<\/strong> 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>Scheming in the night. When avarice takes possession of a man, it works the brain by night as well as by day. What schemes to swindle, defraud, and plunder men are fabricated every night upon the pillow!<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Working in the day. The idea esteemed most is the worldly gain of avaricious labour. So it ever is; gain is the God of the greedy man. He sacrifices all his time and labour on its altar. Shakespeare compares such a man to a whale which plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry before him, and at last devours them all at a mouthful.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>Suffering in the judgment. For judgment comes at last, and in the judgment these words give us to understand the punishment will correspond with the sin. Because they reflect upon evil, says Delitzsch, to deprive their fellow men of their possessions, Jehovah will bring evil upon this generation, lay a heavy yoke upon their necks, under which they will not be able to walk loftily or with extended neck. Ay, the time will come when the avaricious millionaire will exclaim, We be utterly spoiled. Go to, now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you, etc. (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: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n