5<\/strong>. guide<\/em> ] Rather, familiar friend<\/strong>. The same mistake occurs in A. V. of Psa 55:13<\/span> (14 in the Hebrew).<\/p>\n 5, 6<\/strong>. Here the prophet addresses the better disposed of his people. Friendship and wedded love can no longer be trusted; natural affection passes into its opposite. Comp. Mat 10:21<\/span>; Mat 10:35-36<\/span> (a reminiscence of a clause in our passage), Luk 12:53<\/span>; Luk 21:16<\/span>.<\/p>\n Trust ye not in a friend – <\/B>It is part of the perplexity of crooked ways, that all relationships are put out of joint. Selfishness rends each from the other, and disjoints the whole frame of society. Passions and sin break every band of friendship, kindred, gratitude, nature. Everyone seeketh his own. Times of trial and of outward harass increase this; so that Gods visitations are seasons of the most frightful recklessness as to everything but sell: So had God foretold Deu 28:53<\/span>; so it was in the siege of Samaria 2Ki 6:28<\/span>, and in that of Jerusalem both by the Chaldeans Lam 4:3-16<\/span> and by the Romans . When the soul has lost the love of God, all other is but sceming love, since natural affection is from Him, and it too dies out, as God gives the soul over to itself Rom 1:28<\/span>. The words describe partly the inward corruption, partly the outward causes which shall call it forth.<\/P> There is no real trust in any, where all are eorrupt. The outward straitness and perplexity, in which they shall be, makes that to crumble and fall to pieces, which was inwardly decayed and severed before. The words deepen, as they go on. First, the friend, or neighbor, the common band of man and man; then the guide, (or, as the word also means, one familiar, united by intimacy, to whom, by continual intercourse, the soul was used;) then the wife who lay in the bosom, nearest to the secrets of the heart; then those to whom all reverence is due, father and mother. Our Lord said that this should be fulfilled in the hatred of His Gospel. He begins His warning as to it, with a caution like that of the prophet; Be ye wise as serpents Mat 10:16-17<\/span>, and beware of men. Then He says, how these words should still be true Mat 10:21<\/span>, Mat 10:35-36<\/span>. There never were wanting pleas of earthly interest against the truth.<\/P> He Himself was cut off lest the Romans should take away their place and nation Joh 11:48<\/span>. The Apostles were accused, that they meant to bring this Mans Blood upon the chief priests Act 5:28<\/span>; or as ringleaders of the sect of the Nazarenes, pestilant fallows and movers of sedition, turning the world upside down, setters up of another king; troublers of the city; comanding things unlawful for Romans to practice; setters forth of strange gods; turning away much people Act 24:5<\/span>; Act 16:20-21<\/span>; Act 17:6-7<\/span>, Act 17:18<\/U><\/span>; 1Pe 2:12<\/span>; endangering not mens craft only, but the honor of their gods; evil doers. Truth is against the worlds ways, so the world is against it. Holy zeal hates sin, so sinners hate it. It troubles them, so they count it, one which troubleth Israel 1Ki 18:17<\/span>. Tertullian, in a public defense of Christians in the second century, writes, , Truth set out with being herself hated; as soon as she appeared, she is an enemy. As many as are strangers to it, so many are its foes; and the Jews indeed appropriately from their rivalry, the soldiers from their violence, even they of our own household from nature. Each flay are we beset, each day betrayed; in our very meetings and assemblies are we mostly surprised.<\/P> There was no lack of pleas. : A Christian thou deemest a man guilty of every crime, an encmy of the goals, of the Emperors, of law, of morals, of all nature; factious, authors of all public calamities through the anger of the pagan gods, impious, atheists, disloyal, public enemies. The Jews, in the largest sense of the word they of their own household, were ever the deadliest enemies of Christians, the inventors of calumnies, the authors of persecutions. What other race, says , Tertullian, is the seed-plot of our calumnies?<\/P> Then the Acts of the Martyrs tell, how Christians were betrayed by near kinsfolk for private interest, or for revenge, because they would not join in things unlawful. Jerome: So many are the instances in daily life, (of the daughter rising against the mother) that we should rather mourn that they are so many, than seek them out. – I seek no examples, (of those of a mans own househould being his foes) they are too many, that we should have any need of witness. Dionysius: Yet ought we not, on account of these and like words of Holy Scripture, to be mistrustful or suspicious, or always to presume the worst, but to be cautious and prudent. For Holy Scripture speaketh with reference to times, causes, persons, places. So John saith, Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God 1Jo 4:1<\/span>.<\/P> <\/p>\n Verse 5<\/span>. Trust ye not in a friend<\/B><\/I>] These times will be so evil, and the people so wicked, that all bonds<\/I> will be dissolved<\/I>; and even the most intimate will betray each other, when they can hope to serve themselves by it.<\/P> <\/P> On this passage, in the year 1798, I find I have written as follows: – <\/P> <\/P> “Trust ye not in a friend<\/I>. – Several of those whom I have delighted to call by that name have deceived me.<\/P> <\/P> “Put ye not confidence in a guide<\/I>. – Had I followed some of these I should have gone to perdition.<\/P> <\/P> “Keep the door of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom<\/I>. – My wife alone never deceived me.”<\/P> <\/P> It is now twenty-seven<\/I> years since, and I find no cause to alter what I then wrote.<\/P> <\/p>\n Trust ye not in a friend:<\/B> most prodigiously treacherous were the people of that age, and since none upright, all lay in wait for blood, and were turned hunters of brethren, it is but necessary caution that they trust no friendship. <\/P> A guide; <\/B>either a governor, who ought to guide; or equal, who being of intimate familiarity usually do guide; or a husband, as the word imports. <\/P> Keep the doors of thy mouth; <\/B>watch thy words, let not thy tongue discover any secret or utter any words which may be danger to thyself, or give an advantage to thine enemy. <\/P> From her that lieth in thy bosom; <\/B>a periphrasis of a wife in honest times; but whether in debauched times, as these are of which the prophet did speak, it may not import somewhat like that Pro 5:20<\/span>, I will not say: a wife, one may rationally suppose, will never disclose a husbands secrets to ruin him; yet such were the treacheries of that corrupt age, that it would be imprudence to trust a with. <\/P> <\/p>\n 5. Trust ye not in a friend<\/B>Faithis kept nowhere: all to a man are treacherous (Jer9:2-6<\/span>). When justice is perverted by the great, faith nowhere issafe. So, in gospel times of persecution, “a man’s foes are theyof his own household” (Mat 10:35<\/span>;Mat 10:36<\/span>; Luk 12:53<\/span>).<\/P> guide<\/B>a counsellor[CALVIN] able to help andadvise (compare Psa 118:8<\/span>;Psa 118:9<\/span>; Psa 146:3<\/span>).The head of your family,<\/I> to whom all the members of the familywould naturally repair in emergencies. Similarly the Hebrew<\/I> istranslated in Jos 22:14<\/span> and”chief friends” in Pr16:28<\/span> [GROTIUS]. <\/P> her that lieth in thybosom<\/B>thy wife (De 13:6<\/span>).<\/P><\/p>\n Trust ye not in a friend<\/strong>,…. This is not said to lessen the value of friendship; or to discourage the cultivation of it with agreeable persons; or to dissuade from a confidence in a real friend; or in the least to weaken it, and damp the pleasure of true friendship, which is one of the great blessings of life; but to set forth the sad degeneracy of the then present age, that men, who pretended to be friends, were so universally false and faithless, that there was no dependence to be had on them:<\/p>\n put ye not confidence in a guide<\/strong>; in political matters, in civil affairs, as civil magistrates, judges, counsellors; or in domestic matters. The Targum renders it, in one near akin. Kimchi interprets it of an elder brother; and Aben Ezra of a husband, who is to his wife the guide of her youth; and in religious matters as prophets, priests who were false and deceitful. It may design a very intimate friend, a familiar acquaintance, who might of all men be thought to be confided in; of whom the word is used, Ps 55:13<\/span>;<\/p>\n keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom<\/strong>; from a wife, and much more from a concubine or harlot. The Targum is,<\/p>\n “from the wife of thy covenant keep the words of thy mouth;”<\/p>\n divulge not the thoughts of thine heart, or disclose the secrets of it, to one so near; take care of speaking treason against the prince, or ill of a neighbour; it may be got out of such an one, and who may be so base as to betray it: or utter not anything whatever that is secret, the divulging of which may be detrimental; for, in such an age as this was, one in so near a relation might be wicked enough to discover it; see Ec 10:20<\/span>.<\/p>\n The Prophet pursues the subject we discussed yesterday, — that liberty, in iniquity, bad arrived to its highest point, for no faithfulness remained among men; nay, there was no more any humanity; for the son performed not his duty towards his father, nor the daughter-in-law towards her mother-in-law; in short, there was then no mutual love and concord. He does not here speak of that false confidence, by which many deceive themselves, who rely on mortals, and transfer to them the glory which belongs to God. Those therefore without any reason, philosophize here, who say, that we ought not to trust in men; for this was not the design of the Prophet. But our Prophet complains of his times according to the tenor of Ovid’s description of the iron age, who says – <\/p>\n “—<\/p>\n A guest is not safe from his host; Nor a brother-in-law from a son-in-law; and brotherly love is rare: A husband seeks the death of his wife, and she, of her husband; Cruel stepmothers mingle the lurid poison; The son, before the day, inquires into the years of his father.” (187) <\/p>\n So also our Prophet says, that there was no regard to humanity among men; for the wife was ready to betray her husband, the son treated his father with reproach; in short, they had all forgotten humanity or natural affection. We now then understand what the Prophet means by saying, Trust not a friend; (188) that is, if any one hopes for any thing from a friend, he will be deceived; for nothing can be found among men but perfidy. <\/p>\n Put no faith in a counselor So I render the word אלוף, aluph; some translate it, an elder brother; but there is no necessity to constrain us to depart from the proper and true meaning of the word. As then the Prophet had spoken of an associate or a friend, so he now adds a counselor. And it proves what he had in view, when he says in the next clause, that no enemies are worse than domestics. We hence see that the Prophet simply means, that the men of his age were not only avaricious and cruel to one another, but that without any regard to human feelings the son rebelled against his father, and thus subverted the whole order of nature; So that they had none of those affections, which seem at the same time to be incapable of being extinguished in men. Let us now proceed — <\/p>\n (187) See Ov. Met. Lib. I. 144-148. <\/p>\n (188) Ne fidatis amico : it is rather, Believe not in a friend, that is, in what he says, אל-תאמינו ברע. The next expression is that which signifies reliance, trust or confidence. אלוף, is a leader; ηγουμενος in Sept., one who leads the way. Diodati gives its true meaning, — “A conductor, the most trusty friend, who is one’s usual counselor in every difficulty and perplexity.” Jerome refers to scriptural instances as to the persons here mentioned: the friend, Ahitophel and Judas, — the counselor, Abimelek, who was made king by the men of Sichem, and oppressed them, — domestics, Absalom and the wives of Esau. The word used for “dishonoring” is very strong; מנבל, one who counts a thing worthless or abominable; it means not only to dishonor, but to regard with disdain and contempt. “The contempt and violation of the laws of domestic duties,” Henry justly observes, “are a sad symptom of an universal corruption of manners. Those are never likely to come to good who are undutiful to their parents, and study to be provoking to them and cross them.” — Ed. <\/p>\n (5, 6) Trust ye not<\/strong> . . .All is now distrust and suspicion. The households are divided each against itself, and the relationships which should mean mutual confidence and support have become the occasion of the most bitter hostility. Our Lord adopts these words to express the strife and division which, He foresaw, would defile Christianity. (Comp. Mat. 10:35<\/span>; Mar. 13:12<\/span>; Luk. 12:53<\/span>.)<\/p>\n These are strong expressions, and if taken spiritually, are very much to the purpose. What hath any man to trust in, but Jesus and his great salvation?<\/p>\n Mic 7:5 Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.<\/p>\n Ver. 5. Trust ye not in a friend<\/strong> ] Friends (said Socrates), there is no friend: and a friend is a changeable creature, saith another ( ); all in changeable colours as the peacock, as often changed as moved. Besides, many friends are not more fickle than false, like deep ponds, clear at the top, and all muddy at the bottom. Fide ergo: sed cui vide.<\/em> Try before you trust; and when you have tried your utmost, trust not overly far, lest you cry out at length, as Queen Elizabeth did, In trust I have found treason; or as Julius Caesar, when stabbed by Brutus among others, What thou, my son Brutus? He was slain in the senate house, with 23 wounds, given, in the most part, by those whose lives he had preserved. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Put ye not confidence in a guide<\/strong> ] Potenti et pollenti consilio et auxilio.<\/em> Be he never so potent or politic, beyond thousand others, as the word importeth: and as the people said to David, “But now thou art worth ten thousand of us,” 2Sa 18:3<\/span> , thou art the light of Israel, thou art the breath of our nostrils; so that if thou miscarry, we shall all breathe out our last. All which notwithstanding, princes are not to be trusted, Psa 62:7<\/span> ; Psa 118:8-9<\/span> ; Psa 146:3<\/span> , for either they may die, or their affections may die; all their golden thoughts may perish. Great men’s words, saith one, are like dead men’s shoes; he may go barefoot that waiteth for them. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom<\/strong> ] From thy wife, thine , called the wife of thy bosom, because she should be as dear unto thee as the heart in thy bosom. Be not too open hearted to her, lest she tell all, as Samson’s wife; or as Fulvia, in Sallust, who declared all the secrets of Cneius, a noble Roman, her foolish lover. A fool telleth all, saith Solomon, Pro 29:11<\/span> , he is as little able to keep as to give counsel. He is full of chinks, and leaks every way; the doors of his mouth are seldom kept shut; you may know him by his gaping: fools are called by Aristophanes and Lucian, ; gapers. “But a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards,” Pro 29:11<\/span> ; Tacitus he holds to be the best historian; and keeps his mouth with a bridle, as David did, Psa 39:1<\/span> , and as the poets feign of Pegasus, that he had a golden bridle put upon him by Minerva, their goddess of wisdom. God and nature have taught us by the site of the tongue in a man’s mouth, to take heed to it, and to keep the doors of it; and when all is done, to pray God to keep that door, Psa 141:3<\/span> . The tongue is ever in udo,<\/em> in a moisture; but yet tied by the roots, that it may not stir out of place; it is also guarded with a percullis of teeth and a two-leaved gate of lips, which we must carefully keep, and hold that for an oracle, <\/p>\n “ Si sapis, arcano vina reconde cado.<\/em> ”<\/p>\n “If you have sense, hide your personal wine in a jar”<\/p>\n Trust ye not = Put ye no faith in. Hebrew. ‘aman. See App-69. <\/p>\n put ye not confidence in. Hebrew. batah. See App-69. So the Western Massorites. The Eastern, with three early printed editions, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulg, read “neither put”, &c. Quoted in Mat 10:35, Mat 10:36; Luk 12:53. <\/p>\n doors = entrances, or openings. <\/p>\n trust <\/p>\n (See Scofield “Psa 2:12”). <\/p>\n ye not in: Job 6:14, Job 6:15, Psa 118:8, Psa 118:9, Jer 9:4, Mat 10:16 <\/p>\n keep: Jdg 16:5-20 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: Gen 29:14 – art my Gen 29:23 – brought her Deu 13:6 – thy brother Deu 28:54 – and toward Jdg 14:15 – Entice Jdg 14:20 – his friend Jdg 16:6 – General Jdg 16:17 – all his heart 1Sa 14:1 – he told not 2Sa 9:12 – servants 2Sa 12:3 – lay in his 2Sa 15:12 – David’s 2Sa 16:3 – where is 1Ki 1:2 – lie Neh 2:12 – neither Neh 6:2 – they thought Job 19:14 – kinsfolk Psa 38:14 – that heareth Psa 39:1 – while Psa 41:6 – speaketh Psa 55:13 – my guide Psa 69:8 – and an alien Psa 141:3 – Set a watch Pro 26:25 – speaketh fair Pro 29:11 – General Ecc 3:7 – time to keep Jer 12:6 – thy brethren Jer 38:22 – have set Jer 40:14 – Ishmael Lam 1:2 – all her friends Dan 11:26 – that feed Amo 5:13 – the prudent Mat 10:17 – beware Mat 10:21 – the brother shall Mat 10:35 – General Mat 24:10 – betray Luk 12:52 – General Luk 21:16 – ye shall Luk 22:21 – General Joh 7:5 – General<\/p>\n Mic 7:5. This vense certainly paints a dark picture of society, for the advice given seems to be a contradiction of all the well established rules of friendship. It is a clear example of the Incompleteness of many passages in the Bible if we stop with any particular verse, for such divisions are the arbitrary work of man and are done for convenience, and often cause a thought to be divided in the wrong place. We should always be watchful for this condition and not form a conclusion until we know we have considered all that is being offered on the subject.<\/p>\n Mic 7:5-7. Trust ye not in a friend This and the next verse are descriptive of a general corruption of manners; so that all ties and duties of consanguinity were trampled upon, or paid no regard to. The friend proved treacherous to his friend, the wife to her husband: children set at naught their parents, and a mans own family, or domestics, plotted his injury, or destruction, or acted as enemies toward him. Therefore will I look unto the Lord The church here expresses her confidence in God alone, since no trust could be placed in man. Or, they may be considered as the words of the prophet, and of those who feared God in Israel.<\/p>\n Micah warned the Judeans against trusting in their neighbors, friends, or even wives who reassured them that everything would be all right. They could trust no one because everyone was telling lies to gain their own advantage. They could not trust the members of their own families because everyone was after his or her own interests and would stoop to betrayal to obtain them (cf. Mat 10:35-36; Mar 13:12; Luk 12:53).<\/p>\n "Man is so made that he finds security in a small group among whom he is accepted and receives support. At the heart of the concentric circles of people known to him there must ever be a stable core of friends, and usually family, if his psychological equilibrium is to be maintained. The prophet gradually penetrates to the center of these inner circles of familiarity: friend-best friend-wife. A man is now forced to go against his nature, retiring within himself and keeping his own counsel, if he is not to face betrayal." [Note: Allen, p. 388.] <\/span><\/p>\n Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. 5. guide ] Rather, familiar friend. The same mistake occurs in A. V. of Psa 55:13 (14 in the Hebrew). Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 5, … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Micah 7:5”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/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: Calvin’s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"