Micah 6:1

Hear ye now what the Lord saith,.... Here begins a new discourse, and with an address of the prophet to the people of Israel, to hear what the Lord had to say to them by way of reproof for their sins

Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.

MICAH CHAPTER 6 God’ s controversy with his people for ingratitude, . What service is acceptable to him, . He reproveth them for their injustice, , and idolatry, . Hear ye: see . Now; whilst the Lord is willing to debate with you, before it be too late for you. What the Lord saith: though it is a man like yourselves who speaketh, yet he comes from the Lord, and with the Lord’ s message, and it is the Lord who speaketh by Micah. Arise: this is God’ s command to Micah, who is bidden to arise; so Jonah, , See Poole "". Prophets, as other men, could be content to sit at ease, and neither be troubled by others or troublesome to others; and perhaps the little success of Micah’ s preaching had occasioned him to retire and sit down; now God rouseth him, Get up, prepare thyself, contend thou; plead, Micah, the present cause, argue the case that is between thy God plaintiff, and thy people delinquents. Before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice; plead openly, vehemently, let there be witnesses to hear the case, which is so clear on God’ s side, and so full against thy people, that the very mountains and hills, on which they have sinned against me notoriously, on which I have blessed them abundantly, had they eyes, and ears, and voice, would testify that I have planted them with vines, olives, fig trees, and clothed them with grass and flocks, and stored them with springs, and beautified them with cedars, oaks, and all pleasant trees of the forest; this I have done upon the mountains and hills for my people, and there they have made their groves, set up their idols, sacrificed to devils, and committed other lewdnesses not to be named. O Micah, speak as if thou wouldst make mountains hear thee to testify for me, .

Micah 6:1 Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.Ver. 1. Hear ye now what the Lord saith] Exordium breve est, sed plane patheticum, saith Gualther. This is a short, but pithy and pathetic preface, wherein he woos their attention: Audite quaeso, Hear, I pray you. Ministers are spokesmen for Christ, and must therefore give good words: and yet remembering on whose errand they come, it is required that they be found faithful, 1 Corinthians 4:2. Arise, contend thou] Surge, age, O Micah! Debate thou God’ s cause against this rebellious and ungrateful people, as it were in judgment; calling all, even the insensible creatures, to be judges. See the like Deuteronomy 32:1 Isaiah 1:2 Micah 1:2 (for these two prophets have many things common), and be sensible, that some sit as senseless before a preacher still as the seats they sit on, pillars they lean to, dead bodies they tread upon; so that we have need (as one did once in my hearing) to call to the walls and windows to hear the word of the Lord. This heavy ear is meted for a singular judgment, Matthew 13:13-14 Isaiah 30:8-9. The philosopher was angry with his Boeotians: telling them that they had not their name for nought, since their ears were ox ears, and that they were dull creatures, and incapable of counsel. Demosthenes also, for like cause, called upon his countrymen of Athens to get their ears healed; and Diogenes used to tell his tale to the statues and images, that he might inure himself to lose his labour, as he had so often done, in speaking to the people. Let us, to the wearing of our tongues to the stumps, preach and pray never so much, men will on in sin, said blessed Bradford, in that excellent sermon of his of repentance. We cry till we are hoarse (saith another rare preacher), we speak till we spit forth our lungs; but all to as little purpose as Bede did, when he preached to a heap of stones. Asino quispiam narrabat fabulam: at ille movebat aures. But shall people thus carry it away, and God lose the sweet words? Never think of it. Those that will not hear the word shall bear the rod, Micah 6:9 : and if they could but see their misery they would do as the prophet requires, cut their hair and cast it away, under the sense of the horror of God’ s indignation, Jeremiah 7:27; Jeremiah 7:29, they would beg of God a hearing ear (which is as an earring of gold, Proverbs 25:12), and beseech him to make the bore bigger, that his word might enter; yea, to draw up the ears of their souls to the ears of their bodies, that one saving sound might pierce both at once. Let him that hath an ear to hear, hear; or if yet any think good to forbear, let him forbear, Ezekiel 3:27, but he will certainly repent it.

VI. (1) Hear ye now what the Lord saith.—The third portion of Micah’s prophecy opens with a solemn appeal to Nature to hear the Lord pleading with His people. A similar summons is found in Deuteronomy 32:1 : “Give ear, O ye heavens, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.”

CHAPTER VI This chapter reproves and threatens. The manner of raising the attention by calling on man to urge his plea in the face of all nature, and on the inanimate creation to hear the expostulation of Jehovah with his people, is awakening and sublime. The words of Jehovah follow, 3-5. And God's mercies having been set forth to his people, one of them is introduced, in a beautiful dramatic form, asking what his duty is towards a God so gracious, 6, 7. The answer follows in the words of the prophet, 8; who goes on to upbraid the people of his charge with their injustice and idolatry, to which he ascribes want of success in their lawful undertakings, and those heave calamities which are now impending, 9-15. NOTES ON CHAP. VI Verse 1. Arise, contend thou] This chapter is a sort of dialogue between God and the people. GOD speaks the five first verses, and convicts the people of sin, righteousness, and judgment. The PEOPLE, convinced of their iniquity, deprecate God's judgments, in the sixth and seventh verses. In the eighth verse God prescribes the way in which they are to be saved; and then the prophet, by the command of God, goes on to remonstrate from the ninth verse to the end of the chapter.

1–5. The first part of a controversy between Jehovah and His people 1. before the mountains] The mountains have witnessed all Israel’s past history, the favours conferred upon him, and his base return. Comp. Deuteronomy 32:1, Isaiah 1:2.

Hear ye now what the Lord saith - If ye will not hear the rebuke of man, hear now at last the word of God.

JEHOVAH AND ISRAEL IN — THE , Micah 6:1 to Micah 7:20.With Micah 6:1, begins a new series of utterances.