Micah 7:4

The best of them [is] as a brier,.... Good for nothing but for burning, very hurtful and mischievous, pricking and scratching those that have to do with them: the most upright is sharper than a thorn

The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.

The best; among all naught, who is least naught passeth for best; and so must it be here, not one good, but the least evil man is by the prophet called the best. Of them; of people, prophets, judges, great men, and princes. Is as a brier; mischievous and hurtful to all that meddle with them; and perhaps the prophet alludes to briers infolded in each other, that shall so be devoured at last. The most upright; in the same sense upright as they are said to be best. Is sharper than a thorn hedge; the same in different words, i.e. hurtful and mischievous to all. The day of thy watchmen; literally taken for such as on the watchtowers observe whether enemies approach; the day in which they shall give the affrighting intelligence, and sound the alarm. Or else figuratively, watchmen, i.e. governors, prophets, and teachers, either good and faithful, or evil and unfaithful. The day which the true prophets foretold would come, which faithful teachers confirmed, good governors believed, feared, and, as Hezekiah, endeavoured to prevent, will certainly overtake you, that day of evil which your sins have provoked God to appoint. Or else, that day of good, which your false prophets have promised, your corrupt princes, judges, great men do expect and hope for, shall be a day of visitation, grievous punishment, by which the falsehood of flattering prophets shall be discovered, and the truth of Micah, and Isaiah, &c., true prophets, be confirmed. Cometh, i.e. surely, speedily, and unavoidably on impenitent ones, how many or how great soever. Now; when the day is come as to Samaria in its captivity by the Assyrian tyrant, and to Jerusalem in the Babylonish captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, and in many other nows intervening between the time of Micah’ s minatory predictions and the full accomplishment of them. Shall be their perplexity; the astonishing, overwhelming sorrows, fears, and confusions which shall wreck these great, notorious, and impudent oppressors, hunters, and sellers of justice. They shall be perplexed because the sore evils foretold by the true prophets of God shall overwhelm them, and because the peace and prosperity promised by the false prophets is unexpectedly turned into troubles, desolation, and utter ruin to their state, cities, and families. The best; among all naught, who is least naught passeth for best; and so must it be here, not one good, but the least evil man is by the prophet called the best. Shall be their perplexity; the astonishing, overwhelming sorrows, fears, and confusions which shall wreck these great, notorious, and impudent oppressors, hunters, and sellers of justice. They shall be perplexed because the sore evils foretold by the true prophets of God shall overwhelm them, and because the peace and prosperity promised by the false prophets is unexpectedly turned into troubles, desolation, and utter ruin to their state, cities, and families.

Micah 7:4 The best of them [is] as a brier: the most upright [is sharper] than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen [and] thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.Ver. 4. The best of them is as a brier] Which a man cannot handle without harm. See 2 Samuel 23:6 Psalms 55:21; Psalms 58:10 Ezekiel 2:6 Matthew 7:16; Matthew 13:7; Matthew 13:22; so, you cannot deal with them without danger; guilt, or grief you shall be sure of. Lot felt it so at Sodom, 2 Peter 2:7-8, and so did those that set up that bramble Abimelech for their king, Judges 9:15-16. The most upright is sharper than a thornhedge] Ut ibi inveniatur dolor, ubi sperabatur auxilium, saith Jerome here; so that a man shall have grief where he hoped for help and succour; as a man that, taking hold of a thorn hedge to get over, hath his fingers pricked by it, and is glad to let go; or, as a sheep that, fleeing to the bush for defence in weather, loses part of her fleece. Now if the best and most upright among them were no better, what can be imagined of the many (οιπολλοι)? and what better can be hoped for by us (for one egg is not more like another than these times are those here described; it is but the same fable acted over again, only everything is now worse than ever) than a day of visitation, a time of perplexity, as it followeth here? For while they be folded together as thorns, and while they be drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry, Nahum 1:10, as sear thorns under the pot, Ecclesiastes 7:6. I will go through these briers, saith God, I will burn them together, Isaiah 27:4, they shall be utterly burnt with fire in the same place, 2 Samuel 23:7, that is, in hell, as some interpret it. The day of thy watchmen, and thy visitation cometh] Where sin is in the saddle punishment will be upon the crupper. God will have a visitation day; and that for his watchmen, prophets, and governors, as well as for the common sort. "Thy visitation cometh," thou shalt share in punishment with them, as thou hast done in sin; neither shall it help thee to say, Our watchmen were in fault; for God will visit you all; and his visitation articles will be very strict and critical. Now shall be their perplexity] They shall be so intricated and entangled; so ensnared and ensnarled, as that they shall not know which way to turn them. They shall be in as great a distress as Israel was at the Red Sea, Exodus 14:3, or as the Jews at Shushan were, when the decree was gone out for their utter destruction, Esther 3:15, or as Manasseh was, when taken by the Assyrians among the thorns, he was bound with fetters, and carried to Babylon, 2 Chronicles 33:11.

(4) The day of thy watchmen—i.e., the time which thy prophets have foreseen, about which they have continually warned thee. “Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken” (Jeremiah 6:17).

Verse 4. The best of them is as a brier] They are useless in themselves, and cannot be touched without wounding him that comes in contact with them. He alludes to the thick thorn hedges, still frequent in Palestine. The day of thy watchmen] The day of vengeance, which the prophets have foreseen and proclaimed, is at hand. Now shall be their perplexity; no more wrapping up, all shall be unfolded. In that day every man will wish that he were different from what he is found to be; but he shall be judged for what he is, and for the deeds he has done.

4. The best of them is as a brier] Comp. 2 Samuel 23:6 ‘and good-for-nothing men are all of them as thorns thrust away.’ ‘Thorns’ are in the Bible symbols of sin and its effects, and of the temptations which beset man’s path. But the Hebrew text has not the appearance of being sound. the day of thy watchmen] i.e. the day foreseen by thy prophets. A prophet is stationed to look out for the approach of the ‘day of Jehovah;’ comp. Isaiah 21:6 (where the same form is used in the Hebrew as here), Jeremiah 6:17 (a different form). thy visitation] i.e. thy punishment. now shall be their perplexity] ‘Now,’ i.e. when this day has come. Wild confusion shall prevail, even among the faithful servants of Jehovah, when the long-predicted ‘day of Jehovah’ shall dawn. For the first result to the faithful Israel will be, not happiness, but misery—the chastisement due to past sins. The change of persons from the second to the third is harsh, but not unexampled.

The best of them is as a brier - The gentlest of them is a thorn , strong, hard, piercing, which letteth nothing unresisting pass by but it taketh from it, “robbing the fleece, and wounding the

OF THE NATION’S , Micah 7:1-6.Scholars are not agreed on the person of the speaker in these verses; some think of the prophet, some of Zion, some of the “true Israel,” that is, Israel after the spirit.