Micah 2
Butler6. This is a picture of utter desolation. “Heaps of the field,” said of a city, shows a surprising contrast to what it was. Once full of noble buildings, now only piles of ruins, heaps of stones and furrows cast up by the plough. So Samaria returns back to the status of a plantation, with its ploughed fields and vineyards. H. C.
Scores of columns are still standing in line, as if in their original position; all, however, being destitute of capitals, and their bases being buried deep beneath the present surface. As many more are lying prostrate, half concealed by the growing grain of the fields or the tangle of weeds and thistles. Nowhere in Palestine proper did I observe such profuse broken remains of former architectural magnificence. The very terms of Micah’s prophecy seemed as apt as the general fulfilment of his prediction is striking. Burt.—Not more literally have the denunciations on Tyre or on Babylon been accomplished. To the eye-witness the fulfilment is startling in its accuracy. Tristram.
7. As is usual and altogether right, God’s judgments follow and point out the great sins they come to punish. Hence, the altar and all that pertains to idolatry come up in remembrance before God in the day of His visitation, as appears in this verse. H. C.
8. In the ready sympathy with which the prophet sees ruin coming on Judah, his own country, as well as on Samaria, he speaks of himself as assuming the guise of a captive, not merely that of a mourner. He thus becomes a representative of the approaching captivity of his people. B. C.
9. The blow that fell on Samaria and the Ten Tribe kingdom was fatal. It swept the nation into a hopeless captivity, and laid the whole land utterly desolate. It also alarmed Judah. Under Sennacherib and Rabshakeh, this same Assyrian power even came within sight of Jerusalem, and might be said to have reached her gates.
10. The remaining part of this chapter is a graphic painting of the first results of the Assyrian invasion, as they were felt in one city after another along the line of his march. In most of the cases the things said of each city are a play upon the significant name of that city—a method of writing well adapted to impress the idea upon the memory.
12. This “evil came to the gate of Jerusalem”—no farther. The Assyrian invader never sacked Jerusalem. His invasion proved his ruin.
16. The eagle is referred to as an illustration of baldness. Tearing out the hair, or even cutting it off, were usual signs of extreme grief. Hence the prophet exhorts Israel, considered as the mother of her people, to go into mourning for her children, because they are gone away into captivity, to return no more. H. C.
Chap. 2. Having proclaimed the visitation which was coming upon Judah and Israel, the prophet now denounces special woe on those by whose offences it was occasioned. First among these were they who laid plans to enrich themselves at the cost of their brethren, and who listened to the counsels of false prophets. This denunciation is followed on a sudden by a promise of deliverance for the Lord’s people. B. C.
This chapter presents the sins of the people (verses 1, 2); God’s threatenings (verse 3); lamentations over her doom (verses 4, 5); the gainsaying of a wicked people against God and His prophets (verse 6); the prophet’s indignant reply (verse 7); a further description of their sins (verses 8, 9); the sort of prophets the people choose (verse 11); and promises of good (verses 12, 13).
1. This woe fitly comes down, not on those who sin inadvertently, or only under the impulse of sudden temptation, but on those who coolly and with the clear-headed thought of the night watches, frame plans of mischief and work out schemes for wrong, to be executed in the morning; and who are wicked enough for all the mischief their hands have the power to do. H. C.
3. Behold, against this family do I devise an evil. As they devise misceaf against others, so will I devise evil against them, as a due punishment for their sin. As they have unjustly deprived others of their inheritance, so a conquering enemy shall dispossess them and carry them into captivity. See the following verse. The word “family” is equivalent to people, as appears from Jer. 1:15. W. Lowth.
5. The words are an address to the whole people, denouncing the irrecoverable loss of their country, and that they should no more return to it, to be therein the congregation of the Lord, and to divide it among themselves by the “cord” or measuring line. Pocock.
7. “Do not My words do good to him that walketh uprightly?” Yes, they do good when they are translated into living deeds. A man gets good only as he builds up a noble character. But a good character is made up of good habits, and good habits are made up of good acts, and good acts are but the forms and expressions of God’s words and ideas. Anon.
There is a soul and spirit of Divine truths that can dwell or lodge nowhere but in a spiritual being, in a living thing, because itself is nothing but life and spirit. Neither can it, where indeed it is, express itself sufficiently in words and sounds, but it will best declare and speak itself in actions; as the old manner of writing among the Egyptians was, not by words, but things. The life of Divine truths is better expressed in actions than in words, because actions are more living than words. Words are nothing but dead resemblances and pictures of those truths which live and breathe in actions; and the kingdom of God consists not in word, but in life and power. Then let us show our knowledge connected into our lives and actions; let us really manifest that we are Christ’s disciples by the fruits that we daily yield in our lives and conversations; for “herein,” says Christ, “is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples.” Cudworth.
10. The Lord now addresses the whole people. The land which He had given them was so polluted by their sin that it could no longer be their resting-place. In order to escape utter destruction, they were to go into captivity. They had made the land sick. B. C.
“Up and away”—be out of this land; “for this is not your rest.” God gave Canaan as a land of rest to His people, but never to such apostates as you! They had so polluted the land by their sins that it should itself destroy them. The very land is thought of as instinct with life, and fired with holy indignation to devour these guilty inhabitants! H. C.
There is no strain upon the imagination in thinking of life as a journey. That is one of the simplest and most beautiful figures by which the action of life can be represented. We are travellers; we are here but for a little time; on our feet are sandals and in our hands are staves; here we have no continuing city, and we are called upon to testify to the age that we seek a country out of sight. So then, we are familiar with the figure; it commends itself to us, as life enlarges, as quite expressive of the reality of the case—every day a milestone, every year so much nearer the end. At first the miles appear so many and so long; then, at a certain period of life the miles are but a handful, and as for their length, it is the one dimension of which they are destitute. To the child, the year is a life—a quite immeasurable quantity; to the man in mid-life and passing beyond a certain point, the year is a breath, a shadow, quickly flying—it will be gone while we are talking about it; and in that mood of mind, how pensive and tender, how solemn and rousing, the music: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” J. P.
“This is not your rest; because it is polluted, it shall destroy you with a sore destruction.” Pilgrims and foreigners, it is only in a heavenlier air that we are to be acclimated, and abide. The moment we come to consider our scheme of living satisfactory, our schedule of performances perfect, some unexpected revolution breaks in like a whirlwind to disturb this complacency, and set us into larger, perhaps plainer rooms, where we can drink in more light, and gain a deeper wisdom, if we will. If we have been living by the average morality, we must be led out where we can catch sight of a loftier and more absolute standard. If we have been content with artificial rules, we must learn to walk by faith. If we have counted it enough to do as others do, or to escape the reproach of law and of public opinion, we must look with more searching and humble eyes to the original law and will of God. Or, if we have taken our own instincts or reasonings for our religion, then the cross must shine out in the sky where we worship, and we must kneel and be penitent and confess at the foot of it, and henceforth “conquer” both self and the world “by that.” F. D. H.
A state exposed to so much calamity can never have been designed as the scene of enjoyment; it must have been calculated for the purpose of trial. It is not Canaan; it is the wilderness through which the chosen tribes were destined to pass in their way to it; it is a vale of tears, [along] which the Christian pilgrim toils and struggles in his passage to the heavenly kingdom. Let us understand the real nature of our present condition; let us learn that nothing belonging to it is merely or principally intended for our gratification; that it is well suited to be the abode of a sinful creature upon trial, under a dispensation of mercy; where there is just enough of good to support under evil, and those prospects of greater good afforded in a future state which are sufficient to dispel despondency. It is a condition char-
acterized by vicissitude, by danger, by suffering, and by hope; and he is to be esteemed the happiest man who most surmounts its tempests, escapes its pollutions, and is sanctified by its trials. Are you at present in circumstances of ease and comfort? be thankful for it, but place no reliance on its continuance. Enjoy with moderation whatever is gratifying in your lot, but let it not engage your heart, let it not deeply entangle your affection. By an intimate converse with the promises of the Gospel, learn to live above [the world], and consider it not as [constituting] your portion or your happiness. R. Hall.