MICAH 4 COMMETARYEDITED BY GLE PEASE

The Mountain of the Lord

1 In the last days

the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains;it will be exalted above the hills, and peoples will stream to it.

BARES. "But (And) in the last days it shall come to pass - God’s promises, goodness, truth, fail not. He withdraws His Presence from those who receive Him not, only to give Himself to those who will receive Him. Mercy is the sequel and end of chastisement. Micah then joins on this great prophecy of future mercy to the preceding woe, as its issue in the order of God’s Will. “And it shall be.” He fixes the mind to some great thing which shall come to pass; “it shall be.” Then follows, in marked reference to the preceding privations, a superabundance of mercy. For “the mountain of the house,” which should be as a forest and which was left unto them desolate, there is “the mountain of the Lord’s house established;” for the heap of dust and the plowed field, there is the flowing-in of the Gentiles; for the night and darkness, that there shall be no vision, there is the fullness of revelation; for corrupt judgment, teaching, divining, a law from God Himself going forth through the world; for the building of Jerusalem with blood, one universal peace.

In the last days - Literally, the end of the days, that is, of those days which are in the thoughts of the speaker. Politically, there are many beginnings and many endings; as many endings as there are beginnings, since all human polity begins, only to end, and to be displaced in its turn by some new beginning, which too runs its course, only to end. Religiously, there are but two consummations. All time, since man fell, is divided into two halves, the looking forward to Christ to come in humility; the looking forward to His coming in glory. These are the two events on which man’s history turns. To that former people the whole period of Christ’s kingdom was one future, the fullness of all their own

shadows, types, sacrifices, services, prophecies, longing, being. The “end of their days” was the beginning of the new Day of Christ: the coming of His Day was necessarily the close of the former days, the period of the dispensation which prepared for it.

The prophets then by the words, “the end of the days,” always mean the times of the Gospel . “The end of the days” is the close of all which went before, the last dispensation, after which there shall be no other. Yet this too hast “last days” of its own, which shall close God’s kingdom of grace and shall issue in the Second Coming of Christ; as the end of those former days, which closed the times of “the law,” issued in His First Coming. We are then at once living in the last times, and looking on to a last time still to come. In the one way Peter speaks Eph_1:20 of the last times, or the end of the times , in which Christ was manifested for us, in contrast with the foundations of the world, before which He was foreordained.

And Paul contrasts God’s Heb_1:1 speaking to the fathers in the prophets, and at the end of these days speaking to us in the Son; and of our Lord coming Heb_9:26 at the end, consummation, of the times , to put away sins by the sacrifice of Himself; and says that the things which befell the Jews 1Co_10:11 were written for our admonition, unto whom the ends of the times (that is, of those of the former people of whom he had been speaking) are come; and John speaks of this as 1Jo_2:18 the last time. In the other way, they contrast the last days, not with the times before them but with their own, and then plainly they are a last and distant part of this their own last time .

The Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith ; In the last days perilous times shall come : There shall come at the end of the days scoffers : They told you that there should be mockers in the last time. The Jews distributed all time between “this world” and “the coming world” , including under “the coming world” the time of grace under the Messiah’s reign, and the future glory. To us the names have shifted, since this present world Mat_13:40; Eph_1:21; Tit_2:12 is to us the kingdom of Christ, and there remains nothing further on this earth to look to, beyond what God has already given us. Our future then, placed as we are between the two Comings of our Lord, is, of necessity, beyond this world .

The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be - abidingly

Established - He does not say merely, “it shall be established.” Kingdoms may be established at one time, and then come to an end. He says, “it shall be a thing established” . His saying is expanded by Daniel; “In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall not be destroyed forever, and it shall abide forever” Dan_2:44. The house of the Lord was the center of His worship, the token of His Presence, the pledge of His revelations and of His abiding acceptance, protection, favor. All these were to be increased and continuous. The image is one familiar to us in the Hebrew Scriptures. People were said to go up to it, as to a place of dignity.

In the Psalm on the carrying of the Ark thither, the hill of God is compared to the many-topped mountains of Basan Psa_68:16-17, (the Hermon-peaks which bound Basan,) and so declared to be greater than they, as being the object of God’s choice. The mountain where God was worshiped rose above the mountains of idolatry. Ezekiel, varying the image, speaks of the Gospel as an overshadowing cedar Eze_17:22-23, planted by God upon an high mountain and an eminent, in the mountain of the height of Israel, under which should dwell all fowl of every wing; and, in his vision of the Temple, he sees this, the image of the Christian Church Eze_40:2, upon a very high mountain. Our Lord speaks of His Apostles and the Church in them, as Mat_5:14 a city set upon a hill which cannot be hid. The seat of God’s worship was to be seen far and wide; nothing was to obscure it. It, now lower than the surrounding hills, was then to be as on the summit of them. Human elevation, the more exalted it is, the more unstable is it. Divine

greatness alone is at once solid and exalted. The new kingdom of God was at once to be “exalted above the hills,” and “established on the top of the mountains;” “exalted,” at once, above everything human, and yet “established,” strong as the mountains on which it rested, and unassailable, unconquerable, seated secure aloft, between heaven, whence it came and to which it tends, and earth, on which it just tests in the sublime serenity of its majesty.

The image sets forth the supereminence of the Lord’s House above all things earthly. It does not define wherein that greatness consists. The flowing in of the nations is a fruit of it Mic_4:1-2. The immediate object of their coming is explained to be, to learn to know and to do the will of God Mic_4:2. But the new revelation does not form all its greatness. That greatness is from the Presence of God, revealing and evermore teaching His Will, ruling, judging, rebuking, peacemaking Mic_4:3-4. Dionysius: “The ‘mountain of the Lord’s House’ was then ‘exalted above the hills’ by the bodily Presence of Christ, when He, in the Temple built on that mountain, spake, preached, worked so many miracles; as, on the same ground, Haggai says, ‘the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the glory of the former’ Hag_2:9.” Lap.: “This ‘mountain,’ the church of Christ, transcends all laws, schools, doctrines, religions, Synagogues of Jews and Philosophers, which seemed to rise aloft among men, like mountain-tops, yea, whatever under the sun is sublime and lofty, it will overpass, trample on, subdue to itself.”

Even Jews have seen the meaning of this figure. Their oldest mystical book explains it. Zohar, f. 93: “‘And it shall be in the last days,’ when namely the Lord shall visit the daughter of Jacob, then shall ‘the mountain of the house of the Lord be firmly established, that is, the Jerusalem which is above, which shall stand firmly in its place, that it may shine by the light which is above. (For no light can retain its existence, except through the light from above.) For in that time shall the light from above shine sevenfold more than before; according to that, Moreover, the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun; and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people and healeth the stroke of their wound” Isa_30:26. Another, of the dry literal school, says (Aben Ezra), “It is well known that the house of the Temple is not high. The meaning then is, that its fame shall go forth far, and there shall return to it from all quarters persons with offerings, so that it shall be, as if it were on the top of all hills, so that all the inhabitants of the earth should see it.”

Some interpret “the mountain” to be Christ, who is called the Rock 1Co_10:4-6, on the confession of whom, God-Man, “the house of the Lord,” that is, the Church is built , the precious Cornerstone Isa_28:16; 1Pe_2:6; Eph_2:20, which is laid, beside which no foundation can be laid 1Co_3:11; “the great mountain,” of which Daniel Dan_2:35prophesied. It is “firmly established,” so that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church, being built thereon; “exalted above hills and mountains”, that is above all beside, greater or smaller, which has any eminence; for He in truth is Phi_2:9 highly exalted and hath a Name above every name, being Eph_1:20-23 at the Right Hand of God in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come; and all things are under His Feet. And this for us, in that He, the Same, is the Head over all things to the Church which is His Body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. Rup.: “He is God and Man, King and Priest, King of kings, and a Priest abiding forever. Since then His Majesty reacheth to the Right Hand of God, neither mountains nor hills, Angels nor holy men, reach thereto; for “to which of the Angels said God at any time, Sit thou on My Right Hand?” Heb_1:13.

Cyril: “Aloft then is the Church of God raised, both in that its Head is in heaven and

the Lord of all, and that, on earth, it is not like the Temple, in one small people, but “set on a hill that it cannot be hid” Mat_5:14, or remain unseen even to those tar from it. Its doctrine too and life are far above the wisdom of this world, showing in them nothing of earth, but are above; its wisdom is the knowledge and love of God and of His Son Jesus Christ, and its life is bid with Christ in God, in those who are justified in Him and hallowed by His Spirit.” In Him, it is lifted above all things, and with the eyes of the mind beholdeth (as far as may be) the glory of God, soaring on high toward Him who is the Author of all being, and, filled with divine light, it owneth Him the Maker of all.

And people (peoples, nations) shall flow unto (literally upon) it - A mighty tide should set in to the Gospel. The word is used only figuratively) is appropriated to the streaming in of multitudes, such as of old poured into Babylon, the merchant-empress of the world Jer_51:44. It is used of the distant nations who should throng in one continuous stream into the Gospel, or of Israel streaming together from the four corners of the world . So, Isaiah foretells, “Thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that they may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought” (Isa_60:11, add Rev_21:25-26). These were to flow upon it, perhaps so as to cover it, expressing both the multitude and density of the throng of nations, how full the Church should be, as the swollen river spreads itself over the whole champaign country, and the surging flood-tide climbs up the face of the rock which hounds it. The flood once covered the highest mountains to destroy life; this flood should pour in for the saving of life. Lap.: “It is a miracle, if waters ascend from a valley and flow to a mountain. So is it a miracle that earthly nations should ascend to the church, whose doctrine and life are lofty, arduous, sublime. This the grace of Christ effecteth, mighty and lofty, as being sent from heaven. As then waters, conducted from the fountains by pipes into a valley, in that valley bound up and rise nearly to their original height, so these waters of heavenly grace, brought down into valleys, that is, the hearts of men, make them to bound up with them into heaven and enter upon and embrace a heavenly life.”

CLARKE, "But in the last days it shall come to pass - These four verses contain, says Bp. Newcome, a prophecy that was to be fulfilled by the coming of the Messiah, when the Gentiles were to be admitted into covenant with God, and the apostles were to preach the Gospel, beginning at Jerusalem, Luk_24:47; Act_2:14, etc., when Christ was to be the spiritual Judge and King of many people, was to convince many nations of their errors and vices, and was to found a religion which had the strongest tendency to promote peace. Bp. Lowth thinks that “Micah took this passage from Isaiah;” or the Spirit may have inspired both prophets with this prediction; or both may have copied some common original, the words of a prophet well known at that time. The variations (few and of little importance) may be seen in the notes on the parallel passages, Isa_2:2, etc.; to which the reader is requested to refer.

GILL, "But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains,.... It appears by the adversative but, with which these words are introduced, that they have a dependence upon and a connection with the last of the preceding chapter; signifying, that though "the mountain of the house", on which the temple stood, should become desolate, yet "the mountain of the house of the Lord", which is not literally the same, but

what that was typical of, the church of Christ, should be greatly exalted and enlarged; and which, according to this prophecy, would be "in the last days": that is, as Kimchi rightly interprets it, the days of the Messiah; and it should be observed, that all this will be in the last of his days, or of the Gospel dispensation: the first of these days were the days of Christ in the flesh, the times of his ministry, and of John the Baptist his forerunner, and of his disciples; and were indeed the last days of the Jewish world, or of their civil and church state; and when also it must be allowed the mountain of the Lord's house, or the temple literally taken, became glorious by the presence of Christ in it, by his doctrine and miracles there, and by the effusion of the Spirit on his disciples in that place, and the ministration of the Gospel; but then all this was before the destruction of the second temple; whereas this prophecy follows that, and is opposed to it, and supposes it; besides, in those times there was not such an exaltation and stability of the church of Christ; nor such a flow of nations to it; nor such a settled and universal peace and security as here promised: this prophecy therefore respects times yet to come, as Aben Ezra observes; the last of the days of the Messiah, or the last times of the Gospel dispensation, when the reign of antichrist will be at an end; he will be destroyed, and the kingdom of Christ set up, established, and enlarged in the world. The Prophet Isaiah predicts the same things, and much in the same words, Isa_2:2; these two prophets were contemporary, and might converse together, and communicate to each other what they had received from the Lord upon this subject; but it is needless to inquire which might have them from the other, since they were both holy men of God, and moved by his Spirit, and were inspired by the same Spirit, with the same things, and to speak the same language; yet there is a diversity in words, though an agreement in sentiment nor does it appear a clear case that they borrowed, much less that they stole, their words from one other, as the false prophets did; for they do not always use the same words to convey the same idea; and there are some words which Isaiah has that Micah has not and there are others that Micah uses that Isaiah has not; though in the whole there is a most beautiful harmony of sense in their diversity of expression. By "the mountain of the house of the Lord" is not meant the temple built on Mount Moriah, where the divine Majesty resided; where were the symbols of his presence, the ark and mercy seat, and where he was worshipped, which has been destroyed long ago, and will never be rebuilt more; for a third temple hereafter to be built at Jerusalem is a mere fiction of the Jews; nor indeed is any material building here intended, and still less any such building to be erected in such an absurd sense, literally taken, as if mountain was piled on mountain, and hill on hill, to raise it higher; but, mystically and spiritually, it designs the church of God, called so because it is built by him, and built for a habitation for him; where he will, at the time here referred to, more manifestly dwell in a spiritual manner; and by whom, and by which spiritual and gracious presence of his, it will be made very beautiful and glorious: and it is signified by a "mountain", to denote its visibility, immovableness, and perpetuity; and is said to be "established in the top of the mountains", with respect to the kingdoms of this world, and especially antichristian churches, which, because of their eminence, and largeness, and national establishment, may seem like mountains; but, in the latter day, the true church of Christ, which now may seem like a mole hill to them, will be above them, and will be in a settled state and condition, and not be fluctuating, and tossed to and fro, and removing here and there, as now; but be fixed and stable, and continue so until the second and personal coming of Christ:

and it shall be exalted above the hills: by "hills" may be meant petty kingdoms, inferior to greater monarchies; or religious states, not of Christ's constitution; and the "exaltation" of the church above them denotes her power over them, to enjoy the one, and crush the other: it may respect the glory of the church, both as to things temporal

and spiritual; for now will the kingdoms under the whole heaven be given to the saints of the most High; civil government will come into their hands, the kings and princes of the earth being now members of Gospel churches; so that the church will be in a glorious and exalted state, having riches, power, and authority, a large extent everywhere, and a multitude of members, and those of the highest class and rank, as well as of the meaner and lower sort; and all of them possessed largely of the gifts and graces of the Spirit of God, and enjoying the Gospel and Gospel ordinances in their power and purity:

and the people shall flow unto it: in great abundance, in large numbers, in company like the flowing streams of a river; and may denote not only their numbers, but their swiftness and readiness to join themselves with the church of God, to hear the word, and partake of the ordinances, and of all the privileges of the house of the Lord. It may be rendered, "they shall look unto it", as the word is translated in Psa_34:6; and so the Targum here,

"and the kingdoms shall look (or turn their faces) to serve upon it;''

and this sense is preferred by many learned Jewish writers (n); and the meaning may be, that multitudes, seeing the glory of the church, and the many desirable things in it, shall look to it with a look of love and affection, and with a wishful look, greatly desiring to be admitted into it. In Isa_2:2; it is said, "and all nations shall flow unto it": not the people of the Jews only, now converted; or a single and, on only, or some out of that; but all the nations of the world, at least great numbers out of all, by far the greatest in them; such an increase will there be of the churches in the latter day.

HERY, "It is a very comfortable but with which this chapter begins, and very reviving to those who lay the interests of God's church near their heart and are concerned for the welfare of it. When we sometimes see the corruptions of the church, especially of church-rulers, princes, priests, and prophets, seeking their own things and not the things of God, and when we soon after see the desolations of the church, Zion for their sakes ploughed as a field, we are ready to fear that it will one day perish between both, that the name of Israel shall be no more in remembrance; we are ready to give up all for gone, and to conclude the church will have neither root not branch upon earth. But let not our faith fail in this matter; out of the ashes of the church another phoenix shall arise. In the last words of the foregoing chapter we left the mountain of the houseas desolate and waste as the high places of the forest; and is it possible that such a wilderness should ever become a fruitful field again? Yes, the first words of this chapter bring in the mountain of the Lord's house as much dignified by being frequented as ever it had been disgraced by being deserted. Though Zion be ploughed as a field, yet God has not cast off his people, but by the fall of the Jews salvation has come to the Gentiles, so that it proves to be the riches of the world, Rom_11:11, Rom_11:12. This is the mystery which God by the prophet here shows us, and he says the very same in the first three verses of this chapter which another prophet said by the word of the Lord at the same time (Isa_2:2-4), that out of the mouth of these two witnesses these promises might be established; and very precious promises they are, relating to the gospel-church, which have been in part accomplished, and will be yet more and more, for he is faithful that has promised.

I. That there shall be a church for God set up in the world, after the defection and destruction of the Jewish church, and this in the last days; that is, as some of the rabbin themselves acknowledge, in the days of the Messiah. The people of God shall be incorporated by a new charter, a new spiritual way of worship shall be enacted, and a

new institution of offices to attend it; better privileges shall be granted by this new charter, and better provision made for enlarging and establishing the kingdom of God among men than had been made by the Old Testament constitution: The mountain of the house of the Lord shall again appear firm ground for God's faithful worshippers to stand, and go, and build upon, in their attendance on him, Mic_4:1. And it shall be a centre of unity to them; a church shall be set up in the world, to which the Lord will be daily adding such as shall be saved.

II. That this church shall be firmly founded and well-built: It shall be established in the top of the mountains; Christ himself will build it upon a rock; it shall be an impregnable fort upon an immovable foundation, so that the gates of hell shall neither overthrow the one nor undermine the other (Mat_16:18); its foundations are still in the holy mountains (Psa_87:1), the everlasting mountains, which cannot, which shall not, be removed. It shall be established, not as the temple, upon one mountain, but upon many; for the foundations of the church, as they are sure, so they are large.

III. That it shall be highly advanced, and become eminent and conspicuous: It shall be exalted above the hills, observed with wonder for its growing greatness from small beginnings. The kingdom of Christ shall shine with greater lustre than ever any of the kingdoms of the earth did. It shall be as a city on a hill, which cannot be hid,Mat_5:14. The glory of this latter house is greater than that of the former, Hag_2:9. See 2Co_3:7, 2Co_3:8, etc.

IV. That there shall be a great accession of converts to it and succession of converts in it. People shall flow unto it as the waters of a river are continually flowing; there shall be a constant stream of believers flowing in from all parts into the church, as the people of the Jews flowed into the temple, while it was standing, to worship there. Then many tribes came to the mountain of the house, to enquire of God's temple; but in gospel-times many nations shall flow into the church, shall fly like a cloud and as the doves to their windows. Ministers shall be sent forth to disciple all nations, and they shall not labour in vain; for, multitudes being wrought upon to believe the gospel and embrace the Christian religion, they shall excite and encourage one another, and shall say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord now raised among us, even to the house of the God of Jacob, the spiritual temple which we need not travel far to, for it is brought to our doors and set up in the midst of us.” Thus shall people be made willing in the day of his power (Psa_110:3), and shall do what they can to make others willing, as Andrew invited Peter, and Philip Nathanael, to be acquainted with Christ. They shall call the people to the mountain (Deu_33:19), for there is in Christ enough for all, enough for each. Now observe what it is, 1. Which these converts expect to find in the house of the God of Jacob. They come thither for instruction: “He will teach us of his ways, what is the way in which he would have us to walk with him and in which we may depend upon him to meet us graciously.” Note, Where we come to worship God we come to be taught of him. 2. Which they engage to do when they are thus taught of God: We will walk in his paths. Note, Those may comfortably expect that God will teach them who are firmly resolved by his grace to do as they are taught.

V. That, in order to this, a new revelation shall be published to the world, on which the church shall be founded, and by which multitudes shall be brought into it: For the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. The gospel is here called the word of the Lord, for the Lord gave the word, and great was the company of those that published it, Psa_68:11. It was of a divine original, a divine authority; it began to be spoken by the Lord Christ himself, Heb_2:3. And it is a law, a law of faith; we are under the law to Christ. This was to go forth from Jerusalem, from Zion, the metropolis of the Old Testament dispensation, where the temple, and altars, and oracles were, and

whither the Jews went to worship from all parts; thence the gospel must take rise, to show the connexion between the Old Testament and the New, that the gospel is not set up in opposition to the law, but is an explication and illustration of it, and a branch growing out of its roots. It was in Jerusalem that Christ preached and wrought miracles; there he died, rose again, and ascended; there the Spirit was poured out; and those that were to preach repentance and remission of sins to all nations were ordered to begin at Jerusalem, so that thence flowed the streams that were to water the desert world.

JAMISO, "Mic_4:1-13. Transition to the glory, peace, kingdom, and victory of Zion.

Almost identical with Isa_2:2-4.

the mountain of the house of the Lord— which just before (Mic_3:12) had been doomed to be a wild forest height. Under Messiah, its elevation is to be not that of situation, but of moral dignity, as the seat of God’s universal empire.

people shall flow into it— In Isaiah it is “all nations”: a more universal prophecy.

K&D 1-4, "The promise of salvation opens, in closest connection with the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple, with a picture of the glory awaiting in the remotest future the temple mountain, which has now become a wild forest-height. Mic_4:1. “And it comes to pass at the end of the days, that the mountain of Jehovah's house will be established on the head of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills, and nations stream to it.Mic_4:2. And many nations go, and say, Up, let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, and to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us of His ways, and we may walk in His paths: for from Zion will law go forth, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.Mic_4:3. And He will judge between many nations, and pronounce sentence on strong nations afar off; and they forge their swords into coulters, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation will not lift up sword against nation, nor will they learn war any more.Mic_4:4. And they will sit, every one under his vine, and under his fig-tree, and no one will make them afraid: for the mouth of Jehovah of hosts hath spoken it.”

(Note: This promise is placed by Isaiah (Isa_2:2-4) at the head of his prophecy of Zion's way through judgment from the false glory to the true. The originality of the passage in Micah is open to no question. Delitzsch acknowledges this, and has given the principal arguments in its favour in the Commentary on Isaiah. For still more elaborate proofs, see Caspari's Micha, pp. 444-5.)

By the phrase “at the end of the days,” which always denotes the Messianic era when used by the prophets (see at Hos_3:5), the predicted exaltation of the temple mountain is assigned to the period of the completion of the kingdom of God. The mountain of the house of Jehovah is the temple mountain, strictly speaking, Moriah, as the distinction made between the mountain of the house and Zion in Mic_3:12 clearly shows; but as a subordinate peak of Zion, it is embraced along with Zion in what follows (compare Mic_

4:2 with Mic_4:7) as the seat of Jehovah's rule, from which the law proceeds. נכון does not mean placed or set up, but established, founded. By connecting the participle with

upon (not at) the top of ,�ראש ההרים .the founding is designated as a permanent one ,יהיהthe mountains, as in Jdg_9:7; 1Sa_26:13; Psa_72:16; whereas such passages as Mic_2:13; Amo_6:7, and 1Ki_21:9 are of a different character, and have no bearing upon the point. The temple mountain, or Zion, will be so exalted above all the mountains and

hills, that it will appear to be founded upon the top of the mountains. This exaltation is of course not a physical one, as Hofmann, Drechsler, and several of the Rabbins suppose, but a spiritual (ethical) elevation above all the mountains. This is obvious from Mic_4:2, according to which Zion will tower above all the mountains, because the law of the Lord issues from it. The assumption of a physical elevation cannot be established from Eze_40:2 and Rev_21:10, for in the visions described in both these passages the earthly elevation is a symbol of a spiritual one. “Through a new revelation of the Lord, which is made upon it, and which leaves the older revelations far behind, whether made upon Sinai or upon itself, Zion becomes the greatest and loftiest mountain in the world” (Caspari), and the mountain seen from afar, to which “nations” stream, and not merely the one nation of Israel.

is more precisely defined in Mic_4:2 ע�ים as ר�ים The attractive power which this .�וים

mountain exerts upon the nations, so that they call upon one another to go up to it (Mic_4:2), does not reside in its height, which towers above that of all other mountains, but in the fact that the house of the God of Jacob stands upon it, i.e., that Jehovah is

enthroned there, and teacher how to walk in His ways. מן ,to teach out of the ways ,הורה

so that the ways of God form the material from which they derive continual instruction. The desire for salvation, therefore, is the motive which prompts them to this pilgrimage; for they desire instruction in the ways of the Lord, that they may walk in them. The ways of Jehovah are the ways which God takes in His dealing with men, and by which men are led by Him; in reality, therefore, the ordinances of salvation which He has revealed in His word, the knowledge and observance of which secure life and blessedness. The words “for the law goes forth from Zion,” etc., are words spoken not by the nations, but by the prophet, and assign the reason why the heathen go with such zeal to the mountain

of Jehovah. The accent is laid upon מ�יון (from Zion), which stands at the head, and

(from Jerusalem), which is parallel to it. Thence does tōrâh, i.e., instruction in מירושלם

the ways of God, proceed, - in other words, the law as the rule of a godly life, and debhar

Yehōvâh (the word of Jehovah), or the word of revelation as the source of salvation. It is

evident from this that the mountain of the house of God is not thought of here as the place of worship, but as the scene of divine revelation, the centre of the kingdom of God. Zion is the source of the law and word of the Lord, from which the nations draw instruction how to walk in the ways of God, to make it their own, take it to their homes, and walk according to it. The fruit of this adoption of the word of the Lord will be, that they will not longer fight out their disputes with weapons of war, but let Jehovah judge

and settle them, and thus acknowledge Him as their King and Judge. שפם signifies to act

as judge; (lit., to set right), to settle and put a stop to a dispute. “Many nations,” in הוכיה

contrast with the one nation, which formerly was alone in acknowledge Jehovah as its King and Judge. This is strengthened still further by the parallel “strong, mighty nations afar off.” In consequence of this they will turn their weapons into instruments of peaceful agriculture, and wage no more war; in fact, they will learn war no more, no

longer exercise themselves in the use of arms. For the words וגו ,compare Joe_3:10 וכ(תו

where the summons to the nations to a decisive conflict with the kingdom of God is described as turning the instruments of agriculture into weapons of war. With the cessation of war, universal peace will ensue, and Israel will have no further enemies to fear, so that every one will have undisturbed enjoyment of the blessings of peace, of which Israel had had a foretaste during the peaceful reign of Solomon. The words “sit

under his vine” are taken from 1Ki_5:5 (cf. Zec_3:10), and מחריד from the promise in אין

Lev_26:6. All this, however incredible it might appear, not only for the Israel of that time, but even now under the Christian dispensation, will assuredly take place, for the mouth of Jehovah the true God has spoken it.

CALVI, "Here Micah begins his address to the faithful, who were a remnant among that people; for though the infection had nearly extended over the whole body, there were yet a few, we know, who sincerely worshipped God. Hence Micah, that he might not dishearten God’s children by extreme terror, reasonably adds what we have now heard, — that though for a time the temple would be demolished and laid waste, it would yet be only for a season, for the Lord would be again mindful of his covenant. When, therefore, the Prophet had hitherto spoken of God’s dreadful vengeance, he directed his discourse to the whole people and to the princess; but now, especially, and as it were apart, addresses the pious and sincere servants of God; as though he said, “There is now a reason why I should speak to the few: I have hitherto spoken of the near judgment of God on the king’s counselors, the priests and the prophets; in short, on the whole community, because they are all become wicked and ungodly; a contempt of God and an irreclaimable obstinacy have pervaded the whole body. Let them therefore have what they have deserved. But now I address the children of God by themselves, for I have something to say to them.”

For though the Prophet publicly proclaimed this promise, there is yet no doubt but that he had regard only to the children of God, for others were not capable of receiving this consolation; nay, he had shortly before condemned the extreme security of hypocrites, inasmuch as they leaned upon God; that is, relied on a false pretense of religion, in thinking that they were redeemed by a lawful price when they had offered their sacrifices. And we know that we meet with the same thing in the writings of the Prophets, and that it is a practice common among them to add consolations to threatening, not for the sake of the whole people, but to sustain the faithful in their hope, who would have despaired, had not a helping hand been stretched forth to them: for the faithful, we know, tremble, as soon as God manifests any token of wrath; for the more any one is touched with the fear of God, the more he dreads his judgment, and fears on account of his threatening. We hence see how necessary it is to moderate threatenings and terrors, when prophets and teachers have a regard to the children of God; for, as I have said, they are without these fearful enough. Let us then know that Micah has hitherto directed his discourse to the wicked despisers of God, who yet put on the cloak of religion; but now he turns his address to the true and pious worshipers of God. And he further so addresses the faithful of his age, that his doctrine especially belongs to us now; for how has it been, that the kingdom of God has been propagated through all parts of the earth? How has it been, that the truth of the gospel has come to us, and that we are made partakers with the ancient people of the same adoption, except that this prophecy has been fulfilled? Then the calling of the Gentiles, and consequently our salvation, is included in this prophecy.

But the Prophet says, And it shall be in the extremity of days, (114) that the mount of the house of Jehovah shall be set in order (115) on the top of mountains The extremity of days the Prophet no doubt calls the coming of Christ, for then it was that the Church of God was built anew; in short, since it was Christ that introduced the renovation of the world, his advent is rightly called a new age; and hence it is also said to be the extremity of days: and this mode of expression very frequently occurs in Scripture; and we know that the time of the gospel is expressly called the last days and the last time by John, (John 2:18,) as well as by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, (Hebrews 1:2,) and also by Paul, (2 Timothy 3:1;) and this way of speaking they borrowed from the prophets. On this subject some remarks were made on Joel 2:0. Paul gives us the reason for this mode of speaking in 1 Corinthians 10:11 : “Upon whom,” he says, “the ends of the world are come.” As Christ then brought in the completion of all things at his coming, the Prophet rightly says that it would be the last days when God would restore his Church by the hand of the Redeemer. At the same time, Micah no doubt intended to intimate that the time of God’s wrath would not be short, but designed to show that its course would be for a long time.

It shall then be in the last of days; that is, when the Lord shall have executed his vengeance by demolishing the temple, by destroying the city, and by reducing the holy place into a solitude, this dreadful devastation shall continue, not for one year, nor for two; in a word, it will not remain only for forty or fifty years, but the Lord will let loose the reins of his wrath, that their minds may long languish, and that no restoration may be evident. We now then understand the Prophet’s design as to the last days.

He calls the mount, the mount of the house of Jehovah, (116) in a sense different from what he did before; for then it was, as we have stated by way of concession; and now he sets forth the reason why God did not wish wholly to cast aside that mount; for he commanded his temple to be built there. It is the same, then, as though he said, — “This ought not to be ascribed to the holiness of the mountain, as if it excelled other mountains in dignity; but because there the temple was founded, not by the authority of men, but by a celestial oracle, as it is sufficiently known.”

The mount then of the house of Jehovah shall be set in order on the top of the mountains, that is it shall surpass in height all other mountains; and it shall be raised, he says, above the highest summits, and assemble (117) there shall all nations. It is certain, that by these words of the Prophet is to be understood no visible eminence of situation: for that mount was not increased at the coming of Christ; and they who lived in the time of the Prophet entertained no gross idea of this kind. But he speaks here of the eminence of dignity, — that God would give to mount Zion a distinction so eminent, that all other mountains would yield to its honor. And how was this done? The explanation follows in the next verse. Lest, then, any one thought that there would be some visible change in mount Zion, that it would increase in size, the Prophet immediately explains what he meant and says, at the end of the verse, Come shall nations to God. It is now easy to see what its

elevation was to be, — that God designed this mount to be, as it were, a royal seat. As under the monarchy of the king of Persia, the whole of the east, we know, was subject to one tower of the Persian; so also, when mount Zion became the seat of sovereign power, God designed to reign there, and there he designed that the whole world should be subject to him; and this is the reason and the Prophet said that it would be higher than all other mountains. Hence his meaning, in this expression, is sufficiently evident.

Kimchi says, that this word means to “run to what is pleasing or delightful,” —”currere ad beneplacitum, hoc est, ad id quod cupias An old author, quoted by Leigh, says, that it implies abundance and celerity — affluentiam cum celeritate It is rendered “flow together” in Jeremiah 51:44.

Instead of “peoples,” עמים, Isaiah has כל חגוים, “all the nations.” One MS. Has the same here, and three have כל before עמים, and this seems to be the correct reading. meaning nations. The rest of this ,גוים in the plural number, is synonymous with ,עםverse is exactly the same in the two Prophets, except that נכון, “prepared,” is differently placed, and הוא, “it,” is added by Micah after נשא, “exalted.”

In the second verse, which is the third in Isaiah, there is a complete verbal identity, except that גוים and עמים are reversed, and that ו before אל is wanting in Isaiah; but it is supplied in several MSS.

In the third, the fourth in Isaiah, there are verbal varieties in the two first lines, the four remaining are exactly the same with the exception of a paragogic ן, nun, added to a verb by Micah, and the verb ישאו is singular in Isaiah. In the two lines referred to, there is also an addition of עד רחוק, “afar of,” in Micah.

Isaiah. 4ושפט בין הגוים .

והוכיחלעמים רביםAnd he shall judge among the nation, And shall convince many peoples.

Micah. whwkyx lgwyM eumyM ed rxwq wspj by emyM rbyM And he shall judge among many peoples, And shall convince strong nations afar off.

With this verse the passage ends in Isaiah; Micah adds another: and this, with the two other circumstances — that the passage is fuller and more connected with the context here than in Isaiah, may seem to favor the opinion that Isaiah, and not Micah, was the copyist; but the words, with which the passage is introduced in Isaiah, forbid such a supposition.

“Bishop Lowth, on Isaiah 2:2, thinks that Micah took this passage from Isaiah. It is true that he has improved it after the manner of imitators. Or, the Spirit may have

inspired both with this prediction: or both may have copied some common original, the words of a Prophet well known at the time. — ewcome.

COFFMA, "This and the following chapter are the citadel of Old Testament prophecy. Here Satan is vanquished; the light of truth is lighted for millenniums of time; the bold and undeniable prophecies of the coming of the Son of God, the establishment of his kingdom, the glorious success of it, and the ultimate fate of the wicked are graphically foretold in such a manner as to frustrate, discredit, and confound every effort of the evil one to get rid of the message. It lives forever. In this chapter, the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ and the going forth of the word of the Lord from Jerusalem are graphically predicted and described. The further judgment of the secular Israel for their idolatry was exactly predicted and foretold, even Babylon being named as the place of their banishment a full century, and more, before the event. If one really wishes to experience the deepening and strengthening of his faith, then let him understand this chapter and other portions of Micah.

SATA'S ATTACK UPO MICAH

Satan is perfectly willing to allow practically all of Micah to stand as the unquestionable Word of God through that prophet; but the fearless predictions of this chapter have aroused the evil one to his fiercest activity. He must oppose what is written here. He has no choice. o matter if there are no arguments against it, he will make arguments anyway. When all else fails, he simply screams "it is not so!" Those who are familiar with the efforts of Satan to discredit the Bible could easily reproduce the arrogant carpings of Old Testament enemies without ever reading their books. ot one new argument in a thousand years has come out of their schools. Their knee-jerk response is as predictable as grass turning green in summer.

Satan's first maneuver is to declare that none of the "in" people accept this chapter. "According to the best scholarly opinion, Micah 4-5 contain no material by the prophet Micah."[1] The assertion of this is that none of it is true prophecy; all of it was inserted by an imposter long after Micah lived. ote the false claim that "the best scholarship" accepts such denials. What Christian has not heard that before? The same author declared concerning our Lord Jesus Christ that, "one of the rulers or Pharisees believed on him" (John 7:48). To be sure, the Pharisees also considered themselves and those who agreed with them as "the best scholars," no doubt believing that they were the "in" people. As a matter of fact, they were the "outs" and were the most profoundly blind and deceived scholars that the world had ever known up to that time.

"Since Micah was a prophet of doom," none of this happy material in Micah 4 could have come from him![2] This hoary-headed and decrepit objection has been discredited and disproved so often that it is astounding any of the "best scholars" would dare to make it; but as noted above, those who deny this passage are pressed beyond limits. As a matter of simple truth, all of the prophets, including most

conspicuously the Christ himself, that Prophet like unto Moses, brought messages both of doom and of glory. Who has not heard of heaven and hell?

Another proposition is that, "The consensus of scholarship is that these chapters, Micah 4-5, are post-exilic."[3] Such views intimidate some people; but it should be recalled that the same "consensus" was teaching that the world is flat not very long ago in the historical past, or that "matter can neither be created nor destroyed" as recently as 1930. The same "consensus" dated the gospel of John in the mid-second century A.D., until the Rylands fragment exploded their denial of apostolic status to that gospel. We are thankful indeed that many of the greatest scholars of a thousand years, yes, the majority of them, do not hesitate to receive this glorious chapter for exactly what it is, the prophecy of Micah. We shall cite the opinions of a number of these in the notes below.

Are there any reasons, really, why these chapters should not be accepted as bona fide? o! ot one tiniest jot or tittle of solid evidence may be cited. If one is willing to accept as "evidence" the speculative imaginations of Bible enemies, then the theoretical guesses and suppositions of such enemies could be pointed out as evidence; but there's no wisdom in any such acceptance. The imaginations of men are, by definition, wicked. The unity and integrity of Micah are unquestionable and absolutely incapable of being disproved. The mere reading of it by a discerning scholar is sufficient to dispel the insinuations which are cast against it by people who do not believe in the inspiration of God's Word, nor even in the supernatural, nor in any such thing as predictive prophecy, nor in any revelation of holy religion from the Father in heaven, only believing in themselves and their vain imaginations. How sad it is that the pitiful inclination of sinful, fallible men is to believe it when Satan arrogantly contradicts the Word of God, saying, "Ye shall OT surely die."

Micah 4:1

"But in the latter days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of Jehovah's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow unto it."

"In the latter days ..." has the meaning of, "in the times of the Messiah." "It always denotes the Messianic era when used by the prophets."[4] The literal translation of these words would be "`At the end of the days.' an expression used by the prophets to refer to the last days, or to the times of the Messiah."[5] The apostle Peter declared on the day of Pentecost that the expression refers to this present dispensation (Acts 2:16). Of course, this requires the interpretation of this passage as a description of the glory and success of the kingdom of Christ. The whole passage "points to the end of the Jewish age and the introduction of a new era under the spiritual ruler."[6]

"Mountain of Jehovah's house ... exalted above the hills ..." It is not a geographical upheaval that was predicted here, but that, "The worship of the true God (of which the temple mountain was a symbol) shall be promulgated among all nations."[7]

"Peoples shall flow unto it ..." "The word flow here is from the same root as river."[8] The people will flow as a mighty river into the kingdom (church) of Jesus Christ.

Before leaving this verse, we should take note of the upsetting fact (to most scholars) that these verses are very similar, in fact, almost identical with a passage in Isaiah 2:2-4. The old knee-jerk response to this is to stage a full, learned debate on which is the original! Such a ludicrous contest is postulated by the acceptance of the false premise that similar passages in holy writ are invariably to be understood as the original, and a copy. That is not the case, in either the Old Testament or the ew Testament. It presupposes that God could not have spoken to two, or more, prophets in identical words; and where, under the sun of heaven, is any proof of a canard like that? When sacred writers quoted each other, they named the author quoted, usually adding that "God had spoken through him." If either Isaiah or Micah had quoted the other, would he not have said so? But how about the debate? It always winds up with an array of scholars on both sides of the question, as has been the case here. When such a stalemate occurs, then the old reliable proposition is resorted to, that affirms both writers were quoting an older document! "Some scholars propose a third source from which the Holy Spirit led both men to gain material for their discourses."[9] Indeed, what is that third source, that higher authority, that previously existing fountain of wisdom, if it is not God Himself?. God is the author who spoke through Micah.

We do not have to do here with the literature of men, but with the inspired Word of God, who said, "The testimony of two men is true"; and, therefore he has given us the same promise through both Micah and Isaiah, that all men may know that neither wrote from himself, but that he was moved by the Holy Spirit.[10]

COSTABLE, "Verse 1Reference to "the last days" often points to the eschatological future in the Prophets, and it does here (e.g, Deuteronomy 4:30; Ezekiel 38:16; Daniel 2:28; Daniel 10:14; Hosea 3:5). This phrase usually refers to the Tribulation and or the Millennium. Some ew Testament writers said that Christians live in the last days, namely, the days preceding Messiah"s return to the earth and the establishment of His kingdom on earth (e.g, Hebrews 1:2; Hebrews 9:26; 1 Peter 1:20).

"The mountain of the house of the Lord" is Mt. Zion where the temple, the Lord"s house, stood in the past and will stand in the future (cf. Ezekiel 40-43). In the future, Mt. Zion would become the chief of all the mountains on earth rising above all other hills in its importance (cf. Genesis 12:3; Zechariah 8:3). "Mountain" is also a figure for a kingdom in the Old Testament (e.g, Daniel 2:35; Daniel 2:44-45). Here it probably has the double significance of literal Mt. Zion (Jerusalem) and the whole kingdom of Israel that Mt. Zion represents (by metonymy). People from all parts of the earth will migrate to it. This is quite a contrast from what Micah predicted about the immediate future of Jerusalem and the temple: its destruction and abandonment (cf. Micah 3:12). Literal streams of water will flow from this

millennial temple ( Ezekiel 47), but people will stream to it. [ote: Mays, pp96-97.]

"Year by year bands of pilgrims would make their way to Jerusalem to engage in festive worship, in the course of which they would receive instruction in the moral traditions of the covenant. This Israelite pilgrimage is here magnified to universal dimensions. ot merely Israel, but their pagan neighbors from all around would one day wend their way to Yahweh"s earthly residence, and there learn lessons which they would put into practice back in their own communities." [ote: Allen, p323.]

Verses 1-5Zion"s positive future role4:1-5

Verses 1-81. The exaltation of Zion4:1-8

Micah mentioned several characteristics of the future kingdom of Messiah in this section. Micah 4:1-3 are similar to Isaiah 2:2-4. Scholars debate whether Isaiah borrowed from Micah or vice versa, whether they both drew from an older original source, or whether they each received their similar words directly from the Lord. There is no way to tell for sure.

BESO, "Verses 1-5Micah 4:1-5. In the last days it shall come to pass, &c., — The first three of these verses are the same as Isaiah 2:2-4, where see the notes. They evidently “contain a prophecy which was to be fulfilled by the coming of the Messiah; when the [believing] Gentiles were to be admitted into covenant with God, and the apostles were to preach the gospel, beginning at Jerusalem; when Christ was to be the spiritual Judge and King of many people, was to convince many nations of their errors and vices, and was to found a religion which had the strongest tendency to promote peace.” — ewcome. They shall sit every man under his vine, &c. — This shall be the effect of that peace foretold in the foregoing verse, every man shall securely enjoy his own possessions, and the fruits of his labours. The expressions are figurative, signifying a state of uninterrupted tranquillity. All people will walk every one in the name of his god — It is the practice of all people to serve their gods, and to be attached to the religion of their forefathers, though false and absurd. And surely it much more becomes us to cleave steadfastly to the service of the true God, and not to disobey his laws or forsake his ordinances, as we have too often done. This prophecy will be remarkably fulfilled at the time of the general conversion of the Jews, as has been observed in the notes on the parallel place in Isaiah.

TRAPP, "Micah 4:1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, [that] the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.

Ver. 1. But in the last days it shall come to pass] God reserveth his best comforts till the last, as that ruler of the feast did his best wine, John 2:10, and as the sweetest of the honey lieth at the bottom. These last days are the Gospel days, Hebrews 1:2,

times of reformation, Hebrews 9:10, of restitution, Acts 3:21, called the world to come, Hebrews 2:5, that "new heaven and earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," 2 Peter 3:13, that new Jerusalem, that is all of gold, Revelation 21:18, Ezekiel’s new temple, larger than all the old Jerusalem, and his new Jerusalem, larger than all the land of Canaan, Ezekiel 40:41-49. Let Popish buzzards blaspheme that description of the temple and city; calling it (as Sanctius doth once and again) insulsam descriptionem, a senseless description; so speaking evil of the things that they know not, 1:10. We believe and are sure, John 6:69, that God hath provided some better thing for us than for those under the law, Hebrews 11:40, viz. that great mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh, 1 Timothy 3:16, who should again restore the kingdom to Israel, the spiritual kingdom to the Israel of God; as is here foretold in the self same words with those of Isaiah, Isaiah 2:1-2, whence he is not ashamed to take it.

That the mountain of the house of the Lord] The Church, 1 Timothy 3:15, called elsewhere the mountain of the Lord, and his holy hill, Psalms 15:1; Psalms 24:3; Psalms 48:2, Isaiah 30:17, both for its sublimity, Galatians 4:26, and firmness, Psalms 46:3; Psalms 125:1 : winds and storms move it not; no more can all the power and policy of hell combined prevail against the Church, Matthew 16:18. She is ανικητος και ακινητος, a kingdom that cannot be shaken; and may, better than the city of Venice, take for her posy Immota manet. May she stand immovable.

Shall be established in the top of the mountains] Constituetur firmiter, She shall be established more securely, shall be strongly set upon a sure bottom, upon munitions of rocks; yea, upon the Rock of Ages, Matthew 15:18, Jeremiah 31:35, Isaiah 33:16. Some by "the house of the Lord" here understand the Church; and by the mountain of this house, Christ, whereon it is built, and whom Daniel describeth by that great mountain that filled the whole earth, that stone cut out without hands that smote in pieces the four monarchies, Daniel 2:35. And hence it is that this mountain of the Lord’s house is exalted above the hills: the Church must needs be above all earthly eminences whatsoever, because founded upon Christ; who therefore cannot be exalted, but she must be lifted up aloft together with him. God, who is rich in mercy, saith that great apostle, "hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," Ephesians 2:5-6. The Church is mystical Christ, 1 Corinthians 12:12, she is his wife, and wherever he is Caius she is Caia; she shineth with his beams and partaketh of his honours; union being the ground of communion.

And people shall flow unto it] As waters roll and run toward the sea; but that these waters shall flow upward, flow to the mountain, as here, is as wonderful as that the sun should send his beams downward to the earth, when as it is the property of all fire to aspire and fly upwards. This is the Lord’s own work, and it is marvellous in our eyes. The metaphor of flowing importeth the coming of people to Christ by the preaching of the Gospel. 1. Freely, Psalms 110:3 2. Swiftly, as the waters of the river

Tigris, swift as an arrow out of a bow. See Isaiah 60:8 3. Plentifully, by whole nations turned to the faith, and giving up their names to Christ. 4. Jointly, as Micah 4:2, Zechariah 8:21 5. Zealously, bearing down all obstacles that would dam up their way. 6. Constantly and continually, as rivers run perpetually, by reason of the perennity of their fountains; and are never dried up, though sometimes fuller than some: quin ut fluvii repentinis imbribus augentur, saith Gualther; as rivers swell often with sudden showers, and overflow the banks, so, beyond all expectation, many times doth God take away tyrants, and propagates his truth, enlarging the bounds of his Church with new confluxes of converts.

ELLICOTT, "(1) But in the last days.—There is again a sudden transition. As the third chapter commenced with a startling denunciation, following immediately upon the predicted blessings of the restored kingdom, so upon that chapter, closed in deepest gloom, there now rises a vision of glorious light. The first three verses are almost identical with the second chapter of Isaiah, Micah 4:2-4; and it has been almost an open question which of the two prophets is the original author of them, or whether indeed they both adopted the words from an older prophecy current at the time. Dr. Pusey takes very decided ground, saying, “It is now owned, well-nigh on all hands, that the great prophecy, three verses of which Isaiah prefixed to his second chapter, was originally delivered by Micah. . . . o one now thinks Micah adopted that great prophecy from Isaiah” (Minor Prophets, p. 289). This last statement, however, is far too sweeping; all that can be correctly said is that the preponderance of opinion is in favour of Micah being regarded as the original writer.

In the top of the mountains—i.e., the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be spiritually elevated above all else, visible and invisible, and it shall be established for ever.

EXPOSITOR'S DICTIOARY, "The Golden Age

Micah 4:1

The Prophet lifts his eyes away to the latter days to gain refreshment in his present toil. Without the anticipation of a golden age he would lose his buoyancy, and the spirit of endeavour would go out of his work. What are the characteristics of the golden age to which the Prophet was looking with hungry and aspiring spirit?

I. In the golden age emphasis is to be given to the spiritual. In the latter days the spiritual is to have emphasis above pleasure, money, armaments. In whatever prominence these may be seen they are all to be subordinate to the reverence and worship of God. Military prowess and money making and pleasure seeking are to be put in their own place, and not to be permitted to leave it. First things first! "In the beginning, God." This is the first characteristic of the golden age.

II. People are to find their confluence and unity in common worship. The brotherhood is to be discovered in spiritual communion. We are not to find

profound community upon the river of pleasure or in the ways of business or in the armaments of the castle. These are never permanently cohesive. Pleasure is more frequently divisive than cohesive. It is in the common worship of the one Lord. It is in united adoration of the God revealed in Christ that our brotherhood will be unburied, and we shall realize how rich is our oneness in Him.

III. The conversion of merely destructive force in to positive and constructive ministries. "And they shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruninghooks." That is the suggestion we seek in the golden age; all destructive forces are to be changed into helpful ministries. Tongues that speak nothing but malice are to be turned into instructors of wisdom. All men"s gifts and powers and all material forces are to be used in the employment of the kingdom of God.

IV. There is to be a distribution of comforts. "They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree." To every mortal man there is to be given a little treasure, a little leisure, a little pleasure. In the golden age peace is to be the attendant of comfort, and both are to be the guests in every man"s dwelling.

V. The beautiful final touches in this Prophet"s dream; "I will assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out and her that is afflicted ". They are all to be found in God"s family. The day of grief is to be ended, mourning shall be the thing of the preparatory day which is over; "He shall wipe away all tears from the eyes, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away".

—J. H. Jowett, Homiletic Review, 1904 , vol. xlviii. p309.

The Reign of Peace

Micah 4:1-3

The Holy Ghost, we say, as we repeat our Creed, spake by the Prophets; and when we read verses like these we feel that we have here one of the great utterances thus inspired and spoken long ago. This vision of the Prophet Micah is recognized as one of the great visions of history, one of those flashes from the Divine life that remains with us as a great possession for all succeeding generations of men, illuminating, enriching, inspiring with a new spirit. But the strange and the melancholy thing is that this vision of the reign among men of the spirit of peace, a vision so noble and so beautiful, and universally recognized as expressing some of the highest and bent aspirations of the human heart, still remains unrealized, even in the most advanced and the most Christian communities.

I. These facts of life may well perplex thoughtful men. Does the goddess of warfare and strife still rule the nations, even the most civilized and the most enlightened among them? Is the issue of the days still practically as far off as it was when Micah saw it in his vision? We acknowledge that, indeed, it is not so. The issue of the days is nearer to us. We see striking phenomena on the other side—great armies of peace, and self-sacrifice, and personal devotion, and charity marching to their lifelong

warfare under the banner of Jesus of azareth; or, again, we contrast the ways of Turk and Christian, and we see that there is a great gulf separating them in all their moral and spiritual attributes, and that gulf is the witness of what you and I owe to the revelation of Jesus. That revelation has given to men a new sense of the value of each human soul. As under its influence and possessed by its spirit you look in the eyes of Prayer of Manasseh , woman, or child, you are moved to a new feeling of the sacredness of human life. It has given you a new pity for human suffering—in one word, a new sense of humanity.

II. The rule of the Spirit in men"s hearts, the history of moral enlightenment and progress, has been strangely partial. It has laid its redeeming hand on one nation, or race, or continent, and left another hardly touched, unmoved. It has changed one half of a man"s life and not the other half; changed, for instance, our standards of private conduct but hardly those of political conduct, bringing half of our life into, at any rate, a nominal allegiance to Christ, but leaving the other half practically pagan. How marvellously inconsistent and contradictory are the phenomena of our complex Christian society! And amidst all this there comes to us day by day, little noticed it may be in the excitement of the daily life, the soothing voice of the pleading Saviour as He stands at our side, invisible, but really present with us, calling us one by one to give Him an unstinting and not a conventional or halfhearted allegiance, to make our Christianity a real power, actual and dominant, in the practical affairs of both public and private life.

III. Among the lessons of Christ we have to learn more fully is this one—that war is a weapon of barbarism, a dreadful scourge, and full of misery, and all the more because the miseries fall not on the men who make the war, but on the victims who suffer. Thus a selfish war, a war of greed, a war to satisfy the pride or the personal ambition or temper of a politician, or a really unnecessary or ill-ordered war, is a great crime. Our plain duty is to put goodwill above jealousy and enmity, and to enthrone law in the place of brute force. "Even in thy warfare thou must be of the peace-making spirit," said the great Augustine to the soldier of his day. It is a great and a good word for you and for me. Let us carry it with us into all the opinions and the conduct of our common life.

IV. It is because through all the clouds and the dust of politics and of war we see unmistakable signs of the growth and the spread of this love of peace among men, among men of goodwill, that we do not despair. The growing signs of brotherhood among nations, the growing conviction that war is a method of barbarism, the growing feeling that it is a crime, a national crime, to sacrifice the humble multitudes to the ambitions of the comparatively few, the growing recognition that, if the Spirit of Christ is to rule amongst us, and not to be a mere shadow of a name, our conduct must be regulated by law, and justice, and goodwill, and not by force or greed—all this makes for growing peace and extending happiness in the years that lie before us. A great orator declared that what is morally wrong cannot be politically right. It is an obvious truth as we listen to it Well, then, let us translate it into the language of bur practical politics, for it simply means that what would be indefensible or wrong for us, as individuals, to do, cannot be right for the conduct of

nations or empires. And it is because of the growing hold of great truths like this upon the consciences and the lives of men that we feel ourselves to be nearer to the ultimate fulfilment of the Prophet"s vision, even while what he saw be far off on the distant horizon.

EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMMETARY

O TIME’S HORIZO

Micah 4:1-7

THE immediate prospect of Zion’s desolation which closes chapter 3 is followed in the opening of chapter 4 by an ideal picture of her exaltation and supremacy "in the issue of the days." We can hardly doubt that this arrangement has been made of purpose, nor can we deny that it is natural and artistic. Whether it be due to Micah himself, or Whether he wrote the second passage, are questions we have already discussed. Like so many others of their kind, they cannot be answered with certainty, far less with dogmatism. But I repeat, I see no conclusive reason for denying either to the circumstances of Micah’s times or to the principles of their prophecy the possibility of such a hope as inspires Micah 4:1-4. Remember how the prophets of the eighth century identified Jehovah with supreme and universal righteousness; remember how Amos explicitly condemned the aggravations of war and slavery among the heathen as sins against Him, and how Isaiah claimed the future gains of Tyrian commerce as gifts for His sanctuary; remember how Amos heard His voice come forth from Jerusalem, and Isaiah counted upon the eternal inviolateness of His shrine and city, -and you will not think it impossible for a third Judean prophet of that age, whether he was Micah or another, to have drawn the prospect of Jerusalem which now opens before us.

It is the far-off horizon of time, which, like the spatial horizon, always seems a fixed and eternal line, but as constantly shifts with the shifting of our standpoint or elevation. Every prophet has his own vision of "the latter days"; seldom is that prospect the same. Determined by the circumstances of the seer, by the desires these prompt or only partially fulfill, it changes from age to age. The ideal is always shaped by the real, and in this vision of the eighth century there is no exception. This is not any of the ideals of later ages, when the evil was the oppression of the Lord’s people by foreign armies or their scattering in exile; it is not, in contrast to these, the spectacle of the armies of the Lord of Hosts imbrued in the blood of the heathen, or of the columns of returning captives filling all the narrow roads to Jerusalem, "like streams in the south"; nor, again, is it a nation of priests gathering about a rebuilt temple and a restored ritual. But because the pain of the greatest minds of the eighth century was the contradiction between faith in the God of Zion as Universal Righteousness and the experience that, nevertheless, Zion had absolutely no influence upon surrounding nations, this vision shows a day when Zion’s influence will be as great as her right, and from far and wide the nations whom Amos has condemned for their transgressions against Jehovah will acknowledge His law, and be drawn to Jerusalem to learn of Him. Observe that

nothing is said of Israel going forth to teach the nations the law of the Lord. That is the ideal of a later age, when Jews were scattered across the world. Here, in conformity with the experience of a still unraveled people, we see the Gentiles drawing in upon the Mountain of the House of the Lord. With the same lofty impartiality which distinguishes the oracles of Amos on the heathen, the prophet takes no account of their enmity to Israel; nor is there any talk-such as later generations were almost forced by the hostility of neighboring tribes to indulge in-of politically subduing them to the king in Zion. Jehovah will arbitrate between them, and the result shall be the institution of a great peace, with no special political privilege to Israel, unless this be understood in Micah 4:5, which speaks of such security to life as was impossible, at that time at least, in all borderlands of Israel. But among the heathen themselves there will be a resting from war: the factions and ferocities of that wild Semitic world, which Amos so vividly characterised, shall cease. In all this there is nothing beyond the possibility of suggestion by the circumstances of the eighth century or by the spirit of its prophecy.

A prophet speaks:-

"And it shall come to pass in the issue of the days, That the Mount of the House of Jehovah shall be established on the tops of the mountains, And lifted shall it be above the hills, And peoples shall flow to it,"

"And many nations shall go and say: "Come, and let us up to the Mount of Jehovah, And to the House of the God of Jacob, That He may teach us of His ways, And we will walk in His paths.’ For from Zion goeth forth the law, And the word of Jehovah from out of Jerusalem! And He shall judge between many peoples,"

"And decide for strong nations far and wide; And they shall hammer their swords into plough shares, And their spears into pruning-hooks: They shall not lift up, nation against nation, a sword, And they shall not any more learn war. Every man shall dwell under his vine And under his fig-tree, And none shall make afraid; For the mouth of Jehovah of Hosts has spoken."

What connection this last verse is intended to have with the preceding is not quite obvious. It may mean that every family among the Gentiles shall dwell in peace; or, as suggested above, that with the voluntary disarming of the surrounding heathendom, Israel herself shall dwell secure, in no fear of border raids and slave-hunting expeditions, with which especially Micah’s Shephelah and other borderlands were familiar. The verse does not occur in Isaiah’s quotation of the three which precede it. We can scarcely suppose, fain though we may be to do so, that Micah added the verse in order to exhibit the future correction of the evils he has been deploring in chapter 3: the insecurity of the householder in Israel before the unscrupulous land-grabbing of the wealthy. Such are not the evils from which this passage prophesies redemption. It deals only, like the first oracles of Amos, with the relentlessness and ferocity of the heathen under Jehovah’s arbitrament these shall be at peace, and whether among themselves or in Israel, hitherto so exposed to their raids, men shall dwell in unalarmed possession of their houses and fields.

Security from war, not from social tyranny, is what is promised.

The following verse (Micah 4:5) gives in a curious way the contrast of the present to that future in which all men will own the sway of one God. "For" at the present time "all the nations are walking each in the name of his God, but we go in the name of Jehovah forever and aye."

To which vision, complete in itself, there has been added by another hand, of what date we cannot tell, a further effect of God’s blessed influence. To peace among men shall be added healing and redemption, the ingathering of the outcast and the care of the crippled.

"In that day-‘tis the oracle of Jehovah-I will gather the halt, And the cast-off I will bring in, and all that I have afflicted; And I will make the halt for a Remnant, And her that was weakened into a strong people, And Jehovah shall reign over them In the Mount of Zion from now and forever."

Whatever be the origin of the separate oracles which compose this passage Micah 4:1-7, they form as they now stand a beautiful whole, rising from Peace through Freedom to Love. They begin with obedience to God and they culminate in the most glorious service which God or man may undertake, the service of saving the lost. See how the Divine spiral ascends. We have, first, Religion the center and origin of all, compelling the attention of men by its historical evidence of justice and righteousness. We have the world’s willingness to learn of it. We have the results in the widening brotherhood of nations, in universal Peace, in Labor freed from War, and with none of her resources absorbed by the conscriptions and armaments which in our times are deemed necessary for enforcing peace. We have the universal diffusion and security of Property, the prosperity and safety of the humblest home. And, finally, we have this free strength and wealth inspired by the example of God Himself to nourish the broken and to gather in the forwandered.

Such is the ideal world, seen and promised two thousand five hundred years ago, out of as real an experience of human sin and failure as ever mankind awoke to. Are we nearer the Vision today, or does it still hang upon time’s horizon, that line which seems so stable from every seer’s point of view, but which moves from the generations as fast as they travel to it?

So far from this being so, there is much in the Vision that is not only nearer us than it was to the Hebrew prophets, and not only abreast of us, but actually achieved and behind us, as we live and strive still onward. Yes, brothers, actually behind us! History has in part fulfilled the promised influence of religion upon the nations. The Unity of God has been owned, and the civilized peoples bow to the standards of justice and of mercy first revealed from Mount Zion. "Many nations" and "powerful nations" acknowledge the arbitrament of the God of the Bible. We have had revealed that High Fatherhood of which every family in heaven and earth is named; and wherever that is believed the brotherhood of men is confessed. We have seen Sin, that profound discord in man and estrangement from God, of which all

human hatreds and malices are the fruit, atoned for and reconciled by a Sacrifice in face of which human pride and passion stand abashed. The first part of the Vision is fulfilled. "The nations stream to the God of Jerusalem and His Christ." And though today our Peace be but a paradox, and the "Christian" nations stand still from war not in love, but in fear of one another, there are in every nation an increasing number of men and women, with growing influence, who, without being fanatics for peace, or blind to the fact that war may be a people’s duty in fulfillment of its own destiny or in relief of the enslaved, do yet keep themselves from foolish forms of patriotism, and by their recognition of each other across all national differences make sudden and unconsidered war more and more of an impossibility. I write this in the sound of that call to stand upon arms which broke like thunder upon our Christmas peace; but, amid all the ignoble jealousies and hot rashness which prevail, how the air, burned clean by that first electric discharge, has filled with the determination that war shall not happen in the interests of mere wealth or at the caprice of a tyrant! God help us to use this peace for the last ideals of His prophet! May we see, not that of which our modern peace has been far too full, mere freedom for the wealth of the few to increase at the expense of the mass of mankind. May our Peace mean the gradual disarmament of the nations, the increase of labor, the diffusion of property, and, above all, the redemption of the waste of the people and the recovery of our outcasts. Without this, peace is no peace; and better were war to burn out by its fierce fires those evil humors of our secure comfort, which render us insensible to the needy and the fallen at our side. Without the redemptive forces at work which Christ brought to earth, peace is no peace; and the cruelties of war, that slay and mutilate so many, are as nothing to the cruelties of a peace which leaves us insensible to the outcasts and the perishing, of whom there are so many even in our civilization.

One application of the prophecy may be made at this moment. We are told by those who know best and have most responsibility in the matter that an ancient Church and people of Christ are being left a prey to the wrath of an infidel tyrant, not because Christendom is without strength to compel him to deliver, but because to use the strength, would be to imperil the peace, of Christendom. It is an ignoble peace which cannot use the forces of redemption, and with the cry of Armenia in our ears the Unity of Europe is but a mockery.

PARKER, "Verses 1-13The Glory of the Church

Micah 4 , Micah 5

We cut up our time into days and years, little spaces and periods, and we magnify them exceedingly by the trifling incidents which occur within them; but to the prophetic gaze the whole question of time was divided into two—the first days, and the last days; the days before Christ, and the days after Christ. As to all that went between, it was matter of detail and necessary progress, and sequential development. How much we lose by frittering away our time by a frivolous division into parts, and minor parts, and major parts! Thus we are vexed by detail,

exceedingly tormented, and our minds are clouded, and the horizon is shut out, and we are the victims of little views and small conceptions and narrow prejudices. Why do we live in the valley when we might live on the hilltop? The higher we ascend the more distant is the view. There is poetry in distance, there is music in the horizon; but who can find anything in smoke and cloud and fog but depression and fear, and loss of those higher enthusiasms that ought to rule our life. Arise, awake! Climb any hill that you can get your feet upon; it is good to be much in the upper air. Politically and socially, we are always beginning and ending; we are in a circle of elections and depositions and reconstructions, but in the spirit of our Lord we are seated with himself upon the circle of eternity, and oh, how small everything appears far away yonder! Yet what trouble the inhabitants are in! how they are voting and canvassing and knocking at each other"s doors, and exciting one another in momentary fury about nothing! Yet if all this inferior and temporary business must be done it can be best done in the spirit of eternity. It is when we have been most in heaven that we can most effectually and successfully handle the affairs of time. All depends upon the point of approach: if we approach the work from below it will be all uphill toil; if we descend upon it from communion with God we shall bring the whole stress of our strength to bear upon it, and a touch will have in it the force of a battering-ram. Why all this toiling, and upheaving, and struggling, and strenuous endeavour, when life might be made a joy; when life might be made to grow the flower of peace and the fruit of plenty, and the whole action might be a movement of triumph? Men will not be right until they are geometrically right; they must have the right point of origin; they must put themselves into proper figure; they must accept something that was in the universe before they came consciously into it; they must receive, and adore, and obey the will of God. The prophets looked forward to Christ, and we do just the same. We talk about ancient prophets—there is nothing in the world but prophecy. Yet we have in our transient wisdom classified men into major prophets and minor prophets, and we go to the Old Testament for prophets of all sorts and qualities, forgetting that Jesus Christ is the greatest Prophet of all, and that Christians are still in the region of prophecy, and that if we could get out of the region of prophecy, we should soon get into the region of monotony, and the region of monotony lies close to the region of despair. It is hope that saves us; it is prophecy that gives us all our music and higher cheer and nobler enthusiasm; it is the beyond that holds our home, and it will be the beyond eternities hence. To see the invisible is to live; to lay hold of the eternal is to be safe for evermore.

"But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established" ( Micah 4:1).

There is a word wanting there; at least, the word is wanting in the English. The word was in the language of the prophet and in the tone of the prophet. The word "established" may be accepted as conveying a sense of only temporary security. We speak of our establishments, we speak of an established institution; but in so using the term we are aware that the establishment is regulated by certain unwritten and necessary laws, which govern the rise, the flourishing, and the decay of empire and institution. Micah used a word which means abidingly established, for ever firm,

eternally secure. ot established even as a mountain is established, for mountains were planted that they might be torn up. Below the mountain there is a fire mightier than they, and that gleesome, grim, playful fire makes toys of the mountains, shapes them and reshapes them, lifts them up and tears them down; and yet we speak of the everlasting hills. Micah is now speaking of an eternal settlement, a position that never can be disturbed, part and parcel of the duration, because part and parcel of the quality of God. Where shall the mountain of the Lord"s house be established?—on "the top of the mountains." Whatever is on the top of the mountain is higher than the mountain. A child standing on the Andes, or Teneriffe, or Himalayan glories, is higher than they all. The little child looks down upon the mountain it stands upon; the mountain was never so high as that child is. Here is the mountain of the house of the Lord; it is a mountain upon a mountain. The house of the Lord itself is spoken of under the figure of a mountain, and the mountains of the earth have to carry the mountain of God. They are all his; he made the staircase as well as the temple; he made the vestibule as well as the palace; he made the earth first, and then he built upon it; he made the mountain first, and then he set his Church on the top of it. The meaning Isaiah , that the Church is to be the uppermost institution, the sanctuary of God is to be at the top of things, and out of it is to come law; out of it also is to come the spirit of righteousness, and out of it, day by day, is to come the spirit of peace, the spirit of benediction. We must be right at the top, or we never can be right otherwhere. Given a proper sovereignty, a rule of righteousness, truth, beauty, love, music, honour, and we shall have a world at peace. Who is on the throne? is the uppermost question. Who reigns? What governs?—for the "what" in that case is larger than the "who." Say righteousness is on the throne, and the earth may be at peace; say the highest interests of humanity as a whole are represented by the throne, and no misfortune can befall that symbol of majesty. Every Church that is selfish must be torn down; nay, may we change the phrase, and say, Why tear it down? Time is against it; the ages coming and going are against it; the spirit of liberty is against it; Providence is against it. Distress not thyself, therefore, with any tearing down violence, for all bad institutions, political, ecclesiastical, theological, social, will fall, and no man shall care to look into their dishonoured graves.

What a wonderful forecast was this on the part of the villager Micah! The prophecies of these men seem to my own mind not only to suggest, but to confirm their inspiration. This is not only talk. Here are men that shoot out above us all, miles and miles beyond. They are in the heavens, whilst we are on the earth. Yet they were unlearned men—they were rustics, they were villagers; they laid down their credentials, and in those credentials there is nothing of Song of Solomon -called ancestral and hereditary glory. But how they lived! They sat down as guests at the banqueting-table of the ages. Micah , the villager, comes and sits down at the latter-day feast; he is a guest of the Lord, and takes part in the song of festival. We might have more joys if we understood that all things are ours. All time belongs to the children of light. We are not bounded by the little grey dewy morning of the present; we have all the mornings that ever grew in the garden of the horizon. We are only poor because we are faithless. If we had faith we should have all time, all strength, all confidence, and all peace. Lord, increase our faith.

What does Micah see? Whole nations coming to the Lord, and saying to one another,—

"Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" ( Micah 4:2).

Here is a popular sentiment; here Isaiah , indeed, a universal sentiment. At present our ideal Christian life is represented by a one-man ministry. If you close your eyes, and look upon the ideal Church of to-day, it is that there shall be a congregation, and one man shall be addressing it; and that one man shall sustain the position of exhorter, and in high, poignant, hortatory tones he shall call men, and warn men, and bless men. Micah saw a much larger ministry; he said, The time will come when the people will exhort one another; when all the congregations shall mutually excite one another to higher enthusiasm and nobler endeavour. Wherever you meet a man he will say, Come to the mountain of the house of the Lord; wherever you see an assembly of men they shall, with one concurrent and dominating voice, say, Come! and their call will be to festival, to banqueting, to the holy rite of harmonious joy in the living Saviour. What wonder that Micah was rich and strong, and full of peace and gladness! The image is one of an inspiring kind.

What shall happen when this mountain of the house of the Lord is exalted on the top of the mountains? This shall come to pass,—

"And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" ( Micah 4:3).

How is that result brought about? ot by argument, not by voting, not by overwhelming majorities; it is brought about as a detail—it is part of something else, it is the issue of a certain all-inclusive process. The third verse is in the second verse: let the mountain of the house of the Lord be in its right place, and all other things shall adjust themselves to the genius that presides and governs. We have been working at the wrong end too much; we have been trying to do things in parts that were never meant to be done, except as in relation to sublimer movements. Let the temple of the Lord be in the right place; let it be rightly defined as the sanctuary of righteousness and judgment, the abode of law and the home of pureness and peace, and then all other things will fall into harmonic and helpful relation. We cannot carry on our poor shoulders the universe; it is impossible for us to hasten millenniums to any appreciable extent. We lose ourselves so much in false enthusiasm. The thing to be remembered is this, that you never can have peace until you have righteousness; you cannot have a happy earth until that earth is governed by eternal and indestructible principles: if you think you can, then you will have reformations, and insignia, and paraphernalia, and clubs, and arrangements of divers social kinds, all of which may be momentarily pleasant. They will never bring in the millennium. Only one thing can carry the earth, and that is gravitation.

Gravitation will pick it up, but your hands cannot, your institutions cannot, your politics cannot; only one thing keeps the universe right, and sends it whirling through its musical revolutions, and that is gravitation. Gravitation can pick up a thousand universes, and hold them all— in fact, it can make them hold one another; but we, with our poor shoulders, yea, with both of them, cannot carry the tiniest planet. Better come to an understanding about this whole business of reformation, elevation, education, and progress. othing is right until it is religiously right. By religiously right do not understand any mean, detestable, and utterly unworthy sectarian interpretation of the term. Dismiss all meddlers, welcome all helpers; but know that nothing is right until it is right in its soul. All compromises, adjustments, and temporary relationships are but for a moment. That is right which is religiously true; that is right which God pronounces very good.

What comes after peace? Security:—

"But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid" ( Micah 4:4).

The vine and the fig tree were children of Palestine, they were the typical plants of the country; and every man shall have his own vine growing by his own door, and putting out its leafage so plentifully that it can curl itself around the trellis-work of the portico, and the old grey-haired sire shall sit and think over the past, and forecast the future, and meditate in the law of the Lord, the very air itself being a speechless benediction. There shall be personal security, there shall be a sense of nearness to God; but all coming out of the proper establishment of the house of the Lord. If that house had not been on the top of the mountains you could not have had the vine and fig tree; or if you had the vine and fig tree they would have been no security. If you had no sun you could have no violet. Is that little blue-eyed thing born in the sun? Yes. If you had no solar system you could have no daisies in the meadow, no redbreasts, no larks, no songs in the air. Do not look at the violet and say, "Bless thee, sweet little blue-eyed stranger, we are glad to see thee,"—and think that it is not part of the solar system: it eats at the table of the angels, it is a guest in the household of the Father; it is a snip of the sun, one infinitesimal glint of his infinite light. So you could not have your vine and fig tree if you had not the mountain of the house of the Lord established on the top of the mountains. Religion carries everything with it. It is a true religious settlement that gives you your home, your cottage, your palace; it is the spirit of righteousness that hangs your walls with pictures; it is the spirit of goodness that makes it possible for the poorest man to have one poor little pot of flowers on his sloping window-sill. Look at things in their right relations. Seize the bigness and unity of all things. Otherwise, what shall happen to you? You will be the victims of detail and accident and incident and hap, and you will say, Chance thus, and thus it fell out. othing of the kind. Why do you not live in the sanctuary? Why do you not find your habitation in eternity?

"For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever" ( Micah 4:5).

Why not? Do not worldly men excel us in this matter of brute courage? It is difficult for the worldly man to keep down his vulgarity. He will chaffer about the market-place before he leaves the church; he will say his creed. The worldly man is not afraid to speak about his markets, and his bargains, and his chances, his profits and his successes; is the Christian to be a dumb soul that has nothing to say about the living Lord? The worldly man will talk about his unclean little deities, his chance and his fortune, his opportunities and his investments, and his progress and his sagacity, and he will revel in the detestable pantheon of his own imagination and idolatry; and shall Christian men have nothing to say about righteousness and truth, the all-grouping and all-controlling Cross? If dumbness were piety, Christianity may be said to have won the day.

ow comes the great evangelical prophecy. Hear it, and remember who spake it:—

"But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" ( Micah 5:2).

If we were not familiar with these words they would be amongst the grandest utterances of the ages; we know them so well that we miss their meaning. We are too frivolous. We have seen the sun so often that we now never look at him; we have been so many mornings in the world, that morning comes to us with no Song of Solomon , no poetry, no new testament just written with the blood of the heart of God. "But" should be "And." or is the word "and" a simple conjunctive in grammar; it is a conjunctive in history, in genius, in spiritual intent,—"And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah." Thus the events are run into one another. We slip up history by our disjunctives. "But" we assign as dividing a sentence; Micah says "and." Many a chapter begins with "and." The little pedantic grammarian says "and" ought not to begin a sentence; but the great grammarians, the spiritual interpreters of ages and eternities, make all grammar bend itself to their uses. Chapter iii. begins "And." Thus we get the unity of history, the solidarity of events. One thing belongs to another: Bethlehem, thou art very little, but out of thee shall come the greatest Man that ever lived; Bethlehem, thou art not worthy to be counted among the Gileads of Judah, but out of thy little thousand there shall stand a man who shall rule all men. There is a wonderful spirit of compensation in providence. God is saying to each of us, Though thou art poor, thou mayest be wise; though thou art slow, thou mayest be painstaking and persevering; thou art—though misunderstood by men—thou art fully comprehended by thy Father. Look for the "though" in every history; look for the compensation in every life. "... From of old, from everlasting"—here is pre-existence; the whole mystery of the Gospel is here; for here we have eternity, personality, a historical point; we have the divine before the human. In the Old Testament language God is called by a very simple term—the God of Before. You cannot amend that phrase; do not paint that lily, bring no tinsel to that gold. If we cannot understand the term "Eternity" because of its vastness and its sublimity, we have some inkling of the meaning of the word "before." Of the Saviour, the azarene, the Man of Sorrows, of him who was acquainted with grief, whose face was marred more than any man"s, it is said he was "before all things."

Here is the altar at which we worship, nor are we ashamed to render homage here.

PETT, "Verses 1-4However, In The End It Is YHWH’s Purpose To Establish His Temple Miraculously In A Place Where All Men Can Flow To It So As To Learn His Ways And The Whole Earth Will Eventually Enjoy Peace (Micah 4:1-4).

But Micah wants it to be recognised that he is not despising the Temple and immediately points out its glorious future, although in terms which make it clear that it will be a very different one from the Temple of Solomon. This Temple is to be exalted heavenwards and is to become something to which all peoples will flow, and from which they can receive the word of God. The idea of a similarly exalted Temple is expressed in Revelation where the Temple has been raised into Heaven itself and is accessed through the prayers of God’s people, with the Lamb as the eternal sacrifice (Revelation 5:6; Revelation 5:8; Revelation 8:3-4; Revelation 9:13; Revelation 11:19; Revelation 14:15; Revelation 14:17-18; Revelation 15:5-8; Revelation 16:1; Revelation 16:7). That is fulfilling the words of Micah given here. The concept of an actual Heaven that men and women could enter had not even been thought of, and would simply have been looked on as polytheistic. To the nations it was the gods who indwelt the heavens.

Micah 4:1-3

are repeated almost word for word (with slight variations) in Isaiah 2:2-4. As they were contemporaries it is impossible to determine their connection. One may have depended on the other, or both may have been referring to a well known previous prophecy. (Each position has been well defended, which basically means that no one knows).Micah 4:1

‘But in the latter days it will come about that the mountain of YHWH’s house will be established on the top of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills; and peoples will flow to it.’Basically what Micah is saying is that it will be a heavenly Temple. It will rise far above all mountains and hills, and the people will flow upwards towards it. There is a deliberate indication of mystery here. ‘Flows’ usually take place downwards. But here the normal situation is reversed. God will draw the peoples to Himself (compare John 6:44). We can compare the heavenly Temple in Ezekiel which was situated on an unknown ‘very high mountain’ away from Jerusalem, and was never intended to be built. The only thing to be built was the altar in Jerusalem through which it could be accessed. It was the symbol that God was once again with His people.

Mountains and hills were looked on as having a kind of sacredness in the ancient world, which was why shrines (high places) were built on them and men thought that there people could better commune with God (compare Judges 11:38). In the mountain above where I once lived on Hong Kong Island there was precisely such a

sacred grove to which people would go in order to burn joss sticks and seek the favour of the gods. It was totally open and unguarded and anyone could go there at any time. We went there often, although not to worship.

So the Temple which had been treated as one of the despised ‘high places’ fit only for destruction (Micah 3:12) would once again become predominant as a heavenly Temple where all nations could approach God without let or hindrance. And as such it would become the goal of the peoples. YHWH’s purposes would triumph over man’s perfidy.

This was why Jesus would later say, ‘the hour will come when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father --- the hour comes and now is when the true worshipper will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for such does the Father seek to worship Him. God is Spirit. And those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth’ (John 4:21-24). We too worship in the heavenly Temple as we enter through the way opened up for us by the blood of Jesus and through our great High Priest Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:19-22).

SIMEO, "Verses 1-4DISCOURSE: 1206

UIVERSAL ESTABLISHMET OF CHRISTIAITY

Micah 4:1-4. In the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob: and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off: and they shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.

THE Prophet Micah was contemporary with Isaiah; and most probably had seen his prophecies. The prophecy before us is almost word for word the same as that in the second chapter of Isaiah, except indeed the concluding part of it, which is peculiar to Micah. The mode in which the prophecy too is introduced is different. In Isaiah, it is the commencement of a new prophecy; but, in Micah, it is the continuation of a prophecy of a very different complexion. Micah was a man of singular fidelity and courage. He declared to all the elders of his nation, and in a way that made a deep impression upon all [ote: Jeremiah 26:18-19.], that on account of their iniquities God would give up their city and temple, to be destroyed and “plowed up as a field.” But, whilst he announced to the Jews God’s determined purpose to punish them in this awful manner, he foretold also his intention at a future period to restore them to his favour, and to make them a source of blessings

to the whole earth.

This is the substance of the prophecy before us; in elucidating which we shall notice,

I. The universal establishment of the Christian Church.

Here it will be proper to notice,

1. The prediction relative to it—

[The temple of Solomon was built on a lofty hill: the altars also which were consecrated to false gods, were built on high places: hence the Christian Church is called by the prophet, “the mountain of the Lord’s House,” and by the Apostle Paul, “Mount Zion [ote: Hebrews 12:22.].” Of this Church it is said, that it “shall be established on the top of the mountains,” that is, on the foundations of the Jewish Church, and on the ruins of all idol worship. It is the superstructure for which alone the foundations of Judaism were laid: and, when this edifice shall be complete, all idols shall fall before it, as Dagon before the ark. The period for its completion is in the last days, the days of the Messiah; a period yet future, though, we hope, not far distant. The terms of the prophecy are such as evidently to shew, that the prediction has never yet been fulfilled, and consequently, that its accomplishment is yet to be expected by us in the appointed time.]

2. The mode of its accomplishment—

[“People,” or, as Isaiah expresses it, “all nations,” “shall flow unto it.” Yes, this “mountain shall be established on the top of mountains,” and all nations, like a majestic river, “shall flow unto it.” By this metaphor, which is indeed a most extraordinary one, it is intimated, that all nations shall be united in one common sentiment and purpose; that their progress towards its completion shall be irresistible; and that the whole shall take place under a preternatural and divine influence; since the natural progress of a river is downward, whereas this shall be upward, to a mountain on the top of other mountains. What a grand idea does this convey! The natural propensities of all men checked in their course, and their affections directed into a channel, in which Omnipotence alone can uphold them!

But the mode in which this shall take place is more fully stated by the prophet himself. The people of different and distant lands shall suddenly become penetrated with one common principle, and shall call on one another to unite in one common cause, the cause of true religion. “Come,” they will say, “let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, the House of the God of Jacob.” Just as, in the days of old, the Jews from every part of their land went up thrice a year to worship at Jerusalem; so will the Gentiles in every quarter of the globe go up with one consent to the mountain of the Lord’s House: “God will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear him for ever.”

The motives too by which they will be actuated are here distinctly specified. They

will not go from regard to a particular ordinance which they feel constrained to obey, nor from a mere carnal partiality, such as the Jews evinced for their native land; but from a real desire to know, and do, the will of God. It is this which they will contemplate with such peculiar pleasure. In the Christian Church they will have an opportunity of becoming more deeply acquainted with that “great mystery of godliness, God manifest in human flesh,” and dying for the sins of men; and they will have ampler means of knowing the whole extent of their duty, which it will thenceforth be their one labour to perform: to attain these things, I say, will be the one object of their ambition; and they will be alike filled with this one desire, to “stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”

This is the change which we expect assuredly to be wrought on the Gentile world in due time; and by this shall the predicted establishment of Christ’s Church be fulfilled.”]

Yet simple, and as it might be thought weak, are,

II. The means by which it shall be effected—

The mere preaching of the Gospel is the appointed instrument which God will make use of for the attainment of this great end; “The law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

The Gospel is here called “a law”—

[It is “a law,” because it is authoritatively enjoined to be obeyed by every creature under heaven. And it is so called by the Prophet Isaiah, who characterizes it as “God’s judgment which he would make to rest for a light of the people (the Gentiles;) even as his righteousness (or method for making people righteous before him,) and his salvation, for which all the isles shall wait, and in which they shall trust [ote: Isaiah 51:4-5.].” St. Paul also calls it “the law of faith [ote: Romans 3:27.].”]

And by the publication of that shall the great work be effected—

[It was that which produced such wonderful effects in the apostolic age; and it is still a “weapon mighty through God to the pulling down of the strong holds” of sin and Satan. It is “the rod of God’s strength which was to go forth of Zion,” and by which all his enemies are to be subdued before him. If we look into the discourses of the Apostles, we shall find nothing of that high-wrought eloquence for which the orators of Greece and Rome were famed: we shall see little else than a simple exhibition of Christ crucified, and a solemn declaration, that there was “no other name given under heaven whereby any man could be saved, but the name of Jesus Christ.” This is the truth which still approves itself “quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,” and still is “made the power of God unto salvation” to many souls. This began to be preached at Jerusalem; and is from thence come forth; and will in due time be “preached unto all nations.” o human

power shall be called to its aid; no human policy shall cooperate with it: this alone, accompanied with power from on high, and “preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven,” will do the work: conviction will flash upon the consciences of thousands, as on the day of Pentecost; conversion will instantly ensue: Christ being erected as “an ensign, all will flock to it,” and “a nation will be born in a day.” He shall be acknowledged by all as the “Shiloh that was to come: and to him shall the gathering of the people be.” The doctrine of the cross being universally proclaimed, the universal flow shall take place, “and the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea.”]

From the work itself let us turn to the contemplation of,

III. The fruits that shall every where proceed from it—

The Lord Jesus Christ will reign in the hearts of all—

[As judges of old swayed the sceptre of Israel, so will the Lord Jesus rule over the whole earth; and whatever is contrary to his will, he will “rebuke” and subdue. othing will be able to withstand his power: “He will work, and who shall let it?” As in former days, when he brought his people out of Egypt, and planted them in Canaan, he made them triumphant over every enemy, so will he do in the day to which we are looking forward: he will “go on in the chariot of his Gospel, conquering and to conquer,” till all his enemies and theirs be put under their feet.]

Then shall peace and happiness universally prevail—

[The distinctions between nations will then be no longer accompanied with rivalry and hate: all will be as children of one common Father, all as members of the same body. War will then no longer be a science, which even the most peaceful nations are constrained to learn for their own preservation: the cultivation of peaceful arts will be the one desire of all; “they will beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks, and they will learn war no more.” Then also personal and domestic peace will abound throughout the world: “every man will sit under his own vine and fig-tree,” as in Patriarchal times, none attempting to molest him, and not so much as the fear of molestation existing in his mind [ote: Isaiah 32:16-18.]. Doubtless the internal peace which all will enjoy in their own heart and conscience is also to be included under this beautiful image: for the very character of Christ himself is, that he is the Prince of peace; and the character of his reign is, that it diffuses “an abundance of peace” throughout his whole empire, so that “the peace of all floweth clown like a river.” Blessed, blessed state! May “the Lord hasten it, in his time!”]

From this subject we may clearly see,

1. What an unspeakable blessing the Gospel is—

[Wherever the Gospel has come with power, these effects may be already in a

measure seen. True it is, they are not seen to the extent that they will hereafter be, because real piety is at so low an ebb, even amongst the professed followers of Christ. But from what is partially seen, we may know what shall hereafter obtain throughout all the world. The hateful passions which produced so much hatred and contention in the world, are slain, wherever the Gospel has its due effect; and peace, and love, and every amiable disposition, have an habitual ascendant in the soul. O professors, judge yourselves in relation to this matter: see whether ye be “putting off the old man, which is corrupt, with its deceitful lusts; and be putting on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness:” and look to it, that, in these and all other respects, ye walk worthy of Him who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.]

2. How we may ensure to ourselves all its glorious effects—

[The Gentiles, in the latter days, may well be proposed as a pattern for us in the present day. Let an entire conformity of heart and life to God’s revealed will be the one object of our pursuit. Seek knowledge, not for its own sake, but for its influence upon the soul: and seek grace, not for the aggrandizement of yourselves, but that God may be glorified in the whole of your conversation. If you come up to the House of God with such dispositions as these, you will find that there is a power in the word to enlighten and sanctify the soul; and, in proportion as you cultivate these dispositions, you will “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”

It will also have a good effect to animate and encourage one another. This will characterize the Christians in the latter day: and the influence of social piety will be found most beneficial to your souls. Be careful, however, when exhorting others to come up to the House of the Lord, never to omit, in spirit at least, if not in word, “I will go also [ote: Zechariah 8:20-21.].”]

3. What glorious times are hastening upon us—

[We do hope that the times here spoken of are not far distant. Multitudes of us who are here present can remember when the Church was by no means what it now is: even twenty years have made an immense difference; so great, comparatively, has been the out-pouring of God’s Spirit, beyond what it has been for centuries before. And we account it no small privilege to live in a day when some of the greatest Potentates upon earth are uniting, with their subjects of every denomination and description, to disseminate throughout the world the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. By this we may form some little judgment what to expect in that day, when, in every nation under heaven, kings shall be the nursing-fathers, and queens the nursing-mothers, of the Church. O blessed times! May God accelerate them! and may we all exert ourselves, as his instruments, to accomplish his will, and to hasten forward these glorious events! If it be thought that these prospects are too good to be ever realized; let any one only compare Britain as it now is, with what it was before the banners of the Cross were erected on our shores; and then he will see no reason to despair of those nations that are yet “sitting in darkness and the shadow

of death.” But were the change far more beyond the reach of human probability than it is, there would be no resason to doubt of its ultimate accomplishment, since Omnipotence is pledged to effect it: It shall take place, “for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”]

PULPIT, "But. There is no adversative particle here; the verse is merely connected with what precedes without any expressed contrast. What is implied is that it was impossible that the temple, to which God's high promises attached, should lie waste forever. The passage, Micah 4:1-3, occurs in Isaiah 2:2-4, The question as to which prophecy is the earlier cannot be settled. Possibly both prophets borrowed the language of some earlier work, as Isaiah is thought to have done on other occasions, e.g. Isaiah 15:1-9. and 16. the community of ideas leading them to the same source of testimony. In the last days; literally, at the end of the days; Cheyne, "in the days to come." It is the usual phrase to designate the time of Messiah, unto which the prophet's thoughts are directed, and for which all preceding events and periods are a preparation. Septuagint, ἐπ ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡµερῶν, "at the last days." The phrase may often suitably be rendered, "in latter days," as spoken not absolutely, but relatively to preceding times. The mountain of the house of the Lord. Mount Moriah, the ruin of which was foretold (Micah 3:12). But the term here seems to include Jerusalem itself. Shall be established, firmly and permanently (as 1 Kings 2:45), no longer subject to ruin and devastation. In the top of the mountains; better, on the head of the mountains. The idea is that the temple mountain shall be raised above, and stand forth prominently from the lower hills that surround it and form its basis (comp. Ezekiel 40:2; Zechariah 14:10; Revelation 21:10). The prophet speaks as if he contemplated a physical change, expressing thereby with singular force the notion that the worship of the true God (of which the temple was the symbol) shall be promulgated among all nations of the world; that from the old Jewish centre of religion a new order of things shall arise, not transitory, nor local, but extending to all time and pervading the utmost parts of the earth. And people (peoples) shall flow unto it. The prophet beholds the nations of the world coming up in formal procession to join in the service of the temple. Thus is adumbrated the comprehension of all nations in the Catholic Church. Isaiah says "all nations" in the parallel passage (comp. Zephaniah 2:11 and Zechariah 8:22, and notes there).

BI 1-5, "The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains

The moral grandeur of the Christian Church

The gift of prophecy would have been to its possessor a source of the most exquisite misery if it had been restricted only to the dark passages of human history. But the future had a bright side as well as a dark, and it was as cheering to contemplate the former as it was dismal to apprehend the latter. As the sorrows of the prophets were greater, their joys also were higher than those of ordinary mere In the chapter immediately preceding the text the prophet had announced the future desolation of Zion and Jerusalem. The sins of her priests and princes, he foresaw, would attain such a height of aggravation that the very day itself would, in a manner, be dark over them. But as in the ashes of winter the husbandman can read the glories of spring, the prophetic eye could discern in the ruin of one city the establishment of another more glorious by

far. Seine goes on to expatiate with rapture on the glory that was to follow. By “last days” are meant the times of the Messiah, or, in other words, the Christian era. The meaning is, that the Christian dispensation would be the last of all, and that no other economy would be after it. It was an economy that was to last until the end of time. In these “last days” it is foretold by the prophet that “the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills.” In a mountainous region, among the multitude of hills that rise one above another in sublimity and grandeur, there is generally one that proudly and preeminently lifts its head above them all. It is seen from a greater distance than any of the others, and towers in glorious majesty over the heights which are allied to it. Under this bold and significant image, the prophet exhibits to us the moral grandeur and elevation of the Christian Church. It was, like the loftiest of mountains in an extensive range, to be visible from afar. A house, or temple, was to be reared on its summit. The Christian religion would surpass every other in majesty, and look down triumphantly on every other system of worship. This prophecy is fulfilled in part. Where is there a creed or system of theology that can compare with it? In the Gospel there is prominence, there is attractiveness, there is conspicuity. The hill of Calvary is more illustrious than the mountains of any land. He who was lifted up there, draws towards Him the eyes of many nations. The language of the prophet implies that, before this mountain could be exalted, there must be a shaking of the hills around. The prediction is to receive its full and perfect accomplishment in days still future—in, if we may so speak, the latest of the last days. Then indeed shall the mountain of the Lord’s house rise sublimely above all the hills. There is reason, too, for believing, that just as at the first propagation of the Gospel, so likewise at its universal diffusion, there shall be a series of great and momentous changes in the political world. The great battle of contending principles must be fought out—the old warfare between sense and spirit must be renewed—and a period of intense misery must precede the final adjustment of the question. Nevertheless, truth which is mighty must prevail. At the close of the first verse the prophet intimates the triumph of the Gospel, and the immense number of its converts. “People shall flow unto it.” The metaphor signifies that the triumph of the Gospel would be sure and certain, though it looked like a physical impossibility. The nations of the earth are not only compared to a river, but to a river flowing upward. To a certain extent this part of the prophecy has already been accomplished. The success of the Gospel hitherto in the world has been like the flowing of a river up a hill. Nothing, humanly speaking, could have been pronounced more improbable than the conversion of the nations to Christianity. It is the religion of purity; and the hearts of men are naturally unclean. It is the religion of benevolence and peace; but the spirit that is in men lusteth to envy. It is the religion of principle; and the heart of man is naturally disposed to content itself with forms. It were a curious enough question whether the age in which we ourselves live is an approximation to that glorious period of which the prophet speaks. But we dare not with certainty affirm it. While we rejoice in the symptoms of good, it becomes us, before pronouncing a positive judgment on the matter, to tremble at so many prognostications of evil. We may take warning against any fanatical use of this doctrine. The passage is not to be understood literally. The very terms of it intimate as much. The ultimate establishment of Messiah’s throne will not interfere with the forms and modes of earthly government. There will be liberty and equality and fraternity. It will not be the grossly misnamed liberty, equality, and fraternity of infidel and republican France. It will be a liberty, not from the salutary restraints of government, but from Satan and the tyranny of evil passions. An equality, not of spoil, plunder, and substance, but of principle and unity of spirit. A fraternisation, not of robbery, under the mask of communism, but of love and generosity, and of men preferring one another in honour. (J. L. Adamson.)

A vision of the latter-day glories

The prophets frequently described what they saw with spiritual eyes after the form or fashion of something which could be seen by the eye of nature. The Church will be like a high mountain, for she will be preeminently conspicuous. I believe that at this period the thoughts of men are more engaged upon the religion of Christ than upon any other. The Christian religion has become more conspicuous now than ever it was. The Church will become awful and venerable in her grandeur. There is something awfully grand in a mountain, but how much more so in such a mountain as is described in our text, which is to be exalted above all hills, and above all the highest mountains of the earth. Now the Church is despised; the infidel barketh at her. But the day shall come when the Cross shall command universal homage. The day is coming when the Church shall have absolute supremacy. Now she has to fight for her existence. The day is coming when she shall be so mighty that there shall be nought left to compete with her. Here is the meaning of the text, the Church growing and rising up till she becomes conspicuous, venerable, and supreme. But how is this to be done? Three things will ensure the growth of the Church.

1. The individual exertion of every Christian. We shall indeed see something more than natural agency, but this is to contribute to it.

2. The Church has within her a living influence. This must expand and grow.

3. The great hope of the Church is the second advent of Christ. When He shall come, then shall the mountain of the Lord’s house be exalted above the hills. We know not when Jesus may come. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The established Church

Such is the established Church predicted in ancient prophecy. Compare the similar prophecy in Isaiah

2. In the chapter immediately preceding this passage God denounces the severest and most unsparing judgments upon a guilty people. The text is couched in the language of promise. In order to cheer those on whom God was about to pour many and merited judgments, He gives them—not a precept, which would only depress them; not another threatening, for that might overwhelm them; not an invitation, for that they might not be able to obey—but a promise, causing the future to unbosom rays of light for the comfort of the present. From this prophecy, see that the last days of the Gospel are predicted as the brightest. Divisions and discords have been the history of the visible Church from its cradle downwards to the present hour. Notice the epithet. The Church of Christ is here called “a mountain.” This symbol is taken from the fact that the sacred site of the temple at Jerusalem was a mountain—Mount Moriah. It suggests that the Church of Christ shall be exalted above all the obstructions or impediments of the world; principalities and powers bending before it. Notwithstanding then all the difficulties, discords, divisions, heresies, Schisms, errors, misconstruction, and misapprehensions that prevail amid the Church of God, not one of them is retarding in the least degree the ultimate and glorious outburst. The Church is beautifully and suitably symbolised by a mountain. A mountain is a fixed and stable thing. In Scripture strength and stability are represented by

mountains. A mountain most suitably represents the varied climacterics of the Church of Christ, from this circumstance, that it is sometimes covered with clouds, and thereby involved in darkness, and swept by the hurricane, while at other times it basks and spreads its bosom before the uninterrupted and meridian sunbeams. This is precisely the history of the Church. A mountain is a place of safety or retreat. The true Church becomes a place of retreat, in which there is found the Rock of Ages, and the shadow of those wings beneath which there is safety. A mountain is a source of streams and rivulets. The dews descend from heaven upon it; those dews collect into streams, which irrigate and refresh the valley below. The Church of Christ is the great preserver of the earth. A mountain is the spot, standing on which we can see to the greatest distance. In this is shadowed one of the great functions which the Church of Christ is meant to discharge, namely, to enable the believer to see the Sun of Righteousness more clearly and distinctly. A mountain was selected in the ancient economy for those who sounded the trumpet of jubilee. And the “acceptable year of the Lord” ought to be proclaimed in the pulpits of every true and apostolic Church. It is predicted that this mountain “shall be established in the top of the mountains.” “Establishment” is not to be understood as popularly applied to certain modern Churches. The passage does not mean that the Church is established or built upon Peter. There cannot be two foundations. If Christ be the foundation, there can be no room for another; whatever comes next must be laid upon the foundation, and must be part of the superstructure, and not the foundation. The Church is established on Christ, the Rock of Ages. This is a tried foundation. It is Called “precious.” It is called a living rock, and the cornerstone. This foundation is an everlasting foundation. (John Cumming, A. M.)

A missionary discourse

II. A description of the Church. Such phrases as “the mountain of the Lord’s house,” and “Zion,” signify, in such connection as this, the Church of God. The visible Church has, from “the beginning, always had an existence; but its boundaries have generally been very limited, and its situation has often been very obscure. But the Church shall be conspicuous to all; as on the top of the mountains. She shall be exalted above the hills. And philosophy, idolatry, superstition, and errors, shall no longer obstruct her view, or obscure her glory. And she shall be established. She has been tossed about by Commotions. One day she shall be no longer oppressed by persecutions, or disturbed by the arm of human power.

II. A disposition in all towards the Church. “All nations shall flow into it.” Their movements shall he characterised by friendly cooperation. By a definite and sacred object. By proper intentions and correct views. By right dispositions. By confidence in the excellency of the Divine instructions.

III. The blessings resulting from these circumstances. Taught from above, then, nations generally will own the authority of God, acknowledge His right to judge, and submit to His laws.

IV. The period of these great events, “In the last days.” The Church of God has had her days; and these days have been somewhat commensurate with the progress of time, and with the limited or more extended population of the earth. Day of patriarchal Church was a day of small things. But patriarchs and prophets spoke of another day, of other days, which they called the “last days.” Evidently the prophet referred to the days of the

Gospel. Improvement—

1. Let our spirits be cheered though so few have hitherto embraced real Christianity.

2. We may well be excited to renewed exertions in rendering Divine truth conspicuous to all.

3. Let this prospect call forth the gratitude of all who already participate in the blessings of redemption. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)

The law of the Spirit

Pentecost is the culminating point of Divine revelation. This great event is the focus of all prophecy. The text is not exhausted in its reference to Israel, but stretches forward to the renovation of mankind in the Church by the Holy Ghost.

I. The law of the Spirit is an universal law. Adapted to all men, in all circumstances, and in all times. Because it is the announcing of eternal principles, accompanied with Divine power to enforce them.

II. Hence its preeminence over all laws. It absorbs and expresses the truth of all other laws. All nations recognise it as something higher, deeper, more complete than their previous revelation or religion.

III. Mark its effects.

1. In judgment (verse 3). It is the conviction of right and wrong, good and evil. It is the conviction that right will be maintained and vindicated, and wrong put down. This must be the foundation of all real moral and spiritual life.

2. In producing obedience (verse 2). Not mere conviction, but submission.

3. In working love. The real root of obedience. Leading men to mutual respect, and to a care for each other’s good.

4. In producing safety and security, This can never be fully attained by mere external law and restrictive measures. The best laws will be obeyed only when men’s hearts are in harmony with their requirements. The true way to safety is by the spirit of love and mutual consideration. The great lesson of Pentecost is this,—When love is universal, discord of acts and words and purpose will cease. (William R. Clark, M. A.)

The promise of God regarding. His Church

The sin of the Church had necessitated frequent denunciations and words of warning on the part of God. He had been speaking very tempestuously to His people; He now exhibits the gentler aspects of His character. There is a pause—a calm after tempest; and the sweet birds of promise troop forth with their notes of peace and gladness.

I. The Church’s hope. “In the last days.” etc. Who can interpret these words? Not the man of mere dates. The world has not seen its brightest day yet. The light is still struggling—not meridian glory. This world has a rich promise hidden in its heart, like the snow drops of winter—anticipatory of spring. Death is now in the majority. It shall not always be so. The Church, like youth, lives in hope—of brighter days to come—of

what it is to be. Thou livest in the infinitive mood!

II. The Church’s revival. “And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord . . . and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths,” etc. (Mic_4:2-3). Then shall the Church illustrate the fulness of meaning contained in the Saviour’s words: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Souls shall be enfranchised, and know the liberty of infinitude, etc.

III. The Church’s security. “They shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid” (Mic_4:4). The history of human progress has been written in fear. “For fear of the Jews” the disciples had to move about cautiously, and assemble in quiet and concealed places. Not until “the doors were shut” could they worship with any sense of security. And through all subsequent ages the history of religious progress has thus been illustrated. In the fastnesses of the wilderness and fissures of the rocks, the low murmurings of sacred song have been heard by God alone, “for fear” of the persecuting hand; as in the days of the Covenanters, Lollards, and others. But behold, the days come—“the last days”—when doors shall be no longer shut, when bolts shall be all withdrawn, every gate thrown wide open, and no barrier intervene between the soul and its perfected liberty.

IV. The improbability of all this. Looked at in the light of the present state of the world, this bright perspective is a dream—an extravaganza—insanity’s wild vision. Look at the corruption of the world; look at a Church dying of doctrine; and see whether such a future be probable. Apart from “the Word of the Lord “it is not; but the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it” (Mic_4:4). What are the improbabilities of a frozen river, or field, in winter? Shall the waters ever flow again, or the field wave its ears of corn again? Yes. What is the guarantee? “The mouth of the Lord” that says: “seed time and harvest, summer and winter, shall not cease.” The text speaks of a life flowing upwards “all people shall flow unto it”—to the “top of the mountains.” Who ever heard of water flowing upwards, or fire burning downwards? You say to one unacquainted with electricity: “I can send a message to a friend in India, and get an answer in the course of an hour or two.” “How utterly absurd,” is the reply. There are laws that defy gravitation; a life sublimer than science, and more eloquent than music. Sceptical science says: “This thing cannot be.” Faith says: “It shall be, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” (Joseph Parker, D. D.)

The Gospel age

The “last days” means the times of the Messiah.

I. The true religion on the Gospel age will become a great power. The temple was the greatest thing in the religion of the Jews; it was the “mountain” in their scenery. The true religion is to become a mountain. The true religion, where it exists, is the biggest thing. It is either everything or nothing.

II. The true religion of the Gospel age will become universally attractive. “And people shall flow unto it.” “This is a figurative expression, denoting that they shall be converted to the true religion. It indicates that they shall come in multitudes, like the flowing of a mighty river. The idea of the flowing of the nation, as of the movement of many people towards an object like a broad stream on the tides of the ocean, is one that is very grand and sublime” (Barnes). In this period the social element will be brought into full play in

connection with true religion,

1. They will study its laws, in order to obey them. “He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths.”

2. They will study its laws at the fountain head. “For the law shall go forth of Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

III. The true religion of the Gospel age will become powerful to terminate all wars.

1. Here is the destruction of war. “Beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.”

2. Here is the establishment of peace. “Shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree.” Most incredible must this prediction have been to the men of Micah’s time; but it will be accomplished, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. If He has spoken it and it does not come to pass, it must be for one of three reasons—

(1) Insincerity; which cannot be entertained.

(2) Change of purpose; which is equally inadmissible.

(3) Unexpected difficulties; which is an absurdity when applied to Omniscience. (Homilist.)

Mountain top religion

The true way to conquer temptations is not to fight them in detail, but to go up into a loftier region where they cease to be temptations. How is it that grown men do not like the sweetmeats that used to tempt them when they were children? They have outgrown them. Then outgrow the temptations of the world! How is it that there are no mosquitoes nor malaria on the mountain tops? They cannot rise above the level of the swamps by the river. Go up to the mountain top, and neither malaria nor mosquito will follow you,—which, being interpreted, is, live near Jesus Christ and keep your hearts and minds occupied with Him, and you will dwell in a region high above the temptations which buzz and sting, which infest and slay on the lower levels. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The Saviour’s kingdom

The world has always had its dreams of a Golden Age. A better state of things than that which exists, has been felt to be not only possible, but normal, and so men have reasoned that what ought to be, either has been in the old time, or will be in the new. Either as a memory or a hope, this idea has done much to reconcile men to the confusion and contradictions of life. To the vagueness and mist of that human dream Scripture gives the sharpness and substance of fact. It speaks with positiveness. The Golden Age has not passed. Humanity is on the way to the realisation of its long hope. The Scripture idea, however, differs from the human in the importance which it attaches to the spiritual element. The transformations in society, which must precede the ushering in of the golden age, are moral, not material. Betterment of laws, advance in knowledge, multiplication of industrial arts, increase of wealth—these things cannot transfigure humanity. It is the established and recognised sovereignty of Christ and His truth on which the desired blessed ness depends. It is important to emphasise this truth at the present time, when religion is depreciated in the popular estimate. There is a prevalent

idea that it is weak and on the wane. It has recently been said that “fifty years hence no one will go to church except for culture.” Note that the function of religion is not limited to the regeneration of a single man. It works through the individual, upon the organic life of the race. And it employs varied methods. Sometimes it sparks on the surface of history; sometimes it works out of sight. There is a river in Kentucky that, after unrolling its silver thread through leagues of verdant meadows, suddenly disappears. The earth swallows it up. But though lost to view, its flow is not checked. It channels its way through the hidden rocks; it hollows out the vast halls and the glittering galleries of the Mammoth Cave. It springs the arches of that grandest of cathedrals, and inlays the rocky roof with stars, after the pattern of the heavens. The sculpture of the silent waters outstrips the skill of human artists. The weird and the beautiful, the quaint and the sublime are clustered in groupings, whose impressiveness is eloquent of the wonder workings of the Divine hand. So Christ’s religion has its epochs of disappearance from the surface of life. But it works nevertheless, works persistently, works mightily. Divine truth never comes to a standstill. In sight, or out of sight it is forever busy. Standing at the easement of prospect, let us note some of the glories of the coming kingdom.

1. The acknowledged supremacy of the Christian Church (Mic_4:1).

2. A universal desire to know and obey the truth (Mic_4:1-2). Till now, religious truth has had to be carried to men and pressed upon their attention.

3. An adjustment of international relations on the basis of righteousness (Mic_4:3). The two forces which men have always used for the regulation of international affairs, are diplomacy and war. The cunning of intrigue or the edge of the sword is employed to untangle or cut every knot of dispute. By and by righteousness shall be both the basis and substance of the international code.

4. Safety of life and property secured by individual piety (Mic_4:4-5). One principal office of organised society is to surround with safeguards the individual man. Barbarism is every man for himself; communism is the rule of the caprice or frenzy of a mob; civilisation is the effort of all for the good of each; and yet the efficient agent in these widely diverse types of society is the same,—brute force. In the coming kingdom individual character is to be the security of society.

5. The elimination of the elements of weakness in society (Mic_4:6-7). What is to be done with the dependent and dangerous classes? What society cannot do, God can, and by and by He will. The value of such an outlook as has been now attempted is incalculable. It gives men the inspiration of a great expectation; composure of mind in the midst of discouragements; and the true ideal of life. This blessed consummation, whether near or far off, is not so near but what it needs our help; it is not so far off but what we can make ourselves felt as a force in it. We need to clothe our selves in workman’s garments, not in the ascension robes of those who sit down and dream about the second advent. (Monday Club Sermons.)

The golden age

“But in the latter days it shall come to pass” The prophet lifts his eyes away to the latter days to gain refreshment in his present toil. He feasts his soul upon the golden age which is to be, in order that he may serve himself in his immediate service. Without the anticipation of a golden age he would lose his buoyancy, and the spirit of endeavour would go out of his work. Our visions always determine the quality of our tasks. Our dominant thought regulates our activities. What pattern am I working by? What golden

age have I in my mind? What do I see as the possible consummation of my labours? There is your child at home. You are ministering to him in your daily attention and service. What is your pattern in the mind? What sort of a man do you see in your boy? How would you fill up this imperfect phrase concerning him, “In the latter days it shall come to pass”? Have you ever painted his possibilities? If you have no clear golden age for the boy your training will be un certain, your discipline will be a guesswork and a chance. Our vision of possibilities helps to shape the actuality. There is the scholar in the school. When a teacher goes to his class, be it of boys or girls, what kind of men or women has he in his eye? Surely we do not go to work among our children in blind and good humoured chance? We are the architects and builders of their characters, and we must have some completed conception even before we begin our work. I suppose the architect sees the finished building in his eye even before he takes a pencil in his hand, and certainly long before the pick and the spade touch the virgin soil. That boy who gives the teacher so much trouble, restless, indifferent, bursting with animal vitality, how is he depicted as man in your chamber of imagery? Do you only see him as he is? Little, then, will be your influence to make him what he might be. Let me assume that your work is among the outcasts. When you go to court and alley, or to the elegant house in the favoured suburb, and find men and women, sunk in animalism, trailing the robes of human dignity in unamiable mire, how do you see them with the eyes of the soul? “In the latter days it shall come to pass . . . ” What? To the eye of sense they are filthy, offensive, repellant. What like are their faces, and what sort of robes do they wear in the vision of the soul? Are we dealing with the “might-be” or only with the thing that is? Sir Titus Salt was pacing the docks at Liverpool and saw great quantities of dirty, waste material lying in unregarded heaps. He looked at the unpromising substance, and in the mind’s eye saw finished fabrics and warm and welcome garments; and ere long the power of the imagination devised ministeries for converting the outcast stuff into refined and finished robes. We must look at all our waste material in human life and see the vision of the “might-be.” Surely this was the Master’s way! He is always calling the thing that is by the name of its “might-be.” “Thou art Simon,” a mere hearer; “Thou shalt be called Peter,” a rock. To the woman of sin, the outcast child of the city, He addressed the gracious word “daughter,” and spoke to her as if she were already a child of the golden age; her weary heart leapt to the welcome speech. And so we have got to come to our work with visions of the latter days. I am not surprised, therefore, that all great reformers and all men and women who have profoundly influenced the life and thought of their day have been visionaries, having a clear sight of things as they might be, feeling the cheery glow of the light and heat of the golden age. In the latter days the spiritual is to have emphasis above pleasure, money, armaments. In whatever prominence these may be seen, they are all to be subordinate to the reverence and worship of God. Military prowess and money making and pleasure seeking are to be put in their own place, and not to be permitted to leave it. First things first! In the beginning God.” This is the first characteristic of the golden age. “And many nations shall come and say: Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths.” Then the second characteristic of the golden age is that people are to find their confluence and unity in common worship. The brotherhood is to be discovered in spiritual communion. We are not to find profound community upon the river of pleasure or in the ways of business or in the armaments of the castle. These are never permanently cohesive. Pleasure is more frequently divisive than cohesive. No, it is in the mountain of the Lord’s house the peoples will discover their unity and kinship. It is in the common worship of the one Lord. “And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.” Then the third characteristic of the golden age is to be the conversion of merely destructive force into

positive and constructive ministries. No energy is to be destroyed; it is all to be transfigured. The sword is to become a ploughshare; the weapon of destruction an implement of culture. After the Franco-German war many of the cannon balls were remade into church bells. One of our manufacturers in Birmingham told me only a week ago that he was busy turning the empty bases of the shells used in the recent war into dinner gongs! That is the suggestion we seek in the golden age: all destructive forces are to be changed into helpful ministries. Tongues that speak nothing but malice are to be turned into instructors of wisdom. All men’s gifts and powers and all material forces are to be used in the employment of the kingdom of God. “They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree.” There is to be a distribution of comforts. Life’s monotony is to be broken up. Sweet and winsome things are to be brought into the common life. Dinginess and want are both to be banished. There is to be a little beauty for everybody, something of the vine and the fig tree. There is to be a little ease for everybody, time to sit down and rest. To every mortal man there is to be given a little treasure, a little leisure, and a little pleasure. “And none shall make them afraid.” And they are not only to have comfort, but the added glory of peace. The gift of the vine and fig tree would be nothing if peace remained an exile. And now mark the beautiful final touches in this prophet’s dream: “I will assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out and her that is afflicted.” They are all to be found in God’s family. “Her that halteth,” the child of “ifs” and “buts” and fears and indecision, she shall lose her halting and obtain a firm and confident step. “And her that is driven out,” the child of exile, the self-banished son or daughter, the outcast by reason of sin; they shall all be home again. “He gathereth together the outcasts.” And along with these there is to come “her that is afflicted,” the child of sorrows. The day of grief is to be ended, mourning shall be the thing of the preparatory day which is over; “He shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)

He will teach us of His ways—

Gaining knowledge of God

They do not go to God because they know Him, but that they may know Him. They are drawn by a mighty impulse towards Him. Howsoever attracted, they come, not making bargains with God what they should be taught, that He should reveal to them nothing transcending reason, nothing exceeding or contradicting their notions of God; they do not come with reserves, that God should not take away this or that error, or should not disclose anything of His incomprehensibleness. They come in holy simplicity, to learn whatever He will condescend to tell them; in holy confidence, that He, the infallible truth, will teach them infallibly. They say “of His ways,” for all learning is by degrees, and all which all creatures could learn in all eternity falls infinitely short of His truth and holiness. Nay, in all eternity, the highest creature which He has made, and which He has admitted most deeply into the secrets of His wisdom will be as infinitely removed as ever from the full knowledge of His wisdom and His love. For what is finite, enlarged, expanded, accumulated to the utmost degree possible, remains finite still. It has no proportion to the infinite. But even here, all growth in grace implies growth in knowledge. The more we love God, the more we know of Him; and with increased knowledge of Him come higher perceptions of worship, praise, thanksgiving, of the character of faith, hope, charity, of our outward and inward acts and relations to God, the unboundedness of God’s love to us, and the manifoldness of the ways of pleasing Him, which, in His love, He has given us. St. Paul was ever learning in intensity what he knew by revelation. “The way of life to Godwards is one, in that it looketh to one end, to

please God: but there are many tracks along it, as there are many modes of life”; and each several grace is a part of the way to God. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)

The law shall go forth of Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem—

Christianity—its nature, diffusion, and effects

Immortality, guilt, and danger, are intuitions of our common nature always felt to possess arresting attractive power. Unprepared to throw away the hope of immortality, the question arises: how can we forecast its issues, or determine its conditions? Whither shall we turn for light and guidance? The revelations of Christianity are alone able to solve the mystery. The Bible is the book and the gift of God. The Christian revelation was not intended merely or mainly to gratify the intellectual curiosity and enrich the mind of man, but so to change his nature and reverse his moral condition as to establish him in the final virtue and happiness of heaven. The portion of prophecy now claiming attention relates to the entire of the Christian dispensation.

1. Some of the more distinguishing elements and attributes of the Gospel denominated in our subject, with distinctive significance, the law and Word of Jehovah.

(1) The source of its origination is Divine.

(2) The great object of the bestowment of the Gospel was the happiness of mankind.

(3) The excellence of its matter—the subject matter of its revelations—vindicates the conclusion to which we have arrived.

(4) Christianity is a system exhibiting in its nature, evidence, and claims, not only an uncompounded oneness, but a most striking distinctive uniqueness of character. The Gospel appeals to the mind and heart with an illumination and efficacy unknown to any other system, or in any other department of inquiry. It exerts a remarkable influence on the character and destiny of man. It is not more Divine in theory than Godlike in issue.

2. The extent of the provisions of the Gospel, and its corresponding publication. Glance at a few of its provisional adaptations.

(1) Christianity stands pledged for the destruction of the great primal curse.

(2) Of ignorance and error.

(3) Of violence and wrong in the structure and relations of government and society.

(4) Of national war and bloodshed.

(5) The conversion of the Gentiles ranks high among the provisions of the Gospel.

(6) Universal and unmolested brotherhood between man and man, nation and nation, is equally a promise of the Gospel.

3. The agency and means by the operation and instrumentality of which the Gospel was to go forth from the place of its first publication, and, disdaining all locality, diffuse itself among the nations. Providence will prepare the way. Divine influence

will prepare the heart. Divine truth—the Bible—shall be the grand exclusive instrument. The spread of the Gospel will receive its direction from the purposes, and its impulse from the energy of heaven, while the pulpit, press, social intercourse, and the force of example, shall secure its acceleration.

4. What will be the effect of the whole? An incalculable enlargement of the Church, both in extent and influence—a boundless multiplication of its numbers and blessings. Consider also its more distinctive influence upon—

(1) The mind;

(2) The morals;

(3) The movements, of the world.

Christianity is identified with the growth and the glory of the ages. Her work cannot be retarded. The indestructible elements of rejuvenescence and immortality found in the Gospel will secure the triumph and multiply the conquests of Christianity, until the empire of sin is destroyed, and death is swallowed up in victory. It is reserved for Christianity to realise the fable of the bird of Jove; grasping the thunder of heaven in her hand, and spreading her wings from sunrise to the oceans of the West, she throws her shadow over the world; and the laurels of peaceful triumph and imperishable glory shall encircle her brow when the wreath of the Caesars shall only be remembered as the badge of crime. (Bishop H. B. Bascom, D. D.)

And He shall judge among many people, etc.

International Christianity

The time of which the prophet speaks has evidently not yet arrived. Let us assume that what the prophet saw was a real purpose of the Lord, a purpose which might be worked out gradually or suddenly, quickly or after a long interval, but distinct in its character and practical in its effects—that peace amongst the nations was, and therefore is, in the counsels of the eternal God. Looking at the prophecy in this light, we ought not to be slow to admit that a very real progress has been made towards the prophet’s goal. Compare what the world is now with what it was before Christ came, and the difference as regards the peaceable enjoyment of life is immense; and the improvement is everywhere associated with Christian civilisation. History does not leave us without hope, or mock the encouragement to be drawn from such prophecies as those we are considering. In this prophecy the peace is set forth as a result produced by an antecedent cause. The nations are described as agreeing together to go up to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach them His ways, and that they may walk in His paths. In modem words, it is through an increasing prevalence of the authority of justice, through the growth of an international sentiment recognising Christian obligations that international peace is to be looked for. We need not wonder that the prospect of universal peace is still remote, when we consider how slow a progress has been made in international morality. There must be a morality between nations as well as a morality between persons. A biblical ideal of true concord amongst the nations has been beckoning on mankind through the ages, though men have been slow to pay it due homage. But it is probably in accordance with the laws of appointed development that the sentiment of international obligation should be of late growth. Family duty seems to come first. Some think that duty to the clan, or larger family, takes precedence even of that. Then follows duty to the chief, or sovereign, or nation, and to fellow members of

the same community. Personal duty towards persons of a different race and country and tongue is felt later and less strongly. But perhaps that which waits to the last to be felt is the duty of a nation as a body to other national branches of the great family of man. The theory of international duty is not altogether a simple matter. A man is certainly not so free to give up the interests of his country as he is to give up his own private interests. Our country is a sacred name, including nearly all that is dear to us. Is patriotism selfish? No. But there may be a selfish taint in it. Experience and the common sense of mankind bear witness that it is not impossible to reconcile the due moral sentiment of the small circle with the due moral sentiment of the larger. A man may love his family, and yet feel that it would be a shame to him to push its interests to the detriment of other families of his people. A man may be ardently patriotic, and may not the less wish well to other countries. In all moral perplexities resulting from an apparent conflict of obligations, our wisdom is to go forward tentatively and in faith, following after the better ideal, yielding to the nobler instinct. Micah lifts us up to the higher international atmosphere towards which we ought to aspire. He shows us nations persuaded and constrained into mutual peace by a common reverence for the righteous and merciful God. These nations have been chastened by the judgments and rebukes of God, so that they have learnt not to abuse their strength for wrong doing, but to use it rather for the righting of the injured and the help of the weak. (J. Llewelyn Davies, M. A.)

An emblem of peace

Upon the plains of Waterloo there stands a great bronze lion, forged from the captured guns of Britain’s foes in 1815. The beast’s mouth is open, and seems snarling through his teeth over the battlefield. When I saw it last, one spring noonday, a bird had built its nest right in the lion’s mouth, twining the twigs of the downy bed where the fledglings nestled around the very teeth of the metal monster, and from the very jaws of the bronze beast the chirp of the swallows seemed to twitter forth timidly the tocsin of peace. It was the audacity of hope. May it be prophetic!

2 Many nations will come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob.He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

BARES. "And many nations shall come - Isaiah Isa_2:2 added the world all to Micah’s prophecy. So our Lord said, “This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations” Mat_24:14; and the elect are to be gathered out “of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues” Rev_7:9. All nations shall flow into it. The all might be many or few. Both prophets say that those all should be many. Judah probably knew already of many. The history of Genesis gave them a wide-expanding knowledge of the enlargement of mankind alter the flood, in Europe, Asia, Africa, as they then existed in their nations. The sons of Japhet had already spread over the whole coast of our Western sea, and far North; the Cimmerians , or Cwmry, Scandinavians , Carpathians , (probably Celts,) Armenians ; (including the kindred Phrygians,) Scythians , Medes, Ionians , Aeolians , Iberians , Cypriotes , Dardani , Tybarenes , Moschi , and the Turseni , or perhaps the Thracians. On the East, the sons of Shem had spread in Elam, Asshur, Arrapachitis ; they occupied the intervening tract of Aram; in the northwest they reached to Lydia. Southward the sons of Joktan were in Arabia. Micah’s hearers knew how, of the sons of Ham, Cush had spread far to the southeast and south from Babylonia to Aethiopia; Egypt they remembered too well, and, beyond it, they knew of the far-scattered tribes of the Libyans, who extended along the coast of Africa. Phoenician trade filled up this great outline.

They themselves had, in Solomon’s time, traded with India ; about this time, we know that they were acquainted with the furthest East, China . Such was the sight before the human mind of the prophet; such the extent of the nations whom his people knew of.

Some were the deadly enemies of his people; some were to be its conquerors. He knew that the the ten tribes were to be abidingly wanderers among the nations , despised by them ; “a people, the strangers and sojourners of the whole world” . He knew many of those nations to be sunk in idolatry, viciousness; proud, contemptuous, lawless; he saw them fixed in their idolatries. “All people will walk every one in the name of his god.” But he saw what eye of man could not see, what the will of man could not accomplish, that He, whom now Judah alone partially worshiped, would turn the hearts of His creatures to Himself, to seek Him, not in their own ways, but as He should reveal Himself at Jerusalem. Micah tells them distinctly, that those who should believe would be a great multitude from many nations. In like way Isaiah expresses the great multitude of those for whom Christ should atone Isa_53:12. He bare the sin of many Isa_53:11. By knowledge of Him shall My righteous Servant make many righteous. And our Lord Himself says Mat_20:28; The Son of man came to give His life a ransom for many (Mat_26:28, add Rom_5:15). This is my Blood - which is shed for many for the remission of sins. In Micah’s time not one people, scarcely some poor fragments of the Jewish people, went up to worship God at Zion, to call to remembrance His benefits, to learn of Him. Those who should thereafter worship Him, should be many nations.

And say - Exhorting one another, in fervor and mutual love, as Andrew exhorted his brother Simon, and Philip Nathanael, and the woman of Samaria those of her city, to come to Christ: and so all since, who have been won by Him, by word or example, by preaching or by deed, in public or in private, bear along with them others to seek Him whom they themselves have found.

Let us go up - leaving the lowness and earthliness of their former conversation, and mounting upward on high where Christ is, desiring righteousness, and athirst to know His ways.

To the house of the God of Jacob - They shall seek Him as Jacob sought Him, , “who left his father’s house and removed into another land, was a man of heavy toils and served for hire, but obtained special help from God, and, undistinguished as he was, became most glorious. So too the Church, leaving all pagan wisdom, and having its conversation in Heaven, and therefore persecuted and enduring many hardships, enjoys now glory with God.”

And He - , that is, the God of Jacob of whom he had just spoken, shall teach us of His ways They do not go to God, because they know Him, but that they may know Him. They are drawn by a mighty impulse toward Him. Howsoever attracted, they come, not making bargains with God, (as some now would,) what they should be taught, that He should reveal to them nothing transcending reason, nothing exceeding or contradicting their notions of God; they do not come with reserves, that God should not take away this or that error, or should not disclose anything of His incomprehensibleness. They come in holy simplicity, to learn whatever He will condescend to tell them; in holy confidence, that He, the Infallible Truth, will teach them infallibly. They say, “of His ways.” For all learning is by degrees, and all which all creatures could learn in all eternity falls infinitely short of His truth and Holiness. Nay, in all eternity the highest creature which He has made and which He has admitted most deeply into the secrets of His Wisdom will be as infinitely removed as ever from the full knowledge of His Wisdom and His Love. For what is finite, enlarged, expanded, accumulated to the utmost degree possible, remains finite still.

It has no proportion to the Infinite. But even here, all growth in grace implies growth in knowledge. The more we love God, the more we know of Him; and with increased knowledge of Him come higher perceptions of worship, praise, thanksgiving, of the character of faith, hope, charity, of our outward and inward acts and relations to God, the unboundedness of God’s love to us and the manifoldness of the ways of pleasing Him, which, in His love, He has given us. Since then the whole Christian life is a growth in grace, and even Paul Phi_3:13-14, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those which are before, pressed toward the mark for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, then Paul too was ever learning, in intensity, what he knew certainly by revelation, of His ways. Again, as each blade of grass is said to differ from another, so, and much more, each soul of man which God has created for Himself. No one ever saw or could imagine two human beings, in whom the grace of God had unfolded itself in exactly the same way.

Each saint will have his distinct beauty around the throne. But then each will have learnt “of His ways,” in a different proportion or degree. His greatest saints, yea His Apostles, have been pre-eminent, the one in one grace, another in another. John the Immerser came as a pattern of repentance and contempt of self; John the Evangelist stood out pre-eminent in deep tender burning personal love; Paul was known for his zeal to spread the knowledge of Christ Crucified; Mary Magdelene was famous for her loving penitence. Even the Blessed Virgin herself, under inspiration, seems, in part, to speak of her lowly lowness , as that which God specially regarded in her, when He made her the Mother of God. Eternity only will set forth the fullness of the two words “He will teach us of His ways.” For eternity will shew, how in all 1Co_12:11 worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will; and how the countless multitude of the redeemed have corresponded to His gifts and drawings. : “The way of the life to God-ward is one, in that it looketh to one end, to please God; but there are

many tracks along it, as there are many modes of life;” and each several grace is a part of the way to God.

And we will walk in His paths - o: “By believing, hoping, loving, well-doing, and bearing patiently all trouble.” Rup.: “For it sufficeth not to believe, unless we act as He commandeth, and strive to enter on His ways, the strait and narrow path which leadeth unto life. He Himself then, when He had said, “Go, teach all nations,” baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, added, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” Mat_28:19-20. They say too, “we will walk,” that is, go on from strength to strength, not stand still after having labored for a while to do His Will, but hold on to all His ways and to Himself who is the Way, until they appear before the Lord in Zion.

For the law - (literally, law,) shall go forth from Zion These are the prophet’s words, declaring why the nations should so flock to Zion. For he says, “shall go forth,” but the nations were not gathered to Zion, until the Gospel was already gone forth. He speaks of it as law simply, not the Jewish law as such, but a rule of life Man’s better nature is ill at ease, being out of harmony with God. It cannot be otherwise. Having been made in His likeness, it must be distressed by its unlikeness; having been made by Him for Himself, it must be restless without Him. What they indistinctly longed for, what drew them, was the hope to be conformed by Him to Him. The sight of superhuman holiness, life, love, endurance, ever won and wins those without to the Gospel or the church. Our Lord Himself gives it, as the substance of prophecy Luk_24:47, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His Name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. The image may be that of a stream, issuing forth from Jerusalem and watering the whole world. Theodoret: “The law of the Gospel and the word of the Apostles, beginning from Jerusalem, as from a fountain, ran through the whole world, watering those who approached with faith.” But in that it “went forth,” it may be meant, that it left those from among whom it “went forth,” and Cyril, “Zion was indeed desolate of the law and Jerusalem bared of the divine word.” Jerome: “The word of God passed from Jerusalem to the Gentiles.” Rup.: “For the shadow was done away, and the types ceased, and sacrifices were abolished, and everything of Moses was, in the letter, brought to a close.”

He does not say here, through whom God would so teach, but he does speak of a direct teaching of God. He does not say only, “God will give us a law,” or “will make a revelation of Himself.” He speaks of a Personal, direct, continuous act of teaching by God, carried on upon earth, whether the teacher be our Lord’s word spoken once on earth, which does “not pass away” Mat_24:35, or God the Holy Spirit, as teaching in the Church and in the hearts which receive Him. The words which follow speak of a personal reign, as these speak of personal teaching.

CLARKE, "But in the last days it shall come to pass - These four verses contain, says Bp. Newcome, a prophecy that was to be fulfilled by the coming of the Messiah, when the Gentiles were to be admitted into covenant with God, and the apostles were to preach the Gospel, beginning at Jerusalem, Luk_24:47; Act_2:14, etc., when Christ was to be the spiritual Judge and King of many people, was to convince many nations of their errors and vices, and was to found a religion which had the strongest tendency to promote peace. Bp. Lowth thinks that “Micah took this passage from Isaiah;” or the Spirit may have inspired both prophets with this prediction; or both may have copied some common original, the words of a prophet well known at that time. The variations (few and of little importance) may be seen in the notes on the parallel

passages, Isa_2:2, etc.; to which the reader is requested to refer.

GILL, "And many nations shall come, and say, come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob,.... In Isa_2:3; it is, "many people", &c. the sense is the same; See Gill on Isa 2:3;

and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; the teacher is the King Messiah, as Kimchi observes; the great Prophet of his people, the teacher sent from God; and will in the last days teach men by his Spirit and word, in a very plentiful manner, and with great success:

for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; these, according to Kimchi, are the words of the prophet, and not of the people, that encourage one another to go up to the house of the Lord; but the sense is much the same; for they contain a reason why the people of different nations would encourage one another to go to the house of the Lord, that they might learn his ways, and walk in his statutes, because here the word of the Lord is preached; the word which comes from God, and is concerning him, his love and grace to men; the word of peace and righteousness, of life and salvation, by Jesus Christ: and each of the doctrines of grace intended by the "law" or "doctrine" of the Lord; the doctrines of God's everlasting love, of election in Christ, and redemption by him; of justification by his righteousness, pardon by his blood, and satisfaction by his atonement; as well as of regeneration by the Spirit of God, and of perseverance in grace: in these, and others, now shall all the Lord's people be taught more clearly, distinctly, and comfortably; all shall know him, from the least to the greatest; and not only their light and knowledge, under such a teacher and such will be very great, but their practice will be answerable to it; as they will be instructed in all the ways of the Lord, and in the methods of his grace, so they will walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless; See Gill on Isa_2:3.

HERY 2-3, "That a convincing power should go along with the gospel of Christ, in all places where it should be preached (Mic_4:3): He shall judge among many people.Messiah, the lawgiver (Mic_4:2.), is here the judge, for to him the Father committed all judgment, and for judgment he came into this world; his word, the word of his gospel,that was to go forth from Jerusalem, was the golden sceptre by which he shall rule and judge when he sits as king on the holy hill of Zion, Psa_2:6. By it he shall rebuke strong nations afar off; for the Spirit working with the word shall reprove the world, Joh_16:8. It is promised to the Son of David that he shall judge among the heathen (Psa_110:6), which he does when in the chariot of his everlasting gospel he goes forth, and goes on, conquering and to conquer.

CALVI, "There follows, however, a fuller explanation, when he says, that many nations would come He said only before that nations would come: but as David, even in his age, made some nations tributary to himself, the Prophet here expresses something more, — that many nations would come; as if he had said, “Though David subjugated some people to himself, yet the borders of his kingdom were narrow and confined, compared with the largeness of that kingdom which the Lord will establish at the coming of his Messiah: for not a few nations but many shall assemble to serve him, and shall say,” etc. The Prophet now shows that it would be a spiritual kingdom. When David subdued the Moabites and the Amorites, and

others, he imposed a certain tribute to be paid annually but he was not able to establish among them the pure and legitimate worship of God, nor was he able to unite them in one faith. Then the Moabites and other nations, though they paid a tribute to David, did not yet worship the true God, but continued ever alienated from the Church. But our Prophet shows that the kingdom, which God would set up at the coming of the Messiah, would be spiritual.

For they shall say, (118) Let us you and ascend to the mount of Jehovah, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for, go (119) forth shall a law from Zion, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem Throughout this passage the Prophet teaches us, that people are not to be constrained by an armed force, or by the power of the sword, to submit to David’s posterity, but that they are to be really and thoroughly reformed, so that they submit themselves to God, unite with the body of the Church, and become one people with the children of Abraham; for they will yield a voluntary service, and embracing the teaching of the Law, they will renounce their own superstitions. This then is the Prophet’s meaning. But the remainder we shall defer till to-morrow.

It is said, “on top of the mountains,” not of a mountain. The Church was not to be confined to one place, but was to be preeminent throughout the earth. It was to be coextensive with the word that was to go forth from Zion. — Ed.

COFFMA, "Verse 2"And many nations shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem."

"Many nations ..." This has been gloriously fulfilled throughout the Christian dispensation by the hundreds of millions of souls all over the planet Earth who have found in Jesus Christ their "all in all" and who look to him only for salvation and eternal life. One cannot help but wonder if the thought ever enters the minds of those who attribute this chapter to an imposter as to how such a rascal ever came up with so significant and beautiful a truth as this!

"Mountain of Jehovah ... God of the house of Jacob ..." These expressions were identified with the old Israel; but their spiritual import belongs altogether to the new Israel of God in Christ.

The contrast between "many nations" here and the single nation of secular Israel who constituted the ancient chosen people, absolutely requires that the passage be applied to a new era and a new Israel composed not merely of one race, but of all races, not of one nation alone, but of all the multiplied nations of the world.

"For out of Zion shall go forth the law ..." "These words are of the prophet Micah, not the conclusion of the nations."[11] A number of very significant facts are inherent in this divine word. (1) "The gospel would spring from Jerusalem, where

Christ exercised his ministry, died, rose again from the dead, and from whence he commanded his disciples that `repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.'"[12] (2) The gospel was not for the purpose of destroying the law of Moses, but for the sake of fulfilling it. The righteousness of Christ himself consisted, at least in part, of his perfect obedience to the ancient Law; and as Christ's righteousness is that alone which redeems men now, the salvation of every man is surely, thereby, related to it. (3) ote that it will be a law that will go forth from Jerusalem in the new dispensation, confirming exactly what is reiterated again, and again by the sacred writers of the ew Testament who referred to the gospel as "the precious law of liberty" (James 2:12), "the perfect law" (James 1:26), "the royal law" (James 2:8), "the law of faith" (Romans 3:27), "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:2), "the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2), and "not being without law ... but under law to Christ" (1 Corinthians 9:21). o greater misunderstanding prevails upon earth today than the notion that the grace of God has freed God's children from all law. They were, of course, freed from the law of Moses; but they are "under law to Christ."

COSTABLE, "Verse 2Many nations would acknowledge the superiority of Israel by coming to the millennial Jerusalem to learn the Lord"s ways from the Israelites. Israel will finally fulfill its function as a kingdom of priests by mediating between God and the people of the world (cf. Exodus 19:6). Gentile people will want to obey His will, in contrast to the Jews of Micah"s day who did not. Jerusalem will become the source of communication concerning the Lord and His will.

TRAPP, "Micah 4:2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

Ver. 2. And many nations shall come and say] The conversion of the Gentiles is here foretold, a piece of that mystery of godliness, 1 Timothy 3:16. The Jews usually call Christians in contempt Gozin (the word here used), and Mamzer Goi, bastard Gentiles. But, either they must come under this name themselves or deny that they are the posterity of Abraham, Genesis 12:2, where God saith, "I will make of thee a great nation."

Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord] The wicked have their Come, Proverbs 1:11, and would not go to hell alone. Should not the saints have theirs? should they not get what company they can toward heaven? The Greeks call goodness Kαλον, from καλειν; and Aγαθον, from Aγαν θεειν, because it doth, as it were, invite and call others to it; and every man is willingly to run after it.

And to the house of the God of Jacob] To the public ordinances, where we may hear and believe, and be sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, as those Ephesians were,

Ephesians 1:13. We read that Marcellinus, Secundanus, and some others were converted to Christianity by reading Sibylla’s oracles of Christ’s birth; and that by Chaucer’s book some were brought to the knowledge of the truth. But either this was not so, or not ordinary; for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word preached, which therefore the people of God do so prize as Luther did, who said, He would not take all the world for one leaf of the Bible; and that without the preaching of the word he could not live comfortably in paradise; as with it, he could live and enjoy himself, though it were in hell.

And he will teach us of his ways] Cathedram in coelis habet qui corda docet, saith Austin. All true converts are taught of God, John 6:45, and then quam cito discitur quod docetur? saith the same Father: how soon are men discipled! how soon learn they the ways of God, whereby to serve him here, and be saved by him hereafter! For it is false that some contend for; sc. that every man may be saved in his own faith, be it right or wrong. For none can come to the Father but by the Son, John 14:6. either is there any other name but his under heaven, whereby men must be saved, Acts 4:12. See John 17:3; John 6:40, Hebrews 11:6, whatsoever the Huberians affirm of universal election, or the Puccians of a natural faith.

And we will walk in his paths] Which are all paved with mercy and love; so that the saints run therein and faint not; walk, and are not weary, Isaiah 40:31. They are all peripatetics, ever in action, Genesis 17:1; they are currists caretakers, not quaerists, seekers, saith Luther elegantly; they do not reason, but run the paths of God’s precepts. escit tarda molimina Spiritus Sancti gratis (Ambrose).

For the law shall go forth of Zion] The law, or doctrine, as Proverbs 13:14. Understand here the gospel, that law of God, Psalms 19:7, that law of Christ, Galatians 6:2, that perfect law of liberty, James 1:25, a counterpane whereof God putteth into the hearts of his people, Jeremiah 31:33, whereby they become (as it was once said of the Thracians) αυτονοµοι, a law to themselves; as being transformed into the same image with the gospel, like as the pearl, by the often beating of the sunbeams upon it, becometh radiant as the sun (Herod.).

And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem] ot from Africa at first (as the brethren of the Rosycross would have it), though it is thought the gospel was received and the Christian faith professed even from the apostles’ time, in that large region of ubia, in Africa. But repentance and remission of sins was preached "among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem," Luke 24:47. The Jews were God’s library keepers, and the apostles sent and went from Jerusalem to plant Churches abroad the world, and to gather into one the children of God that were dispersed, John 11:52.

ELLICOTT, "(2) Many nations shall come.—This prepares. the way to the more definitive prophecies, that there shall be a common consent among the nations

journeying forth to the house of the Lord: asking the way thither in this world—finding the house itself in the eternal world. Even to this day the hearts of Jews and Christians alike yearn towards Jerusalem—a physical representative of the love which turns spontaneously to the Messiah.

PETT, "Micah 4:2

‘And many nations will go and say, “Come you, and let us go up to the mountain of YHWH, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of YHWH from Jerusalem,”And the Temple would no longer be exclusive. It would be open to many nations. And they would say, ‘Come let us go up to the mountain of YHWH, to the house of the God of Jacob.’ The point is that the nations would recognise that the God of Israel was the only true God (as Jesus would later say ‘salvation is of the Jews’ -John 4:22). Indeed one of God’s aims for Israel was that they should be His chosen witnesses to the nations (Isaiah 43:10), a commission fulfilled by the Apostles and the early Jewish church because the Jews as such had failed to accomplish it satisfactorily. (We must not overlook, however, that they had previously outside Jerusalem among the nations laid a groundwork on which the early church could build. Paul always went to the synagogues first, as did the other Apostles).

That this Temple was in the end, as far as earth was concerned, the living temple of the Spirit consisting of Jesus and the true people of God comes out regularly in the ew Testament (John 2:19; John 2:21; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16-18; Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Peter 2:5-6).

And through that Temple the people would learn the ways of YHWH, and would learn to walk in His paths. For out of Zion would go forth God’s Instruction, and His word would go forth from Jerusalem. This was amply fulfilled as the Apostles and the persecuted people of God spread out into the world taking with them the Gospel of Christ (Acts 1-12). And it goes on today as we the Temple of the living God bear our witness in the world. For in one sense we are the new Jerusalem (Galatians 4:26).

PULPIT, "The prophet further explains his last statement The new revelation shall be so conspicuous and so attractive that all men shall hear, and desire to become partakers of it. Many nations. In contrast to the one nation from whom the Leer emanated. They shall exhort one another to resort to the great religious metropolis, i.e. to the true religion. Of his ways. His plans in the moral government of the world, and the way in which he would have men walk in order to please him. For the law (torah); teaching, direction; not the Mosaic Law, but a rule of life (Proverbs 6:23). This is the reason given by the prophet for the eagerness of the nations to resort to Jerusalem. They would seek instruction at the hand of those authorized to give it (see note on Micah 3:11). The word of the Lord. The revelation of Jehovah, the gospel. From Jerusalem. It is obvious that in a defined sense the gospel sprang from Jerusalem, the place where Christ exercised his ministry, died, rose, ascended;

where the apostles received their commission and the gift of the Holy Ghost (Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8); the gospel being not set up in opposition to the Law, but being its fulfilment and development.

3 He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.ation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

BARES. "And He shall judge among many people and rebuke strong nations afar off - Hitherto, they had walked each in their own ways Isa_53:6; now, they sought to be taught in the ways of God. Before, they had been lords of the world; now they should own a Judge higher than themselves. They were no common, but mighty nations, such as had heretofore been the oppressors of Israel. They were to be many, and those mighty, nations. He should , “not only command, but “rebuke,” not weak or petty nations only, but mighty, and those not only near but afar.” Mohammed had moral strength through what he stole from the law and the Gospel, and by his owning Christ as the Word of God. He was a heretic, rather than a pagan. Fearful scourge as he was, and as his successors have been, all is now decayed, and no mighty nation is left upon earth, which does not profess the Name of Christ.

He shall rebuke them - For it was an office of the Holy Ghost “to reprove the world as to its sin, the righteousness of Christ, the judgment of the prince of this world” Joh_16:8-11. The Gospel conquered the world, not by compromises or concordants, but by convicting it. It alone could “rebuke” with power; for it was, like its Author, all-holy. It could rebuke with efficacy; for it was the word of Him who knew what is in man. It could rebuke with awe; for it knew the secrets of eternal Judgment. It could rebuke winningly; for it knew “the love of Christ which passeth knowledge” Eph_3:19. Its martyrs suffered and rebuked their judges; and the world was amazed at the impotence of power and the might of suffering. It rebuked the enthroned idolatry of centuries; it set in rebellion by

its rebukes every sinful passion of man, and it subdued them. Tyrants, whom no human power could reach, trembled before its censures. Then only is it powerless, if its corrupted or timid or paralyzed ministers forfeit in themselves the power of rebuke.

And they shall beat their spears into plowshares - “All things are made new in Christ.” As the inward disquiet of evil men makes them restless, and vents itself toward others in envy, hatred, maliciousness, wrong, so the inward peace whereof He saith, My peace I give unto you, shall, wherever it reacheth, spread out abroad and, by the power of grace, bring to “all nations unity, peace, and concord.” All, being brought under the one empire of Christ, shall be in harmony, one with the other. As far as in it lies, the Gospel is a Gospel of peace, and makes peace. Christians, as far as they obey Christ, are at peace, both in themselves and with one another. And this is what is here prophesied. The peace follows from His rule. Where He judges and rebukes, there even the mighty “beat their swords into plowshares.” The universal peace, amid which our Lord was born in the flesh, the first which there had been since the foundation of the Roman empire, was, in God’s Providence, a fruit of His kingdom.

It was no chance coincidence, since nothing is by chance. God willed that they should be contemporaneous. It was fitting that the world should be still, when its Lord, the Prince of peace, was born in it. That outward cessation of public strife, though but for a brief time, was an image how His peace spread backward as well as forward, and of the peace which through Him, our Peace, was dawning on the world. : “First, according to the letter, before That Child was born to us, “on whose shoulder the government is” Isa. 1, the whole world was full of blood; people fought against people, kings against kings, nations against nations. Lastly, the Roman state itself was torn by civil wars, in whose battles all kingdoms shed blood. But after that, at the time of the Empire of Christ, Rome gained an undivided empire, the world was laid open to the journeys of Apostles, and the gates of cities were open to them, and, for the preaching of the One God, one single empire was formed.

It may too be understood as an image, that, on receiving the faith of Christ, anger and unrestrained revilings were laid aside, so that each putteth his hand to the plow and looketh not back, and, breaking in pieces the shafts of contumelies, seeketh to reap spiritual fruit, so that, others laboriing, we enter into their labors; and of us it is said, “They shall come with joy, bringing their sheaves” Psa_126:6. Now no one fighteth; for we read “Blessed are the peacemakers” Mat_5:9; no one learneth to “strive, to the subverting of the hearers” 2Ti_2:14. And every one shall rest under his vine, so as to press out that “Wine which gladdeneth the heart of man” Psa_104:15, under that “Vine,” whereof the “Father is the Husbandman” Joh_15:1; and under his fig tree, gathering the sweet “fruits of the Holy Spirit love, joy, peace, and the rest” Gal_5:22.

The fathers had indeed a joy, which we have not, that wars were not between Christians; for although “just wars are lawful,” war cannot be on both sides just; very few wars have not, on both sides, what is against the spirit of the Gospel. For, except where there is exceeding wickedness on one side, or peril of further evil, the words of our Lord would hold good, in public as in private, “I say unto you, that ye resist not evil” Mat_5:39.

This prophecy then is fulfilled:

(1) in the character of the Gospel. Ribera: “The law of the Gospel worketh and preserveth peace. For it plucketh up altogether the roots of all war, avarice, ambition, injustice, wrath. Then, it teacheth to bear injuries, and, so far from requiting them, willeth that we be prepared to receive fresh wrongs. He saith, “If anyone smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also ...” Mat_5:39-42. “I say unto you, Love your enemies ...” Mat_5:44-48. For neither did the old law give these counsels, nor did it

explain so clearly the precept implied in them, nor had it that wonderful and most efficacious example of the and love of Christ, nor did it supply whereby peace could be preserved; whereas now the first fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness.”

(2) The prophecy has been fulfilled within and without, among individuals or bodies of men, in body or mind, in temper or in deed, as far as the Gospel has prevailed. “The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one mind” Act_4:32; one, through One indwelling Spirit; one, though a great multitude, through one bond of love. : “See how these Christians love one another;” “see how ready they are to die for one another,” was, in the third century, a pagan proverb as to Christian love. : “They love one another, almost before they know one another.” : “Their first lawgiver has persuaded them that they are all brethren.” “We (which grieves you,)” the Christian answered , “so love one another, because we know not how to hate. We call ourselves ‘brethren’ which you take ill, as men who have one Father, God, and are sharers in one faith, in one hope, coheirs.”

For centuries too, there was, for the most part, public peace of Christians among themselves. Christian soldiers fought only, as constrained by the civil law, or against Barbarian invaders, to defend life, wife, children, not for ambition, anger, or pride. Christians could then appeal, in fulfillment of the prophecy, to this outward, the fruit of the inward, peace. “We,” says an early martyr, , “who formerly stained ourselves with mutual slaughter, not only do not wage war with foes, but even, in order not to lie and deceive those who consume us, willingly professing Christ, meet death.” “From the coming of the Lord,” says another martyr, . “the New Testament, reconciling unto peace, and a life-giving law, went forth into all lands. If then another law and word, going forth from Jerusalem, produced such peace among the nations which received it, and thereby reproved much people of want of wisdom, then it would follow that the prophets spake of some other. But if the law of liberty, that is, the law of God preached by the Apostles, which went forth out of Jerusalem to all the world, worked such a transformation, that swords and spears of war He wrought into plow-shares and pruning-hooks, instruments of peace, and now men know not how to fight, but, when smitten, yield the other cheek, then the prophets spake of no other, but of Him who brought it to pass.” “Even from this,” says Tertullian , “you may know that Christ was promised, not as one mighty in war, but as a peace-bringer. Either deny that these things were prophesied, since they are plain to see; or, since they are written, deny that they are fulfilled. But if thou mayest deny neither, thou must own that they are fulfilled in Him, of whom they are prophesied.” “Of old” , says Athanasius, “Greeks and Barbarians, being idolaters, warred with one another, and were fierce toward those akin. For through their implacable warfare no one might pass land or sea, unarmed. Their whole life was passed in arms; the sword was to them for staff and stay. They worshiped idols, sacrificed to demons, and yet from their reverence for idols they could gain no help to correct their minds. But when they passed into the school of Christ, then, of a truth, pricked in mind, they wondrously laid aside their savage slaughters, and now think no more of things of war; for now all peace and friendship are alone their mind’s delight. who then did this, who blended in peace those who hated one another, save the Beloved Son of the Father, the common Saviour of all, Christ Jesus, who, through His love, endured all things for our salvation?

For of old too, the peace which should hold sway from Him was prophesied, “they shall beat their swords into plowshares.” Nor is this incredible, since now too, the Barbarians with innate savageness, while they yet sacrifice to their idols, are mad with one another, and cannot for one hour part with their swords. But when they have

received the teaching of Christ, immediately forever they turn to husbandry; and, in lieu of arming their hands with swords, stretch them out to prayer. And altogether, instead of warring with one another, they arm themselves against the devil and demons, warring against them with modesty and virtue of soul. This is a token of the Godhead of the Saviour. For what men could not learn among idols, this they have learned from Him. Christ’s disciples, having no war with one another, array themselves against demons by their life and deeds of virtue, chase them and mock their captain the devil, chaste in youth, enduring in temptation, strong in toils, tranquil when insulted, unconcerned when despoiled.”

And yet later, Chrysostom says , “Before the Coming of Christ, all men armed themselves and no one was exempt from this service, and cities fought with cities, and everywhere were men trained to war. But now most of the world is in peace; all engage in mechanical art or agriculture or commerce, and few are employed in military service for all. And of this too the occasion would cease, if we acted as we ought and did not need to be reminded by afflictions.” : “After the Sun of righteousness dawned, so far are all cities and nations from living in such perils, that they know not even how to take in hand any affairs of war. - Or if there be still any war, it is far off at the extremity of the Roman Empire, not in each city and country, as heretofore. For then, in any one nation, there were countless seditions and multiform wars. But now the whole earth which the sun surveys from the Tigris to the British isles, and therewith Lybia too and Egypt and Palestine, yea, all beneath the Roman rule, - ye know how all enjoy complete security, and learn of war only by hearsay.”

Cyril (on Isa. 2 and here) and Theodoret (on Isa. 2 and here) carry on this account into the fifth century after our Lord’s Coming. Christians then during those four centuries could point to a present fulfillment of prophecy, when we, for our sins, can only speak of the past Isa_59:1-2. The Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save: neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear; but our iniquities have separated between us, and our God, and our sins have hid His Face from us, that He will not hear. Those first Christians could urge against the Jews the fulfillment of their prophecies herein, where the Jews can now urge upon us their seeming non-fulfillment; : “In the time of King Messiah, after the wars of Gog and Magog, there shall be peace and tranquillity in all the world, and the sons of men shall have no need of weapons, but these promises were not fulfilled.”

The prophecy is fulfilled, in that the Gospel is a Gospel of peace and makes peace. Christians, as far as they obey Christ, are at peace both in themselves and with one another. The promises of God are perfect on His part: He is faithful to them. But He so wills to be freely loved by His intelligent creatures whom He formed for His love, that He does not force our free-agency. We can fall short of His promises, if we will. To those only who will it, the Gospel brings peace, stilling the passions, quelling disputes, banishing contentions, removing errors, calming concupiscence, soothing and repressing anger, in individuals, nations, the Church; giving oneness of belief, harmony of soul, contentment with our own, love of others as ourselves; so that whatever is contrary to this has its origin in something which is not of Christ nor of His Gospel.

GILL, "And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off,.... That are in the most distant parts of the world; not only the isles afar off, but the remotest parts of the continent, the American nations found out since. In Isa_2:4, it is, "and he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people"; that is, the King Messiah, as Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech. Some render it, "it shall judge", &c. and interpret it either of the Church, the mountain of the Lord's house; or of the

word and doctrine of the Lord; or of the Lord in the church, by the ministry of the word, The phrase, "afar off", is not in Isa_2:4; which the Targum interprets "for ever", and the "strong nations" of strong kings; signifying that the kingdom of Christ should not only be to the ends or the earth, but should endure for ever, unto distant time, even till it shall be no more; as well as shall reach to distant lands, as to situation, and to the Gentiles afar off, as to state and condition; see Eph_2:14;

and they shall beat their swords into plough shares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up a sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war any more; which as yet has never been fulfilled; but will be the case when Christ's kingdom appears in its glory, and the kingdoms of this world become his, and all the enemies of the church are destroyed; See Gill on Isa_2:4. These words are by the Jews (o) applied to the days of the Messiah.

JAMISO, "rebuke— convict of sin (Joh_16:8, Joh_16:9); and subdue with judgments (Psa_2:5, Psa_2:9; Psa_110:5, Psa_110:6; Rev_2:27; Rev_12:5).

many people ... strong nations afar off— In Isa_2:4 it is “the nations ... many people.”

CALVI, "The Prophet here describes the fruit of Divine truth, — that God would restore all nations to such gentleness, that they would study to cultivate fraternal peace among themselves, and that all would consult the good of others, having laid aside every desire for doing harm. As then he has lately showed, that the Church of God could not be otherwise formed than by the Word, and that the legitimate worship of God cannot be set up and continued, except where God is honored with the obedience of faith; so now he shows that Divine truth produces this effect, —that they, who before lived in enmity towards one another and burned with the lust of doing harm, being full of cruelty and avarice, will now, having their disposition changed, devote themselves wholly to acts of kindness. But, before the Prophet comes to this subject, he says, —

He will judge (122) among many people, and will reprove strong nations. The word judge, in Hebrew, means the same as to rule or govern. It is certain that God is spoken of here: it is then the same as though the Prophet had said that though the nations had not hitherto obeyed God, they would now own him as king and submit to his government. God has indeed ever governed the world by his hidden providence, as he does still govern it: for how much soever the devil and the ungodly may rage; nay, how ever much they may boil with unbridled fury, there is no doubt but that God restrains and checks their madness by his hidden bridle. But the Scripture speaks of God’s kingdom in two respects. God does indeed govern the devil and all the wicked, but not by his word, nor by the sanctifying power of his Spirit: it is so done, that they obey God, not willingly, but against their will. The peculiar government of God is that of his Church only, where, by his word and Spirit, He bends the hearts of men to obedience, so that they follow him voluntarily and willingly, being taught inwardly and outwardly, — inwardly by the influence of the Spirit, — outwardly by the preaching of the word. Hence it is said in Psalms 110:0, ‘Thy willing people shall then assemble.’ This is the government that is here

described by the Prophet; God then shall judge; not as he judges the world, but he will, in a peculiar manner, make them obedient to himself so that they will look for nothing else than to be wholly devoted to him.

But as men must first be subdued before they render to God such obedience, the Prophet expressly adds, And he will reprove (corripiet) or convince (arguet) many people. And this sentence ought to be carefully noticed; for we hence learn, that such is our innate pride, that not one of us can become a fit disciple to God, except we be by force subdued. Truth then would of itself freeze amidst such corruption as we have, except the Lord proved us guilty, except he prepared us beforehand, as it were, by violent measures. We now then perceive the design of the Prophet in connecting reproof with the government of God: for the verb יכח, ikech, signifies sometimes to expostulate, to convince, and sometimes to correct or reprove. (123) In short, the wickedness and perversity of our flesh are here implied; for even the best of us would never offer themselves to God, without being first subdued, and that by God’s powerful correction. This, then, is the beginning of the kingdom of Christ.

But when he says, that strong nations would be reproved, he hereby eulogizes and sets forth the character of the kingdom of which he speaks: and we hence learn the power of truth, — that strong men, when thus reproved, shall offer themselves, without any resistance, to be ruled by God. Correction is indeed necessary, but God employs no external force, nor any armed power, when he makes the Church subject to himself: and yet he collects strong nations. Hence then is seen the power of truth: for where there is strength, there is confidence and arrogance, and also rebellious opposition. Since then the Lord, without any other helps, thus corrects the perverseness of men, we hence see with what inconceivable power God works, when he gathers his own Church. It is to be added, that there is not the least doubt, but that this is to be applied to the person of Christ. Micah speaks of God, without mentioning Christ by name; for he was not yet manifested in the flesh: but we know that in his person has this been fulfilled, — that God has governed the universe, and subjected to himself the people of the whole world. We hence conclude that Christ is true God; for he is not only a minister to the Father, as Moses, or any one of the Prophets; but he is the supreme King of his Church.

Before I proceed to notice the fruit, the expression, רחוק עד, od rechuk, “afar off” must be observed. It may intimate a length of time as well as distance of place. Jonathan applies it to a long continuance of time, — that God would convince men to the end of the world. But the Prophet, I doubt not, intended to include the most distant countries; as though he had said, that God would not be the king of one people only, or of Judea alone, but that his kingdom would be propagated to the extremities of the earth. He will then convince people afar off

He afterward adds, with respect to the fruit, They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks I have already briefly explained the meaning of the Prophet: he in fact shows that when the nations should be taught by the word of God, there would be such a change, that every one would study to do good, and to perform the duties of love towards his neighbors. But by speaking of

swords and spears he briefly intimates, what men, until they are made gentle by the word of the Lord, are ever intent on iniquitous tyranny and oppression; nor can it be otherwise, while every one follows his own nature; for there are none who are not wedded to their own advantages, and the cupidity of men is insatiable. As then all are thus intent on gain, while every one is blinded by self-love, what but cruelty must ever break forth from this wicked principle? Hence then it is, that men cannot cultivate peace with one another; for every one seeks to be the first, and draws every thing to himself; no one will willingly give way: then dissensions arise, and from dissensions, fightings. This is what the Prophet intimates. And then he adds, that the fruit of the doctrine of Christ would however be such, that men, who were before like cruel wild beasts, would become gentle and meek. Forge then shall they their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks.

Raise, he says, shall not a nation a sword against a nation, and accustom themselves they shall no more to war He explains here more fully what I have before said, —that the Gospel of Christ would be to the nations, as it were, a standard of peace: as when a banner is raised up, soldiers engage in battle, and their fury is kindled; so Micah ascribes a directly opposite office to the Gospel of Christ, — that it will restore those to the cultivation of peace and concord, who before were given to acts of hostility. For when he says, ‘Raise a sword shall not a nation against nation,’ he intimates, as I have already stated, that wherever Christ does not reign, men are wolves to men, for every one is disposed to devour all others. Hence as men are naturally impelled by so blind an impulse, the Prophet declares, that this madness cannot be corrected, that men will not cease from wars, that they will not abstain from hostilities, until Christ becomes their teacher: for by the word למד, lamed, he implies, that it is a practice which ever prevails among mankind, that they contend with one another, that they are ever prepared to do injuries and wrongs, except when they put off their natural disposition. But gentleness, whence does it proceed? Even from the teaching of the Gospel.

This passage ought to be remembered; for we here learn, that there is not growing among us the real fruit of the Gospel, unless we exercise mutual love and benevolence, and exert ourselves in doing good. Though the Gospel is at this day purely preached among us, when yet we consider how little progress we make in brotherly love, we ought justly to be ashamed of our indolence. God proclaims daily that he is reconciled to us in his Son; Christ testifies, that he is our peace with God, that he renders him propitious to us, for this end, that we may live as brethren together. We indeed wish to be deemed the children of God, and we wish to enjoy the reconciliation obtained for us by the blood of Christ; but in the meantime we tear one another, we sharpen our teeth, our dispositions are cruel. If then we desire really to prove ourselves to be the disciples of Christ, we must attend to this part of divine truth, each of us must strive to do good to his neighbors. But this cannot be done without being opposed by our flesh; for we have a strong propensity to self-love, and are inclined to seek too much our own advantages. We must therefore put off these inordinate and sinful affections, that brotherly kindness may succeed in their place.

We are also reminded that it is not enough for any one to refrain from doing harm, unless he be also occupied in doing good to his brethren. The Prophet might indeed have said only They shall break their swords and their spears; so that they shall hereafter abstain from doing any hurt to others: this only is not what he says; but, “They shall forge,” or beat,” their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks;” that is, when they shall abstain from all injuries they will seek to exercise themselves in the duties of love, consistently with what Paul says, when he exhorts those who had stolen to steal no more, but to work with their own hands, that they might relieve others (Ephesians 4:28.) Except then we endeavor to relieve the necessities of our brethren, and to offer them assistance, there will not be in us but one part of true conversion, as the case is with many, who are not indeed inhuman, who commit no plunder, who give no occasion for complaint, but they live to themselves, and enjoy unprofitable leisure. This indolence the Prophet here indirectly condemns, when he speaks of the plowshares and the pruning hooks.

Again, a question may be here asked, — Was this fulfilled at the coming of Christ? It seems that the Prophet does not describe here the state of the Church for a time, but shows what would be the kingdom of Christ to the end. But we see, that when the Gospel was at first preached, the whole world boiled with wars more than ever; and now, though the Gospel in many parts is clearly preached, yet discords and contentions do not cease; we also see that rapacity, ambition, and insatiable avarice, greatly prevail; and hence arise contentions and bloody wars. And at the same time it would have been inconsistent in the Prophet to have thus spoken of the kingdom of Christ, had not God really designed to perform what is here predicted. My answer to this is, — that as the kingdom of Christ was only begun in the world, when God commanded the Gospel to be everywhere proclaimed, and as at this day its course is not as yet completed; so that which the Prophet says here has not hitherto taken place; but inasmuch as the number of the faithful is small, and the greater part despise and reject the Gospel, so it happens, that plunders and hostilities continue in the world. How so? Because the Prophet speaks here only of the disciples of Christ. He shows the fruit of his doctrine, that wherever it strikes a living root, it brings forth fruit: but the doctrine of the Gospel strikes roots hardly in one out of a hundred. (124) The measure also of its progress must be taken to the account; for so far as any one embraces the doctrine of the Gospel, so far he becomes gentle and seeks to do good to his neighbors. But as we as yet carry about us the relics of sin in our flesh, and as our knowledge of the Gospel is not yet perfect, it is no wonder, that not one of us has hitherto wholly laid aside the depraved and sinful affections of his flesh.

It is also easy hence to see, how foolish is the conceit of those, who seek to take away the use of the sword, on account of the Gospel. The Anabaptists, we know, have been turbulent, as though all civil order were inconsistent with the kingdom of Christ, as though the kingdom of Christ was made up of doctrine only, and that doctrine without any influence. We might indeed do without the sword, were we angels in this world; but the number of the godly, as I have already said, is small; it is therefore necessary that the rest of the people should be restrained by a strong bridle; for the children of God are found mixed together, either with cruel monsters

or with wolves and rapacious men. Some are indeed openly rebellious, others are hypocrites. The use of the sword will therefore continue to the end of the world.

We must now understand that at the time our Prophet delivered this discourse, Isaiah had used the very same words, (Isaiah 2:4 :) and it is probable that Micah was a disciple of Isaiah. They, however, exercised at the same time the Prophetic office, though Isaiah was the oldest. But Micah was not ashamed to follow Isaiah and to borrow his words; for he was not given to self ostentation, as though he would not adduce any thing but what was his own; but he designedly adopted the expressions of Isaiah, and related verbally what he had said, to show that there was a perfect agreement between him and that illustrious minister of God, that his doctrine might obtain more credit. We hence see how great was the simplicity of our Prophet, and that he did not regard what malevolent and perverse men might say: “What! he only repeats the words of another.” Such a calumny he wholly disregarded; and he thought it enough to show that he faithfully declared what God had commanded. Though we have not the עד רחיק, od rechuk, in Isaiah, yet the meaning is the same: in all other things they agree. It now follows—

And it shall judge among many people, And convince strong nations afar off.

COFFMA, "Verse 3"And he will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar off: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; and nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

This is not the promise of some literal millennium here on earth in which period the wicked nations of earth will be brought together in some kind of a confederation under Israel (fleshly) and in which the ideal peace and prosperity envisioned here will ensue. o! It is of that new society, the church of God in Christ, that the prophet spoke here. "Micah was here describing the character of that kingdom ruled from the spiritual Zion."[13] It has been gloriously fulfilled in that the kingdom of Christ has come down through history without any reliance whatever upon the military weapons which are the stock in trade of the unconverted. This great truth is not nullified by the violation of it by "the great whore." Could this refer to a time when there will no longer be any war on earth? o! Jesus himself said that "wars and rumors of wars" shall continue throughout history (Matthew 24). As Mays said, "The promise of peace here is founded on the promise of the reign of Yahweh becoming the center of order for all peoples."[14] As long as the nations of the earth prefer to walk in rebellion against God, wars are inevitable.

There are some sincere students of God's Word who receive this passage as a promise of the time when, "the established authority of Christ will appear beyond anything which obtains in this present church age";[15] but we believe that such a fulfillment would belong to that period of "the new heavens and the new earth"

mentioned by the apostle Peter (2 Peter 3:13).

COSTABLE, "Verse 3The Lord will serve as the global Judge deciding disputes between many strong nations far removed from Israel geographically. The Jews of Micah"s day did not want God telling them what to do and not to do, and their judges perverted justice (cf. Micah 3:1-3; Micah 3:9-11). In that future day, the Millennium when Yahweh Messiah is reigning on earth, the nations will convert their implements of warfare into agricultural tools to promote life. They will not engage in warfare or train for battle any longer. Standing armies and stockpiles of armaments will be things of the past. In Joel 3:10 the reverse figure appears describing the Tribulation.

TRAPP, "Micah 4:3 And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Ver. 3. And he shall judge among many people] We had before Christ’s prophetic office; here we have his princely, and elsewhere his priestly (wherein both the former are founded), for he is the true Trismegist, (a) and Melchisedec was a right type of him. He is the only judge, and needs no vicar upon earth, such as the Pope claims to be, Isaiah 37:20, no such officers to see his laws executed as the ephori were among the Greeks, and the censors among the Romans. This seems to have been the effect of that old prophecy among the Easterlings, that Iudaea profecti rerum potirentur, some that came out of Jewry should conquer all. Vide Sueton. in Vespas., et Tacit. lib. 21. The Lord that "sent the rod of his strength out of Zion," as Micah 4:2, doth also give him to "rule in the midst of his enemies, while his people are willing in the day of his power, in the beauties of holiness," Psalms 110:3, willing that Christ should send forth judgment to victory, Matthew 12:20, that is, perfect his own work of grace begun in their hearts. To which end, as it here followeth,

He shall rebuke (or convince) strong nations] Convince them, I say (by his Spirit), "of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment," John 16:8 : of the loathsomeness of sin, of the necessity of getting righteousness by Christ, and repentance from dead works; that men may serve the living God, and as much as in them is live peaceably with all, Acts 17:30.

And they shall beat their swords into plowshares] i.e. Their fierce and fallen natures shall be mansuefied, as Isaiah 11:6-9, and if they wage war it shall be non nisi coacti, not unless required, either for the just punishment of delinquents, whom they cannot otherwise come at, or for their own necessary defence, and that they may establish peace with truth. But if men would live by the laws of the gospel, they need not wage war or lack peace, either of country or of conscience: but they might take for their motto that of David, Ani shallom, I am peace; and have for their portion that peace, peace, Isaiah 27:3, even a perfect, sheer, pure peace, a multiplied peace

with God, with themselves, and with others: this is a main piece of Christ’s kingdom upon earth, who is the Prince of peace, and came in a time of peace: viz. in the reign of Augustus, when as there was Totius orbis aut pax aut pactio, saith Florus, a general peace or truce throughout the whole world.

either shall they learn war any more] To make a trade or a gain of it, and so to earn a curse, Deuteronomy 27:25, to delight in it, Psalms 68:30, and make a sport of it (as Abner did, 2 Samuel 2:14, and Pyrrhus, King of Epirots), to wage it without weighty reason rashly. If we princes (said our Henry VII) should take every occasion that is offered, the world should never be quiet, but wearied by continual wars. We may also here take warring (as St James doth, James 4:1) for jarring, and jangling, for private discords and dissensions. ow, these the people of God are so far from learning that they utterly lay them aside, and are kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake forgave them, Ephesians 4:32.

PETT, "Micah 4:3

“And he will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar off: and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning–hooks; nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more.”And the end promise is that as a result of the success of God’s activity among all peoples there would be peace among the nations. God Himself will reign over ‘many peoples’ and will exercise His authority among ‘strong nations afar off’, and in the end there will be total peace. War will be no more.

Today we see that God’s rule is exercised over many peoples, among Christians around the world, and that between them is peace, as their love reaches out towards one another (we must not judge Christianity’s success in this direction simply because of one nation’s bickerings and divisions). But, of course, the final fulfilment of this promise awaits the final everlasting Kingdom of God on the new earth when a new Heaven and a new earth is in place in which dwells righteousness (Isaiah 11:1-9; Isaiah 65:17-25; 2 Peter 3:13).

PULPIT, "The effect of this reception of true religion shall be universal peace. He shall judge among many people; or better, between many peoples. The Lord shall be the Arbiter to whom all disputes shall be referred, as in the next clause. When his reign is acknowledged and his Law obeyed, all war and all causes of war shall cease. The gospel is a gospel of peace and love, and when "the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ" (Revelation 11:15), peace and love shall everywhere abound. (For the phrase in the text, comp. 11:27; 1 Samuel 24:12,1 Samuel 24:15.) Rebuke strong nations afar off. The word rendered '"rebuke" means here "decide concerning," "act as umpire for." The arbitration of the sword shall no more be resorted to. The words "afar off" are omitted in the

similar passage of Isaiah. Beat their swords into ploughshares; i.e. they shall practise the arts of peace instead of war. Literally, the short broad sword of the Israelites might readily be converted into a share, and the spear forged into a pruning hook (comp. Hosea 2:18; Zechariah 9:10). Martial has an epigram entitled, "Falx ex ense" (14:34)—

"Pax me certa ducis placidos curvavit in usus:

Agricolae nunc sum, militis ante fui."

The reverse process is seen in Joel 3:10, where ploughshares are beaten into swords. Thus Virgil, 'Georg.,' 1.508—

"El curvae rigidum falces conflantur in ensem."

(Comp. Ovid, 'Fast.,' 1.699, etc.)

4 Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree,and no one will make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty has spoken.

BARES. "But - And

They shall sit every man, under his vine and under his fig-tree - Palestine was a home of the vine and the fig-tree. Vineyards were a common property, possessed by all but the very poor , or even by them Neh_5:4; Jer_39:10. The land was “a land of bread and vineyards” 2Ki_18:32. The vine was the emblem of the people, in Psalmists and prophets (Psa_80:8 ff; Isa_3:14; Isa_5:1 ff; Isa_27:2; Jer_2:21; Jer_12:10; Eze_15:1-8; Eze_17:5-10; Eze_19:10; Hos_10:1). The bunch of grapes or the vine-leaf appear as characteristic emblems on Jewish coins , chiefly in the times of their revolts under Vespasian and Hadrian . The fig is also mentioned as part of the characteristic fruitfulness of Palestine Deu_8:8.

It too was an universal property 2Ki_18:32. Both formed natural arbors; the fig had its name probably from its length, the vine from the arch made by its drooping boughs. Both formed, in those hot countries, a grateful shade. The vine, rising with its single

stem, was spread over trellis-work or by props, so as to enclose a considerable space . Even in Italy, a single vine shaded a portico . In Palestine it grew by the walls of the house Psa_128:3.

Rabbis relate how their forefathers sat and studied under the fig-tree , as Nathanael was doubtless meditating or praying under one, when Jesus, being God, saw him Joh_1:48. It exhibits a picture of domestic peace, each family gathered in harmony and rest under the protection of God, each content with what they have, neither coveting another’s, nor disturbed in their own. Wine is explained in Holy Scripture to be an emblem of gladness, and the fig of sweetness . Cyril: “For exceeding sweet is the word of the Saviour, and it knoweth how to gladden man’s heart; sweet also and full of joy is the hope of the future, wherewith we are enriched in Christ.

Such had been Israel’s lot in the peaceful days of Solomon 1Ki_4:25, the peace of whose times had already been made the image of the Gospel Ps. 72; the coming of the Queen of the South from the uttermost parts of the earth, to hear the wisdom of Solomon Mat_12:42, had made her kingdom to be selected as an emblem of those who should fall down before Christ and serve Him Psa_60:12 :10-11. Lap.: “Such is that most quiet fearlessness which the law of Christ bringeth, as being the law of charity, peace, and concord.”

And none shall make them afraid - o: “Neither man, nor devil; for the Lord hath given us power to “tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and said, nothing shall by any means hurt you” Luk_10:19, and bade us, “fear not them which kill the body” Mat_10:28. Witness the might which He gave to His Apostles and Martyrs.

For the mouth of the Lord of Host hath spoken it - The prophets often add this, when what they say, seems, for its greatness, past belief Yet it will be, because He hath spoken it, “the Lord” who changeth not, “the Lord of Hosts,” to whose commands all creatures are subject, whose word is truth with whom to speak is to do.

CLARKE, "Under his vine and under his fig tree - A proverbial expression, indicative of perfect peace, security, and rural comfort. See on Isa_2:1 (note). This verse is an addition to the prophecy as it stands in Isaiah. See Clarke on Mic_4:1 (note).

GILL, "But they shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig tree,.... A proverbial phrase, expressive of the greatest tranquillity, security, and enjoyment of property; see 1Ki_4:25; when persons need not keep within their walled towns and cities, and lack themselves up in their houses, but may sit down in their gardens, fields, and vineyards, and enjoy the fruit thereof; as the Targum interprets it,

"under the fruit of his vine, and under, the fruit of his fig tree.''

It was usual for persons in the eastern countries to sit under vines and fig trees to read, meditate, pray, or converse together, where they grow very large, as were their vines; and even with us they are frequently raised and carried over supporters, so as to be sat under; and of fig trees, we frequently read in Jewish writings of their being very large, and of their going up to them, and praying on the top of them; and of sitting under them, and studying in the law there. So one of the Rabbins says (p), he went up into his mustard tree, as one goes up to the top of a fig tree; and it is said (q), he that prays on the top of an olive tree, or on the top of a fig tree must come down, and pray below; and

again (r), R. Jacob and his companions were fasting, studying in the law, under a certain fig tree; and sometimes they speak of all these together, of sitting under olives, and under vines, and under fig trees, and studying in the words of the law (s); see Joh_1:48. This is to be understood, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi explain it, of all men; not of the Israelites only, but of all nations, since there will be no more war any where; hence it follows:

and none shall make them afraid; the enemies of God's people will be no more, neither Turk nor pope, eastern or western antichrist, beast or, false prophet; wherefore, in those days of the Messiah, Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely, even all the spiritual Israel of God, Jews and Gentiles; there shall be none to hurt in the holy mountain of the Lord, or any violence and oppression, wasting and destruction, anywhere; see Jer_23:5;

for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it; who speaks nothing but truth, and who is able and faithful to perform what he has spoken; and therefore all this may be depended on.

HERY, " That a disposition to mutual peace and love shall be the happy effect of the setting up of the kingdom of the Messiah: They shall beat their swords into plough-shares; that is, angry passionate men, that have been fierce and furious, shall be wonderfully sweetened, and made mild and meek, Tit_3:2, Tit_3:3. Those who, before their conversion, did injuries, and would bear none, after their conversion can bear injuries, but will do none. As far as the gospel prevails it makes men peaceable, for such is the wisdom from above; it is gentle and easy to be entreated; and if nations were but leavened by it, there would be universal peace. When Christ was born there was universal peace in the Roman empire; those that were first brought into the gospel church were all of one heart and of one soul (Act_4:32); and it was observed of the primitive Christians how well they loved one another. In heaven this will have its full accomplishment. It is promised, 1. That none shall be quarrelsome. The art of war, instead of being improved (which some reckon the glory of a kingdom), shall be forgotten and laid aside as useless. They shall not learn war any more as they have done, for they shall have no need to defend themselves nor any inclination to offend their neighbours. Nation shall no longer lift up sword against nation; not that the gospel will make men cowards, but it will make men peaceable. 2. That all shall be quiet, both from evil and from the fear of evil (Mic_4:4): They shall sit safely, and none shall disturb them; they shall sit securely, and shall not disturb themselves, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, enjoying the fruit of them, and needing no other shelter than the leaves of them. None shall make them afraid; not only there shall be nothing that is likely to frighten them, but they shall not be disposed to fear. under the dominion of Christ, as that of Solomon, there shall be abundance of peace. Though his followers have trouble in the world, in him they enjoy great tranquillity. If this seems unlikely, yet we may depend upon it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it, and no word of his shall fall to the ground; what he has spoken by his word he will do by his providence and grace. He that is the Lord of hosts will be the God of peace; and those may well be easy whom the Lord of hosts, of all hosts, undertakes the protection of.

JAMISO, "sit every man under his vine, etc.— that is, enjoy the most prosperous tranquillity (1Ki_4:25; Zec_3:10). The “vine” and “fig tree” are mentioned rather than a house, to signify, there will be no need of a covert; men will be safe even in

the fields and open air.

Lord of hosts hath spoken it— Therefore it must come to pass, however unlikely now it may seem.

CALVI, "Micah goes on here with the same subject, — that when the minds of men shall be disposed to acts of kindness, every one shall enjoy God’s blessing without being disturbed. There seems indeed to be two things here included, — that acts of hostility shall cease, — and that real happiness cannot exist among men, except Christ rules among them by the doctrine of his Gospel. And the same thing the prophets teach elsewhere, that is, that every one shall live without fear; and this they do, in order to show that men ever live in a miserable dread, except when they are safe under the protection of God. It is the same thing as though the Prophet had said, that the life of men is most miserable, where the doctrine of the Gospel is not had, inasmuch as when they are disturbed by continual disquietude, every one fears for himself, every one suffers constant terrors. There is nothing more miserable than such a state of things, for peace is the chief good.

We now then understand the meaning of the Prophet to be, — that under the reign of Christ the faithful shall enjoy true and full happiness, as they shall be exempt from trembling and fear; hence he names the vine and the fig-tree. He might have said, “Every one shall live securely at home;” but he says, Every one shall rest under his own fig-tree and under his own vine; that is, though exposed to thieves, he shall yet fear no violence, no injury; for those who were thieves shall observe what is just and right; those who were bloody shall study to do good. Hence when no one closes the door of his house, yea, when he goes out into the fields and sleeps in the open air; he will still be safe and secure. We now then see why the Prophet mentions here the fig-tree and the vine, rather than the dwelling-house.

And there will be no one to terrify them. What the Prophet designed to express is here more clearly specified, — that there would be no danger, and that there would therefore be no need of hiding-places or of any defenses. Why? Because the very fields, he says, will be free from every thing that may hurt, as there will be none to cause fear. And the Prophet seems to allude to the blessing promised in the Law, for Moses used nearly the very same words: and the Prophets, we know, drew many things from the Law; for their design was to retain the people in its doctrine, and to render it as familiar as possible to them. As then Moses promised, among other things, this security,

‘Ye shall sleep, and none shall terrify you,’ (Leviticus 26:6;)

so the Prophet also, in speaking here of the kingdom of Christ, shows that this blessing would be then fully accomplished.

He now at last subjoins, The mouth of Jehovah hath thus spoken, that he might confirm what seemed incredible: for, as I have already said, since he had shortly before predicted the devastation of mount Zion and the ruin of the temple, it seemed very improbable that the nations would come there to worship God. But he declares

that the mouth of God had thus spoken, that the faithful might overcome all obstacles and struggle against despair; though they saw the temple destroyed, the mount Zion desolated, though they saw a horrible waste and wild beasts occupying the place of men; they were yet to continue to entertain firm hope. — How so? Because Jehovah has made a promise and he will fulfill it: for when mention is made of God’s mouth, his omnipotence is to be understood by which will be executed whatever he has promised.

COFFMA, "Verse 4"But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of Jehovah of hosts hath spoken it."

Here again, the import of the passage is that of spiritual confidence and joy of the redeemed in Christ Jesus. The more Christian a society becomes, the more nearly this perfect ideal is approached. It is impossible, of course, to apply this to literal Jerusalem, an impossibility that provoked Mays to declare that this "is a contradiction of Micah 3:12, and that it has no place in Micah."[16] Such a statement would have been impossible for any person who understands the passage. The tragedy of many in the critical community of scholars is that they are fundamentalists, having no ability whatever to discern the spiritual import of a passage designed to reveal the great spiritual verities of God's kingdom. (See the dissertation on that phenomenon in my commentary on James-Jude, pp. 289,290.

"Every man under his vine ... his fig-tree ..." Let it be observed that the ideal state set forth here "is not any kind of socialist or Marxist state ownership of all property";[17] the God-given status of private property is clearly discernible in it.

The pitiful blindness of the human race is apparent in the fact that sociologists actually suppose that it will be possible for carnal mankind to achieve such a society as that ideally set forth by Micah, through such man-made devices as the League of ations, United ations, World Court, or similar invention. As Allen said, "Bitter experience has shown the need for the missing ingredient,"[18] obedience to the will of God.

"The mouth of Jehovah of hosts hath spoken it ..." This has the meaning of, "The Lord of the powers of heaven and earth." and affirms the authority of God himself for the passage before us. The enemies of God's word who would like to delete this chapter have nothing to offer. "The attacks that have been made have but a poor foundation. Their allegations are made unjustly."[19]

COSTABLE, "Verse 4Peace will prevail worldwide. The figure of people sitting under their vines and fig trees describes them at rest enjoying the fruits of their labors and God"s blessings (cf. 1 Kings 4:25; Zechariah 3:10). They will not fear. Perhaps because it is so hard to believe that these conditions will ever prevail on earth Micah assured his audience that the very mouth of almighty Yahweh had spoken these words. These

promises came from Him, not just from the prophet. They were prophecies that were sure to come to pass in contrast to those of the false prophets of Micah"s day (cf. Micah 3:5).

"While the people of God who are the church have experienced peace in their hearts, it is difficult to limit this prediction only to Christians. The prophecy is national and even universal in scope and looks forward to a time when the nations will come so fully under the benign influence of God"s Word that war will be no more." [ote: McComiskey, p422.]

TRAPP, "Micah 4:4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make [them] afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken [it].

Ver. 4. But they shall sit every man under his vine] Feeding upon the fruit that shall even fall into his mouth, saith a Lapide. Sit they shall under Christ, the true vine, saith Hugo, and under the Holy Ghost, as a fig tree, whose fruit is far sweeter than any honey. But these are coined interpretations, saith Gualther. I should rather expound this text by that 91st Psalm; wherein the safe and happy condition of the godly is at large described. Vine yards and fig yards were ordinary in those countries; and hence this proverbial expression, to set forth, doubtless, the spiritual security, and that peace of conscience chiefly, that is granted to Christ’s subjects: a peace far beyond that under Solomon, which is here pointed at; or that under our Queen Elizabeth, not to be passed over without one touch at least upon that string which so many years together sounded so sweetly in the ears of our fathers. Then it was, if ever, that the mountains brought forth peace, and the little hills righteousness, Psalms 72:3. The great ones defended their inferiors, and the inferiors blessed their superiors; the magistrate righted the subject, and the subject reverenced the magistrate.

And none shall make them afraid] God, they know, will not hurt them, man cannot: he may take away their heads, but not their crowns; their lives, but not their hopes; for the righteous hath hope in his death; his posy. is not only, Dum spiro spero, while I live, I have hope, but Dum expiro, While I die, also. Let the wicked have a trembling heart and failing eyes while he lives, Deuteronomy 28:65, and when he dies cry out, as a great man was heard to do, Spes et fortuna valete, Farewell life and hope together. The servant of Christ, as he sits mediis tranquillus in undis calm in the midst of the waves, all his life long, so when he dies, he can call his soul to rest; and sing old Simeon’s uno dimittis, "Lord, now let thy servant depart in peace," &c.

For the mouth of the Lord of hosts] And what better assurance can we desire, since God can neither die, lie, nor deny himself; since, secondly, he is the "Lord of hosts," and so armed with power to make good what he hath spoken. Peter had a will to deliver Christ from the Jews, but lacked power. Pilate had power to have done it,

but lacked will. God lacked neither of these to do for his people, and to deliver them out of danger. Courage, therefore.

PETT, "Micah 4:4

“But they will sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none will make them afraid: for the mouth of YHWH of hosts has spoken it.”And in that day Israel’s ideal will be fulfilled with all being free and independent, and every man sitting under his own vine and his own fig tree. And in that day none will make them afraid, for it will be in a world at perfect peace. And all this will come about because the mouth of YHWH has spoken it.

We do not of course have to interpret this too literally. It does not mean that we will all have to become agriculturalists. It is rather a picture of man’s ideal world in terms of how it would have been seen in those days. Compare here 1 Kings 4:25; 2 Kings 18:31 (it was even the ideal expressed by the Assyrians. Possibly they had learned of Micah’s prophecy); Zechariah 3:10.

PULPIT, "This verse is omitted in Isaiah. They shall sit every man under his vine. This image of plenty and security is derived from the account of the material prosperity of Israel in the days of Solomon (1 Kings 4:25), in accordance with the Mosaic promise (Le Isaiah 26:4, etc.). It passed into a proverb expressive of peace and happiness (comp. Zechariah 3:10; 1 Macc. 14:12). The mouth of the Lord of hosts. The great promise is thus confirmed (Isaiah 58:14). The LXX. usually renders this expression in Jeremiah and the minor prophets by κύριος παντοκράτωρ, elsewhere by κύριος σαβαώθ, and κύριος δυνάµεων. It means, "the Lord of the powers of heaven and earth," the idea being originally that God was the Leader of the armies of Israel.

5 All the nations may walk in the name of their gods,but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.

BARES. "For all people well walk, every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God - Hitherto unsteadfastness had been the very characteristic sin of Israel. It was , “constant only in its inconstancy,” ever “falling away like their forefathers, starting aside like a broken bow” Psa_78:57. The pagan persevered in their worship, because it was evil or had evil in it, not checking but feeding their passions. Israel did not persevere in his, because it required him to deny himself things unlawful. “Hath a nation changed their gods which are yet no gods? But My people have changed their glow for that which doth not profit” Jer_2:11. Henceforth, the prophet professeth for his people, the true Israel, that he will be as steadfast in good, as the pagan in evil; so our Lord sets forth “the children of this world in their generation” Luk_16:8, as an example of wisdom to the children of light.

Cyril: “They who are eager to go up into the mountain of the Lord, and wish to learn thoroughly His ways, promise a ready obedience, and receive in themselves the glories of the life in Christ, and undertake with their whole strength to be earnest in all holiness. ‘For let every one,’ he saith, ‘in every country and city go the way himself chooseth, and pass his life, as to him seemeth good; but our care is Christ, and His laws we will make our straight path; we will walk along with Him; and that not for this life only, present or past, but yet more for what is beyond’ 2Ti_2:11-12; Rom_8:17; Rev_3:4. It is a faithful saying. For they who now suffer with Him, shall walk with Him forever, and with Him be glorified, and with Him reign. But they make Christ their care, who prefer nothing to His love, who cease from the vain distractions of the world, and seek rather righteousness and what is pleasing unto Him, and to excell in virtue. Such an one was the divine Paul; for he writeth, “I am crucified with Christ; and now no longer I live, but Christ liveth in me” Gal_2:20; and again, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” 1Co_2:2.

To “walk” is so uniformly in Holy Scripture used of a person’s moral or religious “ways” . p. 378, and above on Mic_2:11, p. 35. So again to walk with God, Gen_5:22 or before God, Gen_17:1 or contrary to God, Lev_26:21.) (as we say), that the prophet here too is doubtless speaking of the opposite religious ways of the pagan and of the future people of God. The “name” was often, in Hebrew, expressive of the character; and, in regard to God Himself, that Name which He vouchsafed to give to Himself , expressed His Self-existence, and, as a result, His Unchangeableness and His Faithfulness. The names, by which it was foretold that Christ should be called, express both His Deity and attributes ; the human Name, which He bare and vouchsafes to bear yet, was significant of His office for us, Saviour Mat_1:21.

To praise “the Name of the Lord” then, is to praise Him in that character or relation which He has revealed to us. : “He ‘walketh in the Name of the Lord,’ who ordereth every act and motion worthily of the vocation wherewith he is called, and, “whether he eateth or drinketh, doth all to the glory of God. 1Co_10:31” this promise hath its own reward; for it is “forever and ever.” They who “walk in the Name of the Lord,” shall “walk before Him in, the land of the living, forever and ever” Psa_116:9. Such walk on, with quickened steps, lingering not, “in the Name of the Lord our God,” that is, doing all things in His Name, as His great Name requires, conformed to the holiness and all other qualities which His Name expresseth. “For ever and ever, literally forever and yet, or, more strictly still, for that which is hidden and yet,” which is the utmost thought of eternity we can come to. Time indeed has no relation to eternity; for time, being God’s creature, is infinite. Still, practically to us, our nearest conception of eternity, is existence, on and on and on, an endless, unchanging, ever-prolonged future, lost in distance and hidden from us, and then, and yet, an ever-to-come yet, which shalt never come to an end. Well then may we not faint, as tho’ it were long to toil or to do without this or that, since the part of

our way which lies amid toils and weariness is so short, and will soon be at an end; what lies beyond, in joy, is infinite in infinite joy, ever full and still ever a yet to come.

The prophet says, “we will walk;” , “uniting himself in longing, hope, faith, to the sons of the New Testament, that is, Christians, as his brethren, re-born by the grace of the same Christ;” , “ministers of the Old, heirs of the New Testament, because they loved through that same faith whereby we love; believing in the Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection of Christ yet to be, as we believe in it, having been.”

CLARKE, "Every one in the name of his god - This shall be the state of the Gentile world; but after the captivity, the Jews walked in the name of Jehovah alone; and acknowledge no other object of religious worship to the present day.

GILL, "For all people will walk everyone in the name of his god,.... Till those times come before described; when many nations and people shall flock to the church, and there shall be such general peace and tranquillity as here promised; till then the nations of the earth shall retain their former religion, and the profession of it, with constancy, till they are otherwise instructed, as Aben Ezra; or till the Messiah shall turn them into the right way, as Kimchi; till that time comes, the Pagans will worship their idols, and continue in the idolatry of their ancestors; the Papists will retain their image worship, and hold to their lord god the pope, as they call him; the Mahometans will cleave to their prophet, and walk according to the rules he has left them to observe. Jarchi's note is,

"they shall go to destruction because of their idolatry;''

with which he says the Targum agrees, which is,

"all nations shall go according to the idols they have worshipped;''

or, as the king of Spain's Bible,

"they shall be guilty or condemned because they have worshipped idols:''

and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever; both in the mean while, and when those happy times shall come, and so through all generations as long as the world stands. This is the language of those that know the Lord, believe in him, and sincerely serve him; who determine in the strength of divine grace to continue in their profession of faith of him, in his worship and service, in his ways, truths, and ordinances, whatever others, do; and indeed are the more animated to it, when they observe how constant and steadfast idolaters, Pagans, Papists, and Mahometans, are in their false worship, both in the profession and practice of it. The Targum is,

"we will trust in the Word of the Lord our God for ever and ever;''

in Christ the essential Word; and so the phrase is expressive of faith, and a profession of faith in him; and of constant attendance upon his word and ordinances.

HERY, " That the churches shall be constant in their duty, and so shall make a good use of their tranquillity and shall not provoke the Lord to deprive them of it, Mic_4:5. When the churches have rest they shall be edified, and confirmed, and comforted, and shall resolve to be as firm to their God as other nations are to theirs, though they be no gods. Where we find the foregoing promises, Isa_2:2, etc. it follows (Mic_4:5), O house of Jacob! come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord; and here, We will walk in the name of the Lord our God. Note, Peace is a blessing indeed when it strengthens our resolutions to cleave to the Lord. Observe, 1. How constant other nations were to their gods: All people will walk every one in the name of his god, will own their god and cleave to him, will worship their god and serve him, will depend upon him and put confidence in him. Whatever men make a god of they will make use of, and take his name along with them in all their actions and affairs. The mariners, in a storm, cried every man to his god, Jon_1:5. And no instance could be found of a nation's changing its gods, Jer_2:11 : If the hosts of heaven were their gods, they loved them, and served them, and walked after them, Jer_8:2. 2. How constant God's people now resolve to be to him: “We will walk in the name of the Lord our God, will acknowledge him in all our ways, and govern ourselves by a continual regard to him, doing nothing but what we have warrant from him for, and openly professing our relation to him.” Observe, Their resolution is peremptory; it is not a thing that needs be disputed: “We will walk in the name of the Lord our God.” It is just and reasonable: He is our God. And it is a resolution for a perpetuity: “We will do it for ever and ever, and will never leave him. He will be ours for ever, and therefore so we will be his, and never repent our choice.”

JAMISO, "For— rather, Though it be that all people walk after their several gods, yet we (the Jews in the dispersion) will walk in the name of the Lord. So the Hebrewparticle means in the Margin, Gen_8:21; Exo_13:17; Jos_17:18. The resolution of the exile Jews is: As Jehovah gives us hope of so glorious a restoration, notwithstanding the overthrow of our temple and nation, we must in confident reliance on His promise persevere in the true worship of Him, however the nations around, our superiors now in strength and numbers, walk after their gods [Rosenmuller]. As the Jews were thoroughly weaned from idols by the Babylonian captivity, so they shall be completely cured of unbelief by their present long dispersion (Zec_10:8-12).

K&D, "It will not be through any general humanitarian ideas and efforts, however, that the human race will reach this goal, but solely through the omnipotence and faithfulness of the Lord. The reason assigned for the promise points to this. Mic_4:5. “For all nations walk every man in the name of his God, but we walk in the name of Jehovah our God for ever and ever.” This verse does not contain an exhortation, or a resolution to walk in the name of God, which involves an exhortation, in the sense of “if all nations walk, etc., then we will,” etc.; for an admonition or a resolution neither suits the connection, in the midst of simple promises, nor the words themselves, since we

should at any rate expect נלכה instead of ילכו The sameness in the form of the verbs .נלך

and requires that they should be understood in the same way. Walking in the name of נלך

God does not mean regulating the conduct according to the name of a God, i.e., according to the nature which expresses itself in the name, or worshipping him in a manner corresponding to his nature (Caspari), but walking in the strength of God, in which the nature of this God is displayed. This is the meaning of the phrase in 1Sa_17:45and Zec_10:12, where “I strengthen them in Jehovah” forms the basis of “and in His

name will they walk” (compare Pro_18:10, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower”). But the gods of all the nations, i.e., of all the heathen, are worthless beings, without life, without strength. Jehovah, on the contrary, is the only true God, the almighty Creator and Governor of the world. And the heathen, with their worthless gods, can do nothing to Him and the nation which walks in His name, his strength. If, therefore, Israel rejoices for ever and ever in the strength of its God, the heathen nations cannot disturb the peace which He will create for Israel and all who accept His word. In this way is the promise in Mic_4:3 and Mic_4:4 explained in Mic_4:5. But this explanation assumes that, even at the time when many nations stream to the mountain of the Lord, there will still be nations that do not seek Jehovah and His word, - a thought which is still further expanded in v. Mic_5:4., and involves this consolation, that such opponents of the people of God as shall be still in existence will not be able to interfere with the salvation which has been prepared for it by its God.

CALVI, "Micah, after having spoken of the restoration of the Church, now confirms the same truth, and shows that the faithful would have reason enough to cleave constantly to their God, and to despise all the superstitions of the world, and that though they may be tossed here and there by contrary opinions, they will yet continue in true religion. This verse then is connected with the kingdom of Christ; for until we are gathered, and Christ shines among us and rules us by his word, there can be in us no constancy, no firmness. But when under the auspices of Christ, we join together in one body the Church, such then becomes the constancy of our faith, that nothing can turn us from the right course, though new storms were at any time to arise, by which the whole world might be shaken, and though it were to happen that the universe should be agitated or pass away. We now understand what the Prophet means.

He therefore says, All nations shall walk every one in the name of his god. This sentence must be thus explained, — “Though nations be divided into various sects, and each be addicted to their own superstitions, yet we shall continue firm in the pure worship of God and in unity of faith.” But this question occurs, how could the Prophet say that there would be such discords in the world, when he had shortly before spoken of the Church being gathered and united together? for he had said, Come shall all nations, and each will say, Come, let us ascend into the mount of Jehovah. There seems to be here some sort of inconsistency, — that all nations would come to mount Zion, and yet that every people would have their own gods. But the solution is not difficult: the Prophet in this verse strengthens the faithful, until Christ should be revealed to the world: nor is there any doubt but the Prophet intended to sustain the confidence of the godly, who might have otherwise been overwhelmed a hundred times with despair. When the children of Israel were driven into exile, when their inheritance was taken away from them, when the temple had been demolished, when, in a word, no visible religion existed, they might, as I have said, have desponded, had not this promise come to their minds, —that God would restore mount Zion, and gather a Church from the whole world. But there was also need of some confirmation, and this is what the Prophet now subjoins. Hence he says, “Since the Lord gives you hope of so glorious a restoration, you ought to feel confidence. and, in reliance on his promise, to continue in his true

worship, how much soever the Gentiles may serve their own idols, and boast that they have the true God. However, then, every one of the nations may take pride in their superstitions, you ought not to fluctuate, nor turn here and there, like reeds, which are tossed to and fro, as the wind changes; but ye shall continue firm and steady in your course; for ye know that God is true, who has once for all adopted you, and has promised that your salvation will be the object of his care, even when the world shall think you to be ruined and lost.”

We hence see that what the Prophet had in view was to raise up into confidence the minds of the godly in the midst not only of troubles, but of utter confusion. All nations then shall walk, that is, when the temple and the city shall be demolished, and the people be led into distant exile, the ungodly will, at the same time, triumph, every one will extol his own gods: though our God should not then appear, there will yet be no reason why we should be discouraged; but we ought to recomb on his word. We shall then walk in the name of our God, and that for ever and ever; that is, though it should happen that the world should a hundred times be turned and turned over again, there shall yet be no change in our minds: for as the truth of God is eternal, so also our faith ought to be constant and never to vary. ow the difficulty is removed, and we see how these two things agree, — that all nations shall come and with one consent worship God, and yet that to each of them there would be their own gods: for the diversity of time must be here regarded, when all nations would walk every one in the name of his god. (125)

By saying, איש בשם אלהיו, aish beshem Aleiu, he touches, in an indirect way, on that variety which exists among men. Though all of them pertinaciously follow and defend their own superstitions yet each one fabricates a goal for himself. Thus it happens, that nothing is certain, for they follow only their own inventions. But this the Prophet meant only to touch by the way. His main object was that which I have stated, — that though the Church of God would be small, and should find a great multitude opposed to it, it ought not yet to succumb. We know how violent a thing is public consent; for when the majority conspire together, the small number, who entertain a different opinion, are, as it were instantly swallowed up. It is not then without reason that the Prophet exhorts the faithful here to an invincible firmness of mind, that they might triumph over all the nations. However small, then, might be the faithful in number, the Prophet wished them to look down, as it were from a higher place, not only on a large multitudes but on all mankind. Though then all nations walk, etc.: nor is the word כל, cal, all, superfluous, — though all nations shall walk, etc. There was then but one nation, the offspring of Abraham, among whom true religion existed; and it was a dreadful devastation, when God suffered the royal city and the temple to be pulled down, and the whole body of the people to be torn asunder, to be driven away here and there, so that no kingdom and no kind of civil community remained. Hence the Prophet intimates here, that though the faithful should find that in number and dignity they were far surpassed by their enemies, they yet should not despair. “Though then all the nations walked, every one in the name of their god, — though every people set up their superstitions against you, and all conspired against you together, yet stand ye firm and proceed in your course, and this not for a short time, but for ever and ever.” (126) ow this

passage shows that faith depends not on the suffrages of men, and that we ought not to regard what any one may think, or what may be the consent of all; for the truth of God alone ought to be deemed sufficient by us. How much soever, then, the whole world may oppose God, our faith ought not to be changeable, but remain firm on this strong foundation, — that God, who cannot deceive, has spoken. This is one thing. Then, in the second place, it must be added, that this firmness ought to be perpetual. Though then Satan may excite against us new troubles, since we have hitherto stood firm as to our faith in God’s word, let us proceed in the same course to the end. And the Prophet designedly added this verse; because he saw that the people would be subject to various and long-continued temptations. It was a long captivity: hence languor might have, as it were, wasted away all the confidence which the people then had. And further, after they returned from exile, we know how often and how grievously their faith was tried, when all their neighbors inimically assailed them, and when they were afterwards oppressed by cruel tyranny. This was the reason why the Prophet said that the children of God are to walk perpetually and to the end in his name

Though he gives the name of gods to the idols of the nations he yet shows that there is a great and striking difference; for the nations worship their own gods, which they had invented: or how did they derive their majesty and their power, except from the false imagination of men? But the Prophet says, We will walk in the name of Jehovah our God. He hence shows that the power and authority of God is not founded on any vain device of men, for he of himself exists, and will exist, though he were denied by the whole world. And this also confirms what I have already stated, — that the faithful ought thus to embrace the word of God, as they know that they have not to do with men, the credit of whom is doubtful and inconstant, but with him who is the true God, who cannot lie, and whose truth is immutable. Let us proceed —

“am omnes populi, qui ambulabant quisque in nomine dei sui, et now ambulabimus in nomine Jehovae Dei nostri.”

The words will no doubt admit of this construction; for it is often the case in Hebrew, that אשר, who, is understood before a verb in the future tense, especially when it has the meaning of the present, as here, for the preceding “ambulabant,” might be rendered “ambulant,” without any inconstancy in the meaning. I would therefore render the verse thus, —

For all the nations, Who walk each in the name of its god, And we ourselves, Shall walk in the name of Jehovah our God, For ever and ever.

The nations were then walking in the name of their multiplied gods; but at the time alluded to, both Gentiles and Jews would walk together in the name of Jehovah. There is thus an entire correspondence between all the parts of this remarkable

passage, which extends from the first verse to the seventh inclusive; a part of which, extending only to the end of the third verse, is to be found in Isaiah. — Ed.

COFFMA, "Verse 5"For all the peoples walk everyone in the name of his god; and we walk in the name of Jehovah our God forever and ever."

"All the peoples walk everyone in the name of his god ..." This comment explains that the glorious promises of the prior four verses do not pertain to those who continue to walk in the darkness of paganism. They violently abuse this passage who would make it declare that, "paganism is perfectly proper for pagans!"[20] What is clearly evident here is the fact that the glorious promises of the previous four verses will be limited to the persons walking in the name of the true God, the promise being certified to them that they shall indeed do so forever and ever. Even the cessation of their lives upon earth will not be the end of their walk with the Master.

"We walk..." "By saying `we,' the prophet identified himself with the faithful people. The Church shall never fail. Heathen powers last for a time, but the kingdom of heaven is everlasting."[21] "The fact that this promise is now fulfilled in Christ, and is not to be fulfilled in some future time is abundantly clear from the ew Testament."[22] The great implication of this verse is that:

"Even at the time when many nations stream to the mountain of the Lord, there will still be nations that do not seek Jehovah and his word, a thought that is still further expanded in Micah 5:4ff.[23]

COSTABLE, "Verse 5In Micah"s day the Gentile nations, and many of the Israelites, followed other gods, but in the future they would all follow Yahweh. Consequently the Israelites needed to follow Him immediately. These promises encouraged Micah to make a fresh and lasting commitment for Israel to walk in the Lord"s ways rather than in the ways of the gods of other nations (cf. 2 Peter 3:11-12; 1 John 3:3). Walking in the name of Yahweh means living in dependence on His strength, which His attributes manifest.

TRAPP, "Micah 4:5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.

Ver. 5. For all people will walk every one in the name of his god] They will do so, they are resolved not to alter their religion; as Cicero said, Me ex ea opinione quam a maioribus accepi de cultu deorum, nullius unquam movebit oratio; I will never be dissuaded by any one from that way of Divine worship, which I have received from my forefathers. How wilful at this day are Jews, Papists, Pagans, heretics! And how much easier a matter do we find it to deal with twenty men’s reasons than with one’s man will! A wilful man stands as a stake in the midst of a stream, lets all pass by him, but he stands where he was. ay, but we will have a king, say they, when they had nothing else to say. ay, but I will curse howsoever, though against my

conscience, said Balaam; and do not the Popish Balaamites as much as this, many of them? As for the vulgar sort of them, they are headlong and headstrong, resolved to retain contra gentes against the people, the senseless superstitions transmitted unto them by their progenitors. But what saith the oracle, Revelation 14:7? "Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and" (whatever your ancestors did) "worship you him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."

And we will walk in the name of the Lord our God] This was well resolved, and is as well practised by all Christ’s faithful people, who dare not follow a multitude to do evil, Exodus 23:2; dare not walk by their fathers’ practice, Joshua 24:2; Joshua 24:14-15, for they consider that no commandment doth so expressly threaten God’s judgments upon posterity as the second. They therefore resolve to walk in the name, that is, by the laws, and under the view of the Lord their God, who is "God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible," as Moses describeth him, in opposition to all other deities, whether so reputed or deputed, Deuteronomy 10:17.

For ever and ever] We will not only take a turn or two in his ways, as temporaries, who are hot at hand but soon tire; and give in but we will hold on a constant course of holiness, and not fail to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth, Psalms 1:1-1; John 8:12; John 10:4; John 10:14;, Revelation 7:17. As for those apostates that change their God, that change their glory for that which doth not profit, as they therein commit a horrible wickedness, such as the heavens have cause to be astonished at, Jeremiah 2:11-13; so they could not choose out for themselves a worse condition, Hebrews 10:37-38 : for what reaon? they put the Son of God to an open shame, Hebrews 6:6, (like as those that are carted among us are held out as a scorn) and do in effect say, that they have not found him such as they took him for.

ELLICOTT, "(5) For all people will walk.—The comparatively near future to Micah, and the still distant future to us, are blended in the prophet’s vision: just as in the prophecies of our Lord the destruction of Jerusalem is described in terms which have their final accomplishment in the day of judgment. Micah’s description of the universal rule of Messiah is primarily applicable to the antecedent prosperity, after the return of the Jews from the captivity. The zeal of the Jews for Jehovah was stirred up after witnessing the example of “the children of this world” in Babylon. The devotion of the Babylonian princes to their god is strikingly evident in the diaries of ebuchadnezzar and other prophets, as lately brought to light in The Records of the Past. That zealous Society for a national return to the strictness of the Law of Moses at first distinguished and honoured by the name of Pharisees took its rise after the return from the captivity.

MACLARE, "AS GOD, SO WORSHIPPERMicah 4:5.This is a statement of a general truth which holds good of all sorts of religion. ‘To

walk’ is equivalent to carrying on a course of practical activity. ‘The name’ of a god is his manifested character. So the expression ‘Walk in the name’ means, to live and act according to, and with reference to, and in reliance on, the character of the worshipper’s god. In the Lord’s prayer the petition ‘Hallowed be Thy name’ precedes the petition ‘Thy will be done.’ From reverent thoughts about the name must flow life in reverent conformity to the will.

I. A man’s god is what rules his practical life.Religion is dependence upon a Being recognised to be perfect and sovereign, whose will guides, and whose character moulds, the whole life. That general statement may be broken up into parts; and we may dwell upon the attitude of dependence, or of that of submission, or upon that of admiration and recognition of ideal perfection, or upon that of aspiration; but we come at last to the one thought-that the goal of religion is likeness and the truest worship is imitation. Such a view of the essence of religion gives point to the question, What is our god? and makes it a very easily applied, and very searching test, of our lives. Whatever we profess, that which we feel ourselves dependent on, that which we invest, erroneously or rightly, with supreme attributes of excellence, that which we aspire after as our highest good, that which shapes and orders the current of our lives, is our god. We call ourselves Christians. I am afraid that if we tried ourselves by such a test, many of us would fail to pass it. It would thin the ranks of all churches as effectually as did Gideon’s ordeal by water, which brought down a mob of ten thousand to a little steadfast band of three hundred. o matter to what church we belong, or how flaming our professions, our practical religion is determined by our answer to the question, What do we most desire? What do we most eagerly pursue? England has as much need as ever the house of Jacob had of the scathing words that poured like molten lead from the lips of Isaiah the son of Amoz, ‘Their land is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures. Their land is also full of idols: they worship the work of their own hands.’ Money, knowledge, the good opinion of our fellows, success in a political career-these, and the like, are our gods. There is a worse idolatry than that which bows down before stocks and stones. The aims that absorb us; our highest ideal of excellence; that which possessed, we think would secure our blessedness; that lacking which everything else is insipid and vain-these are our gods: and the solemn prohibition may well be thundered in the ears of the unconscious idolaters not only in the English world, but also in the English churches. ‘Thou shalt not give My glory to another, nor My praise to graven images.’II. The worshipper will resemble his god in character.As we have already said, the goal of religion is likeness, and the truest worship is imitation. It is proved by the universal experience of humanity that the level of morality will never rise above the type enshrined in their gods; or if it does, in consequence of contact with a higher type in a higher religion, the old gods will be flung to the moles and the bats. ‘They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.’ That is a universal truth. The worshippers were in the Prophet’s thought as dumb and dead as the idols. They who ‘worship vanity’ inevitably ‘become vain.’ A Venus or a Jupiter, a Baal or an Ashtoreth, sets the tone of morals.

This truth is abundantly enforced by observation of the characters of the men amongst us who are practical idolaters. They are narrowed and lowered to correspond with their gods. Low ideals can never lead to lofty lives. The worship of money makes the complexion yellow, like jaundice. A man who concentrates his life’s effort upon some earthly good, the attainment of which seems to be, so long as it is unattained, his passport to bliss, thereby blunts many a finer aspiration, and makes himself blind to many a nobler vision. Men who are always hunting after some paltry and perishable earthly good, become like dogs who follow scent with their noses at the ground, and are unconscious of everything a yard above their heads. We who live amidst the rush of a great commercial community see many instances of lives stiffened, narrowed, impoverished, and hardened by the fierce effort to become rich. And wherever we look with adequate knowledge over the many idolatries of English life, we see similar processes at work on character. Everywhere around us ‘the peoples are walking every one in the name of his god.’ That character constitutes the worshipper’s ideal; it is a pattern to which he aims to be assimilated; it is a good the possession of which he thinks will make him blessed; it is that for which he willingly sacrifices much which a clearer vision would teach him is far more precious than that for which he is content to barter it.The idolaters walking in the name of their god is a rebuke to the Christian men who with faltering steps and many an aberration are seeking to walk in the name of the Lord their God. If He is in any real and deep sense ‘our God,’ we shall see in Him the realised ideal of all excellence, the fountain of all our blessedness, the supreme good for our seeking hearts, the sovereign authority to sway our wills; the measure of our conscious possession of Him will be the measure of our glad imitation of Him, and our joyful spirits, enfranchised by the assurance of our loving possession of Him who is love, will hear Him ever whisper to us, ‘Be ye perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’ The desire to reproduce in the narrow bounds of our human spirits the infinite beauties of the Lord our God will give elevation to our lives, and dignity to our actions attainable from no other source. If we hallow His name, we shall do His will, and earth will become a foretaste of heaven.III. The worshipper will resemble his god in fate.We may observe that it is only of God’s people that Micah in our text applies the words ‘for ever and ever.’ ‘The peoples’’ worship perishes. They walk for a time in the name of their god, but what comes of it at last is veiled in silence. It is Jehovah’s worshippers who walk in His name for ever and ever, and of whom the great words are true, ‘Because I live ye shall live also.’ We may be sure of this that all the divine attributes are pledged for our immortality; we may be sure, too, that a soul which here follows in the footsteps of Jesus, which in its earthly life walked in the name of the Lord its God, will continue across the narrow bridge, and go onward ‘for ever and ever’ in direct progress in the same direction in which it began on earth. The imitation, which is the practical religion of every Christian, has for its only possible result the climax of likeness. The partial likeness is attained on earth by contemplation, by aspiration, and by effort; but it is perfected in the heavens by the perfect vision of His perfect face. ‘We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.’ ot till it has reached its goal can the Christian life begun here be conceived as ended. It shall never be said of any one who tried by God’s help to walk ‘in the name of the Lord’ that he was lost in the desert, and never reached his journey’s

end. The peoples who walked in the name of any false god will find their path ending as on the edge of a precipice, or in an unfathomable bog; loss, and woe, and shame will be their portion. But ‘the name of the Lord is a strong tower,’ into which whoever will may run and be safe, and to walk in the name of the Lord is to walk on a way ‘that shall be called the Way of Holiness, whereon no ravenous beast shall go up, but the redeemed shall walk there,’ and all that are on it ‘shall come with singing to Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.’

ISBET, "A LESSO FROM IDOLATERS‘For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the ame of the Lord our God for ever and ever.’Micah 4:5A very peculiar use is made of missions in our text. The heathen are surveyed, not as abandoning their falsehood and superstition, but as adhering to them with the greatest earnestness and tenacity. False gods they have, but they refused to forsake them; dark and oppressive is their service, but they will not abandon it. And from this steadfastness of the heathen the argument is drawn for making the resolve, ‘and we will walk in the ame of the Lord our God for ever and ever,’ as though it had been urged: If the pagan adhere to what is false, shall we forsake what is true? If he serve his idols with constancy, inexcusable must we be if we turn aside from the Lord our God.

I. What the missionary ascertains is, not that idolaters refuse to add to the number of their idols, but only that they will not exchange their idols.—If they admit new, they nevertheless adhere to the old. Shall the pagan adhere to his idols, because they were the idols of their fathers?—and shall we virtually revolt from that God Whom our ancestors served, and Whose truth, though at the cost of substance and life, they handed down to us as the most precious possession? Shall the pagan hold that his idols are the tutelary deities of the land, and therefore not to be forsaken; and shall we turn away from that Almighty Being, Who hath mercifully spread over our land the shield of His protection, or kept us within the hollow of His hand?

II. Far-off islands preach to us.—The vast districts of the earth, which are yet darkened by superstition, assume the office of counsellors. Cities where the Cross of Christ has no place; mountains whose summits are yet altars to the stars, forests whose recesses shroud lying vanities; rivers whose waters are thought to wash away sin—all these combine to give forth an utterance which chides the wavering, rebukes the unstable, and warns the indifferent. The heathen are not to be persuaded to forsake what is cruel, and oppressive, and galling; whereas we scarcely need persuasion to induce us to forsake what ‘hath the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.’ They observe with all vigour what is stern and revolting, and we too often treat with all carelessness what is as gracious as it is glorious. Let us take a lesson from idolatry, and be shamed by it into zeal for our religion and faithfulness to our God. There are other spectators of our course besides angels, other witnesses than the noble army of martyrs. The millions of China look on; the untold tribes of Africa take the post of observation; the broad Pacific bears upon its bosom a multitude of watchers, and if we fall away from the

faith, a cry shall be heard from heathen lands, a cry against which there will be no appeal.

—Canon Melvill.Illustration

‘Touched by Micah’s vision of a glorious future, the people enthusiastically declare their determination to walk in the ame of Jehovah for ever. In reply, Micah foretells that though Israel must go to Babylon, then a mere dependency of Assyria, and though many heathen nations would gather against her (Micah 4:10-11), yet she would be redeemed, her first dominion would return to her, and she would trample on her foes, as oxen tread the threshing-floor.’

PETT, "Verse 5Meanwhile Israel Are To Ensure That Just As Each ation Walks In The Way Of Its God, So They Walk In The ame Of YHWH Their God Unceasingly (Micah 4:5).

Micah recognises that if the glorious future just described is to come about it is vital that God’s people continue faithful to YHWH. And so he firmly now says to his people, and on behalf of his people, that they will be faithful to YHWH.

Micah 4:5

“For all the peoples walk every one in the name of his god; and we will walk in the name of YHWH our God for ever and ever.”Drawing a comparison with the nations who faithfully follow their own gods, and using them as an example, he now calls on Israel to do the same, and walk in the ame of YHWH their God for ever. Let not those who serve the Living God fail to walk in His ame for ever. There is, however, a distinction in the fact that the gods of the nations can do nothing to help the people in their walk. But YHWH our God is the One Who is there to assist us in our walk and to give His strength and enabling. Compare Isaiah 40:11; Isaiah 40:31; Isaiah 43:2. Standards had undoubtedly slipped in Jerusalem as we have seen, but the prophet is certain that in the end God’s people will be faithful to Him, and by these words he is urging them to be so, and to rely in His strength in doing so.

SIMEO, "Verse 5DISCOURSE: 1207

THE WORLD’S AD THE CHRISTIA’S GOD COTRASTED

Micah 4:5. For all people will walk every one in the name of his God, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.

IT has been objected to Christianity, that it creates divisions in families, and in the world at large. But how should it not produce these effects, when the whole world is

immersed in idolatry; and the direct end of Christianity is, to “turn men from idols, to serve the living God?” See the prophet’s account of “the last days:” “It shall come to pass, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains; and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people, even all nations, shall flow unto it [ote: ver. 1, 2.].” What can this import? What, but a general conversion to Christ; and, as far as that change shall extend, the determination here formed; “Every one will walk in the name of his God: and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever?”

Let us notice here,

I. The practice of the world—

Every unregenerate man is an idolater—

[Idolatry may be found no less amongst the professed servants of Jehovah, than amongst the worshippers of stocks and stones. Idolatry, in fact, is “the loving and serving of the creature, rather than the Creator, who is blessed for evermore [ote: Romans 1:25.].” ow it is a fact, that every man, in his unregenerate state, is under the dominion of some lust, which leads him captive. All are not governed by the same lust: the desires and appetites of men differ amongst different persons, and in the same person at different periods of his life. In youth, we are chiefly impelled by a love of pleasure and sensual indulgence. In middle age, we aspire after honour and advancement in the world for ourselves and our children. In more advanced life, the love of money not unfrequently gains an ascendant over us; and, at all events, a love of ease and quiet. ow, wherever these, or any other dispositions, operate upon us more powerfully than the love of God, they become, in fact, our god. As the sensual man is said to “make a god of his belly [ote: Philippians 3:19.];” and the covetous man to make an idol of his gold [ote: Colossians 3:5.]; so the votaries of any created being or enjoyment are, in reality, despisers of the one true God, and worshippers of idols.]

Whatever be the supreme object of a man’s affections, “in the name of that he walks”—

[The young men are never weary in the pursuit of pleasure. Behold the gay, the dissipated, the voluptuous! From the nature of things, they cannot always be in a direct pursuit of their object: but it is never out of their minds, at least never so far removed, but they can revert to it with delight, and renew, in contemplation, the feelings which have already been indulged even to satiety. Of this the records of the whole world will testify: and he can know little of himself, who needs be told that it has been his own experience. The Apostles themselves confess this to have been once their own course [ote: Ephesians 2:3. Titus 3:3.]; nor has there been an exception to it, in the state of unconverted man, from the fall of Adam to the present moment.]

In direct opposition to this is,

II. The determination of the true Christian—

He also has his God—

[Yes, the Lord Jehovah is his God; and him alone is he disposed to serve. The Christian sees that Jehovah alone has any claim upon him. As his Creator, his Governor, his Redeemer, and his Judge, Jehovah demands of him all the affections of his soul, and all the services of his life: and he not only accedes to this demand, but accounts it his highest honour, and his truest happiness, to fulfil the duties imposed upon him.]

And in the name of this God he walks—

[This God he confesses before men; and for him determines to brave all the contempt and hatred of an ungodly world. He sees that the servants of Satan will cast every obstacle in his way: but he resolves, by the grace of God, to go forward, and to serve his God even unto death. Look at the saints of God in every age: they all united in devotion to one God, even to Him who made them, and to Him who redeemed them by his own most precious blood. The voice of every one of them was, in fact, “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none on earth that I desire besides Thee [ote: Psalms 73:25.].” And in the name of this God they walk; proceeding continually from grace to grace, from strength to strength, from glory to glory.]

And now, Brethren,

1. Choose ye whom ye will serve—

“Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” “To whichever of the two ye cleave, ye must, of necessity, renounce and despise the other [ote: Matthew 6:24.].” And can ye doubt whose ye shall be, and whom ye shall serve? What can the vanities of the world do for you? — — — On the other hand, what cannot, or will not, the Lord Jesus do for you? — — — Take him then as your God, and serve him faithfully with your whole hearts [ote: Joshua 24:15.] — — —]

2. Be not out-done by the votaries of this world—

[Are they constant? Be ye also firm, uniform, unreserved. Let there not be a worldling in the universe so faithful to his god, as you to yours. Let the Apostle’s counsel be the entire rule of your life: “As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him; rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving [ote: Colossians 2:6-7.].”

PULPIT, "This verse gives the reason why Israel is thus strong and safe. In the parallel passage in Isaiah (Isaiah 2:5) it is converted into an injunction to the house of Jacob. All people will walk; rather, all nations walk. Everyone in the name of his god. "To walk" is generally used of moral and religious habits (e.g. 2 Chronicles

17:4; Psalms 89:31; Ezekiel 5:6, etc.); so here the meaning is that all other nations adhere to their false gods, and frame their life and conduct relying on the power and protection of these inanities, and, by implication, shall find their hope deceived. And we will walk in the name of the Lord our God. This is the secret of Israel's strength. The heathen can never prevail against the true believers who put their whole trust in the Lord, and live in union with him. By saying we, the prophet identifies himself with the faithful people. Forever and ever. The Church shall never fail. Heathen powers last for a time; the kingdom of Messiah is everlasting.

The Lord’s Plan

6 “In that day,” declares the Lord,

“I will gather the lame; I will assemble the exiles and those I have brought to grief.

BARES. "In that day - that is, in that day of Christ and of His Gospel, of grace and salvation, the last days of which he had been speaking. Hitherto he had prophesied the glory of Zion, chiefly through the coming-in of the Gentiles. Now he adds, how the Jews should, with them, be gathered by grace into the one fold, in that long last day of the Gospel, at the beginning, in the course of it, and completely at the end Rom_11:26.

Her that halteth - The prophet resumes the image of the scattered flock, under which he had before Mic_2:12-13 foretold their restoration. This was no hope of his own, but His word who cannot fail. The course of events, upon which he is entering, would be, at times, for their greatness and their difficulty, past human belief. So he adds straightway, at the outset, “saith the Lord.” To “halt” is used of bodily lameness Gen_32:32, and that, of a flock, worn out by its wanderings Zep_3:19. It is used also of moral halting Psa_35:15; Psa_38:18, such as had been a chief sin of Israel, serving partly God, partly Baal ; God, with a service of fear, Baal with a service of that counterfeit of love, sensuality. So it was sick, both in body and soul, and driven out also, and afflicted.

CLARKE, "Will I assemble her that halteth - driven out - afflicted - Under

these epithets, the state of the Jews, who were to be gathered into the Christian Church, is pointed out. They halted between the true God and idols; they were driven out into captivity, because of this idolatry; and they were variously afflicted, because they would not return unto the Lord that bought them.

GILL, "In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth,.... The Jews or Israelites so described; not from the halting of Jacob their father, as Abarbinel thinks; nor because of their halting between two opinions, worshipping both the true God and idols, as in the times of Elijah; for this will not suit with the Jews in their present state; but because they were like lame and maimed sheep, to which the allusion is; or because they were guilty of sins, which are sometimes expressed by halting, Jer_20:10. The word signifies such that go sideways, and not uprightly; and fitly describes such who deviate from the ways of God, and walk not according to the divine word: now "in that day" or time before referred to, the last days of the Gospel dispensation, the Lord will convert the Jews; or "heal" these lame and maimed ones, so Jarchi interprets the word; or will gather them by his Spirit and grace to the Messiah, and assemble them into his church, and among his people, and bring them into the sheepfold, under the care of the one Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ:

and I will gather her that is driven out; out of the land of Israel, and scattered among the nations of the world; even driven out by the Lord himself, because of their transgressions against him; see Jer_16:15;

and her that I have afflicted; with various calamities, with famine and sword, with captivity and poverty; the Targum adds,

"for the sins of my people;''

the Israelites for their idolatry, and the Jews for the rejection of the Messiah, and other sins.

HERY 6-7, ". That notwithstanding the dispersions, distress, and infirmities of the church, it shall be formed and established, and made very considerable, Mic_4:6, Mic_4:7. 1. The state of the church had been low, and weak, and very helpless, in the latter times of the Old Testament, partly through the corruptions of the Jewish nation, and partly through the oppressions under which they groaned. They were like a flock of sheep that were maimed, worried, and scattered, Eze_34:16; Jer_50:6. 17. The good people among them, and in other places, that were well inclined, were dispersed, were very infirm, and in a manner lost and cast far off. 2. It is promised that all these grievances shall be redressed and the distemper healed. Christ will come himself (Mat_15:24), and send his apostles to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,Mat_10:6. From among the Jews that halted, or that for want of strength, could not go upright, God gathered a remnant (Mic_4:7), that remnant according to the election of grace which is spoken of in Rom_11:7, which embraced the gospel of Christ. And from among the Gentiles that were cast far off (so the Gentiles are described to be, Eph_2:13, Act_2:39) he raised a strong nation; greater numbers of them were brought into the church than of the Jews, Gal_4:27. And such a strong nation the gospel-church is that the gates of hell

shall never be able to prevail against it. The church of Christ is more numerous than any other nation, and strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

X. That the Messiah shall be the king of this kingdom, shall protect and govern it, and order all the affairs of it for the best, and this to the end of time. The Lord Jesus shall reign over them in Mount Zion by his word and Spirit in his ordinances, and this henceforth and for ever, for of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.

JAMISO, "assemble her that halteth— feminine for neuter in Hebrew idiom, “whatever halteth”: metaphor from sheep wearied out with a journey: all the suffering exiles of Israel (Eze_34:16; Zep_3:19).

her ... driven out— all Israel’s outcasts. Called “the Lord’s flock” (Jer_13:17; Eze_34:13; Eze_37:21).

K&D 6-7, "From this salvation even the Israel that may be in misery or scattered abroad will not be excluded. Mic_4:6. “In that day, is the saying of Jehovah, will I assemble that which limps, and gather together that which has been thrust out, and which I have afflicted.Mic_4:7. And I will make that which limps into a remnant, and that which is far removed into a strong nation; and Jehovah will rule over them from henceforth, even for ever.” “In that day” points back to the end of the days in Mic_4:1. At the time when many nations shall go on pilgrimage to the highly exalted mountain of the Lord, and therefore Zion-Jerusalem will not only be restored, but greatly glorified, the

Lord will assemble that which limps and is scattered abroad. The feminines ה�לעה and

are neuters, and to be understood collectively. Limping denotes the miserable ה0/חה

condition into which the dispersed have been brought (cf. Psa_35:15; Psa_38:18). And this misery is inflicted by God. The limping and dispersed are those whom Jehovah has afflicted, whom He has punished for their sins. The gathering together of the nation has already been promised in Mic_2:12; but there the assembling of all Israel was foretold, whereas here it is merely the assembling of the miserable, and of those who are scattered far and wide. There is no discrepancy in these two promises. The difference may easily be explained from the different tendencies of the two addressed. “All Jacob” referred to the two separate kingdoms into which the nation was divided in the time of the prophet, viz., Israel and Judah, and it was distinctly mentioned there, because the banishment of both had been foretold. This antithesis falls into the background here; and, on the other hand, prominence is given, in connection with what precedes, to the idea of happiness in the enjoyment of the blessings of the holy land. The gathering together involves reinstatement in the possession and enjoyment of these blessings. Hence only the miserable and dispersed are mentioned, to express the thought that no one is to be excluded from the salvation which the Lord will bestow upon His people in the future, though now he may be pining in the misery of the exile inflicted upon them. But just as the whole of the nation of Israel to be gathered together, according to Mic_2:12, consists of the remnant of the nation only, so does the gathering together referred to here point only to the restoration of the remnant, which is to become a strong nation, over which

Jehovah reigns as King in Zion. is emphatic, expressing the setting up of the מלך

perfected monarchy, as it has never yet existed, either in the present or the past.

(Note: “Micah does not mention the descendants of David here, but Jehovah Himself, not to exclude the kingdom of David, but to show that God will prove that

He was the author of that kingdom, and that all the power is His. For although God governed the ancient people by the hand of David, and by the hand of Josiah and Hezekiah, yet there was as it were a cloud interposed, so that God then reigned obscurely. The prophet therefore indicates a certain difference here between that shadowy kingdom and the new kingdom which God will openly manifest at the advent of the Messiah.” - Calvin.)

This dominion will never be interrupted again, as it formerly was, by the banishment of

the nation into exile on account of its sins, but will endure מע(ה (henceforth), i.e., from

the future, which is regarded as present, even for ever.

So far as the realization of this exceedingly glorious promise is concerned, the

expression standing at the head, be'achărı5th hayyâmı5m (at the end of the days), already

points to the Messianic times: and the substance of the promise itself points to the times of the completion of the Messianic kingdom, i.e., to the establishment of the kingdom of glory (Mat_19:28). The temple mountain is a type of the kingdom of God in its New Testament form, which is described by all the prophets after the forms of the Old Testament kingdom of God. Accordingly, the going of the nations to the mountain of the house of Jehovah is, as a matter of fact, the entrance of the heathen who have been brought to the faith into the kingdom of Christ. This commenced with the spread of the gospel among the Gentiles, and has been continued through all the ages of the Christian church. But however many nations have hitherto entered into the Christian church, the time has not yet come for them to be so entirely pervaded with the spirit of Christ, as to allow their disputes to be settled by the Lord as their King, or to renounce war, and live in everlasting peace. Even for Israel the time has not yet come for the limping and exiled to be gathered together and made into a strong nation, however many individual Jews have already found salvation and peace within the bosom of the Christian church. The cessation of war and establishment of eternal peace can only take place after the destruction of all the ungodly powers on earth, at the return of Christ to judgment and for the perfecting of His kingdom. But even then, when, according to Rom_11:25., the pleroma of the Gentiles shall have entered into the kingdom of God, and Israel as a

nation (π9ς ;σραήλ = וAC in Mic_2:12) shall have turned to its Redeemer, and shall יעקב

be assembled or saved, no physical elevation of the mountain of Zion will ensue, nor any restoration of the temple in Jerusalem, or return of the dispersed of Israel to Palestine. The kingdom of glory will be set up on the new earth, in the Jerusalem which was shown to the holy seer on Patmos in the Spirit, on a great and lofty mountain (Rev_21:10). In this holy city of God there will be no temple, “for the Lord, the Almighty God, and the Lamb, are the temple thereof” (Rev_21:22). The word of the Lord to the Samaritan woman concerning the time when men would neither worship God on this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem, but worship Him in spirit and in truth (Joh_4:21, Joh_4:23), applies not only to the kingdom of God in its temporal development into the Christian church, but also to the time of the completion of the kingdom of God in glory.

CALVI, "The Prophet pursues the same subject. But we must ever remember what I have previously reminded you of, — that the trials would be so grievous and violent that there would be need of strong and uncommon remedies; for the faithful might have been a hundred times sunk, as it were, in the deepest gulfs, except they had been supported by various means. This then is the reason why the Prophet confirms so fully the truth which we have noticed respecting the restoration of the

Church.

In that day, he says, I will gather the halting This metaphor is not only found here; for David sage that his own affliction was like that of halting. The word צלעה, tsaloe, means the side: hence they metaphorically call those halters who walk only on one side: it is the same as though he had said, that they were maimed or weak. (127) He then adds, I will assemble the ejected, whom I have afflicted. In the next verse he repeats the same, I will make the halting, he says, a remnant; that is, I will make her who is now halting to remain alive, and her who is cast afar off,a strong nation. Some explain 128(, אנאלאה ) enelae, in a more refined manner, and say that it means, She who is gone before; as though the Prophet said, God will sustain the halting, and to those who are lively he will add strength. But this exposition is too strained. We see that the context will not admit it; for the Prophet brings forward the Church here as afflicted by the hand of God, and nigh utter ruin: and then, on the other hand, he intimates, that it was to be restored by God’s power, and that it would thereby gather new strength, and flourish as before: he therefore calls the Church as one cast far away, as in the previous verse; and the other verse clearly shows, that the Prophet’s design was no other but to point out the twofold state of the Church.

ow, in the first place, we must observe, that the Prophet meets the trial then present, which must have otherwise depressed the hearts of the godly. He saw that they were in a manner broken down; and then their dispersion was as it were a symbol of final ruin. If then the faithful had their minds continually fixed on that spectacle, they might have a hundred times despaired. The Prophet therefore comes here seasonably to their help, and reminds them, that though they were now halting, there was yet in God new vigor; that though they were scattered, it was yet in God’s power to gather those who had been driven afar off. The meaning briefly is, that though the Church differed nothing for a time from a dead man, or at least from one that is maimed, no despair ought to be entertained; for the Lord sometimes raises up his people, as though he raised the dead from the grave: and this fact ought to be carefully noticed, for as soon as the Church of God does not shine forth, we think that it is wholly extinct and destroyed. But the Church is so preserved in the world, that it sometimes rises again from death: in short, the preservation of the Church, almost every day, is accompanied with many miracles.

But we ought to bear in mind, that the life of the Church is not without a resurrection, nay, it is not without many resurrections, if the expression be allowed. This we learn from the words of the Prophet, when he says, ‘I will then gather the halting, and assemble the driven away;’ and then he adds, ‘and her whom I have with evils afflicted.’ And this has been expressly said, that the faithful may know, that God can bring out of the grave those whom he has delivered to death. For if the Jews had been destroyed at the pleasure of their enemies, they could not have hoped for so certain a remedy from God: but when they acknowledged that nothing happened to them except through the just judgment of God, they could entertain hope of restoration. How so? Because it is what is peculiar to God to bring forth the dead, as I have already said, from the grave; as it is also his work to kill. We then see that what the Prophet promised, respecting the restoration of the Church, is

confirmed by this verse: I am he, says God, who has afflicted; cannot I again restore you to life? For as your death is in my hand, so also is your salvation. If the Assyrians or the Chaldeans had gained the victory over you against my will, there would be some difficulty in my purpose of gathering you; but as nothing has happened but by my command, and as I have proved that your salvation and your destruction is in my power, there is no reason for you to think that it is difficult for me to gather you, who have through my judgment been dispersed.

COFFMA, "Verse 6"In that day, saith Jehovah, will I assemble that which is lame, and I will gather that which is driven away, and that which I have afflicted."

"Under the image of a flock, footsore and dispersed, the prophet signified the depressed condition of the Hebrew exiles (yet to take place)."[24] The meaning is that none of the rebellious race of Israel will be excluded from the divine blessings in Christ, provided only that, "they turn to the Lord in repentance and humility."[25]

COSTABLE, 'Verse 6In "that day" the Lord also promised to assemble His people whom He had allowed the nations to abuse. This will occur when He turns the tide for Israel and begins to bless her, namely, at the beginning of the Millennium.

Some of the postexilic books of the Old Testament (i.e, Ezra ,, ehemiah ,, Esther ,, Haggai ,, Zechariah , and Malachi) show that the tide did not really turn for Israel at the end of the Babylonian captivity. The Jews continued to suffer under "the times of the Gentiles" ( Luke 21:24) and will do so until Messiah returns to the earth (cf. Matthew 24:31). This includes suffering in the Tribulation to come ( Daniel 7:25; Zechariah 14:5). The Jews of Micah"s day were weak morally and spiritually and were about to go into captivity.

"The times of the Gentiles" are the times during which Gentiles control the affairs of the Jews, Israel having lost her sovereignty. These times began when ebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and took the Jews into exile in586 B.C, and they will end with the return of Jesus Christ to the earth at the Second Coming.

BESO, "Verse 6-7Micah 4:6-7. In that day — At that time; will I assemble her that halteth —

Or, her that is weak, or bowed down; namely, the Jewish people, weakened with the hard usage of oppressing conquerors. And I will gather her that is driven out —Captive Judah, driven out from their own land. And her that I have afflicted —That I have subjected to great calamities. The calamity of the seventy years’ captivity in Babylon seems to be chiefly referred to: as if he had said, “Though I have broken the power of my people, removed them into captivity afar off, and afflicted them; yet will I restore them to their country, I will send them the Messiah,

and will be always their king.” I will make her that halted a remnant — A part of them shall be preserved, as a seed which shall take root and increase, which shall continue to the coming of the Messiah, and in which the designs of my providence shall be accomplished.

TRAPP, "Micah 4:6 In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted;

Ver. 6. In that day] sc. of grace and of the gospel. It is called a day, and that day, by an excellence, in regard of revelation, adornation, consolation, distinction, speedy preterition.

Saith the Lord] Whose word cannot be broken, John 10:25, and is therefore the best security, 2 Corinthians 1:20.

Will I assemble her that halteth] Heb. that goeth sideling, that is maimed, disjointed, lamed, Isaiah 35:3, torn, Psalms 35:15, and tired out with long journeys into captivity, as the Jews were by the Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans before Christ’s coming: that they might breathe after those days of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, Malachi 3:1.

And I will gather her that is driven out] Or, rejected, thrust away with a force, that is, the Gentiles suffered to walk in their own ways, Acts 14:16, and carried away unto dumb idols, even as they were led, 1 Corinthians 12:2.

And her that I have afflicted] Both Jews and Gentiles, the whole community of people: for God shook all nations then, when the Desire of all nations {Christ, Hebrews 12:26} was to come, Haggai 2:7; Haggai 2:22-23. Junius, after the Septuagint, rendereth it, ut veniant desiderati omnium gentium, So may they come, the desire of all nations, that the saints, those desirable ones, out of all nations may come: for unto Shiloh in a most afflicted time (when the sceptre was departed from Judah, &c.) was the gathering of all people to be, Genesis 49:10, Isaiah 26:8-9, See Isaiah 66:20 : rather in litters (as lame people are carried) should they come, than not at all: rather on one leg, with Jacob, should they wrestle, than not prevail.

PETT, "Verses 6-8He Again Turns His Thoughts Towards ‘That Day’, That Day When God Will Acts To Restore His People (Micah 4:6-8).

In mind here now is not the final day spoken of in Micah 4:3-4, but the days of restoration which will precede it. Before final blessing there must be restoration.

Micah 4:6-7

“In that day,” says YHWH, “will I assemble that which is lame, and I will gather that which is driven away, and that which I have afflicted, and I will make that which was lame a remnant, and that which was cast far off a strong nation: and YHWH will reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth even for ever.”Micah’s thoughts now again turn to the future and he looks for God’s restorative work on a devastated people. He sees around him, among the arrogant leaders, and the mercenary prophets and priests, many who are humble seekers after God, and many who are as sheep without a shepherd (not mentioned here but a regular Old Testament picture, and see Micah 4:8, and Micah 2:12), and he sees the thousands of Judah who have been carried off into exile as their cities have been destroyed (Micah 1:10-16), and he foresees YHWH as acting to restore them.

In that day it is the lame (the weak and helpless and lowly), and those who have been driven away (the helpless exiles), and those whom He has afflicted (those who have suffered silently under the current situation), who will be restored. This is especially telling as the lame were originally excluded from the actual precincts of the Tabernacle (Leviticus 21:18). Indeed it is the lame (the weak and lowly and rejected) who will be fashioned into a remnant, and it is the exiles who will be fashioned into a strong nation, and it is these who will enter under the Kingly Rule of God, and will enjoy His rule over them in Mount Zion from now on and for ever.

We may see of these words a threefold fulfilment:

1) In the first instance after the exile those who gathered back from exile to Jerusalem would be a pitiful remnant, and yet God would make of them a ‘great nation’, although sadly that nation as a whole would fail to come under His Kingly Rule. And so another remnant would have to be set up (compare for the twofold process Isaiah 6:13. it also demonstrates that the idea of the holy remnant was very much alive in Micah’s day).2) In the second instance Jesus would come literally for the lame and the afflicted and would literally heal them (Matthew 11:5; Matthew 21:14) and begin the founding of His new congregation (Matthew 16:18), His new strong nation (Matthew 21:43).3) Thirdly He would take up ‘unlearned and ignorant men’, and He would make them a remnant, and He would give them understanding, (the lame would become whole), and through them He would begin to establish His Kingly Rule. And they would reach out to ‘those who had been driven away’, the Jews in exile, many of whom were waiting for the Messiah, so that they would be gathered to the Messiah, with the result that those who had been cast off would become a strong nation (Matthew 21:43), so that YHWH might reign over them for ever and ever.‘In Mount Zion.’ The ew Testament makes clear that Jerusalem and Mount Zion are finally to be seen in heavenly terms. Compare Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22-23; 1 Peter 2:6; Revelation 14:1; Romans 11:26). This ties in with the mountain of the house of YHWH which has been raised above the mountains and hills in Micah 4:1. Micah was expressing it in the terms of his day.The idea of the reign of YHWH is a regular Old Testament conception. It is found in

Psalms 22:27-28; Psalms 103:19; and in the enthronement Psalms 93:1; Psalms 95:3; Psalms 97:1; Psalms 99:1, and is regularly assumed. It had been established over Israel after the conquest, but rejected (Deuteronomy 33:5; 1 Samuel 8:7). ow it was to be full manifested.

BI 6-8, "The Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion

The blessing of the ingathered ones

I. The character of the assembly.

1. The halt.

2. The banished.

3. The afflicted.

From this gather the ruined condition of man.

(1) The halt—incapable of any spiritual movement. Hence the corruption of the understanding, will, affections, memory; the whole man.

(2) Driven out; banished; expelled from God. Condemned by the law. Subject to God’s wrath. Allied to God’s enemies.

(3) Afflicted, that is, grievously distressed. Afflicted with blindness, lameness, deafness, dumbness, leprosy; and by sin, Satan, etc.

II. Their gracious advancement and honour. “I will make her that halteth a remnant.” A remnant is a small quantity or number. A definitive or proportioned remnant. An eternally saved remnant. A gathered or collected remnant. A prosperous or happy remnant. A holy and righteous remnant. An opposed remnant. Yet finally a successful remnant. “And her that was cast far off a strong nation.” Strong by reason of its situation; its fortifications; its judicious and good laws; its military skill; its ruler’s wisdom. Consequently a blessed nation. “And the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth forever.” They are made submissive to Christ. Christ reigns in the Church generally. He reigns in the Church’s officers. He reigns in the Church members. He reigns in the understandings of His people. He reigns in their will, subduing them. He reigns in their hearts. This reign is by the power of Divine grace.

III. Their positive and infallible security (Mic_4:8). Represented by a flock of sheep, denotive of feebleness, and liability to danger. But Christ is their tower of defence. A high and lofty tower, and a strong and safe tower. “The stronghold of the daughter of Zion.” By the word daughter is meant the Church. This stronghold denotes that we have enemies. It is a hiding place for the Lord’s prisoners. “Unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion.” An eternally decreed dominion, over sin, Satan, the world, death. “The kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.” The kingdom of God’s power; grace; glory. Improvement—

1. This subject teaches us man’s total depravity and utter helplessness.

2. It also further proves that our salvation is entirely of grace.

3. It evinces the final security of all true believers. (T. B. Baker.)

The moral monarchy of Christ in the world

Whether the subject of these verses is the restoration of the Jews after the Babylonish Captivity or the gathering of men by Christ into a grand spiritual community, is a question on which there has been considerable discussion among biblical scholars, and, therefrom, should preclude anything like dogmatism on either side.

I. It embraces amongst its subjects the most wretched and scattered of men. “In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble [gather] her that halteth [that which limpeth], and I will gather her that is driven out [that which was thrust out], and her that [which] I have afflicted; and I will make her that [that which] halted [limps] a remnant, and her that [that which] was cast off a strong nation: End the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, even forever.” Christ was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Mat_10:6), and His invitation was to all that are “weary” and “heavy laden.” The Church of Christ from the beginning has comprised those who were the most afflicted, the most scattered, and the most distressed of mankind.

1. Christ’s moral monarchy knows nothing of favouritism. Every soul to Him is a matter of profound practical interest.

2. Christ’s moral monarchy is remedial in its design. It brings all the miserable together in order to rid them of their sorrows.

II. It establishes itself as the guardian of men forever. “And thou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion,” etc. The watchtower spoken of by Isaiah is most likely the tower here referred to by Micah. Flock tower is a good expression, inasmuch as it indicates the watchfulness of Christ as a moral Shepherd, the great Shepherd of souls. What a Guardian, what a “Bishop of souls” is Christ!

1. He knows all His sheep.

2. He has ample provision for all His sheep.

3. He has power to protect all His sheep. Thank God this moral kingdom is established on our earth. Because it is moral, men have the power of resisting it. (Homilist.)

Prophecies relative to the Jewish nation

The Jewish nation, when restored, will be the most glorious of the nations of the earth. There is, in this passage, a comparison instituted between the glory of other nations; and it is stated that her glory shall be superior to that of all others.

I. Reasons drawn from the nature of national glory. The glory of the Jewish nation cannot be what is generally considered as the glory of nations.

1. Because the glory of common nations is inseparable from unrighteousness. Self is the moving power of the machine, interest and vanity form its mainspring.

2. Because it leads to war and bloodshed, to wretchedness and misery.

3. Because it may consist with infidelity.

II. Reasons drawn from what is revealed respecting the Jews.

1. Because the Jews, when brought back to their own land, will be a righteous nation.

2. It will be a peaceful, happy nation.

3. A nation of faithful worshippers of the one only living and true God. What then

will be her glory? It will consist in righteousness, penitence, godliness, purity, and devotion.

Lessons—

1. A political lesson. The duty of the Christian is submission to the powers that be, patiently waiting for the time when righteousness alone shall prevail.

2. A religious lesson. How should this subject enhance the importance of being snatched out of the vortex of this present state, and of becoming so established as to be able to sing, by anticipation, the songs of joy which are here set to be sung by the ransomed of the Lord in Zion. (Hugh M’Neile.)

7 I will make the lame my remnant, those driven away a strong nation.The Lord will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever.

BARES. "And her that was cast off a strong nation - The prophecy, that there should be a remnant, was depressing. Yet what a remnant should it be! A remnant, which should multiply like the stars of heaven or the sand on the sea-shore. Israel had never been “a strong nation,” as a kingdom of this world. At its best estate, under David, it had subdued the petty nations around it, who were confederated to destroy it. It had never competed with the powers of this world, East or West, Egypt or Nineveh, although God had at times marvelously saved it from being swallowed up by them. Now, the remnant of Judah, which itself was but a remnant of the undivided people, was to become “a strong nation.” So Isaiah prophesied, “A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation” Isa_60:22. Plainly not in temporal greatness, both because human strength was not, and could not be, its characteristic, and because the prophet had been speaking of spiritual restoration.

: “‘Strong’ are they, whom neither torture nor allurements can separate from the love of Christ.” “Strong are they, who are strong against themselves.” Strong were they who said,

“We ought to obey God rather than men Act_5:29, and, “who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us” Rom_8:35, Rom_8:37. God does not only restore in the Gospel; He multiplies exceedingly. Rup.: “I will so clothe her with the spirit of might, that, as she shall be fruitful in number, so shall she be glorious in victories, so that of her it shall be said, “who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun,

terrible as an army with banners?” Son_6:10. For, not to name those, whose whole life is one warfare against invisible enemies and the evil desires of the flesh, who shall count the martyrs of Christ? We know that that “remnant” and “strong nation” owe wholly to grace all which they are, as they themselves in the Revelations give thanks; “Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by Thy Blood, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth” Rev_5:9-10; that same Lord, of whom it is here said,

The Lord shall reign over them in Zion from henceforth even forever - The visible kingdom of God in Judah was often obscured, kings, princes, priests, and false prophets combining to encourage one another in rebellion against God. In the captivity it even underwent an almost total eclipse by the over-shadowing of earthly power, save when the divine light flashed forth for an instant in the deeds or words of power and wisdom, related by Daniel. “Henceforth,” that is, from the time, when the law should go forth out of Zion, God should indeed reign, and that kingdom should have no end.

CLARKE, "Her that halted a remnant - I will preserve them as a distinct people after their return from captivity, for the farther purposes of my grace and mercy.

And the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion - The Chaldee is remarkable here, and positively applies the words to the Messiah: “But thou, O Messiah, of Israel, who art hidden because of the sins of the congregation of Zion, the kingdom shall come unto thee.”

GILL, "And I will make her that halted a remnant,.... That is, make a reserve of her, and not utterly cut her off for her halting or sinning; that there may be a seed, a posterity descending from her, that shall serve the Lord, and appear to be a remnant according to the election of grace; which will be the persons called and gathered in the latter day:

and her that was cast afar off a strong nation; Kimchi thinks this refers to the ten tribes that were carried far off into Media and other parts, 2Ki_17:6; who shall now be a mighty and numerous people; and especially shall be strong in a spiritual sense in the Lord, and in the power of his might, in Christ and his grace, and in the faith of him; see Isa_60:22;

and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever; that is, Christ, who is Jehovah our righteousness, shall reign over the converted Jews and Israelites in the church of God, often signified by Mount Zion; where they shall be assembled, and shall acknowledge him as their King, and be subject to his word and ordinances, and never more depart from him; nor will his government over them ever cease more, Luk_1:32. This shows that this prophecy refers not to the that times of the Gospel; for then the Jews would not have him to reign over them; but to times yet to come, the last days of the Gospel dispensation.

JAMISO, "I will make her that halted a remnant— I will cause a remnant to remain which shall not perish.

Lord shall reign ... in ... Zion— David’s kingdom shall be restored in the person of Messiah, who is the seed of David and at the same time Jehovah (Isa_24:23).

for ever— (Isa_9:6, Isa_9:7; Dan_7:14, Dan_7:27; Luk_1:33; Rev_11:15).

CALVI, "He then adds, I will make the halting a remnant By remnant he understands the surviving Church. Hence the metaphor, halting, is extended even to destruction; as though he said, “Though the Jews for a time may differ nothing from dead men, I will yet cause them to rise again, that they may become again a new people.” It was difficult to believe this at the time of exile: no wonder, then, that the Prophet here promises that a posterity would be born from a people that were dead. For though Babylon was to them like the grave, yet God was able to do such a thing as to bring them forth as new men, as it really happened.

He afterwards subjoins And the driven afar off, a strong nation When the Jews were scattered here and there, how was it possible that God should from this miserable devastation form for himself a new people, and also a strong people? But the Prophet has put the contrary clauses in opposition to one another, that the Jews, amazed at their own evils, and astonished, might not cast away every consolation. As then he had dispersed them, he would again gather them, and would not only do this, but also make them a strong nation.

He then adds, Reign shall Jehovah over them on mount Zion, henceforth and for ever The Prophet no doubt promises here the new restoration of that kingdom which God himself had erected; for the salvation of the people was grounded on this — that the posterity of David should reign, as we shall hereafter see. And it is a common and usual thing with the prophets to set forth the kingdom of David, whenever they speak of the salvation of the Church. It was necessary then that the kingdom of David should be again established, in order that the Church might flourish and be secure. But Micah does not here name the posterity of David, but mentions Jehovah himself, not to exclude the kingdom of David, but to show that God would become openly the founder of that kingdom, yea, that he himself possessed the whole power. For though God governed the ancient people by the hand of David, by the hand of Josiah and of Hezekiah, there was yet, as it were, a shade intervening, so that God reigned not then visibly. The Prophet then mentions here some difference between that shadowy kingdom and the latter new kingdom, which, at the coming of the Messiah, God would openly set up. Jehovah himself shall then reign over them; as though he said, “Hitherto indeed, when the posterity of David held the government, as God himself created both David and his sons, and as they were anointed by his authority and command, it could not have been thought but that the kingdom was his, though he governed his people by the ministry and agency of men: but now God himself will ascend the throne in a conspicuous manner, so that no one may doubt but that he is the king of his people.” And this was really and actually fulfilled in the person of Christ. Though Christ was indeed the true seed of David, he was yet at the same time Jehovah, even God manifested in the flesh. We hence see, that the Prophet here in lofty terms extols the glory of Christ’s kingdom; as though he had said that it would not be a shadowy kingdom as it was under the Law. Jehovah then shall reign over you.

He then subjoins, on mount Zion. We know that the seat of the kingdom of Christ

has not been continued on mount Zion; but this verse must be connected with the beginning of this chapter. The Prophet has previously said, From Zion shall go forth a law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. If then the interpretation of this place be asked, that is, how Jehovah showed himself the king of his people, and erected his throne on mount Zion, the answer is, that from thence the law went forth from that place, as from a fountain flowed the doctrine of salvation, to replenish the whole world. As then the Gospel, which God caused to be promulgated through the whole world, had its beginning on mount Zion, so the Prophet says that God would reign there. But we must at the same time observe, that through the defection and perfidy of the people it has happened that mount Zion is now only an insignificant corner of the earth, and not the most eminent in the world, as also the city Jerusalem, according to the prediction of Zechariah. Mount Zion then is now different from what it was formerly; for wherever the doctrine of the Gospel is preached, there is God really worshipped, there sacrifices are offered; in a word, there the spiritual temple exists. But yet the commencement of the Gospel must be taken to the account, if we would understand the real meaning of the Prophet, that is, that Christ, or God in the person of Christ, began to reign on mount Zion, when the doctrine of the Gospel from thence went forth to the extremities of the world. It now follows —

COFFMA, "Verse 7"And I will make that which was lame a remnant, and that which was cast off a strong nation: and Jehovah will reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth even forever."

That portion of the old Israel which was "lame" and "cast off," as for example the hated and hunted minority in the times of Elijah, will become, through God's power, "the remnant," that is, the only part of old Israel that will partake of the everlasting kingdom in Christ. The nucleus of the ew Israel of God would be precisely those persons in the old order who were disowned and cast out as evil by the Pharisees.

"Mount Zion ..." The only "Jerusalem" in this passage is that of the "new Jerusalem" which the apostle John saw descending out of heaven. There is nothing here about any construction of a secular monarchy in the literal Jerusalem. "It refers to the establishment of Christ's spiritual kingdom."[26]

COSTABLE, "Verse 7The Lord promised to make these lame outcasts of the earth, the Jews, a surviving, strong nation and to reign over them personally from Mt. Zion forever (cf. Psalm 146:10; Zephaniah 3:19; Luke 1:33; Revelation 11:15). He will do this through the Messiah, Jesus Christ. His millennial reign will continue until the destruction of the present heavens and earth. Then it will continue on a new earth throughout eternity ( 2 Peter 3:10-13).

TRAPP, "Micah 4:7 And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion

from henceforth, even for ever.

Ver. 7. And I will make her that halted a remnant] Yea, a renowned remnant, Zephaniah 3:19. ot many Jews were converted in comparison to the Gentiles; hence they are called a remnant. They both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets; they have also persecuted us, saith the apostle, or cast us out, as by an ostracism; and they "please not God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles," 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16. Thus the generality of them then: and so to this day they continue cross, and cursing Christ and his followers thrice a day in their synagogues (Jerome in Isaiah. Buxtorf. Synag.). Howbeit at this present time, also, there is a "remnant according to the election of grace," Romans 11:5, and that remnant became the seminary of the Christian Church.

And her that was cast far off a strong nation] umerous and valorous. Vide fidem et passionero martyrum, et de genre robusta non ambiges, saith Jerome here: Consider the faith and patience of the martyrs, and you will easily yield them to be a strong nation indeed. Christians have showed as glorious power in the faith of martyrdom as in the faith of miracles. They can do that which others cannot turn their hands to; they can suffer wrongs best of any; compel them to go a mile, they will be content to go two, yea, as far as the shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace will carry them. There is nothing that they dare not undertake and undergo for the glory of their God. This courage in Christians heathens counted obstinace (Tertull. in Apolog.), but they knew not the power of the Spirit nor the privy armour of proof that the saints have about their hearts, which maketh them insuperable, more than conquerors.

And the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion] i.e. In the Christian Church, out of which went the law, that is, the gospel, Micah 4:2. See Isaiah 40:9; Isaiah 52:7, Hebrews 12:22. There shall Christ reign, and so he did ever: but now he shall declare himself to be "Messiah the Prince," Daniel 9:25, Lord and Christ, Acts 2:36, Saviour and Sovereign. As King Hebrews 1:1-14. Of rebels makes them subjects, willing to be ruled by him; 2. He preserves them in that privilege by his Spirit; 3. He gives them laws far better than those of the twelve tables in Rome, which yet far exceeded (saith Cicero) all the learned libraries of the philosophers in worth and weight; 4. He sweetly inclineth their wills to yield universal obedience thereunto, and to cross themselves so they may please him; 5. He rewards them with comfort and peace here, and with life eternal hereafter; 6. He destroys all the enemies of his Church, and then at last delivers up the kingdom to his Father, 1 Corinthians 15:24, not his essential kingdom as God, but his economical kingdom as mediator.

PULPIT, "I will make her that halted a remnant. The" remnant" is "the election," that portion of Israel which accepts the offered redemption (Romans 9:27; Romans 11:5); and God declares that he will treat this section, now miserable and depressed, as sharers in the Messianic promises (see note on Zephaniah 3:19). As commonly, the restoration from captivity and the privileges of Messiah's kingdom are combined

in one foreshortened view. But this "remnant" shall be made into a strong nation, which no power shall overthrow (Isaiah 11:14; Isaiah 55:1-13 :22). The Lord shall reign over them. ot through an earthly representative, but by himself (comp. Isaiah 24:23; Isaiah 52:7; Obadiah 1:21; Zechariah 14:9). In Mount Zion. This prophecy does not necessarily point to any literal earthly fulfilment, but rather to the establishment of Christ's spiritual kingdom, and the revelation of that new Jerusalem which St. John saw "descending out of heaven from God" (Revelation 21:10).

8 As for you, watchtower of the flock, stronghold[a] of Daughter Zion,the former dominion will be restored to you; kingship will come to Daughter Jerusalem.”

BARES. "And thou, O tower of the flock - “‘Tower of Ader,’ which is interpreted ‘tower of the flock,’ about 1000 paces (a mile) from Bethlehem,” says Jerome who lived there, “and foresignifying (in its very name) by a sort of prophecy the shepherds at the Birth of the Lord.” There Jacob fed his sheep Gen_35:21, and there (since it was hard by Bethlehem) the shepherds, keeping watch over their flocks by night, saw and heard the Angels singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” The Jews inferred from this place that the Messiah should be revealed there .

Stronghold - (Ophel ) of the daughter of Zion Ophel was a strong place in the South of Jerusalem, the last which the wall, enclosing Zion, reached, before, or as, it touched on the Eastern porch of the temple , with whose service it was connected.

We know that, after the captivity, the Nethinim, who did the laborious service of the temple, dwelt there Neh_3:26; Neh_11:21. It lay very near to the priests’ district Neh_3:28. It was probably, a lower acclivity, “swelling out,” (as its name seems to mean ,) from the mountain of the temple. In the last war, it was held together with “the temple, and the adjoining parts to no slight extent, and the valley of Kedron.” It was burnt before the upper city was taken. It had been encircled by a wall of old; for Jotham “built greatly upon its wall” 2Ch_27:3, Manasseh “encircled it” 2Ch_33:14, (probably with an outer wall) “and raised it exceedingly,” that is, apparently raised artificially the whole level.

Yet, as a symbol of all Jerusalem, Ophel is as remarkable, as the “tower of the flock” is as to Bethlehem. For Ophel, although fortified, is no where spoken of, as of any account .

It is not even mentioned in the circuit of the walls, at their dedication, under Nehemiah Neh_12:31-40, probably as an outlying, spot. It was probably of moment chiefly, as giving, an advantage to an enemy who might occupy it.

Both then are images of lowliness. The lonely Shepherd tower, for Bethlehem, the birthplace of David; Ophel for Jerusalem, of which it was yet but an outlying part, and deriving its value probably as an outwork of the temple. Both symbols anticipate the fuller prophecy of the littleness, which shall become great in God. Before the mention of the greatness of the “dominion to come,” is set forth the future poverty to which it should come. In lowliness Christ came, yet is indeed a Tower protecting and defending the sheep of His pasture, founded on earth in His Human Nature, reaching to Heaven in His divine; “a strong Tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” Pro_18:10.

Unto thee shall it come - (Literally, “unto thee shall it come , and there shall arrive etc.”) He saith not at first what shall come, and so raises the soul to think of the greatness of that which should come. The soul is left to fill up what is more than thought can utter. “Unto thee,” (literally, quite up to thee) No hindrances should withhold it from coming. Seemingly it was a great way off, and they in a very hopeless state. He suggests the difficulty even by his strength of assurance. One could not say, “it shall come quite up to thee,” of that which in the way of nature would readily come to any one. But amid all hindrances God’s Might makes its way, and brings His gifts and promises to their end. “And there shall arrive.” He twice repeats the assurance, in equivalent words, for their fuller assurance , “to make the good tidings the gladder by repeating and enforcing them.”

The “first or former, dominion.” The word often stands, as our “former” , in contrast with the “later.” It is not necessarily “the first,” strictly; and so here, not the “dominion” of David and Solomon exclusively. Rather the prophet is placed in spirit in the later times when the kingdom should be suspended, and foretells that “the former dominion,” that is, that of the line of David, should come to her, not in its temporal greatness, but the line itself. So the Angel said, “He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever” Luk_1:32-33.

The (A) kingdom to the daughter of Jerusalem - that is, a kingdom, which should not be of her, but which should come to her; not her’s by right, but by His right, who should merit it for her, and, being King of kings, makes His own, “kings and priests unto God and His Father” Rev_1:6.

The Jews themselves seem to have taken these words into their own mouths, just before they rejected Him, when they hoped that He would be a king, such as they wished for. “Blessed be the kingdom of our father David that cometh in the Name of the Lord” Mar_11:10. And in a distorted form, they held it even afterward .

CLARKE, "O tower of the flock - I think the temple is meant, or Jerusalem; the place where the flock, the whole congregation of the people assembled to worship God.

Newcome retains the Hebrew word עדר eder, a tower in or near Beth-lehem, Gen_35:21

or, as some think, a tower near the sheep-gate in Jerusalem, I believe Jerusalem, or the temple, or both, are meant; for these were considered the stronghold of the daughter-of Zion, the fortress of the Jewish people.

Even the first dominion - What was this? The Divine theocracy under Jesus Christ; this former, this first dominion, was to be restored. Hence the angel called him

Immanuel, God with us, ruling among us.

GILL, "And thou, O tower of the flock,.... The words "Migdal Eder" are left by some untranslated, and think that place to be intended so called, which was near to Bethlehem, Gen_35:19; and perhaps is the same which Jerom (t) calls the tower of Ader, about a mile from Bethlehem: this is supposed to be the place where the shepherds were watching over their flocks at the time of Christ's birth, the tidings of which were first brought to them here; and the Jewish (u) doctors speak of it as near Jerusalem, and as a place of pasture; for they say, that cattle between Jerusalem and Migdal Eder, and in an equal space to every wind; the males were used for burnt offerings, and the females for peace offerings; and this place is thought to be referred to in the latter clause of this verse: others think that Bethlehem itself is meant, to which the dominion came; but rather, as in the next chapter, the ruler came out of that; others think that the gate in Jerusalem called the sheep gate is meant, Neh_3:32; and the tower at it, through which Christ is supposed to pass when he entered into Jerusalem as King, amidst the Hosannahs of the people; others take it to be the same with the tower of David, and put for Jerusalem itself, whither the tribes were gathered together three times a year, like sheep in a fold, so Kimchi and Ben Melech; here others interpret it spiritually of the church of Christ; but though that is sometimes spoken of as a strong city, and a fortified place, yet is never called a tower, or a strong hold; which phrases, when figuratively used, are always spoken of a divine person; see Psa_18:2; and here of the Messiah; and so the Targum interprets it,

"O Christ of Israel:''

the church indeed is the "flock": the people of God are often compared to sheep for their harmlessness and innocence, and the church to a flock of them, which is Christ's flock he feeds like a shepherd; the flock of slaughter, a little one, consisting of persons separated from the world, and under his peculiar care; and he is the tower of this flock, in allusion to a shepherd's cottage, called a tower, as a cottage in a vineyard is in Isa_5:2; where the shepherds watch, and into which they bring the sick and lame, and take care of them; Christ is a high tower, where his people are safe out of the reach of their enemies; and a strong one, being the mighty God and mighty Saviour, who has all power and strength to defend his church and people, and may be well called their tower: and

the strong hold of the daughter of Zion; "the daughter of Zion" is the church, particularly the church of the converted Jews; Christ is the strong hold of it, into which, as prisoners of hope, they will be directed to turn, Zec_9:12; a strong refuge he is to flee unto from the avenger of blood, the justice of God; from the curses of the law; from the storm of divine wrath; from the temptations of Satan, and from the persecutions of men; a strong hold is he to dwell in, and where the saints dwell safely, pleasantly, at ease and peace, and very comfortably, and in great plenty; a strong hold for shelter from every enemy:

unto thee shall it come; not the kingdom, as follows, which our version leads to, and is the sense of Aben Ezra; for there is a considerable accent on the word "come", which makes a large stop; and that it refers, as Jarchi observes, to "her that halteth", &c. "it" or "she" that halteth shall come, being assembled and gathered, or converted by the grace of God unto the Messiah; as to her, or their tower and strong hold, where all blessings of

grace, and the supplies of it, and all salvation and safety, are to be had and enjoyed. The promise respects the Jews coming to Christ upon their conversion, even such who have been the halt, the maimed, the lame, and the blind:

even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem; or rather, "and the first dominion shall come, the kingdom to the daughter of Jerusalem": meaning, not the first notice of the Messiah's kingdom, given by John the Baptist, Christ, and his apostles, to the Jews, in the first times of the Gospel; or the preaching of the Gospel of the kingdom first to them; but rather he who has the first or principal dominion, and to whom the kingdom belongs, he shall come to the daughter of Zion, as in Zec_9:9; though it rather respects here his coming to them at the time of their conversion, when they shall come to him, Rom_11:26; and when the first, chief, and principal kingdom in the world, and which is preferable to all others, will come unto, and be placed among them, as in Mic_4:7; and when it shall be, as some interpret it, as at the beginning, in the days of David and Solomon, and much more abundantly.

HERY, "These verses relate to Zion and Jerusalem, here called the tower of the flock or the tower of Edor; we read of such a place (Gen_35:21) near Bethlehem; and some conjecture it is the same place where the shepherds were keeping their flocks when the angels brought them tidings of the birth of Christ, and some think Bethlehem itself is here spoken of, as Mic_5:2. Some think it is a tower at that gate of Jerusalem which is called the sheep-gate (Neh_3:32), and conjecture that through that gate Christ rode in triumph into Jerusalem. However, it seems to be put for Jerusalem itself, or for Zion the tower of David. All the sheep of Israel flocked thither three times a year; it was the stronghold (Ophel, which is also a name of a place in Jerusalem, Neh_3:27), or castle, of the daughter of Zion. Now here,

I. We have a promise of the glories of the spiritual Jerusalem, the gospel-church, which is; the tower of the flock, that one fold in which all the sheep of Christ are protected under one Shepherd: “Unto thee shall it come; that which thou hast long wanted and wished for, even the first dominion, a dignity and power equal to that of David and Solomon, by whom Jerusalem was first raised, that kingdom shall again come to the daughter of Jerusalem, which it was deprived of at the captivity. It shall make as great a figure and shine with as much lustre among the nations, and have as much influence upon them, as ever it had; this is the first or chief dominion.” Now this had by no means its accomplishment in Zerubbabel; his was nothing like the first dominion either in respect of splendour and sovereignty at home or the extent of power abroad; and therefore it must refer to the kingdom of the Messiah (and to that the Chaldee-paraphrase refers it) and had its accomplishment when God gave to our Lord Jesus the throne of his father David (Luk_1:32), set him king upon the holy hill of Zion and gave him the heathen for his inheritance (Psa_2:6), made him, his first-born, higher than the kings of the earth, Psa_89:27; Dan_7:14. David, in spirit, called him Lord, and (as Dr. Pocock observes) he witnessed of himself, and his witness was true, that he was greater than Solomon, none of their dominions being like his for extent and duration. The common people welcomed Christ into Jerusalem with hosannas to the son of David, to show that it was the first dominion that came to the daughter of Zion; and the evangelist applies it to the promise of Zion's king coming to her, Mat_21:5; Zec_9:9. Some give this sense of the words: To Zion, and Jerusalem that tower of the flock, to the nation of the Jews, came the first dominion; that is, there the kingdom of Christ was first set up, the gospel of the kingdom was first preached (Luk_24:47), there Christ was first called king of the Jews.

II. This is illustrated by a prediction of the calamities of the literal Jerusalem, to which some favour and relief should be granted, as a type and figure of what God would do for the gospel-Jerusalem in the last days, notwithstanding its distresses. We have here,

1. Jerusalem put in pain by the providences of God. “She cries out aloud, that all her neighbours may take notice of her griefs, because there is no king in her, none of that honour and power she used to have. Instead of ruling the nations, as she did when she sat a queen, she is ruled by them, and has become a captive. Her counsellors have perished; she is no longer at her own disposal, but is given up to the will of her enemies, and is governed by their counsellors. Pangs have taken her.” (1.) She is carried captive to Babylon, and there is in pangs of grief. “She goes forth out of the city, and is constrained to dwell in the field, exposed to all manner of inconveniences; she goes even to Babylon, and there wears out seventy tedious years in a miserable captivity, all that while in pain, as a woman in travail, waiting to be delivered, and thinking the time very long.” (2.) When she is delivered out of Babylon, and redeemed from the hand of her enemies there, yet still she is in pangs of fear; the end of one trouble is but the beginning of another; for now also, when Jerusalem is in the rebuilding, many nations are gathered against her,Mic_4:11. They were so in Ezra's and Nehemiah's time, and did all they could to obstruct the building of the temple and the wall. They were so in the time of the Maccabees; they said, Let her be defiled; let her be looked upon as a place polluted with sin, and be forsaken and abandoned both of God and man; let her holy places be profaned and all her honours laid in the dust; let our eye look upon Zion, and please itself with the sight of its ruins, as it is said of Edom (Oba_1:12, Thou shouldst not have looked upon the day of thy brother); let our eyes see our desire upon Zion, the day we have long wished for. When they hear the enemies thus combine against them, and insult over them, no wonder that they are in pain, and cry aloud. Without are fightings, within are fears.

JAMISO, "tower of the flock— following up the metaphor of sheep (see on Mic_4:6). Jerusalem is called the “tower,” from which the King and Shepherd observes and guards His flock: both the spiritual Jerusalem, the Church now whose tower-like elevation is that of doctrine and practice (Son_4:4, “Thy neck is like the tower of David”), and the literal hereafter (Jer_3:17). In large pastures it was usual to erect a high wooden tower, so as to oversee the flock. Jerome takes the Hebrew for “flock,” Eder or Edar, as a proper name, namely, a village near Beth-lehem, for which it is put, Beth-lehem being taken to represent the royal stock of David (Mic_5:2; compare Gen_35:21). But the explanatory words, “the stronghold of the daughter of Zion,” confirm English Version.

stronghold—Hebrew, “Ophel”; an impregnable height on Mount Zion (2Ch_27:3; 2Ch_33:14; Neh_3:26, Neh_3:27).

unto thee shall ... come ... the first dominion— namely, the dominion formerly exercised by thee shall come back to thee.

kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem— rather, “the kingdom ofthe daughter of Jerusalem shall come (again)”; such as it was under David, before its being weakened by the secession of the ten tribes.

K&D, "The prophecy turns from the highest glorification of Zion to the throne of Zion, which had been founded by David, and swept away with the destruction of Jerusalem (Mic_3:12), and predicts its restoration in the future. Consequently the reign

of Jehovah upon Mount Zion, promised in Mic_4:7, is still further defined as effected through the medium of the Davidico-Messianic dominion. Mic_4:8. “And thou flock-tower, hill of the daughter Zion, to thee will the former dominion reach and come, the reign over the daughter Jerusalem.” This announcement is attached primarily to Mic_4:6 and Mic_4:7. As the remnant of Israel gathered together out of the dispersion will become a strong nation, so shall the reign of the daughter Zion be also restored. The address to the flock-tower, the hill of the daughter Zion, shows that these two notions express the same thing, looked at from two sides, or with two different bearings, so that the flock-tower is more precisely defined as the “hill of the daughter Zion.” Now, as the daughter Zion is the city of Zion personified as a virgin, the hill of the daughter Zion might be understood as denoting the hill upon which the city stood, i.e., Mount Zion.

But this is precluded by Isa_32:14, where hill and watch-tower (‛ōphel vâbhachan) are

mentioned in parallelism with the palace ('armōn), as places or buildings which are to

serve as dens for ever. From this it is obvious that ‛ōphel was a place either at the side or

at the top of Zion. If we compare with this 2Ch_27:3 and 2Ch_33:14, according to which

Jotham built much against the wall of the Ophel (hâ‛ōphel), and Manasseh encircled the

Ophel with a wall, and made it very high, Ophel must have been a hill, possibly a bastion, on the south-eastern border of Zion, the fortification of which was of great importance as a defence to the city of Zion against hostile attacks.

(Note: The opinion that Ophel is the whole of the southern steep rocky promontory of Moriah, from the southern end of the temple ground to its extreme point (Robinson, Schultz, Williams), viz., the Ophla or Ophlas of Josephus, as Arnold (Herzog's Cycl.) and Winer (Bibl. R.W.) suppose, would be in perfect harmony with this. At the same time, all that can be inferred with any certainty from the passages from Josephus which as cited in support of it (viz., Wars of the Jews, v. 6, 1; cf. vi. 6, 3 and v. 4, 2) is, that the place called Ophla was in the neighbourhood of the valley of Kidron and of the temple mountain. The question then arises, whether the Ophla of Josephus is identical with the Ophel of the Old Testament, since Josephus does not mention the Ophel in his list of the hills of Jerusalem, but simply mentions Ophla as a special locality (see Reland, Pal. p. 855). And lastly, the situation of the Ophel, upon which the Nethinim dwelt (Neh_3:26), is still a matter of dispute, Bertheau supposing it to be the habitable space to the east of the eastern side of the temple area.)

Consequently migdal-‛ēder cannot be the flock-tower in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem,

which is mentioned in Gen_35:21, but can only be a (or rather the) tower of the Davidic palace, or royal castle upon Zion, namely the town mentioned in Neh_3:25, which stood out against the upper king's house, by the court of the prison (cf. Neh_3:26). For the prison, which also belonged to the king's house, according to Jer_32:2, formed a portion of the royal castle, according to the custom of the East. And that it had a lofty tower, is evident from Son_4:4 : “Thy neck is like David's tower, built for an armoury: a thousand shields hang thereon, all heroes' weapons;” according to which the tower of the royal castle was ornamented with the weapons or shields of David's heroes (1Ch_12:1). And the tower of the king's castle was so far specially adapted to represent the sovereignty of David, “that by its exaltation above Zion and Jerusalem, by the fact that it ruled the whole city, it symbolized the Davidic family, and its rule over the city and all Israel”

(Caspari). This tower, which is most likely the one called bachan (the watch-tower) in

Isaiah (l.c.), is called by Micah the flock-tower, probably as a play upon the flock-tower

by which the patriarch Jacob once pitched his tent, because David, the ancestor of the divinely-chosen royal house, had been called from being the shepherd of a flock to be the shepherd of the nation of Israel, the flock of Jehovah (Jer_13:17; cf. 2Sa_7:8; Psa_78:70). This epithet was a very natural one for the prophet to employ, as he not only describes the Messiah as a shepherd in Mic_5:3, but also represents Israel as the sheep of Jehovah's inheritance in Mic_7:14, and the flock-tower is the place where the shepherd takes up his position to see whether any danger threatens his flock (cf. 2Ch_

26:10; 2Ch_27:4). תאהת ”.unto thee shall it come“ ,עדיך

(Note: Luther's rendering, “thy golden rose will come,” arose from his confounding

(.thine ornament ,עדיך unto) with ,עד (from עדיך

to thee: expressing the conquest of every obstacle that ,אליך affirms more than עדיך

blocks up the way to the goal. אהת) is separated from what follows, and exhibited as

independent not only by the athnach, but also by the change of tense occurring in הM�: “to thee will it come,” sc. what the prophet has in his mind and mentions in the next clause,

but brings into special prominence in הMהראשנה .וב the former (first) reign, is the ,הם

splendid rule of David and Solomon. This predicate presupposes that the sovereignty has departed from Zion, i.e., has been withdrawn from the Davidic family, and points back to the destruction of Jerusalem predicted in Mic_3:12. This sovereignty is still

more precisely defined as kingship over the daughter of Jerusalem (ל before בת is a periphrasis of the gen. obj.). Jerusalem, the capital of the kingdom, represents as the object sovereignty over the whole kingdom. This is to be restored to the hill of Zion, i.e., to the royal castle upon the top of it.

CALVI, "Micah still continues the same subject, — that the miserable calamities of the people, or even their ruin, will not prevent God to restore again his Church. Thou tower of the flock, he says, the fortress of the daughter of Zion, doubt not but that God will again restore to thee thy ancient kingdom and dignity from which thou seemest now to have entirely fallen. But interpreters take the tower of the flock in various senses. Some think that the devastation of the city Jerusalem is pointed out, because it became like a cottage, as it is said in Isaiah; and עפל, ophil, they render “obscure,” for its root is to cover. But another explanation is simpler, — that the holy city is called the tower of the flock, because God had chosen it for himself, to gather his people thence; for we know that they had there their holy assemblies. Thou, then, the tower of the flock, and then, the fortress of the daughter of Zion, to thee shall come the former kingdom (129) If, however, the former sense be more approved, I will not contend; that is, that Jerusalem is here called the tower of the flock on account of its devastation, as it was reduced as it were into a cottage. As to the main import of the passage, there is no ambiguity; for the Prophet here strengthens the minds of the godly: they were not to regard the length of time, nor to allow their thoughts, to be occupied with their present calamity, but to feel assured, that what God had promised was in his power, that he could, as it were, raise the dead, and thus restore the kingdom of David, which had been destroyed.

Do then, he says, firmly hope. — Why? because come to thee, come to thee shall the

former kingdom (130) Here the breaking off of the sentence is to be noticed, when the Prophet speaks of the ancient kingdom and dignity. It is not indeed to be doubted, but that the people of God had become objects of mockery, and that hypocrites and heathens thought that what David had testified respecting the perpetuity of his kingdom was a mere delusion.

‘Behold thy kingdom,’ he said, ‘shall continue as long as the sun and the moon,’ (Psalms 72:0)

but soon after the death of Solomon, a small portion only was reserved for his posterity, and at length the kingdom itself and its dignity disappeared. This is the reason that the Prophet now says, that the former kingdom would come. Come, he says, to thee, daughter of Zion, come shall the former kingdom There is indeed no doubt, but that by the former kingdom he understands its most flourishing condition, recorded in Scripture, under David and Solomon.

The kingdom, he says, to the daughter of Jerusalem shall come He expressly mentions the daughter of Jerusalem, because the kingdom of Israel had obscured the glory of the true kingdom. Hence the Prophet testifies here that God was not unmindful of his promise, and that he would restore to Jerusalem the dignity which it had lost, and unite the whole people into one body, that they might be no more divided, but that one king would rule over the whole race of Abraham. But this was not fulfilled, we are certain, at the coming of Christ, in a manner visible to men: we must therefore bear in mind what Micah has previously taught, — that this kingdom is spiritual; for he did not ascribe to Christ a golden scepter, but a doctrine, “Come, and let us ascend unto the mount of Jehovah, and he will teach us of his ways; and then he added,” From Zion shall go forth a law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. This, then, ought ever to be remembered, — that God has not rendered Jerusalem glorious in the sight of men, as it was formerly, nor has he enriched it with influence and wealth and earthly power; but he has yet restored the sovereign authority; for he has not only subjected to himself the ten tribes which had formerly revolted, but also the whole world. Let us go on —

And thou tower of the flock, The fortress of the daughter of Zion! To thee it shall return; Yea, come shall the former dominion, The kingdom to the daughter of Jerusalem.

The verb אתה, which I render “return,” means mostly, to come, to come near, to approach, to happen. — Ed.

COFFMA, "Verse 8"And thou, O tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, yea, the former dominion shall come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem."

"O tower of the flock ..." This expression comes from the custom of erecting a tower from which a shepherd could watch over his flock; and the meaning is that, "From a spiritual watchtower, Jehovah would watch over his flock."[27]

"The former dominion ..." "has in mind the age of David and Solomon,"[28] That was the period of greatest glory for "the throne of David," the restoration of which was promised in the Messiah. What Micah was saying here is that "The Son of David" (Christ) will preside over the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem. "The prophet introduces the Messiah who would come and through whom Jehovah would exercise the rule."[29]

COSTABLE, "Verse 8Micah returned to contemplate again Mt. Zion in the future (cf. Micah 4:1). It would become like a watchtower to the flock of God"s people Israel and a stronghold to her descendants then. Israel"s former dominion over her world under David and Solomon would return then, even the kingdom of the descendants of Jerusalem.

Only if we spiritualize the meaning of "the daughter of Jerusalem" to mean the church can we get away from the clear promise of Israel"s restoration here (cf. Romans 11:26). Reference to restoration of the glory of the former Davidic kingdom strongly suggests the revival of the Davidic kingdom (cf. Isaiah 9:7; Hosea 3:5; Amos 9:11).

One writer counted11characteristics of the future messianic kingdom in Micah 4:1-8. These are the global prominence of the temple ( Micah 4:1 a) and its attraction of people worldwide ( Micah 4:1 b). Jerusalem will function as teacher of the world ( Micah 4:2 a) and as the disseminator of revelation ( Micah 4:2 b). The Lord will judge the world from Jerusalem ( Micah 4:3 a), and peace will be universal ( Micah 4:3 b). Israel will experience peace and security ( Micah 4:4), spiritual sensitivity ( Micah 4:5), regathering to the land ( Micah 4:6), strength ( Micah 4:7), and dominion ( Micah 4:8). [ote: Martin, pp1483-84.]

BESO, "Verse 8Micah 4:8. And thou, O tower of the flock — Or, of Eder, as Archbishop ewcome and many others translate the word, considering it as a proper name; a tower in or near Beth-lehem; see Genesis 35:21. Or, as some think, a tower near the sheep-gate in Jerusalem, (ehemiah 3:1; ehemiah 3:32,) put here for the whole city. The word signifies a flock; the strong hold of the daughter of Zion — Hebrew, Ophel, a strong fort. Both expressions seem to be put for the whole city. Unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion — This was intended to signify the great honour coming to mount Zion, that the former dominion, the government, after seventy years’ captivity, should return to the former royal family, the house of David, and continue in it till Shilo came. This, in the type, was fulfilled after the restoration of the Jews to their own land under Zerubbabel and his successors; but the whole antitype concerns the Messiah’s kingdom.

TRAPP, "Micah 4:8 And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.

Ver. 8. And thou, O tower of the flock] That is, O Church of Christ, who is often compared to a shepherdess in the Canticles; here to a Migdaleder, or tower of the flock (that flock of Christ which hath golden fleeces, precious souls), in reference either to that tower, Genesis 25:21, built for the safety and service of shepherds, or else to the sheep gate in Jerusalem (whereof read, ehemiah 3:1; ehemiah 12:39), so called from the sheep market, which, for the couvenience of the temple, was near to it; as was also the sheep pool, called Bethesda, John 5:2, where the sacrifices were washed. The world is a field, the Church a fold in that field; and a strong fold (strong as a tower), yea, a stronghold, ophel, as it is styled in the next words; and that of the daughter of Zion, that is, of the Christian Church, the inviolable security whereof is here noted.

Unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion] Such as was in David’s days and Solomon’s; large, rich, peaceable, prosperous, terrible to other nations. This was carnally understood by the Jews, who therefore dream to this day of an earthly kingdom, and have in their synagogues a crown ready to set upon the head of their Messiah whenever he shall come: neither were Christ’s disciples without a tincture of this Pharisaical leaven; whence their often inquiries, when the kingdom of God shall come? and their frivolous contests among themselves, who should be the greatest in Christ’s kingdom? who should sit at his right hand and at his left? &c., as if there should have been in Christ’s kingdom (as in Solomon’s) a distribution here of honours and offices. And this groundless conceit hung as bullets of lead at their eyelids; that they could not look up to see that Christ’s kingdom was spiritual, and not of this present world.

The kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem] This the Jews (mistaking it as before) pray earnestly that it may come, cito, citius, citissime, quickly, more quickly, most quickly bimberah, bejamenu (Buxtor. Syn. Jud.), with speed, and even in our days; often throwing open their windows to behold their king, and to receive their long looked for preferment in his earthly monarchy.

EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMMETARY, "Verses 8-13THE KIG TO COME

Micah 4:8 - Micah 5:1-15

WHE a people has to be purged of long injustice, when some high aim of liberty or of order has to be won, it is remarkable how often the drama of revolution passes through three acts. There is first the period of criticism and of vision, in which men feel discontent, dream of new things, and put their hopes into systems: it seems then

as if-the future were to come of itself. But often a catastrophe, relevant or irrelevant, ensues: the visions pale before a vast conflagration, and poet, philosopher, and prophet disappear under the feet of a mad mob of wreckers. Yet this is often the greatest period of all, for somewhere in the midst of it a strong character is forming, and men, by the very anarchy, are being taught, in preparation for him, the indispensableness of obedience and loyalty. With their chastened minds he achieves the third act, and fulfills all of the early vision that God’s ordeal by fire has proved worthy to survive. Thus history, when distraught, rallies again upon the Man.

To this law the prophets of Israel only gradually gave expression. We find no trace of it among the earliest of them; and in the essential faith of all there was much which predisposed them against the conviction of its necessity. For, on the one hand, the seers were so filled with the inherent truth and inevitableness of their visions, that they described these as if already realised; there was no room for a great figure to rise before the future, for with a rush the future was upon them. On the other hand, it was ever a principle of prophecy that God is able to dispense with human aid. "In presence of the Divine omnipotence all secondary causes, all interposition on the part of the creature, fall away." The more striking is it that before long the prophets should have begun, not only to look for a Man, but to paint him as the central figure of their hopes. In Hosea, who has no such promise, we already see the instinct at work. The age of revolution which he describes is cursed by its want of men: there is no great leader of the people sent from God; those who come to the front are the creatures of faction and party; there is no king from God. How different it had been in the great days of old, when God had ever worked for Israel through some man-a Moses, a Gideon, a Samuel, but especially a David. Thus memory, equally with the present dearth of personalities, prompted to a great desire, and with passion Israel waited for a Man. The hope of the mother for her firstborn, the pride of the father in his son, the eagerness of the woman for her lover, the devotion of the slave to his liberator, the enthusiasm of soldiers for their captain-unite these noblest affections of the human heart, and you shall yet fail to reach the passion and the glory with which prophecy looked for the King to Come. Each age, of course, expected him in the qualities of power and character needed for its own troubles, and the ideal changed from glory unto glory. From valor and victory in war, it became peace and good government, care for the poor and the oppressed, sympathy with the sufferings of the whole people, but especially of the righteous among them, with fidelity to the truth delivered unto the fathers, and, finally, a conscience for the people’s sin, a bearing of their punishment and a travail, for their spiritual redemption. But all these qualities and functions were gathered upon an individual-a Victor, a King, a Prophet, a Martyr, a Servant of the Lord.

Micah stands among the first, if he is not the very first, who thus focused the hopes of Israel upon a great Redeemer; and his promise of Him shares all the characteristics just described. In his book it lies next a number of brief oracles with which we are unable to trace its immediate connection. They differ from it in style and rhythm: they are in verse, while it seems to be in prose. They do not appear to have been uttered along with it. But they reflect the troubles out of which the Hero is expected to emerge, and the deliverance which He shall accomplish, though at

first they picture the latter without any hint of Himself. They apparently describe an invasion which is actually in course, rather than one which is near and inevitable; and if so they can only date from Sennacherib’s campaign against Judah in 701 B.C. Jerusalem is in siege, standing alone in the land, like one of those solitary towers with folds round them which were built here and there upon the border pastures of Israel for defense of the flock against the raiders of the desert. The prophet sees the possibility of Zion’s capitulation, but the people shall leave her only for their deliverance elsewhere. Many are gathered against her, but he sees them as sheaves upon the floor for Zion to thresh. This oracle (Micah 4:11-13) cannot, of course, have been uttered at the same time as the previous one, but there is no reason why the same prophet should not have uttered both at different periods. Isaiah had prospects of the fate of Jerusalem which differ quite as much. Once more (Micah 5:1) the blockade is established. Israel’s ruler is helpless, "smitten on the cheek by the foe." It is to this last picture that the promise of the Deliverer is attached.

The prophet speaks:-

"But thou, O Tower of the Flock, Hill of the daughter of Zion, To thee shall arrive the former rule, And the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Zion. ow wherefore criest thou so loud? Is there no king in thee, or is thy counselor perished, That throes have seized thee like a woman in childbirth? Quiver and writhe, daughter of Zion, like one in childbirth: For now must thou forth from the city, And encamp on the field (and come unto Babel); There shalt thou be rescued, There shall Jehovah redeem thee from the hand of thy foes"!

"And now gather against thee many nations, that say, ‘Let her be violate, that our eyes may fasten on Zion! But they know not the plans of Jehovah, or understand they His counsel, For He hath gathered them in like sheaves to the floor. Up and thresh, O daughter of Zion For thy horns will I turn into iron, And thy hoofs will I turn into brass; And thou will beat down many nations, And devote to Jehovah their spoil, And their wealth to the Lord of all earth".

"ow press thyself together, thou daughter of pressure: The foe hath set a wall around us, With a rod they smite on the cheek Israel’s regent! But thou, Beth-Ephrath, smallest among the thousands of Judah, From thee unto Me shall come forth the Ruler to be in Israel! Yea, of old are His goings forth, from the days of long ago! Therefore shall He suffer them till the time that one bearing shall have born. (Then the rest of His brethren shall return with the children of Israel.) And He shall stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of Jehovah, In the pride of the name of His God. And they shall abide! For now is He great to the ends of the earth. And Such a One shall be our Peace."

Bethlehem was the birthplace of David, but when Micah says that the Deliverer shall emerge from her he does not only mean what Isaiah affirms by his promise of a rod from the stock of Jesse, that the King to Come shall spring from the one great dynasty in Judah. Micah means rather to emphasize the rustic and popular origin of

the Messiah, "too small to be among the thousands of Judah." David, the son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, was a dearer figure than Solomon son of David the King. He impressed the people’s imagination, because he had sprung from themselves, and in his lifetime had been the popular rival of an unlovable despot. Micah himself was the prophet of the country as distinct from the capital, of the peasants as against the rich who oppressed them. When, therefore, he fixed upon Bethlehem as the Messiah’s birthplace, he doubtless desired, without departing from the orthodox hope in the Davidic dynasty, to throw round its new representative those associations which had so endeared to the people their father-monarch. The shepherds of Judah, that strong source of undefiled life from which the fortunes of the state and prophecy itself had ever been recuperated, should again send forth salvation. Had not Micah already declared that, after the overthrow of the capital and the rulers, the glory of Israel should come to Adullam, where of old David had gathered its soiled and scattered fragments?

We may conceive how such a promise would affect the crushed peasants for whom Micah wrote. A Savior, who was one of themselves, not born up there in the capital, foster-brother of the very nobles who oppressed them, but born among the people, sharer of their toils and of their wrongs!-it would bring hope to every broken heart among the disinherited poor of Israel. Yet meantime, be it observed, this was a promise, not for the peasants only, but for the whole people. In the present danger of the nation the class disputes are forgotten, and the hopes of Israel gather upon their Hero for a common deliverance from the foreign foe. "Such a One shall be our peace." But in the peace He is "to stand and shepherd His flock," conspicuous and watchful. The country folk knew what such a figure meant to themselves for security and weal on the land of their fathers. Heretofore their rulers had not been shepherds, but thieves and robbers.

We can imagine the contrast which such a vision must have offered to the fancies of the false prophets. What were they beside this? Deity descending in fire and thunder, with all the other features of the ancient Theophanies that had now become much cant in the mouths of mercenary traditionalists. Besides those, how sane was this how footed upon the earth, how practical, how popular in the best sense!

We see, then, the value of Micah’s prophecy for his own day. Has it also any value for ours-especially in that aspect of it which must have appealed to the hearts of those for whom chiefly Micah arose? Is it wise to paint the Messiah, to paint Christ, so much a workingman? Is it not much more to our purpose to remember the general fact of His humanity, by which He is able to be Priest and Brother to all classes, high and low, rich and poor, the noble and the peasant alike? Is not the Man of Sorrows a much wider name than the Man of Labor? Let us answer these questions.

The value of such a prophecy of Christ lies in the correctives which it supplies to the Christian apocalypse and theology. Both of these have raised Christ to a throne too far above the actual circumstance of His earthly ministry and the theatre of His

eternal sympathies. Whether enthroned in the praises of Heaven, or by scholasticism relegated to an ideal and abstract humanity, Christ is lifted away from touch with the common people. But His lowly origin was a fact. He sprang from the most democratic of peoples. His ancestor was a shepherd, and His mother a peasant girl. He Himself was a carpenter: at home, as His parables show, in the fields and the folds and the barns of His country; with the servants of the great houses, with the unemployed in the market; with the woman in the hovel seeking one piece of silver, with the shepherd on the moors seeking the lost sheep. "The poor had the gospel preached to them; and the common people heard Him gladly." As the peasants of Judea must have listened to Micah’s promise of His origin among themselves with new hope and patience, so in the Roman empire the religion of Jesus Christ was welcomed chiefly, as the Apostles and the Fathers bear witness, by the lowly and the laboring of every nation. In the great persecution which bears His name, the Emperor Domitian heard that there were two relatives alive of this Jesus whom so many acknowledged as their King, and he sent for them that he might put them to death. But when they came, he asked them to hold up their hands, and seeing these brown and chapped with toil, he dismissed the men, saying, "From such slaves we have nothing to fear." Ah but, Emperor! it is just the horny hands of this religion that thou and thy gods have to fear! Any cynic or satirist of thy literature, from Celsus onwards, could have told thee that it was by men who worked with their hands for their daily bread, by domestics, artisans, and all manner of slaves, that the power of this King should spread, which meant destruction to [flee and thine empire] "From little Bethlehem came forth the Ruler," and "now He is great to the ends of the earth."

There follows upon this prophecy of the Shepherd a curious fragment which divides His office among a number of His order, though the grammar returns towards the end to One. The mention of Assyria stamps this oracle also as of the eighth century. Mark the refrain which opens and closes it.

"When Asshur cometh into our land, And when he marcheth on our borders, Then shall we raise against him seven shepherds And eight princes of men. And they shall shepherd Asshur with a sword, And imrod’s land with her own bare blades. And He shall deliver from Asshur, When he cometh into our land, And marcheth upon our borders."

There follows an oracle in which there is no evidence of Micah’s hand or of his times; but if it carries any proof of a date, it seems a late one.

"And the remnant of Jacob shall be among many peoples Like the dew from Jehovah, Like showers upon grass, Which wait not for a man. or tarry for the children of men. And the remnant of Jacob (among nations,) among many peoples, Shall be like the lion among the beasts of the jungle, Like a young lion among the sheepfolds, Who, when he cometh by, treadeth and teareth, And none may deliver. Let thine hand be high on thine adversaries, And all thine enemies be cut off!"

Finally in this section we have an oracle full of the notes we had from Micah in The

first two chapters. It explains itself. Compare Micah 2:1-13 and Isaiah 2:1-22.

"And it shall be in that day-‘tis the oracle of Jehovah-That I will cut off thy horses from the midst of thee, And I will destroy thy chariots; That I will cut off the cities of thy land, And tear down all thy fortresses, And I will cut off thine enchantments from thy hand, And thou shalt have no more soothsayers; And I will cut off thine images and thy pillars from the midst of thee, And thou shalt not bow down any more to the work of thy hands; And I will uproot thine Asheras from the midst of thee, And will destroy thine idols. So shall I do, in My wrath and Mine anger, Vengeance to the nations, who have not known Me."

PETT, "Micah 4:8

“And you, O tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, to you will it come, yes, the former dominion will come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.”He concludes the vision with an assurance to the holy mountain that has been set above the mountains and hills (Micah 4:1), that it will be the source of God’s blessing to His people. It is to be the stronghold of God’s flock, the tower from which YHWH watches over His sheep (compare 2 Chronicles 26:10). It is to be the true hill of God’s people (the daughters of Zion). And to it would come the former dominion that had once been enjoyed under David, but now in even greater measure. It would be the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem promised, for example, in Psalms 2.

But this does not require the restoration of old Israel. The old Israel was cut off as a result of rejecting its Messiah, something finally evidenced by the destruction of Jerusalem. Rather a genuine new Israel has arisen, founded on Jesus Christ as His new ‘congregation’ (Matthew 16:18), established on the Apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20), initially comprising large numbers of Jews who responded to their Messiah, initially in Jerusalem but then ‘worldwide’, and then incorporating Gentile ‘proselytes’ (Exodus 12:48) who became one with the new Israel (Galatians 6:16; Romans 11:17-28; Ephesians 2:11-22; 1 Peter 2:5-9; 1 Peter 1:1; James 1:1). These are the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem over which God rule worldwide. (In ew Testament language the church (congregation) of the Messiah Jesus are the continuation of the church (congregation) of Israel founded at Sinai. There is now no other Israel)

PULPIT, "And thou, O tower of the flock (migdal-edar). There was a village with a tower so called near Bethlehem (Genesis 35:21), and it is thought that Micah refers to it as the home of David and as destined to be the birthplace of Messiah. But the context compels us to consider the expression as a periphrasis for Jerusalem, which the prophet here addressee, declaring that the royal power shall be restored to her. It is evidently the same place as the stronghold (ophel, "the hill") of the daughter of Zion. The name "Ophel" is affixed to the southern spur of Moriah, opposite to the Mount Zion, from which it was separated by the Tyropoeon Valley. It was fortified by Jotham (2 Chronicles 27:3) and Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33:14), and on it were the king's house, i.e. the old palace of David, and "the tower that lieth out," or the

upper tower (see ehemiah 3:26, ehemiah 3:27). This is probably the "flock tower" mentioned in the text (comp. Isaiah 32:14, where Ophel and the watch tower are named together); and it is so called as having been originally a place of refuge for flocks, or of observation for shepherds. Micah uses the two expressions to represent the power and dominion of Jerusalem. The propriety of the usa of the term "flock tower" is seen when we remember that David was a shepherd before he was king, and that the Israelites are the sheep of the Lord's pasture. The reference to a flock in the prceeding verses may also have influenced the prophet's thought. Owing to a slight variation in the reading, the LXX. renders Ophel by αἰχµώδης, "dark;" so Jerome, "nebulosa;" Aquila, σκοτώδης: Symmachus, ἀπόκρυφος. These translators would refer the term to the ruinous condition of the tower. The first dominion shall come, i.e. the former, original empire, such as it was in the days of David and Solomon, and which had been lost in later times. The LXX. adds, ἐκ βαβυλῶνος: and hence the Greek expositors explain the passage as referring to the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. The kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem. The verb "shall come" is better taken with "the first dominion," and this clause in apposition to the former, "the kingdom of" or "the reign over the daughter of Jerusalem." Sovereignty over Jerusalem, or, as others take it, that appertains to Jerusalem, represents rule over the whole country. In Messiah the glory and power are restored to the throne of David (Luke 1:32, Luke 1:33).

9 Why do you now cry aloud— have you no king[b]?Has your ruler[c] perished, that pain seizes you like that of a woman in labor?

BARES. "Now - The prophet places himself in the midst of their deepest sorrows, and out of them he promises comfort. “Why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no King in thee? is thy Counsellor perished?” . Is then all lost, because thou hast no visible king, none to counsel thee or consult for thee? . Very remarkably he speaks of their “King and Counsellor” as one, as if to say, “When all beside is gone, there is One who abides. Though thou be a captive, God will not forsake thee. When thou hadst no earthly king,

“the Lord thy God was thy King” 1Sa_12:12. He is the First, and He is the Last. When thou shalt have no other, He, thy King, ceaseth not to be.” Montanus: “Thou shouldest not fear, so long as He, who counselleth for thee, liveth; but He liveth forever.” Thy “Counsellor,” He, who is called “Counsellor” Isa_9:6, who counselleth for thee, who counselleth thee, will, if thou obey His counsel, make birth-pangs to end in joy.

For pangs have taken thee, as a woman in travail - Resistless, remediless, doubling the whole frame, redoubled until the end, for which God sends them, is accomplished, and then ceasing in joy. The truest comfort, amid all sorrow, is in owning that the travail-pains must be, but that the reward shall be afterward. Montanus: “It is meet to look for deliverance from God’s mercy, as certainly as for punishment from our guilt; and that the more, since He who foretold both, willingly saves, punishes unwillingly.” So the prophets adds.

CLARKE, "Is there no King in thee? - None. And why? Because thou hast rejected Jehovah thy king.

Is thy counsellor perished? - No: but thou hast rejected the words and advices of the prophets.

Pangs have taken thee - He is speaking of the desolations that should take place when the Chaldeans should come against the city; and hence he says, “Thou shalt go to Babylon;” ye shall be cast out of your own land, and sent slaves to a foreign country, He represents the people under the notion of a woman in travail.

GILL, "Now why dost thou cry out aloud?.... Or "cry a cry" (w); a vehement one, or set up a most lamentable cry, as if no help or hope were to be had, but as in the most desperate condition: here the prophet represents the Jews as if they were already in captivity, and in the utmost distress, and as they certainly would be; and yet had no reason to despair of deliverance and salvation, since the Messiah would certainly come to them, and his kingdom would be set up among them, The word used has sometimes the notion of friendship and association; hence the Targum renders it,

"now why art thou joined to the people?''

and so Jarchi,

"thou hast no need to seek friends and lovers, the kings of Egypt and Assyria, for help.''

And which sense of the word as approved by Gussetius (x).

Is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? he it so that they were; as was the case when Zedekiah was taken and carried captive, and his princes, nobles, and counsellors killed; yet God, their King and Counsellor, was with them, to keep and preserve them, counsel, instruct, and comfort them, and at last to deliver and save them; and the King Messiah would be raised up, and sent unto them in due time, who is the Wonderful Counsellor Isaiah had prophesied of:

for pangs have taken thee as a worn an in travail; which is often expressive of great sufferings and sorrows; and yet, as the pangs of a woman in travail do not continue

always, but have an end, so would theirs, and therefore there was no reason for despair; and as, when she brings forth her issue, her sorrow is turned into joy, this would be their case.

JAMISO, "Addressed to the daughter of Zion, in her consternation at the approach of the Chaldeans.

is there no king in thee?— asked tauntingly. There is a king in her; but it is the same as if there were none, so helpless to devise means of escape are he and his counselors [Maurer]. Or, Zion’s pains are because her king is taken away from her (Jer_52:9; Lam_4:20; Eze_12:13) [Calvin]. The former is perhaps the preferable view (compare Jer_49:7). The latter, however, describes better Zion’s kingless state during her present long dispersion (Hos_3:4, Hos_3:5).

K&D 9-10, "But before this takes place, the daughter Zion will lose her king, and wander into captivity to Babylon; but there she will be redeemed by the Lord out of the power of her enemies. Mic_4:9. “Now why dost thou cry a cry? Is there no king in thee, or is thy counsellor perished, that pangs have seized thee like the woman in labour?Mic_4:10. Writhe and break forth, O daughter Zion, like a woman in labour! For how wilt thou go out of the city and dwell in the field, and come to Babel? there wilt thou be rescued; there will Jehovah redeem thee out of the hand of thine enemies.” From this glorious future the prophet now turns his eye to the immediate future, to proclaim to the people what will precede this glorification, viz., first of all, the loss of the royal government, and the deportation of the people to Babylon. If Micah, after announcing the devastation of Zion in Mic_3:12, has offered to the faithful a firm ground of hope in the approaching calamities, by pointing to the highest glory as awaiting it in the future, he now guards against the abuse which might be made of this view by the careless body of the people, who might either fancy that the threat of punishment was not meant so seriously after all, or that the time of adversity would very speedily give place to a much more glorious state of prosperity, by depicting the grievous times that are still before them. Beholding in spirit the approaching time of distress as already present, he hears a loud cry, like that of a woman in labour, and inquires the cause of this lamentation, and whether it refers to the loss of her king. The words are addressed to the daughter Zion, and the meaning of the rhetorical question is simply this: Zion will lose her king, and be thrown into the deepest mourning in consequence. The loss of the king was a much more painful thing for Israel than for any other nation, because such glorious promises were attached to the throne, the king being the visible representative of the grace of God, and his removal a sign of the wrath of God and of the abolition of all the blessings of salvation which were promised to the nation in his person. Compare Lam_4:20, where

Israel calls the king its vital breath (Hengstenberg). יועץ (counsellor) is also the king; and this epithet simply gives prominence to that which the Davidic king had been to Zion (cf. Isa_9:5, where the Messiah is designated as “Counsellor” par excellence). But Zion must

experience this pain: writhe and break forth. Gōchı5 is strengthened by chūlı5, and is used intransitively, to break forth, describing the pain connected with the birth as being as it were a bursting of the whole nature (cf. Jer_4:31). It is not used transitively in the sense of “drive forth,” as Hitzig and others suppose; for the determination that Jerusalem would submit, and the people be carried away, could not properly be represented as a

birth or as a reorganization of things. With the words וגו C the prophet leaves theי ע(ה

figure, and predicts in literal terms the catastrophe awaiting the nation. ע(ה (now),

repeated from Lam_4:9, is the ideal present, which the prophet sees in spirit, but which

is in reality the near or more remote future. קריה, without an article, is a kind of proper

name, like urbs for Rome (Caspari). In order to set forth the certainty of the threatened judgment, and at the same time the greatness of the calamity in the most impressive manner, Micah fills up the details of the drama: viz., going out of the city, dwelling in the field, without shelter, delivered up to all the chances of weather, and coming to Babel, carried thither without delay. Going out of the city presupposes the conquest of the city by the enemy; since going out to surrender themselves to the enemy (2Ki_24:12; 1Sa_11:3) does not fit in with the prophetic description, which is not a historical

description in detail. Nevertheless Israel shall not perish. There (shâm, i.e., even in

Babel) will the Lord its God deliver it out of the hand of its foes.

The prediction that the daughter Zion, i.e., the nation of Israel which was governed from Zion, and had its centre in Zion - the covenant nation which, since the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes, existed in Judah only - should be carried away to Babylon, and that at a time when Assyria was in the field as the chief enemy of Israel and the representative of the imperial power, goes so far beyond the bounds of the political horizon of Micah's time, that it cannot be accounted for from any natural presentiment. It is true that it has an analogon in Isa_34:6-7, where Isaiah predicts to king Hezekiah in the most literal terms the carrying away of all his treasures, and of his sons (descendants), to Babylon. At the same time, this analogy is not sufficient to explain the prediction before us; for Isaiah's prophecy was uttered during the period immediately following the destruction of the Assyrian forces in front of Jerusalem and the arrival of Babylonian ambassadors in Jerusalem, and had a point of connection in these events, which indicated the destruction of the Assyrian empire and the rise of Babylon in its stead, at all events in the germ; whereas no such connecting link exists in the case of Micah's prophecy, which was unquestionably uttered before these events. It has therefore been thought, that in Mic_3:12 Micah predicts the destruction of Jerusalem, and here in Mic_4:10 the carrying away of Judah to Babylon by the Assyrians; and this opinion, that Micah expected the judgment upon Jerusalem and Judah to be executed by the Assyrians, and not by the Babylonians, has been supported partly by such passages as Mic_5:4-5, and Jer_26:18-19, and partly by the circumstance that Micah threatens his own corrupt contemporaries with the judgment which he predicts on account of their sins; whereas in his time the Assyrians were the only possible executors of a judgment upon Israel who were then standing on the stage of history (Caspari). But these arguments are not decisive. All that can be inferred from Mic_5:4-5, where Asshur is mentioned as the representative of all the enemies of Israel, and of the power of the world in its hostility to the people of God in the Messianic times, is that at the time of Micah the imperial power in its hostility to the kingdom of God was represented by Assyria; but it by no means follows that Assyria would always remain the imperial power, so that it could only be from her that Micah could expect the destruction of Jerusalem, and the carrying away of Judah to Babylon. Again, Jer_26:18, Jer_26:19 -where the chief men of Judah, in order to defend the prophet Jeremiah, quote Micah's prophecy, with the remark that king Hezekiah did not put him to death in consequence, but feared the Lord and besought His face, so that the Lord repented of the evil which He had spoken concerning Jerusalem - simply proves that these chief men referred Micah's words to the Assyrians, and attributed the non-fulfilment of the threatened judgment by the Assyrians to Hezekiah's penitence and prayer, and that this was favoured by the circumstance that the Lord answered the prayer of the king, by assuring

him that the Assyrian army should be destroyed (Isa_37:21.). But whether the opinion of these chief men as to the meaning and fulfilment of Micah's prophecy (Mic_3:12) was the correct one or not, cannot be decided from the passage quoted. Its correctness is apparently favoured, indeed, by the circumstance that Micah threatened the people of his own time with the judgment (for your sakes shall Zion be ploughed into a field, etc.). Now, if he had been speaking of a judgment upon Judah through the medium of the Babylonians, “he would (so Caspari thinks) not only have threatened his contemporaries with a judgment which could not fall upon them, since it was not possible till after their time, inasmuch as the Assyrians were on the stage in his day; but he would also have been most incomprehensibly silent as to the approaching Assyrian judgment, of which Isaiah spoke again and again.” This argument falls to the ground with the untenable assumptions upon which it is founded. Micah neither mentions the Assyrians nor the Babylonians as executing the judgment, nor does he say a word concerning the time when the predicted devastation or destruction of Jerusalem will occur. In the expression

for your sakes (Mic_3:12), it is by no means affirmed that it will take place in his ,�גללכם

time through the medium of the Assyrians. The persons addressed are the scandalous leaders of the house of Israel, i.e., of the covenant nation, and primarily those living in his own time, though by no means those only, but all who share their character and ungodliness, so that the words apply to succeeding generations quite as much as to his contemporaries. The only thing that would warrant our restricting the prophecy to Micah's own times, would be a precise definition by Micah himself of the period when Jerusalem would be destroyed, or his expressly distinguishing his own contemporaries from their sons and descendants. But as he has done neither the one nor the other, it cannot be said that, inasmuch as the destruction of Jerusalem and the carrying away of the people was not effected by the Assyrians, but by the Babylonians (Chaldaeans), he would have been altogether silent as to the approaching Assyrian judgment, and only threatened them with the Chaldaean catastrophe, which did not take place till a long time afterwards. His words refer to all the judgments, which took place from his own time onwards till the utter destruction of Jerusalem and the carrying away of the people to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. The one-sided reference of the prophecy to the Assyrians is simply based upon an incorrect idea of the nature of prophecy, and its relation to the fulfilment, and involves the prophet Micah in an irreconcilable discrepancy between himself and his contemporary the prophet Isaiah, who does indeed predict the severe oppression of Judah by the Assyrians, but at the same time foretels the failure of the plans of these foes to the people of Jehovah, and the total destruction of their army.

This contradiction, with the consequence to which it would inevitably lead, - namely, that if one of the prophets predicted the destruction of Jerusalem by the Assyrians, whereas the other prophesied that it would not be destroyed by them, the two contemporary prophets would necessarily lead the people astray, and render both the truth of their contradictory utterances and their own divine mission doubtful, - cannot be removed by the assumption that Isaiah uttered the prophecies in ch. 28-32 at a somewhat later period, after Micah had published his book, and the terribly severe words of Micah in Mic_3:12 had produced repentance. For Isaiah had predicted that the Assyrian would not conquer Jerusalem, but that his army would be destroyed under its walls, not only in Isaiah 28-32, at the time when the Assyrians are approaching with threatening aspect under Shalmaneser or Sennacherib, but much earlier than that, -namely, in the time of Ahaz, in Isaiah 10:5-12:6. Moreover, in Isaiah 28-32 there is not a single trace that Micah's terrible threatening had produced such repentance, that the Lord was able to withdraw His threat in consequence, and predict through Isaiah the

rescue of Jerusalem from the Assyrian. On the contrary, Isaiah scourges the evil judges and false prophets quite as severely in Isa_28:7. and Isa_29:9-12 as Micah does in Mic_3:1-3 and Mic_3:5-8. And lastly, although the distinction between conditional prophecies and those uttered unconditionally is, generally speaking, correct enough, and is placed beyond all doubt by Jer_18:7-10; there is nothing in the addresses and threatenings of the two prophets to indicate that Micah uttered his threats conditionally, i.e., in case there should be no repentance, whereas Isaiah uttered his unconditionally. Moreover, such an explanation is proved to be untenable by the fact, that in Micah the threat of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the desolation of the temple mountain (Mic_3:12) stands in the closest connection with the promise, that at the end of the days the mountain of God's house will be exalted above all mountains, and Jehovah reign on Zion as king for ever (Mic_4:1-3 and Mic_7:1). If this threat were only conditional, the promise would also have only a conditional validity; and the final glorification of the kingdom of God would be dependent upon the penitence of the great mass of the people of Israel, - a view which is diametrically opposed to the real nature of the prophecies of both, yea, of all the prophets. The only difference between Isaiah and Micah in this respect consists in the fact that Isaiah, in his elaborate addresses, brings out more distinctly the attitude of the imperial power of Assyria towards the kingdom of God in Israel, and predicts not only that Israel will be hard pressed by the Assyrians, but also that the latter will not overcome the people of God, but will be wrecked upon the foundation-stone laid by Jehovah in Zion; whereas Micah simply threatens the sinners with judgment, and after the judgment predicts the glorification of Zion in grand general terms, without entering more minutely into the attitude of the Assyrians towards Israel.

In the main, however, Micah goes hand in hand with his contemporary Isaiah. In Isa_32:14, Isaiah also foretels the devastation, or rather the destruction, of Jerusalem, notwithstanding the fact that he has more than once announced the deliverance of the city of God from Asshur, and that without getting into contradiction with himself. For this double announcement may be very simply explained from the fact that the judgments which Israel had yet to endure, and the period of glory to follow, lay, like a long, deep diorama, before the prophet's mental eye; and that in his threatenings he plunged sometimes more, sometimes less, deeply into those judgments which lay in perspective before him (see Delitzsch on Isaiah, at Isa_32:20). The same thing applies to Micah, who goes to a great depth both in his threats and promises, not only predicting the judgment in all its extremity, - namely, the utter destruction of Jerusalem, and the carrying away of the people to Babel, - but also the salvation in its ultimate perfection, viz., the glorification of Zion. We must therefore not restrict his threats in Mic_3:12 and Mic_4:10 even to the Chaldaean catastrophe, nor the promise of Israel's deliverance in Babel out of the hands of its foes to the liberation of the Jews from Babylon, which was effected by Cyrus, and their return to Palestine under Zerubbabel and Ezra; but must also extend the threat of punishment to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and the attendant dispersion of the Jews over all the world, and the redemption out of Babel promised in Mic_4:10 to that deliverance of Israel which, in the main, is in the future still. These two judgments and these two deliverances are comprehended in an undivided unity in the words of the prophet, Babel being regarded not only in its historical character, but also in its typical significance, as the beginning and the hearth of the kingdom of the world. Babel has this double significance in the Scriptures from the very commencement. Even the building of the city with a tower intended to reach to heaven was a work of human pride, and an ungodly display of power (Gen_11:4.); and after its erection Babel was made by Nimrod the beginning of the empire of the world (Gen_10:10). It was from these two facts that Babel became the type of the imperial power, and not because the division of the human race into nations with different

languages, and their dispersion over the whole earth, had their origin there (see A. ch. Lämmert, Babel, das Thier und der falsche Prophet. Goth. 1862, p. 36ff.); and it is in this typical significance of Babel that we have to seek not only for the reason for the divine purpose to banish the people of God to Babel, when they were given up to the power of the kingdom of the world, but also for a point of connection for the prophetic announcement when this purpose had been communicated to the prophet's mind. Micah accordingly predicts the carrying away of the daughter Zion to Babel, and her deliverance there out of the power of her enemies, not because Babel along with Nineveh was the metropolis of the world-empire of his time, or a chief city of that empire, but because Babel, from its very origin, was a type and symbol of the imperial power. That the words of Micah, in their deepest sense, should be so interpreted, is not only warranted, but necessitated, by the announcement which follows in Mic_4:11-13 of the victorious conflict of Zion with many nations, which points far beyond the conflicts of the Jews in the times succeeding the captivity.

CALVI, "The Prophet blends here things in their nature wholly contrary, — that the Jews were for a time to be cut off, — and that afterwards they were to recover their former state. Why, he says, dost thou cry out with crying? We must notice the Prophet’s design. He did not intend to overturn what he had before stated; but as the minds of the godly might have fainted amidst so many changes, the Prophet here gives them support, that they might continue firm in their faith; and hence he says, Why dost thou cry aloud with loud crying? That is, “I see that grievous troubles will arise capable of shaking even the stoutest hearts: time will be changeable; it will often be, that the faithful will be disturbed and degraded; but though various tumults may arise, and tempests throw all things into confusion, yet God will redeem his people.” We now then see what the Prophet means by saying, Why dost thou now cry? Why dost thou make an uproar? for the verb here properly means, not only to cry out, but also to sound the trumpet; as though he said, Why do the Jews so much torment themselves? There is he says, no doubt, a good reason.

And he adds, Is there no king among thee? This was doubtless the reason why the Jews so much harassed themselves; it was, because God had deprived them of their kingdom and of counsel: and we know what Jeremiah has said, ‘Christ,’ that is, the anointed of the Lord, ‘by whose life we breathe, is slain,’ (Lamentations 4:20.) Since, then, the whole Church derived as it were its life from the safety of its king, the faithful could not be otherwise than filled with amazement when the kingdom was upset and abolished; for the hope of salvation was taken away Is there, then, not a king among thee? and have thy counselors perished? Some think that the unfaithfulness of the people is here indirectly reproved, because they thought themselves to be destitute of the help of God and of his Christ, as though he said, —“Have ye forgotten what God has promised to you, that he would be your king for ever, and would send the Messiah to rule over you? nay, has he not promised that the kingdom of David would be perpetual? Whence then, is this fear and trembling, as though God no longer reigned in the midst of you, and the throne of David were hopelessly overturned?” These interpreters, in confirmation of this opinion, say, that Christ is here distinguished by the same title as in Isaiah 9:7; where he is called ivots, a counselor. But as in this verse, it is the Prophet’s design to terrify, and ,יועף

to reprove rather than to alleviate the grievousness of evils by consolation; it is more probable, that their own destitution is set before the people; as though Micah said, “What cause have you for trembling? Is it because your king and all his counselors have been taken away?” But what immediately follows proves that this sorrow arose from a just cause; it was because they were stripped of all those things which had been till that time the evidences of God’s favor.

COFFMA, "Verse 9"ow why dost thou cry out aloud? Is there no king in thee, is thy counsellor perished, that pangs have taken hold of thee as of a woman in travail?"

"ow ..." Here follows a contrast between the judgments already pronounced against the literal "house of Jacob" and about to be reiterated, with the glorious and universal blessings of the kingdom of heaven "in Christ" set forth by Micah in Micah 4:1-8. The "now" is therefore temporal having direct reference to the way it was when Micah wrote and when the times he was prophesying would be fulfilled in the defeat and captivity of the punished "chosen people."

"King...counsellor ..." The loss of king and counselor with the resulting defeat and overthrow of the secular nation would not be cancelled or circumvented by the will of God. The terrible penalties already prophesied would indeed take place; but this and the following verse were given for the encouragement of the faithful remnant. The general meaning of both this and the following verse is that, "The captivity which would destroy the king and the state would be the birthpangs of a better state,"[30] a spiritual one, in which Christ, not some literal earthly monarch, would be the true ruler of God's re-created Israel, the ew Israel of the present order. The fantastic notion that God, for some reason, is yet interested in another replay of an earthly kingdom such as that of Solomon and David is sheer nonsense. It was the desire for that very thing that blinded the Jews to their Christ when he came; and it was precisely because Jesus effectively refused to approve of any such thing that they crucified him.

COSTABLE, "Verse 9Micah , speaking for the Lord, addressed the Jews in captivity. He was looking into the future, not as far as the restoration previously promised, but into the captivity. He asked rhetorically why the Israelites were crying out in agony, like a woman in labor pains who can do nothing to relieve her misery. Did the Jews have no king leading them and providing counsel for them? This would be their condition during the captivity. The Babylonian captivity is in view primarily ( Micah 4:10).

"The now has a certain width of reference, embracing both the Assyrian and Babylonian crises. Prophets saw the future not diachronically [consecutively] but synchronically [simultaneously]." [ote: Waltke, in Obadiah , . . ., p178.]

BESO, "Verse 9-10Micah 4:9-10. ow — ow I have promised such great things to you, why dost thou cry out aloud — As a woman in the anguish of her travail? Here the Jewish people

are addressed, as bewailing themselves under the miseries of their captivity. Is there no king in thee? — Thou hast lost the king Zedekiah, but thy God, thy king, is with thee. Is thy counsellor perished? — Hast thou none among thy wise counsellors left? Yet the Wonderful Counsellor is with thee. Messiah, the wisdom of the Father, hath the conduct of thy sufferings, deliverance, and re-establishment. For pangs hath taken thee as a woman in travail — This may be understood of the time when Zedekiah and his counsellors were seized by the Chaldeans. Be in pain, and labour to bring forth — Be like a woman in her pangs; bow thyself down, and show all the signs of excessive pain, for there is a sufficient cause. For now shalt thou go forth out of the city, &c. — Thou shalt not only have troubles, sorrows, and dangers, in the wars against the Babylonians; but shortly thou shalt be driven out from thy city and country, and have no habitation of thy own, but be forced to dwell in a foreign land. The Jews’ captivity is expressed thus, because their city and temple being destroyed, they should live in an obscure state. The same condition is elsewhere expressed by their living in the wilderness, Ezekiel 20:35. And thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered — Thou shalt be carried away, even as far as Babylon; but there, where, according to all human probability, and the expectations of thine enemies, thou mayest seem to be cut off from all relief, even there shalt thou be delivered: — such is the power, and lovingkindness, and faithfulness of Jehovah thy God.

TRAPP, "Micah 4:9 ow why dost thou cry out aloud? [is there] no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail.

Ver. 9. ow why dost thou cry out aloud?] Shout and howl? q.d. hast thou any such cause to be so unreasonably and outrageously impatient, so long as Christ is thy king and counsellor? What if there now be no king in thee? what if thy counsellor perished? A woeful case, I confess, and great confusion must needs be the issue of it; as it happened in Jerusalem after Josiah was slain: confer Hosea 3:4. {See Trapp on "Hosea 3:4"} But yet there is hope in Israel concerning this thing; neither need the saints be so excessively dejected with outward crosses so long as Christ is with them and for them. If Seneca could say to his friend Polybius, Fas tibi non est salvo Caesare, de fortuna tua queri, Be thy case never so miserable, thou hast no cause to complain, so long as Caesar is in safety; how much less ground of mourning or murmuring have Christ’s subjects, so long as he liveth and reigneth! Gaudeo quod Christus Dominus est, alioqui totus desperassem, I rejoice because Christ est Lord, otherwise, I am in total dispair, writeth Miconius to Calvin, of the Church’s enemies: I am glad that Christ is Lord of all, for otherwise I should have had no hope of help at all. David in deep distress comforteth himself in the Lord his God, 1 Samuel 30:6, Psalms 119:94, "I am thine, save me," saith he, q.d. my professed subjection to thee calleth for thy care and protection of me, and here he stays himself. Kings and counsellors are great stays to a state, but Christ is not tied to them. These are but particular good things, as is health against sickness, wealth against poverty, &c., but Christ is a universal good, all-sufficient and satisfactory; every way proportionable and fitting to our souls and several necessities. Why then do we cry aloud as utterly undone? why sing we not rather with David when at greatest under, "The Lord liveth, and blessed be the God of my salvation. It is God

that avengeth me, and delivereth me from the violent man," Psalms 18:46. He is King of all the earth. He is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. It was a learned man’s motto, Blessed be God, that he is God; and blessed be Christ, that he reigns for ever; that counsel is his, and sound wisdom; that he hath understanding, he hath strength, Proverbs 8:14.

For pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail] They have, but they needed not, hadst thou but turned into thy counting house, and considered thy manifold privileges in Christ, thy king and counsellor. We often punish ourselves by our passions, as the lion that beats himself with his own tail. Sed o bene (saith an interpreter here) quod sint hi dolores saltem similes parturientium, It is yet a happiness that the Church’s pangs, though bitter, yet are no worse than as those of a woman in travail (Tarnovius). For, 1. The pains of travail seldom bring death, but life both to mother and child; so do afflictions to the saints, 2 Corinthians 4:17, Hebrews 12:9. 2. Travail comes not by chance, nor for long continuance; neither doth affliction, John 7:30; Luke 22:53. 3. Travail is unavoidable, and must be patiently borne; so must affliction; or else we lose the fruit of it, Acts 14:22, 2 Timothy 3:12 4. Sharp though it be, yet it is short; so mourning lasteth but till morning, Psalms 30:6; Psalms 73:24; Psalms 135:14, John 16:22, Jeremiah 10:24. 5. As the travailing woman hath the help of other women; so hath the afflicted, of God, angels, and men. 6. Lastly, as she remembereth the sorrow no more for joy of a man child born into the world; so is it here, John 16:20, Romans 8:17-18.

PETT, "Verses 9-13Micah Describes The Coming Tribulations of Judah But Gives the Final Assurance That In The End YHWH Will Triumph (Micah 4:9-13).

The near future is seen as bleak. Judah and Jerusalem are seen as in despair, without any hope of assistance from their king or counsellors. Indeed they will endure birth pains and will be carried be forced to live in the open countryside, and even some of them in that arch enemy of God, Babylon.

But in the end God will rescue them from there, and deliver them from the hands of their enemies.

It is true that many nations will gather eagerly to see this upstart nation with its upstart God humbled, and watch in delight as their wishes are carried out, but what they are not aware of is that in fact YHWH has gathered those nations so that they might be threshed by the people of God who will be given iron horns and brazen hoofs, so that they can thresh the nations of the world and devote their wealth to YHWH.

We may ask why at this stage mention is made of Babylon. Surely we are dealing with Assyria? The answer is in fact based on what Babylon was in the eyes of Judah and Israel. Babylon was the initial city that raised itself against God (Genesis 11:1-9). It was the leading nation that sought to attack the covenant people (Genesis

14:1). It had become a mighty city full of claims about itself calling itself ‘the glory of the kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldean’s pride’ (Isaiah 13:19); its king set himself up in opposition to the Most High (Isaiah 14:13-14); it saw itself as ‘the Lady of the Kingdoms’ (Isaiah 47:5), it said ‘I am and there is none beside me’ (Isaiah 47:10) and was renowned for luxury, debauchery, idolatry and the occult (Isaiah 47:12-13). It was the centre of evil. It was the very opposite of Jerusalem.

Furthermore we know that exiles had already been carried off to Babylon (Shinar) (Isaiah 11:11), which to a prophet of YHWH must have been the worst fate imaginable. (ote Micah’s ‘even to Babylon’ - Micah 4:10). They were in the hands of God’s Great Enemy, and of all the powers of evil. Thus the hope for the deliverance of God’s people from Babylon is not anachronistic. Compare how Isaiah even moreso saw Babylon as the ultimate enemy even in Assyria’s day (Isaiah 13-14).

So the future of God’s people was not at present a happy one, but the one thing that they could be assured of was that in the end YHWH would triumph. Any failure was theirs not His.

Micah 4:9

“ow why do you cry out aloud? Is there no king in you, is your counsellor perished, that pangs have taken hold of you as of a woman in travail?”Micah visualises the pain of Judah as the advancing Assyrian armies destroy her cities one by one and commit wholesale atrocities. And he asks them why they are so disturbed. Do they not have a king? Do they not remember when they rejected YHWH as their king and thought that to have their own chosen king would solve all their problems (2 Samuel 7:5; 2 Samuel 7:7)? Are their counsellors not still alive, to whom they have listened rather than to the prophets? Why then are they in such anguish? Can it be that these are failing them?

Indeed in the end Hezekiah would plead with YHWH and Jerusalem itself would be spared (2 Kings 19:1-7). But that was still in the future, and even then it did not prevent the rape of Judah.

PULPIT, "Before this glorious revival the prophet foresees calamity and exile in the nearer future; yet he bids the people not to despair. Why dost thou cry out aloud? The prophet hears the cry of Zion, and asks the cause. Septuagint, ἱνατί ἔγνως κακά; "Why knowest thou evils?" from a variation in reading. Is there no king in thee? Hast thou lost thy king? Is this the reason of thy sorrow? The allusion is to the captivity of Jehoiachin and Zedekiah (2 Kings 24:1-20; 2 Kings 25:1-30.). The loss of the king, the representative of the help and favour of God, was a token of the withdrawal of the Divine protection (comp. Lamentations 4:20; Hosea 13:10). Thy counsellor. A synonym for "king." Cheyne notes that the root of melech ("king") in Aramaic means "to counsel." In Isaiah 9:6 Messiah is called "Counsellor." The Septuagint, treating the word as a collective, renders, ἡ βουλή σου, "thy counsel." Pangs, etc. The comparison of sorrow of heart to the anguish of labour pains is very

common (comp. Isaiah 13:8; Jeremiah 6:24; Jeremiah 6:1-30 :43; Hosea 13:13).

BI 9-13, "The Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies

The moral regeneration of the world

I. The state of mankind requires it. “Is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished?” It was more serious for the Jewish people to be deprived of a king than for any other people, for their king was theocratic, he was supposed to be the Voice and vicegerent of God. The prophet means to say, that when the Chaldeans would come and carry them away, they would have no king and no counsellors. Now, men in an unregenerate state—

1. Have no king. A political ruler is to man, as a spiritual existent, only a king in name. He does not command the moral affections, rule the conscience, or legislate for the inner and primal springs of all activity. Such a king is the deep want of man, he wants some one to be enthroned on his heart, to whom his conscience can render homage. No man in an unregenerate state has such a king; he has gods many and lords many, of a sort, but none to rule him, and to bring all the powers of his soul into one harmonious channel of obedience.

2. Have no counsellor. Society abounds with counsellors who proffer their advice; but some of them are wicked, most of them worthless, few, if any, satisfactory, that is, to conscience. What the soul wants, is not the mere book counsellor,—though it be the Bible itself,—but the spirit of that book, the spirit of reverence, love, Christlike trust.

3. Have no ease. “Pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail.” The unregenerate soul is always liable to consternation, remorse, it often writhes in agony. “There is no peace, saith my God, for the wicked.” Now, moral regeneration brings the man a true King, a true Counsellor, a true Peace—a peace “that passeth all understanding.”

II. It is opposed by formidable antagonists. The nations referred to are those that composed the army of Nebuchadnezzar. What formidable opponents there are to the conversion of man!

1. The depraved elements of the soul. Unbelief, selfishness, carnality, etc.

2. The corrupt influence of society. Custom, fashion, amusements, pleasures!

III. It is guaranteed by the Word of Almighty God. The enemies of the Jews were utterly ignorant of God’s purpose to deliver His people from Babylonish Captivity.

1. Man in ignorance fights against God’s purpose.

2. Man, in fighting against God’s purpose, brings ruin on himself.

The nations thought to ruin Christianity in its infancy, but it was victorious over them! (Homilist.).

10 Writhe in agony, Daughter Zion,

like a woman in labor,for now you must leave the city to camp in the open field.You will go to Babylon; there you will be rescued.There the Lord will redeem you out of the hand of your enemies.

BARES. "Be in pain, and labor to bring forth - (Literally, Writhe and burst forth,) as if to say, “thou must suffer, but thy suffering and thy joy shall be one. Thou canst not have the joy without the suffering. As surely as thou sufferest, thou shalt have joy. In all sorrow, lose not faith and hope, and “thou shalt be sorrowful, but thy sorrow shall be turned into joy” Joh_16:20. Cyril: “Good daughter, be very patient in the pangs, bear up against your sorrows,” so shall the birth be nigh. Yet for the time she must “go forth out of the city” into captivity. “And thou shalt dwell in the field,” houseless, under tents, as captives were accustomed to be kept, until all were gathered together to be led away; a sore exchange for her former luxury, and in requital of their oppression Amo_6:1-14; Mic_2:8-9.

And thou shalt go even to Babylon - Not Babylon, but Assyria was the scourge of God in Micah’s time. Babylon was scarcely known, a far country 2Ki_20:14. Yet Micah is taught of God to declare that thither shall the two tribes be carried captive, although the ten were carried captive by Assyria. “There (see the note at Hos_2:15) shalt thou be delivered, there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.” God’s judgments, or purifying trials, or visitation of His saints, hold their way, until their end be reached. They who suffer them cannot turn them aside; they who inflict them cannot add to them or detain them. The prison house is the place of deliverance to Joseph and Peter; the Red Sea to Israel; the judges were raised up, when Israel was mightily oppressed; Jabesh-Gilead was delivered when the seventh day was come 1Sa_11:3, 1Sa_11:10-11; the walls of Jerusalem were the end of Sennacherib; Judah should have long been in the very hand and grasp of Babylon, yet must its clenched hand be opened.

CLARKE, "There shalt thou be delivered - There God shall meet thee; and by redeeming thee from thy captivity, bringing thee back to thine own land, and finally converting thee unto himself, shall deliver thee from the burden of grief and wo which thou now bearest, and under which thou dost groan.

GILL, "Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion,

like a woman in travail,.... Bear thy troubles and calamities, sufferings and sorrows, patiently, and expect deliverance from them, as a woman in such circumstances does: or, as some render it in the future, "thou shalt be in pain", &c. (y); and so is a prediction of their distress and captivity, which is expressed in plainer terms in the following clauses:

for now shalt thou go forth out of the city; the city of Jerusalem; either by flight, in a private and secret manner, as Zedekiah and his princes, and part of his army did; or by force, being taken and led out by the enemy:

and thou shalt dwell in the field; being turned out of their houses, they were obliged to lodge in the fields, while they were collected together, and in a body marched as captives to Babylon; and while on the road lay in the open fields, and not in houses, who had been used to dwell in a city, and in their panelled houses; but now even their city itself was ploughed like a field, as before predicted:

and thou shalt go even to Babylon; to the city of Babylon, as their king did, and many of them also; and others of them into various parts of that kingdom: this is a clear prophecy of the Babylonish captivity, which came to pass upwards of a hundred years after this:

there shalt thou be delivered; after seventy years captivity, by the hand of Cyrus; who taking the city of Babylon, and making himself master of the whole empire, delivered the Jews from their bondage, and gave them liberty to return to their own land:

there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies; the Chaldeans: and this was typical of the deliverance and redemption of all the Lord's people from the hand of all their spiritual enemies; from Satan and the world, law, death, and hell; by the blood of the great Redeemer, and near kinsman of his people, the Lord Jesus Christ.

HERY 10-13, " Jerusalem made easy by the promises of God: “Why dost thou cry out aloud? Let thy griefs and fears be silenced; indulge not thyself in them, for, though things are bad with thee, they shall end well; thy pangs are great, but they are like those of a woman in travail (Mic_4:9), that labours to bring forth (Mic_4:10), the issue of which will be good at last.” Jerusalem's pangs are not as dying agonies, but as travailing throes, which after a while will be forgotten, for joy that a child is born into the world. Let the literal Jerusalem comfort herself with this, that, whatever straits she may be reduced to, she shall continue until the coming of the Messiah, for there his kingdom must be first set up, and she shall not be destroyed while that blessing is in her; and when at length she is ploughed as a field, and become heaps (as is threatened, Mic_3:12), yet her privileges shall be resigned to the spiritual Jerusalem, and in that the promises made to her shall be fulfilled. Let Jerusalem be easy then, for, (1.) Her captivity in Babylon shall have an end, a happy end (Mic_4:10): There shalt thou be delivered, and the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thy enemies there. This was done by Cyrus, who acted therein as God's servant; and that deliverance was typical of our redemption by Jesus Christ, and the release from our spiritual bondage which is proclaimed in the everlasting gospel, that acceptable year of the Lord, in which Christ himself preached liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those that

were bound, Luk_4:18, Luk_4:19. (2.) The designs of her enemies against her afterwards shall be baffled, nay, they shall turn upon themselves, Mic_4:12, Mic_4:13. They promise themselves a day of it, but it shall prove God's day. They are gathered against Zion, to destroy it, but it shall prove to their own destruction, which Israel and Israel's God shall have the glory of. [1.] Their coming together against Zion shall be the occasion of their ruin. They associate themselves, and gird themselves, that they may break Jerusalem in pieces, but it will prove that they shall be broken in pieces, Isa_8:9. They know not the thoughts of the Lord. When they are gathering together, and Providence favours them in it, they little think what God is designing by it, nor do they understand his counsel; they know what they aim at in coming together, but they know not what God aims at in bringing them together; they aim at Zion's ruin, but God aims at theirs. Note, When men are made use of as instruments of Providence in accomplishing its purposes it is very common for them to intend one thing and for God to intend quite the contrary. The king of Assyria is to be a rod in God's hand for the correction of his people, in order to their reformation; howbeit he means not so, nor does his heart think so, Isa_10:7. And thus it is here; the nations are gathered against Zion, as soldiers into the field, but God gathers them as sheaves into the floor, to be beaten to pieces; and they could not have been so easily, so effectually, destroyed, if they had not gathered together against Zion. Note, The designs of enemies for the ruin of the church often prove ruining to themselves; and thereby they prepare themselves for destruction and put themselves in the way of it; they are snared in the work of their own hands. [2.] Zion shall have the honour of being victorious over them, Mic_4:13. When they are gathered as sheaves into the floor, to be trodden down, as the corn then was by the oxen, then, “Arise, and thresh, O daughter of Zion! instead of fearing them, and fleeing from them, boldly set upon them, and take the opportunity Providence favours thee with of trampling upon them. Plead not thy own weakness, and that thou art not a match for so many confederated enemies; God will make thy horn iron, to push them down, and thy hoofs brass, to tread upon them when they are down; and thus thou shalt beat in pieces many people, that have long been beating thee in pieces.” Thus, when God pleases, the daughter of Babylon is made a threshing floor (it is time to thresh her, Jer_51:33), and the worm Jacob is made a threshing instrument, with which God will thresh the mountains, and make them as chaff, Isa_41:14, Isa_41:15. How strangely, how happily, are the tables turned, since Jacob was the threshing-floor and Babylon the threshing instrument! Isa_21:10. Note, When God has conquering work for his people to do he will furnish them with strength and ability for it, will make the horn iron and the hoofs brass; and, when he does so, they must exert the power he gives them, and execute the commission; even the daughter of Zion must arise, and thresh. [3.] The glory of the victory shall redound to God. Zion shall thresh these sheaves in the floor, but the corn threshed out shall be a meat-offering at God's altar: I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord (that is, I will have it consecrated) and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth. The spoils gained by Zion's victory shall be brought into the sanctuary, and devoted to God, either in part, as those of Midian (Num_31:28), or in whole, as those of Jericho, Jos_6:17. God is Jehovah, the fountain of being; he is the Lord of the whole earth, the fountain of power; and therefore he needs not any of our gain or substance, but may challenge and demand it all if he please; and with ourselves we must devote all we have to his honour, to be employed as he directs. Thus far all we have must have holiness to the Lord written upon it, all our gain and substance must be consecrated to the Lord of the whole earth, Isa_23:18. And extraordinary successes call for extraordinary acknowledgments, whether they be of spoils in war or gains in trade. It is God that gives us power to get wealth, which way soever it is honestly got, and therefore he must be honoured with what we get. Some make all this to point at the defeat of

Sennacherib when he besieged Jerusalem, others to the destruction of Babylon, others to the successes of the Maccabees; but the learned Dr. Pocock and others think it had its full accomplishment in the spiritual victories obtained by the gospel of Christ over the powers of darkness that fought against it. The nations thought to ruin Christianity in its infancy, but it was victorious over them; those that persisted in their enmity were broken to pieces (Mat_21:44), particularly the Jewish nation; but multitudes by divine grace were gained to the church, and they and their substance were consecrated to the Lord Jesus, the Lord of the whole earth.

JAMISO, "Be in pain, and labour— carrying on the metaphor of a pregnant woman. Thou shalt be affected with bitter sorrows before thy deliverance shall come. I do not forbid thy grieving, but I bring thee consolation. Though God cares for His children, yet they must not expect to be exempt from trouble, but must prepare for it.

go forth out of the city— on its capture. So “come out” is used 2Ki_24:12; Isa_36:16.

dwell in the field— namely, in the open country, defenseless, instead of their fortified city. Beside the Chebar (Psa_137:1; Eze_3:15).

Babylon— Like Isaiah, Micah looks beyond the existing Assyrian dynasty to the Babylonian, and to Judah’s captivity under it, and restoration (Isa_39:7; Isa_43:14; Isa_48:20). Had they been, as rationalists represent, merely sagacious politicians, they would have restricted their prophecies to the sphere of the existing Assyrian dynasty. But their seeing into the far-off future of Babylon’s subsequent supremacy, and Judah’s connection with her, proves them to be inspired prophets.

there ... there — emphatic repetition. The very scene of thy calamities is to be the scene of thy deliverance. In the midst of enemies, where all hope seems cut off, thereshall Cyrus, the deliverer, appear (compare Jdg_14:14). Cyrus again being the type of the greater Deliverer, who shall finally restore Israel.

CALVI, "Why then has pain laid hold on thee as on one in travail? Be in pain, he says, and groan; (132) that is, I will not prevent thee to grieve and to mourn; as though he said, “Certainly even the strongest cannot look on calamities so dreadful, without suffering the heaviest sorrow; but though God may for a time subject his children to the greatest tortures, and expose them to the most grievous evils, he will yet restore them at length from their exile.” Thou shalt depart, he says, from the city, and dwell in the field: thou shalt come even to Babylon; but there thou shalt be delivered; there shall Jehovah redeem thee from the hand of thy enemies The import of the whole is, that though God would have a care for his people, as he had promised, there was yet no cause for the faithful to flatter themselves, as though they were to be exempt from troubles; but the Prophet, on the contrary, exhorts them to prepare themselves to undergo calamities, as they were not only to be ejected from their country, and to wander in strange lands like vagrants, but were to be led away into Babylon as to their grave.

But to strengthen the minds of the faithful to bear the cross, he gives them a hope of deliverance, and says, that God would there deliver them, and there redeem them from the hand of their enemies. He repeats the adverb, שם, shem, there, twice, and not without cause: for the faithful might have excluded every hope of deliverance, as though the gate of God’s power had been closed. And this is the reason why the

Prophet repeats twice, there, there; even from the grave he will deliver and redeem thee: “Extend then your hope, not only to a small measure of favor, as though God could deliver you only from a state of some small danger, but even to death itself. Though then ye lay, as it were, in your graves, yet doubt not but that God will stretch forth his hand to you, for he will be your deliverer. God then in whose power is victory, can overcome many and innumerable deaths.”

COFFMA, "Verse 10"For now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and shalt dwell in the field, and shalt come even unto Babylon: there shalt thou be rescued; there will Jehovah redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies."

"For now shalt thou go forth ..." Again the temporal "now" focuses upon events much nearer in the future than the ultimate establishment of Messiah's kingdom. The people's going to dwell in the field signified their complete military defeat, an event that lay much nearer at hand.

"Thou shalt come even unto Babylon ..." Satan has a fit about this; but here it is, uttered a full century and more before the event, giving God's people an example of predictive prophecy unsurpassed, although frequently equaled in the Bible. Being unable to mount any convincing argument for excluding the passage from the Bible, the enemies of the word assert that Micah "thought his prophecy would be fulfilled by the Assyrians," thus alleging a contradiction based upon what they suppose the prophet thought. It is an old and very reprehensible device. At the time Micah wrote, Babylon did not even exist as an independent power, Assyria being the dominant world power at that time; "But Micah's seeing into the far-off future of Babylon's subsequent supremacy and Judah's connection with that proves him to be an inspired prophet."[31]

As is always the case with the great predictive prophecies in the Bible, this one also is multiple in meaning. The going of Israel to Babylon will come about because of military disaster, indicated by their going forth out of the city and dwelling in the field. The slavery of the people is indicated by their "dwelling" in the field, the usual habitation of slaves. The rescue and redemption of the people are also prophesied at the same time.

See the discussion of The Bible's Predictive Prophecies under Micah 5:2.

Students should keep continually in mind the summary of this study on Micah 4:10 by W. J. Deane, a scholar ranking very much higher than some of those claiming to be "the best." He wrote:

"There is no reason to consider that the reference to Babylon is the interpolation of a late editor of the prophetic writings."[32]Much of the writing of the prophets states the glorious realities of spiritual truth in materialistic terms, leading to the oft-observed phenonenon of a double fulfillment.

Such is true of this Micah 4:10. Israel's captivity in Babylon was, first of all, a spiritual thing. Having taken up the worship of the idol-gods of the Canaanites, they were in spiritual darkness, suffering under the captivity of sin and wickedness; and their going "unto Babylon" was a spiritual thing also, "Babylon" having stood throughout the ages as a synonym for sin and rebellion against God. In that sense, Israel went into Babylon before their conquest either by Assyria or Babylon.

But it was a real, historical event that Micah prophesied here. Israel was destined literally to be carried away into Babylonian captivity, a prophecy fulfilled by ebuchadnezzar and his generals who destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C.

There was also a double fulfillment of the prophecy that, "There shalt thou be rescued ... redeemed." It was literally fulfilled under Cyrus who released the Jews from slavery, aiding and encouraging their return to Jerusalem a full seventy years after their captivity began. "It is further being fulfilled under Christ, in the rescue of the true Israelites from the bondage of sin and the world."[33]

COSTABLE, "Verse 10The Israelites would leave Jerusalem as a woman in labor. They would have to live in a field temporarily until they arrived in Babylon, but in Babylon the Lord would eventually rescue and redeem them. He would deliver them from captivity and return them to the land. This is one of the earliest references to the Babylonian Captivity in prophetic Scripture (cf. Isaiah 39:1-7).

This prediction of captivity in Babylon was unusual in Micah"s day, because then Assyria was the great threat to the Israelites. The Babylonian deportations came a century later. In Micah"s day Babylon was part of the Assyrian Empire. Probably "Babylon" here has a double meaning: the historic Babylon of ebuchadnezzar"s day and the future Babylon, the symbol of Gentile power that has held Israel captive since ebuchadnezzar (cf. Genesis 10:10; Genesis 11:4-9; Revelation 17-18).

"God chose Babylon because in Micah"s pagan world it functioned as the equivalent of Rome in the Middle Ages and of Mecca in Islam. The darkest land will become the place where the daylight of the new age dawns." [ote: Ibid, p179.]

Micah had just prophesied an eschatological redemption of Israel, and that future vision stayed with him ( Micah 4:1-8).

TRAPP, "Micah 4:10 Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go [even] to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.

Ver. 10. Be in pain and labour to briny forth, &c.] Be sensible of thine ensuing captivity, and take on; but yet with hope of a gracious deliverance in due time. {See Trapp on "Micah 4:9"} It is no less a fault to despise the chastening of the Lord

than to faint when thou art rebuked, Hebrews 12:5. The hypocrite in heart heapeth up wrath, saith Elihu, and why? he crieth not when God bindeth him, Job 36:13. The wicked, saith Hannah, are silent in darkness, and shall therefore lie down in sorrow, 1 Samuel 2:9, Isaiah 50:10. This is not patience, but pertinace, the strength of stones and flesh of brass, Job 6:12. It is not valour, but apathy, stupidity, and indolence, much complained of in Scripture, and threatened with a succession of sorrows, Leviticus 26:18; Leviticus 26:28, seven more, and seven more, and seven to that. Three times in that chapter God raiseth his note of threatening, and he raiseth it by sevens, and those are discords in music. Such sayings will be heavy, songs, and their execution heavy pangs; worse than those of a woman in travail.

For now shalt thou go forth out of the city] This now occured not out of a hundred years after. Foul weather seldom rotteth in the air. Time weareth not out God’s threatenings, ullum tempus occurrit Regi, nedum Deo: Time can be no prejudice to the Ancient of days; sooner or later his word shall be accomplished. When the sins of the Amorites are full they shall be sure of their payment. The bottle of wickedness, when once filled with those bitter waters, will sink to the bottom.

And thou shalt dwell in the field] Sub dio, under daylight, having no canopy over thee but the azured sky; so little account is made of poor captives: if they may have the open air to breathe in, though they lie without doors, it is better than a stinking dungeon, or to be shut up close under hatches among the excrements of nature, as Barbarossa’s Christian prisoners taken in Greece were; so that all the way as he went home with them to Constantinople, every hour almost some of them were cast dead overboard.

And thou shalt go even to Babylon] There to dwell among plants and hedges, making flowerpots for a foreign prince. "There they dwelt with the king for his work," 1 Chronicles 4:23.

There shalt thou be delivered, there the Lord shall redeem thee] This "there" is as emphatic as that "yet" so often repeated Zechariah 1:17. {See Trapp on "Zechariah 1:17"} It seemed improbable to many, and to some impossible, that ever they should return out of Babylon. But God effected it, to the great astonishment of his poor people, who were like them that dream, Psalms 126:1 and could scarcely believe their own eyes. God loves to deliver those that are forsaken of their hopes. Ad nos ergo transferamus promissionem istam, saith Gualther upon the text. Let us apply this promise to ourselves; and as often as we are pinched with poverty, or tormented with diseases, or cast out into banishment, or are in any great danger by water or land, or under terrors of conscience, let us think we hear God thus speaking to us, "There shalt thou be delivered: there will I redeem thee."

PETT, "Micah 4:10

“Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now you will go forth out of the city, and will dwell in the field, and will come even unto Babylon. There will you be rescued; there will YHWH redeem you from the hand of your enemies.”Thus because they have not trusted in YHWH they must go through their birth pains, and in the end the inhabitants of Zion will be carried off into the open countryside (the field) and will find themselves ‘even in Babylon’, in Jewish eyes the worst of all possible fates. Because they have been evil they will be totally given up to all that is evil. There is a hint here of the Exodus when Israel left Egypt, and were in the wilderness, before they arrived in Canaan. It is an Exodus in reverse, but to an even worse nation, Babylon.

It was only because Hezekiah humbled himself before YHWH that this future was delayed. But he was warned that because he had failed in the matter of making a peace treaty with Babylon exile in Babylon for his sons and other leading Israelites was only a matter of time (Isaiah 39:6-7), and in fact under his son Manasseh some would be carried off to Babylon, including even Manasseh himself (2 Chronicles 33:11 - Assyria had made Babylon one of its seats of power). This prophecy by Micah was presumably made after that warning of YHWH concerning Babylon had been given to Hezekiah.

But it would not mean that all was lost, because YHWH would rescue them from Babylon, and redeem them from the hand of their enemies. And that is precisely what happened with Manasseh when he repented and sought YHWH (2 Chronicles 33:12-13).

Micah’s words were even more completely fulfilled when Babylon became Israel’s chief adversary and destroyed Jerusalem and carried off its inhabitants to Babylon over a hundred years later.

PULPIT, "Be in pain. The anguish is not to be resisted, but shall end, like birth pains, in deliverance. Septuagint, ωδινε καὶ ἀνδρίζου καὶ ἔγγιζε, "Be in pain, and do bravely, and draw near," which is like Aeneas's encouragement to his friends (Virgil, 'AEneid,' 1.207)—

"Durate, et vosmet rebus servate secundis."

For now shalt thou go forth. The prophet leaves his metaphor, and announces that the people shall "go forth" into captivity. He says "now,"as having the scene before his eyes. They must leave their city, live shelterless in the open country, be carried to a distant land, even to Babylon. Shall dwell in the field; i.e. while they are making their way to the place of their captivity. Thou shall go even to Babylon. This is simple prophecy, and could have been known to Micah only by inspiration. In his day Assyria was the enemy whom Israel had to dread (as Micah 5:5, Micah 5:6), Babylon being at this time in the position of a conquered country, and not becoming again powerful and independent for another century, So Isaiah prophesied of the

captivity to Babylon (Isaiah 39:3-8), if modern critics have not shaken our faith in the genuineness of that chapter. Micah does not define the time of the Captivity, or the agents; he notes merely the place whither the Jews were at last to be deported. Even in this case "Babylon" may have its typical import, and be taken to represent the great world power arrayed against the chosen race; and the prophecy may look forward to other fulfilments in succeeding ages. Some commentators think that Babylon is here mentioned as the most distant country known, or as a portion of the Assyrian empire. Others suppose that Sargon transported some Israelitish captives to Babylon to replace the rebellious Babylonians whom he exiled to Palestine, and that thus Micah was naturally led to represent the Judaeans as following their brethren. Whichever explanation we take, there is no reason to consider that the reference to Babylon is the interpolation of a late editor of the prophetic writings. There shall thou be delivered. In Babylon deliverance shall arise. This prophecy was first literally fulfilled in the return from captivity under Cyrus; it is further fulfilled, under Christ, in the rescue of the true Israelites from the bondage of sin and the world.

11 But now many nations are gathered against you.They say, “Let her be defiled, let our eyes gloat over Zion!”

BARES. "Now also - (And now.) The prophet had already spoken of the future before them, with this word Now. Then, he distinctly prophesied the captivity to Babylon. Twice more he begins anew; as Holy Scripture, so often, in a mystery, whether speaking of evil or of good, of deliverance or of punishment, uses a threefold form. In these two, no mention is made of the enemy, and so there is some uncertainty. But the course must apparently be either backward or forward. They must either be two nearer futures before the Captivity, or two more distant after it. This second gathering might, in itself, either be that of the Assyrian hosts under Sennacherib out of all the nations subject to him; or that of the many petty nations in the time of the Maccabees, who took advantage of the Syrians’ oppression, to combine to eradicate the Jews (1 Macc. 5:1, 2). If understood of Sennacherib, the prophet, having foretold the entire captivity of the whole people to Babylon, would have prophesied the sudden destruction of a nearer

enemy, whose miraculous and instantaneous overthrow should be the earnest of the destruction of Babylon and of their deliverance from it. This would suit well with the description, “He shall gather them as sheaves to the floor,” and would correspond well with the descriptions in Isaiah. On the other hand, whereas this description would suit any other event, in which man gathered his strength against God and was overthrown, the following words, “Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion,” etc., fit better with the victories of the Maccabees, in which Israel was active, than with the overthrow of Sennacherib, in which they were wholly passive, and God did all for them, as Isaiah and Nahum foretell the same overthrow Isa_10:24-34; Isa_14:24, Isa_14:5; Isa_17:12-14; Isa_29:7-8; Nah_1:10-13. Then also, if the course of the description was backward:

1) the captivity in Babylon

2) the destruction of Sennacherib

There is no earlier event to correspond with “the smiting of the judge of Israel on the cheek” (Mic_5:1-4 in Hebrew). The malice also of the nations gathered against Zion suits better with the abiding character of the petty nations, and of their hereditary envy against Israel and its high claims. To Nineveh and Babylon, Israel was but one little corner of ground, which rounded their territory and connected them with Egypt. They disdained them, even while they sought to subdue them. Micah describes the exultation of petty gratified rivalry.

That say, let her be defiled - The bad have a keen eye for the haltings and inconsistencies and falls of God’s people, for which they are ever on the watch. Like Satan, they are first tempters, then the accusers; first desecrators, then sanctimonious justiciaries. God, in His judgment, leaves what has been inwardly defiled to be outwardly profaned. “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple are ye” 1Co_3:17. “The faithful city had become a harlot” Isa_1:21. “The land had become polluted by its inhabitants” Jer_3:9; Psa_106:38; Isa_24:5. Now it was to be polluted by the enemy. Its seducers ask for the judgment of God. “It has become like us in its deeds; let it no more be distinguished from us by the name of the people of God.”

And let our eye look upon Zion - With pleasure upon its desolation, and feed itself with its misery. : “Where the eye, there love; where the hand, there pain.” “They opened their mouth wide against me: they said, Aha, Aha, our eye hath seen” Psa_35:21. The world hates the Church; Edom, Israel; it cannot be satisfied with beholding its chastisements Mic_7:10; Oba_1:12. The sufferings of the Martyrs were the choice spectacle of the pagan.

CLARKE, "Many nations are gathered against thee - The Chaldeans, who were composed of many nations. And, we may add, all the surrounding nations were their enemies; and rejoiced when the Chaldean army had overthrown Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and led the people away captive.

Let her be defiled - This was their cry and their wish: Let Jerusalem be laid as low as she can be, like a thing defiled and cast away with abhorrence; that their eyes might look upon Zion with scorn, contempt, and exultation.

GILL, "Now also many nations are gathered against thee,.... Which is to be understood, not of Sennacherib's army invading Judea, and besieging Jerusalem, in

Hezekiah's time; for that was not threshed, as the phrase is afterwards used, or destroyed by the daughter of Zion, but by an angel from heaven: nor of the Babylonians or Chaldeans, since they succeeded in their attempt, and were the conquerors, and not conquered: rather this respects the times of the Maccabees, as the series of prophecy and history agreeing together shows; in which times many of the neighbouring nations of the Jews gave them a great deal of trouble, and especially Antiochus king of Syria; and many and mighty armies sent by him. The Jews, as Kimchi, Aben Ezra, and Abarbinel (z), interpret this of the armies of Gog and Magog, in the times of their vainly expected Messiah. Some Christian interpreters, with much more probability, understand this passage of the first times of the Gospel, and the opposition made to that and the Christian church, which yet in the issue prevailed; and perhaps it may have reference to the last times, and receive its full accomplishment in the battle at Armageddon, Rev_16:14;

that say, let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion; either defiled with sin; so the Targum,

"that say, when will she sin, and our eye shall behold the fall of Zion?''

as the effect of her sin: or, as others, "let her play the hypocrite" (a); and be condemned as such: or rather, be defiled with slaughter and bloodshed, that they might be delighted with so pleasing a sight, and their eyes might feed with pleasure on an object so agreeable to their wishes.

JAMISO, "many nations— the subject peoples composing Babylon’s armies: and also Edom, Ammon, etc., who exulted in Judah’s fall (Lam_2:16; Oba_1:11-13).

defiled— metaphor from a virgin. Let her be defiled (that is, outraged by violence and bloodshed), and let our eye gaze insultingly on her shame and sorrow (Mic_7:10). Her foes desired to feast their eyes on her calamities.

K&D 11-13, "The daughter Zion, when rescued from Babel, overcomes all hostile powers in the strength of her God. Mic_4:11. “And now many nations have assembled together against thee, who say, Let her be profaned, and let our eyes look upon Zion.Mic_4:12. But they know not the thoughts of Jehovah, and understand not His counsel; for He has gathered them together like sheaves for the threshing-floor.Mic_4:13. Rise up and thresh, O daughter Zion: for I make thy horn iron, and I make thy hoofs brass; and thou wilt crush many nations: and I ban their gain to Jehovah, and their

substance to the Lord of the whole earth.” With וע(ה, corresponding to ע(ה in Mic_4:9,

there commences a new scene, which opens to the prophet's mental eye. Many nations

have assembled together against the daughter Zion ( _in Mic �ת צRון pointing back to עליך

4:10), with the intention of profaning her, and feasting their eyes upon the profaned one.

It is the holiness of Zion, therefore, which drives the nations to attack her. חנף), let her be or become profaned: not by the sins or bloodguiltiness of her inhabitants (Jer_3:2; Isa_24:5), for this is not appropriate in the mouths of heathen; but through devastation or destruction let her holiness be taken from her. They want to show that there is nothing

in her holiness, and to feast their eyes upon the city thus profaned. חזה with ב, to look

upon a thing with interest, here with malicious pleasure. On the singular tachaz, followed

by the subject in the plural, see Ewald §317, a. To this design on the part of the heathen, the prophet (Mic_4:12) opposes the counsel of the Lord. Whilst the heathen assemble together against Zion, with the intention of profaning her by devastation, the Lord has resolved to destroy them in front of Zion. The destruction which they would prepare for Zion will fall upon themselves, for the Lord gathers them together like sheaves upon the

threshing-floor, to thresh, i.e., destroy, them. יC does not mean “that,” but “for.” The

sentence explains the assertion that they do not understand the counsel of the Lord.

C, with the generic article, equivalent to “like sheaves.” This judgment Zion is toעמיר

execute upon the heathen. The figurative expression, “Rise up, and thresh,” etc., rests upon the oriental custom of threshing out corn with oxen, i.e., of having it trodden out with their hoofs (see Paulsen, Ackerbau der Morgenländer, §41). In this, of course, only the strength of the hoofs was considered. But as the horn of the ox is a figure frequently used for destructive power (see Deu_33:17; 1Ki_22:11; Amo_6:13, etc.), the prophet combines this figure, to strengthen the idea of crushing power, and express the thought that the Lord will equip Zion perfectly with the strength requisite to destroy the nations.

is the first person, and must not be altered into or regarded as the second, as it והחרמ(י

has been in the lxx and Syriac, and by Jerome. The prophet does not speak in the name of the theocratic nation, as Jerome supposes, but continues to represent Jehovah as

speaking, as in שיםM, with which, however, instead of לי, the noun ליהוה is used, to give greater clearness to the thought that it is Jehovah, the God and Lord of the whole earth, who will destroy the nations that have rebelled against Him and His kingdom, wresting their possessions from them, and taking them back to Himself. For everything laid under

the ban belonged to the Lord, as being most holy (Lev_27:28). חיל, property, wealth, the

sum and substance of the possessions. Israel is not to enrich itself by plundering the defeated foe, but Jehovah will sanctify the possessions of the heathen to Himself, to whom they belong as Lord of the whole earth, by laying them under the ban: that is to say, He will apply them to the glorification of His kingdom.

There has been a diversity of opinion as to the historical allusion, or the fulfilment of these verses. So much, however, is obvious at the very outset, namely, that they cannot be made to refer to the same event as Mic_4:9, that is to say, to the siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrians, without bringing the prophet into the most striking contradiction to himself. For, since Mic_4:10 predicts not a partial deportation, but the complete carrying away of Israel to Babel, and Mic_4:13 the perfect deliverance of Jerusalem, the people wandering out of Jerusalem into captivity (Mic_4:10) cannot possibly be the enemies who lead it away, beating it utterly before Jerusalem, and banning their possessions to the Lord. There is more to favour the allusion to the victorious conflicts of the Maccabees with the Syrians, for which Theodoret, Calvin, Hengstenberg, and others decide, since these conflicts occurred in the period intervening between the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity (Mic_4:10) and the coming of the Messiah (Mic_5:12). But even this allusion corresponds far too little to the words of the promise for us to be able to regard it as correct. Although, for example, the war of the Maccabees was a religious war in the strict sense of the word, since the Syrians, and with them the small neighbouring nations of the Jews, set themselves to attack Judah as the nation of God,

and to exterminate Judaism, the gōyı5m rabbı5m who have assembled against Zion, and

whom the Lord gathers together thither (Mic_4:11, Mic_4:12), point to a much greater even than the attacks made by the Syrians and the surrounding tribes upon Jerusalem in

the time of the Maccabees. Gōyı5, rabbı5m (many nations) points back to gōyı5m rabbı5m and

‛ammı5m rabbı5m in Mic_4:2 and Mic_4:3, so that, both here and there, all the nations of

the world that are hostile to God are included. Again, the defeat which they suffer before Jerusalem is much greater than the victory which the Maccabees achieved over their enemies. On the other hand, the circumstance that the Babylonian captivity is predicted in Mic_4:10, and the birth of the Messiah in Mic_5:1-2, and that the victorious conflicts of the Maccabees with the Syrians and the heathen neighbours of the Jews lie in the interim between these events, furnishes no sufficient proof that these conflicts must be referred to in Mic_4:11-13, simply because the assumption that, in Mic_4:9 -14, the attacks of the Chaldaeans, the Graeco-Syrians, and the Romans upon Zion are foretold in the order in which they followed one another in history, has no firm basis in the

threefold recurrence of ‛attâh (now) in Mic_4:9, Mic_4:11, and Mic_5:1. As an event is

introduced with ‛attâh in Mic_5:9, which does not follow the one predicted in Mic_5:8 in

chronological sequence, but, on the contrary, the prophet comes back in ve‛attâh from the

more remote to the more immediate future, it cannot be inferred from the ‛attâh in Mic_

5:1 that the oppression mentioned there must follow the victory over many nations predicted in Mic_4:11-13 in chronological order, or that the siege and capture of Jerusalem by the Romans are referred to in Rom_5:1. Moreover, the proclamation in Rom_5:10 already goes beyond the Chaldaean catastrophe, and the liberation of the

Jews from the Chaldaean exile, so that if the ve‛attâh in Rom_5:12 announces a conflict

with Zion which will follow the events predicted in Rom_5:9 and Rom_5:10, we must not restrict the conflict to the wars of the Maccabees. We must therefore understand these verses as referring to the events already predicted by Joel (ch. 3), and afterwards by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 38, 39) and Zechariah (Zec_12:1-14), and in Rev_20:8.: i.e., to the last great attack which the nations of the world will make upon the church of the Lord, that has been redeemed from Babel and sanctified, with the design of exterminating the holy city of God from the face of the earth, and to which the attacks of the Syrians, and the rest of the nations surrounding Judah, upon the covenant nation in the times of the Maccabees, furnished but a feeble prelude. This view is favoured by the unmistakeable similarity between our verses and both Joel and Ezekiel.

The ר�ים in Mic_4:12, points clearly ק�צם in Mic_4:11, compared with נאספו עליך �ויים

back to את־ה�וים in Mic_4:11; and the figure in ונק�צו in Joe_3:2, compared with וק�צ(י

Mic_4:12, of the gathering together of the nations like sheaves for the threshing-floor, to the similar figures of the ripening of the harvest and the treading of the full wine-press

in Joe_3:13. And the use of gōyı5m rabbı5m in Micah is no reason for supposing that it

differs in meaning from the kol-haggōyı5m of Joel, since Micah uses gōyı5m rabbı5m in Mic_

4:2 and Mic_4:3 for the totality of the nations of the world. Ezekiel, also, simply speaks

of gōyı5m rabbı5m as assembling together with Gog to attack the mountains of Israel (Eze_

38:6, Eze_38:9, Eze_38:15); and in his case also, this attack of the nations upon Jerusalem is appended to the redemption of Israel effected at Babel. Again, the issue of this attack is the same in Micah as in Joel, Ezekiel, and Zechariah, - namely, the complete overthrow of the hostile nations by the people of Israel, who fight in the strength of the Lord, by which Jehovah manifests Himself to all nations as Lord of the whole earth, and proves Himself to be the Holy One (compare Mic_4:13 with Joe_3:12-13, and Eze_38:16; Eze_39:3.). Lastly, a decisive proof of the correctness of this allusion

is to be found in the circumstance, that the attack of the nations is directed against Zion, which has now become holy, that it proceeds from hatred and enmity to His holiness, and has for its object the desecration of the city of God. This feature is by no means applicable to Jerusalem and Judah in the time of the Maccabees, but can only apply to the time when Israel, redeemed from Babel, forms a holy church of God, i.e., to the last period of the development of the kingdom of God, which began with Christ, but has not yet reached its fullest manifestation. “From the fact, however, that Zion, when sanctified, is to be delivered out of much greater danger than that from which it will not be delivered in the immediate future, and also that the refined and sanctified Zion will conquer and destroy an incomparably greater hostile force than that to which it will now soon succumb, it follows, in the clearest and most conclusive way, that in the nearest future it must be given up to the power of the world, because it is now unholy” (Caspari). This thought prepares the way for the transition to Mic_5:1, where the prophecy returns to the oppression foretold in Mic_4:9 and Mic_4:10.

CALVI, "The Prophet’s object here is to give some alleviation to the faithful lest they should succumb under their calamities; for, as we have stated, there were most grievous evils approaching, sufficient to overwhelm the minds of the godly. The Prophet then raises up here, with the moat suitable comfort, those who would have otherwise fainted under their calamities; and the sum of the whole is this, — that the faithful were not to be confounded on finding the ungodly proudly triumphing, as they are wont to do, when they seem to have gained their wishes. Since, then, the wicked show a petulant spirit beyond all bounds, the Prophet exhorts the faithful to sustain themselves by God’s promises, and not to care for such insolence. He then subjoins a promise, — that God would assemble all the forces of their enemies, as when one gathers many ears of corn into a bundle, that he may thrash them on the floor. I will come now to the words of the Prophet.

Assemble, he says, against thee do nations, or strong nations: for, by saying, גוים רבים, guim rebim, he intimates one of two things, either that they were strong, or that they were large in number: as to the subject there is no great difference. The Prophet had this in view, — that though the Church of God may be pressed by a great multitude of enemies, it yet ought not to be broken down in mind: for the ungodly, while they cruelly domineer, do not understand the design of God. Assemble, then, against thee do many nations He sets the thing before them, to heal them of terror: for when we are beyond the reach of harm, we, for the most part, too heedlessly despise all dangers; and then, when we come to a real struggle, we tremble, or even fall and become wholly weak. This is the reason why the Prophet sets before the Jews their prospects, and shows that the time was near when they were to endure a siege, as enemies would, on all sides, surround them. Assemble then do nations, and strong or many nations: he shows here that the Jews had no reason to despond, though their enemies would far exceed them in number, and in forces, and in courage, for it was enough for them to be under the protection of God.

Who say, condemned now shall be Zion (133) The verb חנף, chenaph, means to act wickedly and perversely. It may then be literally rendered, ‘profane (scelerata) shall be Zion; and on it shall our eye look:’ but this word is often taken metaphorically

for condemnation. The meaning then is, ‘Zion is now condemned:’ and the Prophet, no doubt, intended to intimate here, that the enemies would so triumph, as though Zion were not under the guardianship of God; as when any one, who has rendered himself hateful by his vices, is left and forsaken by his patrons. So, then, the Prophet here arms the faithful against the arrogance of their enemies, that they might not despair, when they found that they were condemned by the consent of all men, and that this was the opinion of all, — that they were forsaken by God.

Who say, Let her be defiled, And let our eye see its desireon Zion.

Profaned, or defiled, it is no doubt the meaning of the verb. But it is better to retain the future tense here, though it may often, in the third person, be rendered as an imperative. To look on, is a Hebrew idiom, and means often to triumph or exalt over another, or to gain the upper hand. See Psalms 22:17; Psalms 118:7. Several copies have the word for “eyes” in the singular number, as the verb is so: but anomalies of this kind often occur, as it is the case in Greek with respect to plural nouns in the neuter gender, and in Welsh, and when the verb precedes its nominative, almost in all instances. I offer the following version, —

Who say, “Defiled shall she be, And look on Zion shall our eyes.”

— Ed.

COFFMA, "Verse 11"And now many nations are assembled against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye see our desire upon Zion."

The rescue and redemption of God's people, whether from literal slavery in Babylon, or from the pursuit of sin and unrighteousness, is by no means the end of the world's hatred and opposition. The literal fulfillment occurred in the opposition of the surrounding nations to Israel's rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem; and in the larger theater of world-history, the hatred and warfare of the world against the church are never for one moment abated.

"Many nations are assembled against thee ..." In this verse, the prophecy moves dramatically toward the final judgment of all the world, an event to be preceded by the hatred of the nations of the world against the truth, and against God's people. The ultimate and terminal alignment of the nations of mankind against God will be accomplished through the cunning manipulation of Satan, organizing all the world against God, a maneuver made possible by the choice, at that time, by the vast majority of humanity to walk in darkness rather than light, to serve evil and not righteousness. That such is prophesied for the future is certain. Micah indicated it here; and the prophecy of Revelation covers the same incredible event again and again in the parallelisms regarding the "battle" of Armageddon, the destruction of the beast, and of the false prophet, etc. (See my commentary on Romans, pp. 376-

383,447-456,475-478 for extensive studies on the very event Micah prophesied here.) Of course, this interpretation applies this portion of the prophecy to events just prior to the Second Advent of Christ.

COSTABLE, "Verse 11-12In Micah"s day many nations desired to see Israel polluted and destroyed. However, they did not understand God"s purposes for Israel or for themselves. They failed to see that He would gather the nations for judgment, as a farmer gathers sheaves of grain on a threshing floor in preparation for beating them out.

BESO, "Verse 11-12Micah 4:11-12. ow also — The time is at hand; many nations are gathered against thee — This may be understood of the Chaldeans and their associates, who pleased themselves with the thoughts of profaning the temple, laying waste the city of Jerusalem, and looking upon it in that condition. Or, it may be understood of the heathen nations round about Jerusalem, who should take occasion to insult the Jews in their calamity, should please themselves with seeing the temple profaned, and should gratify their spite with viewing Jerusalem in a forlorn condition. To look upon an enemy, signifies, in Scripture phrase, to behold his fall with delight. But they know not the thoughts of the Lord — But while they act in such a manner, and take pleasure in insulting over thee in thy calamitous condition, they are altogether ignorant of God’s designs in permitting this, and what is soon to follow, namely, that he will gather them as sheaves into the floor, to be trodden under foot, and broken in pieces, while he will deliver and restore to their own land his people, whose miseries these their enemies now please themselves with the thoughts of beholding.

TRAPP, "Micah 4:11 ow also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion.

Ver. 11. ow also many nations are gathered, &c.] That is, they shall lie once gathered, when the Babylonians, who are lords of the world, shall muster many nations against thee. Would any man take the Church’s picture, saith Luther? then let him paint a silly poor maid, sitting in a wood or wilderness, compassed about with hungry lions, wolves, boars, and bears, and with all manner of cruel and hurtful beasts and in the midst of a great many furious men assaulting her every moment and minute, for this is her condition in the world.

That say, Let her be defiled] sc. with blood and slaughter. Or, let her be condemned as a hypocrite, let her be stoned as an adulteress; so the Trent translation. Thus they pretend, as Rabshakeh did, that they were sent by God against a hypocritical nation, that had broken their faith with God and men. The like craft and cruelty was used in the Parisian massacre, and gunpowder plot; God and man, said they (in that blind letter, that brought all to light), have agreed to punish the wickedness of this age. Those that would kill a dog give out that he was mad first, saith the French proverb. Whom no man looketh after, Jeremiah 30:17.

And let our eyes look upon Zion] Let us feed our eyes with such a delightful spectacle; and say, as that cruel Charles IX of France did, when he saw the streets strewed with the bodies of the massacred Protestants, and the rivers dyed with their blood, O pulchrum spectaculum! O brave sight! or as the Queen mother of Scotland, when she beheld the dead carcases of her Lutheran subjects, said, that she never saw a goodlier piece of arras (a) in all her days. See the accomplishment of this prophecy in the Lamentations, Psalms 137:1-9, and in the Book of ehemiah.

PETT, "Micah 4:11

“And now many nations are assembled against you, who say, “Let her be defiled, and let our eye see our desire on Zion.”It is clear that many nations round about resented Judah’s revival of Yahwism under Hezekiah, with its exclusivism and closing down of high places for the gods of other nations. Thus they watched the Assyrian invasion with glee, and participated in it with them, and said, ‘Let her be defiled.’ They wanted this proud nation with its pure God to be humbled and become like themselves, being forced to accept into their Temple the gods of Assyria. They longed to see their desire on Zion, its total humiliation.

The Assyrian army would originally have been composed of many nations, for subject nations would be required to provide their contingents, and these would have been expanded as the victorious Assyrian army incorporated more men into their ranks as the different nations were subjugated. Many would surrender without fighting (Micah 1:11) and it would therefore be seen as natural that many of their menfolk were conscripted into the army, while those who resisted more strongly would be subject to reprisal, but the need of the army for conscripts would never be forgotten. Thus by this stage the Assyrian army would have included many peoples from surrounding countries including Philistines, the new peoples of Samaria, and even men of Judah.

One lesson we can learn from that is that those who serve God faithfully will always discover that there are those who wish to see them humiliated.

Micah 4:12

PULPIT, "ow also; and now. A new scene is presented in contrast to the view in Micah 4:1-4. Many nations are gathered against thee. Primarily the Assyrians are meant (Isaiah 33:3), whose armies were composed of various nationalities (Isaiah 22:6; see below, Micah 5:5). Pusey thinks that the reference is rather to the attacks of petty enemies, e.g. in Maccabean times, and in the Samaritans' opposition to the rebuilding of the temple. Cheyne would place Micah 4:5-10 in a parenthesis, and connect the present with the ideal description in Micah 4:1-4. Let her be defiled; i.e.. profaned, despoiled of her boasted holiness and inviolability. LXX; ἐπιχαρούµεθα, "we will rejoice." The Vulgate, lapidetur, points to her punishment as an adulteress,

which does not suit the context. Let our eye look upon Zion. The heathen anticipate with malicious pleasure the sight of the humiliation of Jerusalem (comp. Obadiah 1:12, Obadiah 1:13).

12 But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord;they do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.

BARES. "But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they His counsel - The pagan did, for their own ends, what God willed for His. The first step was the same; God willed that His people should be punished; they willed to punish them. But all which lay beyond, they saw not; that God willed (on their repentance) to pardon His own people, but to punish themselves for their pride Isa_10:7, Isa_10:12 and cruelty Zec_1:15, Zec_1:19. : “Almighty God corrects the elect through the reprobate, as with a rod; after which He condemns the reprobate eternally, as when the son has been disciplined, the rod is cast into the fire.”

For He shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor - The multitude of the sheaves hinders not the threshing; the multitude of God’s enemies hinders not their destruction. They think that they strengthen themselves, as they gather together; God sees them but as ripened and fitted for destruction, gathered into one bundle together, to perish together. God gathers them, not by constraint or force, but by giving free scope to their own wayward wills, and overruling these to His ends.

CLARKE, "But they know not the thoughts of the Lord - These think that God has utterly rejected his people, and they shall have a troublesome neighbor no more: but this is not his design; he will afflict them for a time; but these, the enemies of his people, he will gather as sheaves into the threshing-floor, there to be trodden, and the wheel to go over them. This is the counsel, the purpose of God, which these do not understand. The persons here referred to are not only the Chaldeans which were threshed by the Persians and Medes; but the Idumeans, Ammonites, Moabites, and Philistines, which

the Jews afterwards subdued.

GILL, "But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they his counsel,.... Which are very different from theirs: the thoughts and designs of the enemies of Zion, in the times of the Maccabees, were, to destroy utterly the people of God, and root them out of the earth, and abolish their religion and worship; but the intentions of God were to defeat them, and bring them to ruin: the views of the kings of the earth, being stirred up by unclean spirits to the battle of Almighty God, will be to extirpate the interest and kingdom of Christ; but the end of the Lord, in suffering them to be gathered together, will be utterly and totally to destroy them; and the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand, and the thoughts of his heart, to all generations. Men know their own designs, but they do not know the designs of the Lord; they intend the ruin of others, but God intends to bring about theirs; and his intentions are never frustrated, but theirs are;

for he shall gather them as sheaves into the floor; as, when the harvest is ripe, it is cut down, and bound up in sheaves, and brought home, and these are laid in order upon the floor to be threshed; so, when the nations of the earth are fully ripe for ruin, God will put, or order to be put; in the sickle, and cut them down, and bind them in bundles, and lay them on his threshingfloor of wrath and vengeance, and utterly destroy them contrary to their views and expectations.

JAMISO, "thoughts of the Lord— Their unsearchable wisdom, overruling seeming disaster to the final good of His people, is the very ground on which the restoration of Israel hereafter (of which the restoration from Babylon is a type) is based in Isa_55:8; compare with Mic_4:3, Mic_4:12, Mic_4:13, which prove that Israel, not merely the Christian Church, is the ultimate subject of the prophecy; also in Rom_11:13. God’s counsel is to discipline His people for a time with the foe as a scourge; and then to destroy the foe by the hands of His people.

gather them as ... sheaves— them who “gathered” themselves for Zion’s destruction (Mic_4:11) the Lord “shall gather” for destruction by Zion (Mic_4:13), like sheaves gathered to be threshed (compare Isa_21:10; Jer_51:33). The Hebrew is singular, “sheaf.” However great the numbers of the foe, they are all but as one sheafready to be threshed [Calvin]. Threshing was done by treading with the feet: hence the propriety of the image for treading under foot and breaking asunder the foe.

CALVI, "Consolation follows, But they know not the thoughts of Jehovah, nor understand his counsel: for verbs in the past tense have the meaning of the present. Here the Prophet recalls the attention of the godly to a subject the most suitable to them: for when the wicked rise up so cruelly against us, we are apt to think that all things are allowed to them, and then their reproaches and slanders immediately take possession of our minds and thoughts, so that we in a manner measure God’s judgment by their words. Hence when the ungodly deride our faith, and boast that we are forsaken by God, we succumb, being as it were filled with amazement: and nothing is easier than to shake off from us faith and the memory of God’s promises, whenever the ungodly are thus insolent. The Prophet then does not without cause apply a remedy which ought to be carefully observed by us. Who say, condemned is Zion; but they are like the blind when judging of colors, for they understand not the

counsel of Jehovah and his thoughts they know not. We now then see what the Prophet had in view, which was to show, — that the faithful would be unwise and foolish, if they formed an opinion of God’s judgment according to the boasting of the ungodly: for Satan carries them away in a furious manner; and when the Lord gives them liberty to do evil, they think that they shall be conquerors to the end. As then the ungodly are thus inebriated with foolish confidence, and despise not only men, but God himself, the Prophet here holds up and supports the minds of the godly that they might ascend higher, and thus understand that the design of God was not the same as what the wicked thought, who neither belonged to nor approached God. (134)

It is especially needful to know this truth. Some at the first sight may think it frigid, “O! than, what does the Prophet mean? he says that what these declare is not the design of Jehovah; and this we know.” But were all to examine the subject, they would then confess with one mouth, that nothing could have been more seasonable than this consolation. ow we are wounded by reproaches, and this very often happens to ingenuous men; and then, while the ungodly vomit forth their slanders, we think that God rests indifferently in heaven; and one of their words, like a cloud, obscures the judgment of God. As soon as any one of the wicked derides us, and laughs at our simplicity, threatens ferociously, and spreads forth his terrors, his words, as I have said, are like a cloud intervening between us and God. This is the reason why the Prophet says here, that the thoughts of Jehovah are different, and that his counsel is different: in short, the Prophet’s object is to show, that whenever the ungodly thus proudly despise us, and also reproachfully threaten and terrify us, we ought to raise our thoughts to heaven. — Why so? Because the design of God is another. Their boastings then will vanish, for they arise from nothing, and they shall come to nothing, but the purpose of God shall stand.

But let us now see why the Prophet spoke here of the design and thoughts of God: for if only these two words are brought before us, there is certainly but little solid comfort, and nothing that has much force or power. There is then another principle to be understood, — that the thoughts of God are known to us, who are taught in his school. The counsel of God then is not hidden, for it is revealed to us in his Word. Consolation therefore depends on a higher and a more recondite doctrine; that is, that the faithful, in their miseries, ought to contemplate the counsel of God as in a mirror. And what is this? that when he afflicts us, he holds a remedy in his hand, and that when he throws us into the grave, he can restore us to life and safety. When, therefore, we understand this design of God, — that he chastens his Church with temporal evils, and that the issue will ever be most salutary, — when this is known by us, there is then no reason why the slanders of the ungodly should deject our minds; and when they vomit forth all their reproaches, we ought to adhere firmly to this counsel of God. But that the ungodly are thus proud is no matter of wonder; for if they raise their horns against God, why should they not despise us also, who are so few in number, and of hardly any influence, at least not equal to what they possess? The Church is indeed contemptible in the eyes of the world; and it is no wonder if our enemies thus deride us, and load us with ridicule and contempt, when they dare to act so frowardly towards God. But it is enough for us

to know, that they do not understand the counsel of God. We now then see the Prophet’s meaning, and an explanation follows, —

For thou shalt assemble them, he says, as a sheaf (135) to the floor The Prophet adds this clause as an explanation, that we may know what the counsel of God is, which he has mentioned, and that is, that God will collect the enemies as a sheaf. What is a sheaf? It is a small quantity of corn, it may be three hundred or a thousand ears of corn: they are ears of corn, and carried in a man’s hand. And then, what is to be done with the sheaf? It is to be thrashed on the floor. It was indeed difficult to believe, that enemies, when thus collected together on every side, would be like a sheaf. If an army assembled against us, not only ten or twenty thousand, but a much larger number, who would think, according to the judgment of the flesh, that they would be like a sheaf? They shall be as so many deaths and graves: even the thought of God ought to be to us of more account than the formidable power of men. Whenever, therefore, our enemies exceed us in strength and number, let us learn to arise to that secret counsel of God, of which our Prophet now speaks; and then it will be easy for us to regard a vast multitude to be no more than a handful. And he says, that our enemies are to be gathered to a floor, that they may be thrashed there. They assemble themselves for another purpose; for they think that we shall be presently in their power, that they may swallow us up; but when they thus collect themselves and their forces, the Lord will frustrate their purpose and cause them to be thrashed by us. It follows, —

But they —they know not the purposes of Jehovah, And they understand not his counsel.

It has been rendered, “But, as for them;” but this is flat, and too prosaic. — Ed.

COFFMA, "Verse 12"But they know not the thoughts of Jehovah, neither understand they his counsel; for he hath gathered them as sheaves to the threshing-floor."

"They know not the thoughts of Jehovah ..." The hatred of the world for God's truth, their desire to behold the defilement of all that is true and beautiful (Micah 4:11), and their unanimous consent to be "gathered" together in opposing and oppressing God's people - all this will result from the refusal of humanity to know the thoughts of the Lord, preferring the spirit of evil.

"He hath gathered them as sheaves ..." Wherever the harvest metaphor appears in the Bible it generally applies to the final judgment; and at that point in time when the near-totality of the human race shall have rejected God and joined openly in the warfare against truth and righteousness, the judgment is at hand. When wickedness has borne its full fruit, run its course, done its thing, and completed the natural circle, nothing remains for God to do except to gather in the harvest. Harvest is also a time of threshing;, and it was that aspect of harvest that Micah stressed at once.

TRAPP, "Micah 4:12 But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.

Ver. 12. But they know not the thoughts of the Lord] othing like their thoughts, Isaiah 55:8. Confer Isaiah 10:7-8, Zechariah 11:15-16. His thoughts are fatherly, while theirs are butcherly. The physician in setting leeches to his patient seeks his good; he aims not at filling the leech’s gorge; neither will he set more on him than will make for his health. God by his wisdom, and according to his eternal counsel (which the wicked understand not), ordereth and draweth the blind and brute motions of the worst creatures to his own honour and his Church’s good; as the huntsman doth the rage of the dog to his pleasure, or the mariner the blowing of the wind to his voyage, or the artist the heat of the fire to his work, or the physician the blood thirstiness of the leech to a cure (Dr Reynolds). "Surely," saith the Psalmist, speaking of Sennacherib’s cruelty in the siege of Jerusalem, "the wrath of man shall praise thee" (eventually, though not intentionally): "the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain," Psalms 76:10. Let the enemies think and project as they please, let them rage and resolve upon your utter ruin; "I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord; thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end; to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest," Jeremiah 29:11, 2 Thessalonians 1:6-7. "For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength," Isaiah 30:15. "And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the Lord their God, and I will hear them," Zechariah 10:6. Surely as it was said of old, neither shall Rome fall while Scipio standeth, neither shall Scipio live when Rome falleth; so may it more truly be affirmed of Christ, that he and his people shall stand and fall together. But "he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth," Job 19:25, yea, he shall set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth, Revelation 10:2, as Lord of sea and land, maugre the malice of all that sought to supplant him, who shall therehence fall, and never rise up again, Amos 8:14.

PETT, "Micah 4:12

“But they do not know the thoughts of YHWH, nor do they understand his counsel, for he has gathered them as the sheaves to the threshingfloor.”But what these nations fail to recognise are the thoughts of YHWH. They do not understand His counsel. If they had they would not have been so pleased. For what they did not realise was that YHWH was gathering them as sheaves for the threshingfloor. He was gathering them so that they could be sifted and revealed to be chaff.

ot the contrast between Micah question about Judah’s king and counsellors in Micah 4:9, with the recognition here that YHWH is the King and Counsellor Who really matters. He will lead Judah aright if only they will hear Him.

PULPIT, "But the enemies who came to exult over Zion do not know God's design while blindly working it out. God's people are not to be destroyed, but their adversaries. They know not the thoughts of the Lord. The heathen, who were the instruments of God's wrath against his people, knew nothing of his purpose in thus afflicting them, nor perceived that they themselves were drawn together for punishment. He shall gather (hath gathered) them as the sheaves into the floor. Their blindness is proved by their not perceiving till too late that God has brought them together before Jerusalem, as sheaves are brought into the threshing floor, in order to be broken up and destroyed (comp. Isaiah 21:10; Jeremiah 51:23). The metaphor is carried on in the next verse. Various are the explanations of the prophet's reference in this prophecy. Many commentators see in it a reference to the destruction of the army of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:35); others discern a defeat of the Scythians after the return from captivity; others, again, place it in the times of the Maccabees; and others interpret it of the defeat of the mystical adversaries of God's Church adumbrated in Ezekiel 38:1-23.; Zechariah 12:1-14.; and Revelation 20:1-15. But the prophet has not one definite event in view, but looks forward to the general conflict between the powers of the world and the Church, of which the historical events and material enemies were the types. Certain historical circumstances may exactly suit the prediction, but they do not exhaust it. And indeed we do wrong to seek for minute and definite fulfilment of particular predictions. Such utterances are often conditional and are modified by subsequent circumstances. The prophets are concerned with great moral truths and the righteous government of the world, and are not always to be interpreted with literal exactness.

13 “Rise and thresh, Daughter Zion, for I will give you horns of iron;I will give you hooves of bronze, and you will break to pieces many nations.”You will devote their ill-gotten gains to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.

BARES. "Arise - (It may be,) from the dust in which they were lying, “I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass.” Threshing in the East is partly with oxen, partly with wheels of iron, or with planks set with sharp flints on an open place made hard to this end. The prophet joins another image, with this and represents Judah as being by God endued with strength, first as with a “horn of iron” 1Ki_22:11 to cast the enemy to the ground, and then with “hoofs of brass,” wherewith to trample them to dust, as the stubble and chaff. “And I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord,” that is, to Myself; the Lord gathered them into the floor by His Providence; the Lord gave His people strength to subdue them; and now, in His own Person, He says, I will complete My own work.

The very image of the “threshing” implies that this is no mere destruction. While the stubble is “beaten” or bruised to small pieces, and the chaff is far more than the wheat, and is carried out of the floor, there yet remains the seed-corn. So in the great judgments of God, while most is refuse, there yet remains over, what is severed from the lost heap

and wholly “consecrated” to Him. Whatever things were the object of the חרם chêremLev_27:28 or “thing devoted to the Lord,” could not be redeemed, but must remain wholly the Lord’s. If it had life, it was to be put to death Lev. 29. And so the use of the word here may the rather shew, how those converted to God, and who became gain, hallowed to Him, were to pass through death to life, to die to themselves that they might live to Him: what was evil was to be slain in them, that they themselves might live.

The Israelites and God’s dealings with them are “ensamples of us upon whom the ends of the world are come” 1Co_10:11. And so the whole section fits wonderfully with the condition of the single soul. “She who halteth” (Rib.) “the soul, who would serve God, yet not so as wholly to give up the service of the world, which it had in Baptism renounced, who, after it had gone astray like a lost sheep, and been scattered amid the manifoldness of earthly things, was gathered again into the fold, to love One only, long for One only, give itself to One,” its Good Shepherd, and over it the Lord reigneth forever, if, taught by experience the deceitfulness of Satan’s promises, and stung by the sense of its own thanklessness and vileness, and conscious of the peril of self confidence, it abideth more closely than others with God. He shall gather her that is driven out, that is, , “He shall restore her, from whom He had, for the time, withdrawn His grace,” and her that was afflicted, trouble being God’s most effectual instrument, in recalling the soul to Himself. “For the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down” Psa_146:8.

And will make her that halteth, a remnant, placing her among the elect and holy, and her that was cast off strong; for Christ giveth oft to such souls great richness of divine graces, so that “where sin abounded, grace” should “much more abound” Rom_5:20. Rib.: “To it, when enlightened and purified by affliction and by repentance, it is promised, that its Lord, the Great King, shall come to it, and again reign in it, which is the great bliss of souls in grace. For then doth the soul really reign, when it submits wholly to Christ, whom to serve is to reign, and so, under Him, receives power to command its wrong desires, and rule itself;” that great and wonderful power which the Evangelist expresses in words so brief, “To them gave He power to become the sons of God” Joh_1:12. Thus He maketh it strong, so that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, can separate it from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” Rom_8:38-39.

Then, “he describes the condition of the soul fluctuating between good and evil, called one way by God through inward inspirations, and another way by the enticements and habits of sin. And, wishing to follow God, yet not to be without its sinful pleasures, and knowing this to be impossible, it is in anguish and hesitates. Her the prophet justly

rebukes, ‘why thus cry aloud, as though thou must be led captive by the Devil, not knowing or unable to extricate thyself? Hast thou no King, aided by whose power, thou mayest fight against all enticements, habit, the flesh?’ Paul felt this and cried aloud, “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Rom_7:23-24. You see his grief. But he despairs not. He knows that he has a King. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Or why grievest thou, as if thou hadst no “counsellor,” by whose counsels to free thee from these snares? “Thy Counsellor” indeed “perished” on the Cross, but for thy sake, that thou mayest live.

He died, to destroy him who hath the power of death. But He rose the third day and is still with thee; at the Right Hand of the Father He still reigns Immortal forever. See how many counsels He has left thee in the Gospel, how many admonitions, whereby thou mayest lead a happy and tranquil life. Now “pain seizes thee like a woman in travail.” For such a soul travails, having conceived inspirations from God, which it wishes to obey, but that the flesh, overcome by concupiscence, resists, and so it never brings forth, nor experiences that joy, whereof the Lord speaketh, “When she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world” Joh_16:21. Wherefore he adds; be in pain, for thou art indeed in travail; thou wilt not cease to be in pain, until thou bring forth. Thou wilt go forth, etc. “God, by a provision of His great mercy, allows lukewarm souls, who will be at no pains to gain grace, to fall into foulest sins, in order that, owning at last their misery, they may cease to be lukewarm, and with great ardor of soul may embrace virtue. For, warned by the result, they understand that they themselves emboldened the tempter, (for he chiefly attacks the lukewarm and remiss,) and they become ardent in the conflict and in well-doing.”

Wherefore he says, thou shalt go forth out of the city, that City of God, whereof He is the Builder and Maker Heb_11:10, which is gladdened by the river of His spirit; “and it dwells in the open field, unprotected, ready to be a prey, in the broad way of its own concupiscences, out of the narrow road which leadeth to life, and goeth even to Babylon, the city of ‘confusion,’ in tumult and din and unrest, and the distractions of this life.” Yet even there shall it be delivered, like the poor Prodigal, who came to himself in a far country, when worn out by its hard service. Even there it must not despair, but remember, with him, its Father’s house, its former home, the Heavenly Jerusalem. Its pains within or without, whereby it is brought back, are travail-pains. Though all is dark, it must not say, I have no Counsellor. For its Redeemer’s Name is “Counsellor” Isa_9:6, “one Counsellor of a thousand” (Ecclesiasticus 6:6). : “Thine Intercessor never dies.”

Out of the very depth of misery will the Divine Mercy draw thee. Though thou seem held by the strong hand of the enemy, and he seems to triumph over thee and to jeer thee, “There, there so would we have it, we have devoured him” Psa_35:25, and hosts of devils seek thy utter destruction, and thou seem to be “delivered over” 1Co_5:5 to them to the destruction of the flesh; yet is it only that the spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord. Even Satan, when he is tormenting souls, knows not the thoughts of the Lord, nor understands His counsels, how, by the very pain which he inflicts, God is bidding: them, Rise and (Rib.) “look up to heaven and long for heavenly things and trample on all which they had hitherto foully served, honor or vain glory or covetousness or lust;” how He will exalt their horn in the Lord, make it strong as iron that they should do all things through Christ in strengthening them, and conquer all through the might of Christ; how He should bruise Satan under their feet shortly, and they consecrate wholly to God their whole strength, every power of soul and body which hitherto had been the adversary’s.

CLARKE, "Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion - This refers to the subject of the preceding verse. When God shall have gathered together all thy enemies, as into the threshing-floor, he will give thee commission and power to get a complete victory over them, and reduce them to servitude. And that thou mayest be able to do this, he will be on thy side as a powerful helper; here signified by the metaphors, iron horns, and brazen hoofs. Thou shalt have power, authority, and unconquerable strength; for thine enemies shall be no more against thee than the corn against oxen shod with brass, or a puny animal against the horn of a fierce bull tipped with iron.

I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord - What they have taken from thee in the way of spoil shall be restored; and again consecrated unto the service of him who will show himself to be the Lord, the Supreme Governor of the whole earth. Was not this prediction fulfilled when Cyrus gave the Jews permission to return to their own land, and gave them back the sacred vessels of the temple which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away? The Maccabees and their successors recovered much of the booty of which the neighboring nations had deprived the Jews; and the treasure taken was devoted to Jehovah. The first verse of the next chapter should conclude this.

GILL, "Arise, and thresh, O daughter of Zion,.... The nations gathered against her, and now laid together on the floor as sheaves to be threshed. Here the people of God are aroused, and called out of a low and weak estate, and are animated and encouraged to exert themselves, and fall upon their enemies, and destroy them; alluding to the threshing of grain on the floor, the metaphor being here carried on from Mic_4:12. The Targum is,

"arise, and kill, O congregation of Zion;''

for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass; signifying that the Lord would give them strength sufficient to such work, and such power their enemies should not be able to resist and overcome; and that they should into their hands, and be crushed, trod, and trampled on by them, and utterly subdued. The allusion is to oxen that have horns and hoofs; and it suggests that they should be as strong as they; have horns like them, that is, power to push down their enemies and hoofs to trample upon them: or as these creatures have a horny substance on their feet, or hoofs, which are strong, and fit for the purposes of treading out corn, for which they were used in the eastern countries, drawing after them iron wheels, or planks stuck with flints; so horses and oxen that have strong feet, and hard hoofs, are said to have feet of brass (b); thus the Lord's people should have such courage, force, and power, as not only to withstand their enemies, but to obtain a conquest over them The Targum is,

"I will make the people in them strong as iron, and their remnant firm as brass;''

which was true of, and accomplished in, Judas Maccabeus and his brethren; and will be more clearly fulfilled in the Christian kings and princes in the latter day, when engaged with the antichristian states;

and thou shalt beat in pieces many people; as the Maccabees did subdue many people and nations, as all Palestine, Moab, Idumea, Samaria, and Iturea, as Josephus (c)relates; and as the Christian princes will beat in pieces, and utterly destroy, all the

antichristian kings of the earth, their states and kingdoms, and bring them into subjection to them:

and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth; that is, to Christ, who in the last day will appear to be King and Lord of the whole earth; and all the riches of the antichristian nations, Pagan, Papal, and Mahometan, will be devolved to, and employed in, his interest and service; see Rev_21:24; these are the words of God the Father, with respect to his Son Jesus Christ; who will now have a dominion, glory, and kingdom given him, by the ancient of days, that so all people, nations, and languages, shall serve him, Dan_7:14; of which there might be some type and shadow in the times of the Maccabees.

JAMISO, "thresh — destroy thy foes “gathered” by Jehovah as “sheaves” (Isa_41:15, Isa_41:16).

thine horn— Zion being compared to an ox treading corn, and an ox’s strength lying in the horns, her strength is implied by giving her a horn of iron (compare 1Ki_22:11).

beat in pieces many— (Dan_2:44).

I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord— God subjects the nations to Zion, not for her own selfish aggrandizement, but for His glory (Isa_60:6, Isa_60:9; Zec_14:20, with which compare Isa_23:18) and for their ultimate good; therefore He is here called, not merely God of Israel, but “Lord of the whole earth.”

CALVI, "Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion; for I have made thy horn (136) iron, and thy hoofs brass. The Prophet here confirms what he had previously said: and he exhorts the daughter of Zion to arise; for it was necessary for her to have been cast down, so as to lie prostrate on the ground. God did not indeed restore at once his Church, but afflicted her for a time, so that she differed nothing from a dead man. As then a dead body lies on the ground without any feeling, so also did the Church of God lie prostrate. This is the reason why the Prophet now says, Arise, daughter of Zion; as though God, by his voice, roused the dead. We hence see, that the word קומי, kumi, is emphatical; for the Prophet reminds us, that there is no reason for the faithful wholly to despair, when they find themselves thus cast down, for their restoration is in the hand and power of God, as it is the peculiar office of God to raise the dead. And this same truth ought to be applied for our us, whenever we are so cast down, that no strength, no vigor, remains in us. How then can we rise again? By the power of God, who by his voice alone can restore us to life, which seemed to be wholly extinct.

He afterwards subjoins, Thresh, for I have made thy horn iron, and thy hoofs brass. A mode of thrashing, we know, was in use among the Jews the same with that in Italy and at this day in French Provence. We here thrash the corn with flails; but there by treading. The Prophet speaks here of this custom, and compares the Church of God to oxen; as though he said “The Jews shall be like oxen with iron horns and brazen hoofs that they may lay prostrate under them the whole strength of the nations. However much then the nations may now excel, I will subject them under the feet of my people, as if sheaves were thrashed by them.”

He then adds, (137) And thou shalt separate or consecrate their wealth to Jehovah, and their substance (138) to the Lord of the whole earth Here the Prophet specifies the end for which God had purposed to subject the heathen nations to his chosen people, — that he might be glorified. This is the meaning. But they have refined too much in allegories, who have thought that this prophecy ought to be confined to the time of Christ: for the Prophet no doubt meant to extend consolation to the whole kingdom of Christ, from the beginning to the end. Others, not more correctly, say, that this is to be referred to the Babylonian captivity because then Daniel and some others thrashed the people, when heathen kings were induced through their teaching to restore the temple, and also to offer some worship to the God of Israel. But on this point they are both mistaken, because they take the word thrashing in a different sense from the Prophet; for it commonly means that heathen nations are to be subjected to the Church of God: and this takes place, whenever God stretches forth his hand to the faithful, and suffers not the ungodly to exercise their cruelty as they wish; yea, when he makes them humbly to supplicate the faithful. This often happens in the world, as it is written of Christ, ‘thy enemies shall lick the earth,’ (Psalms 72:9.) But this prophecy shall not be fulfilled until the last coming of Christ. We indeed begin to tread on our enemies whenever God by his power destroys them, or at least causes them to tremble and to be cast down, as we find that they dread whenever any change takes place; and then they blandly profess that they desire to serve God. So at this day it has happened both in France and in Italy. How many hypocrites, for the sake of an earthly advantage, have submitted themselves to God? and how many such England produced when the Gospel flourished there? All the courtiers, and others who were unwilling to incur the displeasure of the king, professed themselves to be the very best lovers of religion. (optimos pietatis cultores, — the best observers of piety) But yet this is ever the case,

‘Aliens have been false to thee,’ (Psalms 18:44.)

We hence see what the prophet means when he speaks of thrashing: he intimates, that the Lord would often cause that the enemies of the Church should be bruised, though no one crushed them: but, as I have said, we must look forward to the last day, if we wish to see the complete fulfillment of this prophecy.

He afterwards adds, Thou shalt consecrate their wealth to Jehovah, and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth The Prophet shows here, that the dominion is not to be hoped for by the children of God, that they may abound in worldly pleasures, and appropriate every thing to themselves and also abuse their power, as ungodly men are wont to do; but that all is to be applied to the worship and the glory of God. For what purpose, then does God design his Church to become eminent? That he himself may alone shine forth, and that the faithful may rightly enjoy their honor, and not become thereby proud. There is, therefore nothing more alien to the power of the Church than pride, or cruelty, or avarice. This, then that is said ought to be carefully observed, their wealth thou shalt consecrate to Jehovah He had spoken before of power, “Thou shalt bind strong people, thou shalt thrash them, and thou shalt tread them under thy feet;” but lest the faithful should turn all this to a purpose the Lord had not designed, a most suitable correction is

immediately added, and that is, that this power shall not be exercised according to the will of men, but according to the will of God: Thou shalt then consecrate, etc.; and he uses the word חרם, cherem, which means to make a thing an anathema or an offering; (139) as though he said “God will raise his Church that it may rule over its enemies; but let the faithful at the same time take heed, that they rule not tyrannically; for God designs ever to reign alone: therefore the whole excellency, the whole dignity, the whole power of the Church ought to be applied for this end, —that all things may become subject to God, and every thing among the nations may be altogether sacred to him so that the worship of God may flourish among the conquerors, as well as among the conquered.” We now perceive the Prophet’s object in speaking of consecrating the wealth of the nations. ow follows —

The verb, “consecrate,” is in Hebrew in the first person, as it is in our version. There is no different reading; but the Septuagint and the earlier versions put it in the second person, to correspond with the previous verb, “Thou shalt beat in pieces.” There will be no difference in the sense, if we render it according to the Hiphil form, in which it is found, — “I will cause thee to consecrate.” Jerome, Theodoret, Marckius, Dathius, ewcome, and Henderson, adopt the second person. — This construction renders the passage no doubt more uniform. — Ed.

COFFMA, "Verse 13"Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make thy horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many peoples: and I will devote their gain unto Jehovah, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth."

"Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion ..." The character and nature of the church are inherent in what comes to view here. The true Israel in the final dispensation (the present) is Christ the Lord; and his church is fully and completely identified with him "in Christ" and "as Christ." The daughter of Zion would be precisely that church, or kingdom of the Messiah; and it is in her character of being "Christ, the true Israel" that she shall thresh the nations, a stern reference to the final judgment. This is not a prophecy that secular, fleshly, worldly Israel will conquer all the nations of the world and ruthlessly destroy them. That Someone will do so is surely taught; but that One is Christ to whom the Father hath committed the judgment of this ungodly world (John 5:27).

The metaphor of threshing the nations is a terrible one indeed. "The allusion is to the threshing machine studded underneath with iron spikes dragged over the threshing floor."[34] Some of Israel's enemies had actually executed such a horror upon them (Amos 1:3; 1 Kings 13:7); and the promise in this verse is that God will reward the wicked nations in kind, for their godless, evil ways.

"Devote their gain ... and substance ... unto the Lord ..." The wealth and glory of the whole rebellious earth will indeed, at last, be sacrificed to God in one flaming holocaust. ote particularly here that the wealth of the world is not to be appropriated by the state of Israel.

Deane saw in this passage the additional truth that, "The spiritual Israel, purified and redeemed, shall consecrate to the Lord the power of the world."[35

COSTABLE, "Verse 13In the future Israel would be the Lord"s instrument to thresh the nations. He would strengthen Israel to overcome them and to turn over their wealth to Him, namely, to bring them into subjection to the sovereign Lord. Israel has not yet done this, so the fulfillment lies in the future, when Messiah returns to reign (cf. Zechariah 14:12-15). Universal peace (in the Millennium, Micah 4:3-4) will follow this judgment of the nations.

BESO, "Verse 13Micah 4:13. Arise and thrash, O daughter of Zion — The daughter of Zion means the Jewish people, whose power and victory over their enemies are here foretold. The expressions made use of are figurative, alluding to the manner of separating the corn from the chaff in Judea, which was done chiefly by treading it with the feet of oxen. The purport of the passage is, that the Jews are here called upon to arise and tread down their enemies. For I will make thy horn iron, and thy hoofs brass —Thou shalt be enabled to do this with ease and safety. And thou shalt beat in pieces — Or, shalt bruise, many people — This might be spoken of the victories which the Jewish people, some time after their return, were to gain over the neighbouring nations, especially under the Maccabees and their successors. But the prophecy does not appear to have had a full accomplishment in these victories: nor has any event yet occurred in the history of the Jewish people which fully answers to it. This consideration has induced some commentators to expound the passage in a spiritual sense, namely, of bringing the Gentiles into subjection to Christ and his gospel, and of the victory which the Christian Church should obtain over her persecuting enemies after the conversion of the Roman emperor Constantine to the faith of Christ. Thus Dr. Pocock, Lowth, and many others understand it. The nations thought to have ruined Christianity in its infancy, but it proved victorious over them; those that persisted in their enmity were broken to pieces, Matthew 21:44; particularly the Jewish nation: but multitudes, by divine grace, were gained to the church, and, as is signified in the next clause, they and their substance were consecrated to the Lord Jesus, the Lord of the whole earth. We have reason to believe, however, that this prophecy will have a still more eminent and evident accomplishment, when all the enemies of the church shall be subdued, and the saints reigning with Christ shall have complete power over the nations, and shall rule the refractory with a rod of iron, Revelation 2:26-27 : compare this text with Micah 5:8-15 of this prophecy, and with Isaiah 14:2; Isaiah 41:15; Isaiah 60:12; Isaiah 61:5; on which places see the notes.

TRAPP, "Micah 4:13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.

Ver. 13. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion] "Go in this thy might" (wherewith

thou so lustily threshest out thy wheat by the winepress, said the angel to Gideon, 6:14), and thresh the Midianites another while, "thou shalt smite them as one man," 6:16; thresh them as the sheaves of the floor, that lie ready for the flail, or, as the custom of those countries was, Deuteronomy 25:4, 1 Corinthians 9:9, 1 Timothy 5:18, for oxen to tread out, or the wheel to turn over, Isaiah 28:28.

For I will make thine horn iron, &c.] So that thou shalt do great exploits, by mine assistance, against Sennacherib, Antiochus, and other enemies subdued and threshed down to straw by the valiant Maccabees. Spiritualiter etiam hoc intelligendum, saith Sa. here; this is also spiritually to be understood of converting people to the faith, separata palea infidelitatis. This the apostles did vigorously and effectually, being furnished by Christ with horns of iron and hoofs of brass; with spiritual courage and mettle, whereby they did soon beat in pieces many people, and brought them to Christ by the obedience of faith, together with all their wealth and substance, which they cheerfully consecrate unto the Lord of the whole earth. This was typified of old by the tabernacle built with the spoils of the Egyptians; and by David’s dedicating to the Lord the gold and silver which in great abundance he had taken from the enemies, 2 Samuel 8:11. It is prophesied of Tyre, that being converted, she should find another manner of merchandise than formerly, viz. to feed and clothe God’s poor with durable clothing, Isaiah 23:18. The centurion, when once he became a proselyte, built the Jewish synagogues, that had been thrown down by Antiochus, Luke 7:5. Constantine the Great was bountiful to the Church above measure, insomuch as that he was by the heathens in scorn called Pupillus, orphan, as if he had wanted a guardian to overrule and order his expenses. Sed refriguit hoc studium hodie in magistratibus plerisque, as Gualther here complaineth, and not without cause. The Church is not only scanted, but spoiled of her revenues; and that which was piously consecrated is impiously converted to other uses, &c. Thus he.

ELLICOTT, "(13) Arise and thresh.—Micah, having likened Israel to the sheaves safely gathered, pursues the metaphor by calling upon the daughter of Zion to thresh her enemies after the manner of oxen treading out the corn; and under the symbolism of the horn—the weapon of strength—he promises that God will strengthen her for the work

I will consecrate.—The better reading is that of the LXX., Vulg., and some ancient versions, which give the second person, Thou shalt consecrate their gain unto the Lord. The termination, indicating the first person in our Hebrew Version, may be a form of the old second person feminine, of which there are other examples.

PETT, "Micah 4:13

“Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs brass; and you will beat in pieces many peoples, and I will devote their gain to YHWH, and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.”So the nations need to beware. For YHWH is going to make the horns of Judah as

iron, He is going to make their hoofs as brass. Here He is likening Judah to the oxen who trod the threshingfloor, who will be powerfully equipped for the job. And the result will be that just as the grain on the threshingfloor was crushed in pieces by the oxen’s hoofs, so will the nations be trodden down by Judah. If only His people will trust Him and believe in Him, and will obey His covenant, and will therefore obey Him and arise and thresh the nations, they will crush in pieces many peoples (Psalms 2:8-12). But note that God will devote what they gain to Himself, and the substance that they obtain to the One Whose it is, the Lord of the whole earth. In their eyes that would mean it going into the Temple treasury.

There was fulfilment of this to some extent when the armies gathered against Jerusalem were smitten by the plague, and even moreso when the Jews were later roused to faith and gained periods of independence by defeating their enemies But it was even more true when God’s people would go out with the word of truth to bring the nations in submission to Him, and they would bring their wealth under His control.

There is a reminder for us here that however serious the circumstances might appear, God is in control and has in mind the needs of His people.

PULPIT, "Arise. Shake off thy sorrow and fear and despair. And thresh. Tread thine enemies underfoot, now that they are gathered in the floor, as the oxen tread out the corn (Isaiah 41:15, etc.; Jeremiah 51:33.) Thine horn. The horn is an emblem of power and victory, as appertaining to the wild ox, the most powerful animal in Canaan (Deuteronomy 33:17; 1 Kings 22:11.) The metaphor of threshing is dropped for the moment, but resumed in the next clause. Hoofs. In allusion to the mode of threshing mentioned above (Deuteronomy 25:4; 1 Corinthians 9:9). People; peoples. Israel shall crush all the nations that rise up against her. I (God) will consecrate. So the Masoretic text; but the second person, which the ancient versions give, is preferable. Septuagint, ἀναθήσεις, "thou shalt dedicate;" Vulgate, interficies. Thou, Zion, shalt devote their gain unto the Lord. This consecration, or devotion, to the Lord in the case of living things involved death, the restitution to the Lord of the life which he had given (see Le 27:21, 28, 29; Zechariah 14:21). Thus the spiritual Israel, purified by suffering, and redeemed, shall consecrate to the Lord the power of the world; and all the wealth and might of earth shall be subservient to the glory of the kingdom of God,