The prophet Micah ("Who is like Jehovah?") was a native of Moresheth, near Gath, a small town about twenty miles southwest of Jerusalem, and therefore was known as the Morasthite. His prophetic activity extended through all or parts of the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, during the second half of the eighth century before Christ. He was therefore a contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea. Like the former prophet, he prophesied chiefly in Jerusalem, against the southern kingdom, but the northern kingdom is also included.

The prophecy of Micah agrees with the conditions under which he labored. He witnessed a gradual falling away from the worship of the one true God, especially under Ahaz, and even Hezekiah experienced great difficulty in introducing the reforms which he knew to be necessary. The conditions in the northern kingdom were even worse. At the same time, Assyria was developing as a world-power, and both kingdoms made the bad mistake of calling upon the foreign power for assistance. Thus the history of Micah's time is a history of a gradual decay, and it was one of the prophet's objects to stem the tide of destruction. For that reason his message abounds in rebukes of the idolatrous people, of the greed of those in power, of the unrighteousness of the judges, and of the lying spirit of the false prophets.

However, after the judgment has been executed, the Lord's people are to be rescued, their full deliverance being accomplished through the coming of Messiah, to whose coming the true believers ever looked forward.

The Book of Micah is readily divisible into three parts, the first, chaps. 1 and 2, containing a call to repentance addressed to Israel and to Judah, the second, chapters 3 to 5, a rebuke of the cruel heads and princes of the people and of the false prophets, together with promises of the Messiah and of the spiritual glory of His Church, and the third, chapters 6 and 7, a recital of the Lord's controversy with His people, of the nation's moral corruption, and of the renewal of God's former mercies. "A summary of the contents of Micah's prophecies clearly indicates that this prophet, in the certainty and clearness of his Messianic prophecy, as well as in the power and energy exhibited by him in combating the sins and vices of his people, does not rank beneath his contemporary Isaiah, while the main point of difference consists in this, that Micah raises his voice against the religious and moral corruption of the people's rulers only and is not concerned with the political side of their machinations." 1)

1) Cp. Fuerbringer, Einleitung in das Alte Testament, 87.88; Concordia Bible Class, June, 1919, 86.87.

The Judgment upon Samaria and Judah. EPHRAIM'S DESTRUCTION THREATENED. — V. 1. The word of the Lord that came to Micah, the Morasthite, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem, the two capitals being named as representative of the respective nations. V. 2. Hear, all ye people, cp. 1 Kings 22, 28; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is, cp. Is. 1, 2; and let the Lord God be witness against you, in testifying to their transgressions, the Lord from His holy temple, that is, from heaven; cp. Ps. 11, 4. V. 3. For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of His place, as one getting ready to execute His vengeance, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth, on the mountains, as the places where He has revealed Himself to His people in more than one instance. V. 4. And the mountains shall be molten under Him, dissolving before His almighty power, and the valleys shall be cleft, cleaving asunder before His majesty, as wax

before the fire and as the waters that are poured down a steep place, tearing down the abysses and causing a general dissolution of the entire surface of the earth. V. 5. For the transgression of Jacob is all this, as a due recompense for the wickedness of the covenant people, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? The sin of idolatry had reached such a climax in Samaria that it was part and parcel of the life of the people. And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem? The inhabitants of Jerusalem had also become so guilty of idolatry that its hills were entirely devoted to the worship of idols. V. 6. Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, as ruins that fall into dust and finally become a part of the soil, and as plantings of a vineyard, that is, places where vineyards may be planted; and I will pour down the stones thereof, those which King Omri had used in building the city, into the valley, and I will discover, lay bare, the foun

dations thereof, destroying it to the very ground. V. 7. And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces and all the hires thereof, namely, those of spiritual harlotry, the consecrated offerings placed on the idol altars, shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate, making them a wilderness; for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, by her spiritual adultery, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot, for the rich treasures were taken away by the enemies and devoted to their own idols. The vanity of false worship, also in this respect, seems rarely to strike the consciousness of idolaters.

LAMENTATION OVER JUDAH'S CHASTISEMENT. V. 8. Therefore, on account of the calamity which would strike Samaria and Judah, I will wail and howl, in a most bitter and mournful cry, I will go stripped and naked, robbed by the enemies and deprived of his upper garment, that is, in the condition of a captive; I will make a wailing like the dragons, like the jackals of the desert, and mourning as the owls, like ostriches crying in pain. Cp. Job 30, 29. V. 9. For her wound is incurable, deadly her strokes, for it is come unto Judah, the territory which harbored the Sanctuary of the Lord being included in the general ruin; he is come unto the gate of My people, to the place where the solemn assemblies of Jehovah were held, even to Jerusalem. V. 10. Declare ye it not in Gath, one of the chief cities of the Philistines, weep ye not at all, lest the message cause these enemies to rejoice; in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust, literally, "in Beth-leaphra I wallow in the dust," for such scattering of dust was a sign of deep grief. Throughout this paragraph the prophet, in the Hebrew, uses puns, for Gath means "announcement" and Ophra "dust-house." V. 11. Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir (fair-view), having thy shame naked, in shameful nakedness, also robbed by the enemy; the inhabitant of Zaanan (outlet) came not forth in the mourning of Beth-ezel; he shall receive of you his standing, rather, "not has gone out the inhabitant of Zaanan," since she did not have the courage to face the enemy in the open field, "the mourning of Beth-haezel [house of separation] takes you away from its standing-place"; for its inhabitants would not

permit the Jews to seek shelter behind its walls. V. 12. For the inhabitants of Maroth (bitterness) waited carefully for good, being anxiously and bitterly concerned about it, writhing in grief and pain on account of her lost prosperity; but evil came down from the Lord unto the gate of Jerusalem. But while all these towns were in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, the prophet next shows that the punishment would not be confined to the immediate neighborhood of the capital. V. 13. O thou inhabitant of Lachish, a fortified city in the plain toward the southwest, bind the chariot to the swift beast, to the fastest horses, namely, to escape the impending punishment; she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion, for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee, she was the first city of Judah to introduce the idolworship of the northern kingdom. V. 14. Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moresheth-gath (the betrothed of Gath), the daughter of Zion being obliged to dismiss or release this city to the enemy, like the gift of a marriage portion; the houses of Achzib (deception) shall be a lie to the kings of Israel, a deceitful brook, which offers no refreshment to the thirsty wanderer; just so the city would slip from the grasp of the kings of Judah (the southern kingdom being meant in this instance), so that it would no longer be in their possession. V. 15. Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah (town of inheritance), for Israel had been the heir obtaining it from the Canaanites, and the enemy would now be the heir receiving it from the people of Judah; he shall come unto Adullam, the glory of Israel, rather, “even unto Adullam will the nobility of Israel come," to hide themselves in the cave in which David once sought refuge from Saul. Cp. 1 Sam. 22, 1. V. 16. Make thee bald, Zion as the mother of the nation being addressed, and poll thee, shearing her head, for thy delicate children, in deep grief and sorrowful lamentation; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle, the griffin vulture of the Orient, the entire forepart of whose head is without feathers; for they are gone into captivity from thee. The entire paragraph is a powerful and vivid description of the overthrow of the land by the armies of the invaders, which would be sent to punish the transgression of Judah.

The Wickedness, the Punishment, and the Restoration of Israel.

DENUNCIATION OF THE PREVALENT EVILS.V. 1. Woe to them that devise iniquity, not on a sudden impulse, but with deliberate planning, and work evil upon their beds! using even the night-time to hatch out further

schemes of wickedness. When the morning is light, as soon as the day dawns, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand, or, "their hand is as a god"; they know no higher authority, they recognize no other power but that of their arm; they think they have a right to do what they please.

V. 2. And they covet fields, the property and inheritance of others, and take them by violence, seizing them as it suits their fancy, and houses, and take them away, oppressing the poor with a show of right. So they oppress, overwhelm and put to their own use, a man and his house, even a man and his heritage, which by the Law of God was to remain in the possession of his family. Cp. Ex. 20, 14. 17; Deut. 5, 18. V. 3. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, Behold, against this family, upon this generation of evil-doers, do I devise an evil, He, in turn, planning how He may punish them adequately with a severe judgment, from which ye shall not remove your necks, like a yoke which may not be shaken off no matter how heavy it presses; neither shall ye go haughtily, walking and behaving themselves in lofty pride; for this time is evil, in which depression of spirits and gloomy silence would come upon the members of the nation on account of the yoke of oppression laid upon them by the conquest of their country and the distress of the exile. V. 4. In that day shall one take up a parable against you, the enemies inventing bywords and mocking jingles, and lament with a doleful lamentation, for the mocking song of the enemies would be a mournful dirge in the mouths of the children of Israel, and say, We be utterly spoiled, completely destroyed! He hath changed the portion of my people, Jehovah Himself permitting the heathen to take possession of it; how hath He removed it from me! so that it was no longer in Israel's possession. Turning away, He hath divided our fields, dealing out the portions to the invaders. V. 5. Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the Lord, to cast a measuring-line on a lot of ground in the assembly of Jehovah, for the possessions of the children of Israel belonged to them only as long as they remained faithful to the God of the covenant and would be taken away when they became unfaithful. V. 6. Prophesy not, say they to them that prophesy, literally, "Drop not," or, "drivel not, they drivel," almost like the American slang, "Dry up! they drivel," in speaking to the true prophets in a silly fashion. They shall not prophesy to them that they shall not take shame, that is: If the prophecy, which the apostate Jews regarded as drivel, would not continue, then there would be no chance for them to escape the shame which would come upon the entire nation by the conquest of the enemies. unbelievers to this day refuse to realize that the very preaching which they consider drivel and rot is the one means of saving them from the impending Judgment.

The

EXPULSION OF THE LEADERS AND RESTORATION OF THE LORD'S PEOPLE. — V. 7. O thou that art named the house of Jacob, the people who still considered themselves the covenant nation, is the Spirit of the Lord

straitened, impatient? Did He not exercise patience and long-suffering? Are these His doings? Are the impending punishments coming because He delights in them, because He is vindictive? Do not My words do good to him that walketh uprightly? Is He not always ready to show goodness to those who conduct themselves in accordance with His righteous and holy will? The guilt, therefore, is entirely on the part of the people. V. 8. Even of late, in fact, yesterday, My people is risen up as an enemy, taking an open stand against Jehovah. And this hostility is openly shown. Ye pull off the robe with the garment, stripping off the mantle or upper garment, from them that pass by securely, considering themselves safe from robbery and violence, as men averse from war, that is, from peaceable people, such as seek no quarrel with any one. V. 9. The women of My people, the unprotected widows, have ye cast out from their pleasant houses, the houses of their delight, to which they were attached by the memory of their wedded love; from their children have ye taken away My glory, the ornament or gift which He has given them, forever, namely, by depriving them of their dress and of their rightful property. Cp. Ex. 22, 25. V. 10. Arise ye and depart! into the exile which the enemies would force upon them; for this is not your rest, they would not be permitted to remain in Canaan; because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction, or, "on account of the corruption which brings destruction, and that a most powerful destruction." Such prophecies, setting forth the depth of the nation's corruption, are, of course, very unwelcome to the wicked leaders. V. 11. If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood, in vanity and falsehood, namely, in preaching his own ideas, do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink, that is, of the enjoyment of this present life, he shall even be the prophet of this people, he would meet with the approval of their leaders and those who desired a cover for their lives of luxury and dissipation. But in the very midst of this denunciation the prophet places a wonderful promise of the restoration of the Lord's people in the Messianic era. V. 12. I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee, all those whom He intended as members of His congregation; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel, collecting the believers from all the nations of the earth; I will put them together, in one fold, John 10, 16, as the sheep of Bozrah, the rich meadowland east of Jordan, as the flock in the midst of the fold, secure from the attack of the enemies. They shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men, surging with their great numbers. V. 13. The breaker is come up before them, rather, "There will go up before them He that breaketh through," their power

ful Champion; they have broken up, rather, "they break up," and have passed through the gate, passing into the gate of the Lord's Church, and are gone out by it, having free access to the throne of grace; and their King, Messiah Himself, shall pass before them and the Lord on the head of them,

leading them through all the vicissitudes of this life to the promised life of eternity. While men are clamoring for a gospel which will suit their fleshly lusts and desires, all true preachers will continue to proclaim sin and grace, especially the salvation and the victory of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

The Sins of the Rulers and the Desolation of Zion.

Also in this chapter the discourse is directed to the nobility of the people, who abused the authority of their high official station by oppressing the poor and abandoning the way of justice. V. 1. And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, the leading men of the nation, and ye princes of the house of Israel, in whose hands was the administration of justice: Is it not for you to know judgment? to give heed to that which is right and just. V. 2. Who hate the good and love the evil, doing just the opposite of that which their station required of them; who pluck off their skin from off them, as though flaying the children of their people, and their flesh from off their bones, robbing them of their most precious possessions, v. 3. who also eat the flesh of My people, the address here turning to the third person, since the princes, as it were, turned away from the message intended to call them to repentance, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. The prophet thus, with the emphasis of detail, pictures the excess of cruelty which the rulers of the people were practising. V. 4. Then shall they, the guilty ones. cry unto the Lord, but He will not hear them, namely, at the time of the revelation of His wrath; He will even hide His face from them at that time, refusing to pay the slightest attention to their distress, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings, and were thus fully ripe for the judgment. V. 5. Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets, namely, the false prophets, who presumed to speak in the name of the Lord without being sent, that make My people err, leading them astray, that bite with their teeth and cry, Peace! that is, who, if they have anything to bite with their teeth, when they receive a sufficient amount of bribe money, proclaim peace, prophesying as it pleases the heart of men; and he that putteth not into their mouths, who refuses to pay them bribe money, they even prepare war against him, solemnly declaring warfare as for the honor of God. V. 6. Therefore night shall be unto you that ye shall not have a vision, being excluded from the light granted by the Spirit of God; and it shall

be dark unto you that ye shall not divine, be granted no revelation of the future; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, namely, the sun of salvation and good fortune, and the day shall be dark over them, with the darkness of the Day of Judgment. V. 7. Then shall the seers be ashamed, be disgraced on account of the fact that their predictions are not fulfilled, and the diviners confounded, blushing with shame on account of their miserable failures in trying to uncover the future; yea, they shall all cover their lips, literally, "their beard," their face up to the nostrils, as a sign of shame; for there is no answer of God, He refuses to vouchsafe them any kind of information that might establish their false claims. V. 8. But, truly, I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, Micah here placing his own person in opposition to the false prophets, and of judgment, the divine right which he was sent to proclaim, and of might, of a virile and unflinching power, to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin, uttering the cry to repentance without fear and favor. He immediately acts in accordance with this statement. V. 9. Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob and princes of the house of Israel, the very leaders whose wickedness had been described in the first part of the chapter, that abhor judgment, everything that was right and good, and pervert all equity, making crooked that which should have been kept straight. V. 10. They build up Zion with blood, with blood-guiltiness, and Jerusalem with iniquity, caring only for gain and bloodshed in building their stately mansions, their wealth being obtained by the condemnation and murder of the innocent. V. 11. The heads thereof judge for reward, being influenced in their decisions by bribe money, and the priests thereof teach for hire, for additional fees, although the Law required that they decide controversies without pay, and the prophets thereof divine for money, their oraclės being fashioned according to the presents which men gave them; yet will they lean upon the Lord, insisting that they were performing the work of their office by authority of Jehovah, as of the God living in the midst of His people, and say, Is not the Lord among us? namely, with His power and protection. None evil can come upon

us, all this being said with a great show of piety. V. 12. Therefore shall Zion for your sake, on account of their wickedness in making the Lord's Temple a den of murderers, be plowed as a field, the king's quarter turned into tillable soil, and Jerusalem, the rest of

the city, shall become heaps, piles of broken stones, and the mountain of the house, that is, of the Temple, as the high places of the forest, being overgrown with brush and trees. It is a vivid description of the ruin which comes upon the enemies of the Lord.

The Glory, Peace, and Victory of the
Church.

THE GLORY OF THE HOUSE OF THE LORD. — V. 1. But in the last days, in the great Messianic period, it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord, of old typical of the Church of the true God, shall be established in the top of the mountains, the ideal Zion being elevated above all else in the world, cp. Is. 2, 17; 2 Cor. 10, 5, and it shall be exalted above the hills, visible before the eyes of all men; and people shall flow unto it, members of all the nations of the world being added to the communion of saints. V. 2. And many nations shall come, namely, in the representatives whom the Lord would choose and call, and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, the place where salvation is proclaimed, and to the house of the God of Jacob, the Church of the Messiah; and He will teach us of His ways, the one way of deliverance and sanctification, and we will walk in His paths, in agreement with the revealed truth concerning the sanctification of the Lord's people; for the Law, as the revelation of the holy and righteous will of God, shall go forth of Zion and the Word of the Lord, particularly in the revelation of the way of salvation, from Jerusalem, the proclamation of the Word, in speaking of sin and grace, being in the hands of the Church. V. 3. And He, the God of the covenant, shall judge among many people, teaching them true justice in accordance with His will, and rebuke strong nations afar off, to make them cease their enmity against Him; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks, not in an earthly, temporal, millennial peace of which men are dreaming from time to time, but in the spiritual peace in Him who is our Peace, Eph. 2, 14, in whom there is truly peace on earth; nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more, this being said of the inner peace and harmony of the Church of Christ. Cp. John 17, 21. V. 4. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, in the enjoyment of the rich blessings of the New Testment; and none shall make them afraid, all the enemies of mankind having been overcome by the power of the Messiah; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it, His solemn declara

tion being the consolation of all believers until the end of time. V. 5. For all people, all those concerned in this prophecy, will walk every one in the name of his God, in the power of the one true God in whom he believes, whose essence is thus made known, and we will walk in the name of the Lord, our God, forever and ever, with a full trust in His supporting strength and powerful protection, which turns aside all the efforts of the enemies to disturb the inner peace of the Church. V. 6. In that day, in the great Messianic period, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, all those who are in distress, suffering with the misery of this world, and I will gather her that is driven out, those who are dispersed among the nations, and her that I have afflicted, whom He has punished for their sins; v. 7. and I will make her that halted a remnant, the nucleus of His Church, and her that was cast far off a strong nation, those gathered from spiritual exile; and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion, in His Church, from henceforth even forever, throughout all eternity. Thus this sketch, composed of bold figures taken from the general aspects of Judah's history, sets forth the glory of the Church of the New Testament, beginning here in time, and continuing through all eternity, as the Church Triumphant.

ZION ESTABLISHED THROUGHOUT THE EARTH. V. 8. And thou, O tower of the flock, the term being applied to a tower of refuge for flocks in time of danger, here as a fort from which the great King and Shepherd, the Messiah Himself, observes and guards His flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, the impregnable palace of the Church of Christ, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion, the glory of the New Testament Church being compared with that of the kingdom of Israel under its mightiest king; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem. Since the earthly Jerusalem is always at the foundation of the type, the vicissitudes and afflictions of the Jewish capital are made typical of the experiences of the Lord's people. V. 9. Now, why dost thou cry out aloud? at the approach of the Chaldean invasion. Is there no king in thee? no visible representative of the Messianic promises? Is thy counselor perished? this name also being applied to the reigning member of the house