{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"MIC","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Micah","commonName":"Micah","introduction":"MICAH was a native of Moresheth, not the same as Mareshah in Mic 1:15, but the town called Moresheth-gath (Mic 1:14), which lay near Eleutheropolis, west of Jerusalem, on the border of the Philistine country; so called to distinguish it from Moresheth of Judah. His full name is Micaiah (not the Micaiah mentioned Kg1 22:8, the son of Imlah), signifying, Who is like Jehovah? The time of his prophesying is stated in the introduction to be in the reigns of Jotham. Ahaz, and Hezekiah, that is, between 757 and 699 B.C. Jeremiah (Jer 26:18) quotes Mic 3:12, as delivered in the reign of Hezekiah. He was thus a contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea. The idolatries practised in the reign of Ahaz accord with Micah's denunciations of such gross evils, and confirm the truth of the time assigned Mic 1:1. His prophecies are partly against Israel (Samaria), partly against Judah. As Samaria, Israel's metropolis, was taken first, and Jerusalem, the capital of Judah subsequently, in the introductory heading, Mic 1:1, Samaria is put first, then Jerusalem. He prophesies the capture of both; the Jews captivity and restoration; and the coming and reign of Messiah. His style is full, round, and perspicuous; his diction pure, and his parallelisms regular. His description of Jehovah (Mic 7:18-19) is not surpassed by any elsewhere in Scripture. The similarity between Isaiah and Micah in some passages (compare Mic 4:1-3, with Isa 2:2-4) is to be accounted for by their being contemporaries, acquainted with each other's inspired writings, and having the same subjects for their theme. HENGSTENBERG maintains that the passage in Micah is the original. Isaiah was somewhat the older, being a prophet in the reign of Uzziah, Jotham's predecessor, whereas Micah began his prophecies under Jotham.\n\nThe book consists of two parts: (1) the first through fifth chapters; (2) the sixth and seventh chapters, a dialogue or contestation between Jehovah and His people, in which He reproaches them with their unnatural and ungrateful conduct, and threatens judgment for their corruptions, but consoles them with the promise of restoration from captivity.\n\nMicah stands sixth of the minor prophets in the Hebrew canon, but third in the Septuagint. \n\n\n\nNext: Micah Chapter 1\n\n","order":33,"numberOfChapters":7,"sha256":"5f1d30de089ca2d20fa6a36e71504d663dc1cd69625578b2f7adb7add087af6c","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MIC/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MIC","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":7,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MIC/7.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MIC","chapter":7},"totalNumberOfVerses":96},"chapter":{"number":2,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["Parallelism, \"Take by violence,\" answers to \"take away\"; \"fields\" and \"houses,\" to \"house\" and \"heritage\" (that is, one's land).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["against this family--against the nation, and especially against those reprobates in Mic 2:1-2. \n\nI devise an evil--a happy antithesis between God's dealings and the Jews dealings (Mic 2:1). Ye \"devise evil\" against your fellow countrymen; I devise evil against you. Ye devise it wrongfully, I by righteous retribution in kind. \n\nfrom which ye shall not remove your necks--as ye have done from the law. The yoke I shall impose shall be one which ye cannot shake off. They who will not bend to God's \"easy yoke\" (Mat 11:29-30), shall feel His iron yoke. \n\ngo haughtily--(Compare Note, see on Jer 6:28). Ye shall not walk as now with neck haughtily uplifted, for the yoke shall press down your \"neck.\" \n\nthis time is evil--rather, \"for that time shall be an evil time,\" namely, the time of the carrying away into captivity (compare Amo 5:13; Eph 5:16).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["one take up a parable against you--that is, Some of your foes shall do so, taking in derision from your own mouth your \"lamentation,\" namely, \"We be spoiled,\" &c. \n\nlament with a doleful lamentation--literally, \"lament with a lamentation of lamentations.\" Hebrew, naha, nehi, nihyah, the repetition representing the continuous and monotonous wail. \n\nhe hath changed the portion of my people--a charge of injustice against Jehovah. He transfers to other nations the sacred territory assigned as the rightful portion of our people (Mic 1:15). \n\nturning away he hath divided our fields--Turning away from us to the enemy, He hath divided among them our fields. CALVIN, as the Margin, explains, \"Instead of restoring our territory, He hath divided our fields among our enemies, each of whom henceforward will have an interest in keeping what he hath gotten: so that we are utterly shut out from hope of restoration.\" MAURER translates as a noun, \"He hath divided our fields to a rebel,\" that is, to the foe who is a rebel against the true God, and a worshipper of idols. So \"backsliding,\" that is, backslider (Jer 49:4). English Version gives a good sense; and is quite tenable in the Hebrew.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["Therefore--resumed from Mic 2:3. On account of your crimes described in Mic 2:1-2. \n\nthou--the ideal individual (\"me,\" Mic 2:4), representing the guilty people in whose name he spoke. \n\nnone that . . . cast a cord by lot--none who shall have any possession measured out. \n\nin the congregation of the Lord--among the people consecrated to Jehovah. By covetousness and violence (Mic 2:2) they had forfeited \"the portion of Jehovah's people.\" This is God's implied answer to their complaint of injustice (Mic 2:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["Prophesy ye not, say they--namely, the Israelites say to the true prophets, when announcing unwelcome truths. Therefore God judicially abandons them to their own ways: \"The prophets, by whose ministry they might have been saved from shame (ignominious captivity), shall not (that is, no longer) prophesy to them\" (Isa 30:10; Amo 2:12; Amo 7:16). MAURER translates the latter clause, \"they shall not prophesy of such things\" (as in Mic 2:3-5, these being rebellious Israel's words); \"let them not prophesy\"; \"they never cease from insult\" (from prophesying insults to us). English Version is supported by the parallelism: wherein the similarity of sound and word implies how exactly God makes their punishment answer to their sin, and takes them at their own word. \"Prophesy,\" literally, \"drop\" (Deu 32:2; Eze 21:2).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["O thou . . . named the house of Jacob--priding thyself on the name, though having naught of the spirit, of thy progenitor. Also, bearing the name which ought to remind thee of God's favors granted to thee because of His covenant with Jacob. \n\nis the Spirit of the Lord straitened?--Is His compassion contracted within narrower limits now than formerly, so that He should delight in your destruction (compare Psa 77:7-9; Isa 59:1-2)? \n\nare these his doings?--that is, Are such threatenings His delight? Ye dislike the prophets' threatenings (Mic 2:6): but who is to blame? Not God, for He delights in blessing, rather than threatening; but yourselves (Mic 2:8) who provoke His threatenings [GROTIUS]. CALVIN translates, \"Are your doings such as are prescribed by Him?\" Ye boast of being God's peculiar people: Do ye then conform your lives to God's law? \n\ndo not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly--Are not My words good to the upright? If your ways were upright, My words would not be threatening (compare Psa 18:26; Mat 11:19; Joh 7:17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["Your ways are not such that I can deal with you as I would with the upright. \n\nEven of late--literally, \"yesterday,\" \"long ago.\" So \"of old.\" Hebrew, \"yesterday\" (Isa 30:33); \"heretofore,\" Hebrew, \"since yesterday\" (Jos 3:4). \n\nmy people is risen up as an enemy--that is, has rebelled against My precepts; also has become an enemy to the unoffending passers-by. \n\nrobe with the garment--Not content with the outer \"garment,\" ye greedily rob passers-by of the ornamental \"robe\" fitting the body closely and flowing down to the feet [LUDOVICUS DE DIEU] (Mat 5:40). \n\nas men averse from war--in antithesis to (My people) \"as an enemy.\" Israel treats the innocent passers-by, though \"averse from war,\" as an enemy\" would treat captives in his power, stripping them of their habiliments as lawful spoils. GROTIUS translates, \"as men returning from war,\" that is, as captives over whom the right of war gives the victors an absolute power. English Version is supported by the antithesis.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["The women of my people--that is, the widows of the men slain by you (Mic 2:2) ye cast out from their homes which had been their delight, and seize on them for yourselves. \n\nfrom their children--that is, from the orphans of the widows. \n\ntaken away my glory--namely, their substance and raiment, which, being the fruit of God's blessing on the young, reflected God's glory. Thus Israel's crime was not merely robbery, but sacrilege. Their sex did not save the women, nor their age the children from violence. \n\nfor ever--There was no repentance. They persevered in sin. The pledged garment was to be restored to the poor before sunset (Exo 22:26-27); but these never restored their unlawful booty.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["Arise ye, and depart--not an exhortation to the children of God to depart out of an ungodly world, as it is often applied; though that sentiment is a scriptural one. This world is doubtless not our \"rest,\" being \"polluted\" with sin: it is our passage, not our portion; our aim, not our home (Co2 6:17; Heb 13:14). The imperatives express the certainty of the future event predicted. \"Since such are your doings (compare Mic 2:7-8, &c.), My sentence on you is irrevocable (Mic 2:4-5), however distasteful to you (Mic 2:6); ye who have cast out others from their homes and possessions (Mic 2:2, Mic 2:8-9) must arise, depart, and be cast out of your own (Mic 2:4-5): for this is not your rest\" (Num 10:33; Deu 12:9; Psa 95:11). Canaan was designed to be a rest to them after their wilderness fatigues. But it is to be so no longer. Thus God refutes the people's self-confidence, as if God were bound to them inseparably. The promise (Psa 132:14) is quite consistent with temporary withdrawal of God from Israel for their sins. \n\nit shall destroy you--The land shall spew you out, because of the defilements wherewith ye \"polluted\" it (Lev 18:25, Lev 18:28; Jer 3:2; Eze 36:12-14).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["walking in the spirit--The Hebrew means also \"wind.\" \"If a man professing to have the 'spirit' of inspiration (Eze 13:3; so 'man of the spirit,' that is, one claiming inspiration, Hos 9:7), but really walking in 'wind' (prophecy void of nutriment for the soul, and unsubstantial as the wind) and falsehood, do lie, saying (that which ye like to hear), I will prophesy,\" &c., even such a one, however false his prophecies, since he flatters your wishes, shall be your prophet (compare Mic 2:6; Jer 5:31). \n\nprophesy . . . of wine--that is, of an abundant supply of wine.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["A sudden transition from threats to the promise of a glorious restoration. Compare a similar transition in Hos 1:9-10. Jehovah, too, prophesies of good things to come, but not like the false prophets, \"of wine and strong drink\" (Mic 2:11). After I have sent you into captivity as I have just threatened, I will thence assemble you again (compare Mic 4:6-7). \n\nall of thee--The restoration from Babylon was partial. Therefore that here meant must be still future, when \"all Israel shall be saved\" (Rom 11:26). The restoration from \"Babylon\" (specified (Mic 4:10) is the type of the future one. \n\nJacob . . . Israel--the ten tribes' kingdom (Hos 12:2) and Judah (Ch2 19:8; Ch2 21:2, Ch2 21:4). \n\nremnant--the elect remnant, which shall survive the previous calamities of Judah, and from which the nation is to spring into new life (Isa 6:13; Isa 10:20-22). \n\nas the sheep of Bozrah--a region famed for its rich pastures (compare Kg2 3:4). GESENIUS for Bozrah translates, \"sheepfold.\" But thus there will be tautology unless the next clause be translated, \"in the midst of their pasture.\" English Version is more favored by the Hebrew.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["The breaker--Jehovah-Messiah, who breaks through every obstacle in the way of their restoration: not as formerly breaking forth to destroy them for transgression (Exo 19:22; Jdg 21:15), but breaking a way for them through their enemies. \n\nthey--the returning Israelites and Jews. \n\npassed through the gate--that is, through the gate of the foe's city in which they had been captives. So the image of the resurrection (Hos 13:14) represents Israel's restoration. \n\ntheir king--\"the Breaker,\" peculiarly \"their king\" (Hos 3:5; Mat 27:37). \n\npass before them--as He did when they went up out of Egypt (Exo 13:21; Deu 1:30, Deu 1:33). \n\nthe Lord on the head of them--Jehovah at their head (Isa 52:12). Messiah, the second person, is meant (compare Exo 23:20; Exo 33:14; Isa 63:9).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Micah Chapter 3\n\n"]}],"introduction":"DENUNCIATION OF THE EVILS PREVALENT: THE PEOPLE'S UNWILLINGNESS TO HEAR THE TRUTH: THEIR EXPULSION FROM THE LAND THE FITTING FRUIT OF THEIR SIN: YET JUDAH AND ISRAEL ARE HEREAFTER TO BE RESTORED. (Mic 2:1-13)\n\ndevise . . . work . . . practise--They do evil not merely on a sudden impulse, but with deliberate design. As in the former chapter sins against the first table are reproved, so in this chapter sins against the second table. A gradation: \"devise\" is the conception of the evil purpose; \"work\" (Psa 58:2), or \"fabricate,\" the maturing of the scheme; \"practise,\" or \"effect,\" the execution of it. \n\nbecause it is in the power of their hand--for the phrase see Gen 31:29; Pro 3:27. Might, not right, is what regulates their conduct. Where they can, they commit oppression; where they do not, it is because they cannot.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MIC/2.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MIC","chapter":2},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MIC/3.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MIC","chapter":3},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MIC/1.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MIC","chapter":1},"numberOfVerses":12}