{"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":4,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["rebuke--convict of sin (Joh 16:8-9); and subdue with judgments (Psa 2:5, Psa 2:9; Psa 110:5-6; Rev 2:27; Rev 12:5). \n\nmany people . . . strong nations afar off--In Isa 2:4 it is \"the nations . . . many people.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["sit every man under his vine, &c.--that is, enjoy the most prosperous tranquillity (Kg1 4:25; Zac 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. \n\nLord of hosts hath spoken it--Therefore it must come to pass, however unlikely now it may seem.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["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 Hebrew particle 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 (Zac 10:8-12).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["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). \n\nher . . . driven out--all Israel's outcasts. Called \"the Lord's flock\" (Jer 13:17; Eze 34:13; Eze 37:21).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["I will make her that halted a remnant--I will cause a remnant to remain which shall not perish. \n\nLord 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). \n\nfor ever-- (Isa 9:6-7; Dan 7:14, Dan 7:27; Luk 1:33; Rev 11:15).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["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 (Sol 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. \n\nstronghold--Hebrew, \"Ophel\"; an impregnable height on Mount Zion (Ch2 27:3; Ch2 33:14; Neh 3:26-27). \n\nunto thee shall . . . come . . . the first dominion--namely, the dominion formerly exercised by thee shall come back to thee. \n\nkingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem--rather, \"the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem shall come (again)\"; such as it was under David, before its being weakened by the secession of the ten tribes.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Addressed to the daughter of Zion, in her consternation at the approach of the Chaldeans. \n\nis 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 counsellors [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 3:4-5).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["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. \n\ngo forth out of the city--on its capture. So \"come out\" is used Kg2 24:12; Isa 36:16. \n\ndwell in the field--namely, in the open country, defenseless, instead of their fortified city. Beside the Chebar (Psa 137:1; Eze 3:15). \n\nBabylon--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. \n\nthere . . . 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, there shall Cyrus, the deliverer, appear (compare Jdg 14:14). Cyrus again being the type of the greater Deliverer, who shall finally restore Israel.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["many nations--the subject peoples composing Babylon's armies: and also Edom, Ammon, &c., who exulted in Judah's fall (Lam 2:16; Oba 1:11-13). \n\ndefiled--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.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["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 4:12-13, 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. \n\ngather 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 sheaf ready 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.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["thresh--destroy thy foes \"gathered\" by Jehovah as \"sheaves\" (Isa 41:15-16). \n\nthine 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 Kg1 22:11). \n\nbeat in pieces many-- (Dan 2:44). \n\nI 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; Zac 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.\"\n\n\n\n\nNext: Micah Chapter 5\n\n"]}],"introduction":"TRANSITION TO THE GLORY, PEACE, KINGDOM, AND VICTORY OF ZION. (Mic 4:1-13)\n\nAlmost identical with Isa 2:2-4. \n\nthe 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. \n\npeople shall flow into it--In Isaiah it is \"all nations\": a more universal prophecy.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MIC/4.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MIC","chapter":4},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MIC/5.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MIC","chapter":5},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MIC/3.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MIC","chapter":3},"numberOfVerses":11}