Chapter IX (4)

We have thus, in vers. 2-4, before us the description of a sublime theophany, not for a partial judgment upon Judah, but for a judgment upon the whole world, the people of which are called upon to gather around their judge--whom the prophet beholds as already approaching, descending from His glorious habitation in heaven, accompanied by the insignia of His power, the precursors of the judgment--and silently to wait for His judicial and penal sentence.[1]

But how is it to be explained that with the words, "For the transgression of Jacob is all this," etc., there is a sudden transition to the judgments upon Israel, yea, that the prophet [Pg 426] goes on as if Israel alone had been spoken of? Only from the relation in which these two judgments stand to one another. For they are perfectly one in substance. They are separated only by space, time, and unessential circumstances; so that we may say that the general judgment appears in every partial judgment upon Israel. In order to give expression to the thought, that it is the _judge of the world_ who is to judge Israel, the prophets not unfrequently represent the Lord appearing to judge the whole world; and in Israel, the _Microcosmos_, it was indeed judged. We have a perfectly analogous case, _e.g._, in Is. chap. ii.-iv. It is only by means of a very forced explanation, that it can be denied that after the prophet has, by a few bold touches, from ii. 6-9, described the moral debasement of the Covenant-people, and marked out pride as its last source, the last judgment upon the whole earth forms the subject of discourse. In that judgment there will be a most clear revelation of the vanity of all which is created--a vanity which, in the present course of the world, is so frequently concealed--and that the Lord alone is exalted, and that those who now shut their eyes will then be compelled to acknowledge these truths. That Isaiah has this general judgment in view, is too clearly proved by the sublimity of the whole description, by the express mention of the whole earth, _e.g._, ii. 19, and by not limiting, in the individualized description in ver. 12 sqq., the high and lofty which is to be brought low to Judah alone, but by extending it to the whole world. But in iii. 1 ff. the prophet suddenly passes over to the typical, penal judgment upon Judah; and the כי, at the commencement, shows that he does not consider this subject as one altogether new, but as being substantially identical with the preceding subject. This reminds us forcibly of the mode in which, in the prophecies of our Lord, the references to the destruction of Jerusalem, and to the last judgment, are connected with one another. In the "burden of Babylon" in chap. xiii. likewise, the judgment of the Lord upon the whole earth is first described. Nor is it only on the territory of prophecy that this close connection of the general judgment with the inferior judgments upon the Covenant-people appears. In Ps. lxxxii. 8, _e.g._, after the unrighteousness prevailing among the Covenant-people has been described, the Lord is called upon to come to judge, not them [Pg 427] alone, but the whole earth; compare my Commentary on Ps. vii. 8, lvi. 8, lix. 6.

The prophet thus passes over, in ver. 5, from the general manifestation of divine justice to its special manifestation among the Covenant-people, and mentions here, as the most prominent points upon which it will be inflicted, Samaria and Jerusalem, the two capitals, from which the apostasy from the Lord spread over the rest of the country. He mentions Samaria first, and then, in vers. 6, 7, he describes its destruction which was brought about by the Assyrians, before he makes mention of that of Jerusalem, because the apostasy took place first in Samaria, and hence the punishment also was hastened on. The latter circumstance, which is merely a consequence of the former, is in an one-sided manner made prominent by the greater number of interpreters, who therein follow the example of _Jerome_. It was at the same time, however, probably the intention of the prophet to be done with Samaria, in order that he might be at liberty to take up exclusively the case of Judah and Jerusalem--the main objects of his prophetic ministry.

He makes the transition to this in ver. 8, by means of the words: "_On that account I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the jackals, and a mourning like the ostriches._" "_On that account_"--_i.e._, on account of the judgment upon Judah, to be announced in the subsequent verses. It is commonly supposed that the prophet here speaks in his own person; thus, _e.g._, _Rosenmüller_: "The prophet mourns in a bitter lamentation for the number and magnitude of the calamities impending over the Israelitish people." But the correct view rather is, that the prophet, when, in his inward vision, he sees the divine judgments not remaining and stopping at Samaria, but poured out like a desolating torrent over Judah and Jerusalem, suddenly sinks his own consciousness in that of his suffering people. We have thus here before us an imperfect symbolical action, similar to that more finished one which occurs in Is. xx. 3, 4, and which can be explained only by a deeper insight into the nature of prophecy, according to which the dramatic character is inseparable from it. The transition from the mere description of what is present in the inward vision only, to the prophet's own action, is, according to this view, very easy. If we confine ourselves to the passage before us, the following [Pg 428] arguments are in favour of our view. 1. The predicates שילל and ערום cannot be explained upon the supposition that the prophet describes only his own painful feelings on account of the condition of his people. Even if ערום stood alone, the explanation by "naked," in the sense of "deprived of the usual and decent dress, and, on the contrary, clothed in dirt and rags," would be destitute of all proof and authority. No instance whatsoever is found of the outward habit of a mourner being designated as nakedness. But it is still more arbitrary thus to deal with שילל, whether it be explained by "deprived of his mental faculties on account of the unbounded grief of his soul,"--as is done by several Jewish expositors (who, in the explanation of this passage, would have done much better, had they followed the Chaldee, in whom the correct view is found; only that he, giving up the figurative representation, substitutes the third person for the first, paraphrasing it thus: "On that account they shall wail and howl, they shall go stripped and naked," etc.),--or by "badly clothed," as is done by the greater number of Christian expositors. The signification "robbed," "plundered," is the only established one; compare שולל in Job xii. 17-19. The parallel passages, in which nakedness appears as the characteristic feature of the captives taken in war, show how little we are entitled to depart from the most obvious signification, in these two words. Thus we find immediately afterwards, in ver. 11: "Pass ye away, ye inhabitants of Saphir, having your shame naked;" on which _Michaelis_ remarks: "With naked bodies, as is the case with those who are led into captivity after having been stripped of their clothes." Thus Is. xx. 3, 4: "And the Lord said. Like as My servant Isaiah walketh _naked_ and _barefoot_ three years, for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and Ethiopia, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the prisoners of Egypt, and the prisoners of Ethiopia, young men and old men, _naked_ and _barefoot_;" compare Is. xlvii. 3.--2. The term התפלשתי, in ver. 10, is in favour of the supposition, that the prophet here appears as the representative of the future condition of his people. The _Imperat. fem. _התפלשי of the marginal reading is evidently, as is commonly the case, only the result of the embarrassment of the Mazorets. The reading of the text can be pointed as the first person of the Preterite only; for the view of _Rosenmüller_, who takes it as the [Pg 429] second person of the Preterite, which here is to have an optative signification, is, grammatically, inadmissible. _Rückert's_ explanation, "In the house of _dust_ (_zu Staubheim_), I have strewed dust upon me," is quite correct. But if _here_ we must suppose that the prophet suddenly passes over from the address to his unfortunate people, to himself as their representative, why should not this supposition be the natural one in ver. 8 also?

The correctness of the view which we have given is further strengthened, if we compare the similar lamentations of the prophets in other passages, in all of which the same results will be found. In Jer. xlviii. 31, _e.g._, "Therefore will I howl over Moab, and cry out over all Moab, over the men of Kir-heres shall _he_ groan," the "he" in the last clause sufficiently shows how the "I" in the two preceding clauses, is to be understood,--especially if Is. xvi. 7, "Therefore Moab howleth over Moab," be compared. But if this interpretation be correct in Jeremiah, it must certainly be correct in Is. xv. 5 also: "My heart crieth out over Moab,"--a passage which Jeremiah had in view; and this so much the more, that in Is. xvi. 9-11--where a similar lamentation for Moab occurs: "Therefore do I bewail as for Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I water thee with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh.... Therefore my bowels sound like a harp for Moab, mine inward parts for Kirhareseth"--it is quite unsuitable to think of a lamentation of the prophet, which is expressive of his own grief. This was seen by the Chaldee, who renders "_my_ bowels" by "bowels of the Moabites,"--a view the correctness of which has been strikingly demonstrated by _Vitringa_: "Although," he says, "the emotion of compassion be by no means unsuitable in the prophet, yet no one will be readily convinced that the prophet was so much concerned for the vines of Sibmah and Jazer, and for the crops of the summer-fruits of a nation hostile and opposed to the people of God, that it should have been for him a cause for lamentation and wailing." In Is. xxi., in the prophecy against Babylon, and in the lamentation in vers. 3, 4, "Therefore are my loins filled with pain, pangs take hold upon me as the pangs of a woman that travaileth, etc., the night of my pleasure has been turned into terror," it is clearly shown in what sense such lamentations are to be understood. By "the night of pleasure," we can, especially by a comparison of Jeremiah, understand only the night of the capture of Babylon, [Pg 430] in which the whole city was given up to drunkenness and riot. But it is impossible that the prophet should say that this night--the precursor of the long-desired day for Israel--had been turned for him into terror. Either the whole lamentation is without any meaning, or the prophet speaks in the name of Babylon, and that, not of the Babylon of the present, but of the Babylon of the future. This must be granted, even by those who assert that this portion was composed at a later period; so that, even from this quarter, the soundness of our view cannot be assailed.

In ver. 9, the prophet returns to quiet description, from the symbolical action to which he had been carried away by his emotions. The subject of this description he states in the words: "_It cometh unto Judah; it cometh unto the gate of my people, unto Jerusalem._" By individualizing, he endeavours to give a lively view of the thought, and to impress it. He begins with an allusion to the lamentation of David over Saul and Jonathan in 2 Sam. i. 17 ff., which is so much the more significant, that in this impending catastrophe, Israel also was to lose his king (compare iv. 9), and that in it David was to experience the fate of Saul. He then indicates the stations by which the hostile army advances towards Jerusalem, and describes how, from thence, it spreads over the whole country, even to its southern boundary, and carries away the inhabitants into exile. But, in doing so, he always chooses places, whose names might, in some way, be brought into connection with what they were now suffering; so that the whole passage forms a chain of _paronomasias_. These, however, are not by any means idle plays. They have, throughout, a practical design. The threatening is thereby to be, as it were, localized. The thought of a divine judgment could not but be called forth in every one who should think of one of the places mentioned. Jerusalem is first spoken of in ver. 9 as the centre of the life of Judah: "The gate of my people," etc., being tantamount to "_the_ city or metropolis of it." Then, it appears a second time in ver. 12, in the middle between five Judean places preceding and five following it,--the number ten, which is the symbolical signification of completeness, indicating that the judgment is to be altogether comprehensive. The five places mentioned after Jerusalem are all of them situated to the south of it. That the [Pg 431] five places, the mention of which precedes that of Jerusalem, are all to be sought to the north of it, and that, hence, the judgment advances from the north in geographical order, as is the case in Is. x. 28 ff. also, is evident from the fact that Beth-Leaphrah, which is identical with Ophrah, is situated in the territory of Benjamin, and that Beth-Haezel, which is identical with Azal in Zech. xiv. 5, was situated in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. Hence, we cannot suppose that Zaanan here is identical with Zenan, which is situated in the south of Jerusalem, Josh. xv. 37, nor Saphir with Samir.

The question still arises, In what event did the threatening of punishment, contained in chap. i., find its fulfilment? _Theodoret_, _Cyril_, _Tarnovius_, _Marckius_, _Jahn_, and others, refer it to the Assyrian invasion. _Jerome_ referred it to the Babylonish captivity: "The same sin," he says, "yea, the same punishment of sin which shall overturn Samaria, is to extend to Judah, yea, even unto the gates of my city of Jerusalem. For, as Samaria was overturned by the Assyrians, so Judah and Jerusalem shall be overturned by the Chaldeans." This opinion was adopted by _Michaelis_ and others.

At first sight, it would appear as if the circumstance, that the judgment upon Judah is brought into immediate connection with that upon Israel, favoured the first view. But this argument loses its weight when we remark, that the events appear to the prophet in inward vision, and, therefore, quite irrespective of their relation in time; that the continuity of the punitive judgment upon Israel and Judah only, points out distinctly the truth, that both proceed from the same cause, viz., the relation of divine justice to the sin of the Covenant-people. It is this truth alone which forms the essence and soul of the prophetic threatenings; and with reference to that, the difference in point of time, which is merely accidental, is altogether kept out of view. Another argument in favour of the Assyrian invasion might be derived from the expression, "_to_ Jerusalem," in ver. 9, inasmuch as the Chaldean invasion visited Jerusalem itself. But, because the calamity was not by any means to stop at Judah, but to overflow even it, it is shown by the preceding expression, "unto Judah," that עַד (compare on this word, _Dissertations on the Genuineness of Daniel_, p. 55 seq.) must, in both cases, be explained from a tacit antithesis with the expectation, [Pg 432] that the judgment would either stop at the boundary of Judah, or, although this should not be the case, would at least spare the metropolis. The prophet contents himself with representing that this opinion was erroneous. Although this passage itself asserts nothing upon the point as to whether Jerusalem itself is to be thought of as the object of the divine punishment, or whether it will be spared, the following reasons show that the former will be the case. Even ver. 5 does not admit of our expecting anything else. Jerusalem is there marked out as the chief seat and source of corruption in the kingdom of Judah, just as is Samaria in the kingdom of Israel. The declaration which is there made forms the foundation of the subsequent threatening. How is it possible, then, that, while in the kingdom of Israel it is concentrated upon Samaria, in the kingdom of Judah the seducer should be altogether passed over, and punishment announced to the seduced only? That such is not the intention of the prophet, is clearly seen from ver. 12: "_For evil cometh down from the Lord upon the gate of Jerusalem._" The כי alone is sufficient to prevent our limiting the sense of these words, so that they mean only that evil will come no farther than to the gate of Jerusalem, and will stop there. The _Particula causalis_ proves that they are the ground of the declaration in ver. 11, and that the mourning will not cease at Beth-Haezel, "the house of stopping;" compare the remarks on Zech. xiv. 5. But, altogether apart from this connection, the words themselves furnish a proof. They contain a verbal reference to the description of the judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrha, Gen. xix. 24. Jerusalem is marked out by them as a second Sodom (compare Is. i. 10), upon which the divine judgments would discharge themselves. As a second mark of this extension to Jerusalem, the carrying away of the people into captivity is added (compare vers. 11, 15, 16), which, in the promise in chap. ii. 12, 13, is supposed to have taken place. It is not Israel alone, but the whole Covenant-people, who are in a state of dispersion, and are gathered from it by the Lord.

Now, both of these marks are not applicable to the Assyrian invasion; and if once we suppose the divine illumination of the prophet, it cannot be regarded as the real object of his threatenings. This, too, is equally inadmissible, if we consider the matter from a merely human point of view. The predictions [Pg 433] of the prophets with regard to Assyria are, from the very outset, rather encouraging. It is true that they are to be, in the hand of the Lord, a rod of chastisement for His people, but these are never to be altogether given up to them for destruction. By an immediate divine interference, their plan of capturing Jerusalem is frustrated. Thus the matter is constantly represented in Isaiah; thus also in Hosea i. 7. We can, moreover, adduce proofs from Micah himself, that his spiritual eye was not pre-eminently, or exclusively, directed to the Assyrians. In the prophecy from chap. iii. to v., where he describes the judgment upon Judah in a manner altogether similar to that in which he mentions it here, he passes over the Assyrians altogether in silence. Babylon is, in iv. 10, mentioned as the place to which Judah is to be led into captivity.

Yet here, as well as everywhere else in the threatenings and promises of the prophets, we must beware, lest, in referring them to some particular historical event, we lose sight of the animating idea. If this, on the other hand, be rightly understood, it will be seen that a particular historical event may indeed be pre-eminently referred to, but that it can never exhaust the prophecy. Although, therefore, the main reference here be to the destruction by the Chaldeans, we must not on that account exclude anything in which the same law of retaliation was manifested, either before, as in the invasion of the Syrians and Assyrians; or afterwards, as in the destruction by the Romans. The prophet himself points, in iv. 11-14 (iv. 11-v. 1), to two other phases of the divine judgment which are to follow upon that by the Chaldeans.

After the prophet has thus hitherto described the impending divine judgment in great general outlines, he passes on, in chap. ii., to chastise particular vices, which, however, must always be at the same time, yea, prominently, considered as indications of the wholly depraved condition of the nation, and of the punishments to follow upon it. One feature upon which he here chiefly dwells, and which must, therefore, have been a peculiarly prominent manifestation of the sinful corruption, consists in the acts of injustice and oppression committed by the great, the description of which presents striking resemblances to that in Is. v. 8 ff. The prophet interrupts this description only in order [Pg 434] to rebuke the false prophets, who reproved him for the severity of his discourses, and asserted that they were unworthy of the merciful God. Such severity, answered the prophet, was true mildness, because it alone could be the means of warding off the approaching punitive judgment; that his God did not punish from want of forbearance--from want of mercy; but that the fault was altogether that of the transgressors, who drew down upon themselves, by force. His judgments.[2]

The prophecy closes with the promise in vers. 12, 13. It is introduced quite abruptly, in order to place it in more striking contrast with the threatening; just as, in iv. 1, there is a similar abrupt and unconnected contrast between the promise and the threatening.[3] It is only brief; far more so than in the subsequent discourses, and far less detailed than it is in them. The prophet desires first of all to terrify sinners from their security; and for this reason, he causes only a very feeble glimmering of hope to fall upon the dark future.

Ver. 12. "_I will assemble, surely I will assemble, O Jacob, thee wholly: I will gather the remnant of Israel. I will bring_ [Pg 435] _them together as the sheep of Bozrah; as a flock on their pasture, they shall make a noise by reason of men._ Ver. 13. _The breaker goeth up before them; they break through, pass through the gate and go out, and their King marches before them, and the Lord is on the head of them._"

The remark, that almost all the features of this description are borrowed from the deliverance out of Egypt, will throw much light upon the whole description. In the midst of oppression and misery, Israel, while there, increased by means of the blessing of the Lord, hidden under the cross, to greater and greater numbers; compare Exod. i. 12. When the time of deliverance had arrived, the Lord, who had for a long time concealed Himself, manifested Himself again as their God. First, the people were gathered together, and then, the Lord went before them,--in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night: Exod. xiii. 21. He led them out of Egypt, the house of bondage: Exod. xx. 2. So it is here also. Ver. 12 describes the increase and gathering, and ver. 13 the deliverance. In both passages, Israel's misery is represented under the figure of an abode in the house of bondage, or in prison, the gates of which the Lord opens--the walls of which He breaks down. In this allusion to, and connection with, the former deliverance, Micah agrees with his contemporaries, Hosea and Isaiah. The deeper reason of this lies in the typical import of the former deliverance, which forms a prophecy by deeds of all future deliverances, and contains within itself completely their germ and pledge; compare Hosea ii. 1, 2 (i. 10, 11); Is. xi. 11 ff.: "And the Lord shall stretch forth His hand a _second time_ to redeem the remnant of His people.... And He sets up an ensign for the nations, and gathers together the dispersed of Israel, and assembles the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth.... And the Lord smites with a curse the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and shakes His hand over the river, in the violence of His wind, and smites it to seven rivers, so that one may wade through in shoes. And there shall be a highway to the remnant of His people, ... like as it was to Israel in the day when he came up out of the land of Egypt." This reference to the typical deliverance clearly shows, that in the description we have carefully to separate between the thought and the language in which it is clothed.

[Pg 436]

Ver. 12. The _Infin. absol._, which in both the clauses precedes the _tempus finitum_, expresses the emphasis which is to be placed on the _gathering_, as opposed to the carrying away, and the scattering formerly announced; for the latter, according to the view of man, and apart from God's mercy and omnipotence, did not seem to admit of any favourable turn. By "Jacob" and "Israel," several interpreters understand Judah alone; others, the ten tribes alone; others, both together. The last view is alone the correct one. This appears from i. 5, where, by Jacob and Israel, the whole nation is designated. The promise in the passage before us stands closely related to the threatening uttered there. All Israel shall be given up to destruction on account of their sins; all Israel shall be saved by the grace of God. This assumption is confirmed by a comparison of the parallel passages in Hosea and Isaiah, where the whole is designated by the two parts, Judah and Israel. Micah does not notice this division, because that visible separation, which even in the present was overbalanced by an invisible unity, shall disappear altogether in that future, when there shall be only one flock, as there is only one Shepherd. The expression, "remnant of Israel," in the second clause, which corresponds to, "O Jacob, thee wholly," in the first, indicates, that the fulfilment of the promise, so far from doing away with the threatening, rather rests on its preceding realization. The Congregation of God, purified by the divine judgments, shall be _wholly_ gathered. Divine mercy has in itself no limits; and those which in the present are assigned to it by the objects of mercy, shall then be removed.--The words, "I will bring them together," etc., indicate equally the faithfulness of the great Shepherd, who gathers His dispersed flock from all parts of the world, and the unexpected and wonderful increase of the flock; compare Jer. xxiii. 3: "And I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and lead them back to their pasture-ground, and they are fruitful and increase;" and xxxi. 10: "He that scattereth Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd does his flock."--Bozrah we consider to be the name of a capital of the Idumeans in Auranitis, four days' journey from Damascus. The great wealth of this town in flocks appears from Is. xxxiv. 6 (although a slaughter of men is spoken of in that passage, yet evidently the wealth of Bozrah in natural [Pg 437] flocks is there supposed), and can with perfect ease be accounted for from its situation. For, in its neighbourhood, there begins the immeasurable plain of Arabia, which, on one side, continues without interruption as far as _Dshof_, into the heart of Arabia, while, towards the North, it extends to Bagdad, under the name of _El Hamad_. Its length and breadth are calculated to amount to eight days' journey. It contains many shrubs and blooming plants; compare _Burkhardt_ and _Ritter_.[4] Several interpreters consider בצרה to be an appellative, and assign to it the signification "sheepfold," "cote." But there is no reason whatsoever in favour of such a meaning of Bozrah, while there is this argument against it, that the probable signification of בצרה as the name of a town is "_locus munitus_" = מִבְצָר or בִּצָּרוֹן. It can hardly be supposed that the word should at the same time have had the significations of "fortress" and "fold." It is, moreover, more in harmony with the prophetical character to particularize, than to use a general term. As is shown, however, by the last member (with which, according to the accents, the words, "As [Pg 438] a flock on their pasture," must be connected), the point of comparison is not the assembling and gathering, but the multitude, the crowd,--"As the sheep of Bozrah" being thus tantamount to, "So that in multitude they are like the sheep of Bozrah." הַדָּבְרוֹ, from דֹּבֶר, is, contrary to the general rule, doubly qualified, both by the article and by the suffix. This has been accounted for on the ground that the little suffix had gradually lost its power. But it is perhaps more natural to suppose that the article sometimes lost its power, and coalesced with the noun. The frequent use of the _Status emphaticus_ in undefined nouns, in the Syriac language (compare _Hofmann_, _Gram. Syr._, p. 290), presents an analogy in favour of this opinion.--The last words graphically describe the noise produced by a numerous, closely compacted flock. The plur. of the Fem. refers to the sheep.--מן denotes the _causa efficiens_. They make a noise; and this noise proceeds from the numerous assembled people. The same connection of figure and thing occurs in Ezek. xxxiv. 31: "And ye (ואתן) are My flock, the flock of My pasture are ye men;" compare Ezek. xxxvi. 38.

Ver. 13. The whole verse must be explained by the figure of a prison, which lies at the foundation. The people of God are shut up in it, but are now delivered by God's powerful hand. By the "breaker," many interpreters understand the Lord Himself. But if we consider, that in a double clause, at the end of the verse, the Lord is mentioned as the leader of the expedition if we look to the type of the deliverance from Egypt, where Moses, as the breaker, marches in front of Israel; and if, further, we look to the parallel passage in Hosea, where, with an evident allusion to that type, the children of Israel and of Judah appoint themselves one head; we shall rather be disposed to understand by the "breaker" the _dux et antesignanus_ raised up by God. With the raising up and equipping of such a leader every divine deliverance commences; and that which, in the inferior deliverance, the typical leaders, Moses and Zerubbabel, were, Christ was in the highest and last deliverance. To Him the "breaker" has been referred by several Jewish interpreters (compare _Schöttgen_, _Horæ_ ii. p. 212); and if we compare chap. v., where that which is here indicated by general outlines only is further expanded and detailed, we shall have to urge against this interpretation this objection only, viz., that it excludes the [Pg 439] typical breakers,--that, in the place of the _ideal_ person of the breaker, which presents itself to the internal vision of the prophet, it puts the individual in whom this idea is most fully realized.--The words ויעברו שער are, by several interpreters, referred to the forcing and entering of hostile gates. Thus _Michaelis_, whom _Rosenmüller_ follows: "No gate shall be so fortified as to prevent them from forcing it." But this interpretation destroys the whole figure, and violates the type of the deliverance from Egypt which lies at the foundation. For the gate through which they break is certainly the gate of the prison.--The three verbs--"They break through, they pass through, they go out"--graphically describe their progress, which is not to be stopped by any human power.--The last words open up the view to the highest leader of the expedition; compare besides, Exod. xiii. 21; Is. lii. 12: "For ye shall not go out in trembling, nor shall ye go out by flight. For the Lord goeth before you, and the God of Israel closeth your rear;" Is. xl. 11; Ps. lxxx. 3. In the exodus from Egypt, a visible symbol of the presence of God marched before the host, besides Moses, the breaker. On the return from Babylon, the Angel of the Lord was visible to the eye of faith only, as formerly when Abraham's servant journeyed to Mesopotamia, Gen. xxiv. 7. At the last and highest deliverance, the breaker was at once the King and God of the people.

As this prophecy has no limitation at all in itself, we are fully entitled to refer it to the whole sum of the deliverances and salvation which are destined for the Covenant-people; and to seek for its fulfilment in every event, either past or future, in the same degree as the fundamental idea--God's mercy upon His people--is manifested in it. Every limitation to any particular event is evidently inadmissible; but, most of all, a limitation to the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity, which, especially with regard to Israel, can be considered as only a faint prelude of the fulfilment. They, however, have come nearest to the truth who assume an exclusive reference to Christ,--provided they acknowledge, that the conversion of the first fruits of Israel, at the time when Christ appeared in His humiliation, is not the end of His dealings with this people.

Footnote 1: The reference to the general judgment would indeed disappear, if we suppose בכם in ver. 2 to be addressed to _Israel_. It seems, indeed, to be in favour of this supposition, that, in 1 Kings xxii. 28, the people alone are called upon as witnesses, and that in Deut. xxxi. 28, xxxii. 1, and Is. i. 2, heaven and earth, and in Hos. vi. 1, the mountains also, are called upon only in order to make the scene more solemn. But the reference of בכם to the nations mentioned immediately before, is too evident.

Footnote 2: Ver. 6 must be translated thus: _Not shall ye drop_ (prophesy),--_they_ (the false prophets) _drop; if they_ (the individuals addressed, the true prophets) _do not drop to these_ (the rapacious great), _the ignominy will not cease_, _i.e._, the ignominious destruction breaks in irresistibly. The fundamental passage in Deut. xxxii. 2, and ver. 11 of the chapter before us, show that הטיף has not the signification, "to talk," which is assigned to it by _Caspari_. The false prophets must be considered as the accomplices of the corrupted great, especially as to the bulwark which they opposed to the true prophets, and their influence on the nation, and on their own consciences,--as indeed material power everywhere seeks for such a spiritual ally. If this be kept in view, the censure and threatening acquire a still greater unity.

Footnote 3: To a certain extent, however, verse 11 forms the transition: "If one were to come, a wind, and lie falsely: I will prophesy to thee of wine and of strong drink,--he would be the prophet of this people." Such a prophet Micah, indeed, is not; but although he neither can nor dare announce salvation _without_ judgment, he has, in the name of the Lord, to announce salvation _after_ the judgment. The very singular opinion, that in vers. 12, 13, the false prophets are introduced as speaking, is refuted by the single circumstance that, in ver. 12, the gathering of the _remnant_ of Israel only is promised, and hence the judgment is supposed to have preceded. It is no less erroneous if, instead of considering ver. 11 as introductory to vers. 12, 13, the latter be made to depend upon ver. 11, and be therefore considered as, to a certain extent, accidental.

Footnote 4: After the example of _v. Raumer_, _Robinson_, _Ritter_ (_Erdk._ 14, 101), it has now become customary to distinguish between two Bozrahs,--one in Auranitis, and the other in Edom. But the arguments adduced for this distinction are not of very great weight. Nowhere is a "high situation" in reality ascribed to the Bozrah in Edom. The assertion, that Edom was always limited to the territory between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, is opposed to Gen. xxxvi. 35, according to which passage, even in the time before Moses, the Edomitic king, Hadad, smote Midian in the field of Moab; and further, to Lam. iv. 21, according to which Edom dwells in the land of Uz, which can be sought for only in _Arabia Deserta_. We need to think only of that branch of the Midianites who had gone over to _Arabia Deserta_, whilst their chief settlement continued in _Arabia Petræa_. But the following arguments may be adduced _against_ the distinction. 1. Bozrah is constantly and simply spoken of, without any further distinctive designation. 2. The Edomitic Bozrah must have been a great and powerful city, which agrees well with the "mighty ruins" in _Hauran_, but not with the much more insignificant ruins near _Busseireh_ in _Dshebal_. 3. It is improbable that so important a city as that of Bozrah in Auranitis should never have been mentioned in Scripture.--But not satisfied with a double Bozrah, even a third, in Moab, has been assumed on the ground of Jer. xlviii. 24. But it is certainly strange that Bozrah, in that passage, is mentioned as the last of all the Moabitish towns, and that, immediately after its mention, there follow the words, "Upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near." It may be that Bozrah was conquered by the Edomites and Moabites in common, or that, in later times, the latter obtained a kind of possession of the town in common with the former.

[Pg 440]

CHAP. III.-V.

The discourse opens with new reproofs and threatenings. It is _first_, in vers. 1-4, directed against the rapacious great, who in ver. 2 are described as murderers of men (compare Sirach xxxi. 21: "He who taketh from his neighbour his livelihood, _killeth_ him"), and in ver. 3, as eaters of men, because they turn to their own advantage the necessaries of life of which they have robbed the poor. The discourse _then_ passes over to the false prophets, vers. 5-7. Their character is described as hypocritical, weak, and selfish, and is incidentally contrasted with the character of the true prophet, as represented by himself, whose strength is always renewed by the Spirit of the Lord, and who, in this strength, serves only truth and righteousness, and holds up their sins to the people deluded by the false prophets, ver. 8. This the prophet continues to do in vers. 9-12. The three orders of divinely called rulers, upon whom the life or death of the Congregation was depending,--the princes, the priests, and the prophets (compare remarks on Zech. x. 1),--have become so degenerate, that they are not at all concerned for the glory of God, but only for their own interest. And while they have thus inwardly apostatized from Jehovah, they are strengthened in their false security by the promises which God has given to His people, and which they, altogether overlooking the fact that these are conditional, referred, in hypocritical blindness, to themselves. But God will, in a fearful manner, punish them for this apostasy, and frighten them from their security. The Congregation of the Lord, which has been desecrated inwardly, shall be so outwardly also. Zion shall become a corn-field; Jerusalem, the city of God, shall sink into rubbish and ruins; the Temple-hill shall again become what it was previous to its being the residence of God, viz., a thickly wooded hill, which shall then appear in all its natural lowness, and be considered as insignificant when compared with the neighbouring mountains.--In the whole section, the twelve verses of which are equally divided into three portions of four verses each, the prophet views chiefly the great, and the civil rulers. The false prophets, whom he takes up in the second of these subdivisions (vers. 5-8), come under consideration as their helpers only. In the third subdivision, [Pg 441] the discourse is again directed to the great alone, in vers. 9, 10. The two other orders are added to them in vers. 11, 12 only; and the charges raised against them refer to their relation to the great. The _priests_ are not by any means reproved because they made teaching a profession, from which they derived their livelihood, but because, for bribes, they interpreted the law in a manner favourable to the rapacious lusts of the great, and thereby, no less than the false prophets, assisted them in their wickedness.--The charge raised in ver. 10 against the great,--"Building up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity,"--has been frequently misunderstood. The words must not be explained from Hab. ii. 12, but from Ps. li. 20, where David prays to the Lord, "Build Thou the walls of Jerusalem," which he had destroyed by his blood, ver. 16. The word "building" is used ironically by Micah, and is tantamount to: "Ye who are destroying Jerusalem by blood and iniquity (compare ver. 12: 'For your sakes Zion shall be ploughed as a field'), instead of building it up by righteousness." Righteousness builds up, because it draws down God's blessing and protection; but unrighteousness destroys, because it calls down the curse of God.

The unfaithfulness of the Covenant-people can nevertheless not make void the faithfulness of God. The prophet, therefore, passes suddenly from threatening to promise. _Calvin_ thus expresses the relation of these two: "But I must now come to the little remnant. Hitherto I have spoken about the judgment of God, which is near at hand, upon the king's councillors, upon the priests and prophets, upon the whole people in short, because they are all wicked and ungodly, because the whole body is pervaded by contempt of God, and by desperate obstinacy. Let them receive, then, that which they all have deserved. But I now gather the children of God apart, for to them too I have a message to deliver."

The intimate relation of the first part of the promise to the preceding threatening has been already demonstrated, p. 420. The Mount of Zion, which forms the subject of vers. 1-7, shall, in future, not only be restored to its former dignity, but it shall be exalted above all the mountains of the earth. The kingdom of God, which is represented by it, shall, by the glory imparted to it by a new revelation of the Lord (compare ver. 7: "And [Pg 442] the Lord shall be King over them on Mount Zion"), outshine all the kingdoms of the world, and exercise an attractive power upon their citizens; so that they flow to Zion, there to receive the commands of the Lord, vers. 1, 2. By the sway which the Lord exercises from Zion, peace shall have its dwelling in the heathen world, ver. 3, and, consequently, the Congregation of the Lord ceases to be a prey to injury from the world's power, ver. 4^a. How incredible soever it may appear, this promise shall surely be fulfilled; for omnipotent faithfulness has given it, ver. 4^b, and has given it indeed for this very purpose; for it is altogether natural, and to be expected, that the glory of the Lord should in all eternity display itself in His dealings with His people, ver. 5. In vers. 6, 7, the promise receives a new impetus, by which it connects itself with ver. 4^a. In that time of mercy, the Lord will put an end to all the misery of His people.

Ver. 1. "_And it shall come to pass at the end of the days, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be firmly established on the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills, and people flow unto it._"

The words, "And it shall come to pass," excite the attention to the great and unexpected turn which things are to take. The expression, באחרית הימים, is explained by many as meaning: "In times to come," "in future." But we have already proved, in our work on _Balaam_, p. 465 seq., that the right explanation is: "At the end of the days." This is the explanation given by the LXX. also, who commonly render it by ἐν ταῖς ἐσχάταισ ἡμέραις; and by the Chaldee Paraphrast, who translates it by בסוף יומיא. The reasons which seem, at first sight, to favour the signification "in future," are invalidated by these two considerations:--_first_, that it is not at all necessary that the end be just absolutely the last, but only the end of those events which the speaker is reviewing; and, _second_, that it altogether depends upon the will of the speaker, what extent he is to assign to the beginning and to the end. The expression is used by the prophets in a manner different from that of the Pentateuch. The prophets use it almost exclusively with a reference to the Messianic times,--an _usus loquendi_ which originated in Deut. iv. 30. They divide the whole duration of the kingdom of God into two parts, the beginning and the end,--the state of humiliation, and [Pg 443] the state of glorification. The line of demarcation is formed by the birth of the Messiah, according to v. 2 (3): "He will give them up until she who is bearing brings forth."--"The mountain of the house of the Lord" is, according to the common _usus loquendi_, not Moriah, but the whole mountain of Zion, of which Moriah was considered as a part; compare Ps. lxxvi. 3, lxxviii. 68. In ver. 8, the prophet speaks of two parts only, Zion and Jerusalem. In iii. 12, Zion only, as the better part, is first spoken of; and then, in the second clause, Jerusalem and the mountain of the house, the latter corresponding to Zion, are contrasted with each other, or Jerusalem and Mount Zion considered in its highest quality as the temple-mountain.--נכון, "fixed," "firmly established," implies more than, simply, "placed." It shows that the change is not merely momentary, but that the temple-mountain shall be exalted for ever, and that no earthly power shall be able to abase it. It thus goes hand in hand with the declaration in ver. 7: "The Lord shall be king over them from now _until eternity_." The same word נכון is used in 1 Kings ii. 45 of the immutable firmness of the throne of David: "The throne of David shall be firmly established before the Lord for ever;" compare 2 Sam. vii. 12, 13. The commentary on נכון is given by Dan. ii. 44: "And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall not be destroyed in all eternity ... it shall break in pieces and destroy all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." That בראש ההרים does not mean, "at the head of the mountains," _i.e._, standing at the head, as the first among them (as _Hitzig_ and others think), but "on the summit of the mountains" (the ב is used in a similar manner in Judg. ix. 7, compared with 1 Sam. xxvi, 13), is evident from the fact that בראש, in connection with הר, is constantly used of the summit of the mountains, and, hence, cannot be used in a figurative sense, in this connection. The sense can therefore be this only: "Zion, in future, so pre-eminently stands out from among the other mountains, that these serve, as it were, only for its foundation." Now, the elevation of the temple-mountain is considered, by several interpreters, as a _physical_ one. Passages from Jewish commentaries, in which the expectation is expressed that, in the days of the Messiah, Jehovah would bring near Mount Carmel and Tabor, and place Jerusalem on [Pg 444] the summit of them, will be found in _Galatinus_, _de Arcanis Catholicæ Veritatis_, L. v. c. 3. The literal explanation has, in recent times, been defended by _Hofmann_ and _Drechsler_. But _Caspari_, by pointing out the exact correspondence between the words, "The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be firmly established on the top of the mountains," and the words in ver. 2, "The law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem," has proved in a very striking manner that the elevation is a moral one. "As 1^b corresponds to 2^a, so does 1^a to 2^b; ver. 1^a is the ground of ver. 1^b; ver. 2^a, by which ver. 1^b is further expanded, is the consequence of 2^b. Hence 2^b must be substantially identical with ver. 1^a; but 2^b speaks of something that points to the moral height of Mount Zion, and states something upon which it is based." To this it may be added, that height, in a moral sense, is often ascribed to the temple-mountain, even with reference to the ante-Messianic time, and that the passage under consideration could be disjoined from these by force only. It is upon such a view of it, indeed, that the use of עלה in reference to the journeys to Jerusalem rests, just as it is here used in ver. 2. We may, moreover, compare Ps. xlviii. 3; Ezek. xvii. 22, 33: "And I plant upon a mountain high and elevated. On the high mountains of Israel I will plant it;" but especially Ps. lxviii. 16: "Mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan, the top of mountains is the mountain of Bashan." Ver. 17. "Why do ye tops of mountains insidiously observe the mountain which God desireth for His residence? Yea, the Lord will dwell in it for ever." The mountain of God is, in these verses, an emblem of the kingdoms of the world, which are powerful through God's grace. In ver. 16, the Psalmist declares what the mountain of Bashan is. In ver. 17, he rejects the unfounded claims which it raises on account of its real advantages. Although it be great, yet Mount Zion is infinitely greater, and vain are all its efforts to overturn this relation. This passage, then, leads to another argument against the literal interpretation. We find in it the kingdoms represented under the figure of mountains,[1]--a mode of representation which is of very frequent occurrence in Scripture; compare my Commentary on [Pg 445] Ps. lxv. 7, lxxvi. 5; Rev. viii. 8, xvii. 9. The more difficult it was to separate, according to the Israelitish conception, _mountain_ and _kingdom_, the more natural it was to find, in the passage before us, expression given to the thought, that the kingdom of God would, in future, be exalted above all the kingdoms of the world. If we take into account the common practice of employing "mountain" in a figurative sense, it is natural to suppose that not the exaltation alone is to be understood figuratively, but that the mountain itself also is to be regarded chiefly in its symbolical signification,--as the symbol of the kingdom of God in Israel; although, in this aspect, we should expect, at least in the beginning of the relation, that the thing itself should still be connected with the symbol; afterwards they may be disjoined without any hesitation. The deep grief which must, of necessity, have been called forth by the announcement in iii. 12, did not regard the mountain as such. It had, for its real object, the condition of the kingdom of God which was prefigured by the condition of the mountain; and it is just this to which the consolation has respect.--But by what means is the exaltation of the temple-mountain to be effected? _Cocceius_ has already directed attention to the circumstance, that it must not be supposed to consist in the flowing of the people unto it; for that is not the _cause_, but the _effect_. We find the correct answer in ver. 2: "The law goeth forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem;" and in ver. 7: "And the Lord will be king over them on Mount Zion." The exaltation will, accordingly, be effected by a glorious manifestation of the Lord within His congregation; in consequence of which, Zion becomes the centre of the whole earth. That this manifestation is to take place in Christ, is brought out only subsequently; compare especially, v. 1, 3 (2-4). A parallel passage is also Ezek. xl. 2, where Mount Zion is likewise seen exalted in the Messianic time.

Ver. 2. "_And many nations go and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways, and that we may walk in His path; for from Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem._"