Chapter XXXI: Our Mother of Sorrows

MICAH vii. 7-20.

After so stern a charge, so condign a sentence, confession is natural, and, with prayer for forgiveness and praise to the mercy of God, it fitly closes the whole book. As we have seen,[916] the passage is a cento of several fragments, from periods far apart in the history of Israel. One historical allusion suits best the age of the Syrian wars; another can only refer to the day of Jerusalem's ruin. In spirit and language the Confessions resemble the prayers of the Exile. The Doxology has echoes of several Scriptures.[917]

But from these fragments, it may be of many centuries, there rises clear the One Essential Figure: Israel, all her secular woes upon her; our Mother of Sorrows, at whose knees we learned our first prayers of confession and penitence. Other nations have been our teachers in art and wisdom and government. But she is our mistress in pain and in patience, teaching men with what conscience they should bear the chastening of the Almighty, with what hope and humility they should wait for their God. Surely not less lovable, but only more human, that her pale cheeks flush for a moment with the hate of the enemy and the assurance of revenge. Her passion is soon gone, for she feels her guilt to be greater; and, seeking forgiveness, her last word is what man's must ever be, praise to the grace and mercy of God.

Israel speaks:--

_But I will look for the LORD,_
_I will wait for the God of my salvation:_
_My God will hear me!_
_Rejoice not, O mine enemy, at me:_
_If I be fallen, I rise;_
_If I sit in the darkness, the LORD is a light to me._

_The anger of the LORD will I bear--_
_For I have sinned against Him--_
_Until that He take up my quarrel,_
_And execute my right._
_He will carry me forth to the light;_
_I will look on His righteousness:_
_So shall mine enemy see, and shame cover her,_
_She that saith unto me, Where is Jehovah thy God?--_
_Mine eyes shall see her,_
_Now is she for trampling, like mire in the streets!_

The prophet[918] responds:--

_A day for the building of thy walls shall that day be!_
_Broad shall thy border be_[919] _on that day!_

...[920]_and shall come to thee_
_From Assyria unto Egypt, and from Egypt to the River,_
_And to Sea from Sea, and Mountain from Mountain;_[921]
_Though_[922] _the land be waste on account of her inhabitants,_
_Because of the fruit of their doings._

An Ancient Prayer:--

_Shepherd Thy people with Thy staff,_
_The sheep of Thy heritage dwelling solitarily...._[923]
_May they pasture in Bashan and Gilead as in days of old!_
_As in the days when Thou wentest forth from the land of Miṣraim, give
us wonders to see!_
_Nations shall see and despair of all their might;_
_Their hands to their mouths shall they put,_
_Their ears shall be deafened._
_They shall lick the dust like serpents;_
_Like worms of the ground from their fastnesses,_
_To Jehovah our God they shall come trembling,_
_And in fear before Thee!_

A Doxology:--

_Who is a God like to Thee? Forgiving iniquity,_
_And passing by transgression, to the remnant of His heritage;_
_He keepeth not hold of His anger for ever,_
_But One who delighteth in mercy is He;_
_He will come back, He will pity us,_
_He will tread underfoot our iniquities--_
_Yea, Thou wilt cast to the depths of the sea every one of our sins._
_Thou wilt show faithfulness to Jacob, leal love to Abraham,_
_As Thou hast sworn to our fathers from the days of yore._

FOOTNOTES:

[916] Above, pp. 372 ff.

[917] Cf. with it Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7 (J); Jer. iii. 5, l. 20; Isa. lvii. 16; Psalms ciii. 9, cv. 9, 10.

[918] It was a woman who spoke before, the People or the City. But the second personal pronouns to which this reply of the prophet is addressed are all masculine. Notice the same change in vi. 9-16 (above p. 427).

[919] ירחק־חק, Ewald: "distant the date." Notice the assonance. It explains the use of the unusual word for _border_. LXX. _thy border_. The LXX. also takes into ver. 11 (as above) the הוא יום of ver. 12.

[920] Something has probably been lost here.

[921] For ההר read מהר.

[922] It is difficult to get sense when translating the conjunction in any other way. But these two lines may belong to the following.

[923] The words omitted above are literally _jungle in the midst of gardenland_ or _Carmel_. Plausible as it would be to take the proper name Carmel here along with Bashan and Gilead (see _Hist. Geog._, 338), the connection prefers the common noun _garden_ or _gardenland_: translate "dwelling alone like a bit of jungle in the midst of cultivated land." Perhaps the clause needs rearrangement: יערבתוככרמל, with a verb to introduce it. Yet compare כַּרְמִלּוֹ יַעַר, 2 Kings xix. 23; Isa. xxxvii. 24.

INDEX OF PASSAGES AND TEXTS

_A single text will always be found treated in the exposition of the passage to which it belongs. Only the other important references to it are given in this index. In the second of the columns Roman numerals indicate the chapters, Arabic numerals the pages._

AMOS

i., ii. 62

i. 1 61, 67 f., 69 _n._

i. 2 81, 93, 98

i. 3-ii. VII.

ii. 13 72

iii.-vi. 62 ff.

iii.-iv. 3 62, 63, VIII.

iii. 3-8 81 ff., 89 ff., 196

iii. 7 198

iv. 4-13 IX., Sec. 1; 199 f.

iv. 11 68

iv. 12 197

iv. 13 164, 201 ff.

v. 63; IX., Sec. 2

v. 8, 9 166, 201 ff.

v. 26, 27 108, 170 ff., 204

vi. 63; IX., Sec. 3

vi. 9, 10 IX., Sec. 4

vi. 12 198

vii.-ix. 63 f.

vii.-viii. 4 70; V., Sec. 3

vii. 218

vii. 12 28 f.

vii. 14, 15 27, 74, 76 ff.

viii. 4-ix. 64; X.

viii. 4-14 X., Sec. 1

viii. 8 68, 95, 198

viii. 9 66, 95

ix. 1-6 64; X., Sec. 2

ix. 1 111, 151

ix. 5, 6 201 ff.

ix. 7-15 64; X., Sec. 3

HOSEA

i. 1, _Title_ 215 _n._ 1

i.-iii. 211, 212 ff.; XIV.; XXIII.

i. 7 213 _n._ 1

ii. 1-3 213, 249 _n._ 2

ii. 8 341

ii. 9 335

ii. 10 328

iii. 1 214

iii. 5 214

iv.-xiv. 215 ff.; XV.

iv.-vii. 7 223; XVI.

iv. XVI., Sec. 1

iv. 1 323

iv. 2 320

iv. 4 221 _n._ 4

iv. 4-9 324

iv. 6 320, 326, 330

iv. 9 335

iv. 12-14 241, 282, 323; XXIII.

iv. 15 224

iv. 17 342

v. 1-14 XVI., Sec. 2

v. 5 225, 337 f.

v. 10, 12-14 225

v. 15-vii. 2 XVI., Sec. 3

v. 14-vi. 1 222

vi. 1-4 344

vi. 5 221 _n._ 3

vi. 8, 9 216

vi. 11-vii. 1 222

vii. 3-7 XVI., Sec. 4

vii. 8-x. XVII.

vii. 8-viii. 3 XVII., Sec. 1

vii. 9-11 323, 337

vii. 16 335 _n._ 1

viii. 4-13 XVII., Sec. 2

viii. 4 221 _n._ 4

viii. 5 341

viii. 10 221 _n._ 6

viii. 13 221 _n._ 7

viii. 14 224

ix. 1-9 XVII., Sec. 3

ix. 1 340

ix. 2 221 _n._ 6

ix. 7 28, 222 _n._ 1

ix. 8, 9 222 _n._ 1

ix. 10-17 XVII., Sec. 4; XXIII.

ix. 17 222 _n._ 2

x. XVII., Sec. 5

x. 1, 2 38 _n._ 4

x. 5 221 _n._ 6 (read x. 5); 341, 342

x. 9 327 _n._ 10

x. 11, 12 225, 344 f.

x. 13 221 _n._ 6

x. 14 217 _n._ 5

x. 15 221 _n._ 6

xi. XVIII.

xi. 1 327

xi. 2-4 221 _nn._ 1-4

xi. 5 221 _n._ 4, 336 _n._ 2

xi. 8 XXIII.; 351

xii.-xiv. 1 XIX.

xii. XIX., Sec. 1

xii. 1 225

xii. 2 221 _n._ 6

xii. 3 225

xii. 4, 5 326

xii. 7 345

xii. 8 33

xii. 13, 14 327

xiii.-xiv. 1 XIX., Sec. 2

xiii. 2 342

xiii. 4 203, 226

xiii. 6 327, 330

xiii. 7 330 f.

xiv. 2-10 XX.

xiv. 3 343

xiv. 5 335 _n._ 1

xiv. 6-9 233

MICAH

i. 1, _Title_ 358

i.-iii. 358, 360, 362 ff.

i. 362 f.; XXV.

ii., iii. 363, 364; XXVI.

ii. 12, 13 359, 360, 362, 393 _n._ 1

iii. 14 363 _n._ 2

iv., v. 357, 358, 360, 365 ff.

iv. 1-7 XXVII.

iv. 1-5 358, 365

iv. 5 367

iv. 6-8 358, 367

iv. 8-13 367

iv. 8-v. XXVIII.

iv. 9-14 358, 359

iv. 11-13 358

iv. 14-v. 8 368

v. 8 359

v. 9-14 368

vi., vii. 357, 358, 359, 360, 369

vi. 1-8 369; XXIX.

vi. 9-vii. 6 XXX.

vi. 9-16 370

vii. 1-6 359, 371

vii. 7-20 359, 372 ff.; XXXI.

vii. 11 373

vii. 14-17 373

vii. 18-20 373

Transcriber's Notes:

Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout.

Inconsistent hyphenation is as in the original.

Page 364: Verse references have been updated to reflect their actual references.