Micahchapter 7
20 verses · Micah · 750 to 686 BC · The Twelve
Key verse
He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
It stands in Who is a God like you, casting our sins into the sea, verses 14 to 20.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The prophet walks a stripped orchard looking for one cluster: 'the godly man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men.' Bribed judges, scheming princes, neighbors not to be trusted, and a household turned against itself: 'a man's enemies are the men of his own house,' words Jesus takes up in Matthew 10. Against that, faith: 'when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, Jehovah will be a light unto me' (7:8). Walls are rebuilt, borders enlarged, nations shamed. And the book ends on the meaning of Micah's own name: 'Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity… and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.'
Context
Prophecy · Micah · Micah overview
The world behind this chapter
Micah 7The history
The opening picture is a specific disappointment. After the summer fruit has been gathered and the grapes gleaned, a hungry man walking the rows finds nothing, not one cluster, not one first-ripe fig, which was the prized early fruit everyone waited for. Micah says that is what looking for a godly man in the land feels like.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The hunting language that follows is literal equipment. They hunt one another with a net, and both hands are skilled at evil, the official asks, the judge takes the bribe, the great man states what he wants, and together they weave it. The best of them is like a briar, and the most upright like a thorn hedge, which is what you get when you reach into that tangle.
The breakdown of the household was the last thing to go in that society. A son treating his father with contempt, a daughter rising against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies being the men of his own house, in a culture built on the extended family, this is society at the floor. Jesus later quoted these lines about what following him would cost.
The watchman at the end is standing on a wall. The day of your watchmen, the day of your visitation, is coming, and then the promise of a day for building your walls, the boundary extended, and people coming from Assyria and Egypt and from sea to sea.
What it meant to them
The instruction to the faithful few is to wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me, and to speak to their enemies: rejoice not over me; when I fall I shall rise; when I sit in darkness the LORD will be a light to me.
The book ends on its author's own name. Micah means who is like the LORD, and the last lines ask exactly that: who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression, who does not retain his anger forever because he delights in steadfast love? The sins are trodden underfoot and cast into the depths of the sea, a picture the New Testament never improves on, only repeats.
Sources cited
- Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: The Minor Prophets
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
Where the chapter sits
Micah 7 falls in Three judgment-and-hope cycles (chapters 1–7). Judgment on Samaria and Jerusalem (1–2); hope of the latter-day mountain (4); Bethlehem and the Ruler out of her (5); the LORD's controversy and ‘what doth the LORD require’ (6); hope closing with ‘who is a God like unto thee?’ (7).
Who is a God like unto thee?. The book closes with the LORD's pardoning love.
The whole shape of Micah→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. No cluster left; trust no friend, not even your own house
1. (vv. 1-2)
Micah 7:1
“Woe - o is me! for I am, as when they have gathered the summer fruits , as the grape-gleanings of the vintage “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts,” Isaiah said at the same time, “is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plants” Isa 5:7. Isaiah said, brought forth wild grapes; Micah, that there are but gleanings, few and poor.”
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Micah 7:1
“THE nation of Israel had fallen into so sad and backsliding a condition—it was not like a vine covered with fruit, but like a vineyard after the whole vintage has been gathered—there was not to be found a single cluster. Not one righteous man could be found, not one to be trusted or found faithful to God. The whole state had become like a field that has been closely reaped, in which nothing remains but the stubble—like a vineyard that has been completely stripped, in which there remains no vestige of fruit.”
Micah 7:1
“I am as when, &c.--It is the same with me as with one seeking fruits after the harvest, grapes after the vintage. "There is not a cluster" to be found: no "first-ripe fruit" (or "early fig"; see on Isa 28:4) which "my soul desireth" [MAURER].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Micah 7:2
“The good man is perished out of the earth - A similar sentiment may be found, Psa 12:1; Isa 57:1. As the early fig of excellent flavor cannot be found in the advanced season of summer, or a choice cluster of grapes after vintage, so neither can the good and upright man be discovered by searching in Israel. This comparison, says Bp. Newcome, is beautifully implied. They hunt every man his brother with a net - This appears to be an allusion to the ancient mode of duel between the retiarius and secutor.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 7:2
“The Hebrew expresses "one merciful and good in relation to man," rather than to God. is perished out of the earth-- (Ps 12:1).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits: The prophet pictures himself standing in a vineyard already stripped by the pickers, hunting for one cluster and finding none, the ripe fig he craved already gone. Henry reads the figure as national in scope, the godly man now as rare in the land as fruit left ungathered after the harvest is in. Verse 2 states the fact behind the figure without any figure at all: the good man has perished, and those left hunt one another with a net, brother stalking brother for blood. Keil sets this collapse of ordinary trust as the specific wound the rest of the chapter answers, first in complaint and only then in hope.
2. (vv. 3-4)
Micah 7:3
“The "threefold cord is not quickly broken" (Ec 4:12); here the "prince," the "judge," and the "great man" are the three in guilty complicity. "They wrap it up," namely, they conspire to carry out the great man's desire at the sacrifice of justice.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Micah 7:3
“That they may do evil with both hands earnestly,.... Or "well" (t), strenuously, diligently, to the utmost of their power, labouring at it with all their might and main; as wicked men generally are more industrious, and exert themselves more to do evil than good men do to do good; and even weary themselves to commit iniquity: or, "instead of doing good", as Marinus in Aben Ezra, take a great deal of pains to do evil; work with both hands at it, instead of doing good.”
Micah 7:3
“That they may do evil with both hands earnestly - (Literally, upon evil both hands to do well,) that is, “both their hands are upon evil to do it well,” or “earnestly” , as our translation gives the meaning; only the Hebrew expresses more, that evil is their good, and their good or excellence is in evil. Bad men gain a dreadful skill and wisdom in evil, as Satan has; and cleverness in evil is their delight.”
Micah 7:4
“The best of them is as a brier - They are useless in themselves, and cannot be touched without wounding him that comes in contact with them. He alludes to the thick thorn hedges, still frequent in Palestine. The day of thy watchmen - The day of vengeance, which the prophets have foreseen and proclaimed, is at hand. Now shall be their perplexity; no more wrapping up, all shall be unfolded.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 7:4
“Or, "the day of thy false prophets being punished"; they are specially threatened as being not only blind themselves, but leading others blindfold [CALVIN]. now--at the time foretold, "at that time"; the prophet transporting himself into it. perplexity-- (Isa 22:5).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
do evil with both hands earnestly: Verse 3 details the corruption by office: the prince demands, the judge demands a reward, and the great man simply states his desire, and the machinery beneath him weaves it into a verdict, three tiers of government working the same wrong together. Gill reads they wrap it up as a picture of collusion, each party braiding his own piece of the wrong into one finished cord. Verse 4 turns from bribery to the whole community, calling even its best a brier and its most upright sharper than a thorn hedge, unfit to be touched without harm. Clarke ties the day of thy watchmen, thy visitation to the warnings the prophets had already given, now arriving as the judgment they foretold.
3. (vv. 5-6)
Micah 7:5
“Trust ye not in a friend - It is part of the perplexity of crooked ways, that all relationships are put out of joint. Selfishness rends each from the other, and disjoints the whole frame of society.”
Micah 7:6
“Just what is the work of the axe? The excision of the soul that is incurably fruitless, like the tree even after the dung has been applied. And what does the sword do? The sword of the Word cuts through defenses. It does the work of separating the worse from the better. It actually creates a division between the faithful and the unbeliever. It may even stir up the son and the daughter and the bride against the father and the mother and the mother-in-law, the young and fresh against the old and shadowy.”
Gregory of Nazianzus· written before 390· ON THE HOLY LIGHTS, ORATION 39:15patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 7:6
“For the son dishonoreth the father - See the use our Lord has made of these words, where he quotes them, Mat 10:21 (note), Mat 10:25 (note), Mat 10:36 (note), and the notes there.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Micah 7:6
- Quoted inMatthew 10:35“For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
'a man at variance against his father', division saying
Trust ye not in a friend: Verse 5 pushes the warning into the closest relationships left, telling Judah to trust no friend and no confidant, not even the wife who lies in a man's own bosom, because the unraveling named in verses 1 and 2 has reached that far. Verse 6 lists the breakdown by generation and by marriage, son against father, daughter against mother, daughter in law against mother in law, until a man's enemies are the men of his own house. Clarke and the older commentators note that the Lord takes up this same language at Matthew 10:35-36 to describe the division his own coming would bring within families, the ancient collapse becoming a figure for a different rupture. The two settings are read as distinct rather than one collapsed into the other, but the vocabulary is the same vocabulary.
B. I will look to the LORD; when I fall, I shall arise
1. (v. 7)
Micah 7:7
“Therefore - (And,) when all these things come to pass and all human help fails, “I”, for my part, “will look unto”, (literally, “on”) “the Lord” God, the Unchangeable. The prophet sets himself, I, with emphasis, against the multitude of the ungodly.”
2 more voices on this verse
Micah 7:7
“Therefore - Since all sorts of men are so perfidious. Look - As one set in a watch-tower looks round about, and diligently observes all that stirs, so will the prophet; so did they who in Israel and Judah feared the Lord.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Micah 7:7
“OBSERVE that the Prophet has no sort of doubt. He insinuates no "if or "an" or "but" or "perhaps," but he says it straight out as a fact of which he is infallibly convinced—"My God will hear me." What a blessed thing it is that the child of God knows and feels that this is true! Wherever he may fail, he will succeed at the Throne! If all other friendly ears are closed, his Friend of friends will hear him. Lose your confidence in the power of prayer and I know not what remains for you.”
Therefore I will look unto the Lord: Against the wreckage just described the prophet makes his own turn, therefore I will look unto the Lord, the word therefore carrying the whole complaint over into resolve. Henry reads the verse as Micah speaking for the faithful remnant, no longer trusting a friend or even a wife but placing that same trust higher, in the God of my salvation. Wesley notes the sequence of the three verbs, look, wait, and will hear, moving from present resolve to settled expectation, a shape the Psalms return to often.
2. (vv. 8-10)
Micah 7:8
“Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy - The captive Israelites are introduced as speaking here and in the preceding verse. The enemy are the Assyrians and Chaldeans; the fall is their idolatry and consequent captivity; the darkness, the calamities they suffered in that captivity; their rise and light, their restoration and consequent blessedness. To rejoice over the fall or miseries of any man, betrays a malignant spirit.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Micah 7:8
“Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; for though I have fallen, I will rise again. The ruin of weakness is not severe, if there is also not a desire to not rise from it. Have the will to rise, there is someone present who will make you rise.”
Ambrose of Milan· written before 397· Commentaries on the Twelve Davidic Psalmspatristic
Micah 7:8
“They said, Where is the Lord their God? As if because they were afflicted God had forsaken them, and they knew not where to find him with their prayers, and he knew not how to help them with his favours. This David's enemies said to him, and it was a sword in his bones, Ps. xlii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Micah 7:9
“God's people plead guilty before God; but, in respect to their human foes, they are innocent and undeserving of their foes' injuries. bring me forth to the light--to the temporal and spiritual redemption. I shall behold his righteousness--His gracious faithfulness to His promises (Ps 103:17).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Micah 7:9
We sometimes bear illness as a punishment for sin intended for our conversion, "for whom the Lord loves," says the Scripture, "he chastises." Again Scripture teaches, "Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you, and some have died. But if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged, we are chastised by the Lord that we be not condemned with the world."
Basil of Caesarea· written before 379· THE LONG RULES 55patristic
Micah 7:9
“Those who expect to find the road to Heaven smooth and unobstructed will discover little in the experience of the ancient saints to support the expectation. The Lord's people have, in all ages, been tried people. Cowper well says— "Thepath of sorrow, and that path alone, Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown." Though, perhaps, to the youthful mind this may sound rather harsh, yet there is a large amount of comfort in it to the more advanced saint, for he says to himself, "Then my difficulties, my distresses, my tribulations, are no new thing.”
Charles Spurgeon· written before 1892· The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3239: “Woe and Weal” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Micah 7:10
“Then she that is mine enemy - This may refer particularly to the city of Babylon. Shall she be trodden down - Literally fulfilled in the package of that city by the Persians, and its consequent total ruin.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 7:10
“Then she that is mine enemy shall see it,.... The Chaldeans and Edomites shall see people of the Jews rising out of their calamities, brought out of the darkness of their captivity in Babylon, and enjoying the light of peace and prosperity in their own land. Some editions of the Targum, and Jarchi and Kimchi, have, in their glosses on this verse and Mic 7:9, Rome, of whom they interpret this enemy, as Mr. Pocock observes; and so R.”
Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: The enemy who gloats is answered by a confidence that owns its own guilt first, I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, before it claims any vindication, the fall confessed as deserved rather than excused. Verse 8's when I fall, I shall arise, and when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me states the whole logic of the passage in one line, judgment endured is not judgment final. Commentators differ on the enemy's identity, Barnes and others naming Edom or Babylon by turns, and the bench leaves the name open while reading the taunt, where is the Lord thy God, as the standing insult any conquered people hears. Verse 10 answers it in kind, the enemy herself trodden down as the mire of the streets, the reversal the whole chapter has been building toward.
C. A day is coming for building your wallsvv. 11-13
In the day that thy walls are to be built: The complaint's answer widens from the single voice back to the nation, a day pictured when the walls now torn down are rebuilt and the decree that scattered the people is put far away. Verse 12 names a return from every direction, from Assyria, from Egypt's fortified cities, from river and from sea to sea, the older commentators reading it of the historical regathering from exile and later readers hearing a fuller ingathering still to come, both positions held rather than either one erasing the other. Verse 13 keeps the warning honest inside the promise, the land still desolate for the doings of those who dwell in it, judgment on the nations named alongside Israel's restoration rather than displacing it. Keil reads verses 11 through 13 as one unit, ruin, regathering, and remaining judgment held together rather than resolved into a single simple sequence.
Micah 7:11
“On this confession of unworthiness and trust the message of joy bursts in, with the abruptness and conciseness of Hosea or Nahum: A day to build thy fences; (that is, cometh;) That day, far shall be the degree; That day, and he shall come quite to thee; And there follows, in a longer but still remarkably measured and interrupted cadence, the statement of the length and breadth from which the people shall come to her; Up to and from Assyria and the cities of strong-land (Egypt;) Up to and from strong-land and even to river (the Euphrates;) And sea from sea, and mountain to mountain.”
Micah 7:12
“In that day also he shall come - Bp. Newcome translates: - “And in that day they shall come unto thee From Assyria and the fenced cities; And from Egypt even unto the river.” Calmet translates: - “They shall come to thee from Assyria even unto Egypt; And from Egypt even to the river; (Euphrates); And from one sea to another, and from one mountain to another.” This, says he, gives an easy sense; whereas we cannot tell where to find those fortified cities spoken of by other translators.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Micah 7:12
“In that day - After the return out of captivity. He - He who is of Jewish race. The fortified cities - In which many Jews were kept for servile works.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Micah 7:12
“In that day also--rather, an answer to the supposed question of Zion, When shall my walls be built? "The day (of thy walls being built) is the day when he (that is, many) shall come to thee from Assyria," &c. [LUDOVICUS DE DIEU].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Micah 7:13
“Notwithstanding - (And) the land (that is that spoken of, the land of Judah) shall be desolate not through any arbitrary law or the might of her enemies, but through the sins of the people, because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings Truly “the fruit of their doings,” what they did to please themselves, of their own minds against God.”
2 more voices on this verse
Micah 7:13
“Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate,.... Not the land of Chaldea, as some; or the land of the nations, as Jarchi and Kimchi; but the land of Israel. That part of it, which was possessed by the ten tribes, was made desolate by Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and that which was inhabited by the two tribes, by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and this desolation was to be, "notwithstanding" the above prophecies, and prior to the fulfilment of them.”
Micah 7:13
“For this they must expect to smart a great while; for the world shall know that God hates sin even in his own people. When it does come it shall be a complete salvation; and it seems to refer to their deliverance out of Babylon by Cyrus, which Isaiah about this time prophesied of, as a type of our redemption by Christ.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
D. Who is a God like you, casting our sins into the sea
1. (vv. 14-15)
Micah 7:14
“Feed thy people with thy rod - בשבטך beshibtecha, “with thy crook.” The shepherd’s crook is most certainly designed, as the word flock immediately following shows. No rod of correction or affliction is here intended; nor does the word mean such. Solitarily - They have been long without a shepherd or spiritual governor. In the midst of Carmel - Very fruitful in vines. Bashan and Gilead - Proverbially fruitful in pasturages.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Micah 7:14
“Feed - So Christ directs his officers. With thy rod - In allusion to the custom of shepherds who guided their sheep by a pastoral staff. In the wood - Protect and guide those that in their present captive state are solitary, compassed with dangers.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Micah 7:14
“Feed thy people--Prayer of the prophet, in the name of his people to God, which, as God fulfils believing prayer, is prophetical of what God would do. When God is about to deliver His people, He stirs up their friends to pray for them.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Micah 7:15
“According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt - God answers the prayer, beginning with its closing words . Micah had prayed, “Turn Thy people like the days of old; “God answers, “like the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt.” Micah had said, in the name of his people, “I shall behold His Righteousness; God answers, I will make him to behold marvelous things” .”
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 7:15
“Their deliverance out of Babylon shall be a work of wonder and grace not inferior to their deliverance out of Egypt, nay, it shall eclipse the lustre of that ( Jer. xvi. 14, 15 ), much more shall the work of redemption by Christ. Note, God's former favours to his church are patterns of future favours, and shall again be copied out as there is occasion.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage: The prophet turns to prayer, asking the Lord himself to feed his people with the shepherd's rod, the flock now scattered to graze again in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old, the fertile lands lost to Assyria's advance named as the pasture prayed for. Wesley reads dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel as the picture of a flock without a shepherd's care, exposed rather than gathered. Verse 15 answers the prayer in the Lord's own first person, according to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things, a new exodus promised in the vocabulary of the first one. Clarke reads the marvellous things as an open promise rather than one tied to a single fulfillment, language deliberately large enough to gather more than one deliverance under it.
2. (vv. 16-17)
Micah 7:16
“The nations shall see and be confounded - Whether the words in these verses (Mic 7:15-17) be applied to the return from the Babylonish captivity, or to the prosperity of the Jews under the Maccabees, they may be understood as ultimately applicable to the final restoration of this people, and their lasting prosperity under the Gospel.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Micah 7:17
“Thus the antithesis is brought out. They shall tremble forth from their holes: they shall in trepidation turn to the Lord for salvation (compare Note, see on Ho 3:5, and Jer 33:9). fear because of thee--shall fear Thee, Jehovah (and so fear Israel as under Thy guardianship). There is a change here from speaking of God to speaking to God [MAURER].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 7:17
“They shall lick the dust like a (the) serpent - To lick the dust, by itself, pictures the extreme humility of persons who east themselves down to the very earth (as in Psa 72:9; Isa 49:23).”
The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: The marvellous things done for Israel become a spectacle the nations cannot answer, their own might now a source of shame rather than pride, hand over mouth and ears made deaf, the posture of men with nothing left to say. Verse 17 pictures those same nations reduced to the serpent's own curse from Eden, licking dust and creeping from their holes like worms, Henry reading the image as total reversal, the proud emptied into the lowest crawling posture Genesis itself names. The fear that follows is aimed higher than Israel's own standing, they shall be afraid of the Lord our God, the point of the whole spectacle being reverence for the God who acted. Pusey reads the sequence as the pattern the exodus itself set, Egypt's plagues teaching Pharaoh's own household to know the Lord, replayed now on a wider stage.
3. (vv. 18-19)
Micah 7:18
“Who is a God like unto thee, etc - Here is a challenge to all idol worshippers, and to all those who take false views of the true God, to show his like. See his characters; they are immediately subjoined. 1. He pardoneth iniquity. This is the prerogative of God alone; of that Being who alone has power to save or to destroy. 2. He passeth by transgression. He can heal backsliding, and restore them that are fallen.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Micah 7:18
“Contrast Am 7:8, and "mark iniquities," Ps 130:3. the remnant--who shall be permitted to survive the previous judgment: the elect remnant of grace (Mic 4:7; 5:3, 7, 8). retaineth not . . . anger-- (Ps 103:9). delighteth in mercy--God's forgiving is founded on His nature, which delights in loving-kindness, and is averse from wrath.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Micah 7:18
“Sons of men, rejoice that such a God has revealed Himself to you! This should cause a universal Hallelujah, the whole world over, as soon as ever it is heard! "He delights in mercy." Clap your hands and rejoice before Him! Yes, exceedingly rejoice! The heathen did not find this out. Although they had many gods, differing one from another in character, none of them were ever gods of mercy! They were usually fierce demons—some of them only rejoicing in the exaction of human blood.”
Charles Spurgeon· written before 1892· The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3317: “A Sweet Bow” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Micah 7:19
“He will turn again - who seemed to be turned away from us when we were turned away from Him. “He will subdue, or trample under foot” Joe 2:14, our worst enemy, “our iniquities”, as He saith, “He shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly” Rom 16:20. Hitherto, sinful passions had not rebelled only, but had had the mastery over us. Sin subdued man; it was his lord, a fierce tyrant over him; he could not subdue it.”
3 more voices on this verse
Micah 7:19
"The Lord sits enthroned over the flood." A flood is an overflow of water that causes all lying below it to disappear. It cleanses all that was previously filthy. Therefore he calls the grace of baptism a flood, so that the soul, being washed well of its sins and rid of the old person, is suitable henceforth as a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Further, what is said in the twenty-first psalm agrees with this.
Basil of Caesarea· written before 379· HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 28:8patristic
Micah 7:19
“When God takes away the guilt of sin that it may not condemn us, He takes away also the power of sin that it may not rule us. cast . . . into . . . depths of the sea--never to rise again to view, buried out of sight in eternal oblivion: not merely at the shore side, where they may rise again. our . . . their--change of person.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Micah 7:19
“BUT lately I tuned my harp to the music of forgiven sin and we sang of pardon bought with blood, finding our keynote in the words of David—"Who forgives all your iniquities." It was a sweet subject to all our hearts, for we all have a portion in it, seeing we are all sinful and have need to be forgiven—therefore did our souls dance to the high sounding cymbals as we rejoiced in the complete pardon which our gracious God has given to all who believe in Jesus.”
Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity: The book closes on its own name, Micah meaning who is like the Lord, and verse 18 turns that name into a question the whole prophecy has been answering, who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage. Gill and the older commentators read the wordplay as deliberate, the prophet signing the book with the very syllables of its argument, anger not retained because mercy is delighted in. Verse 19 answers with the picture the church has returned to ever since, thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea, sin not merely forgiven but sent where it cannot be recovered. Henry reads the double verb, he will subdue our iniquities before he casts them away, as pardon that deals with sin's power first and only then with its record.
4. (v. 20)
Micah 7:20
“Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob - The promises which he has made to Jacob and his posterity. Not one of them can ever fall to the ground. “And the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn;” viz., that “in his Seed all the families of the earth should be blessed;” that the Messiah should come from Abraham, through his son Isaac, by Jacob and David; be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Micah 7:20
“It is in pursuance of the covenant that our sins are pardoned and our lusts mortified; from that spring all these streams flow, and with these he shall freely give us all things. The promise is said to be mercy to Abraham, because, as made to him first, it was mere mercy, preventing mercy, considering what state it found him in.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Micah 7:20
“God's promises are called "mercy," because they flow slowly from grace; "truth," because they will be surely performed (Lu 1:72, 73; 1Th 5:24). sworn unto our fathers-- (Ps 105:9, 10). The promise to Abraham is in Ge 12:2; to Isaac, in Ge 26:24; to Jacob, in Ge 28:13.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham: The prophecy's last word rests the whole hope on a covenant already sworn rather than on anything newly earned, the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham reaching back past the nation's own failure to promises made from the days of old. Keil reads truth and mercy here as the same twin pairing verse 18 already used, anger not retained and mercy delighted in, so the book's last sentence answers its own opening question by name. Calvin, lecturing through the Twelve, reads the appeal to Abraham and Jacob as Micah grounding Israel's future entirely in God's own faithfulness to his word, not in the conduct the earlier chapters have just finished condemning. The whole book therefore ends where it began, complaint answered not by improvement in the people but by the character of the God who keeps a covenant sworn long before their failure.
This page carries no textual note on Micah 7. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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