Micah 7:11
in Micah 7The day for rebuilding your walls will come—the day for extending your boundary.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
A day for building thy walls! in that day shall the decree be far removed.
KJV
In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed.
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This verse in Micah 7
Commentary
6 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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.
This site's exposition
In the day that thy walls are to be built
on Micah 7:11-13
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.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 8 onwards) Do not rejoice, my enemy, over me, for I have fallen: I will rise again. When I sit in darkness, the Lord is my light: I will bear the anger of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he judges my cause and executes judgment for me, and brings me into the light, and I will see his righteousness, and my enemy will behold it, and she will be covered with shame, who says to me: Where is your God? My eyes will see her; now she will be trampled as the mud of the streets. The day will come when your walls will be rebuilt. On that day the law will go forth afar off: on that day it will come even to you from Assyria, and even to fortified cities, and from fortified cities even to the river, and from the river even to the sea, and from the sea even to the mountain. And the land will be a desolation because of its inhabitants, and because of the fruit of their thoughts. LXX: Do not insult me, my enemy: for I have fallen, and I will rise again: if I walk in darkness, the Lord will enlighten me. I will bear the anger of the Lord, for I have sinned against Him, until He pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light, and I will see His righteousness. My enemy will see this and be covered with shame, the one who said to me, 'Where is your God?' My eyes will see her; at that time she will be trampled down like mud in the streets. The day of your punishment has come, O Assyria; the time has come for your destruction. The Lord will abolish your power and authority. Your cities will be laid waste, from Tyre to the river, from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. The land and its inhabitants will be scattered because of their wickedness. […]
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
In the day that thy walls are to be built,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Zec 12:6). shall the decree be far removed--namely, thy tyrannical decree or rule of Babylon shall be put away from thee, "the statutes that were not good" (Eze 20:25) [CALVIN]. The Hebrew is against MAURER'S translation, "the boundary of the city shall be far extended," so as to contain the people flocking into it from all nations (Mic 7:12;
In the day that thy walls are to be built - This refers to Jerusalem; the decree, to the purpose of God to deliver the people into captivity. “This shall be far removed.” God having purposed their return, I cannot think, with some commentators, that this verse contains threatenings against Jerusalem, and not promises. See Hag 1:1-15 (note), where the subject is similar; and the restoration of Jerusalem is certainly what the prophet describes.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
It is a day, and he shall come up to you —The prophet says: That day that you deride, saying that it has been nullified and gone away - that day is guarded and preserved, and has not become nullified. The enemy shall come up to you to destroy you.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| י֖וֹם | yom | a day | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| לִבְנ֣וֹת | livnot | to build | H1129 → | |
| גְּדֵרָ֑יִךְ | gederayikh | walls your | H1447 → | |
| י֥וֹם | yom | a day | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| הַה֖וּא | hahu' | <the> that | H1931 → | 1879 times |
| יִרְחַק־ | yirchak- | it will be far | H7368 → | |
| חֹֽק׃ | chok | a boundary | H2706 → |
י֖וֹםa day
yomH3117 →2304 times
לִבְנ֣וֹתto build
livnotH1129 →
גְּדֵרָ֑יִךְwalls your
gederayikhH1447 →
י֥וֹםa day
yomH3117 →2304 times
הַה֖וּא<the> that
hahu'H1931 →1879 times
יִרְחַק־it will be far
yirchak-H7368 →
חֹֽק׃a boundary
chokH2706 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 54:11“O afflicted city, lashed by storms, without solace, surely I will set your stones in antimony and lay your foundations with sapphires.
it leads to
- 1 Peter 2:4–6
As you come to Him, the living stone, rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight,
- Acts 14:22
strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. “We must endure many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.
- Jeremiah 30:17
But I will restore your health and heal your wounds, declares the LORD, because they call you an outcast, Zion, for whom no one cares.”
- Isaiah 54:6
For the LORD has called you back, like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit, like the rejected wife of one’s youth,” says your God.
- Psalms 34:19
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him from them all.
- 1 Peter 2:4–6
Through
Nehemiah 2:8And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so that he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel to the temple, for the…
it leads to
- Isaiah 66:14
When you see, you will rejoice, and you will flourish like grass; then the hand of the LORD will be revealed to His servants, but His wrath will be shown to His enemies.
- Ezra 7:6
this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted Ezra all his requests, for…
- Nehemiah 7:2
Then I put my brother Hanani in charge of Jerusalem, along with Hananiah the commander of the fortress, because he was a faithful man who feared God more than most.
- Isaiah 66:14
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Micah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Micah and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).