Micah 7:14
in Micah 7Shepherd with Your staff Your people, the flock of Your inheritance. They live alone in a woodland, surrounded by pastures. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thy heritage, which dwell solitarily, in the forest in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
KJV
Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
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This verse in Micah 7
Commentary
8 notes on this verseFeed 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.
This site's exposition
Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage
on Micah 7:14-15
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.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 14 and following) Feed your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, dwelling alone in the forest of Carmel. They will graze in Bashan and Gilead as in ancient times, as in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show (or have shown) them wonders. The nations will see and be ashamed of all their might. They will lay their hands over their mouths; their ears will become deaf. They will lick the dust like serpents; they will tremble from their hiding places.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
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.
Feed thy people with thy rod,....
And when we see God coming towards us in ways of mercy, we must go forth to meet him by prayer. It is a prophetic prayer, which amounts to a promise of the good prayed for; what God directed his prophet to ask no doubt he designed to give.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
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.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Feed Thy people with Thy rod - The day of final deliverance was still a great way off. There was a weary interval before them of chastisement, suffering, captivity. So Micah lays down his pastoral office by committing his people to Him who was their true and abiding Shepherd. who that has had the pastoral office, has not thought, as the night drew near in which no man can work, “what will be after him?” Micah knew and foretold the outline. It was for his people a passing through the valley of the shadow of death. Micah then commits them to Him, who had Himself committed them to him, who alone could guide them through it. It is a touching parting with his people; a last guidance of those whom he had taught, reproved, rebuked, in vain, to Him the Good Shepherd who led Israel like a flock. The rod is at times the shepherd’s staff Lev 27:32; Psa 23:4, although more frequently the symbol of chastisement. God’s chastisement of His people is an austere form of His love. So He says, “If his children forsake My law, I will visit their offences with a rod and their sin with scourges: nevertheless My loving-kindness will I not utterly take from them” Psa 89:31, Psa 89:33. The flock of Thine inheritance - So Moses had appealed to God, “Destroy not Thy people and Thine inheritance which Thou hast redeemed through Thy greatness - They are Thy people and Thine inheritance” Deu 9:26, Deu 9:29; and Solomon, in his dedication-prayer, that, on their repentance in their captivity, God would forgive His people, “for they be Thy people and Thine inheritance which Thou broughtest forth out of Egypt” 1Ki 8:51; and Asaph, “O Lord, the pagan are come into Thine inheritance” Psa 79:1; and again, “Why doth Thine anger smoke against the sheep of Thy pasture? […]
The words behind it
15 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| רְעֵ֧ה | reeh | shepherd | H7462 → | 177 times |
| עַמְּךָ֣ | ʾamekha | people your | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| בְשִׁבְטֶ֗ךָ | veshivtekha | with rod your | H7626 → | |
| צֹ֚אן | tzon | [the] flock of | H6629 → | 274 times |
| נַֽחֲלָתֶ֔ךָ | nachalatekha | inheritance your | H5159 → | 222 times |
| שֹׁכְנִ֣י | shokheni | [who] dwell | H7931 → | |
| לְבָדָ֔ד | levadad | <of> alone | H910 → | |
| יַ֖עַר | yaar | a forest | H3293 → | 59 times |
| בְּת֣וֹךְ | betokh | in [the] midst of | H8432 → | 418 times |
| כַּרְמֶ֑ל | karmel | a garden-land | H3759 → | |
| יִרְע֥וּ | yiru | let them graze | H7462 → | 177 times |
| בָשָׁ֛ן | vashan | Bashan | H1316 → | |
| וְגִלְעָ֖ד | vegilad | and Gilead | H1568 → | |
| כִּימֵ֥י | kimei | like [the] days of | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| עוֹלָֽם׃ | olam | antiquity | H5769 → | 438 times |
רְעֵ֧הshepherd
reehH7462 →177 times
עַמְּךָ֣people your
ʾamekhaH5971 →1873 times
בְשִׁבְטֶ֗ךָwith rod your
veshivtekhaH7626 →
צֹ֚אן[the] flock of
tzonH6629 →274 times
נַֽחֲלָתֶ֔ךָinheritance your
nachalatekhaH5159 →222 times
שֹׁכְנִ֣י[who] dwell
shokheniH7931 →
לְבָדָ֔ד<of> alone
levadadH910 →
יַ֖עַרa forest
yaarH3293 →59 times
בְּת֣וֹךְin [the] midst of
betokhH8432 →418 times
כַּרְמֶ֑לa garden-land
karmelH3759 →
יִרְע֥וּlet them graze
yiruH7462 →177 times
בָשָׁ֛ןBashan
vashanH1316 →
וְגִלְעָ֖דand Gilead
vegiladH1568 →
כִּימֵ֥יlike [the] days of
kimeiH3117 →2304 times
עוֹלָֽם׃antiquity
olamH5769 →438 times
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
Psalms 100:3Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
it leads to
- Psalms 95:6–7
O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
- Psalms 46:10
“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth.”
- Psalms 119:73
Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding to learn Your commandments.
- John 17:3
Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.
- Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.
- Psalms 95:6–7
Through
Isaiah 40:11He tends His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart. He gently leads the nursing ewes.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 34:23
I will appoint over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them and be their shepherd.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Revelation 7:17
For the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd. ‘He will lead them to springs of living water,’ and ‘God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”
- Psalms 23:1–6
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
- Ezekiel 34:23
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Micah
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Micah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.