Micah 7:16

(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 nations shall see and be confounded at all their might,....

shall see--the "marvellous things" (Mic 7:15; Isa 26:11). confounded at all their might--having so suddenly proved unavailing: that might wherewith they had thought that there is nothing which they could not effect against God's people. lay . . . hand upon . . . mouth--the gesture of silence (Job 21:5;

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens

The nations shall see - God had answered, what He would give to His own people, to see. Micah takes up the word, and says, what effect this sight should have upon the enemies of God and of His people. The world should still continue to be divided between the people of God and their adversaries. Those who are converted pass from the one to the other; but the contrast remains. Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, pass away or become subject to other powers; but the antagonism continues. The nations are they, who, at each time, waste, oppress, are arrayed against, the people of God. When the Gospel came into the world, the whole world was arrayed against it. These then, he says, “shall see”, that is, the marvelous works of God, which God should shew His people, and be ashamed at, that is, “because of all their might”, their own might. They put forth their whole might, and it failed them against the marvelous might of God. They should array might against might, and be ashamed at the failure of “all their might”. The word all is very emphatic; it implies that they had put forth all, and that all had failed them, and proved to be weakness. So the pagan might was often put to shame and gnashed its teeth, when it could avail nothing against the strength to endure which God gave to His martyrs. Its strength to inflict and to crush was baffled before the hidden might of God’s Spirit. “They shall lay their hand upon their mouth”, in token that they were reduced to silence, having no more to say ; for He promised, “I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist” (Luk 21:15, compare Act 5:29); and they had to own, “indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them, and we cannot deny it. […]