Micah 6:14
in Micah 6You will eat but not be satisfied, and your hunger will remain with you. What you acquire, you will not preserve; and what you save, I will give to the sword.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy humiliation shall be in the midst of thee: and thou shalt put away, but shalt not save; and that which thou savest will I give up to the sword.
KJV
Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee; and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver; and that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword.
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This verse in Micah 6
Commentary
7 notes on this verse(Verse 10 and following). Listen, you who are wise, and who will approve of it? The fire is still burning in the house of the wicked, the treasure of impiety, and the measure of anger is not yet full. Shall I justify the wicked scales and the deceitful weights of the bag? In them, her rich ones are filled with iniquity, and those who dwell in her speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. And so I have begun to strike you with destruction because of your sins.
This site's exposition
Therefore I am striking you severely
on Micah 6:13-16
The sentence follows the futility curses of Deuteronomy 28:38-40: "You will eat but not be satisfied", "You will sow but not reap". The source is named: "You have kept the statutes of Omri and all the practices of Ahab’s house", the northern dynasty of 1 Kings 16:25-33.
This site's exposition
eat but not be satisfied
The punishment follows the covenant curses of Leviticus 26:26. Food will be eaten and will not nourish. What they store up will be lost, and the match between sin and loss shows the hand of God.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied,....
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied - All thy possessions are cursed, because of thy sins; and thou hast no real good in all thy enjoyments. And thy casting down - For וישחך veyeshchacha, “thy casting down,” Newcome, by transposing the ח and ש, reads ויחשך veyechshach, “and it shall be dark;” and this is probably the true reading. The Arabic and Septuagint have read the same. “There shall be calamity in the midst of thee.” It shall have its seat and throne among you.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Even though there should be no enemy, yet thou shalt be consumed with intestine evils [CALVIN]. MAURER translates as from an Arabic root, "there shall be emptiness in thy belly." Similarly GROTIUS, "there shall be a sinking of thy belly (once filled with food), through hunger." This suits the parallelism to the first clause.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied - The correspondence of the punishment with the sin shall shew that it is not by chance, but from the just judgment of God. The curse of God shall go with what they eat, and it shall not nourish them. The word, thou, is thrice repeated . As God had just said, I too, so here, Thou. Thou, the same who hast plundered others, shalt thyself eat, and not be satisfied; “thou shalt sow, and not reap; thou shalt tread the olive, and thou shalt not anoint thee with oil.” “Upon extreme but ill-gotten abundance, there followeth extreme want. And whose,” adds one, , “seeth not this in our ways and our times is absolutely blind. For in no period have we ever read that there was so much gold and silver, or so much discomfort and indigence, so that those most true words of Christ Jesus seem to have been especially spoken of us, “Take heed, for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” Luk 12:15. And is not this true of us now? Thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee - Where thou hast laid up thy treasures, or rather thy wickedness, there thou shalt sink down, or give way, from inward decay, in the very center of thy wealth and thy sin. They had said, “Is not the Lord in the midst of us? None evil can come upon us” Mic 3:11. Micah tells them of a different indweller. God had departed from them, and left them to their inherent nothingness. God had been their stay; without God, human strength collapses. Scarcely any destruction is altogether hopeless save that which cometh from within. Most storms pass over, tear off boughs and leaves, but the stem remains. inward decay or excision alone are humanly irrecoverable. The political death of the people was, in God’s hands, to be the instrument of their regeneration. Morally too, and at all times, inward emptiness is the fruit of unrighteous fullness. […]
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
I will smite you with sore wounds —I have made your wounds sore - strong and ill and incurable.
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. 7 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
13 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אַתָּ֤ה | ʾatah | you | H859 → | 1094 times |
| תֹאכַל֙ | tokhal | you will eat | H398 → | 810 times |
| וְלֹ֣א | velo' | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תִשְׂבָּ֔ע | tisba' | you will be satisfied | H7646 → | |
| וְיֶשְׁחֲךָ֖ | veyeshchakha | and emptiness your | H3445 → | |
| בְּקִרְבֶּ֑ךָ | bekirbecha | [will be] in midst your | H7130 → | 227 times |
| וְתַסֵּג֙ | vetaseg | and you will carry away | H5253 → | |
| וְלֹ֣א | velo' | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תַפְלִ֔יט | taflit | you will bring to safety | H6403 → | |
| וַאֲשֶׁ֥ר | vaasher | and [that] which | H834 → | 5497 times |
| תְּפַלֵּ֖ט | tefalet | you will bring to safety | H6403 → | |
| לַחֶ֥רֶב | lacherev | to the sword | H2719 → | 413 times |
| אֶתֵּֽן׃ | ʾeten | I will give | H5414 → | 2011 times |
אַתָּ֤הyou
ʾatahH859 →1094 times
תֹאכַל֙you will eat
tokhalH398 →810 times
וְלֹ֣אand not
velo'H3808 →5168 times
תִשְׂבָּ֔עyou will be satisfied
tisba'H7646 →
וְיֶשְׁחֲךָ֖and emptiness your
veyeshchakhaH3445 →
בְּקִרְבֶּ֑ךָ[will be] in midst your
bekirbechaH7130 →227 times
וְתַסֵּג֙and you will carry away
vetasegH5253 →
וְלֹ֣אand not
velo'H3808 →5168 times
תַפְלִ֔יטyou will bring to safety
taflitH6403 →
וַאֲשֶׁ֥רand [that] which
vaasherH834 →5497 times
תְּפַלֵּ֖טyou will bring to safety
tefaletH6403 →
לַחֶ֥רֶבto the sword
lacherevH2719 →413 times
אֶתֵּֽן׃I will give
ʾetenH5414 →2011 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
Ezekiel 5:12A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every…
it leads to
- Ezekiel 5:2
When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third of the hair inside the city; you are also to take a third and slash it with the sword…
- Jeremiah 15:2
If they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you are to tell them that this is what the LORD says: ‘Those destined for death, to death; those destined for the sword, to the sword;…
- Jeremiah 43:10–11
Then tell them that this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will set his throne over these…
- Ezekiel 5:2
Through
Isaiah 65:13Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: “My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; My servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; My servants will rejoice, but you will be…
it leads to
- Malachi 3:18
So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”
- 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.
- Malachi 3:18
Through
Hosea 4:10They will eat but not be satisfied; they will be promiscuous but not multiply. For they have stopped obeying the LORD.
it leads to
- Leviticus 26:26
When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.
- Haggai 1:6
You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but never get warm. You earn wages to put into…
- Leviticus 26:26
Through
Leviticus 26:26When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.
it leads to
- Psalms 105:16
He called down famine on the land and cut off all their supplies of food.
- Psalms 105:16
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies12
About Micah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Micah and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).