Bibelkommentare

Micah 4:1. But in the last days, &c.— See what has been said upon this subject on Isaiah 2:2; Isaiah 2:22.

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Micah 4:5. And we will walk, &c.— This passage respects the Jews alone, and the times which followed the captivity; when the Jews continued attached to their God, while the Gentile world remained in the darkness of idolatry. The two next verses, primarily respecting the return from the captivity, have, as is usual with the prophets, a still farther view to the Gospel times, and especially to the last call of the Jews, the fulness of the Gentiles, and the establishment of Christ's millennial reign on earth.

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Micah 4:8. And thou, O tower, &c.— And thou, O tower of Eder, O fortress of the daughter of Sion, thy time shall come: and the former dominion shall return, even the kingdom, to the daughter of Jerusalem. See Vitringa an Isaiah 32:14. The prophet, says Houbigant, changes the name of Jerusalem, and uses a topographic name, tower of the flock; which tower, perhaps, was near the sheep-pool;—and the name of clift; עפל opel, to signify that he now pro-phesies of a future state, and that temporal, of the city of Jerusalem itself; for, after he had foretold that the new law should take its beginning from Jerusalem; here, and to the end of the chapter, he foretels what changes of affairs should happen in the republic and kingdom of the Jews, till the future light of the Gospel should break forth. He had said at the end of the foregoing chapter, that Jerusalem should be plowed as a field; he now adds, resuming the order of time, that the ancient kingdom should return to the daughter of Jerusalem. Instead of, Unto thee shall it come, Houbigant reads, Thou shalt be clothed with thy ornament; for he observes, that unto thee shall it come, has no meaning; neither is there in the Hebrew any nominative case to the verb shall come.

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Micah 4:9. Now why dost thou cry, &c.— As much as to say, "What cause is there thus to cry and lament like a woman in labour, when it is so certainly promised thee that thy ancient kingdom shall again return? There indeed cause for thee to lament, on the view of thy Babylonish captivity; for, till after that period, thou shalt have no temporal deliverer: but that past, the Lord will gather thee as the sheaves into the floor;" Micah 4:12. Instead of, Is thy counsellor perished, &c. we may read Is thy counsellor lost, that pangs, &c.?

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Micah 4:11. Let her be defiled— Thou art defiled, and our eye shall behold Sion as a spectacle; that is to say, of scorn.

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