a man

And they covet fields, 2 they have a right to do what they can. and take [them] by violence; and houses, and take [them] away: so they oppress a man and his house, even and his heritage; his houses and lands, so that his heirs are Behold, Therefore thus saith the LORD; 3 impoverished. against this family, or nation, do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye go haughtily for this time [is] evil; that is, a calamity which will bow you down, and which, haughty as you are, you cannot shake off.

4

In that day shall [one] take up a parable against you, an uncommon and striking speech, and lament with a doleful lamentation, [and] say, We be utterly spoiled: he hath changed the portion of my people, and given it to other possessors: how hath he removed [it] from me! turning Therefore thou shalt 5 away he hath divided our fields.

have none that shall cast a cord by lot; whereas your country used to be measured, to adjust the division of the tribes, now it shall be divided among strangers, in the congregation of the 6 LORD. Prophesy ye not, [say they to them that] prophesy: they shall not prophesy to them; their sins shall be their punishment, God will no longer reprove and expostulate with them; [that] they shall not take shame; or rather, for he shall remove from himself reproaches; as if he had said, The true prophet will subject himself to public disgrace by exercising his office.*

7

O [thou that art] named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD straitened? [are] these his doings? is he grown severe and cruel? does he delight in these things? do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly? if men behave well they have nothing to fear from my words, but they will be comfortable to them; instead of threatenings, they will be mes8 sages of peace. Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy; referring to the invasion of Judah by Pekah king of Israel: ye pull off the robe with the garment, that is, the upper and under garment, from them that pass by securely as men averse from war; ye plunder those that are peaceable, and not 9 in arms. The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away my glory for ever; ye have taken women and children 10 captive, and sold them for slaves into idolatrous countries. Arise ye, and depart; for this [is] not [your] rest: 'because it is polluted, it shall destroy [you,] even with a sore destruction; your land shall cast you out, as you have taken and sold them. 11 If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood, do lie, [saying,] I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people; that is, if a man walking in the spirit of falsehood, a man of wind, puffed up with enthusiastical conceits, without a divine commission; yea, if a man of an abandoned character, who will get drunk with those to

• Sec Bp. Newton in loc.

12

whom he prophesies; if such a one will foretell peace and plenty, they will be fond of him, and despise and hate my true prophets, I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah in Edom, noted for fine pastures, as a flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of [the multitude of] men; as a multitude of sheep do, 13 when driven to the fold. The breaker is come up before them; a pioneer shall go before them to clear the way: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it and their kings shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them; God will make a plain way for their settlement; he will go before, to guide and protect them; probably referring to God's leading them by the Messiah, and their believing in him..

1.

REFLECTIONS.

EE the natural and common progress of wickedness, in

S of first riches;

then devised mischief, in order to acquire them; then were eager in the pursuit of them; they rose early in the morning to accomplish their designs; at length covetousness banished all compassion, and led them to injustice, violence, and oppression, till they stopped at nothing to get wealth, that they could do with safety to themselves. And this is still the usual course of every vice, especially of avarice; and it is just in God to take away the houses and estates which are so gotten. At least he will in righteousness devise final evil against the covetous, the unjust, and the cruel.

2. We may judge of men's characters by the manner in which they behave to God's ministers. Those that would silence, or that despise and slight faithful ministers; that hate plain and faithful preaching, and love that which soothes them, or which, by dealing only in generals, never gives their consciences any alarm in their evil ways, are in reality wicked hypocrites. If they walked uprightly, they would have nothing to fear from the word of God; and would value those ministers most, who most faithfully declared the whole counsel of God. To the truly upright his word speaks nothing but comfort and encouragement.

3. Those who deprive men of their liberty and religious advantages, take away their greatest glory, v. 9. Let parents esteem these the glory of their children; and endeavour, for the sake of their posterity, to support the liberties of their country, and those religious services and forms of administration, which they think best adapted to promote the knowledge and piety of their offspring. Let parents seriously consider, that if they marry their children to those who have no religion, or only a form of VOL. VI.

PP

godliness; or put them to be servants to such, in order, as they think, to increase their wealth and honour, they take away what God reckons their glory; and that, it may be, for ever: so that their children, and their children's children, may be eternal sufferers by their covetousness and folly. In all such cases, let the good of their children's souls be first consulted, and then they may hope that they will inherit a glory which will last for ever.

CHAP. III.

In this chapter the prophet inveighs with great boldness and spirit against the princes and prophets of Judah; and foretells the destruction of Jerusalem, as the consequence of their iniquity. The last verse is cited by Jeremiah, ch. xxvi. 18.

1

AND I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye

princes of the house of Israel; [Is it] not for you to know judgment? may it not be expected from you? are you 2 not inexcusable if it is otherwise? Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and 3 their flesh from off their bones; Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron ; figurative expressions of the greatest 4 oppression and cruelty. Then shall they, those rich and cruel oppressors, cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings; as they have showed no pity, they shall find none.

5

Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him; who, if they are not fed in a luxurious manner, declare vengeance on those who refuse to support them, 6 or bring them into trouble by false accusations: Therefore night [shall be] unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them; they shall live to see their own prophecies confuted, 7 and dreadful calamities come upon their country. Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips with part of their garments, like mourners, or persons under disgrace and dejection; for [there is] no answer of God.

But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his

transgression, and to Israel his sin; such is the contrast be tween me and these false prophets, that I am not afraid to de9 liver my message, however disagreeable. Hear this, I pray

you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. 10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity; they pretend to increase the national wealth by slaying the innocent, and are really destroying the state by the very means they 11 use to strengthen it. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money; all their leaders are mercenary, the judges take bribes, and the priests salaries, though otherwise well pro vided for by the law: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, [Is] not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us; because of their profession, their temple, and ordinances, 12 they think themselves secure, Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed [as] a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, as it actually was when destroyed by the Romans, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest, that is, overgrown with grass and bushes,

REFLECTIONS.

ET us again reflect on the vengeance of God against oppressive and cruel people. Surely these are sins peculiarly provoking, when there are such repeated threatenings against them, trouble shall come upon them, and they shall find no redress as they regarded not the cry of the poor and the oppressed, so God will not regard theirs. If men behave ill in their doings, they must expect to fare ill; for the righteous Lord will not suffer the unjust and cruel to go unpunished.

2. See how boldly good men will speak and act, when the Spirit of God influences them. The judges, priests, and prophets of Israel were mean, mercenary, and unjust. But Micah had wisdom to discern truth and falsehood; courage to declare God's judgments against sinners; and feared not the face of the greatest of them. The Spirit of the Lord gave him this firmness. It is very needful for ministers, especially in a corrupt generation, when the leading men of a people set them bad examples, to maintain this spirit: and it should be our fervent prayer, that it may be poured out abundantly upon all christian ministers, that men may be brought to see their transgressions, and be led to repentance.

3. How common, and yet how shocking is it, to see the most wicked men trusting to their external privileges. Those infamous men in v. 11. cried, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us. So it is now; some of the vilest persons boast of their christian name, their relation to the church, and their

zeal for it; and trust in those privileges for salvation which will only aggravate their ruin. Let us beware of this fatal error. It is to be feared that some among us build upon as false a bottom, as any of these wicked Jews did. But all who lean upon the Lord, without having real holiness, will certainly be disappointed in their expectations; and the greater their confidence is, the greater will be their shame and ruin.

CHAP. IV.

The prophet in this chapter foretells the glory, peace, and establishment of the Messiah's kingdom, and the final triumph of the church over all its enemies.

BUT

UT in the last days, in the time of the Messiah, it shall come to pass, [that] the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains; as the temple was built on a mountain, so the church shall be established on still surer grounds; (see Isaiah ii. 2.) and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it; it shall become conspicuous, and the heathen shall be brought unto it. 2 And many nations shall come, and say, as the Jews were used to do at their solemn feasts, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

3

And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; that is, he will bring them under the discipline of his word or judgments; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; referring to the universal peace when Christ was born, or to the pacific disposition which the gospel 4 will produce in the latter day. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make [them] afraid; every man shall securely enjoy his possessions : 5 for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken [it.] For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, as idolaters now do, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever; we will regard the authority and glory of Jehovah only, and that for ever.

6

In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; I will recover the Jews from their dispersed, 7 afflicted condition; And I will make her that halted a rem