Notes on Micah
From the Original 1599 Geneva Bible Notes

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Mic 1:1

1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah the {a} Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

The Argument - Micah the prophet of the tribe of Judah served in the work of the Lord concerning Judah and Israel at least thirty years: during which time Isaiah prophesied. He declares the destruction first of the one kingdom, and then of the other, because of their manifold wickedness, but chiefly because of their idolatry. And to this end he notes the wickedness of the people, the cruelty of the princes and governors, and the allowing of the false prophets, and the delighting in them. Then he sets forth the coming of Christ, his kingdom, and the felicity of it. This Prophet was not that Micah who resisted Ahab and all his false prophets, 1Ki 22:8 but another with the same name.

(a) Born in Mareshah, a city of Judah.

Mic 1:2

1:2 Hear, {b} all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

(b) Because of the malice and obstinacy of the people, whom he had so often exhorted to repentance, he summons them to God's judgments, taking all creatures, and God himself as witness, that the preaching of the Prophets, which they have abused, will be avenged.

Mic 1:3

1:3 For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come {c} down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.

(c) Meaning by this that God will come to judgment against the strong cities and strongholds.

Mic 1:5

1:5 For the transgression of Jacob [is] all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What [is] the transgression of Jacob? [is it] not {d} Samaria? and what [are] the high {e} places of Judah? [are they] not Jerusalem?

(d) Samaria, which should have been an example to all Israel of true religion and justice, was the dirty pool and the tank that all idolatry and corruption was kept alive in, and who prided themselves in their father Jacob, and boasted of him.
(e) That is, the idolatry and infection.

Mic 1:7

1:7 And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the {f} hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered [it] of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return {g} to the hire of an harlot.

(f) Which they gathered by evil practices, and thought that their idols had enriched them with these wages because of their service to them.
(g) The gain that came by their idols will be consumed as a thing of nothing: for as the wages or riches of harlots are wickedly gotten, so are they vilely and quickly spent.

Mic 1:10

1:10 Declare ye [it] not at {h} Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of {i} Aphrah roll thyself in the dust.

(h) Lest the Philistines our enemies rejoice at our destruction.
(i) Which was a city near to Jerusalem Jos 18:23 , there called Ophrah, and signifies dust: therefore he wants them to mourn and roll themselves in the dust, for their dusty city.

Mic 1:11

1:11 Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of {k} Saphir, having thy shame naked: the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Bethezel; he shall {l} receive of you his standing.

(k) These were cities by which the enemy would pass as he came to Judah.
(l) He will not depart before he has overcome you, and so you will pay for his staying.

Mic 1:12

1:12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came down from the LORD unto the {m} gate of Jerusalem.

(m) For Rabshakeh had shut up Jerusalem, so that they could not send to help them.

Mic 1:13

1:13 O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the {n} swift beast: she {o} [is] the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee.

(n) To flee away: for Sennacherib laid siege first to that city, and remained there when he sent his captains and army against Jerusalem.
(o) You first received the idolatry of Jeroboam, and so infected Jerusalem.

Mic 1:14

1:14 Therefore shalt thou give presents to {p} Moreshethgath: the houses of Achzib [shall be] a lie to the kings of Israel.

(p) You will bribe the Philistines your neighbours, but they will deceive you, as well as those of Jerusalem.

Mic 1:15

1:15 Yet will I bring an {q} heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam {r} the glory of Israel.

(q) He prophesies against his own city: and because it signified a heritage, he says that God would send an heir to possess it.
(r) For so they thought themselves because of the strength of their cities.

Mic 2:1

2:1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! {a} when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.

(a) As soon as they rise, they execute their wicked devices of the night, and according to their ability hurt others.

Mic 2:4

2:4 In that day shall [one] take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, [and] say, {b} We be utterly spoiled: he hath changed the portion of my people: how hath he removed [it] from me! turning away he hath divided our fields.

(b) Thus the Jews lament and say that there is no hope of restitution, seeing their possessions are divided among the enemies.

Mic 2:5

2:5 Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in {c} the congregation of the LORD.

(c) You will have no more lands to divide as you had in times past, and as you used to measure them in the Jubilee.

Mic 2:6

2:6 {d} Prophesy ye not, [say they to them that] prophesy: {e} they shall not prophesy to them, [that] they shall not take shame.

(d) Thus the people warn the prophets that they speak to them no more, for they cannot endure their threatenings.
(e) God says that they will not prophesy, nor receive any more of their rebukes or taunts.

Mic 2:7

2:7 O [thou that art] named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD straitened? {f} [are] these his doings? do not my words do good to him {g} that walketh uprightly?

(f) Are these your works according to his Law?
(g) Do not the godly find my words comfortable?

Mic 2:8

2:8 Even {h} of late my people is risen up as an enemy: ye pull off the {i} robe with the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war.

(h) That is, in past times.
(i) The poor can have no benefit from them, but they rob them, as though they were enemies.

Mic 2:9

2:9 The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away {k} my glory for ever.

(k) That is, their substance and living, which is God's blessing, and as it were part of his glory.

Mic 2:10

2:10 Arise ye, and depart; for this [is] not [your] {l} rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy [you], even with a sore destruction.

(l) Jerusalem will not be your safeguard, but rather the cause of your destruction.

Mic 2:11

2:11 If a man {m} walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, [saying], {n} I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.

(m) That is, show himself to be a prophet.
(n) He shows what prophets they delight in, that is, in flatterers, who tell them pleasant tales, and speak of their benefits.

Mic 2:12

2:12 I will surely assemble, O Jacob, {o} all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of [the multitude of] men.

(o) To destroy you.

Mic 2:13

2:13 The {p} breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD {q} on the head of them.

(p) The enemy will break their gates and walls, and lead them into Chaldea.
(q) To drive them forward, and to help their enemies.

Mic 3:1

3:1 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 {a} judgment?

(a) That thing which is just and lawful, both to govern my people properly, and also to clear your own conscience.

Mic 3:2

3:2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; {b} who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;

(b) The Prophet condemns the wicked governors not only of covetousness, theft, and murder, but compares them to wolves, lions, and most cruel beasts.

Mic 3:4

3:4 Then {c} shall they 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.

(c) That is, when I will punish their wickedness: for though I hear the godly before they cry Isa 65:24 , yet I will not hear these even though they cry; Isa 1:15 Eze 8:18 Jas 2:13 1Pe 3:11-12 .

Mic 3:5

3:5 Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that {d} bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

(d) They devour all their substance, and then flatter them, promising that all will go well. But if someone does not feed them, then they invent all ways to do evil.

Mic 3:6

3:6 Therefore {e} 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.

(e) As you have loved to walk in darkness, and to prophesy lies, so God will reward you with gross blindness and ignorance, so that when all others will see the bright beams of God's grace, you will as blind men grope as in the night.

Mic 3:7

3:7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover {f} their lips; for [there is] no answer of God.

(f) When God will reveal them to the world, they will be afraid to speak: for all will know that they were but false prophets, and did give a false notion of the word of God.

Mic 3:8

3:8 But truly I am full {g} 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.

(g) The Prophet being assured of his vocation by the Spirit of God, sets himself alone against all the wicked, showing how God gave him gifts, ability and knowledge, to discern between good and evil, and also steadfastness and endurance to reprove the sins of the people, and not to flatter them.

Mic 3:10

3:10 They build up Zion with {h} blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

(h) They will say that they are the people of God, and abuse his name, as a pretence to disguise their hypocrisy.

Mic 3:12

3:12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be {k} plowed [as] a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.

(k) Read Jer 26:18 .

Mic 4:1

4:1 But in the {a} last days it shall come to pass, [that] the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the {b} hills; and people shall flow unto it.

(a) When Christ will come, and the temple will be destroyed.
(b) Read Geneva (a),(b),(c) "Isa 2:2"

Mic 4:2

4:2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will {c} 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.

(c) He shows that there is no true Church, except where the people are taught by God's pure word.

Mic 4:3

4:3 And he shall judge among many people, and {d} rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into {e} pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they {f} learn war any more.

(d) By his corrections and threatenings he will bring the people into subjection who are in the utmost corners of the world.
(e) They will abstain from all evil doing, and exercise themselves in godliness and in well doing to others.
(f) Read Isa 2:4

Mic 4:5

4:5 For all people will walk {g} every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.

(g) He shows that the people of God ought to remain constant in their religion, even if all the world should give themselves to their superstition and idolatry.

Mic 4:7

4:7 And I will make her that halted {h} a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.

(h) I will cause that Israel, who is now as one lame and halting, and so almost destroyed, to live again, and grow into a great people.

Mic 4:8

4:8 And thou, O {i} tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even {k} the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.

(i) Meaning Jerusalem, where the Lord's flock was gathered.
(k) The flourishing state of the kingdom, as it was under David and Solomon, which thing was accomplished for the Church by the coming of Christ.

Mic 4:9

4:9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud? [is {l} there] no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail.

(l) In the meantime he shows that they would endure great troubles and temptations, when they saw themselves neither to have king nor counsel.

Mic 4:12

4:12 But they {m} know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.

(m) He shows that the faithful ought not to measure God's judgments by the braggings and threatenings of the wicked, but by these are admonished to lift up their hearts to God to call for deliverance.

Mic 4:13

4:13 Arise and thresh, {n} O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.

(n) God gives his Church this victory, as often as he overcomes their enemies: but the accomplishment of this will be at the last coming of Christ.

Mic 5:1

5:1 Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter {a} of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

(a) He forewarns them of the dangers that will come before they enjoy these comforts, showing that inasmuch as Jerusalem was accustomed with her garrisons to trouble others, the Lord would now cause other garrisons to vex her, and that her rulers would be hit on the face most contemptuously.

Mic 5:2

5:2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, [though] thou be {b} little among the thousands of Judah, [yet] out of thee shall he come forth unto me [that is] to be ruler in Israel; whose {c} goings forth [have been] from of old, from everlasting.

(b) For so the Jews divided their country that for every thousand there was a chief captain: and because Bethlehem was not able to make a thousand, he calls it little. But yet God will raise up his captain and governor in it: and thus it is not the least by reason of this benefit. See Geneva "Mt 2:6"
(c) He shows that the coming of Christ and all his ways were appointed by God from all eternity.

Mic 5:3

5:3 Therefore will he give them up, until the time [that] {d} she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.

(d) He compares the Jews to women with child, who for a time would have great sorrows, but at length they would have a comfortable deliverance; Joh 16:21 .

Mic 5:4

5:4 And he shall {e} stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.

(e) That is, Christ's kingdom will be stable and everlasting, and his people, the Gentiles as well as the Jews, will dwell in safety.

Mic 5:5

5:5 And this [man] {f} shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.

(f) This Messiah will be a sufficient safeguard for us, and though the enemy invades us for a time, yet will God stir up many who will be able to deliver us.

Mic 5:6

5:6 And they shall waste the {g} land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he {h} deliver [us] from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.

(g) These whom God will raise up for the deliverance of his Church, will destroy all the enemies of it, who are meant here by the Assyrians and Babylonians, who were the chief enemies at that time.
(h) By these governors will God deliver us when the enemy comes into our land.

Mic 5:7

5:7 And the {i} remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.

(i) This remnant or Church which God will deliver will only depend on God's power and defence (as does the grass of the field), and not on the hope of man.

Mic 5:10

5:10 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that I will cut off thy {k} horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots:

(k) I will destroy all things in which you put your confidence, such as your vain self-reliance and idolatry, and in doing this I will be helping you.

Mic 5:15

5:15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, {l} such as they have not heard.

(l) It will be so terrible that nothing like it has been heard of.

Mic 6:1

6:1 Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the {a} mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.

(a) He took the high mountains and hard rocks as witnesses against the obstinacy of his people.

Mic 6:4

6:4 For I {b} brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

(b) I have not hurt you, but bestowed infinite benefits upon you.

Mic 6:5

6:5 O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from {c} Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know the {d} righteousness of the LORD.

(c) That is, remember my benefits from the beginning, how I delivered you from Balaam's curse, and also spared you from Shittim which was in the plain of Moab, until I brought you into the promised land.
(d) That is, the truth of his promise and his manifold benefits toward you.

Mic 6:6

6:6 Wherewith {e} shall I come before the LORD, [and] bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?

(e) Thus the people by hypocrisy ask how to please God, and are content to offer sacrifices, but will not change their lives.

Mic 6:7

6:7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, [or] with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my {f} firstborn [for] my transgression, the fruit of my body [for] the sin of my soul?

(f) There is nothing so dear to man, but the hypocrites will offer it to God, if they think by this to avoid his anger. But they will never by brought to mortify their own affections, and to give themselves willingly to serve God as he commands.

Mic 6:8

6:8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what [is] good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, {g} but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

(g) The Prophet in few words calls them to the observation of the second table of the ten commandments, to know if they will obey God correctly or not, saying that God has commanded them to do this.

Mic 6:9

6:9 The LORD'S voice crieth unto the {h} city, and [the man of] wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.

(h) Meaning, that when God speaks to any city or nation, the godly will acknowledge his majesty and not consider the mortal man that brings the threatening, but God that sends it.

Mic 6:12

6:12 For the rich men thereof {i} are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue [is] deceitful in their mouth.

(i) That is, of Jerusalem.

Mic 6:14

6:14 Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and {k} thy casting down [shall be] in the midst of thee; and thou {l} shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver; and [that] which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword.

(k) You will be consumed with inward grief and evils.
(l) Meaning that the city would go about to save her men, as they that lay hold of that which they would preserve.

Mic 6:16

6:16 For the {m} statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people.

(m) You have received all the corruption and idolatry with which the ten tribes were infected under Omri and Ahab his son: and to excuse your doings, you allege the King's authority by his statutes, and also wisdom and policy in so doing, but you will not escape punishment. But as I have shown you great favour, and taken you for my people, so will your plagues be according as your sins; Lu 12:47 .

Mic 7:1

7:1 Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the {a} summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: [there is] no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit.

(a) The Prophet takes upon himself the voice of the earth, which complains that all her fruits are gone, so that none are left: that is, that there is no godly man remaining, for all are given to cruelty and deceit, so that none spares his own brother.

Mic 7:2

7:2 The good [man] is perished out of the earth: and [there is] none upright among men: {b} they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

(b) He shows that the prince, the judge, and the rich man are all linked together to do evil, and to disguise the deeds of one another.

Mic 7:3

7:3 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge [asketh] for a reward; and the {c} great [man], he uttereth his mischievous desire: so {d} they wrap it up.

(c) That is, the rich man that is able to give money, abstains from no wickedness or injury.
(d) These men agree among themselves, and conspire with one another to do evil.

Mic 7:4

7:4 The best of them [is] as {e} a brier: the most upright [is sharper] than a thorn hedge: the day of {f} thy watchmen [and] thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.

(e) They that are of most estimation and are counted most honest among them, are but thorns and briers to prick.
(f) Meaning the prophets and governors.

Mic 7:7

7:7 Therefore {g} I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

(g) The Prophet shows that the only remedy for the godly in desperate evils, is to flee to God for help.

Mic 7:8

7:8 Rejoice not against me, {h} O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD [shall be] a light unto me.

(h) This is spoken in the voice of the Church, which calls the malignant church her enemy.

Mic 7:11

7:11 [In] {i} the day that thy walls are to be built, [in] that day shall {k} the decree be far removed.

(i) That is, when God will show himself to be a deliverer of his Church, and a destroyer of his enemies.
(k) Meaning the cruel empire of the Babylonians.

Mic 7:12

7:12 [In] that day [also] he shall come even to thee from {l} Assyria, and [from] the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and [from] mountain to mountain.

(l) When the Church will be restored, those that were enemies before will come out of all the corners of the world to her, so that neither fortresses, rivers, seas, nor mountains will be able to stop them.

Mic 7:13

7:13 Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of {m} their doings.

(m) Before this grace appears, he shows how grievously the hypocrites themselves will be punished, seeing that the earth itself, which cannot sin, will be made waste because of their wickedness.

Mic 7:14

7:14 {n} 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.

(n) The Prophet prays to God to be merciful to his Church, when they would be scattered abroad as in solitary places in Babylon, and to be beneficial to them as in times past.

Mic 7:15

7:15 {o} According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous [things].

(o) God promises to be favourable to his people, as he had been before.

Mic 7:16

7:16 The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall {p} lay [their] hand upon [their] mouth, {q} their ears shall be deaf.

(p) They will be as dumb men, and dare brag no more.
(q) They will be astonished and afraid to hear men speak, lest they should hear of their destruction.

Mic 7:17

7:17 They shall {r} lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee.

(r) They will fall flat on the ground because of fear.

Mic 7:18

7:18 Who [is] a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and {s} passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth [in] mercy.

(s) As though he did not see it, ignoring it.

Mic 7:19

7:19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all {t} their sins into the depths of the sea.

(t) Meaning his elect.

Mic 7:20

7:20 Thou wilt perform the {u} truth to Jacob, [and] the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.

(u) The Church is assured that God will perform the truth of his merciful promise, which he had made long ago to Abraham, and to all that would apprehend the promise by faith.

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