rather, to an apostate he divideth our fields. The apostate is the King of Assyria or Chaldea; and he is so named as being a rebel against Jehovah, whom he might have known by the light of natural religion (comp. ch. v. 15; Rom. i. 20). This was fulfilled later by the colonization of Samaria by a mixed population.

Ver. 5.-Therefore thou. Because thou, the tyrannical, oppressive grandee (vers. 1, 2), hast dealt with thy neighbour's land unjustly, therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord (the line) by lot (for a lot); i.e. thou shalt have no more inheritance in Israel. The "line" is the measuringline used in dividing land, as Amos vii. 17. The reference is to the original distribution of the land by lot in Joshua's time (see Josh. xiv. 2, etc.). In the congregation of the Lord. The Lord's own people, whose polity was now about to be dissolved. Hitzig, Reuss, and Orelli suppose that this verse contains a threat against Micah himself on the part of the ungodly Jews, intimating that they will punish him for presuming to prophesy against them, and that he shall die without leaving children. But this seems far-fetched and inadmissible.

Vers. 6-11.-§ 7. The threat announced in ver. 3 is further vindicated and applied to individual sinners, with a glance at the false prophets who taught the people to love lies.

Ver. 6.-Prophesy ye not; literally, drop ye not, as Amos vii. 16 (where see note). The speakers are generally supposed to be the false prophets who wish to stop the mouths of Micah and those who are likeminded with him. This is probably correct; but these are not the only speakers; the people themselves, the oppressing grandees, who side with the popularity-hunting seers, are also included (see note on ver. 12). Say they to them that prophesy; rather, thus they prophesy (drop). Micah uses their own word sarcastically, "Do not be always rebuking;""Thus they rebuke." The rest of the verse belongs to the same speakers, and should be rendered, "They shall not prophesy of these things; reproaches never cease." The great men aud the false prophets complain of the true prophets that they are always proclaiming misfortune and rebuking the people, and they bid them leave such denunciations alone for the future. The passage is very difficult, and its interpretation has greatly exercised commentators; the above is virtually the explanation of Ewald, Hitzig, Caspari, and Cheyne. Orelli makes the two last clauses Micah's answer to the interdict of the adversaries, "Should one not prophesy of these things?

""

Should reproaches (against the true prophets) never cease?" We prefer the interpretations given above, and consider the prophet's reply to be given in the next

verse.

Ver. 7.-The prophet answers the interdict of the speakers in the preceding verse by showing that God's attributes are unchanged, but that the sins of the people constrain him to punish. 0 thou that art named the house of Jacob. Other renderings of these words are given, viz. "Ah! what a saying!" or, "Is this a thing to be said, O house of Jacob?" The versions of the LXX., Ὁ λέγων οἶκος Ιακώβ, κ.τ.λ., and of the Vulgate, Dicit domus Jacob, do not suit the Hebrew. If we adopt the rendering of the Authorized Version, we must consider that Micah addresses those who gloried in their privilege as the family of Jacob, though they had ceased to be what he was, believing and obedient. "O ye who are only in name and title the chosen nation" (comp. Isa. xlviii. 1; John viii. 33, 39). Professor Driver (Expositor, April, 1887) obtains the very suitable meaning, Num dicendum, "Shall it be said, O house of Jacob, Is the ear of the Lord shortened?" etc., by the change of a vowelpoint. Somewhat similarly Orelli, “Is this the speech of the house of Jacob?" viz. -Should Jehovah be impatient (as these threats declare him to be)? or were these his doings? The following clause is Jehovah's answer to the objection. Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? or, shortened. Is he less longsuffering than Jehovah of heretofore? Will you accuse Jehovah of impatience? "Shortness" of spirit is opposed to longanimity (see Prov. xiv. 29). Are these his doings? Are these judgments and chastisements his usual doings-that which he delights in? Is the cause of them in him? Is it not in you (Lam. iii. 33; Ezek. xxxiii. 11; ch. vii. 18)? Do not my words do good, etc.? This may be Jehovah's answer to the previous questions, or Micah's refutation of the complaint. The Lord's word is good, his action is a blessing, but only to him who does his commandments (Ps. xviii. 25, 26; xxv. 10; ciii. 17, etc.; Luke i. 50).

Ver. 8. Even of late; but of late; literally, yesterday, implying an action recent and repeated. Septuagint, unpоober, "before;" Vulgate, e contrario. The prophet exemplifies the iniquity which has led God to punish. They are not old offences which the Lord is visiting, but sins of recent and daily occurrence. My people is risen up as an enemy. A reading, varying by a letter or two, is rendered, "But against my people one setteth himself." But there is no valid reason for altering the received text; especially as, according to Ewald, the present reading may be taken in a causative sense.

"They set up my people as an enemy," i.e. the grandees treat the Lord's people as enemies, robbing and plundering them. This translation obviates the difficulty of referring the words, "my people," in this verse to the oppressor, and in ver. 7 to the oppressed. According to the usual view, and retaining the authorized rendering, the meaning is that the princes exhibit themselves as enemies of the Lord by their acts of violence and oppression, which the prophet proceeds to particularize. Septuagint, ‘Ο λαός μου εἰς ἔχθραν αντέστη, “My people withstood as an enemy." Ye pull off the robe with the garment; ye violently strip off the robe away from the garment. The "robe" (eder) is the wide cloak, the mantle sufficient to wrap the whole person, and which was often of very costly material. The "garment" (salmah) is the principal inner garment, or tunic. There may be an allusion to the enactment which forbade a creditor retaining the pledged garment during the night (Exod. xxii. 26, etc.). Septuagint, Κατέναντι τῆς εἰρήνης αὐτοῦ τὴν δορὰν αὐτοῦ écédeipav, "Against his peace they stripped off his skin." From them that pass by securely as men averse from war. probably the correct translation. The grandees rob those who are peaceably disposed, perhaps strip their debtors of their cloaks as they pass quietly along the road. The versions vary considerably from the received Hebrew text. The LXX. (with which the Syriac partially agrees) has, Toû ἀφελέσθαι ἐλπίδας συντριμμὸν πολέμου, “ Το remove hope in the destruction of war;" Vulgate, Eos qui transibant simpliciter convertistis in bellum. From this rendering Trochon derives the paraphrase-Ye treat them as if they were prisoners of war. Hitzig considers that the reference is to fugitives from the northern kingdom who passed through Judæa in their endeavour to escape the evils of the war, leaving wives and children in the hands of the Judæans. But these treated the refugees harshly.

This is

Ver. 9. The women of my people. The prophet refers to the widows, who ought to have been protected and cared for (comp. Isa. x. 2). The LXX., with which the Arabic agrees, renders, ἡγούμενοι λαοῦ μου, "the leaders of my people." Have ye cast out. The word expresses a violent expulsion, as Gen. iii. 24. Their pleasant houses; literally, the house of their delights (ch. i. 16). The house which was very dear to them, the scene of all their joys. My glory. All the privileges which they enjoyed as God's people and his peculiar care are called "the ornament" of the Lord (comp. Ezek. xvi. 14). The "glory" is by some commentators, but not so appositely, referred to vesture exclusively. These fatherless children had been

ruthlessly stripped of their blessings, either by being forced to grow up in want and ignorance, or by being sold into slavery and carried away from their old religious associations. For ever. The oppressors never repented or tried to make restitution; and so they incurred the special woe of those who injure the poor, the fatherless, and the widow (Pusey). The Septuagint has no connection with the present Hebrew text of this verse, reading, Εγγίσατε ὄρεσιν αἰωνίοις, “ Draw ye near to the everlasting hills," and previously introducing a gloss, Διὰ τὰ πονηρὰ ἐπιτηdevuатα aÙтŵv ¿¿wσ0пoav, "They were rejected because of their evil practices." Jerome explains the Greek mystically, despairing of the literal interpretation in its present connection.

Ver. 10.-Arise ye, and depart. The prophet pronounces the oppressors' punishment-they shall be banished from their land, even as they have torn others from their home. This is not your rest. Canaan had been given as a resting-place to Israel (Deut. xii. 9, 10; Josh. i. 13; Ps. xcv. 11), but it should be so no longer. Because it is polluted. The land is regarded as polluted by the sins of its inhabitants. The idea is often found; e.g. Lev. xviii. 25, 28; Numb. XXXV. 33; Jer. ii. 7. It shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction. The land is said to destroy when it ejects its inhabitants, as though the inanimate creation rose in judgment against the sinners. The Revised Version, with Keil and others, translates, Because of uncleanness that destroyeth, even with a grievous destruction; Septuagint, Διεφθάρητε φθορᾷ, “Ye were utterly destroyed;" Vulgate, Propter immunditiam ejus corrumpetur putredine pessima. Authorized Version is correct.

The

Ver. 11.-Such prophets as speak unwelcome truths are not popular with the grandees; they like only those who pander to their vices and prophesy lies. This was their crowning sin. If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie. "The spirit and falsehood" may be a hendiadys for "a spirit of falsehood," or "a lying spirit," as

Kings xxii. 22 (comp. Ezek. xiii. 2, 3, 17). But it is better to render, If a man walking after (conversant with) the wind and falsehood do lie. Wind is symbolical of all that is vain and worthless, as Isa. xxvi. 18; xli. 29. The Septuagint introduces a gloss from Lev. xxvi. 17, Κατεδιώχθητε οὐδενὸς SKOVTOS, "Ye fled, no one pursuing you," and translates the above clause, TveεÛμа čoτnoe veûdos: "spiritus statuit mendacium, i.e. finem posuit mendacii" (St. Jerome); Vulgate, Utinam non essem vir habens spiritum, et mendacium potius loquerer. I will prophesy unto thee, etc. These are the words of a false prophet. Prophesy,"

"drop," as ver. 6. Of wine and of strong drink. Concerning temporal blessings, dwelling on God's promises of material prosperity (Lev. xxvi. 4, etc.; Deut. xxviii. 4, 11) in order to encourage the grandees in self-indulgence. He shall even be the prophet of this people. Such a one is the only prophet to whom the great men, the representatives of "this people," will listen.

Vers. 12, 13.-§ S. Promise of restoration and deliverance.

Ver. 12. The prophet, without any preface, introduces abruptly a promise of restoration after exile, a type of the triumph of Messiah. Some commentators, indeed, regard this and the following verse as the language of the false prophets; others, as a denunciation of punishment, not a promise of deliverance; others, as a late interpolation. But the style is entirely Micah's (comp. ch. iv. 6, 7), the promise is a true one, and such-like sudden transitions are common in the prophetical books (comp. e.g. Isa. iv. 2-6; Hos. i. 10; xi. 9; Amos ix. 11); so that we need not resort to the hypothesis that some connecting link has dropped out of the text, or that the clause is misplaced; and we are fully justified in considering the paragraph as inserted here in its right position, and as predictive of the restoration of the Jews after captivity. Micah would seem to imply-I am not, indeed, as one of the false prophets who promise you earthly good without regard to your moral fitness for receiving God's bounty; neither am I one who has no message but of woe and calamity; I, too, predict salvation and happiness for a remnant of you after you have been tried by defeat and exile. I will surely assemble. This presupposes dispersion among the heathen, such as is foretold in ch. i. 8, etc.; ii. 4, etc. O Jacob, all of thee. The promise extends to the whole nation, whether called Jacob or Israel, as ch. i. 5; but still only a remnant, i.e. that portion of the nation which should make a good use of adversity, and turn to the Lord with sincere repentance (comp. Isa. x. 20, etc.; Jer. xxxi. 8; Ezek. xxxiv. 11, etc.; Zeph. iii. 12, etc.). Some see in the term "remnant" an allusion to the people that were left in the northern kingdom after the fall of Samaria. As the sheep of Bozrah. There were two or more towns so named-one in Sidon, for which see note on Amos i. 12; and another, hod. Buzrah, on the south border of the Hauran. This is mentioned in Jer. xlviii. 24, as one of the cities of Moab, a district celebrated for its flocks (2 Kings iii. 4); hence "sheep of Bozrah" may have become a. proverbial saying. Many commentators

take Botsrah as an appellative, meaning fold," in agreement with the Vulgate, quasi gregem in ovili, and Chaldee, as well. as Aquila and Symmachus. The parallelism in the following words seems to favour this view. The LXX. reads differently, rendering, ev exível, “in trouble." Thus, too, the Syriac. As the flock in the midst of their fold; rather, as a flock in the midst of its pasture. They shall make great noise, etc. Like a numerous flock bleating in its fold, so shall the returned Israelites be, prosperous and happy, celebrating their salvation with praise and exultation (comp. Ezek. xxxiv. 31). Septuagint, Εξαλοῦνται ἐξ ἀνθρώπων, "They shall leap forth from among men," which St. Jerome explains as meaning that the repentant Israelites shall rise above worldly things and aspire to heaven.

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Ver. 13.-The breaker is come (gone) up before them. Micah depicts Israel's redemption under the figure of release from captivity. The passage is clearly Messianic, and can neither be considered an interpolation nor tortured into a declaration of the siege and ruin of Samaria or Jerusalem. "One that breaketh" is a liberator, a leader that overcomes all obstacles which oppose Israel's return. There may be an allusion in the first instance to a human leader, such as Zerubbabel, in analogy with Moses and Joshua in old time, but the real conqueror intended is generally regarded as Messiah. The Breaker-up is supposed to be a title of the Messiah well known to the Jews (see Pusey; and Pearson, 'Exposition of the Creed,' art. vii., note y1). This interpretation is rejected by Professor Driver (Expositor, April, 1887), who considers the "breaker-up" to be "either a leader or a detachment of men, whose duty it was to break up walls or other obstacles opposing the progress of an army." But is not this to introduce an agency unknown to these times? Was there any special body of men trained and maintained for this particular duty? This "breaker-up," according to Dr. Driver's conception, "advances before them, breaking through the gates of the prison in which the people are confined; they follow, marching forth triumphantly through this open way; their king, with Jehovah at his side (Ps. cx. 5), heads the victorious procession (Exod. xiii. 21; Isa. lii. 12)." They have broken up; broken forth, or through. The captives co-operate with their leader. Have passed through the gate, etc. The prophet speaks of a solemn, regular removal, like the Exodus from Egypt, which no human power can oppose. Their king. The same as Jehovah in the next clause (Isa. xxxiii. 22). He shall lead the host, as he headed the Israelites