Chapter 38

scene more solemn. But the reference of בכם to the nations mentioned immediately before, is too evident.

Footnote 2: Ver. 6 must be translated thus: _Not shall ye drop_ (prophesy),--_they_ (the false prophets) _drop; if they_ (the individuals addressed, the true prophets) _do not drop to these_ (the rapacious great), _the ignominy will not cease_, _i.e._, the ignominious destruction breaks in irresistibly. The fundamental passage in Deut. xxxii. 2, and ver. 11 of the chapter before us, show that הטיף has not the signification, "to talk," which is assigned to it by _Caspari_. The false prophets must be considered as the accomplices of the corrupted great, especially as to the bulwark which they opposed to the true prophets, and their influence on the nation, and on their own consciences,--as indeed material power everywhere seeks for such a spiritual ally. If this be kept in view, the censure and threatening acquire a still greater unity.

Footnote 3: To a certain extent, however, verse 11 forms the transition: "If one were to come, a wind, and lie falsely: I will prophesy to thee of wine and of strong drink,--he would be the prophet of this people." Such a prophet Micah, indeed, is not; but although he neither can nor dare announce salvation _without_ judgment, he has, in the name of the Lord, to announce salvation _after_ the judgment. The very singular opinion, that in vers. 12, 13, the false prophets are introduced as speaking, is refuted by the single circumstance that, in ver. 12, the gathering of the _remnant_ of Israel only is promised, and hence the judgment is supposed to have preceded. It is no less erroneous if, instead of considering ver. 11 as introductory to vers. 12, 13, the latter be made to depend upon ver. 11, and be therefore considered as, to a certain extent, accidental.

Footnote 4: After the example of _v. Raumer_, _Robinson_, _Ritter_ (_Erdk._ 14, 101), it has now become customary to distinguish between two Bozrahs,--one in Auranitis, and the other in Edom. But the arguments adduced for this distinction are not of very great weight. Nowhere is a "high situation" in reality ascribed to the Bozrah in Edom. The assertion, that Edom was always limited to the territory between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, is opposed to Gen. xxxvi. 35, according to which passage, even in the time before Moses, the Edomitic king, Hadad, smote Midian in the field of Moab; and further, to Lam.