xiv. 9: "And Thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and Thy name is

called upon us." Is. lxiii. 19: "We are those over whom Thou hast not reigned from eternity, and upon whom Thy name has not been called." As regards the use of these words in reference to the temple, compare, further, Jer. vii. 10, 11: "And ye come and stand before Me in this house, upon which My name is called. Is, perhaps, this house upon which My name is called, a den of robbers in your eyes?" The exceeding greatness of their wickedness is denounced in these words; and the ground why it is so great, is not by any means the fact, that the temple, as was indeed the case with that at Bethel, bore the name of the house of God only by the caprice of the people, but that it really was the house of God, and that God, in His gracious condescension, was there _really_ present, as a type of His dwelling in Christ; compare Deut. xii. 5: "The place which [Pg 394] the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put His name there." _Finally_, These words are used in reference to single individuals, whom God, in a special sense, has made His own, His representatives, the bearers of His word, the mediators of His revelations, in Jer. xv. 16: "I found Thy words and I did eat them, and Thy words became unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for Thy name was called upon me, Jehovah, God of hosts," etc., equivalent to, "For I was the messenger and representative of Thee, the Almighty God."--_Hitzig_, _Hofmann_, and _Baur_ explain the expression, "Upon whom My name is called," by, "Upon all the nations who once, at the time of David, were in subjection to the people of God." The use of the Preterite has been urged in favour of this explanation; but it is certainly very rash to assert, on the ground of this, that "this view alone is admissible according to the rules of grammar." The statement of _Ewald_, § 135 _a_, is exactly applicable to this case: "The _Perfectum_, when used with reference to some future event, either mentioned or conceived of, may as well indicate the past which _then_ has taken place." The sense might thus be: "All the heathen upon whom then My name will be called." In the same sense, the Preterite is used in another passage, quoted by _Hofmann_ for a different purpose--viz., 2 Sam. xii. 28: "In order that I may not take (אלכד) the city, and my name be called (נקרא) upon it." It militates, however, against their view, that the name of the Lord being called upon any one, has, according to all the parallel passages, a sense too profound to admit of a relation to the Lord so loose and external being thereby designated. It is used only of such as are received into the condition of the people and sons of Jehovah, Hos. ii. 1 (i. 10). _Further_, The mere restoration of the Davidic dominion over the heathen is a very meagre thought, which is far from coming up to what Jacob had foretold in Gen. xlix. 10, and to what David and Solomon expected of the future; compare, _e.g._, Ps. lxxii. 11: "And all kings worship Him, all the heathen serve Him."--The closing words, "Thus saith the Lord that doeth this," are intended to strengthen faith in a promise which appears to be incredible, by calling attention to the fact, that the person who promises is also the person who carries it out to its fulfilment; compare Jer. xxxiii. 2: "Thus saith the Lord that makes it, the Lord that forms it, [Pg 395] to carry it out, the Lord is His name." This closing formula is also very ill suited for so meagre a prediction as that of the restoration of the old borders, of which Israel, under the reign of Uzziah and Jeroboam, was not so very far short. It was, probably, solely from a false interpretation of the passage under review, that an important historical event had its rise. Hyrcanus compelled the Idumeans, who were conquered by him, to be circumcised, and in that way to be incorporated into the Theocracy; so that they lost entirely their national existence and name (_Jos. Arch._ xiii. 9, 1; _Prideaux Hist. des Juifs_, vol. v. p. 16). This proceeding differed so materially from that which was ordinarily followed--for David did not think it at all necessary to adopt a similar proceeding against the Idumeans, and the other nations which were conquered by him--that it necessarily requires some special reason to account for it; and such a reason is furnished by the passage under consideration. Hyrcanus washed to be instrumental in the fulfilment of the prophecy contained in it; but in this he failed. He did not consider, 1. That the reception of Edom into the kingdom of God is here brought into connection with the restoration of the tabernacle of David, and hence could be brought about only by a king of the house of David. He did not consider, 2. That the matter here in question is not such a reception into the kingdom of God as depends upon the will of man, but a spiritual reception, which carries along with it the full enjoyment of divine blessings. That it was, however, easy for Hyrcanus to fall into such a mistake, is shown by the example of _Grotius_, who confined himself to this merely apparent fulfilment, although he had the real fulfilment before his eyes. By a similar misunderstanding of Old Testament prophecies, other important events also were brought about; _e.g._, according to the express testimony of Josephus, the building of the Egyptian temple, and, as we shall afterwards see, the building of the temple by Herod.

It now only remains to consider the quotation of this passage in the New Testament, in Acts xv. 16, 17. _Olshausen_ has directed attention to a difficulty regarding it, which has been overlooked by the greater number of interpreters. He says that one cannot well see how the quotation bears upon the point at issue. Both parties were at one as to the duty of admitting the Gentiles into the kingdom of God. The only question was [Pg 396] about the manner of their reception--whether with, or without, circumcision--and as to this, the prophecy, which confines itself to the fact only, does not contain any express declaration. But this difficulty has its sole foundation on the erroneous view that James was stating two reasons altogether independent of each other;--the first in ver. 14, God's declaration by facts, in His having given His Holy Spirit to the Gentiles, without their having been circumcised; and then, in vers. 16, 17, the testimony of the Old Testament. But the sound view rather is, that both together form only one reason. Apart from that testimony which God, the Searcher of hearts, had given to the Gentiles by the gift of the Holy Spirit, and by making no difference betwixt them and Israel, the prophetic declaration would have been without any significance; but it acquires this significance when combined with the testimony of God. It is now also that the silence of James, in reference to that condition which was demanded by those of a pharisaic tendency, gains significance. Simeon has declared how God at first was pleased to take a people for His name out of the Gentiles; and after the _fact_ of their reception has been so expressively declared, the Old Testament passage, where this reception is spoken of, is not cognizant of any other _mode_. The Apostle does not content himself with quoting ver. 12; he first cites ver. 11, because it furnished the proof that the declaration contained in ver. 12 referred to that time. That event, with which the conversion of the Gentiles is here immediately connected, had already taken place in Christ, at least as to the germ, which contained within itself the whole substance which afterwards displayed itself. But it was the main thought only which came into consideration in ver. 11, and therefore it is somewhat abbreviated. In the quotation, the translation of the LXX. evidently forms the foundation.

The quotation of ver. 12 agrees, almost _verbatim_, with the LXX. It follows them in their important deviation from the Hebrew text. Instead of, "In order that they may occupy the remnant of Edom," the LXX. read, ὅπως ἂν ἐκζητήσωσιν σἱ καταλοιποι τῶν ἀνθρώπων με (instead of με Luke has τὸν κύριον, which is found in the _Cod. Alex._ also, but has very likely come in from Luke). It is of very little consequence to determine in what manner the translation of the LXX. arose; whether they had a different reading, למען ידרשו שארית אדם, [Pg 397] before them; or whether they merely read erroneously; or whether, according to _Lightfoot_ (in his remarks on Acts xv. 16, 17), they intentionally thus altered the words; or whether it was their object to express the sense only generally and approximately (in the last two cases we should be obliged to suppose that, by a kind of play, and in order to represent, in an outward manner, the substantial agreement of the thought, they chose words exactly corresponding to the Hebrew text, with the exception of a change of a few letters,--a thing which frequently occurs in the Talmud, and even in Jeremiah when compared with the older prophets); only, we must set aside the idea of a really different reading,--a reading resting on the authority of good Manuscripts, inasmuch as such an idea would be irreconcilable with the deviations of the LXX. elsewhere, and with the unanimity of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the passage before us. The assertion of _Olshausen_, however, that, in the Hebrew form, the passage would not have been suitable for the purpose, and that therefore it is probable that, on this occasion, Greek must have been spoken in the assembly, does indeed deserve our attention.

Whether or not the latter was the case, we leave undecided. That it was probable, may be proved from other grounds, but it by no means follows from the reason stated by _Olshausen_. The passage was suited for the proof, as well according to the Hebrew text, as according to the Alexandrian version; for the latter is quite correct and faithful in so far as the sense is concerned. The _occupying_, in the sense in which it is used by Amos, has the _seeking_ for its necessary supposition. For how, indeed, can spiritual possession, spiritual dominion by the people of the Lord exist, unless the Lord has been sought by those who are to be ruled over? Compare the declaration: "The isles shall wait for His law," Is. xlii. 4. The words, "And of all the heathen," following immediately after Edom, evidently prove that Amos mentions Edom, only by way of individualizing; and the Idumeans, especially, as a people, only because their former, specially violent hatred to the Covenant-people (compare i. 11) made their future humble submission more evidently a work of the omnipotence of God, and of His love watching over His people; and at the same time there may be a reference also to the former subjection by David. The LXX. [Pg 398] have done nothing more, than at once to substitute for the particular, the general which comprehends this particular,--a particular which is, by Amos too, designated as a part of the general.[5]

Ver. 13. "_Behold, days come, saith the Lord, and the ploughman reacheth to the reaper, and the treader of the wine-press to him that soweth seed. And the mountains drop must, and all the hills melt._"

The fundamental thought in this passage is this:--Wheresoever the Lord is, there also is the fulness of His gifts.--The imagery in the first hemistich is taken from Lev. xxvi. 3-5: "If ye shall walk in My laws, and keep My commandments and do them; then I will give your rains in their seasons, and the land gives its produce, and the tree of the field gives its fruit. And your threshing _reaches_ to the vintage, and the vintage _reaches to the sowing_ time." After the Lord has purified His congregation by His judgments, then the joyful time of blessing, prophesied by His servant Moses, shall likewise come. _Cocceius_ says: "One shall reap, the other shall immediately plough; one shall scatter the seeds in the ploughed field, while another shall, at the same time, tread the grapes,--a work is wont to be done at the last time of the year. There shall be continual work, and continual fruit, and a fruitfulness such as that in the land of the Troglodytes which _Scaliger_ (_Exercit._ 249, 2) thus describes: 'Throughout the whole year there is sowing and reaping at the same time; at one place the seed is committed to the fields, and at another the wheat shoots up, at another it gets ears, at another it is reaped, at another it is collected, and [Pg 399] brought to the threshing-places, and thence to the barn.'"--The second hemistich agrees with Joel iv. (iii.) 18 (which is certainly not accidental; compare the introduction to Joel): "At that time the mountains shall drop must, and the hills go with milk." From a comparison of this passage it appears that the melting of the hills can mean only their dissolving into rivers of milk, must, and honey, with an allusion to the description of the promised land in the Pentateuch (Exod. iii. 8) as a land flowing with milk and honey.

Ver. 14. "_And I turn Myself to the captivity of My people Israel, and they build waste cities, and dwell, and plant vineyards, and drink their wine; and they make gardens and eat their fruit._"

The captivity is a figure of misery. With reference to שבות שוב compare the remarks on Joel.

Ver. 15. "_And I plant them in their land, and they shall no more he plucked up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God._" Compare p. 227 seqq.

Footnote 1: _Hofmann_, _Schriftbeweis_ I. S. 312, objects: "If this were correct, Paul ought to have delivered that fornicator at Corinth (1 Cor. v. 5), or Hymeneus and Alexander (1 Tim. i. 20), not to Satan, but to the good angels." But the individuals mentioned were members of the Church of Christ, and they were delivered to Satan, not for their absolute destruction, but for their salvation: ἵνα τὸ πνεῦμα, (which of course was still in existence; and it is just the πνεῦμα that separates between the world and the Church, compare Ps. li. 13) σωθῇ ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ Κυρίου, ἵνα παιδευθῶσι μὴ βλασφημεῖν. It is, as in the case of Job, a punishment with a view to purification, for which power is given to Satan, Heb. xii. 6. These passages, then, serve only to confirm the view which we have expressed.

Footnote 2: The same is probably the case in vi. 14: "For behold I raise up against you, O house of Israel, saith the Lord God of Hosts, heathen people; and they shall afflict you from Hamath unto the river of the wilderness." The river of the wilderness can here be none other than the river of Egypt, which commonly appears as the boundary of the whole. Compare 1 Kings viii. 65; 2 Chron. vii. 8, where Solomon assembles the whole people from Hamath unto the river of Egypt; Josh. xv. 4, 47; 2 Kings xxiv. 7; Is. xxvii. 12. They who think of the boundary of the kingdom of the ten tribes only, are at a loss, and have recourse to uncertain conjectures.

Footnote 3: In Micah i. 15 the entire people are called Jacob. The same occurs also in Hos. x. 11, xii. 3 (2).

Footnote 4: _Hitzig_ says: With a disposition of mind different from that in iii. 2, the prophet says here, "You enjoy no privileges with me, you are to me like all others." A strange disposition of mind indeed for a prophet! An interpretation which results in such thoughts, which cannot be entertained for a moment, is self-condemned.

Footnote 5: Whether, however, it was James or Luke who quoted these words according to the version of the LXX., this passage is one of the many hundreds which prove that the violent urging and pressing for an improvement in our (German) authorized version of the Scriptures, as it proceeded from _von Meier_ and _Stier_, is exaggerated. The Saviour and His Apostles adopted, without hesitation, the version current at their time, when its deviations concerned not the thought but the words. If we proceed upon this principle, how will the mountain of complaints melt away which has been raised against _Luther's_ translation of the Scriptures. But it is true that, even then, weighty objections remain. The revision of it is a want of the Church; but it is not so urgent that we may not, and must not, wait for the time when it may be satisfied without danger. If it were undertaken at present, the disadvantages would far outweigh the advantages. To everything there is a season; and it is the duty of the wise steward to find it out, and to know it.

THE PROPHECY OF OBADIAH.

We need not enter into details regarding the question as to the time when the prophet wrote. By a thorough argumentation, _Caspari_ has proved, that he occupies his right position in the Canon, and hence belongs to the earliest age of written prophecy, _i.e._, to the time of Jeroboam II. and Uzziah. As bearing conclusively against those who would assign to him a far later date, viz., the time of the exile, there is not only the indirect testimony borne by the place which this prophecy occupies in the collection of the prophets which is chronologically arranged, but there are also the following facts;--that those who are to inflict the predicted calamity upon Judah are not at all more definitely characterized than in the first part of Hosea, in Joel, and Amos;--that, in like manner, the heathen power from which the overthrow of Edom is to proceed, is neither mentioned, nor more definitely pointed out in any other way;--that Jeremiah already made use of Obadiah's prophecy; and if such be denied, the older foundation would then be withdrawn from the prophecy of Jeremiah--which would be contrary [Pg 400] to the analogy of Jeremiah's prophecies against foreign nations;--and, finally, that, in vers. 12-14, the prophet exhorts the Edomites neither to rejoice nor to co-operate in the destruction of Jerusalem, because, otherwise, they would certainly receive the well-merited reward of such wickedness committed against the Covenant-people, to whom they were so nearly related. Such an exhortation would have been out of place, after the wickedness had been committed.--The view of _Hofmann_ (which was revived by _Delitzsch_ in his treatise, "When did Obadiah prophesy?" [_Guerike's Zeitschrift_ 51, _Hft._ 1])--according to which the capture of Jerusalem by the Philistines and Arabians under Jehoram (2 Chron. xxi. 16 ff.) was the occasion of the prophecy before us, and according to which Obadiah is thus made the oldest among all the prophets in the Canon, and separated by nearly a century from the three prophets who preceded him--overlooks the fact that only cogent reasons could induce us to assume so isolated a position, since it is certainly not a matter of accident that the written prophecy began its course under the reign of Jeroboam and Uzziah. The guilt and punishment of Edom are, in like manner, spoken of in the Preterite; and it is inadmissible to understand the Preterites as historical, in so far as they refer to the guilt, and as prophetical, in so far as they refer to the punishment. The words, "Day of their destruction," in ver. 12, are decisive against every other catastrophe upon Judah, but that of the Chaldean. Ver. 20, when rightly interpreted, supposes the carrying away of Israel and Judah, and hence allows us to think only of the Assyro-Chaldean catastrophe. In ver. 21, Mount Zion is forsaken, and "the saviours" return to it from the land of captivity.

In strict accordance with the position of the book in the Canon, is the fact, that Obadiah connects himself most closely with Joel, and, excepting him, among all the prophets, with Amos only; compare _Caspari_, S. 20 ff., 35; _Hävernick_, _Einleitung_ II. S. 318. Of greater importance than the coincidences in particulars, is the fact that the prophecy of Obadiah, upon the whole, connects itself most closely and immediately with the fourth (third) chapter of Joel--that in the prophecy of Obadiah, we have indeed a _variation_ on that chapter. The judgment upon Judah, which Joel announces in the first part, [Pg 401] is here supposed to have already taken place; and this might be done so much the rather, because, even in Joel, the prophetic _Plerophory_, with which rationalistic interpreters are so much puzzled, has changed the Future into the Present and Past--as, even there, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the overflowing of the whole country by the heathen, are represented as already existing. It is only the judgment upon the heathen, and the restoration of Israel, which Obadiah represents in his prophetic picture.

Like Hosea (in the first three chapters), Joel, and Amos, so Obadiah also, received the mission to point out the catastrophe threatened by the world's power, even before the latter existed on the scene of history. It was to the Covenant-people a source of rich consolation that it was so clearly and distinctly foretold to them, even before it had an existence, and the points of view from which it must be regarded were opened up to them. He, however, distinctly points to one idea only, just because there were already predecessors to whose prophecies he could refer. He did not receive the mission to call to repentance, or to represent the judgment as a well-deserved punishment--although, _indirectly_, in him as well as in Joel, these thoughts also occur, as certainly as the supposed destruction of Judah and Israel could only be the punishment of their sin; he has to point out only the salvation subsequent to the overflowing by the heathen world, the conquering power of the kingdom of God which, in the end, will manifest itself, and deeply to impress upon the Covenant-people the words: θαρσεῖτε, ἐγὼ νενίκηκα τὸν κόσμον. The glaring contrast betwixt the _idea_--according to which the kingdom of God was to be all prevailing--and the _reality_, in which it is pressed into a corner, shall in future increase still more. Even from this corner, the people of God shall be driven. But death is the transition to life; the uttermost degree of sufferings, the forerunner of deliverance and salvation. Not a restoration only is in store for the people of God--they even obtain the dominion of the world; but to the heathen world, which is at enmity with God, their exaltation is a forerunner of destruction.

All which Obadiah had to say in reference to the heathen, God-hating world, and to the form which, in future, Israel's [Pg 402] relation to it would assume, has been exemplified by him in the case of Edom. For the fact, that it is only the heathen power individualized which we have before us, is shown by the transition to the heathen in general in ver. 15, according to which, Edom comes into consideration only as a part of the whole: "For near is the day of the Lord upon _all the heathen_." So also is it in ver. 16: "For as ye[1] have drunk upon My holy mountain, so shall _all the heathen_ drink continually;[2] and they drink, and sup up, and they are as though they were not." When speaking of the guilt, he mentions Edom only; when speaking of punishment, he introduces all the heathen at once. According to ver. 17, Israel shall occupy the possessions of _all the heathen_. And even the last words of the whole prophecy, "And the kingdom shall be the Lord's," show that it bears a universal character,--that in the case of Edom, we have only a principle exemplified which applies to all the enemies of the kingdom of God. The leading thought is: The kingdom of God shall obtain universal dominion, which follows the deepest abasement of the people of God, and of which the fullest and most perfect realization must be sought in Christ.

The animating thought could be so much the better individualized in the case of Edom, as its natural relation to Israel was one of special nearness, and its hatred specially deep; and as, moreover, it at all times considered itself the rival of Israel, of whose advantages it was envious. That which Amos, the cotemporary of Obadiah, says of Edom in chap. i. 11--"He pursues his brother with the sword, and corrupts his compassions, and his anger tears perpetually, and he keeps his wrath for ever"--shows how exceedingly well he was fitted to be a representative of the enemies of the kingdom of God. It was so much the more obvious thus to represent Edom as a particular and individualizing exemplification of this principle, as the prophets of that period had not as yet received any more definite disclosures as to the threatening kingdoms of the future, while Edom, in his [Pg 403] hatred against the people of God, stood before their eyes. The germ of this is to be found in Joel iv. (iii.) 19, where Edom already appears as a representative and type of the God-hating heathen world, which is to be judged by the Lord, after the judgment upon Judah.

In Obadiah, we find a fulness of remarkable glances into the future compressed within a narrow space. The chief events are the following:--1. The capture of Jerusalem, the total carrying away of the entire people, both of Judah and Israel, to a far distance, vers. 20, 21. 2. The return of Israel, the cessation of the separation of the two kingdoms, ver. 18 (compare Hos. ii. 2 [i. 11]; Amos ix. 11, 12), and his elevation to the dominion of the world by the "Saviours," ver. 21. 3. The judgment upon Edom by heathen nations, vers. 1-9. Jeremiah, in xxvii. 2 ff., compared with xxv., more distinctly points out the Chaldeans as the heathen instruments of the judgment upon Edom and all the people round about; and Matt. i. 3, 4, shows the weight of the sufferings which were inflicted by them upon Edom. 4. The occupation of the land of Edom by Judah. One realization of this prophecy took place in the time of the Maccabees; but we must not confine ourselves to this. As, in the main, Edom is only a type of the God-hating heathen world, the true and real fulfilment can be sought in Christ alone. Compare the remarks, p. 98, with reference to Moab in Balaam's prophecy.

The prophecy of Obadiah is divided into three parts:--the destruction of Edom by heathen nations summoned by Jehovah, vers. 1-9; the cause of it, his wickedness against Judah, vers. 10-16; Judah, on the contrary, rises with Joseph from this humiliation, and becomes a conqueror of the world, vers. 17-21. This last part claims our closer consideration.

Ver. 17. "_And upon Mount Zion shall be they that have escaped, and it is holy_ (compare Joel iii. 5, iv. 17 [ii. 32, iii. 17]), _and the house of Jacob occupies their possessions._"

The suffix in מורשיהם refers to all the heathen in ver. 16. The kingdom shall be the Lord's, according to ver. 16, and the dominion of His people extends as far as His own. We have here the general prophecy; and in what immediately follows, the application to Edom. The first two clauses serve as a foundation for the third. The holiness has, so to speak, not only a [Pg 404] defensive, but also an offensive character. Its consequence is the dominion of the world.

Ver. 18. "_And the house of Jacob becomes a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble, and they kindle them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining to the house of Esau; for the Lord has spoken._"

Besides the whole of the people, that part of them (the house of Joseph, the people of the ten tribes) is specially mentioned which one might have expected to be excluded. That there is none remaining to the house of Esau (and to all who are like him) agrees with the declaration uttered by Joel in iii. 5 (ii. 32): "Amongst those who are spared, is whomsoever the Lord calleth." They, however, whom the Lord calls, are, according to the same verse, they who call on the name of the Lord. But the characteristic of Edom is his hatred against the kingdom of God,--and that excludes both the calling on the Lord, and the being called by the Lord. The single individual, however, may come out of the community of his people, and enter into the territory of saving grace, as is shown by the example of Rahab. In the further description of the conquering power, which the people of God shall, in future, exercise, we are, in ver. 19, first met by Judah and Benjamin.

Ver. 19. "_And they of the south possess the Mount of Esau, and they from the low region, the Philistines; and they_ (_i.e._, they of Judah, the whole, of whom they of the South and of the low region are parts only) _possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria, and Benjamin--Gilead._"

It is obvious that we have here before us only an individualized representation of the thought already expressed in Gen. xxviii. 14: "And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt break forth to the East and to the West, to the North and to the South; and in thee, and in thy seed, all the families of the earth are blessed;" compare also Is. liv. 3: "Thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles."--נגב is the south part of Judea, at the borders of Edom; שפלה the low region on the West, at the borders of the Philistines. As, according to the vision of the prophet, the exaltation of Judah is preceded by his total overthrow and captivity (compare vers. 11-14, 20, 21), the tribe of Judah, which, before the catastrophe, was settled in [Pg 405] the South and low region, is here meant. That את can be taken only as the sign of the Accus., and "Mount of Esau," accordingly, as the object only, appears from ver. 20, according to which the South is vacant. Judah thus extends in the South, over Edom, in the West, over Philistia, in the North, over the former territory of the ten tribes, and hence also over the territory of Benjamin, which formerly lay betwixt Judah and Joseph. Benjamin is indemnified by Gilead. The whole of Canaan comes thus to Judah and Benjamin. Joseph, to whose damage, according to ver. 18, this enlargement of Judah's territory must lead, must be transferred altogether to heathenish territory. We expect to find, in ver. 20, how he is indemnified.

Ver. 20. "_And the exiles of this host of the children of Israel (shall possess) what are Canaanites unto Zarephath, and the exiles of Jerusalem that are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the South._"

The circumstance that the Athnach stands below ספרד indicates that ירשו implies the common property of the exiles of this host, and of the exiles of Jerusalem. The "Sons of Israel," in this context, can only be the ten tribes; for they are here indemnified for their former territory, which, according to ver. 19, has become the possession of Judah. "The exiles of this host" is equivalent to: "This whole host of exiles,"--the whole mass of the ten tribes, carried away according to prophetic foresight (compare Amos v. 27: "And I carry you away beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, the God of hosts"), as opposed to a piecemeal carrying away, such as had once already taken place before the time of the prophet in respect to Judah, but not in respect to the children of Israel; compare Joel iv. (iii.) 6. That the "Canaanites unto Zarephath"--_i.e._, the Phœnicians, whose territory formed part of the promised land, but had never, in former times, come into the real possession of Israel--are the objects of conquest, and that, hence, we cannot explain as _Caspari_ does, "Who are among the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath," is evident from the circumstance, that all the neighbouring nations appear as objects of the conquering activity;--that the great mass of the Israelitish exiles were not among the Canaanites;--that the ב could, in that case, not have been omitted;--and that the South country is too small [Pg 406] a space for the children of Israel, and of Jerusalem together. Sepharad, the very name of which is scarcely known, is mentioned as a particularizing designation of the utmost distance. The description becomes complete by its returning to the South country, from which it had proceeded. The South country penetrates to Edom; the inhabitants of Jerusalem extend beyond the South country.

Ver. 21. "_And saviours go up on Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's._"

עלו is to be accounted for from the consideration, that the deliverance and salvation imply the entire overthrow--the total carrying away of the people. The Saviour κατ᾽ ἐξοχήν is hidden beneath the "saviours;" compare Judges iii. 9, 15; Neh. ix. 27. But even here, everything is connected with human individuals; and the more glorious the salvation which the prophet beholds in the future, viz., the absolute dominion of the Lord, and His people, over the world, the less can it be conceived that the prophet should have expected the realization of it by a collective body of mortal men without a leader. But the plural intimates that the antitype is not without types,--that the head cannot be conceived of without members. In Jer. xxiii. 4, we read: "And I raise up shepherds over them which shall feed them;" and immediately afterwards the one good shepherd--Christ--forms the subject of discourse.--"And the kingdom shall be the Lord's."--His dominion, till _then_ concealed, shall now be publicly manifested, and the people of the earth shall acknowledge it, either spontaneously, or by constraint. The coming of this kingdom has begun with Christ, and, in Him, waits for its consummation. The opinion of _Caspari_, that the contents of vers. 19 and 20, as well as the close of this prophecy, belong altogether to the future, rests on a false, literal explanation, the inadmissibility of which is sufficiently evident from the circumstance that the Edomites, Philistines, and Canaanites have long since disappeared from the scene of history; so that there exists no longer the possibility of a literal fulfilment.

Footnote 1: The fact that, _everywhere_, the discourse is addressed to the Edomites, proves that here also Edom is addressed. The כי and the כאשר sin this verse, compared with those in the preceding verse, likewise suggest this. Compare, moreover, Joel iv. (iii.) 3, to which passage there is already an allusion in ver. 11.

Footnote 2: Namely, the cup of punishment, of divine wrath.

[Pg 407]

THE PROPHET JONAH.

It has been asserted without any sufficient reason, that Jonah is older than Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Obadiah,--that he is the oldest among the prophets whose written monuments have been preserved to us. The passage in 2 Kings xiv. 25, where it is said, that Jonah, the son of Amittai the prophet, prophesied to Jeroboam the happy success of his arms, and the restoration of the ancient boundaries of Israel, and that this prophecy was confirmed by the event, cannot decide in favour of this assertion, because it cannot be proved that the victories of Jeroboam belonged to the _beginning_ of his reign. On the other hand, it is opposed, _first_, by the position of the book in the collection of the Minor Prophets, which, throughout, is chronologically arranged, and which is tantamount to an express testimony that Jonah wrote _after_ Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Obadiah. _Then_,--the circumstance that Nineveh is mentioned here, and that too in a way which implies that, even at that time, the hostile relations of the Assyrians to the Covenant-people had already begun, while in the first part of Hosea, in Joel, Amos, and Obadiah, no reference to the Assyrians is as yet found. Even ancient interpreters, as _Chr. B. Michaelis_, _Crusius_ (in the _Theol. Proph._ iii. S. 38), inferred from this mention of Nineveh, that the book had been composed in consequence of the first invasion of the Assyrians under Menahem, who ascended the throne 13 years after the death of Jeroboam II. _Finally_,--the book begins with _and_. Wherever else, in the canonical books of the Old Testament, such a beginning occurs, it indicates a resumption of, and a junction with, former links in the chain of sacred literature; compare Judges i. 1; 1 Sam. i. 1; Ezek. i. 1. That the expression, "And it came to pass," with which the book opens, is intended to establish the connection with the prophecy of Obadiah, which occupies the immediately preceding place in the Canon, is intimated by the internal relation of the two books to each other. The prophecy of Obadiah bears, throughout, a hostile aspect to the heathen world; it appears to him as the object only of God's judging activity. Jonah, on the other hand, received the mission, distinctly to point out the other aspect of the matter, and [Pg 408] thereby, not indeed to correct, but certainly to supplement his predecessor.

The time was approaching when the heathen world was to pour out its floods upon the people of God. It was obvious that the position of Israel towards it became one altogether repulsive, that the susceptibility of the heathen for salvation was denied, and God's mercy was limited to Israel. Narrow-minded exclusiveness received a powerful support from the oppression and haughtiness of the heathen. Whilst other prophets opposed such exclusiveness by their words, by announcing the extension of salvation to the Gentiles, Jonah received the mission to illustrate, by a symbolical action, the capacity of the heathen for salvation, and their future participation in it. The effect of this must necessarily have been so much the greater, as the whole of the little book is exclusively devoted to this subject, as it appeared at the first beginning of the conflict, and as Nineveh is mentioned here, for the first time, in so peaceable and conciliatory a relation, and in close harmony and connection with the announcement of the willing submission of the heathen world to the dominion of Shiloh, spoken of in Gen. xlix. 10. It is remarkably impressive to see how spirit here triumphs over nature--a triumph which appears so much the brighter because the prophet himself pays his tribute to nature; for it was because he listened to the voice of nature, that, at first, he intended to flee to Tarshish. The reason why the commission of the Lord was so disagreeable to him, we learn from chap. iv. 2. He was afraid lest the preaching of repentance, which was committed to him, might turn away the judgments of the Lord from Nineveh, the metropolis of that country which threatened destruction to Israel. He knew the deep corruption of his own people, and foreboded the issue which the extension of the means of grace to the Gentiles might very easily bring about in the end. But yet, he felt almost irresistibly impelled to carry out the commission of God, and in order to cut himself off from the possibility of following the voice which called him to the east, he resolved to go to the far distant west. The voice, however, followed him even there; but the farther he advanced on his journey, the more difficult it became for him to follow it. At a later period, when the Lord granted mercy to Nineveh, he was angry and wished to die, not by any means because he [Pg 409] felt himself injured in his honour as a prophet (as was erroneously supposed, even by _Calvin_), but because he grudged to the Gentiles the mercy which he considered as a prerogative of Israel only, and because he was anxious for the destruction of Nineveh as the metropolis of that kingdom which was destined to be the rod of chastisement for his own people. He was thus actuated by the same ardent love for his people which called forth the wish of St Paul, that he might become an anathema for his brethren,--by the same disposition of mind which prevailed in the elder brother at the return of the prodigal son (Luke xv. 25 ff.), and which at first would manifest itself even in Peter, Acts x. 14 ff. The Jewish sentence (_Carpzov. Introd._ 3, p. 149), "Jonah was anxious for the glory of the Son, but he did not seek the glory of the Father," is very significant. Jonah exhibits, in a very striking way, the thoughts of his old man, in order that Israel might recognise themselves in his image. But we are not at liberty to say that the prophet represented the people only. It is true that, as one of the people, he also entertained those thoughts; but, besides these, he entertained other thoughts also. The voices of the Lord which he heard were spiritual; and such voices can be heard only when there is something akin in the heart. Not even with one step did Jonah touch the territory of the false prophets, who prophesied out of their own hearts. He retained all his human weakness to himself, and the Word of God stood by the side of it in unclouded brightness, and obtained absolute victory.

There can be no doubt that we have before us in the Book of Jonah the description of a symbolical action,--that his mission to Nineveh has an object distinct from the mission itself,--that it is not the result attained by it in the first instance which is the essential point, but that it is its aim to bring to light certain truths, and in the form of fact, to prophesy future things. The truths are these:--_First_, that the Gentiles are by no means so unsusceptible of the higher truth as vulgar prejudice imagined them to be. This was manifested by the conduct of the sailors, who, at last, offer sacrifices and even vows to Jehovah; but, in a more striking manner, by the deep impression which the discourse of Jonah produced upon the Ninevites. In this we have the actual proof of Ezek. iii. 5, 6, where the prophet represents his mission as one of peculiar difficulty--more [Pg 410] difficult, even, than it would have been if addressed to the Gentiles: "Had I sent thee to them, surely they would have hearkened to thee." _Further_,--that it is not in His relation to Israel only, but in His relation to the Gentiles also, that the Lord is "gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness," chap. iv. 2. The view which these words, at once, open up into the future, is, that at some future period the Lord will grant to the Gentiles the preaching of His word, and admission into His kingdom. The glory of His mercy and grace would have been darkened, if the revelation of them had been for ever limited to a particular, small portion of the human race. Nineveh, the representative of the heathen multitude, is very significantly called the "great city" at the very outset, in i. 2, and "a great city for God," in iii. 3, for which, as _Michaelis_ remarks, God specially cared, on account of the great number of souls; compare iv. 11.

If the symbolical and prophetical character of the book be denied, the fact of its having its place among the prophetical, and not among the historical, books, admits of no explanation at all. For so much is evident, that this fact cannot be satisfactorily accounted for by the circumstance that the book reports the events which happened to a prophet. The sound explanation has been already given by _Marckius_: "The book is, in a great measure, historical, but in such a manner, that in the history itself there is hidden the mystery of the greatest prophecy, and that Jonah proves himself to be a true prophet, by the events which happened to him, not less than by his utterances." A similar explanation is given by _Carpzovius_: "By his own example, as well as by the event itself, he bore witness that it was the will of God that all men should be saved, and should come to the knowledge of the truth," 1 Tim. ii. 4.

We are led to the same conclusion by the representation itself. This differs very widely from that given in the historical books. The objection raised by _Hitzig_ against the historical truth,--viz., that the narrative is fragmentary,--that it wants completeness,--that a number of events are communicated only in so far as is required by the object of gaining a foundation for the graphic representation of the doctrinal contents,--cannot be set aside so easily as is done by _Hävernich_ when he says: [Pg 411] "By arguments of a nature so flimsy, suspicions may be raised against the truth of every historical report." We cannot but confess that, to the writer, history is indeed a means only of representing a thought to which he is anxious to give currency in the Church of God. It is just for this reason that he abstains from graphically enlarging, because that would have been an obstacle to his purpose. The narrative of a symbolical action which took place outwardly, comes, in this respect, under the same law as the narrative of a symbolical action belonging to the internal territory, and to that of the parable. The narrative would lose the character of perspicuity which is so necessary for the whole matter, if it were complete in the subordinate circumstances.

It also tells in favour of the symbolical character of the history of Jonah, that the missionary activity on behalf of the Gentiles does not properly belong to the vocation of the prophets, their mission being to the two houses of Israel only. In the entire history, not even a single example is to be found of a prophet who, for the good of the heathen world itself, went out among them. The history of Elisha, in 2 Kings viii. 7 ff., has, without sufficient reason, been adduced by _Hävernick_. According to the visions of the prophets themselves, the conversion of the heathen is not to be accomplished _at present_, but in the Messianic time, and by the Messiah Himself. If, then, the book itself is not to stand altogether isolated, the symbolical character of Jonah's mission must be acknowledged. But then it is only in the form that it differs from the announcements of the extension of salvation to the heathen also,--announcements which occur in the other prophets also. That which these exhibited in words merely, is here made conspicuous by deeds. The influence thereby produced upon the heathen appears then only as the means, while the real purpose is to make an important truth familiar to the Congregation of God, and, by a striking fact, to remove the prejudices which prevailed in it.

_Finally_,--If the symbolical character of the facts be denied, the mission of Jonah appears to be almost divested of every aim; for the good emotions of the crew, and the repentance of the Ninevites, evidently did not lead to any lasting result. If anything else were aimed at than the prefiguring of future events, the prophet might better have stayed at home; an unassuming [Pg 412] ministry in some corner among the Covenant-people would have carried along with it a greater reward.

If, on the other hand, the symbolical character of the history of Jonah be admitted, remarkable parallels in the history of Jesus present themselves. The Saviour, in the days of His flesh, was satisfied with the prophetic intimation of the future farther extension of His salvation. That which He Himself did for this extension, in those particular cases where the faith of non-Israelites obtruded itself upon Him, must, in its isolation, be viewed as an embodiment of that intimation,--as a prophecy by deeds. He says in Matt. xv. 24: "I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel;" but if, nevertheless. He purposely makes His abode in the territory of Tyre and Sidon; if there He hears the prayer of the Canaanitish woman to heal her daughter, after having first tried her faith, then His purpose evidently is: That His prophecy in words concerning the extension of salvation to the Gentiles, might find a support in His prophecy in deeds. Jesus, prefiguring the future doings of His servants, passed over the boundaries of the Gentiles. Whilst the Jews had rejected the salvation offered to them, and forced Jesus to retire into concealment, the heathen woman comes full of faith, and seeks Him in His concealment. The Canaanitish woman is a representative of the heathen world, the future faith of which she was called to prefigure by sustaining the trial. From her example, the Apostles were to learn what might be expected from the Gentiles when the time should arrive for proclaiming the Gospel to them also. In Matt. x. 5, 6, the Lord speaks to the Apostles: "Go not in the way of the Gentiles, and into any of the cities of the _Samaritans_ enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." His own conduct, however, as it is reported in John iv., stands in contradiction to this command to His Apostles, so long as its prophetical significance is not acknowledged. That which was, on a large scale, to be done by Christ in the state of glorification, was prefigured by Him, on a smaller scale, in the state of humiliation. The ministry of Christ in Samaria bears the same relation to the later mission among this people, that the single instances of Christ's raising the dead do to the general resurrection. The Lord afterwards did not foster the germs which had come forth among the Samaritans; He, in the meantime, left them altogether [Pg 413] to their fate. That prelude was quite sufficient for the object which He then had in view, and nothing further could be done without violating the rights of the Covenant-people, to which, in the conversation as recorded by John, the Lord as expressly pays attention, as He does in Matt. x.

THE PROPHET MICAH.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

Micah signifies: "Who is like Jehovah;" and by this name, the prophet is consecrated to the incomparable God, just as Hosea was to the helping God, and Nahum to the comforting God. He prophesied, according to the inscription, under Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. We are not, however, entitled, on this account, to dissever his prophecies, and to assign particular discourses to the reign of each of these kings. On the contrary, the entire collection forms only one whole. At the termination of his prophetic ministry, under Hezekiah, the prophet committed to writing everything which was of importance for all coming time that had been revealed to him during the whole duration of that ministry. He collected into one comprehensive picture all the detached visions which had been granted to him in manifold repetition; giving us the sum and substance (of which nothing has been lost in the case of any of the men inspired by God) of what was spoken at different times, and omitting all which was accidental, and purely local and temporary.

This view, which alone is the correct one, and which contributes so largely to the right understanding of the prophet, has been already advanced by several of the older scholars. Thus _Lightfoot_ (_Ordo temporum_, opp. i. p. 99) remarks: "It is easier to conceive that the matter of this whole book represents the substance of the prophecy which he uttered under these various kings, than to determine which of the chapters of this book were uttered under the particular reign of each of these kings." _Majus_ also (_Economia temporum_, p. 898) says: "He repeated, at a subsequent period, what he had spoken at different [Pg 414] times, and under different kings." In modern times, however, this view had been generally abandoned; and although, at present, many critics are disposed to return to it, _Hitzig_ and _Maurer_ still assert, that the book was composed at different periods.

We shall now endeavour to prove the unity of the book, _first_, from the prophecies themselves. If we were entitled to separate them at all, according to time and circumstances, we could form a division into three discourses only; viz., chap. i. and ii.; chap. iii.-v.; and chap. vi. and vii. For, 1. Each of these discourses forms a whole, complete in itself, and in which the various elements of the prophetic discourse--reproof, threatening, promise--are repeated. If these discourses be torn asunder, we get only the _lacera membra_ of a prophetic discourse. 2. Each of these three discourses, forming an harmonious whole, begins with שמעו, _hear_. That this is not merely accidental, appears from the beginning of the first discourse, שמעו עמים כלם, "Hear, all ye people." These words literally agree with those which were uttered by the prophet's elder namesake, when, according to 1 Kings xxii. 28, he called upon the whole world to attend to the remarkable struggle betwixt the true and false prophets. It is evidently on purpose that the prophet begins with the same words as those with which the elder Micah had closed his discourse to Ahab, and, it may be, his whole prophetic ministry. By this very circumstance he gives intimation of what may be expected from him, shows that his activity is to be considered as a continuation of that of his predecessor, who was so jealous for God, and that he had more in common with him than the mere name. _Rosenmüller_ (_Prol. ad Mich._ p. 8) has asserted, indeed, that these words are only put into the mouth of the elder Micah, and that they are taken from the passage under consideration. But the reason which he adduces in support of this assertion, viz., that it cannot be conceived how it could ever have entered the mind of that elder Micah to call upon all people to be witnesses of an announcement which concerned Ahab only, needs no detailed refutation. Why then is it that in Deut. xxxii. 1, Is. i. 2, heaven and earth are called upon to be witnesses of an announcement which concerned the Jewish people only? Who does not see that, to the prophet, Israel appears as too small an audience [Pg 415] for the announcement of the great decision which he has just uttered; in the same manner as the Psalmist (compare, _e.g._, Ps. xcvi. 3) exhorts to proclaim to the Gentiles the great deeds of the Lord, because Palestine is too narrow for them?--But now, if it be established that it was with a distinct object that the prophet employed the words, "Hear ye," does not the circumstance that they are found at the commencement of the three discourses, which are complete in themselves, afford sufficient ground for the assumption, that it was the intention of the prophet, not indeed absolutely to limit them to the beginning of a new discourse (compare, on the contrary, iii. 9[1]), but yet, not to commence a new discourse without them; so that the want of them is decisive against the supposition of a new section? 3. As soon as an attempt is made to break up any of these three discourses, many particular circumstances are at once found, upon a careful examination, to prove a connection of the sections so close, as not to admit of a separation without mutilating them. Thus chap. i. and ii. cannot be separated from each other, for the reason that the promise in ii. 12, 13, refers to the threatening in i. 5. That promise refers to all Israel, just as does the threatening in chap. i.; whilst in the threatening and reproof in chap. ii. the eye of the prophet is directed only to the main object of his ministry, viz., to Judah.

But even these three divisions, which hitherto we have proved to be the only divisions that do exist,[2] can be considered as such, in so far only as in them the discourse takes a fresh start, and enters upon a new sphere. They cannot be considered as complete in themselves, and separated from one another by the [Pg 416] difference of the periods of their composition; for even in them there are found traces of a close connection. Even the uniform beginning by "Hear" may be considered as such. The second discourse in iii. 1 begins with ואמר; but the _Fut._ with _Vav convers._ always, and without exception, connects a new action with a preceding one, and can never be used where there is an absolutely new commencement. Its significance here, where it is used in the transition from the promise to a new reproof and threatening, has been very strikingly brought out thus, by _Ch. Bened. Michaelis_: "But while we are yet but too far away from those longed-for times, which have just been promised, I _say_ in the meanwhile, viz., in order to complete the list of the iniquities of evil princes and teachers, begun in chap. ii." The words of iii. 1, "Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel," have an evident reference to ii. 12: "I will assemble Jacob all of thee, I will gather the remnant of Israel." In the new threatening, the prophet chooses quite the same designation as in the preceding promise, in order to prevent the latter from giving support to false security. It is not by any means Samaria alone, but all Israel, which is the object of divine punishment. It is only a remnant of Israel that shall be gathered. But the reference to the preceding discourse is still more obvious in ver. 4: "Then they shall cry unto the Lord, and He will not answer; and may He hide[3] His face from them at this time, as they have behaved themselves ill towards Him in their doings." Now, as in vers. 1-3 divine judgments had not yet been spoken of, the terms "then," and "at this time," can refer only to the threatenings of punishment in ii. 3 ff., which have a special reference to the ungodly nobles.

Thus the result presented at the beginning, is confirmed to us by internal reasons. The inscription[4] announces the oracles [Pg 417] of God which came to Micah under the reign of three kings; while the examination of the contents proves that the collection forms a connected whole, written _uno tenore_. How, now, can these two facts be reconciled in any other way than by supposing that we have here before us a comprehensive picture of the prophetic ministry of Micah, the single component parts of which are at once contemporaneous, and yet belonging to different periods? This supposition, moreover, affords us the advantage of being allowed to maintain all the historical references in their fullest import, without being led to disregard the one, while we give attention to the other; for nothing is, in this case, more natural, than that the prophet connects with one another different prophecies uttered at different times.

The weight of these internal reasons is increased, however, by external reasons which are equally strong. When Jeremiah was called to account for his prophecy concerning the destruction of the city, the elders, for his justification, appealed to the [Pg 418] entirely similar prophecy of Micah in iii. 12: "Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest." In Jer. xxvi. 18, 19, it is said, "Micah prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, etc. Did Hezekiah, king of Judah, and all Judah, put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord, and besought the Lord, and the Lord repented Him of the evil which He had pronounced against them?" All interpreters admit that this passage forms an authority for the composition of the discourse in iii.-v. under Hezekiah; but we cannot well limit it in this way, we must extend it to the whole collection. For, even apart from the reasons by which we proved that the entire book forms one closely connected whole, it is most improbable that the elders should have known, by an oral tradition, the exact time of the composition of one single discourse, which has no special date at the head of it. Is it not a far more natural supposition, that they considered the collection as a whole, of which the component parts had, indeed, been delivered by the prophet at a former period, but had been repeated, and united into one description under Hezekiah; and that they mentioned Hezekiah, partly because it could not be determined with certainty whether this special prediction had already been uttered under one of his predecessors, and, if so, under which of them; and partly, because among the three kings mentioned in the inscription, Hezekiah alone formed an ecclesiastical authority?

But just as that quotation in Jeremiah furnishes us with a proof that all the prophecies of Micah, which have been preserved to us, were committed to writing under Hezekiah, so we can, in a similar manner, prove from Isaiah, chap. ii., that they were, at least in part, uttered at a previous period. The problem of the relation of Is. ii. 2-4 to Micah iv. 1-3, cannot be solved in any other way than by supposing, that this portion of a prophecy which, in Jeremiah, is assigned to the reign of Hezekiah, was uttered by Micah as early as under the reign of Jotham, and that soon after it Isaiah, by placing the words of Micah at the head of his own prophecies, expressed that which had come to him also in inward vision; for, being already known to the people, they could not fail to produce their impression. [Pg 419] Every other solution can be proved to be untenable. 1. Least of all is there any refutation needed of the hypothesis which is now generally abandoned, viz., that the passage in Isaiah is the original one; compare, against this hypothesis, _Kleinert_, _Aechtheit des Jes._ S. 356; _Caspari_, S. 444. 2. Equally objectionable is another supposition, that both the prophets had made use of some older prophecy--one uttered by Joel, as _Hitzig_ and _Ewald_ have maintained. The connection in which these verses stand in Micah, is by far too close for such a supposition. We could not, indeed, so confidently advance this argument, if the connection consisted only in what is commonly brought forward, viz., that upon the monitory announcement of punishment in chap. iii., there follows, in chap. iv. 1 ff., the _consolatory_ promise of a glorious future for the godly, and that the ו in ver. 1 evidently connects it with what immediately precedes. But the reference and connection are far more close. The promise in iv. 1, 2, is, throughout, contrasted with the threatening in iii. 12. "The mountain of the house shall become as the high places of the forest,"--hence, despised, solitary, and desolate. In iv. 1, there is opposed to it, "The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and upon it people shall flee together." "Zion shall be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem become a heap of ruins." Contrasted with this, there is in iv. 2 the declaration: "For the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord of Jerusalem." The desolate and despised place now becomes the residence of the Lord, from which He sends His commands over the whole earth, and of which the brilliant centre now is Jerusalem. In order to make this contrast so much the more obvious, the prophet begins, in the promise, with just the mountain of the temple, which, in the threatening, had occupied the last place; so that the opposites are brought into immediate connection. Nor is it certainly merely accidental that, in the threatening, he speaks of the mountain of the house only, while, in the promise, he speaks of the mountain of the house of the Lord; compare Matt. xxiii. 38, where "your house," according to _Bengel_, "is the house which, in other passages, is called the house of the Lord," just as the Lord, in Exod. xxxii. 7, says to Moses, "_Thy people._" The temple must have ceased to be the house of the Lord, before it would be destroyed; for [Pg 420] which reason, as we are told In Ezekiel, the Shechinah removed from it before the Babylonish destruction. And in point of form, the יהיה in iv. 1 so much the more corresponds with the תהיה in iii. 12, as from the latter יהיה must be supplied for the last clause of the verse; compare _Caspari_, S. 445. That ver. 5 must not be separated from the prophecy which Isaiah had before him, is seen from a comparison of Is. ii. 5: "O house of Jacob, come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord." According to the true interpretation, "the light of the Lord" signifies His grace, and the blessings which, according to what precedes, are to be bestowed by it; and "to walk in the light of the Lord," means to participate in the enjoyment of grace. These words, accordingly, are closely related to those in Mic. iv. 5: "For all the people shall walk, every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever:" _i.e._, the fate of the people in the heathen world corresponds to the nature of their gods; because these are nothing, they too shall sink down into nothingness, while Israel shall partake in the glory of his God. There is the same thought, and in essentially the same dress, both in Isaiah and Micah,--only that the words which in Micah embody a pure promise, are transformed by Isaiah into an exhortation that Israel should not, by their own fault, forfeit this preference over the heathen nations, that they should not wantonly wander away into dark solitudes, from the path of light which the Lord had opened up before them. This transformation in Isaiah, however, may be accounted for by the consideration, that he was anxious to prepare the way for the reproofs which now follow from ver. 6; whilst Micah, who had already premised them, could continue in the promise. It is also in favour of the originality of the passage in Micah, that the text which, in Isaiah, appears as a variation, appears as original in Micah; so that both cannot be equally dependent upon a third writer. 3. There now remains only the view of _Kleinert_, according to which the prophecy of Micah, in chap. iii.-v., was first uttered under the reign of Hezekiah; and, under the reign of the same king, but somewhat later, the prophecy, in chap. ii.-iv. of Isaiah, who avails himself of it. But, upon a closer examination, this view also proves untenable. Isaiah's description of the condition of the people in a moral point of view, the general spread of idolatry [Pg 421] and vice, exclude every other period in the reign of Hezekiah except the first beginning of it, when the effect and influence of the time of Ahaz were still felt; so that even _Kleinert_ (p. 364) is obliged to assume, that not only the prophecy of Micah, but also that of Isaiah, were uttered in the first months of the reign of this king. But other difficulties--and these altogether insuperable--stand in the way of this assumption. In the whole section of Isaiah, the nation appears as rich, flourishing, and powerful. This is most strongly expressed in chap. ii. 7: "His land is full of silver and gold, there is no end to his treasure; his land is full of horses, and there is no end to his chariots." To this may be added the description of the consequences of wealth, and of the unbounded luxury, in iii. 16 ff.; and the threatening of the withdrawal of all power, and all riches, as a strong contrast with their present condition, upon which they, in their blindness, rested the hope of their security, and hence imagined that they stood in no need of the assistance of the Lord, iii. 1 ff. Now this description is so inapplicable to the commencement of Hezekiah's reign, that the very opposite of it should rather be expected. The invasion by the allied Syrians and Israelites, the oppression by the Assyrians, and the tribute which they had to pay to them, the internal administration, which was bad beyond example, and the curse of God resting on all their enterprises and efforts, had exhausted, during the reign of the ungodly Ahaz, the treasures which had been collected under Uzziah and Jotham, and had dried up the sources of prosperity. He had left the kingdom to his successors in a condition of utter decay. To these, other reasons still may be added, which are in favour of the composition of it under Jotham, while they are against its composition under Hezekiah; especially the circumstance of their standing at the beginning of the collection of the first twelve chapters (a circumstance which is of great weight, inasmuch as these chapters are, beyond any doubt, arranged chronologically), but still more, the indefiniteness and generality in the threatening of the divine judgments, which the prophecy of Micah has in common with the nearly contemporaneous chapters i. and v. of Isaiah, whilst the threatenings out of the first period of the reign of Ahaz have at once a far more definite character. By these considerations we are involuntarily led back to a period when Isaiah still [Pg 422] pre-eminently exercised the office of exhorting and reproving, and had not yet been favoured with special revelations concerning the events of a future which, at that time, was as yet rather distant,--perhaps as far as the time when Jotham administered the government for his father, who was at that time still alive; compare 2 Kings xv. 5. By this hypothesis. Is. iii. 12 is more satisfactorily explained than by any other; and we are no longer under the necessity of asserting, that the chronological order is interrupted by chap. vi.; for this certainly could not have been intended by the collector. The solemn call and consecration of the prophet to his office, accompanied by an increased bestowal of grace, must be carefully distinguished from the ordinary ones which were common to him with all the other prophets. But if the prophecy of Isaiah was uttered as early as under Jotham (which has lately been most satisfactorily proved by _Caspari_ in his _Beiträge zur Einl. in das Buch Jesaias_, S. 234 ff.), that of Micah also must have existed at that time, and must have been in the mouths of the people. And since its composition is assigned to the reign of Hezekiah, it follows that the prophet delivered anew, under the reign of this king, the revelations which he had already received at an earlier period.

It will not be possible to infer with certainty from vers. 6, 7, as _Caspari_ does, that the book was committed to writing before the destruction of Samaria, and hence, before the sixth year of Hezekiah. Since the book gives the sum and substance of what was prophesied under three kings, all that is implied in vers. 6, 7, is, that the destruction of Samaria was foretold by Micah; but the prophecy itself may have been committed to writing even after the fulfilment had taken place. But, on the other hand, according to the analogy of Is. xxxix., and xiii. and xiv., we are led by iv. 9, 10, to the time of Sennacherib's invasion of Judea, in which the prophetic spirit of Isaiah likewise most richly displayed itself, and in which he was privileged with a glance into the far distant future.

The exordium in chap. i. and ii., and the close in vi. and vii., are distinguished by the generality of the threatening and promise which prevails in them. They have this in common with the first five chapters of Isaiah, and thus certainly afford us pre-eminently an image of the prophetic ministry of Micah, in the time previous to the Assyrian invasion; whilst the main [Pg 423] body (especially from iv. 8) represents to us particularly the character of the prophecy during the Assyrian period.

We shall now attempt to give a survey of the contents of Micah's prophecy.

Upon Samaria and Jerusalem--the kingdom of the ten tribes, and Judah--a judgment by foreign enemies is to come. Total destruction, and the carrying away of the inhabitants, will be the issue of this judgment, and, as regards Judah more particularly, the total overthrow of the dominion of the Davidic dynasty.

Samaria is first visited by this judgment. This is indicated by the fact that it is first mentioned in the inscription, and that in i. 6, 7, the judgment upon Samaria is, first of all, described; but especially by the circumstance that Samaria, in i. 5, appears as the chief seat of corruption for the whole people, whence it flowed upon Judah also, i. 14, and particularly, vi. 16. We expect that where the carcases first were, there the eagles would first be gathered together.

As the first, and principal instrument of the destructive judgment upon Judah, Babylon is mentioned in iv. 10.

As the representative of the world's power, at the time then present, Asshur appears in v. 4, 5. If destruction is to fall upon the kingdom of the ten tribes _before_ it falls upon Judah--which is most distinctly foretold by Hosea in i. 4-7--then, nothing was more obvious than to think of Asshur as the instrument of the judgment. That to which Micah, on this point, only alludes, is more fully expanded by Isaiah.

Judah is delivered from Babylon, but without a restoration of the kingdom, iv. 10, compared with ver. 14 (v. 1).

But a second catastrophe comes upon Judah, inasmuch as many heathens gather themselves against Jerusalem, with the intention of desecrating it, but yet in such a manner that, by the assistance of the Lord, it comes forth victoriously from this severe attack, chap. iv. 11-13. Then follows a third catastrophe, in which Judah becomes anew and totally subject to the world's power, iv. 14 (v. 1).

From the deepest abasement, however, the Congregation of the Lord rises to the highest glory, inasmuch as the dominion returns to the old Davidic race, iv. 8. From the little Bethlehem, the native place of David, where his race, sunk back again into [Pg 424] the lowliness of private life, has resumed its seat, a new and glorious Ruler proceeds, born, and at the same time eternal, and clothed with the fulness of the glory of the Lord, v. 1, 3 (2, 4), by whom Jacob obtains truth, and Abraham mercy, vii. 20, compared with John i. 17; by whom the Congregation is placed in the centre of the world, and becomes the object of the longing of all nations, iv. 1-3, delivered from the servitude of the world, and conquering the world, v. 4, 5 (5, 6), vii. 11, 12; and at the same time lowly, and inspiring the nations with fear, v. 6-8 (7-9). To such a height, however, she shall attain after, by means of the judgment preceding the mercy, all that has been taken from her upon which she in the present founded the hope of her salvation, v. 9-14 (10-15).

Footnote 1: It must not, however, be overlooked, that there the term "hear" is only a resumption of "hear" in iii. 1 (and, to a certain extent, even of that in i. 2), intimating, that that which they are about to hear, will concentrate itself in a distinct and powerful expression,--the acme of the whole threatening in iii. 12.

Footnote 2: Besides the division into three sections, there is, to a certain extent, a division also into two. By ואמר in iii. 1, the first and second discourses, or the exordium and principal part, are brought into a still closer connection,--a connection founded upon the circumstance that the reproof and threatening of the first part are to be here resumed, in order that thus a comprehensive representation may be given. It is only in iii. 12 that the threatening reaches its height. But yet the tripartition remains the prominent one. This cannot be denied without forcing a false sense and a false position upon ii. 12, 13.

Footnote 3: The _Fut. apoc._ forbids us to translate: "He will hide." In order to express his own delight in the doings of divine justice, the prophet changes the prediction into a wish, just as is the case in Is. ii. 9, where the greater number of interpreters assume, in opposition to the rules of grammar, that אל stands for לא.

Footnote 4: Against the genuineness of the inscription, doubts have been raised by many, after the example of _Hartmann_, and last of all by _Ewald_ and _Hitzig_; but it is established by the striking allusions to, and coincidences with it, in the text. With the mention of Micah's name in the former, the allusion to this name in the _close_ of the book, in chap. vii. 18, corresponds. The circumstance of Micah being called the Morasthite, accounts for the fact that, in this threatening against the cities of Judah, in i. 14, it is Moresheth alone which is mentioned. In the inscription, Samaria and Jerusalem are pointed out as the objects of the prophet's predictions; and it is in harmony with this, that in i. 6, 7, the judgment upon Samaria is first described, and then the judgment upon Judah; that the prophet--although, indeed, he has Judah chiefly in view--frequently gives attention to the ten tribes also, and includes them,--as in the promise in ii. 12, 13, v. 1 (2), where the Messiah appears as the Ruler in Israel, and vers. 6, 7 (7, 8), of the same chapter; and that in iii. 8, 9, Judah is represented as a particular part only of the great whole. _Finally_--It is peculiar to Micah, that he thus views so specially the two _capitals_; and this again is in harmony with the inscription, where just these, and not Israel and Judah, appear as the subjects of the prophecy. It is in the capitals that Micah beholds the concentration of the corruption (i. 5); and to them the threatening also is chiefly addressed, i. 6, 7, iii. 12. Of the promise, also, Jerusalem forms the centre.--The statement, too, in the inscription--that Micah uttered the contents of his book under various kings--likewise receives a confirmation from the prophecy. The mention of the high places of Judah in i. 5, and of the walking in the statutes of Omri, and in all the works of the house of Ahab, refers especially to the time of Ahaz; compare 2 Kings xvi. 4; 2 Chron. xxviii. 4, 25; further, 2 Kings xvi. 3; 2 Chron. xxviii. 2; and _Caspari_ on Micah, S. 74. On the other hand, the time of Hezekiah is suggested by v. 4, 6 (5, 6), which implies that already, at that time, Asshur had appeared as the enemy of the people of God,--and so likewise by the prophecy in iv. 9-14.

CHAP. I. AND II.

The prophet begins with the words: "_Hear, all ye people, hearken, O earth and the fulness thereof, and let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple. For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of His place, and cometh down, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains are melted under Him, and the valleys are cleft, as wax before the fire, as waters poured down a steep place. For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel._" Vers. 2-5.

This majestic exordium has been misunderstood in various ways: _First_, by those who, like _Hitzig_, would understand by the people, צמים in ver. 2, the tribes of Israel. We shall show, when commenting on Zech. xi. 10, that this is altogether inadmissible. But in the present case especially, this interpretation must be rejected; partly on account of the reference to the words of the elder Micah, and partly on account of the parallel terms, "O earth and the fulness thereof," which, according to the constant _usus loquendi_, lead us far beyond the narrow limits of Palestine. On the other hand, they who by the צמים rightly understand the nations of the whole earth, are mistaken in this, that they consider them as mere witnesses, whom the Lord calls [Pg 425] up against His unthankful people, instead of considering them as the very same against whom the Lord bears witness; and that they come into consideration from this point of view, clearly appears from the words, "The Lord be witness against you." As regards צד with ב following, compare, _e.g._, Mal. iii. 5.--Another mistake is committed in the definition of the way and manner of the divine witness. The greater number of interpreters suppose it to be the subsequent admonitory, reproving, and threatening discourse of the prophet. Thus, _e.g._, _Michaelis_, who explains: "Do not despise and lightly esteem such a witness, who by me earnestly and publicly testifies to you His will." But in opposition to this view, it appears from ver. 3, that here, as well as in Mal. iii. 5, "And I will come near to you in judgment, and I am a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against those that swear to a lie," the witness is a real one,--that it consists in the actual attestation of the guilt by the punishment, viz., by the divine judgment described in vers. 3, 4. The words, "The Lord cometh forth out of His place, and cometh down," there correspond to, "From His holy temple,"--from which it is evident, at the same time, that by the temple, the heavenly temple must be understood.

We have thus, in vers. 2-4, before us the description of a sublime theophany, not for a partial judgment upon Judah, but for a judgment upon the whole world, the people of which are called upon to gather around their judge--whom the prophet beholds as already approaching, descending from His glorious habitation in heaven, accompanied by the insignia of His power, the precursors of the judgment--and silently to wait for His judicial and penal sentence.[1]

But how is it to be explained that with the words, "For the transgression of Jacob is all this," etc., there is a sudden transition to the judgments upon Israel, yea, that the prophet [Pg 426] goes on as if Israel alone had been spoken of? Only from the relation in which these two judgments stand to one another. For they are perfectly one in substance. They are separated only by space, time, and unessential circumstances; so that we may say that the general judgment appears in every partial judgment upon Israel. In order to give expression to the thought, that it is the _judge of the world_ who is to judge Israel, the prophets not unfrequently represent the Lord appearing to judge the whole world; and in Israel, the _Microcosmos_, it was indeed judged. We have a perfectly analogous case, _e.g._, in Is. chap. ii.-iv. It is only by means of a very forced explanation, that it can be denied that after the prophet has, by a few bold touches, from ii. 6-9, described the moral debasement of the Covenant-people, and marked out pride as its last source, the last judgment upon the whole earth forms the subject of discourse. In that judgment there will be a most clear revelation of the vanity of all which is created--a vanity which, in the present course of the world, is so frequently concealed--and that the Lord alone is exalted, and that those who now shut their eyes will then be compelled to acknowledge these truths. That Isaiah has this general judgment in view, is too clearly proved by the sublimity of the whole description, by the express mention of the whole earth, _e.g._, ii. 19, and by not limiting, in the individualized description in ver. 12 sqq., the high and lofty which is to be brought low to Judah alone, but by extending it to the whole world. But in iii. 1 ff. the prophet suddenly passes over to the typical, penal judgment upon Judah; and the כי, at the commencement, shows that he does not consider this subject as one altogether new, but as being substantially identical with the preceding subject. This reminds us forcibly of the mode in which, in the prophecies of our Lord, the references to the destruction of Jerusalem, and to the last judgment, are connected with one another. In the "burden of Babylon" in chap. xiii. likewise, the judgment of the Lord upon the whole earth is first described. Nor is it only on the territory of prophecy that this close connection of the general judgment with the inferior judgments upon the Covenant-people appears. In Ps. lxxxii. 8, _e.g._, after the unrighteousness prevailing among the Covenant-people has been described, the Lord is called upon to come to judge, not them [Pg 427] alone, but the whole earth; compare my Commentary on Ps. vii. 8, lvi. 8, lix. 6.

The prophet thus passes over, in ver. 5, from the general manifestation of divine justice to its special manifestation among the Covenant-people, and mentions here, as the most prominent points upon which it will be inflicted, Samaria and Jerusalem, the two capitals, from which the apostasy from the Lord spread over the rest of the country. He mentions Samaria first, and then, in vers. 6, 7, he describes its destruction which was brought about by the Assyrians, before he makes mention of that of Jerusalem, because the apostasy took place first in Samaria, and hence the punishment also was hastened on. The latter circumstance, which is merely a consequence of the former, is in an one-sided manner made prominent by the greater number of interpreters, who therein follow the example of _Jerome_. It was at the same time, however, probably the intention of the prophet to be done with Samaria, in order that he might be at liberty to take up exclusively the case of Judah and Jerusalem--the main objects of his prophetic ministry.

He makes the transition to this in ver. 8, by means of the words: "_On that account I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the jackals, and a mourning like the ostriches._" "_On that account_"--_i.e._, on account of the judgment upon Judah, to be announced in the subsequent verses. It is commonly supposed that the prophet here speaks in his own person; thus, _e.g._, _Rosenmüller_: "The prophet mourns in a bitter lamentation for the number and magnitude of the calamities impending over the Israelitish people." But the correct view rather is, that the prophet, when, in his inward vision, he sees the divine judgments not remaining and stopping at Samaria, but poured out like a desolating torrent over Judah and Jerusalem, suddenly sinks his own consciousness in that of his suffering people. We have thus here before us an imperfect symbolical action, similar to that more finished one which occurs in Is. xx. 3, 4, and which can be explained only by a deeper insight into the nature of prophecy, according to which the dramatic character is inseparable from it. The transition from the mere description of what is present in the inward vision only, to the prophet's own action, is, according to this view, very easy. If we confine ourselves to the passage before us, the following [Pg 428] arguments are in favour of our view. 1. The predicates שילל and ערום cannot be explained upon the supposition that the prophet describes only his own painful feelings on account of the condition of his people. Even if ערום stood alone, the explanation by "naked," in the sense of "deprived of the usual and decent dress, and, on the contrary, clothed in dirt and rags," would be destitute of all proof and authority. No instance whatsoever is found of the outward habit of a mourner being designated as nakedness. But it is still more arbitrary thus to deal with שילל, whether it be explained by "deprived of his mental faculties on account of the unbounded grief of his soul,"--as is done by several Jewish expositors (who, in the explanation of this passage, would have done much better, had they followed the Chaldee, in whom the correct view is found; only that he, giving up the figurative representation, substitutes the third person for the first, paraphrasing it thus: "On that account they shall wail and howl, they shall go stripped and naked," etc.),--or by "badly clothed," as is done by the greater number of Christian expositors. The signification "robbed," "plundered," is the only established one; compare שולל in Job xii. 17-19. The parallel passages, in which nakedness appears as the characteristic feature of the captives taken in war, show how little we are entitled to depart from the most obvious signification, in these two words. Thus we find immediately afterwards, in ver. 11: "Pass ye away, ye inhabitants of Saphir, having your shame naked;" on which _Michaelis_ remarks: "With naked bodies, as is the case with those who are led into captivity after having been stripped of their clothes." Thus Is. xx. 3, 4: "And the Lord said. Like as My servant Isaiah walketh _naked_ and _barefoot_ three years, for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and Ethiopia, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the prisoners of Egypt, and the prisoners of Ethiopia, young men and old men, _naked_ and _barefoot_;" compare Is. xlvii. 3.--2. The term התפלשתי, in ver. 10, is in favour of the supposition, that the prophet here appears as the representative of the future condition of his people. The _Imperat. fem. _התפלשי of the marginal reading is evidently, as is commonly the case, only the result of the embarrassment of the Mazorets. The reading of the text can be pointed as the first person of the Preterite only; for the view of _Rosenmüller_, who takes it as the [Pg 429] second person of the Preterite, which here is to have an optative signification, is, grammatically, inadmissible. _Rückert's_ explanation, "In the house of _dust_ (_zu Staubheim_), I have strewed dust upon me," is quite correct. But if _here_ we must suppose that the prophet suddenly passes over from the address to his unfortunate people, to himself as their representative, why should not this supposition be the natural one in ver. 8 also?

The correctness of the view which we have given is further strengthened, if we compare the similar lamentations of the prophets in other passages, in all of which the same results will be found. In Jer. xlviii. 31, _e.g._, "Therefore will I howl over Moab, and cry out over all Moab, over the men of Kir-heres shall _he_ groan," the "he" in the last clause sufficiently shows how the "I" in the two preceding clauses, is to be understood,--especially if Is. xvi. 7, "Therefore Moab howleth over Moab," be compared. But if this interpretation be correct in Jeremiah, it must certainly be correct in Is. xv. 5 also: "My heart crieth out over Moab,"--a passage which Jeremiah had in view; and this so much the more, that in Is. xvi. 9-11--where a similar lamentation for Moab occurs: "Therefore do I bewail as for Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I water thee with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh.... Therefore my bowels sound like a harp for Moab, mine inward parts for Kirhareseth"--it is quite unsuitable to think of a lamentation of the prophet, which is expressive of his own grief. This was seen by the Chaldee, who renders "_my_ bowels" by "bowels of the Moabites,"--a view the correctness of which has been strikingly demonstrated by _Vitringa_: "Although," he says, "the emotion of compassion be by no means unsuitable in the prophet, yet no one will be readily convinced that the prophet was so much concerned for the vines of Sibmah and Jazer, and for the crops of the summer-fruits of a nation hostile and opposed to the people of God, that it should have been for him a cause for lamentation and wailing." In Is. xxi., in the prophecy against Babylon, and in the lamentation in vers. 3, 4, "Therefore are my loins filled with pain, pangs take hold upon me as the pangs of a woman that travaileth, etc., the night of my pleasure has been turned into terror," it is clearly shown in what sense such lamentations are to be understood. By "the night of pleasure," we can, especially by a comparison of Jeremiah, understand only the night of the capture of Babylon, [Pg 430] in which the whole city was given up to drunkenness and riot. But it is impossible that the prophet should say that this night--the precursor of the long-desired day for Israel--had been turned for him into terror. Either the whole lamentation is without any meaning, or the prophet speaks in the name of Babylon, and that, not of the Babylon of the present, but of the Babylon of the future. This must be granted, even by those who assert that this portion was composed at a later period; so that, even from this quarter, the soundness of our view cannot be assailed.

In ver. 9, the prophet returns to quiet description, from the symbolical action to which he had been carried away by his emotions. The subject of this description he states in the words: "_It cometh unto Judah; it cometh unto the gate of my people, unto Jerusalem._" By individualizing, he endeavours to give a lively view of the thought, and to impress it. He begins with an allusion to the lamentation of David over Saul and Jonathan in 2 Sam. i. 17 ff., which is so much the more significant, that in this impending catastrophe, Israel also was to lose his king (compare iv. 9), and that in it David was to experience the fate of Saul. He then indicates the stations by which the hostile army advances towards Jerusalem, and describes how, from thence, it spreads over the whole country, even to its southern boundary, and carries away the inhabitants into exile. But, in doing so, he always chooses places, whose names might, in some way, be brought into connection with what they were now suffering; so that the whole passage forms a chain of _paronomasias_. These, however, are not by any means idle plays. They have, throughout, a practical design. The threatening is thereby to be, as it were, localized. The thought of a divine judgment could not but be called forth in every one who should think of one of the places mentioned. Jerusalem is first spoken of in ver. 9 as the centre of the life of Judah: "The gate of my people," etc., being tantamount to "_the_ city or metropolis of it." Then, it appears a second time in ver. 12, in the middle between five Judean places preceding and five following it,--the number ten, which is the symbolical signification of completeness, indicating that the judgment is to be altogether comprehensive. The five places mentioned after Jerusalem are all of them situated to the south of it. That the [Pg 431] five places, the mention of which precedes that of Jerusalem, are all to be sought to the north of it, and that, hence, the judgment advances from the north in geographical order, as is the case in Is. x. 28 ff. also, is evident from the fact that Beth-Leaphrah, which is identical with Ophrah, is situated in the territory of Benjamin, and that Beth-Haezel, which is identical with Azal in Zech. xiv. 5, was situated in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. Hence, we cannot suppose that Zaanan here is identical with Zenan, which is situated in the south of Jerusalem, Josh. xv. 37, nor Saphir with Samir.

The question still arises, In what event did the threatening of punishment, contained in chap. i., find its fulfilment? _Theodoret_, _Cyril_, _Tarnovius_, _Marckius_, _Jahn_, and others, refer it to the Assyrian invasion. _Jerome_ referred it to the Babylonish captivity: "The same sin," he says, "yea, the same punishment of sin which shall overturn Samaria, is to extend to Judah, yea, even unto the gates of my city of Jerusalem. For, as Samaria was overturned by the Assyrians, so Judah and Jerusalem shall be overturned by the Chaldeans." This opinion was adopted by _Michaelis_ and others.

At first sight, it would appear as if the circumstance, that the judgment upon Judah is brought into immediate connection with that upon Israel, favoured the first view. But this argument loses its weight when we remark, that the events appear to the prophet in inward vision, and, therefore, quite irrespective of their relation in time; that the continuity of the punitive judgment upon Israel and Judah only, points out distinctly the truth, that both proceed from the same cause, viz., the relation of divine justice to the sin of the Covenant-people. It is this truth alone which forms the essence and soul of the prophetic threatenings; and with reference to that, the difference in point of time, which is merely accidental, is altogether kept out of view. Another argument in favour of the Assyrian invasion might be derived from the expression, "_to_ Jerusalem," in ver. 9, inasmuch as the Chaldean invasion visited Jerusalem itself. But, because the calamity was not by any means to stop at Judah, but to overflow even it, it is shown by the preceding expression, "unto Judah," that עַד (compare on this word, _Dissertations on the Genuineness of Daniel_, p. 55 seq.) must, in both cases, be explained from a tacit antithesis with the expectation, [Pg 432] that the judgment would either stop at the boundary of Judah, or, although this should not be the case, would at least spare the metropolis. The prophet contents himself with representing that this opinion was erroneous. Although this passage itself asserts nothing upon the point as to whether Jerusalem itself is to be thought of as the object of the divine punishment, or whether it will be spared, the following reasons show that the former will be the case. Even ver. 5 does not admit of our expecting anything else. Jerusalem is there marked out as the chief seat and source of corruption in the kingdom of Judah, just as is Samaria in the kingdom of Israel. The declaration which is there made forms the foundation of the subsequent threatening. How is it possible, then, that, while in the kingdom of Israel it is concentrated upon Samaria, in the kingdom of Judah the seducer should be altogether passed over, and punishment announced to the seduced only? That such is not the intention of the prophet, is clearly seen from ver. 12: "_For evil cometh down from the Lord upon the gate of Jerusalem._" The כי alone is sufficient to prevent our limiting the sense of these words, so that they mean only that evil will come no farther than to the gate of Jerusalem, and will stop there. The _Particula causalis_ proves that they are the ground of the declaration in ver. 11, and that the mourning will not cease at Beth-Haezel, "the house of stopping;" compare the remarks on Zech. xiv. 5. But, altogether apart from this connection, the words themselves furnish a proof. They contain a verbal reference to the description of the judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrha, Gen. xix. 24. Jerusalem is marked out by them as a second Sodom (compare Is. i. 10), upon which the divine judgments would discharge themselves. As a second mark of this extension to Jerusalem, the carrying away of the people into captivity is added (compare vers. 11, 15, 16), which, in the promise in chap. ii. 12, 13, is supposed to have taken place. It is not Israel alone, but the whole Covenant-people, who are in a state of dispersion, and are gathered from it by the Lord.

Now, both of these marks are not applicable to the Assyrian invasion; and if once we suppose the divine illumination of the prophet, it cannot be regarded as the real object of his threatenings. This, too, is equally inadmissible, if we consider the matter from a merely human point of view. The predictions [Pg 433] of the prophets with regard to Assyria are, from the very outset, rather encouraging. It is true that they are to be, in the hand of the Lord, a rod of chastisement for His people, but these are never to be altogether given up to them for destruction. By an immediate divine interference, their plan of capturing Jerusalem is frustrated. Thus the matter is constantly represented in Isaiah; thus also in Hosea i. 7. We can, moreover, adduce proofs from Micah himself, that his spiritual eye was not pre-eminently, or exclusively, directed to the Assyrians. In the prophecy from chap. iii. to v., where he describes the judgment upon Judah in a manner altogether similar to that in which he mentions it here, he passes over the Assyrians altogether in silence. Babylon is, in iv. 10, mentioned as the place to which Judah is to be led into captivity.

Yet here, as well as everywhere else in the threatenings and promises of the prophets, we must beware, lest, in referring them to some particular historical event, we lose sight of the animating idea. If this, on the other hand, be rightly understood, it will be seen that a particular historical event may indeed be pre-eminently referred to, but that it can never exhaust the prophecy. Although, therefore, the main reference here be to the destruction by the Chaldeans, we must not on that account exclude anything in which the same law of retaliation was manifested, either before, as in the invasion of the Syrians and Assyrians; or afterwards, as in the destruction by the Romans. The prophet himself points, in iv. 11-14 (iv. 11-v. 1), to two other phases of the divine judgment which are to follow upon that by the Chaldeans.

After the prophet has thus hitherto described the impending divine judgment in great general outlines, he passes on, in chap. ii., to chastise particular vices, which, however, must always be at the same time, yea, prominently, considered as indications of the wholly depraved condition of the nation, and of the punishments to follow upon it. One feature upon which he here chiefly dwells, and which must, therefore, have been a peculiarly prominent manifestation of the sinful corruption, consists in the acts of injustice and oppression committed by the great, the description of which presents striking resemblances to that in Is. v. 8 ff. The prophet interrupts this description only in order [Pg 434] to rebuke the false prophets, who reproved him for the severity of his discourses, and asserted that they were unworthy of the merciful God. Such severity, answered the prophet, was true mildness, because it alone could be the means of warding off the approaching punitive judgment; that his God did not punish from want of forbearance--from want of mercy; but that the fault was altogether that of the transgressors, who drew down upon themselves, by force. His judgments.[2]

The prophecy closes with the promise in vers. 12, 13. It is introduced quite abruptly, in order to place it in more striking contrast with the threatening; just as, in iv. 1, there is a similar abrupt and unconnected contrast between the promise and the threatening.[3] It is only brief; far more so than in the subsequent discourses, and far less detailed than it is in them. The prophet desires first of all to terrify sinners from their security; and for this reason, he causes only a very feeble glimmering of hope to fall upon the dark future.

Ver. 12. "_I will assemble, surely I will assemble, O Jacob, thee wholly: I will gather the remnant of Israel. I will bring_ [Pg 435] _them together as the sheep of Bozrah; as a flock on their pasture, they shall make a noise by reason of men._ Ver. 13. _The breaker goeth up before them; they break through, pass through the gate and go out, and their King marches before them, and the Lord is on the head of them._"

The remark, that almost all the features of this description are borrowed from the deliverance out of Egypt, will throw much light upon the whole description. In the midst of oppression and misery, Israel, while there, increased by means of the blessing of the Lord, hidden under the cross, to greater and greater numbers; compare Exod. i. 12. When the time of deliverance had arrived, the Lord, who had for a long time concealed Himself, manifested Himself again as their God. First, the people were gathered together, and then, the Lord went before them,--in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night: Exod. xiii. 21. He led them out of Egypt, the house of bondage: Exod. xx. 2. So it is here also. Ver. 12 describes the increase and gathering, and ver. 13 the deliverance. In both passages, Israel's misery is represented under the figure of an abode in the house of bondage, or in prison, the gates of which the Lord opens--the walls of which He breaks down. In this allusion to, and connection with, the former deliverance, Micah agrees with his contemporaries, Hosea and Isaiah. The deeper reason of this lies in the typical import of the former deliverance, which forms a prophecy by deeds of all future deliverances, and contains within itself completely their germ and pledge; compare Hosea ii. 1, 2 (i. 10, 11); Is. xi. 11 ff.: "And the Lord shall stretch forth His hand a _second time_ to redeem the remnant of His people.... And He sets up an ensign for the nations, and gathers together the dispersed of Israel, and assembles the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth.... And the Lord smites with a curse the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and shakes His hand over the river, in the violence of His wind, and smites it to seven rivers, so that one may wade through in shoes. And there shall be a highway to the remnant of His people, ... like as it was to Israel in the day when he came up out of the land of Egypt." This reference to the typical deliverance clearly shows, that in the description we have carefully to separate between the thought and the language in which it is clothed.

[Pg 436]

Ver. 12. The _Infin. absol._, which in both the clauses precedes the _tempus finitum_, expresses the emphasis which is to be placed on the _gathering_, as opposed to the carrying away, and the scattering formerly announced; for the latter, according to the view of man, and apart from God's mercy and omnipotence, did not seem to admit of any favourable turn. By "Jacob" and "Israel," several interpreters understand Judah alone; others, the ten tribes alone; others, both together. The last view is alone the correct one. This appears from i. 5, where, by Jacob and Israel, the whole nation is designated. The promise in the passage before us stands closely related to the threatening uttered there. All Israel shall be given up to destruction on account of their sins; all Israel shall be saved by the grace of God. This assumption is confirmed by a comparison of the parallel passages in Hosea and Isaiah, where the whole is designated by the two parts, Judah and Israel. Micah does not notice this division, because that visible separation, which even in the present was overbalanced by an invisible unity, shall disappear altogether in that future, when there shall be only one flock, as there is only one Shepherd. The expression, "remnant of Israel," in the second clause, which corresponds to, "O Jacob, thee wholly," in the first, indicates, that the fulfilment of the promise, so far from doing away with the threatening, rather rests on its preceding realization. The Congregation of God, purified by the divine judgments, shall be _wholly_ gathered. Divine mercy has in itself no limits; and those which in the present are assigned to it by the objects of mercy, shall then be removed.--The words, "I will bring them together," etc., indicate equally the faithfulness of the great Shepherd, who gathers His dispersed flock from all parts of the world, and the unexpected and wonderful increase of the flock; compare Jer. xxiii. 3: "And I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and lead them back to their pasture-ground, and they are fruitful and increase;" and xxxi. 10: "He that scattereth Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd does his flock."--Bozrah we consider to be the name of a capital of the Idumeans in Auranitis, four days' journey from Damascus. The great wealth of this town in flocks appears from Is. xxxiv. 6 (although a slaughter of men is spoken of in that passage, yet evidently the wealth of Bozrah in natural [Pg 437] flocks is there supposed), and can with perfect ease be accounted for from its situation. For, in its neighbourhood, there begins the immeasurable plain of Arabia, which, on one side, continues without interruption as far as _Dshof_, into the heart of Arabia, while, towards the North, it extends to Bagdad, under the name of _El Hamad_. Its length and breadth are calculated to amount to eight days' journey. It contains many shrubs and blooming plants; compare _Burkhardt_ and _Ritter_.[4] Several interpreters consider בצרה to be an appellative, and assign to it the signification "sheepfold," "cote." But there is no reason whatsoever in favour of such a meaning of Bozrah, while there is this argument against it, that the probable signification of בצרה as the name of a town is "_locus munitus_" = מִבְצָר or בִּצָּרוֹן. It can hardly be supposed that the word should at the same time have had the significations of "fortress" and "fold." It is, moreover, more in harmony with the prophetical character to particularize, than to use a general term. As is shown, however, by the last member (with which, according to the accents, the words, "As [Pg 438] a flock on their pasture," must be connected), the point of comparison is not the assembling and gathering, but the multitude, the crowd,--"As the sheep of Bozrah" being thus tantamount to, "So that in multitude they are like the sheep of Bozrah." הַדָּבְרוֹ, from דֹּבֶר, is, contrary to the general rule, doubly qualified, both by the article and by the suffix. This has been accounted for on the ground that the little suffix had gradually lost its power. But it is perhaps more natural to suppose that the article sometimes lost its power, and coalesced with the noun. The frequent use of the _Status emphaticus_ in undefined nouns, in the Syriac language (compare _Hofmann_, _Gram. Syr._, p. 290), presents an analogy in favour of this opinion.--The last words graphically describe the noise produced by a numerous, closely compacted flock. The plur. of the Fem. refers to the sheep.--מן denotes the _causa efficiens_. They make a noise; and this noise proceeds from the numerous assembled people. The same connection of figure and thing occurs in Ezek. xxxiv. 31: "And ye (ואתן) are My flock, the flock of My pasture are ye men;" compare Ezek. xxxvi. 38.

Ver. 13. The whole verse must be explained by the figure of a prison, which lies at the foundation. The people of God are shut up in it, but are now delivered by God's powerful hand. By the "breaker," many interpreters understand the Lord Himself. But if we consider, that in a double clause, at the end of the verse, the Lord is mentioned as the leader of the expedition if we look to the type of the deliverance from Egypt, where Moses, as the breaker, marches in front of Israel; and if, further, we look to the parallel passage in Hosea, where, with an evident allusion to that type, the children of Israel and of Judah appoint themselves one head; we shall rather be disposed to understand by the "breaker" the _dux et antesignanus_ raised up by God. With the raising up and equipping of such a leader every divine deliverance commences; and that which, in the inferior deliverance, the typical leaders, Moses and Zerubbabel, were, Christ was in the highest and last deliverance. To Him the "breaker" has been referred by several Jewish interpreters (compare _Schöttgen_, _Horæ_ ii. p. 212); and if we compare chap. v., where that which is here indicated by general outlines only is further expanded and detailed, we shall have to urge against this interpretation this objection only, viz., that it excludes the [Pg 439] typical breakers,--that, in the place of the _ideal_ person of the breaker, which presents itself to the internal vision of the prophet, it puts the individual in whom this idea is most fully realized.--The words ויעברו שער are, by several interpreters, referred to the forcing and entering of hostile gates. Thus _Michaelis_, whom _Rosenmüller_ follows: "No gate shall be so fortified as to prevent them from forcing it." But this interpretation destroys the whole figure, and violates the type of the deliverance from Egypt which lies at the foundation. For the gate through which they break is certainly the gate of the prison.--The three verbs--"They break through, they pass through, they go out"--graphically describe their progress, which is not to be stopped by any human power.--The last words open up the view to the highest leader of the expedition; compare besides, Exod. xiii. 21; Is. lii. 12: "For ye shall not go out in trembling, nor shall ye go out by flight. For the Lord goeth before you, and the God of Israel closeth your rear;" Is. xl. 11; Ps. lxxx. 3. In the exodus from Egypt, a visible symbol of the presence of God marched before the host, besides Moses, the breaker. On the return from Babylon, the Angel of the Lord was visible to the eye of faith only, as formerly when Abraham's servant journeyed to Mesopotamia, Gen. xxiv. 7. At the last and highest deliverance, the breaker was at once the King and God of the people.

As this prophecy has no limitation at all in itself, we are fully entitled to refer it to the whole sum of the deliverances and salvation which are destined for the Covenant-people; and to seek for its fulfilment in every event, either past or future, in the same degree as the fundamental idea--God's mercy upon His people--is manifested in it. Every limitation to any particular event is evidently inadmissible; but, most of all, a limitation to the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity, which, especially with regard to Israel, can be considered as only a faint prelude of the fulfilment. They, however, have come nearest to the truth who assume an exclusive reference to Christ,--provided they acknowledge, that the conversion of the first fruits of Israel, at the time when Christ appeared in His humiliation, is not the end of His dealings with this people.

Footnote 1: The reference to the general judgment would indeed disappear, if we suppose בכם in ver. 2 to be addressed to _Israel_. It seems, indeed, to be in favour of this supposition, that, in 1 Kings