iii. 12, according to which, Zion, the seat of the Davidic dominion, is

to be ploughed as a field. This announcement, with the express mention of the king, returns in ver. 9, and, contrasted with It, the announcement of the restoration of the Davidic dominion in v. 1 (2).

The last words of the verse are, by many expositors (_Calvin_, _Michaelis_, and _Rosenmüller_), translated thus: "And the kingdom, I say, shall belong to the daughter of Jerusalem;" so that Jerusalem would here be, not the _object_, but the _subject_ of dominion. The sense, according to this explanation, is best brought out by _Calvin_: "The prophet here distinctly mentions the daughter of Jerusalem, because the kingdom of Israel had obscured the glory of the true kingdom. The prophet hence testifies, that God was not unmindful of His promise, and would so arrange it that Jerusalem should recover its lost dignity, and the whole people be gathered unto one body." But this explanation must be rejected on philological grounds. ממלכת is _status constr._; the ל serves, therefore, only as a circumlocution of the genitive; and it is not admissible to supply the Verb Substant. To this, moreover, there must be added the reference [Pg 464] to what precedes. The dominion over the daughter of Jerusalem is to come to the tower which commands the daughter of Zion, not, by any means, to the daughter of Zion herself. The prophet makes Jerusalem to represent the kingdom of God; and, in so doing, he probably has regard to the relation of Zion and of the king's castle to the town, by which was symbolized the relation which the Davidic dynasty occupied to the kingdom of God.

* * * * *

CHAP. IV. 9-14.

At the close of the last chapter, the prophet had announced severe judgments. In the verses immediately preceding, he had given glorious promises. In that which follows, he now combines these two elements; and it is only in chap. v. that the promise again appears, purely, and by itself. The judgments are thus introduced into the middle of the proclamation of salvation, in order that the faithful might thus be preserved from forming any vain hopes, which, if not confirmed by the result, are apt to be exchanged for much deeper despondency. But this same circumstance contained within it an indirect consolation; for it is certain that He who causes future events to be foretold, overrules them also; and "He who sends them, can also turn them." For the greatest cause of our despondency under the cross is certainly the doubt which we entertain as to whether it really comes from God. The prophet, however, affords _direct_ consolation also. Whensoever he speaks of any calamity, he immediately subjoins the announcement of divine deliverance. The intimation of the sufferings, in this section, differs essentially from the former ones. It is not, like these, in a threatening, but in an affectionate character; indeed, in vers. 11-13, the consolation preponderates even outwardly. From this, it is sufficiently evident, that it must have a different destination. Whilst the threatening was intended chiefly for the ungodly, it has, just as much as the preceding pure promise, the truly godly members of the Theocracy also in view, and aims at strengthening them in the manifold temptations into which they must fall, in consequence of the sufferings which [Pg 465] always come upon them also at the same time, on account of their outward, and therefore also their inward, connection with the wicked.

A glance at the great catastrophes, which were to precede the appearance of Christ, was here just in its proper place. In the preceding context, the prophet had mentioned the restoration of the former dominion. Here, he describes how the dominion is lost ("There is no king in thee," ver. 9), and what shall happen during the period of this loss. He then further details, in v. 1 (2) sq., in what manner the dominion is to be restored.

It is a threefold suffering, joined with deliverance from it, which presents itself to the prophet in his inward vision, and which he describes accordingly. This is evident from the three-fold עתה, compare vers. 9, 11, 14, which, each time, indicates when a new scene presents itself to the prophet. This, further, appears from the different character which each one bears. In the case of the announcement in vers. 9 and 10, viz., the carrying away to Babylon, it is alone the Lord's hand which delivers His people. In the calamity described in vers. 11-13, He grants to Israel courage in war, and victory to his _arms_. The plans of the enemies to destroy Zion are frustrated, while in the former calamity they succeeded. In ver. 14, Zion is anew represented as sorely pressed by enemies, and captured by them. According to v. 1, which is closely connected with what precedes, the deliverance is accomplished by the Messiah, in whom the promise of the restoration of the dominion of the house of David over the daughter of Zion is fulfilled.

* * * * *

Ver. 9. "_Now why dost thou raise a cry? Is there no king in thee, or is thy councillor gone? For pangs have seized thee as a woman in travail._"

Zion, mourning at the time of the carrying away into captivity, stands before the prophet's spirit, and is addressed by him. This ought never to have been overlooked. But since, nevertheless, it has been so, we quote from the multitude of analogous instances, at least one which is altogether incontrovertible, and where the writer likewise transfers himself into the time of the [Pg 466] captivity, viz., the passage in Hos. xiii. 9-11, which, in other respects also, shows a great resemblance to the one under consideration: "This has destroyed thee, O Israel, that thou wast against Me, against thine help. Where is now thy king? Let him deliver thee in all thy cities. And where are thy judges? Surely thou didst say: Give me kings and princes. And I gave thee a king in Mine anger, and took him away in My wrath." It is quite impossible to entertain, even for a moment, the thought that, in this passage, Hosea speaks of the real past and present, inasmuch as he prophesied before the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes. Micah opens his representation just with the moment that Jerusalem is captured by the enemies; and he announces to her that her sufferings are not yet at an end,--that she must wander into exile. The progress of the thought in the verse under consideration is this:--The prophet sees Zion dissolved in grief and lamentation. Full of sympathy, he asks of her the cause of this mourning,--whether, it may be, it was caused by the loss of her king; and he himself answers this question in the affirmative, because such a cause could alone account for such a grief. Now, in order fully to realize the mourning of Zion over her king, we must bear in mind that the visible head was a representative of the invisible one,--the mediator of His mercies: that hence, his removal was a token of divine anger, and an extinction of every hope of salvation. Every other king is, indeed, likewise an anointed of the Lord; but the king of Israel was so in a totally different sense. How deeply, from this point of view, the loss of the king was felt, at the time when that which is here merely the _ideal_ present became the _real_ present, is seen from Lam. iv. 20: "The breath of our life, the anointed of the Lord, is taken a prisoner in their pits, he of whom we said. Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen." In Zech. iv. the civil magistrates, along with the ecclesiastical authorities, appear as the greatest gift of God's grace; henceforth these two shall again be the medium through which the Lord communicates His gracious gifts to the Congregation, just as they had been before the captivity. It must further be borne in mind, that all the promises for the future were bound up with the regal institution. With its extinction, therefore, everything seemed to be lost; every prospect of a better future seemed to have disappeared. The reference in [Pg 467] Jer. viii. 19, where the king is the Lord Himself, to the passage before us, is very beautiful, and full of deep meaning. It points out the truth, that the loss of the earthly king is a consequence of their having forced the heavenly King to withdraw from the midst of them.--The "councillor" is preeminently the king himself; compare Is. ix. 5, where Christ, in whom the Davidic dynasty is to attain to the full height of its destination, appears as the councillor in the highest sense. Other councillors, it is true, are not thereby excluded; they form, however, only a group around the king as their centre; compare Is. iii. 3.

Ver. 10. "_Travail and break forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman who bringeth forth; for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou dwellest in the field, and comest till to Babylon: there shalt thou be delivered, there the Lord shall redeem thee out of the hand of thine enemies._"

The consolation begins with the words שם תנצלי only; the whole remaining part of the verse is of a mournful character. In the words, "Travail and break forth," one aspect only of the figure of the parturient woman is brought into view, viz., the pain; but not the joy following upon the pain; compare remarks on v. 2. The Imperative is thus not, as some interpreters erroneously assume, an _Imper. consolationis_, but an intimation that the pain would reach its height, put into the form of an exhortation to submit to it. Much more satisfactorily than by many of the later expositors, the sense of this verse has been thus fixed by _Calvin_: "The sum and substance is, that although God would, according to His promise, take care of the people, the faithful should have no reason from this to indulge in joy, as if they were to be exempt from all troubles; on the contrary, the prophet exhorts them that they should rather prepare themselves to undergo all kinds of misery, so that, when driven out of their own land, they should not only, like straying people, wander about in the fields, but should be driven to Babylon as into a grave. But while he thus prepares the faithful to bear the cross, he subjoins the hope of salvation, viz., that God would deliver them, and redeem them from thence out of the hands of their enemies."--The חולי resumes the preceding, where the prophet had, at the point of time where he had taken his stand, viz., the capture of the city, represented that calamity of this [Pg 468] people, under the image of the pains of child-bearing. It thus becomes equivalent to--Thou shalt be obliged to bear, not only the pains which precede the birth, but also the highest of all pains, viz., the pains of the birth itself. What the latter are in relation to the former, that, in the view of the prophet, is the carrying away out of the Holy Land,--the expulsion from the face of God (an expulsion similar to that of Cain when he was obliged to flee from Eden), when compared to the mere capture. Hence the close connexion with what follows, by means of כי. The word וגחי (the _o_ is, for the sake of euphony, employed instead of _u_; just as in ver. 13 דושי) is, by most interpreters, translated, "And lead out." But we must object to this, on the ground that גוח has always an intransitive signification only, viz., "to break forth;" and this signification is here quite suitable, more so even than the transitive; for it marks more emphatically the _pain_ during the birth, which is here the only point: Jer. iv. 31. It is, as it were, a dissolution of the whole nature, a violent breaking of it into pieces. The "now," just as the "now" at the commencement of the description of the scene, belongs to the _ideal_ standing-point, where the carrying away is just at hand; for this is the period of the future into which the prophet has been carried. The "dwelling in the field" is the intervening station between the "going forth" and "the coming to Babylon." In the open air, exposed to all the inclemencies of the weather (compare the expression, "Under the dew of heaven," in Dan. iv. 22, 30 [25, 33]), the prisoners were collected for the purpose of being afterwards carried away. The word עד, as well as the twofold שם, are emphatic. Irresistibly, the divine _judgment_ advances to its last goal; but as irresistibly does divine _mercy_ wrest from the enemies the prey which seemed to have been given to them even for ever.--The futility of all attempts to explain away the distinct prophecy of the Babylonish captivity in this passage has been shown in the _Dissertations on the Genuineness of Daniel_, p. 151 sqq. How even _Caspari_ could join in these attempts, it is difficult to explain. Even he is of opinion that the prophet had expected the catastrophe to come from Asshur. Chap. v. 4, 5 (5, 6) cannot be decisive _for_ the reference to Asshur. For the circumstance that Asshur appears there as the type of the future enemies of the kingdom of God, implies, indeed, that he occupied the first place among the enemies [Pg 469] at the time of the prophet; but it by no means Implies that he must occupy a place in the outline of the future catastrophes of the people of God. Such a catastrophe was not to proceed from him, but rather from an enemy who had not yet at that time appeared on the scene, although his power was already germinating, as is shown by Is. xxxix. and other passages. The oppression of Judah by Asshur was indeed a heavy one; but it was transitory, and did not by any means constitute an era. From the relation in which vers. 9-14 (iv. 9-v. 1) stands to ver. 8, it sufficiently appears that the oppression by the Chaldeans must here form the commencement, although the Assyrian oppression must be added to it as an introduction and a prelude. According to this relation, the point at issue here can be only the cessation of the dominion of the Davidic family. From. Jer. xxvi. 18, 19, _Caspari_ endeavours to prove that Micah had in view, in the first instance, the Assyrians only. But that passage of Jeremiah refers to Mic. iii. 12, where the prophecy has a general character, and where the instruments of the divine judgment are not expressly mentioned, as is the case here. On the other hand, the following arguments are opposed to the reference to the Assyrians. 1. The prophet does not mention Asshur, but Babylon. Nothing is, certainly, proved by the circumstance that, at the time of the prophet, Babylon was still under the Assyrian dominion; for Babylon comes here into consideration, not so much as a place, but as a hostile power. The place, as such, was of no consequence, and the mention of it was not required by the character of the prophecy. 2. If the announcement referred to Asshur, the result would contradict the prophecy. _Caspari_ says, that by the repentance and conversion of the people, the fulfilment had been averted. But with such a view of prophecy, the position of the prophetic institution becomes untenable, and historically incomprehensible. The Mosaic regulation, that whosoever prophesied anything that did not take place should be punished with death, would in that case lose all practical significance; for there would always have been at hand the excuse, that by the repentance the execution of that sentence of punishment had been repealed. From the nature of the case, and from that Mosaic regulation, it follows that special announcements expressed absolutely must be fulfilled absolutely; and not a single fact in the history of prophetism [Pg 470] stands in contradiction to this truth. Jonah's announcement to Nineveh, indeed, has been appealed to; but, in reply, we remark simply, that the words of that announcement have not been communicated to us, while we see from the result that it was conditional only. Such a decided repentance would scarcely have been called forth by it among the inhabitants of Nineveh, had repentance not been expressly declared in it as a means of deliverance. 3. Micah everywhere goes hand in hand with his contemporary Isaiah. But the latter always opposes energetically the despondency of Judah in the face of Asshur, and declares that his proud power would be broken at Jerusalem (as had been already prophesied by Hosea in i. 4-7), and that, while the kingdom of the ten tribes would be destroyed, Judah would experience the protecting hand of the Lord. _Caspari_ contradicts himself in thus making these two men of God to differ in so essential a point. For a man like _Hitzig_, it may be quite befitting to say, "Micah did not possess the firm, courageous faith which was displayed by Isaiah." 4. It is quite impossible to get rid of the obvious parallelism of the passage under consideration with Is. xxxix. 6, 7, where the rising of the Babylonish empire, the destruction of the Davidic kingdom by it, and the carrying away of Judah to Babylon, are clearly and distinctly predicted. And in a number of other prophecies, Isaiah likewise declares or supposes, that that which the Assyrians threatened in vain, would at some future period, when the iniquity of the people had become full, be carried out by Babylon with her Chaldeans. It is scarcely conceivable how _Caspari_, acknowledging as he does the genuineness of these prophecies of Isaiah, could think of dissevering from them the prophecy now under consideration.--Declarations like that before us, where, in clear and distinct outlines, a future event is foretold one hundred and fifty years before it takes place, inflict a death-blow upon the naturalistic view of the prophetic institution, as is sufficiently evident from _Hitzig's_ embarrassment, and from his efforts to free himself from the bands of this troublesome fact.

Ver. 11. "_And now many nations assemble themselves against thee, that say: Let her be profaned, and let our eyes look upon Zion._"

Israel, with its claim of being alone the people of the only true God, was a thorn in the eyes of the nations. These here [Pg 471] burn with eager desire to prove, actually and by deeds, that this presumptuous claim was unfounded, and, by the destruction of the city, to take from it its fancied holiness, and the glory of holiness. Destruction and profanation are, in their view, inseparably connected. The contrast to the verse under review is formed by vii. 10: "And mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall come upon her who said. Where is the Lord thy God? Mine eyes shall behold her, now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets." The words, "Where is the Lord thy God?" entirely agree in substance with, "Let her be profaned!" But the desire of profaning Jerusalem must be conceived of as the human motive only. According to the view of Scripture generally, and of Micah particularly, all the distress of the people of God has its foundation in _sin_; and from the whole context, and especially from v. 2 (3), where this event also is comprehended within the time when God's people are given up, it clearly appears that, notwithstanding the happy issue, we have here before us a heavy calamity. By a new phase of sin, a new phase of judgment is brought about; and by a new phase of worldliness, a new phase of aggression by the world's power.--It is owing to a striving after variety, that the word "and" here stands before "now," while it is omitted in the third scene. It may stand, or it may be omitted, because the various catastrophes are independent of each other, and yet, at the same time, form a connected whole, as is evident from the words, "He will give them up," in v. 2 (3), by which they are connected together. The heavy oppression of Judah appears here under the form of a siege of its centre, in accordance with the scope of prophecy, which, everywhere, seeks to impart vividness and animation to the scene, by uniting into one picture that which is separated by time and space. The historical reference of the prophecy is thus very accurately stated by _Calvin_: "Although the Babylonish captivity has come to an end, and Israel has been restored from it, the promised kingdom shall not immediately come. Before that takes place, the neighbouring nations shall assemble themselves against Jerusalem, with the desire of profaning it, and of enjoying a pleasant spectacle. This took place under Antiochus." That to which the prophet here simply alludes, but yet in such a way that the right reference cannot possibly be mistaken (since a great hostile aggression is here described, which should happen [Pg 472] after the people have returned from Babylon, and which is removed by the piety and courage of the people themselves; and since, after this second oppression, there follows a third, which is described in ver. 14, there certainly remains no other alternative: the times of the Maccabees are those which can alone be thought of), is further detailed by Zechariah in ix. 11 ff. At his time, the deliverance from the first calamity had already taken place; and he expressly states the names of the enemies; just as, in the prophecy under review, the authors of the first calamity are expressly named. That which is especially characteristic, and which points to the time of the Maccabees, is, moreover, the special mention of many nations, which are united in their decided hatred against Jerusalem as a city, and against Judah as the people of the Lord, taken in connection with the character of the war as a _religious war_ in the strictest sense,--it being an attempt of heathenism to destroy the Congregation of the Lord as such. _These features are found in no other catastrophe during the time between Micah and Christ._ And that the aggression belongs to the period before the appearing of the Saviour, is evident from the whole context, as well as from v. 2 (3). In the time of the Maccabees, it was not with Syria alone that Judah had to do; but all the heathen nations without exception, with which Judah had any connection at that time, united themselves for a decisive stroke against the kingdom of God. Their purpose was to extirpate the whole race of Jacob, 1 Macc. v. 2. Striking remarks upon the real nature of the struggle at that period, as a struggle of faithful Judaism against Heathenism, the latter of which had gained a considerable party among the people themselves, are made by Stark, in "_Gaza und die Philistäische Küste_," _Jena_, 52, S. 481 ff. Among other things, he says: "The national distinctions in the boundaries of Palestine had by no means ceased, but continued under the general cover of the Egyptian and Syrian administration in a varied, unyielding, and hostile manner. There were the Idumeans in the whole of the south of Palestine to near Jerusalem; then, the Philistines, or when called by their cities, the Gazeans and Ashdodians; the Phœnicians, the Samaritans or Chutteans, the mixed population of Galilee, the Arabs of Perea.... As soon as the Jewish people, who, up to that time, had been altogether insignificant in a political point of view, rose against [Pg 473] the Syrian empire, at first for their religious peculiarities, then, for their political independence, and, finally, even for the recovery of the _ideal_ possession of their country--an idea which had been kept alive by tradition,--it could not but be that those who were naturally the supports and centres of the Syrian operations, became the objects of the hostile Jewish operations; and that the whole national portion of the population, although not Greeks, were anew inflamed by their old hatred of, and opposition to, Judaism; so that they considered that Hellenic struggle as also a national one. This period thus produced at the same time a revival of the old national struggle of the inhabitants of Palestine, modified and increased by the struggle of Hellenism with the national reaction which served as a superstructure for it." The objection, raised even by _Caspari_, that a prophecy of the victorious struggles in the time of the Maccabees must be strange and surprising in a prophet of the Assyrian period, will not startle those who look at the analogies--such as the prophecy in Is. vi. In the latter prophecy, first the Chaldean, and then the Roman catastrophes, are described in sharp outlines, but without any mention of the names of the instruments of punishment. It is only in reference to the executors of the first of these judgments that more distinct disclosures were given to the prophet himself at a subsequent period. The announcement in Zech. ix., where the Greeks are expressly mentioned, is, in reality, not less miraculous. According to all prophetical analogies, it is _a priori_ probable that this detailed prophecy of the Maccabean period, and the similar one in Daniel, should have been preceded by some older prophecy which refers to the same facts, but only in general outlines, such as we have in the passage under consideration. If any doubt should still remain, it would be removed by a glance at the conflicting interpretations. _Ewald_ and _Hitzig_ think of the Assyrian invasion, to which vers. 9, 10, are likewise referred by them, although such a reference is in opposition to the express words of these verses,--which, for a Naturalistic tendency, are rather inconvenient. The contradiction in these two prophecies _Ewald_ endeavours to reconcile by the evidently erroneous supposition, that the carrying away in ver. 10 must be conceived of as only a partial one,--a supposition which is invalidated by a simple comparison of iii. 12. According to _Hitzig_, the prophet has, in vers. 11-13, [Pg 474]overcome the despondency expressed in vers. 9, 10, and has raised himself to confidence in God. He thus makes the prophet distinctly contradict himself in one breath,--a supposition which does not even deserve a refutation. Even if we were entirely to separate this passage from its connection, how ill does the activity here ascribed to Judah agree with the oppression by the Assyrians! This activity of Judah supposes that it has to do with many small nations. Against the great Asiatic empires, a direct and immediate interposition of the Lord is _everywhere_ referred to. The salvation, however, which is here announced to Judah, can be only an imperfect one, and cannot go beyond what they really received at the time of the Maccabees. This is sufficiently evident from the circumstance, that it belongs to a time in which Judah has no king of the Davidic house; for him they have already lost in ver. 9, and receive again only in v. 1 (2), in Christ; and it is certain that the Davidic house was the channel through which all the true and great mercies of the Lord were bestowed upon His people.

Ver. 12. "_And they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they His counsel; for He gathereth them as the sheaf for the threshing-floor._"

The particle "and" is here used, where we, for the sake of a closer connection, would employ "but." The thoughts of the Lord are these,--that the sufferings, after having served their purpose as regards Zion, shall pass over to the enemies, so that they shall themselves be destroyed by Zion, while they so confidently thought to inflict destruction upon Zion. The כי introduces the reason of their not knowing the way of the Lord. If they knew it, they would not express such desire and hope; _for it is they themselves_ whom the Lord gives over to destruction.

Ver. 13. "_Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I make thine horn iron, and thy claws brass; and thou crushest in pieces many people, and I consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their strength to the Ruler of the whole earth._"

The figure is based upon the Eastern mode of threshing; compare _Paulsen vom Ackerbau der Morgenl._ § 40-42; _Niebuhr_, _Reise_ i. S. 151; and likewise Is. xxi. 10, xli. 15; Hab. iii. 12. Strictly speaking, one characteristic only of the threshing oxen is here considered, viz., the crushing power of their hoofs. The prophet, however, extends the comparison to that also in which [Pg 475] the bullock is formidable, even when it is not engaged in the work of threshing, viz., to its horns. On this point 1 Kings xxii. 11 may be compared, where the pseudo-prophet Zedekiah makes to himself iron horns, and thus states the import of this symbolical action: "Thus saith the Lord, With these shalt thou push Aram until it is destroyed." The first person in החרמתי has perplexed several ancient translators (_Syr._, _Jerome_), as well as many modern interpreters, who, therefore, substitute the second person for it. But it is quite appropriate. As at the beginning, where the Lord gathers the sheaf on the threshing-floor, so at the close also, the prophet declares that the victory is the work of God. It is He Himself, the true God, the Lord of the whole earth, who reminds His rebellious subjects of their true relation to Him, by vindicating to Himself a part of the good things which He bestowed upon them; just as He once did in Egypt. This thought contains the reason why, instead of the pronoun of the first person, the noun is employed; so that it is equivalent to: To Me the only God, the Lord of the whole earth. But it is altogether distorted, if the first person here be changed into the second. With respect to the import of the word, we must by no means think only of the gifts of consecration which were brought to the temple. Such a view would be necessary, only if the goods of the Covenant-people, or the Covenant-people themselves, were introduced as that which is to be consecrated. In that case we could understand, by that which is consecrated, that only which is the exclusive property of the Lord, which has been dedicated to Him exclusively, and for ever withdrawn from the use of His subjects, and which, as far as they are concerned, is as good as annihilated; compare Lev. xxvii. 28: "Everything consecrated, which any one consecrates to the Lord, of man and of beast, and of the field of his possession, shall not be sold nor redeemed; every consecrated thing is most holy to the Lord." But here, where He who consecrates is the Lord, while the goods are those of the heathen, the latter only are to be considered as being excluded from the possession, and as those in reference to whom the goods are consecrated goods; while the people of God must, on the other hand, be considered as partaking in what He has acquired. The community of goods between these two is rendered prominent in other passages also where the object required it. Thus, _e.g._, [Pg 476] Joel iv. (iii.) 5, where the Phœnicians and Philistines are charged: "My silver and My gold ye have taken, and My precious things, the goodly ones, ye have carried into your palaces." That we cannot here think of the temple-treasure is evident, not only from a comparison of ver. 4, where the attempts of these nations to avenge themselves on Israel on account of former injuries, are expressly represented as attempts to take vengeance upon God, but also from history, which knows nothing of the plunder of the temple by Phœnicians and Philistines. The mention of the _gain_ points to the _male parta_,--and this is the more strictly applicable, the nearer the relation is in which he who is robbed stands to the Lord of the earth. With the _gain_, the substance in general is lost.--The fundamental thought of the verse, which is here expressed only with an application to a special case, is that of the victory of the Congregation of the Lord over the world. This was perceived by _Calvin_, who strikingly demonstrates how this declaration is ever anew realized, and how its complete fulfilment is reserved only for the second coming of Christ. He has erred, however, in this, that looking only to the eternal import of the thought, he overlooked the circumstance that it is here expressed with reference to a definite event in which it was to be realized.

Ver. 14. "_Who thou gatherest thyself in troops, O daughter of troops. They lay siege against us, they smite the judge of Israel with the rod upon the cheek._"

A new scene presents itself to the prophet. Zion, victorious on the preceding occasion, appears here as powerless, and locked up within her walls. She is captured; and ignominious abuse is cast upon the leaders of the deeply abased people.--We need not here dwell for any length of time upon the numerous expositions of תתגדדי. There is only one, viz., "thou shalt press thyself together," which affords an appropriate contrast; while this contrast is lost when it is translated, as _Hofmann_ does, by: "thou shalt lacerate thyself" (compare what _Caspari_ has advanced against it). "Thou shalt press thyself together" does not, moreover, destroy the import of Hithpael, and has especially the use of the Hithp. of גדד, in Jer. v. 7, in its favour. The Hithpael in this signification is probably a Denominative of גדוד. The person addressed, the בת־גדוד, can be none other than the בת־ציון in ver. 13. For it is she who is addressed by the prophet [Pg 477] in each of the new scenes announced by עתה, and she is, generally, the only one to whom the discourse is, throughout the whole section, addressed. The intentional paronomasia occasioned by the designation "daughter of troops," _i.e._, who appeared in warlike array, evidently alludes to בת־ציון, and refers to the description of Zion as a brave victorious hero, in the preceding verses. The _enemy_ is immediately afterwards spoken of in the third person. The words, "Siege (not by any means 'a wall,' as _De Wette_ maintains) they lay, or direct against us," clearly indicate that the pressing of themselves together, which forms a contrast with the former courageous excursions indicated by גדוד, is the consequence of fear, weakness, and hostile oppression. The words are therefore strikingly paraphrased by _Justi_, thus: "But now, why dost thou thus press thyself together, thou who wast accustomed to press others?" This, however, only must be kept in mind, that בת־גדוד implies an allusion to the fact that the warlike disposition continues even in the present, notwithstanding the feebleness forced upon her,--a very characteristic feature. In saying, "They lay siege against _us_," instead of "against _thee_," the prophet is carried away by his emotions to show himself as one of the people whom he sees to be oppressed by so heavy sufferings. As indicated by the word "now" also, he is, in spirit, in the midst of them. The ignominious treatment of the judge of Israel supposes that the prophet sees, in his inward vision, the capture of the city as having already taken place; for it is impossible to conceive of the judge, the soul of the city, as being outside of it. This judge of Israel is an _ideal_ person, formed by the prophet in order that he might be able to contrast him with the Ruler of Israel in v. 1 (2), who represents all the theocratic authorities; compare, _e.g._. Is. iii. 12, where the corrupted leaders of the Theocracy present themselves to the prophet in the person of a large child. To speak, in such a case, of a collective noun, as is usually done, is out of place. But it may be observed that it is not a king who is here spoken of, but, very significantly, a judge of Israel only, probably with reference to the times before Saul, when Israel was governed by judges. The royal dominion which, according to the announcement in ver. 9, shall be destroyed by Babylon, shall be restored by the Messiah only (compare v. 1 [2], iv. 8), who is not שפט ישראל, but, like His great ancestor [Pg 478] David, מושל בישראל; compare 2 Sam. xxiii. 3. There can be no doubt that, in this connection, the _Judge_ is spoken of as distinguished from, and contrasted with, the _King_. But even by itself, the mention of the _Judge_ cannot but be startling. It would have been against the object of the prophet to have mentioned any inferior persons, when there existed a superior one; and if the _King_ was thereby denoted, why should he have been designated thus?--It is on purpose that ישראל, which is the _nomen dignitatis_ of the people, is here chosen. It more emphatically points out the unworthiness of the treatment, as well as the contrast between the reality and the idea in the destinies of the nation,--a contrast, it is true, which Israel has called forth by the preceding contrast between the reality and the idea with regard to his conduct. Since Israel has inwardly profaned himself by his own guilt, he is now, as a just punishment, profaned outwardly also.--With respect, now, to the historical reference of this disastrous announcement, its fulfilment cannot be sought for in any other event than the invasion by the Romans. Among the sufferings of the people, which are here described in general outlines, this is the only one recorded in history, with the exception of those already mentioned. Isaiah, the contemporary of Micah, likewise announced, as early as in chap. vi., that upon those who should return from the captivity a second judgment would be inflicted, by which the national independence should be destroyed. This judgment is described with remarkable clearness and distinctness by the post-exilic prophets, inasmuch as, to them, it appeared already more in the foreground; compare the remarks on Zech. v. and xi.; Dan. ix. The only plausible argument against this reference is this,--that the capture of the city by the Romans was subsequent to the appearance of the Messiah, and that it is, after all, the latter which forms the subject of the announcement of salvation in