Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary

Select a resource above

Social Evils Denounced

Alas for those who devise wickedness

and evil deeds on their beds!

When the morning dawns, they perform it,

because it is in their power.

They covet fields, and seize them;

houses, and take them away;

they oppress householder and house,

people and their inheritance.

Therefore thus says the L ord:

Now, I am devising against this family an evil

from which you cannot remove your necks;

and you shall not walk haughtily,

for it will be an evil time.

On that day they shall take up a taunt song against you,

and wail with bitter lamentation,

and say, “We are utterly ruined;

the L ord alters the inheritance of my people;

how he removes it from me!

Among our captors he parcels out our fields.”

Therefore you will have no one to cast the line by lot

in the assembly of the L ord.

“Do not preach”—thus they preach—

“one should not preach of such things;

disgrace will not overtake us.”

Should this be said, O house of Jacob?

Is the L ord’s patience exhausted?

Are these his doings?

Do not my words do good

to one who walks uprightly?

But you rise up against my people as an enemy;

you strip the robe from the peaceful,

from those who pass by trustingly

with no thought of war.

The women of my people you drive out

from their pleasant houses;

from their young children you take away

my glory forever.

Arise and go;

for this is no place to rest,

because of uncleanness that destroys

with a grievous destruction.

If someone were to go about uttering empty falsehoods,

saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”

such a one would be the preacher for this people!

A Promise for the Remnant of Israel

I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob,

I will gather the survivors of Israel;

I will set them together

like sheep in a fold,

like a flock in its pasture;

it will resound with people.

The one who breaks out will go up before them;

they will break through and pass the gate,

going out by it.

Their king will pass on before them,

the L ord at their head.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Prophet points out here another vice by which the people were infected — that they wished to be soothed with flatteries: for all the ungodly think that they are in a manner exempt from God’s judgment, when they hear no reproof; yea they think themselves happy, when they get flatterers, who are indulgent to their vices. This is now the disease which the Prophet discovers as prevailing among the people. Jerome sought out a meaning quite different here, as in the former verses; but I will not stop to refute him, for it is enough to give the real meaning of the Prophet. But as before he rendered women, princes, and thus perverted entirely the meaning, so he says here, I would I were a vain Prophet, that is, walking in vanity, and mendacious; as though Micah said “I wish I were false in denouncing on you the calamities of which I speak; for I would rather announce to you something joyful and favorable: but I cannot do this, for the Lord commands what is different.” But there is nothing of this kind in the words of the Prophet. Let us then return to the text.

If a man walks in the spirit, and deceitfully lies, ⁹⁰⁹⁰     Perhaps a more literal rendering would be thus,—
   If a man, the follower of the spirit and of deception,
Speaks falsely, “I will prophesy to thee of wine and of strong drink,”
He then becomes the prophet of this people.
   To walk after, or to follow, “the wind,” as some render רוח, seems by no means proper. The phrase means the same as “the man of the spirit” in Hosea 9:7 Newcome changes the whole form of the passage, though not the meaning, except in one instance. Guided by the Syriac version, Houbigant and the Septuagint, without the sanction of any MS., he gives this version, —
   If a man, walking in the spirit of falsehood and lies,
Prophesy unto thee for wine and for strong drink,
He shall be the prophet of this people.
   He puts “for wine,” etc., and not “of wine:” but the latter rendering is much more suitable to the context. — Ed. etc. Almost all interpreters agree in this, — that to walk in the spirit, is to announce any thing proudly and presumptuously; and they take spirit for wind or for deceits. But I doubt not, but that to walk in the spirit was then a common mode of speaking, to set forth the exercise of the prophetic office. When therefore any one was a Prophet, or one who discharged that office, or sustained the character of a teacher, he professed himself to have been sent from above. The Prophets were indeed formerly called the men of the spirit, and for this reason, because they adduced nothing from themselves or from their own heads; but only delivered faithfully, as from hand to hand, what they had received from God. To walk in the spirit then means, in my view, the same thing as to profess the office of a teacher. When therefore any one professed the office of a teacher, what was he to do? “If I,” says Micah, “being endued with the Spirit, and called to teach, wished to ingratiate myself with you, and preached that there would be an abundant increase of wine and strong drink, all would applaud me; for if any one promises these things, he becomes the prophet of this people.”

In short, Micah intimates that the Israelites rejected all sound doctrine, for they sought nothing but flatteries, and wished to be cherished in their vices; yea, they desired to be deceived by false adulation to their own ruin. It hence appears that they were not the people they wished to be deemed, that is, the people of God: for the first condition in God’s covenant was, — that he should rule among his people. Inasmuch then as these men would not endure to be governed by Divine power, and wished to have full and unbridled liberty, it was the same as though they had banished God far from them. Hence, by this proof, the Prophet shows that they had wholly departed from God, and had no intercourse with him. If there be then any man walking in the spirit, let him, he says, keep far from the truth; for he will not otherwise be borne by this people. — How so? Because they will not have honest and faithful teachers. What is then to be done? Let flatterers come, and promise them plenty of wine and strong drink, and they will be their best teachers, and be received with great applause: in short, the suitable teachers of that people were the ungodly; the people could no longer bear the true Prophets; their desire was to have flatterers who were indulgent to all their corruptions.

⁹⁰ Perhaps a more literal rendering would be thus,— If a man, the follower of the spirit and of deception, Speaks falsely, “I will prophesy to thee of wine and of strong drink,” He then becomes the prophet of this people. To walk after, or to follow, “the wind,” as some render רוח, seems by no means proper. The phrase means the same as “the man of the spirit” in Hosea 9:7 Newcome changes the whole form of the passage, though not the meaning, except in one instance. Guided by the Syriac version, Houbigant and the Septuagint, without the sanction of any MS., he gives this version, — If a man, walking in the spirit of falsehood and lies, Prophesy unto thee for wine and for strong drink, He shall be the prophet of this people. He puts “for wine,” etc., and not “of wine:” but the latter rendering is much more suitable to the context. — Ed.