CoNCLUSION. Blessed gospel, speed thy work I Bring all the scattered sections of the world together, and unite them together by uniting them to one common centre- Christ. Break the moral chains that bind the faculties, sympathies, aud souls of men to ~in and the devil. Bring on the moral jubilee of the race, and let the clarion-blast of liberty be heard through all the land,-D. T,
EXPOSITION. CHAPTER III. food. Snob an allusion is natural in the mouth of one who had just been speaking Ver. I-oh. v. 15.-Part II. DENUNOU.- of Israel as a flock ( eh. ii. 12). TION OF THE CRIJIIES OF THE GRANDEES, Ver. 3.-The idea of the lest verse iii FOLLOWED BY A PROMISE OF THE GLORil!'I- repeated here with more emph0,ais. The OAT!ON OF ZION, THE BIRTH OF MESSIAH, people are treated by their rulers o.s cattle ma.de to be ea.ten, flayed, broken up, obopped A.ND THE HIGHEST EKALTATION 011' THE into pieces, boiled in the pot (comp. Ps. PEOPLE. xiv. 4). (For an analogous figure, see Ezek. Xlliv. 3-5.) Vere. 1-4.~ l. Sin11 of the rolers, and Ver. 4.-The merciless shall not obtain their punishment. meroy. Then, when the day of chastisement has come, "the day of the Lord," of which, Ver. 1.-The prophet denounces the sine perhaps, the prophet spoke more fully when of the rulers, false prophet.a, and priests ; he originally delivered this a.cl dress. He and begins with the injustice and oppression will not hear them. A just retribution on practised by the great men. And I said. those who refused to hearken to the ory of The new address is thus introduced as being the poor and needy (comp. Ps. xviii. 41; analogous to the denunciations in the pre- Prov. i 28; Jer. xi.11; Jas. ii. 13). !.a they ceding chapter, which were interrupted by have behaved themselves ill in their doiugs; the promise of deliveranoe, to which there according as they have ma<U their actions is no reference here. 0 heacls of .Jacob; eflil, or because they have, eto. ; uvB' Jiv (Sep- synonymous with prinoea of the house of tuagint). Israel (comp. ver. 8; oh. i 5). Micah addresses the Leads of families and the Vers. 5--8.~ 2. Sins of the false prophets offic.i.a.lB to wLom the administration of tDho led the people astray, justice appertained. These magistrates and judges seem to have been chiefly members Ver. 5.-Concerning the prophets (oh. ii. of the roye.l fll..lD.ily, et any rate in Judah; 11). These are the lying prophets of whom see Jer. m.11, 12 (Cheyne). Septuagint, al Jeremiah complains (Lam. ii. 14). That bite ,ca:r&.>..01.,ro, o7',cov 'l<TpaT/A, "ye remnant of with their teeth, and ory, Peaoe. Vory many the house of Israel." Is it not for you commentators take the phrase, "bite with to know judgment t Ye, of all men, ought the teeth," to mean " eat," so that the clause to know what is jll6t and fair, and to prac- signifies that the prophets when bribed with tise it (compare the opening of the Book of food predict peace and happiness to people. Wisdom). , The antithesis of the following olause seems Ver. 2.-The good . . . the evil; i.e. to require this . explanation, whioh is goodness and wickedness. Septuagint, -r11 further supported by the Cha.Idea. But i1; ,,a>.&., -ra. 1rol'1)pc! (Amos v. 14, etc.; John iii. is quite unprecedented to find the word 20 ; Rom. i. 32). Who pluck o:tr their skin translated "bite" (nashakh) iu the sense of from off them. They are not shepherds, but "eat,'' or as it is taken here," to have some- bnv::hers. We have the same figurative thing to eat;" wherever it occurs it means expression for merciless extortion and "to bite like a serpent," to wound (see Gen. pillage. Ezekiel makes a similar complaint xlix. 17; Numb. xxi. 8, 9; Amos v. 19: (:u::xiv. 2-4). Cheyne S8es in this and ix. 3). The parallelism of the succeeding tht following verse a possible allusion to member does not compel us to put a forced cannibalism as at least known to the interpretation upon the word. These vcn11ol Israelites by hearsay or trndition. There is seers do vital harm, inflict gravest injury, a passage in Wisdom (xii. 5) which some- when they proclaim peace whore there is no what countenances the idea. that the peace; by such false comfort they are really ◊doe.unites were guilty of this enormity, but infusing poison and death. He that putteth it io prubal,ly only a rhetorical exaggeration not into their mouths. If any one does no& of tlie writer. In the present passage the bribe them, and so stop their evil mouths. ttrms seem to be simply metaphors taken They even prepare war against him. The frc,rn the pre~tion of mea.t for human Hebrew expression is, " they consecrate" or on. IIt. 1-12.J THE BOOK OF MICAH. .37