The Pulpit Commentary — Micah — Section 39

morality, mnde e. certain ontwe.rd conformity " ... imprimeretque muris 11erve for righteousness and truth. Is not Hostile are.trum exercltus insolens." the Lord among 111 ! (Exod. xvii. 7). As (Comp. 'Propert.,' iii. 7, 41 ; and, for the though the very fact the.t they he.d in their whole pa.ssA.ge, Ie11. xxxii. 13, 14.) "The midst the temple, wherein Jehove.h'e pre- general surfe.oo of Mount Zion desconcls sence wu u~ured, would protect them from steeply ellStwards into the Tyroproon 11nd all he.rm, whatov0r their conduct might be. Kidron, e.nd southwe.rds into the V11lley of Such preeumptuoue confidence is reproved Hinnom. The whole of the hill here is by Jeremiah (vii. 4, 8, etc.; comp. Amoe v. under cultivation, nnd presents II most H, and note there). literal fulfilment of 111icah's prophecy" Ver. 12.-Thie is the prophecy quoted (Thomson, • The Land and the Book,' p. by the elders to King Jehoie.kim (Jer. xxvi. 540). "From the spot on which I stood," 17, etc.). It may have been delivered before says Dr. Porter, "I saw the plough at work Hezekiah's time origine.lly, and repeated in the little fields thnt now cover the site in his reign, ...-hen it was productive of a of Zion" (' Illustrations of Bible Prophecy,' reformation. The denunciation is a mourn- p. 17). J'ernse.lem sbe.11 beoome heaps, ful contrast to the e.nnonneemeut in eh. ii. The city proper shall become heaps of ruins 12; hut it was never completely fulfilled, (Jer. ix. 11; Neh. ii. 17; iv. 2). Sep- being, like e.ll such judgmente, oonditioned tae.gint, &s ~1ro,po4'vAd.1t1011 lu-ra,, "as a by circumstances. Therefore . . . for your storehouse for fruits," e.s in Ps. lxxviii. aa.ke. For tl.Je crimes of rulers, priests, and (lxxix.) 1. The monntain of the house. prophet.s. Shall Zion . . . be ploughed e.s The mounte.in on which tbe temple we.s a field. Three localities a.re specified which built, Mount Moriah, and therefore tlie destruction shall overtake-Zion, Jerusalem, temple itself, no longer ip.entioned e.s the and the temple. Zion means the.t part of Lord's dwelling-place. As the high ple.ces the city where stood the royal pa.lace. The of the forest ; or, as wooded heightB, return- prophecy rele.tee primarily to the destruc- ing, as it were, to the wild condition in tion of the city by the Che.ldeans, when, e.s which it lay when Abraham offered hie Jeremiah testifies (Lam. v. 18), Zion was se.crifice thereon. In the time of tlie desolate and foxes walked upon it. The Maccabees, after its profanation by the expression in the text may be hyperbolical, bee.then, the account speaks of shrubs but we know that the ploughing np of the growing in the courts as in a forest or in founde.tions of ce.ptared cities is often one of the mountains (l Mace.iv. 88). Such alluded to. Thill! Horaoe, 'Ce.rm.,' i. 16, we.s to be the fate ol' the temple in which 20- they put their trust and me.de their boast.