The Pulpit Commentary — Micah — Section 87

pRnied every burnt offering (see Exod. xxix. 1 Sam. xv. 22; Pa. :r.l . 6, eto.; I. 8, eto.; 40; Lev. vii. 10-12; Numb. xv. 4, etc.). Isa. i. 11-17; Jer. vi. 20; Hos. vl 6, The Vulgate has a different reading, In etc.; see on Zech. vil 7.) To do jutqr. m,uti, millibus hiroorum pinguium; so the To act equitably, to hurt nobody by word Septuagint, Iv 1tup1d.r, x1µ,dpow [&P""'"• or deed, which was the exaot oontre.ry Aki.. ] ,....1.,..,,, "with ten thousands of fat of t~_e conduct .,1:ireviously mentioned grntts;" so also the Syria.o. The a.Iteration has (oh. u. I, 2, 8; m. 21 etc.). To love been introdured probably with some idea of meroy. To be guided in conduct t.o others maldng the parallelism more exact. Shall I by loving-kinduess. These two rules con- give my flntbom 1 Micah exactly represents tain the wholo duty to the neighbour. the people's feeling; they would do anything Compare Christ's description of genuine but what God required; they would make religion (Matt. xxiii. 28). To walk humbly the costliest sacrifice, even, in their ex- with thy God. This precept comprises aggemted devotion, holding themselves man's duty to God, humility and obedience. ready to make a forbidden off:,ring ; but "To walk" is an expression implying II to they would not attend to the moral require- Ii ve and act," as the patriarchs a.re said to ments of the Law. It is probably by a mere have II walked with God," denoting that hyperbole that the question in the text is they lived as consciously nnder his eye and &eked. The practice of human enoritlce was referred all thtsir aotions to him. Humility founded on the notion that man ought to is greatly enforced in the Scriptures (see e.g. offer to God his dearest and costliest, and Isa. ii. 11, etc.). SeptWl.gint, IT01µ.o11 ef11,11 that the nooeptahility of an offering was ..-oii -rop,6,a-9t1.J l'"'/i. Kvpiov, "to be ready to proportioned to its preciousness. The walk with the Lord;" Vulgate, Bolioitum Hebrews had learned the cnstom from their ambulare cum Deo; Syriao, 11 Be prepared to neighhoure,e.g. the Phamicians andMoabites follow thy God." But our version is doubt- (comp. 2 Kings iii. 27), and had for centnries less correct. offered their children to Moloch, in defiance Vera. 9-12.-§ 8. Beca,11,3e Iarael toaa ~ of the stern prohibitions of Moses and their prophets (Lev. xviii. 21; 2 Kings xvi 8; far from acting in thia spirit, God. sternl,y Isa. lvii. 5). They might have learned, rebukes her for prevailing ,ina. from many facts and inferences, that man's Ver. 9.-The Lord's voice (Isa. :ux. 81; eelf-snrrender was not t.o be realized by this Joel ii. 11; Amos i. 2). These are no ritna.I; the sanctity of human life (Gen. longer the words of the prophet, but those ix. 6), the snbstitntion of the ram for Isaac of God himself, and not spoken in secret, (Gen. %Xii. 18), the redemption of the first- but 'llilto the oity, that all may hear the born (Exod. xiii 18), all made for this sentence who dwell in Jerusalem. The truth. Bnt the heathen idea retained its man of wisdom shall see thy Name; i.e. he hold among them, so that the inquiry above who is wise regards thy Name and obeys is in strict keeping with the circumstances. thee, does not simply hear, but profits by The fruit of my body; i.e. the rest of my what he hears. The reading is uncertain. children (Deut. :u:viii. 4). Others render, "Blessed is he who sees thy Ver. 8.-The prophet answers in his own Name;" but the construction is against person the qneetions in vers. 6 and 7, by this. Others, 11 Thy Name looketh to showing the worthlessness of outward wisdom" (or prosperity), has the true observancies when the moral precepts are wisdom of life in eight. The versions read not observed. Re h&th ah.owed thee; "fear" for "see." Thus tho LXX:., ::S<liue, literally, one has told thee, or, it has been tf,o/3ovµ,evous .,-1, ~0110µ,a. a.b.-011, " Shall save told thee, Le. by Moses and in the Law those that fear his Name;" Vulgate, Ba.lua (Dent. L 12, etc.). Septuagint, El ll.VffYYb. ., erit timentibus Nomen tuum; Syriao, '' He uo, ; " Bath it not been told thee ? " What imparts instruction to those that fear his doth the Lord require of thee t The prophets Name ; " Chaldee, " The teachers fear his often enforce the truth that the principles Name." This reading depends upon 11, of righteous conduct are required from men, change of vowel-pointing. Orelli renders, and not mere formal worship. This might "Happy is he who fears thy No.me." The well be a comfort to the Israelites when Authorized translation, whicli seems on the they heard that they were doomed to be whole to be well established, takes the cast out of their country, and that the abstract noun "wisclom" as equivalent to temple was to be destroyed, and that tile " the wise," or " the mau of wisdom." For rilual on which they laid such stress would similar expressions, Henderson refers to for a time become impracticable. So the Pa. cix. 4; Prov. xiii. 6; xix. 15. The mculcation of moral virtues is often con- prophet parenthetically announces ~hat, n<;cted with the prediction of woe or however the bulk of the people might ciq,tivity. (For the prophetic view of the receive the message, the truly wise would p,m,.m.ount importance of righteousness, see listen 11.Ild profit by it. Rear ye the rod. 1111, VI, 1-16.] THE BOOK OF MICAH. 89