[ [1]] The reference to the general judgment would indeed disappear, if we suppose בכם in ver. 2 to be addressed to Israel. It seems, indeed, to be in favour of this supposition, that, in 1 Kings xxii. 28, the people alone are called upon as witnesses, and that in Deut. xxxi. 28, xxxii. 1, and Is. i. 2, heaven and earth, and in Hos. vi. 1, the mountains also, are called upon only in order to make the scene more solemn. But the reference of בכם to the nations mentioned immediately before, is too evident.
[ [2]] Ver. 6 must be translated thus:
Not shall ye drop (prophesy),—they (the false prophets) drop; if they (the individuals addressed, the true prophets) do not drop to these (the rapacious great), the ignominy will not cease, i.e., the ignominious destruction breaks in irresistibly. The fundamental passage in Deut. xxxii. 2, and ver. 11 of the chapter before us, show that הטיף has not the signification, "to talk," which is assigned to it by Caspari. The false prophets must be considered as the accomplices of the corrupted great, especially as to the bulwark which they opposed to the true prophets, and their influence on the nation, and on their own consciences,—as indeed material power everywhere seeks for such a spiritual ally. If this be kept in view, the censure and threatening acquire a still greater unity.
[ [3]] To a certain extent, however, verse 11 forms the transition: "If one were to come, a wind, and lie falsely: I will prophesy to thee of wine and of strong drink,—he would be the prophet of this people." Such a prophet Micah, indeed, is not; but although he neither can nor dare announce salvation without judgment, he has, in the name of the Lord, to announce salvation after the judgment. The very singular opinion, that in vers. 12, 13, the false prophets are introduced as speaking, is refuted by the single circumstance that, in ver. 12, the gathering of the remnant of Israel only is promised, and hence the judgment is supposed to have preceded. It is no less erroneous if, instead of considering ver. 11 as introductory to vers. 12, 13, the latter be made to depend upon ver. 11, and be therefore considered as, to a certain extent, accidental.
[ [4]] After the example of v. Raumer, Robinson, Ritter (Erdk. 14, 101), it has now become customary to distinguish between two Bozrahs,—one in Auranitis, and the other in Edom. But the arguments adduced for this distinction are not of very great weight. Nowhere is a "high situation" in reality ascribed to the Bozrah in Edom. The assertion, that Edom was always limited to the territory between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, is opposed to Gen. xxxvi. 35, according to which passage, even in the time before Moses, the Edomitic king, Hadad, smote Midian in the field of Moab; and further, to Lam. iv. 21, according to which Edom dwells in the land of Uz, which can be sought for only in Arabia Deserta. We need to think only of that branch of the Midianites who had gone over to Arabia Deserta, whilst their chief settlement continued in Arabia Petræa. But the following arguments may be adduced against the distinction. 1. Bozrah is constantly and simply spoken of, without any further distinctive designation. 2. The Edomitic Bozrah must have been a great and powerful city, which agrees well with the "mighty ruins" in Hauran, but not with the much more insignificant ruins near Busseireh in Dshebal. 3. It is improbable that so important a city as that of Bozrah in Auranitis should never have been mentioned in Scripture.—But not satisfied with a double Bozrah, even a third, in Moab, has been assumed on the ground of Jer. xlviii. 24. But it is certainly strange that Bozrah, in that passage, is mentioned as the last of all the Moabitish towns, and that, immediately after its mention, there follow the words, "Upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near." It may be that Bozrah was conquered by the Edomites and Moabites in common, or that, in later times, the latter obtained a kind of possession of the town in common with the former.
[CHAP. III.-V.]
The discourse opens with new reproofs and threatenings. It is first, in vers. 1-4, directed against the rapacious great, who in ver. 2 are described as murderers of men (compare Sirach xxxi. 21: "He who taketh from his neighbour his livelihood, killeth him"), and in ver. 3, as eaters of men, because they turn to their own advantage the necessaries of life of which they have robbed the poor. The discourse then passes over to the false prophets, vers. 5-7. Their character is described as hypocritical, weak, and selfish, and is incidentally contrasted with the character of the true prophet, as represented by himself, whose strength is always renewed by the Spirit of the Lord, and who, in this strength, serves only truth and righteousness, and holds up their sins to the people deluded by the false prophets, ver. 8. This the prophet continues to do in vers. 9-12. The three orders of divinely called rulers, upon whom the life or death of the Congregation was depending,—the princes, the priests, and the prophets (compare remarks on Zech. x. 1),—have become so degenerate, that they are not at all concerned for the glory of God, but only for their own interest. And while they have thus inwardly apostatized from Jehovah, they are strengthened in their false security by the promises which God has given to His people, and which they, altogether overlooking the fact that these are conditional, referred, in hypocritical blindness, to themselves. But God will, in a fearful manner, punish them for this apostasy, and frighten them from their security. The Congregation of the Lord, which has been desecrated inwardly, shall be so outwardly also. Zion shall become a corn-field; Jerusalem, the city of God, shall sink into rubbish and ruins; the Temple-hill shall again become what it was previous to its being the residence of God, viz., a thickly wooded hill, which shall then appear in all its natural lowness, and be considered as insignificant when compared with the neighbouring mountains.—In the whole section, the twelve verses of which are equally divided into three portions of four verses each, the prophet views chiefly the great, and the civil rulers. The false prophets, whom he takes up in the second of these subdivisions (vers. 5-8), come under consideration as their helpers only. In the third subdivision, the discourse is again directed to the great alone, in vers. 9, 10. The two other orders are added to them in vers. 11, 12 only; and the charges raised against them refer to their relation to the great. The priests are not by any means reproved because they made teaching a profession, from which they derived their livelihood, but because, for bribes, they interpreted the law in a manner favourable to the rapacious lusts of the great, and thereby, no less than the false prophets, assisted them in their wickedness.—The charge raised in ver. 10 against the great,—Building up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity,"—has been frequently misunderstood. The words must not be explained from Hab. ii. 12, but from Ps. li. 20, where David prays to the Lord, "Build Thou the walls of Jerusalem," which he had destroyed by his blood, ver. 16. The word "building" is used ironically by Micah, and is tantamount to: "Ye who are destroying Jerusalem by blood and iniquity (compare ver. 12: 'For your sakes Zion shall be ploughed as a field'), instead of building it up by righteousness." Righteousness builds up, because it draws down God's blessing and protection; but unrighteousness destroys, because it calls down the curse of God.
The unfaithfulness of the Covenant-people can nevertheless not make void the faithfulness of God. The prophet, therefore, passes suddenly from threatening to promise. Calvin thus expresses the relation of these two: "But I must now come to the little remnant. Hitherto I have spoken about the judgment of God, which is near at hand, upon the king's councillors, upon the priests and prophets, upon the whole people in short, because they are all wicked and ungodly, because the whole body is pervaded by contempt of God, and by desperate obstinacy. Let them receive, then, that which they all have deserved. But I now gather the children of God apart, for to them too I have a message to deliver."
The intimate relation of the first part of the promise to the preceding threatening has been already demonstrated, p. 420. The Mount of Zion, which forms the subject of vers. 1-7, shall, in future, not only be restored to its former dignity, but it shall be exalted above all the mountains of the earth. The kingdom of God, which is represented by it, shall, by the glory imparted to it by a new revelation of the Lord (compare ver. 7: "And the Lord shall be King over them on Mount Zion"), outshine all the kingdoms of the world, and exercise an attractive power upon their citizens; so that they flow to Zion, there to receive the commands of the Lord, vers. 1, 2. By the sway which the Lord exercises from Zion, peace shall have its dwelling in the heathen world, ver. 3, and, consequently, the Congregation of the Lord ceases to be a prey to injury from the world's power, ver. 4a. How incredible soever it may appear, this promise shall surely be fulfilled; for omnipotent faithfulness has given it, ver. 4b, and has given it indeed for this very purpose; for it is altogether natural, and to be expected, that the glory of the Lord should in all eternity display itself in His dealings with His people, ver. 5. In vers. 6, 7, the promise receives a new impetus, by which it connects itself with ver. 4a. In that time of mercy, the Lord will put an end to all the misery of His people.