Micah 1:9 - Exposition

Her wound; her stripes , the punishment inflicted on Samaria. Incurable (comp. Jeremiah 15:18 ) The day of grace is past, and Israel has not repented. It is come. The stripe, the punishment, reaches Judah. To the prophetic eye the Assyrians' invasion of Judaea seems close at hand, and even the final attack of the Chaldeans comes within his view. The same sins in the northern and southern capitals lead to the same fate. He is come. He, the enemy, the agent of the "stripe." The gate of my people. The gate, the place of meeting, the well guarded post, is put for the city itself (comp. Genesis 22:17 ; Deuteronomy 28:52 ; Obadiah 1:11 ). Pusey thinks that Micah refers to something short of total excision, and therefore that the invasion of Sennacherib alone is meant ( 2 Kings 18:13 ). But the fore shortened view of the prophet may well include the final ruin.