Micah 7:11 - Exposition

The prophet here addresses Zion, and announces her restoration. In the day that thy walls are to be built; rather, a day for building thy walls ( gader ) cometh . Zion is represented as a vineyard whose fence has been destroyed ( Isaiah 5:5 , Isaiah 5:7 ). The announcement is given abruptly and concisely in three short sentences. In that day shall the decree be far removed. The decree ( Zephaniah 2:2 ) is explained by Hengstenberg and many commentators, ancient and modern, to he that of the enemy by which they held Israel captive. Keil and others suppose the law to be meant which separated Israel from all other nations, the ancient ordinance which confined God's people and the blessings of the theocracy to narrow limits. This is now to be set aside (comp. Ephesians 2:11-16 ), when heathen nations flock to the city of God. Oaspari, Hitzig, Cheyne, and others translate, "shall the bound be afar off," i.e. the boundaries of the land of Israel shall be widely extended (comp. Isaiah 33:17 , which Cheyne explains, "Thine eyes shall behold a widely extended territory"). Wordsworth obtains much the same meaning by taking the verb in the sense of "promulgated," and referring the "decree," as in Psalms 2:7 , Psalms 2:8 , to God's purpose of giving to Messiah the utmost parts of the earth for a possession. The building, of the walls does not indicate the narowing of the limits of the theocratic kingdom. Whether chok be taken to signify "decree" ( lex , Vulgate) or "boundary," the effect of its removal afar is seen by the next verse to be the entrance of foreign nations into the kingdom of God. The LXX . favours the first interpretation, ἀποτρίψεται [ ἀπώσεται , Alex.] νόμιμά σου [ σου omit, Alex.] ἡ ἡμέρα ἐκείνη , "That day shall utterly abolish thy ordinances."