Micah 7:17 - Exposition

They shall lick the dust like a serpent ( Genesis 3:14 ; Isaiah 65:25 ). The enemies of God's people "shall lick the dust" ( Psalms 72:9 ), shall be reduced to the utmost degradation ( Isaiah 49:23 ). They shall move out of their holes, etc.; rather, they come trembling out of their close places (or, fastnesses, Psalms 18:46 ), like crawling things of the earth . They who prided themselves on their security shall come forth from their strongholds in utter fear, driven out like snakes from their lairs (comp. Psalms 2:11 ; Hosea 11:10 , etc.). They shall be afraid of ( whine with fear unto ) the Lord our God. They shall be driven by terror to acknowledge the God of Israel. The expression is ambiguous, and may mean servile fear, which makes a man shrink from God. or that fear. which is one step towards repentance; the latter seems intended here, as in Hosea 3:5 , where, as Pusey says, the words, "and his goodness," determine the character of the fear. Because of (or, before ) thee . It is the heathen who are still the subject, not the Israelites ( Jeremiah 10:7 ). The sudden change of persons is quite in the prophet's style.