Micah 6:11-15

11. Shall I count them pure This is an impossible rendering of the Hebrew, but it is supported by Vulgate; the Hebrew reads, “Shall I be pure?” If this is original, the people must be the speaker; but a change in speakers is out of place here. LXX. retains Jehovah as the speaker, and reads, “Can it (Jerusalem) be pure?” The LXX. and Vulgate readings require only slight alterations in the Hebrew, and either is preferable to the present text.

Wicked balances,… deceitful weights See on Amos 8:5. No one who practices fraud or deceit can expect to be acquitted in the court of Jehovah.

Micah 6:12 continues the description of wrongdoing (compare Hosea 4:1 ff.).

Thereof Of Jerusalem.

Full of violence See on Micah 2:1-2; Micah 2:8; Micah 3:2-3; Micah 3:9.

Lies Toward God and man.

Deceitful Literally, deceit. The noun is used in the place of the adjective for the sake of emphasis (G.-K., 141c); the tongue does nothing but deceive.

Micah 6:13-15 announce the judgment.

Thee The masculine pronoun which is used in these verses cannot refer to the city. If the alteration suggested in connection with 9b is accepted the masculine pronoun may be explained as referring to “tribe,” a masculine noun; otherwise we must suppose that the prophet uses the masculine form because he has in mind the people of the city rather than the city itself. Smiting [“have smitten”] If the text is correct this is the so-called prophetic perfect. The punishment is still in the future, but it is so certain that the prophet describes it as already present.

I also Better, I on my part.

With a grievous wound An incurable wound (Nahum 3:19). The construction of the Hebrew is somewhat unusual. A slight alteration, supported by LXX., would give, “therefore I on my part have begun to smite thee, to make thee desolate because of thy sins.”

Micah 6:14-15 describe the judgment in greater detail; the prophet evidently thinks of a foreign nation as the divinely appointed executioner (Amos 5:11; Deuteronomy 28:39-40).

Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied The enemy will overrun the land and devastate it; as a result starvation will threaten the people. The meaning of the next clause is uncertain.

Thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee In the midst of the people. The word translated “casting down” (R.V., “humiliation”) occurs only here; hence its exact meaning is more or less uncertain. Some give to it the meaning “emptiness,” that is, of the stomach (so R.V. margin). With this translation the thought becomes clearer, for it would simply be a repetition of that expressed in the preceding clause; or else the second might be understood as a circumstantial clause, “Thou shalt eat but not be satisfied, while starvation shall be in the midst of thee.” LXX., taking the word from a different root, renders “it will be dark.”

Shalt take hold Better, R.V., “shalt put away.” On the approach of the enemy they will hasten to hide their families and possessions, but the enemy will be too quick for them; they will not bring them to a place of safety; if, by chance, they should succeed in saving anything, it will fall into the hands of the enemy to be devoured by the sword (compare Isaiah 5:29; Jeremiah 50:37).

Sow,… reap The enemy will consume or destroy also the growing crops in fields and vineyards.

Tread the olives See on Joel 1:10; Joel 2:24. Thomson says that, so far as he knows, olives are not trodden with the feet in modern times, “and it could only be done when the olives have been kept until they are very soft” ( The Land and the Book, 1: 524). Marti omits “thy casting down” and connects “in the midst of thee” differently; then he rearranges the clauses, and thus he secures what is undoubtedly a smoother reading. Following Micah 6:13 he reads, “Whatever is in the midst of thee thou mayest put away, thou shalt not save it; and that which thou savest will I give up to the sword. Thou shalt eat but not be satisfied; thou shalt sow.… “