Albert Barnes Commentary Micah 7:10

"Then mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her who said unto me, Where is Jehovah thy God? Mine eyes shall see [my desire] upon her; now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets." — Micah 7:10 (ASV)

Then - (And) she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is He, He of whom you boast, the Lord thy God? The cause of her gladness then is, that the blasphemies of the enemy of God were to cease. This was the bitterest portion of her cup, that they said daily, “Where is now thy God? Let Him come and save you;” as though He could not, or as though He did not love her, and she vainly presumed on His help. Even when fallen, it was for His sake that she was hated, who seemed to be overcome in her: as He was hated in His Martyrs, and they asked, “Where is the God of the Christians?” Now the taunt was closed, and turned back on those who used it. The wheel, which they had turned against her, rolled round on themselves.

They who had said, Let our eye look on Zion, now were ashamed that their hope had failed. They had longed to feed their sight on her miseries; Zion had her reverent gladness in gazing on the righteousness of God. Babylon was trodden down by the Medes and Persians, and those whom she had held captive beheld it. Daniel was in the palace, when Belshazzar was slain.

The soul of one, who has known the chastening of God, cannot but read its own history here. The sinful soul is at once the object of the love of God and has that about it which God hates. God hates the evil in us, even while He loves us, being, or having been, evil. He forgives, but chastens. His displeasure is the channel of His good pleasure.

Nathan said to David, The Lord hath put away thy sin (2 Samuel 12:13), but also, the sword shall never depart from thy house (2 Samuel 12:10).

It is part of His forgiveness to cleanse the soul with a spirit of burning (Isaiah 4:4).

“It seems to me,” says Jerome, “that Jerusalem is every soul, which had been the temple of the Lord, and had had the vision of peace and the knowledge of Scripture, and which afterward, overcome by sins, has fallen captive by its own consent, parting from what is right in the sight of God, and allowing itself to sink among the pleasures of the world.”

So then “captive, and tortured,” she says to Babylon, that is, the confusion of this world and the power of the enemy which rules over the world, and sin who lords it over her, “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arise;”

Dionysius comments: “from sin by repentance, and from tribulation by the consolation of the Holy Spirit, who, after weeping, pours in joy.

For the Lord helpeth them that are fallen (Psalms 146:8), and says by the prophet, Shall they fall and not arise? (Jeremiah 8:4). And, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. If I walk in darkness, the Lord is my light! (Ezekiel 33:11).

For although the rulers of the darkness of this world (Ephesians 6:12) have deceived me, and I sit in darkness and in the shadow of death (Psalms 107:10), and my feet stumble upon the dark mountains (Jeremiah 13:16),

yet to them who sit in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up (Isaiah 9:2), and light shineth in darkness (John 1:5), and the Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear? (Psalms 27:1).

And I will speak to Him and will say, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path (Psalms 119:105). “He draws me from the darkness of ignorance and from the black night of sin, and gives a clear view of future bliss, and brightens the very inmost soul within.”

Dionysius: “Even if a mist has come upon me and I have been in darkness, I too shall find the light, that is, Christ; and the Sun of Righteousness arising on my mind shall make it white.”

I will bear patiently, yet gladly, the indignation of the Lord, (Dionysius): “all adversity, trial, tribulation, persecution, which can happen in this life;” because I have sinned against Him, “and such is the enormity of sin, offered to the Majesty and dishonoring the Holiness of God, and such punishment does it deserve in the world to come, that if we weigh it well, we shall bear with joy whatever adversity can befall us.”

Cyril: “For although for a short time I am out of His Presence, and am given to an undistinguishing mind (Romans 1:28), yet, seeing I suffer this rejection justly, I will bear the judgment, for I am not chastened in vain.”

All chastening for the present seemeth not to be joyous but grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them who are exercised thereby (Hebrews 12:11).

Jerome: “The soul, feeling that it has sinned, and has the wounds of sins and is living in dead flesh and needs the cautery, says firmly to the Physician, ‘Burn my flesh, cut open my wounds, all my imposthumes. It was my fault, that I was wounded; be it my pain, to endure such sufferings and to regain health.’

And the true Physician shows to her, when whole, the cause of His treatment, and that He did rightly what He did.

Then after these sufferings, the soul, being brought out of outer darkness, says, I shall behold His Righteousness, and say, Thou, O Lord, art upright; Righteous are Thy judgments, O God (Psalms 119:137).

But if Christ is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30), he who, after the indignation of God, says that He shall see His Righteousness, promises to himself the sight of Christ.”

Cyril: “Then, having considered in her mind the grace of the righteousness in Christ and the overthrow of sin, the soul, in full possession of herself, cries out, My enemy shall see it, etc.

For, after that Christ came unto us, justifying sinners through faith, the mouth of the ungodly One is stopped, and the Author of sin is put to shame.

He has lost his rule over us, and sin is trodden down, like mire in the streets, being subjected to the feet of the saints. But the blotting-out of sin is the Day of Christ.”

Jerome: “And, because the end of all punishment is the beginning of good,” God says to the poor, penitent, tossed, soul, “the walls of virtues shall be built up in thee, and thou shalt be guarded on all sides, and the rule of thine oppressors shall be far removed, and thy King and God shall come unto thee, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God.”

Dionysius: “All this shall be most fully seen in the Day of Judgment.”