John Calvin Commentary Micah 1:12

"For the inhabitant of Maroth waiteth anxiously for good, because evil is come down from Jehovah unto the gate of Jerusalem." — Micah 1:12 (ASV)

The Prophet here mentions another city, Maroth, and others as well in the following verses. But in this verse he says that Maroth would be in sorrow for a lost good. The verb חול, chul, means to grieve, and it has this meaning here. For the Marothites (that is, the inhabitants of that city) would have to grieve for losing their property and their former happy condition.

But as the verb also means to expect, some approve of a different interpretation: that the inhabitants of the city Maroth would in vain depend on an empty and fallacious expectation, for they were doomed to utter destruction. In vain then will the inhabitant of Maroth expect or entertain hope, for an evil descends from Jehovah to the gate of the city. This view is very suitable: that its hope will disappoint Maroth, since even the city of Jerusalem will not be exempted.

For although God had then delivered the chief city by a miracle, and its siege was raised through the intervention of an angel when a dreadful slaughter took place (as sacred history records), the city Maroth was still unable to escape vengeance. We now see the reason why this circumstance was added.

Some give a harsher explanation: that the citizens of Maroth were to be debilitated or, as it were, demented. As this metaphor is too strained, I embrace the other interpretation: that the citizens of Maroth would grieve for the loss of good, or that they would vainly expect or hope, since they were already doomed to utter ruin, without any hope of deliverance.

But we must notice that evil was near at hand from Jehovah, for He reminds them that although the whole country would be desolated by the Assyrians, God would still be the chief leader, since He would employ the work of all those who would afflict the people of Israel. So that the Jews then, as well as the Israelites, might know that they had to deal not only with men but also with God, the celestial Judge, the Prophet distinctly expresses that all this would proceed from Jehovah. He afterwards adds: