John Calvin Commentary Micah 3:6-7

"Therefore it shall be night unto you, that ye shall have no vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them. And the seers shall be put to shame, and the diviners confounded; yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God." — Micah 3:6-7 (ASV)

God declares here to the false teachers by the mouth of Micah, that He would inflict punishment on them, so that they would be exposed to the reproach of all. Hence the kind of punishment of which the Prophet speaks is—that He would strip the false teachers of all their dignity, so that from now on they would vainly put on an appearance, and claim the honorable name which they had so long abused. We indeed know, when ungodly and profane men clothe themselves with the dignified titles of being the princes, or bishops, or prelates of the Church, how audaciously they pervert everything, and do so with impunity. There is then no other remedy, except God pulls off the mask from them, and openly reveals to all their baseness. Of this punishment Micah now speaks.

There shall be to you a night from vision; this is the literal phrasing, but the particle מ, mem, often means 'for' or 'on account of.' We can easily see that the Prophet represents night as the reward for visions and darkness for divination. “As then My people have been deceived by your fallacies, for your visions and divinations have been nothing but lies and deceits, I will repay you with the reward which you have deserved: for instead of a vision you shall have night, and instead of divination you shall have thick darkness.”

It is indeed certain that the false teachers, even when they were, as they say, in great reputation—that is, when they retained the honor and the title of their office—were blind and wholly destitute of all light. But the Prophet here declares that, as their baseness did not appear to the common people, God would cause it to be eventually fully evident.

For instance, there is nothing today more stupid and senseless than the bishops of the Papacy. For when anyone draws from them any expression about religion, they instantly betray not only their ignorance but also their shameful stupidity. With regard to the monks, though they are the most audacious kind of animals (audacissimum animalium genus), yet we know how unlearned and ignorant they are.

Therefore, at this time the night has not yet passed away, nor the darkness of which Micah speaks here.

So now we understand what the Holy Spirit teaches here: that God would eventually strip those false teachers of that imaginary dignity, on account of which no one dared to speak against them but received as an oracle whatever they uttered. Night, then, shall be to you instead of a vision; that is, “The whole world shall understand that you are not what you boast yourselves to be, for I will show that there is not in you, not even a particle of the prophetic spirit, but that you are men as dark as night, and darkness shall be to you instead of divination. You boast of great acuteness and great perspicuity of mind; but I will reveal your baseness, so that the very children may know that you are not endowed with the spirit.”

To the same purpose is what He adds, Go down shall the sun upon you, and darkened over you shall be the day; that is, such will be that darkness that even at noon they will see nothing. The sun will shine on all, but they shall grope as in the dark, so that God's vengeance would be made so manifest that it might be noticed by all, from the least to the greatest.

He confirms the same thing in the next verse: And ashamed shall be the seers and confounded the diviners, and they shall cover their lip; that is, they will put veils on their mouths. In short, He means that they would become a reproach to all, so that they would be ashamed of themselves and no longer dare to boast with so much confidence of their name and of the prophetic office.

As to this form of expression, ועטו על-שפם, uothu ol shephim, some think that the practice of mourners is referred to; but this interpretation is unconvincing. I therefore have no doubt that Micah intimates that the mouths of the false teachers would be closed.

There is nearly the same denunciation mentioned by Zechariah. For speaking of the restoration of the Church, He says—those who before went about boasting greatly, and gloried in the name of Prophets, shall cast away their mantle, and will no longer dare to show themselves. Indeed, when they shall come abroad, they shall be, as it were, herdsmen or private persons, and shall say, “I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, I am chastised by my father;” that is, they shall profess themselves unworthy of being called prophets, but that they are scholars under discipline (Zechariah 13:5).

So also in this place, “They deceive today My people,” says the Lord; “I will reward them as they deserve; I will fill them with disgrace and contempt.”

They shall not then dare from now on to show themselves as they have been accustomed to do. They shall not presume boastingly to profess themselves to be the pillars of the Church, that the whole world may be made subject to them. They shall not dare with tyrannical force to oppress the common and ignorant portions of society. Veil, then, shall they their mouth; that is, “I will cause their mouth to be closed, so that they shall not dare from now on to utter even a word.”

It follows, For there will be no answer from God. Some explain this sentence as though the Prophet upbraided them with their old deceits, which they boasted were the words of God. Since they were not faithful to God but lied to miserable men when they said that they were sent from above and brought messages from heaven, while they only uttered their own inventions or fables, they should on these accounts be constrained to cover their mouth.

But the Prophet's meaning is different, and it is this: that they were to be deprived of any answer, so that their lack of knowledge might be easily perceived even by the most ignorant. For false teachers, though they possess nothing certain, yet deceive the simple with disguises and make their absurdities plausible, that they may seem to be the interpreters of God; and they further add great confidence. And then the stupidity of the people concedes to them such great power, according to what is said by Jeremiah 5, where He says that the priests received gifts and that for gifts the Prophets divined, and that the people loved such deprivations.

But Micah declares here that such delusions would no longer be allowed, for God would dissipate them. It will then be made evident that you have no answer from God; that is, “All will perceive that you are void and destitute of every celestial truth, and that you were formerly but gross cheats, when you passed yourselves as God’s servants, though you had no ground for doing so.”

We now perceive what the Prophet means. But this punishment might have then contributed to the benefit of the people: for as it is a cause of ruin to the world when there is no difference made between light and darkness, so when the baseness of those is revealed who abuse God’s name and adulterate His pure truth, there is then a door open to repentance. Rightly then is this combination addressed to false prophets.