John Calvin Commentary Micah 6:13-14

"Therefore I also have smitten thee with a grievous wound; I have made thee desolate because of thy sins. Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy humiliation shall be in the midst of thee: and thou shalt put away, but shalt not save; and that which thou savest will I give up to the sword." — Micah 6:13-14 (ASV)

God, after having declared that He would be the Judge of the people, now speaks more clearly of their punishment. Therefore, He says that He was armed with vengeance. It often happens that a judge, even one who hates wickedness, is unable to punish because he dreads the fierceness of those whom he considers himself unable to restrain.

Hence God intimates here that He will not lack the power to punish the people. I will afflict you, He says, by striking or wounding you; for so some translate the words. The sum of what is said is this: nothing would be an obstacle to prevent God from inflicting punishment on the people, for He would not lack power. Therefore, there is no reason for people to promise themselves any escape when God ascends His tribunal; for even if they were fortified by all possible means, they could not ward off the hand of God.

And He points out what sort of punishment it would be, mentioning two kinds in this verse. He says first, You shall eat, and shall not be satisfied. One of God’s plagues, we know, is famine. And so the Prophet here declares that the people would be famished, but not through the barrenness of the fields.

God indeed brings a famine in two ways: sometimes the land yields no fruit; the corn withers, or, being struck by hail, produces no fruit. Thus God, by the barrenness of the fields, often reduces people to want and famine.

Then another method is adopted, by which He can consume people with want: namely, when He breaks the staff of bread, when He takes away from bread its nourishing properties so that it can no longer support people, whatever quantity they may swallow. This is what experience proves, if only we have eyes to observe the judgments of God.

We now see the meaning of this clause, when He says, You shall eat, and shall not be satisfied; as though He said, “I can indeed, whenever it pleases Me, deprive you of all food; the earth itself will become barren at My command. But that you may more clearly understand that your life is in My hand, a good supply of fruit shall be produced, but it shall not satisfy you. You shall then perceive that bread is not sufficient to support you; for by eating you shall not be able to derive any nourishment from bread.”

He then adds, And your dejection shall be in the midst of you; that is, though no one from without disturbs or afflicts you, yet you shall pine away with internal evils.

This is the real meaning, and interpreters, through too much negligence, have not sufficiently considered what the Prophet means. But the passage ought to be noticed.

For the Prophet, after having threatened a famine—not from want, but from the secret curse of God—now adds, Your dejection shall be in the midst of you; that is, “Though I should rouse no enemies against you, though evidences of My wrath should not appear so as to be seen at a distance, yes, though no one should disturb you, yet your dejection, your calamity, shall be in the midst of you, as though it were cleaving to your bowels. For you shall pine away through a hidden malady when God shall pronounce His curse on you.”

He now adds another kind of punishment: You shall take hold, but shall not deliver; and what you shall deliver, I will give up to the sword. Some interpret it as, “A woman shall lay hold” (that is, conceive seed) “and shall not preserve it;” and then, “though she may bring forth in due time, I will yet give up what may be born to the sword.” But this meaning is too forced.

Others apply the words to fathers: “You, father, shall lay hold” (that is, you shall endeavor to preserve your children) “and you shall not preserve them.”

But I wonder that interpreters have thus toiled in vain over a matter so simple and plain. For He addresses here the land, or He addresses the city, as though He said, “The city shall take hold,” or embrace (as everyone does who wishes to preserve or keep anything, for what we wish to keep safe, we lay hold of it and keep it, as it were, in our arms);

“and what you shall preserve, I will give up to the sword. You will try all means to preserve yourself and your people, but you shall not succeed. You shall then lose all your labor, for though you should preserve some, yet the preserved shall not escape destruction.”

If anyone prefers to refer what is said to women, with regard to conception (as the third person of the feminine gender is used), let him have his own opinion. For this sense may certainly be admitted: that is, that the Lord would make the women barren, and that what they might bring forth would be given up to the slaughter, since the Lord would at length destroy with the sword both the parents and their children.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as You can find in us cause enough to execute not only one kind of vengeance, but innumerable kinds of vengeance, so as to destroy us at length altogether—O grant, that we may of our own accord anticipate Your judgment, and with true humility so abhor ourselves, that a genuine desire may be kindled in us to seek what is just and right, and thus endeavor to devote ourselves wholly to You, that we may find You to be propitious to us; and since we in so many ways offend You, grant that in true and sincere faith we may raise up all our thoughts and affections to Your only-begotten Son, who is our propitiation, that You, being appeased, we may lay hold on Him, and remain united to Him by a sacred bond, until You at length gather us all into that celestial kingdom, which He has procured for us by His own blood. Amen.