John Gill Commentary Micah 6

Hear you now what the Lord says
Here begins a new discourse, and with an address of the prophet to the people of Israel, to hear what the Lord had to say to them by way of reproof for their sins now, as they had heard before many great and precious promises concerning the Messiah, and the happiness of the church in future time; to hear what the Lord now said to them by the prophet, and what he said to the prophet himself, as follows: arise ;
O Prophet Micah, and do your office; sit not still, nor indulge to sloth and ease; show readiness, diligence, activity, zeal, and courage in my service, and in carrying a message from me to my people:

contend you before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice ;
open the cause depending between me and my people; state the case between us before the mountains and hills; and exert yourself, and lift up your voice loudly, and with so much vehemence, that, if it was possible, the very mountains and hills might hear you; the Lord hereby suggests that they would as soon hear as his people; thus upbraiding their stupidity, as he elsewhere does; see (Isaiah 1:2) (Jeremiah 2:12) (22:29) . Kimchi and Ben Melech render it, to the mountains, which is much to the same sense with our version; call and summon them as witnesses in this cause; let the pleadings be made before them, and let them be judges in this matter; as they might be both for God, and against his people: the mountains and hills clothed with grass, and covered with flocks and herds; or set with all manner of fruit trees, vines, olives, and figs; or adorned with goodly cedars, oaks, and elms; were witnesses of the goodness of God unto them, and the same could testify against them; and, had they mouths to speak, could declare the abominations committed on them; how upon every high mountain and hill, and under every green tree, they had been guilty of idolatry.

The Targum, and many versions {q}, render it, "with the mountains"; and the Vulgate Latin version, and others, "against the mountains" ^F18 ; the inhabitants of Judea, that being a mountainous country, especially some parts of it. Some by "mountains" understand the great men of the land, king, princes, nobles; and, by "hills", lesser magistrates, with whom the Lord's controversy chiefly was; they not discharging their offices aright, nor setting good examples to the people.

Some copies of the Targum, as the king of Spain's Bible, paraphrase it,

``judge or contend with the fathers, and let the mothers hear your voice;''

which Kimchi thus explains, as if it was said, let the fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the mothers Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah, hear what their children has rendered to the Lord; let them be, as it were, called out of their graves to hear the ill requital made to the Lord for all his goodness.

FOOTNOTES:

• F18: "Adversum montes", V. L. Grotius.

Hear you, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and you strong
foundations of the earth
These are the words of the prophet, obeying the divine command, calling upon the mountains, which are the strong parts of the earth, and the bottoms of them the foundations of it, to hear the Lord's controversy with his people, and judge between them; or, as some think, these are the persons with whom, and against whom, the controversy was; the chief and principal men of the land, who were as pillars to the common people to support and uphold them: for the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will plead with
Israel ;
his people Israel, who were so by choice, by covenant, by their own avouchment and profession: they had been guilty of many sins and transgressions against both tables of the law; and now the Lord had a controversy with them for them, and was determined to enter into judgment, and litigate the point with them; and dreadful it is when God brings in a charge, and pleads his own cause with sinful men; they are not able to contend with him, nor answer him for one of a thousand faults committed against him; see (Hosea 4:1Hosea 4:2).

O my people
These are the words of the Lord himself by the prophet, expressing his strong affection to the people ofIsrael, of which his goodness to them was a full proof, and this was an aggravation of their ingratitude tohim; they were his people, whom he had chosen for himself above all people of the earth; whom he had redeemedfrom the house of bondage, has distinguished them by his laws, and loaded them with his benefits, and yetthey sinned against him.

what have I done unto thee ?
what evil things, what injuries to provoke to such usage? "what iniquity have you", or "your fathers, foundin me", to treat me after this manner? have I been "a wilderness", or "a land of darkness", to you? (Jeremiah 2:5Jeremiah 2:31); have I withheld or denied you anything that was for your good? The Targumis, "O my people, what good have I said I would do to you, and I have not done it?" all that the Lordhad promised he had performed; not one good thing had failed he had spoken of; how much good, and how manygood things, had he done for them? nay, what good things were there he had not done for them? and what morecould be done for them than what had been done? and yet they sinned against him so grossly; see (Isaiah 5:4).

and wherein have I wearied thee ?
how have I wearied you? what heavy yoke have I put upon you? what grievous commandments have I enjoined you? is there anything inmy service, any duty, too hard, severe, or unreasonable? are the sacrifices required burdensome? "have Icaused you to serve with an offering, and wearied you with incense?" is there any just reason to say ofthese things, "what a weariness is it?" See (Isaiah 43:23) (Malachi 1:13).

testify against me ;
declare it publicly, if any good thing has been wanting, or any evil thing done: thus the Lord condescends tohave the case fairly debated, and everything said that could be said in their favour, or against him:astonishing condescension and goodness!

For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt
Instead of doing them any wrong, he has done them much good; of which this is one instance, and he was able to produce more: this a notorious, plain, and full proof of his goodness to them, which could not be denied. It may be rendered, as it is by some, "surely I brought thee up" ^F19 this is a certain thing, well known, and cannot be disproved; it must be allowed to be a great favour and kindness to be brought up out of a superstitious, idolatrous, Heathenish people, enemies to God and true religion, and who had used them in a barbarous and cruel manner: and redeemed thee out of the house of servants ; or, "out of the house of bondage"; as the same words are rendered, (Exodus 20:2) ; that is, out of hard service, in which their lives were made bitter; out of cruel bondage and slavery; which made them cry to the Lord for help and deliverance, and he heard them, and sent them a deliverer; by whose hand he redeemed them from this base and low estate in which they were, and for which they ought ever to have been thankful, and to have shown their gratitude by their cheerful and constant obedience.

Some take "the house of servants" to be descriptive, not of the state of the children of Israel in Egypt, but of the character of the Egyptians themselves; who, being the posterity of Ham, were inheritors of his curse, that he should be a servant of servants; and so it is an aggravation of the blessing, that Israel were redeemed from being servants to the servants of servants. This sense is mentioned by Kimchi and Abarbinel:

and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam ; not to bring them the news of their deliverance out of Egypt, before they came out of it, as Kimchi; but to be their guides to conduct and direct them in all matters, civil and religious. Moses was their lawgiver, leader, and commander; Aaron was their priest to offer sacrifice for them, and to intercede on their behalf; and Miriam was a prophetess; and they were all very useful and beneficial to them; and a very great blessing it is to a people to have a good constitution, civil and ecclesiastic, and to have good magistrates, and good ministers of the word.

The Targum is, ``I sent before thee three prophets, Moses to teach the tradition of the judgments, Aaron to make atonement for the people, and Miriam to instruct the women.''

FOOTNOTES:

• F19: (yk) "certe", Calvin, Piscator, Tarnovius; so some in Vatablus.

O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, etc.

Remember what a scheme he had laid, what contrivances he had formed, what consultations he had with a soothsayer or diviner he sent for to curse Israel, how he sought to get the God of Israel on his side and set him against them, that he might be rid of them and they might be ruined and destroyed.

The Moabites were the descendants of Moab, a son of Lot, by one of his daughters. When they first set up their kingdom is not certain, nor who their kings in succession were before Balak. It appears there was a former king, whom the king of the Amorites fought with and took away his land from him (Numbers 21:26), who probably was Zippor, the father of Balak, and whom he succeeded, the kingdom being recovered by him or by this his son. However, he was on the throne when Israel was upon the borders of his kingdom, which threw him into a panic, upon which he sent messengers to a neighbouring magician next mentioned, to advise with him what to do in this his extremity.

The Jews have a tradition that, because of the multitude of sacrifices he offered, he was worthy to have Ruth, the descendant from him, who, they say, was the daughter of Eglon, the grandson of Balak, king of Moab.

And what Balaam the son of Beor answered him. This man is called a soothsayer (Joshua 13:22). The Jews say he was first a prophet, and so the Apostle Peter calls him (2 Peter 2:16), and afterwards became a diviner. They differ very much about him, who he was, and from whom he descended. Beor his father is sometimes said to be the son of Laban, and, at other times, Balaam himself is said to be Laban the Syrian, whose soul they suppose transmigrated into Balaam, as it afterwards did into Nabal, according to them.

Some ^F24 take him to be the same with Elihu, who interposed in the dispute between Job and his friends; and others say that he was one of the eunuchs, counsellors, and magicians of Pharaoh, both when Moses was a child and when he wrought his miracles in Egypt; and that Jannes and Jambres, of whom the Apostle Paul makes mention (2 Timothy 3:8), were his two sons ^F25.

He was an inhabitant of Pethor, which was situated on the river Euphrates, thought by Junius to be the Pacoria of Ptolemy. He seems to have been a Mesopotamian, though some say a Midianite; but, whether one or the other, he did not live at any great distance from the king of Moab.

He was slain by the sword of the children of Israel, in the times of Joshua (Joshua 13:22), and, as the Jews say ^F26, he was, when he was but thirty three or thirty four years of age, they observing upon it that bloody and deceitful men do not live out half their days; but this does not seem so well to agree with other things they say of him. However, Balak sent for this soothsayer and sorcerer to curse Israel. Though a wicked man who would gladly have done according to Balak's wish and desire, his heart and tongue were so overruled by the power of God that instead of cursing Israel he was obliged to bless them and to prophesy of their future happiness and prosperity and of the Messiah who should spring from them. See history of all this in (Numbers 22:1–24:25).

From Shittim unto Gilgal, that you may know the righteousness of the Lord.

Here something must be supplied to make sense of the words. Either, "remember what good things I did for you ^F1, from Shittim to Gilgal." The former was the place where the children of Israel committed whoredom and idolatry, and was on the other side Jordan; and the latter was the place they came to when they had passed over Jordan, where the covenant of circumcision was renewed, and the first passover kept. Now they are called upon to remember the goodness of God to them from one place to another, and what was done between them; how that at Shittim, though they provoked the Lord to anger, yet he did not cut them all off, but spared a number of them to enter and possess the land of Canaan; and though Moses died by the way, yet he raised up Joshua to go before them, and in a miraculous manner led them through the river Jordan, and brought them to Gilgal—favors ever to be had in remembrance.

So the Targum, ``were not great things done for you in the plain of Shittim unto the house of Gilgal, that the righteousness of the Lord might be known?'' This refers both to his justice in punishing offenders at Shittim, and his bounty and kindness, as well as his truth and faithfulness, in sparing others, bestowing his favors on them, and bringing them into the promised land.

Or it may be supplied thus, as by some, "remember what Balak consulted ^F2 from Shittim to Gilgal"; that is, with Balaam, and what answer and advice he gave him; which was to send beautiful women among the Israelites, and so tempt them to adultery, and by that means to idolatry; and which scheme and consultation took place at Shittim, by means of which several thousands were slain. The device was intended to continue the temptation even to Gilgal, which, had it not been prevented, in all likelihood would have resulted in the destruction of that people; and therefore they had reason to know, own, and acknowledge the goodness and faithfulness of God to them.

Or rather, taking the phrase "from Shittim to Gilgal" to be a proverbial one ^F3, of going from place to place, it may have respect to Balak's having Balaam from place to place, to take a view of the people, and curse them, or how he might set the God of Israel against them, and gain him over to him. And then the sense is this: "remember how Balak consulted Balaam from place to place, and what answers he returned him; all which was done, that "he (Balak) might know the righteousness of the Lord."" The Syriac version renders it this way, and it will bear to be so rendered. The thing which Balak chiefly consulted was, how he should get the God of Israel on his side, as it was usual with Heathen princes, when at war, to attempt to get the gods of their enemies from them, and on their side; and inquires of Balaam how this was to be effected, what righteousness it was the Lord required, what duties of religion to be performed, what rites or sacrifices were acceptable to him; and the sum of his questions on this head, and Balaam's answer to them, are contained in the following verses.

FOOTNOTES:

• F24: Hieron. Quaeat. Hebr. in Genesim, fol. 69. D.
• F25: Dibre Hayamim Shel Moseh, fol. 4. 2. & 6. 2. Targum Jon. in Exod. ix. 21. Shemot Rabba, sect. 1. fol. 90. 1. T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 106.
• F26: T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 106. 2. Shalshelet Hakabala, fol. 7. 2.
• F1: "Recordare qualia bona exhibuerim tibi", Munster; "memento eorum quae gesta sunt", Vatablus; "quae contigerint tibi", Calvin; "memento eorum quae fecerim", Grotius; "recordare quid evenerit tibi", Piscator.
• F2: "Memento quid cogifaverit contra te Balac, et quid responderit ei Balaam a Settim" Ribera; so Menochius, Tirinus.
• F3: See Bishop Chandler's Defence of Christianity, p. 290.