Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer-fruits, as the grape-gleanings of the vintage. There is no cluster to eat; there is no early fruit [which] my soul desired.
Micah's last chapter opens with a cry: the prophet looks at his own nation and sees a stripped orchard, with nothing left worth eating. So where does a man turn when God's own planting gives Him nothing?
One commentator names what the prophet is doing here, and where his cry ends up.
Then the prophet takes the place of intercession. "Woe is me!" says he. It is a lament of the prophet which passes at length into a prayer.
Commentators differ on whose longing the verse voices. One writer hears God's own disappointment in it, and sets Israel's early days against what the nation had become.
And the Lord's soul unsatisfied! "Woe is me!... no first-ripe fig that my soul desires." When Israel was helpless, at the first, in the wilderness, He had found them like grapes, like the first ripe fruit on the fig tree; but now the best of them is like a brier, the most upright sharper than a thorn hedge.
The same picture of a fruitless tree returns in the Gospels. One writer points to where.
Verses 1, 2. Compare these verses, on to verse 6, with the words of the Lord Jesus in the Gospels — Mark 11:13 and Matthew 21:19. "It was not the season for figs."
Jesus warned of the divisions His coming would bring. One writer traces that description back to these verses.
He shows in detail the divisions that would be the result of His mission. The world would no more endure faith in the Saviour than it did the Saviour Himself, who was its object and whom it confessed. It is well to note how the presence of the Saviour draws out the evil of the human heart. The state described here is in Micah, the description of the most dreadful state of evil imaginable (Micah 7:1-7).
One writer sees the prophet as a picture of a faithful few, and points to what they do in a time of trouble.
It is the prophet's voice complaining over the conditions of the people. But he also stands as the representative of the remnant during Zion's time of anguish... In the middle of the conditions the prophet describes, we read that his refuge was prayer. He looks to the Lord, sure that He will hear. "But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me" (verse 7). This will be the attitude of the godly Israelites during the time of trouble.
Faith does not soften the verdict. It agrees with it, and what it does next is the point.
Those made alive then at once take up the word, and seal the judgment just pronounced. They own that things were indeed as bad as they could be: few were left to form a good seed among the people, and the nearest and dearest relationships were violated. But they keep away from where they had not found their refuge and relief; that was in God Himself, so that they could challenge all that might oppose them. And yet, with all this happy, holy boldness in front of their enemies, they humble themselves under the Lord's hand. They know and own that, as a sinning, unclean people, they had no answer for Him. (Micah 7:1-10)
One commentator ties the lament to a real death in Judah's history. He asks whether Micah was thinking of king Jotham, after whom Ahaz reigned.
Did Micah have Jotham's death in mind when he wrote, "The godly has perished from the earth"? From what follows in the chapter, down to verse 7, it would appear so. The violence, fraud, bribery, treachery, and other kinds of wickedness described here are just what was common after Jotham, under Ahaz's infamous rule.
- Empty — The harvest is over and nothing worth eating is left. The prophet finds no godly man where God had planted a nation.
- Unsatisfied — What Micah longs for is what God longed for. He had once found Israel like the first ripe fruit; now the best of them is a brier.
- Fruitless — These verses point forward to the fig tree in the Gospels, and Jesus took up the words of Micah 7. His presence draws out the evil of the human heart.
- Faithful — The complaint belongs to a small company. They agree with God's verdict, make no excuses, and still take their stand in Him.
- Prayer — The lament does not stay a lament. It becomes intercession, and ends in waiting: "my God will hear me."
The godly [man] hath perished out of the land, and there is none upright among men they all lie in wait for blood, they hunt every man his brother with a net.
Micah looks around his own nation and cannot find one person who lives up to the name "people of God." The verse raises two questions. What is lost when the godly are gone? And what does a faithful person do then?
One writer ties this lament to a moment in Judah's history: the death of King Jotham, and the reign of Ahaz that followed.
Did Micah have Jotham's death in mind when he wrote, "The godly man has perished out of the land"? From what follows in the chapter, down to verse 7, it would appear so. The violence, fraud, bribery, treachery, and other forms of wickedness described here are just what took hold after Jotham. They prevailed under Ahaz's infamous rule. Jotham was indeed a godly man, and the righteous might well say at his death, "Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases!"
One writer traces the word behind "godly" through its other translations, and finds God's own graciousness at the root of it.
In one place the word translated "holy" is given in the margin as "one whom You favour," and in the Revised Version as "godly." The same word is also translated "saint," "the merciful," and in Micah 7:2, "the good man." There is a close and beautiful connection here. God is gracious, and so is the heart that knows Him by faith and delights in Him. But how different the result in those who do not! The same sun that perfects the beauty of the rooted living flower withers the rootless one.
This verse is the result of a search. Micah does not judge strangers from a distance. He stands inside his own nation, looks for anyone who fits its name, and turns the whole complaint into a confession before God.
In Micah 7 the prophet takes the place of intercessor before God, in the name of the people. He brings to Him both their deep misery and their sins, speaking in their name and identifying himself with them... He searches anxiously among the people for something that matches their title, the people of God. He finds nothing but fraud and deceit, and men lying in wait for blood, eager to do evil with both hands... Still, all of this is said as the confession of the city, and out of that confession she can bow to God's hand and look to the One who will Himself plead her cause and carry out judgment for her.
The verse uses pictures from hunting: an ambush, and a net cast over another person. The ruin does not stop in the street. It reaches into the home.
The prophet Micah describes the moral corruption that prevailed in his day (vv. 2-4). He declares that all confidence between friends, and even between husband and wife, had completely vanished. In that state of things people openly violated the most sacred family ties, so that a man's enemies were the men of his own house. It is a dark though true picture of the power of evil ruling in the prophet's day.
Micah does not stop at describing the ruin. One writer hears in him the voice of the remnant — the faithful few left in Israel — in a future time of trouble, and shows where the prophet turns for refuge.
It is the prophet's voice complaining over the conditions of the people. But he also stands as a picture of the remnant during Zion's time of anguish... In the middle of the conditions he describes, we read that his refuge was prayer. He looks to the Lord, sure that He will hear: "I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me" (verse 7). This will be the attitude of the godly Israelites during the time of trouble.
Micah 7 is not left in the past. One writer finds the same state of evil where the Saviour is present, because His coming brings out what is already in the human heart.
It is well to note how the presence of the Saviour draws out the evil of the human heart. The state described here is found in Micah, where we have the picture of the most dreadful state of evil imaginable (Micah 7:1-7).
- Look back. The lament fits the years after King Jotham died. Under Ahaz, violence, fraud, bribery and treachery took over the land.
- Look for. Micah searches his own people for anyone who fits the name "people of God." He finds only deceit and men lying in wait for blood.
- Look at the word. The word for "godly" is also translated "saint" and "the merciful." It describes a heart made gracious by knowing the gracious God.
- Look around. Trust between friends, and even between husband and wife, is gone. The closest ties break, and a man's enemies live in his own house.
- Look up. The complaint turns into prayer. The prophet's refuge is to look to the Lord and wait for the God of his salvation. The godly will do the same in the coming time of trouble.
Both hands are for evil, to do it well. The prince asketh, and the judge [is there] for a reward; and the great [man] uttereth his soul's greed and [together] they combine it.
Micah searches his nation for one decent person and finds none, and verse 3 shows why: even the ruler and the judge have a price. So where does a godly person turn when the courts themselves are for sale?
Micah looks through his own people for anything that matches the name they carry. He finds hands that work evil with skill and effort. One writer reads his report as the city's own confession:
He searches anxiously among the people for something that suits their title as the people of God. He finds nothing but fraud and deceit, and lying in wait for blood, so that they might do evil with both hands earnestly. Yet all of it is said as the city's confession. Out of this she can look, as one bowing to God's hand, to the One who will Himself plead her cause and execute judgment for her.
The great man puts his craving into words, and the word behind "desire" is the ordinary Hebrew word for soul. One writer traces its range across Scripture — appetite, pleasure, will — and places this verse under "desire":
So its derived meanings are: "Appetite" (Proverbs 23:2; Ecclesiastes 6:7). "Pleasure" (Deuteronomy 23:24; Psalm 105:22; Jeremiah 34:16). "Desire" (Jeremiah 44:14; Micah 7:3; Habakkuk 2:5). "Mind," in the sense of will or intention, not of understanding (1 Samuel 2:35; 2 Kings 9:15).
The verse names the prince, the judge and the great man, then says they weave it together — corruption by agreement, not by accident. One writer describes what authority becomes when nothing higher holds it in check:
Human judgement and human government are therefore open to the worst corruption. Judges and governors, if left to themselves and not under the direct sway of divine principle, are capable of twisting justice for the sake of money. They can favour a wicked man because he is rich, and condemn a righteous man because he is poor. They can give a judgement that openly contradicts the plainest facts, for the sake of some advantage — money, influence, popularity, or power.
Another writer comments on the law that bans bribes, and traces the damage past the courtroom:
Verse 8 forbids every form of bribery, which is an appeal to the feelings of the one bribed. Where bribery is widespread, justice all but disappears. "The bribe blinds those whose eyes are open" (an older translation). Let us read this verse in its spirit as well as its letter. Self-interest can blind the eyes of a sincere Christian who would never for a moment think of accepting a bribe.
Corrupt courts look like a problem better laws could fix. One writer says the repair has to start somewhere else:
It is impossible to act justly and to be truly humble before God until we have turned to Him in faith. We may turn before we have seen our sins covered by His grace, and before we know for certain that He will not charge our sin against us. There is a real repentance worked in the soul first, and Israel will be brought into this. It is faith that produces real repentance and true humility.
Jesus quoted from this passage when He described the division His coming would cause. That connection gives the chapter a weight beyond Micah's own day.
He shows in detail the divisions that His mission would produce. It is worth noticing how the presence of the Saviour draws out the evil of the human heart. The state described here is the one in Micah — the most dreadful state of evil that can be imagined (Micah 7:1-7).
Micah has no plan for cleaning up the courts. The next verse shows where he goes instead, and the same path stays open to anyone who meets these conditions later.
It is the prophet's voice complaining about the condition of the people. But he also stands for the faithful few in Israel during Zion's time of anguish. Note that our Lord quotes from this part of Micah (see Matthew 10:21, which looks on to that faithful group in the future). In the middle of the conditions the prophet describes, his refuge was prayer. He looked to the Lord with the assurance that He will hear: "But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me."
- Search — Micah looks for one man fit for the name "people of God" and finds fraud, deceit and hands eager for evil.
- Soul — the great man speaks his craving aloud without shame; the word here means desire, not simple appetite.
- Sale — rulers and judges left to themselves trade justice for money, influence or power. The same self-interest can blind a sincere believer too.
- Source — the cure is not stricter rules but repentance. No one acts justly or walks humbly until faith has turned him to God.
- Shelter — every human refuge is corrupt, so the prophet looks to the Lord and waits for the God of his salvation.
The best of them is as a briar; the most upright, [worse] than a thorn-fence. The day of thy watchmen, thy visitation is come; now shall be their perplexity.
Micah 7 opens with the prophet grieving over a harvest already stripped bare. Verse 4 gives the verdict. Even the pick of the nation now wounds whoever touches them, and the announced day has arrived. Two questions follow. How can the best be the problem? And what does a person do when that day lands?
Verse 4 is a conclusion, not a starting point. It follows a deliberate hunt through the nation for anything worthy of the name "people of God".
In Micah 7 the prophet stands before God as intercessor for the people. He lays before Him both their deep misery and their sins. He speaks in their name and makes himself one with them... Anxious, he searches among the people for anything that matches their title as the people of God. He finds nothing but fraud and deceit, and men waiting in ambush to shed blood, eager to do evil with both hands. Yet all of this is said as the city's confession. So from that place she can look up, bowing to God's hand, to One who will Himself plead her cause and carry out judgment for her.
Without faith there is no real repentance, and the rot reaches from the people to the king.
It is faith that produces real repentance and true humility. Where there was no faith, right to the end of the chapter we find solemn proof of evil showing itself in both the people and the king. What the prophet says here is a lament, and in the end it turns into a prayer.
The two images have a history. Thorns are what the curse brought into the world after man's sin.
Six different Hebrew words are translated as thorn or brier, and several of them cannot be pinned down exactly. This shows how plentiful the fruits are of the curse God pronounced in Eden because of man's sin. Those fruits will be removed in the millennium, when the myrtle and other plants will take the thorn's place.
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Set that against what God once found in these same people.
The LORD's soul is left unsatisfied. When Israel was helpless in the wilderness at the first, He had found them like grapes, like the first ripe fruit on a fig tree. But now the best of them is a brier.
The picture of a search that ends in disappointment turns up again in the Gospels, where the Lord comes to a tree in leaf and finds nothing on it.
Verses 1, 2. Compare these verses, on to verse 6, with the words of the Lord Jesus in the Gospels — Mark 11:13, and Matthew 21:19. "The time of figs was not yet."
The problem is not a shortage of decent behaviour. It is a break at the source.
When God does not have His place in the soul, we assert our independence. Then our weakness and inconsistency open the way to the enemy's cunning, and the mind does not see that it has left the truth. "I said in my haste, All men are liars," Psalm 116:11. So again, Micah 7 (where there is every kind of corruption), "The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge... Trust not in a friend, put no confidence in a guide; keep the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your bosom." They had departed from God. To learn what sin really is, you must learn the source you have departed from. We have departed from God.
Verse 4 announces a day that leaves people bewildered. A few lines later the prophet shows what he does with it. Some translations read "visitation" where the ESV has "punishment".
Verses 1-6. It is the prophet's voice complaining over the conditions of the people. But he also pictures the remnant during Zion's time of anguish. Note that our Lord quotes from this part of Micah (see Matthew 10:21, which applies to the future remnant). In the middle of the conditions he describes, we read that his refuge was prayer. He looked to the Lord, sure that He would hear. "But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me" (verse 7). This will be the attitude of the godly Israelites during the time of trouble.
- Search. The prophet hunts through the nation for anything worthy of its name. He finds only fraud, deceit and violence.
- Verdict. God once found first-ripe fruit here. Now He finds a brier — the mark of the curse that sin brought in, and that God will clear away in the age to come.
- Measure. The charge names the best and the most upright. So no one can point to a better example in the nation.
- Root. All of it traces to one source. They had departed from God, and to learn what sin is, you must learn what you left.
- Refuge. The day lands and confusion sets in. One thing stays open: the prophet looks to the LORD and waits for the God of his salvation.
Believe ye not in a companion, put not confidence in a familiar friend keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.
Micah 7 mourns a nation where honesty has died, and this verse is its low point: a man cannot speak safely to a friend, an adviser, or even his own wife. How does a people sink this far, why did Jesus later quote these lines, and where can trust go when every human tie fails?
The verse sits in a section where the prophet stops accusing and starts pleading. One writer follows the movement from lament to prayer, and then to broken bonds.
It is a lament of the prophet that turns at last into a prayer. Then he describes, in the most striking way, the terrible breakdown of all bonds and the treachery common among the Jews… Here is a solemn thought: these are the words that Jesus applies to the effect of His message of the kingdom. What an awful proof of man's evil.
Micah is not standing apart from the ruin he describes. Another writer notes that he speaks from inside it.
In Micah 7 the prophet takes the place of intercessor before God, in the name of the people — presenting to Him at once their deep misery and their iniquities — speaking in their name, and identifying himself with them… He searches anxiously among the people for something suitable to their title of the people of God; he finds nothing but fraud and deceit.
Why has trust collapsed? One writer traces it back to a single root.
Where God does not have His place in the soul, we assert our independence. Then our weakness and inconsistency open the way to the cunning of the enemy, and the mind does not see that it has left the truth… So again, Micah 7, where corruption of every kind is found… They had departed from God. To learn what sin is to any purpose is to learn the source from which we have departed. We have departed from God.
Commentators point out that Christ quoted this passage. Micah wrote of the worst of human corruption. Jesus said His own message would produce it.
The Lord Jesus declares in the Gospel that the preaching of the gospel would produce what the prophet describes as the height of iniquity. Such is the iniquity of the heart that the light stirs into action. It rouses a hatred that only grows worse the nearer its object is.
That timing is worth weighing. Micah described a state still ahead of him, yet it broke out while Jesus walked among His people.
The Lord is alluding to the prophecy of Micah, who describes in similar terms the worst evil of the last days… It is solemn to find, therefore, that before the days spoken of by the prophet arrive, the evil had already come, and that the presence of Divine love in the person of Jesus provokes it. This could not be if men were not thoroughly bad; but Jesus is the Truth, and therefore brings all things to a head.
The same broken confidence appears twice in Scripture from two different causes. One writer sets the two side by side.
The prophet Micah, in describing the moral corruption that prevailed in his day, declares that all confidence between friends, and even between husband and wife, had completely vanished… The gospel of Matthew shows the same state of things, but this time it follows the presentation of Christ… When Christ is presented to men, they either receive Him or reject Him. So He brings, not peace, but a sword. It draws out from those who refuse Him all the enmity, all the hidden corruption, of the human heart, both against Christ and against His followers.
If the closest ties can turn hostile, the disciple has a decision to make early. One writer reads Christ's call to discipleship as an echo of these verses.
There may be an allusion here to Micah 7:5-6. A person must give up friends for Christ… you cannot have two hearts — a heart for the world, and a heart for Me — Christ would say. I tremble when I see people who have not counted the cost, setting out in the profession of following Christ. It is God's way to put the barrier at the very start.
The warning is not the end. Verse 7 answers it: the collapse of human trust is what drives a person to God. One writer applies this to the remnant — the faithful few left in Israel.
This forces the remnant to look to the Lord as their only resource, and to bow until He pleads. When we have fallen in anything, that is the only thing we have to do.
Another writer names the prophet's refuge, and sees the same pattern for God's people in a coming day of trouble.
In the middle of the conditions the prophet describes, we read that his refuge was prayer. He looks to the Lord, sure that He will hear. "But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me" (verse 7). This will be the attitude of the godly Israelites during the time of trouble.
- Departure. The distrust starts further back. A people who have left God can no longer be truthful with each other, and the ruin shows first in the closest ties.
- Description. Micah is not giving advice about friendship. He is recording a fact: trust between friends, and even between husband and wife, was gone.
- Division. Christ quoted this passage about His own message. Where people refuse Him, the light draws out their hidden hatred, and He brings a sword rather than peace.
- Decision. The nearest ties can turn hostile. So following Christ means counting the cost at the start, not halfway through.
- Dependence. The verse strips away every human support. The next verse supplies the only one that holds: look to the Lord, and wait for the God of salvation.
For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law a man's enemies are the men of his own household.
Micah's picture of a corrupt nation ends at the family, the one place where trust should be safest. The Lord Jesus later applies these same words to the effect of His own coming.
The verse is the last step in a downward list. The prophet has already warned against trusting a friend, and against speaking freely even to a wife. Now he moves inward, to father, mother, and the ties formed by marriage.
Then he describes in the most striking way the terrible breaking of all bonds and the treachery common among the Jews. "Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms... a man's enemies are the men of his own house." It is a solemn thought that these are the words Jesus applies to the effect of His message of the kingdom. What an awful proof of man's evil! The state of things that will bring God's final judgment on the Jews at the end is the very thing the Lord tells His disciples to expect now, wherever this gospel is preached.
Commentators read these lines first as a report on Micah's own generation, before any wider application.
The prophet Micah, describing the moral corruption of his own day (vv. 2-4), declares that all confidence between friends, and even between husband and wife, had completely vanished, and that in this state of things the most sacred ties of relationship were openly violated, so that a man's enemies were the men of his own house. It is a dark though true picture of how strongly evil ruled in the prophet's day.
Jesus echoes this verse in His own teaching. The evil Micah set in the last days had already surfaced, and His presence is what drew it out.
The nearest relationships, sex, age, or youth, made no difference. Grace works freely, according to the sovereign will of God. In the same way, man's hatred makes no distinctions, and shows up in the most unlikely places. The Lord is alluding to the prophecy of Micah, who describes in similar terms the worst evil of the last days (Micah 7:6). It is solemn to find, then, that the evil had already come before the days the prophet spoke of. And the presence of divine love in the person of Jesus is what provokes it. This could not happen if men were not thoroughly bad; but Jesus is the Truth, and so He brings everything to a head.
The division starts with how people answer Christ.
When Christ is put before men, they either receive Him or reject Him. So He brings not peace, but a sword. It draws out from those who refuse Him all the enmity, all the hidden corruption, of the human heart, both against Christ and against His followers... In such circumstances sons have betrayed their fathers, daughters their mother, and parents their children. In this way the Lord's words have often come true.
The verse still lands in ordinary houses. A shared home does not mean a shared walk with God.
What is happier than a Christian home, where Christ is acknowledged as Lord?... Contrast this with the divided house, where the world is allowed. Faith must stand firm, but oh, the sorrow and the strife that the world brings in. A faithful Christian parent is trying to keep the world out of his home. A wife is trying to walk with God, while her husband does everything he can to draw her into the world. Will there not be strife? Must there not be, if one is to be faithful to the Lord and His truth?
Verse 6 is not the end of the paragraph. The collapse of every human tie leaves the godly one place to turn.
The grace and presence of Christ brought out the full iniquity of chapter 7:6. This forces the remnant to look to the Lord as their only resource, and to bow until He pleads their cause. If we have fallen in anything, that is the only thing we have to do.
The prophet's own answer comes in the next verse.
In the middle of the conditions the prophet describes, we read that his refuge was prayer, looking to the Lord with the assurance that He will hear. "But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me" (verse 7).
- House — evil reaches its last refuge, the family. Son, daughter, and daughter-in-law turn on their own, and a man's enemies are the men of his own house.
- Then — Micah is reporting the treachery of his own nation. Not a friend, not even a wife, could be trusted.
- Now — Jesus takes up the same words, because His presence provokes the same hatred. Men receive Him or refuse Him, and the sword follows.
- Home — the divided house is still the cost of faithfulness. Where the world is let in, strife comes with it.
- Refuge — when every human bond fails, the faithful look to the Lord alone: "I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me."