vs* 
 
 Dr. DAVID L LIKNAVIZ 
 
 x VENICE Ui.U* t
 
 ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SERIES 
 
 The present volume is the first of a proposed series of 
 Commentaries on the Books of Holy Scriptures which the 
 Jewish Publication Society of America has undertaken to 
 prepare. 
 
 This series is intended primarily for the teacher, the 
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 and Jewish. While the progress of Biblical study in 
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 of ancient monuments and lost languages, is recognized, 
 due account is taken of the fact that the people to whom 
 the Scriptures were given, and who founded the science of 
 their interpretation, possess in the works of the Jewish 
 commentators of all ages valuable material which has not 
 as yet fully found its way into English. Post- Biblical 
 Jewish literature (Talmud, Midrash, the Book of Prayer) 
 is drawn upon to show the continuity of Jewish thought 
 ultimately rooted in Scripture. 
 
 Each book is divided into sections, and each section 
 preceded by a summary of contents. A concise Introduc- 
 tion seeks to make known the general aspects of the 
 Biblical book, its date, composition, contents, and spirit. 
 
 The translation will follow, as far as possible, the English 
 Version which is now being prepared for the Jewish Publi- 
 cation Society, based on the historical English versions, 
 with only such changes as represent more correctly the 
 accepted Hebrew text. 
 
 The Committee under whose supervision the series is 
 prepared assumes no responsibility in matters of detail, 
 which are left to the judgment of the individual contributor.
 
 dc/ mvior*\r 
 
 Dr: DAVID L. LIKNAI72 
 
 VENICE GALIR 
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES 
 
 WITH COMMENTARY 
 
 MICAH
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES 
 
 WITH COMMENTARY 
 
 MICAH 
 
 BY 
 
 MAX L. MARGOLIS, Ph.D. 
 
 Philadelphia 
 
 The Jewish Publication Society of America 
 
 5669-1908
 
 Copyright, 1908, by 
 The Jewish Publication Society of America
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 I. The Book of Micah occupies the sixth place in the 
 group of the "Twelve Prophets", which, at an early date 
 (Sirach xlix. 10), formed a volume by itself, counting as one 
 book among the twenty-four of Holy Writ. According to 
 the heading (i. i), the author of the prophecies was Micah 
 of Moresheth (a small town in the Shephelah, the Lowland, 
 or slope, between the high hills of Judaea and the maritime 
 coasi of Philistia), a contemporary of the kings Jotham, 
 Ahaz, and Hezekiah. There is nothing in the utterances 
 of the prophet which points to the stirring events connected 
 with Sennacherib's Palestinian campaign in 701 ; it may 
 therefore be assumed that his ministry closed at a previous 
 date, thus extending in all over a period of some thirty 
 years (from 735 to 705). The prophetic activity of Isaiah 
 began a little earlier and closed somewhat later. 
 
 There is no reason to doubt the accuracy of the date given in the 
 heading (i. 1), especially as it is in part corroborated by Jer. xxvi. 
 18 f., where Micah iii. 12 is quoted in full. The destruction of Samaria, 
 which is spoken of as a future event in i. 5 ff., is placed by many 
 scholars, at variance with II Kings xviii. 10, in the reign of Ahaz, and 
 the reign of Jotham must have been considerably shorter than we are 
 led to believe from II Kings xv. 33. See Kittel, History of the 
 Hebrews, \ 53 a.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 2. The period in which the two prophets lived and 
 worked was that of Assyrian supremacy in the affairs of 
 Western Asia. It was the age of Tiglath-pileser III (745- 
 727), Shalmaneser IV (727-722), Sargon II (722-705), 
 Sennacherib (705-681) those mighty monarchs under 
 whom the westward advance of Assyria, begun with a 
 steady purpose a century earlier, culminated in the con- 
 quest of Syria, the fall of Damascus (in 732) and Samaria 
 (in 722), and the reduction of Judah and other Palestinian 
 principalities to a state of vassalage. The Assyrian colossus, 
 absolute master of the Armenian highlands as well as 
 the countries west of the Euphrates, had humbled recal- 
 citrant Babylon and was at the gate of the Pharaonic empire, 
 both of which had repeatedly instigated the Palestinian 
 princes to foolhardy sedition against their Assyrian masters. 
 
 Palestine, from its geographical position and configuration, was at 
 all times in antiquity an object of prey to the two mighty empires 
 in the Nile and in the Tigris-Euphrates valley, and split up into a 
 variety of cantonal principalities resisting -fusion and rendering 
 foreign aggression an easy matter. The history of Israel and 
 Judah is therefore, politically speaking, but an episode in the 
 contest of the two great civilizations for supremacy. The Old 
 Babylonian dominion in the fourth millennium before the Christian era 
 was succeeded by the Egyptian conquest under Tahutimes III ; the 
 Egyptian supremacy lasted not quite two centuries. From the four- 
 teenth to the tenth century Egypt was too weak to interfere in the 
 affairs of Syria and Palestine ; in that interval of time our ancestors 
 settled in Palestine, and were on their way to founding a powerful 
 commonwealth. The successful career of David was unhampered on 
 the one side by Egypt and on the other by Assyria, just then in a period 
 of decline after its rise to power toward the end of the fourteenth
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 century and its westward movements in the twelfth and eleventh. 
 Solomon's advances were checked by Shishak I who was ambitious 
 to reconquer Palestine, which had been lost to Egypt for two centuries 
 or more. The Pharaoh plotted with Jeroboam against Solomon ; in 
 the fifth year of Rehoboam he invaded Palestine, causing great suffer- 
 ing to Israel and Judah. In the eighth century Egyptian influence 
 again began to manifest itself in Palestine. Egypt had her emissaries 
 at the petty Palestinian courts, sowing discord and craftily inciting the 
 princes to resistance against the Assyrian advance. Though always 
 unreliable ("a bruised reed," II Kings xviii. 21), and rarely making 
 good her promises of help, she was the cause of all the trouble in 
 Palestine, beginning with 721, for a whole century. The flames of 
 rebellion were fanned from the opposite quarter by an ambitious 
 Chaldaean prince, Merodach-baladan II, who twice, on the accession 
 of Sargon as well as on that of Sennacherib, sought to involve Syria 
 and Palestine in an uprising against Assyria. See Paton, Early 
 History of Syria and Palestine, 1901, chapters I-XII. 
 
 3. Between Egypt and Assyria, Israel acted, to use the 
 language of Hosea (vii. 11), "like a silly dove, without 
 understanding." In its coquetry with the great powers, 
 it was fast losing its individuality. "Ephraim, he mixeth 
 himself among the peoples," the same prophet complains 
 (vii. 8). The whole aim of the Mosaic Law had been to 
 safeguard Israel's vocation as a holy nation. On the soil 
 of Palestine, Israel was to create an unique order of things 
 grounded in equity and justice and rooted in the love of 
 God. But Israel soon forgot the teachings of its greatest 
 prophet. Once the Israelites had crossed the Jordan, they 
 succumbed to the allurements of a superior civilization. 
 The native population proved too powerful for whole- 
 sale extermination, and so they made peace with the
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Canaanites and intermarried with them, "they mingled 
 themselves with the nations and learned their deeds" 
 (Ps. cvi. 36). The Lord was worshipped after the same 
 manner and with the same impure rites as the Baals of the 
 native population. Under Ahab, of the house of Omri, 
 the cult of the Phoenician Baal was introduced. The 
 worship of the "host of heaven" was particularly in vogue 
 in the time with which we are concerned. Child sacrifices 
 were customary; of Ahaz it is reported (II Kings xvi. 3) 
 that he offered his own son by fire. The Temple at 
 Jerusalem did not escape defilement. All over the land, 
 "upon every high hill, and under every leafy tree," high 
 places were erected. Moreover, law and justice were 
 trampled under foot by a rapacious aristocracy. Through 
 usury and all manner of exaction, the poor were fleeced, 
 robbed of all their possessions. Samaria and Jerusalem 
 vied with Nineveh and Babylon and Memphis. "For 
 Israel forgot his Maker, and builded palaces; and Judah 
 multiplied fortified cities " (Hosea viii. 14). 
 
 4. Unlike Isaiah, who took an active interest in the 
 political questions of the day, frequently confronting kings 
 and high dignitaries in person, Micah preferred the part 
 of a distant, but nevertheless keen observer. He looks 
 upon the military ambitions of Judah as the root of all evil, 
 its "chiefest sin" (i. 13); together with the superstitions 
 and the idolatrous practices of the two capitals, they con-
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 stitute the reprehensible present order of things, which must 
 pass away (v. 9 ff.). The main subject of his denunciations, 
 however, is the maladministration of justice and the exploi- 
 tation of the poor on the part of the ruling classes. With 
 the fearlessness of an Amos, whose home was in the neigh- 
 boring wilderness of Tekoa, he declaims against the general 
 corruption. The princes and the judges are in league with 
 the unscrupulous rich (vii. 3), whose houses are full of the 
 proceeds of violence (vi. 12). The traders are deceitful 
 with their wicked balances and their scant measure (vi. iof.). 
 The most intimate relations of friendship and domestic 
 life are disrupted (vii. 5 f.). Jerusalem appears to the prophet 
 as a city built with the blood of her poor (iii. 10 ; comp. ii. 
 1 f. ; 8 f.j iii. 1-3). 
 
 5. The ruin of Samaria seemed to the prophet to involve 
 the fate of the southern kingdom (i. 9 ; comp. verse 6). He 
 boldly announced the destruction of Jerusalem which he be- 
 lieved to be imminent (iii. 12). He conceived it as a divine 
 punishment in return for the sins of her leading classes. 
 His stern rebukes and his prophecy of evil naturally made him 
 unpopular. He was antagonized by a class of easy-going, 
 optimistic prophets, who kept assuring the people that no 
 evil would befall the city. Against them, no less than 
 against the rapacious rich, the corrupt judges, and the venal 
 priests, the prophet directs his biting invective (iii. 5 f. ; 11). 
 The popular prophet is the man bent on falsehood and
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 flattery, who pampers the people's sensuous appetites (ii. 1 1) 
 and cries, Peace, as long as he is paid for his services 
 (iii. 5). Over against the false prophets who misguide 
 the people, Micah knows himself as the true prophet, 
 inspired by the Lord with a sense of justice and with 
 courage to give utterance to his convictions, "to declare 
 unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin" 
 (iii. 8). 
 
 6. While the destruction of Jerusalem is to Micah an 
 assured fact, it by no means constitutes the final event 
 in the prophet's vision. He knows of an ancient 
 prophecy concerning the glorious Messianic future, when 
 Zion shall become the site of Paradise Regained, the 
 spiritual centre of the world (iv. 1-4). That day will 
 surely come. Till then, however, Jerusalem and her people 
 must suffer much humiliation. The city will be captured, 
 and the population will be exiled (iv. 9 f. ; 14). They will 
 come even unto Babylon ; but there the Lord will redeem 
 them (iv. 10^). There will be a latter and more glorious 
 exodus ; the dipersed of Israel will be gathered and the old 
 landmarks restored, while Israel's enemies will be put to 
 shame (vii. iof. ; 14C; iv. 6). Once more the nations of 
 the earth will be gathered about Jerusalem for a final 
 assault ; but they will be utterly routed (iv. 1 1 1 3). Then 
 the Messianic ruler will arise and establish peace in the land. 
 Assyria will no more invade the Holy Land ; and the rem-
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 nant of Jacob will dwell in security (v. I ff. ; iv. ja-, vii. 18). 
 It will be a community freed from sin (vii. 18 f.) and from 
 all the impurities attaching to the present order of things 
 (v. 9 ff.). The everlasting Kingdom of God on mount Zion 
 will then be established (iv. 7 b). 
 
 7. In line with the other prophets, Micah censures the 
 people's foolish notions concerning the manner in which 
 the Lord is to be served. The Lord, the prophet de- 
 clares, desires neither burnt-offerings, nor thousands of 
 rams, nor tens of thousands of rivers of oil, nor the sacrifice 
 of one's dearest child (vi. 6 f). The duties of the true 
 worshipper are summed up with classic brevity. The 
 prophet's code is simple enough. " Execute justice and 
 love kindness, and walk humbly with thy God ! " (vi. 8). 
 
 8. Micah's language is throughout lofty. He is fond of 
 playing on words, however (comp. i. 10 ff.; iv. 14); at 
 times he is sarcastic (ii. 1 1 ; iii. 5). Though fearless in 
 denunciation, the prophet is capable of tenderer moods. 
 His last word to his people is one of consolation and inter- 
 cession (vii. 14 ff). His theology conceives of the Lord as 
 a stern Judge who will not suffer the sinner to go un- 
 punished (i. 3-5), yet as kind and forgiving to the penitent 
 (vii. 18). For sin must be expiated, but there is hope for 
 the sinner who confesses his guilt and submits without a 
 murmur to the divine chastisement (vii. 9). There is evil
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 in the world, but it will be overcome in the end; when 
 corruption is greatest, salvation is surest (vii. 6 f.). Israel 
 must pass through the darkness of exile and dispersion, 
 but there is a glorious future for the "remnant" (vii. 8 f.j 18). 
 For the Lord does not retain His anger forever; He will 
 fulfil the promises made to the fathers in the days of old 
 (vii. 18-20). The indestructibility of Israel means the 
 ultimate triumph of God in and over the world j the two 
 are inseparably interwoven in the prophetic faith and hope. 
 
 The unity of authorship which, in keeping with tradition, is here 
 assumed for the entire book has been challenged by the exponents of 
 the higher or "literary" criticism. As applied to the prophetic 
 writings, literary criticism is a quarter of a century old, its principles 
 having been set forth in 1881, in what has been described by one of the 
 school as a " pioneering " article by the late Professor Stade in the first 
 volume of the Zeitschrift filr alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, of which 
 he was the editor. The underlying conception is that the prophetic 
 books, instead of representing complete collections of the utterances 
 of the prophets made by the authors themselves or by their immediate 
 disciples, rather constitute the result of the literary activity of gen- 
 erations of students at whose hands the pre-exilic prophecies received 
 substantial additions (insertions, interpolations) mirroring the beliefs 
 and ideas, but particularly the hopes and wishes, of the post-exilic 
 Jewish community. Advanced critics do not hesitate to assign 
 large portions of the prophetical literature to as late a period as the 
 Maccabaean. Especially the eschatological sections, those dealing 
 with the Messianic future of the nation, are in bulk pronounced to be 
 the fabrications of post-exilic scribes, parasitic after-growths, which 
 must be removed in order that the genuine pre-exilic prophecies may 
 be laid open to view. The arguments upon which literary criticism 
 bases its results are mainly drawn from incoherencies in the sequence 
 of thought, differences of vocabulary and style, and difficulties of an 
 antiquarian character. It is found that the transition from the denun-
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 ciatory to the consolatory prophecies (in our book from ii. n to ii. 12, 
 from iii. 12 to iv. 1, from vii. 6 to vii. 7) rs often abrupt, unprepared, and 
 psychologically inconceivable in one and the same writer. No room 
 seems to be allowed for the free play of the imagination, which is cer- 
 tainly capable of bridging over the gulf yawning between periods 
 widely apart ; nor is it remembered that abruptness and a certain 
 amount of obscurity are characteristic of prophetic style. Literary 
 criticism, moreover, operates with a preconceived notion that we 
 possess in the prophetic books full verbal reports of the prophetic 
 utterances, while the opposite is rather true, that from the outset we 
 have but echoes of the actual speeches, fragments loosely strung 
 together, and coming from different periods in the activity of the 
 same prophet. Then, again, it is a fatal error of literary criticism 
 to assume that, because a certain idea meets us for the first time in a 
 late literary production, it is necessarily late itself. Thus it is the 
 merit of a newer school of criticism (headed by Gunkel) to have 
 made it plausible that the sum of ideas denoted as eschatological and 
 most completely developed in the late prophetic and apocalyptic 
 writings, is in point of fact of ancient date and presupposed in the 
 earliest prophetic utterances extant. See Gressmann, Der Ursprung 
 der israelitisch-jiidischen Eschatologie, 1905. 
 
 As for differences of vocabulary, it is well to remember that the 
 transformation which a language undergoes is usually in the nature of 
 a slow process. Centuries are required for a word or a syntactical 
 innovation, always the coinage of individual writers, to become the 
 common property of literary men. It is preposterous to pronounce 
 vi. 9-16 to be late merely because some of the words (rWlD, 
 "wisdom", verse 9, riDT "to be pure", and rPD*\ "deceitful", 
 verse 1 1 ) are frequent in late writings. The judgment of style is a 
 matter of subjective taste ; unless supported by weightier arguments, 
 the evidence therefrom is inconclusive. Antiquarian difficulties are 
 naturally of greater moment, but in view of our imperfect knowledge of 
 historical circumstances a cautious attitude is imperative. 
 
 The subjoined table shows the extent of the additions or inter- 
 polations which advanced criticism assumes in the book of Micah.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 
 Ewald 
 
 Wellhausen 
 
 Stade 
 
 Marti 
 
 
 (1867) 
 
 (1892) 
 
 (1881-1903) 
 
 (1904) 
 
 722 Samaria destroyed 
 
 
 
 
 i.5 b, 6,8,9, 
 
 Hezekiah 
 
 i-v (with 
 
 i. 2 ff.; ii. 
 
 
 16 ; ii. 1-3, 
 
 Isaiah 
 
 the excep- 
 
 I-II ; iv. 
 
 i- 5*ff. ; 
 
 4 (?), 6-11; 
 
 
 tion of 
 
 14 (?) ; 
 
 ii. i-ii ; iii 
 
 iii. 1-2 a, 3 a, 
 
 701 Sennacherib's in- 
 
 ii. 12 f. ?) 
 
 v. 9-13 (?) 
 
 
 4i 5 a, 2 b, 
 
 vasion 
 
 
 
 
 56-12 
 
 
 vi. f. (by 
 
 
 
 
 692 Manasseh 
 
 an anony- 
 
 
 
 
 637 Josiah 
 
 mous 
 
 vi. 1-8 (by 
 
 
 
 Jeremiah 
 
 prophet 
 
 Micah ?) 
 
 
 
 604 Nebuchadrezzar 
 
 under 
 Manasseh) 
 
 
 
 
 597 Jehoiachin 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ezekiel 
 
 
 
 
 
 586 Fall of Jerusalem 
 
 
 iv. 6-10 
 
 
 iv. 5 ff. 
 
 538 Cyrus 
 
 
 (iv. 1-4 
 
 ii. 12 f. 
 
 iv. 1-4; v. 1, 3 
 
 Haggai, Zechariah 
 
 
 older) 
 
 
 vi. 6-8 
 
 515 Second Temple 
 
 
 
 
 
 completed 
 
 
 
 
 
 445 Nehemiah 
 
 
 ii. 12 f. 
 iv. n-13 
 
 i. 2-4 
 iv. 1-4; 
 
 
 
 
 v. 1-8 
 
 II-14 ; 
 
 
 332 Alexander the 
 
 
 vi. 9-16 
 
 v. 1-3, 6-14 
 
 
 Great 
 
 
 vii 
 
 IV. 5-IO ; 
 v. 4f. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 v. 4 ff. ; vii. 
 
 
 
 
 
 7-20 (two 
 
 
 
 
 
 psalms) vi. 
 
 
 
 
 
 9-16; vii. 1-6 
 
 167 Maccabaean Up- 
 
 
 
 vii. 7-20 
 
 Redactorial: 
 
 rising 
 
 
 
 
 i. 2-a; vi. 1-6 
 
 103 Aristobulus I. 
 
 
 
 
 Glosses : 
 1. 10-15; 
 ii. 5; iii. 3* 
 and minor 
 parts.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 It is impossible here to discuss the merits of such criticism, 
 unsubstantiated as its reasonings are in most cases. The more 
 serious difficulties, however, must claim our attention, ii. 12 f., 
 provided we take it in the meaning that first suggests itself, 
 i. e. as consolatory (Targum and Midrash [e. g. Gen. rabba, ch. xlviii] ), 
 is certainly difficult in the present context. The change from the 
 denunciations and threats of the entire earlier portion of the book 
 to the promise conveyed here is absolutely unprepared. We miss at 
 the very least some such introductory phrase as, In the future 
 (actually supplied by the Targum). Ibn Ezra long ago solved the 
 difficulty in his way and rather ingeniously. If we follow that scholar, 
 we should print the two verses in quotation marks ; that is, Micah is 
 giving here a sample of the optimistic sermons of the false prophets 
 referred to in the preceding verse. A number of objections have been 
 raised against Ibn Ezra's view. In the first place, a quotation from 
 the mouth of the false prophets is found in verse 1 1 ; then, the two 
 are dissimilar in tone, the former being of a sensuous character, 
 while the latter deals with the glorious future of Israel; lastly, the 
 concluding words of verse II, containing Micah's retort, would inter- 
 rupt the two quotations. None of the objections, however, is incon- 
 testable. The two quotations might well be interrupted by Micah's 
 retort, which could not very conveniently be kept in abeyance until 
 the end of the chapter. The sensual tone of the first quotation might 
 be an intentional exaggeration, and need not be taken literally; in the 
 second the prophet would more seriously, and therefore more accu- 
 rately, reproduce his opponents. A serious objection, however, still 
 remains. It is not likely that the false prophets concerned themselves 
 with the events following the downfall of the nation, which contingency 
 they were most emphatic in denying. The Kimhis, quite plausibly, 
 expound the passage in the sense of a threat. Israel is to be gathered, 
 a large bustling mass of people, as sheep in a sheepfold, as a flock in 
 a pasture, the whole people, none excluded. Suddenly a wether 
 breaks through the gate the entire flock follows it; so shall Israel's 
 King (see the commentary), the Lord, depart from the land defiled 
 by the sins of His people, and the whole people, "like sheep that 
 have no shepherd," shall go after Him out of the country, not, indeed, 
 with Him, but without Him, into exile. It may be safe, however, to 
 2
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 accept the obvious meaning and then either acquiesce in the abrupt 
 change of subject, or else suppose that we have here a misplaced 
 fragment, the original connection of which has been lost. 
 
 iv. 1-4 is found repeated in Isa. ii. 2-4 (with the omission of the last 
 verse and with slight textual modifications). It is clearly impossible 
 to suppose that Micah borrowed the prophecy from Isaiah (Abrabanel), 
 or that Isaiah borrowed it from Micah. Nor can we subscribe to the 
 opinion that Micah's prophecy was inserted in the book of Isaiah by 
 a copyist or compiler. Certain critics explain the duplication of the 
 passage as the result of uncertainty on the part of the compilers of the 
 sacred texts who knew the prophecy to belong to the period of Heze- 
 kiah, but were doubtful as to whether Isaiah or Micah was the author. 
 The most plausible view, however, is that of Koppe (1779). Both 
 Micah and Isaiah made use of an ancient prophecy with which they 
 were acquainted. 
 
 In chapters iv and v the coherence of the parts, it must be owned, 
 leaves much to be desired. Nevertheless, it is possible to establish a 
 reasonable sequence of thought. The prophet begins by picturing, 
 in the language of an ancient prophecy, the glory of the future 
 Jerusalem as the spiritual centre of the world (iv. 1-4), and deduces 
 therefrom the lesson that Israel must hold fast to its religion (verse 5). 
 For the exile is not final ; the dispersed shall be gathered (verses 6 
 and 7), and the former kingdom shall be restored to Jerusalem 
 (verse 8). Hence, do not lose courage, O daughter of Zion ! for 
 though thou must go into exile, there, in the exile, the Lord's 
 deliverance will come to thee (verse 9 f. ). Many nations will then 
 gather again about Jerusalem, the hosts of Gog, in the language of 
 Ezekiel (ch. xxxviii); but there they shall be completely routed 
 (verses 11-13). (Ezekiel [verse 17] clearly indicates that the coming 
 of the hosts of Gog was the subject of former prophecies. ) In verse 14 
 the prophet resumes the subject of verse 9 as an introduction to the 
 fuller Messianic prophecy, v. 1 ff. Now thy ruler must suffer humili- 
 ation (verse 14); but after a time the greater ruler will rise and 
 establish everlasting peace for the remnant of Jacob (v. 1 ff. ) Then 
 the present civilization with its reprehensible features will disappear 
 (verses 9-13). (In the closing verse [14], the prophet indicates that 
 the objectionable practices were acquired from the nations; hence the
 
 INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 latter must be destroyed in order that Israel may escape contagion. ) 
 Accordingly, there is no reason to break up, with Stade, the two 
 middle chapters into two parallel prophecies (iv. 1-4; 11-14; v. 1-3; 
 6-14 ; v. 4 f., with iv. 5 as a bracket). 
 
 The antiquarian difficulties which induce Stade to assign a post-exilic 
 date to the two prophecies are by no means insurmountable. The 
 most serious difficulty is the mention of Babylon as the place of cap- 
 tivity (iv. 10). It is an old difficulty, and it was met on the part of 
 many scholars by pronouncing a portion of the verse to be a copyist's 
 expansion. The assumption, however, is an unnecessary one. Just 
 as Assyria is called poetically "the land of Nimrod" (v. 5) on the 
 basis of Gen. x. 11, the very same passage makes it plausible that 
 Babylon is here but another name for Assyria. The city of Babylon, 
 from the time of Hammurabi on, was the recognized metropolis of 
 Western Asia. Even during the period of Assyrian supremacy, which 
 coincides with the time of Micah, Babylon, though subjugated by 
 Assyria, was culturally the capital of Western Asia (see Paton, 
 loc. cit, p. 47 f. ; Jeremias, Das Alte Testament itn Lichte des Alten 
 Orients, p. 160). The prophet could, therefore, with good reason use 
 Asshur and Babel interchangeably. The other difficulties pointed out 
 by Stade rest upon preconceived notions, which cannot be discussed 
 here. 
 
 The allusion to child sacrifices in vi. 7 b prompted Ewald to assign 
 chapters vi and vii to an anonymous prophet of the reign of Manasseh. 
 It is true, such an act is reported of the impious king (II Kings xxi. 6). 
 We have, however, a similar report of Ahaz (ibid., xvi. 3). Moreover, 
 what an Ahaz or a Manasseh could do in person, the people at large 
 were certainly capable of doing even under Hezekiah, though the 
 king himself was a foe of idolatry. From Jeremiah and Ezekiel we 
 gather that in their days child sacrifices were by no means an aber- 
 ration confined to royalty. Thus there is nothing in the reference to 
 child sacrifices beyond a general statement which may fit any time. 
 
 The transition from the despondent soliloquy of the ideal community 
 on the eve of its discomfiture (vii. 1-6) to the buoyant hope that the 
 darkness of the exile will give way to brighter days and be followed 
 by a latter exodus as marvellous as the former (vii. 7 ff. ), is by no 
 means as abrupt as is commonly asserted. The antithetical con-
 
 14 INTRODUCTION 
 
 struction with which the closing section sets in (verse 7) clearly ex- 
 presses the thought that when the evil, the moral evil as well as its 
 consequences, is greatest, divine help is nearest. It has furthermore 
 been pointed out that, although in point of fact "a century yawns 
 between vii. 6 and vii. 7," it is far from impossible for the prophet's 
 imagination to bring the two periods together ideally. Moreover, the 
 fall of the kingdom was to the prophet's mind by no means a distant 
 event; he expected it shortly and in his own days. Micah, no 
 less than Isaiah, looks for the advent of the Messianic time in a 
 relatively remote period, but not at all in so distant an age as to be 
 beyond the horizon of a moderate imagination. Both the death of the 
 nation and its resurrection were conceived by the prophets of the 
 period of Hezekiah as events, so to speak, admitting of calculation. 
 The "times" of the Almighty, their successors learned to realize, are 
 much slower in coming than the older prophets anticipated. The 
 divine counsel into which but a peep is granted even to the prophetic 
 eye, is much more difficult to comprehend. Behind the messenger, 
 Providence mysteriously and in His own righteous ways governs the 
 world. 
 
 9. The text of the book of Micah, though presenting a 
 number of difficulties which point to early corruption, is on 
 the whole in good condition. It may be said that our 
 (Masoretic) text is substantially identical with the one 
 underlying the Vulgate (end of fourth Christian century), 
 the Greek versions of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion 
 (second century), the Syriac Version (second century), and 
 the Targum (the Aramaic Version, which contains ancient 
 material antedating the Christian era). The text under- 
 lying the Greek Version (Septuagint) in all likelihood 
 varied to some extent from our own. A few good readings 
 are preserved there.
 
 INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 10. The versions are also useful for the purpose of estab- 
 lishing the early interpretation. The simple sense is repro- 
 duced in all except the Targum, which is paraphrastic, and 
 often deviates therefrom in favor of homiletic interpretation, 
 the derash. The latter is embodied in the Haggadic portions 
 of the Talmud and in the Midrashim. The material is con- 
 veniently gathered in the Yalkutim on Micah j the Yalkut 
 Makiri was available to the writer from a transcript of MS. 
 Harley 5704 in the British Museum secured by President 
 Schechter. While the French commentators Rashi, died 
 1105; Menahem bar Helbo (fragments collected by 
 S. Poznanski, 1904) ; to a less extent Joseph Kara (edited 
 by S. Eppenstein, 1903) were given to the homiletic 
 interpretation, the simple sense was sedulously cultivated 
 by the Spanish school. We have for the book of Micah 
 a quotation in Ibn Ezra from Samuel ha-Nagid (ca. 1050), 
 the grammatical and lexicographical works of Abulwalid 
 Merwan Ibn Ganah (Rabbi Jonah, ca. 1050), "the greatest 
 of mediaeval Hebraists," the commentary of Abraham ben 
 Meir Ibn Ezra (1155-57), tne lexicon and commentary 
 of David ben Joseph Kimhi (died 1235), and the com- 
 mentary of Don Isaac Abrabanel (died 1 508). Of recent 
 (Christian) commentators the following may be mentioned -. 
 Ewald (1867), Hitzig-Steiner (1881), Cheyne (in the 
 Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, 1882), 
 Ryssel (1887), Reuss (1892), Wellhausen (1892), Nowack
 
 16 INTRODUCTION 
 
 (1897), Marti (1904). The critical questions are dis- 
 cussed in the introductions: Kuenen (1892), Cornill 
 (1892), Konig (1893), Wildeboer (1893), Driver (1898), 
 Baudissin (1901).
 
 MICAH 
 
 Chapter I. i. The heading. 
 
 THE word of the Lord that came to Micah the i 
 
 Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and 
 
 Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning 
 Samaria and Jerusalem. 
 
 Chap. I. 2 III. 12. The judgment over sinful Samaria 
 and Jerusalem. 
 Chap. I. 2 4. The Lord's manifestatioii as Judge. 
 Hear, ye peoples, all of you ; 2 
 
 Hearken, O earth, and all that therein is : 
 
 Chapter I. 1. The heading. 
 
 See Introduction, 1. 
 
 Micah~\ A namesake, Micaiah common word in place of the 
 the son of Imlah, prophesied un- ordinary ra'a/i). The prophet sees 
 der Ahab, and was distinguished in his ecstasy sights ordinarily 
 for his fearlessness (I Kings xxii. hidden, or he sees in ordinary 
 8-28. The close of verse 28, things meanings not ordinarily 
 which is wanting in the Greek perceived. The prophet is there- 
 Version, may be due to a false fore frequently called hozeh, a 
 identification of the two prophets. seer (t Sam. ix. 9; Amos vii. 12), 
 Comp. Ibn Ezra and Kimhi). an d prophecy hazon, a vision 
 
 saw"} Hebrew hazah (an un- (Ezek. vii. 24). 
 
 Chapter I. 2 III. 12. The judgment over sinful Samaria and 
 
 Jerusalem. 
 Chapter I. 2 ff. 2. ye peoples} Not the tribes 
 
 24. The Lord's manifes- of Israel (Kimhi, who compares 
 tation as Judge. Deut. xxxiii. 19), but the nations
 
 i8 
 
 MICAH, I. 
 
 [w. 3, 4. 
 
 And let the Lord God be witness against you, 
 
 The Lord from His holy temple. 
 
 For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of His place, 
 
 And will come down, and tread upon the high places 
 
 of the earth. 
 And the mountains shall be molten under Him, 
 And the valleys shall be cleft, 
 
 of the world. They are summoned 
 not as judges between the Lord 
 and Israel (comp. Jer. vi. i8f. ), 
 but as interested persons. The 
 judgment against Israel is con- 
 ceived in the nature of a world- 
 judgment. 
 
 witness] i. e. accuser. 
 
 against you] Of course, the 
 nations are addressed, not Israel 
 and Judah. 
 
 from His holy temple] i. e. 
 heaven (Ibn Ezra, Kimhi). The 
 Hebrew word hekal is an Assyrian 
 loan-word {ekallu, from Sumerian 
 e-gal, great house), and properly 
 designates a palace. 
 
 3. out of His place] i.e., as 
 the next verb shows, heaven ( Ibn 
 Ezra; comp. Isa. xxvi. 21; Hosea 
 v. 15). The Targum paraphrases : 
 (is about to reveal Himself) from 
 the place of abode of His Presence 
 (Shekinah). Rashi (comp. Pales- 
 tinian Talmud, Ta'anit 65 ) : from 
 the seat of mercy to the seat of 
 judgment. The Midrash (Gen. 
 
 rabba, ch. xxxiii) says: "Woe 
 to the wicked, for they turn the 
 merciful nature of God into se- 
 verity." 
 
 and will come down, and tread 
 upoti the high places of the earth] 
 Targum : and will reveal Him- 
 self, and trample under fool the 
 stro?ig of the earth (the haughty 
 and proud, Rashi). The language, 
 of course, is figurative; it is meant 
 to convey the majestic greatness 
 of the Lord as He appears to 
 judge the world. The high places 
 of a country are its mountains and 
 natural strongholds; to tread upon 
 them means to exercise dominion 
 over the country. The earth with 
 its mountains is to the Lord com- 
 ing from heaven what a country 
 with its fastnesses is to a foreign 
 conqueror. The Lord, manifesting 
 Himself as Judge, is determined 
 to reduce the earth to the primeval 
 chaos whence it came. 
 
 4. shall be molten ... shall be 
 cleft] The natural phenomena
 
 vv. 5, 6.] 
 
 MICAH, I. 
 
 19 
 
 As wax before the fire, 
 
 As waters that are poured down a steep place. 
 
 5. The cause of the divine manifestation. 
 For the transgression of Jacob is all this, 5 
 
 And for the sins of the house of Israel. 
 What is the transgression of Jacob ? is it not Samaria ? 
 And what are the high places of Judah ? are they not 
 Jerusalem ? 
 
 6, 7. The doom of Samaria. 
 Therefore I will make of Samaria heaps in the field, 6 
 
 from which the figures are derived 
 are earthquakes and volcanic erup- 
 tions. Jer. iv. 23 ff. shows how, 
 to the mind of the prophets, the 
 divine judgment caused by Israel's 
 sin meant nothing short of a cata- 
 clysm reducing the earth to chaos. 
 
 5. The cause of the divine 
 manifestation. 
 
 all this] i. e. the divine mani- 
 festation and the consequences 
 thereof. 
 
 Jacob, Israel'] The two names 
 are used interchangeably; the 
 prophet has in mind the entire 
 people. In the second half of the 
 verse, Jacob, in contrast with 
 Judah, designates the northern 
 kingdom. 
 
 What . . . and whaf\ The He- 
 brew properly reads: who . . . and 
 who. Samaria (Jerusalem) is not 
 merely the seat of Israel's (Ju- 
 
 dah's) sin (Targum), but its sin 
 personified, made concrete and 
 tangible. 
 
 the high places of Judah] The 
 Masoretic text is supported by 
 Symmachus and the Vulgate. It 
 gives particular force to the closing 
 part of the verse that the prophet, 
 instead of reserving the specifica- 
 tion of the character of Judah's 
 sin for a later part of his address, 
 incorporates it, by way of anti- 
 cipation, in his very question. 
 "And what are (the prophet 
 pauses ; the listener expects the 
 general word ' ' sins ' ' ; the prophet 
 proceeds:) the high places of 
 Judah?" On the signification 
 of the term "high places" see 
 Additional Note I. 
 
 6, 7. The Doom of Samaria. 
 
 6. heaps in the JieW] i. e. 
 heaps of stones scattered over a
 
 MICAH, I. 
 
 [v. 7- 
 
 And a place for the planting of vineyards : 
 
 And I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, 
 
 And I will uncover the foundations thereof. 
 
 And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces, 
 
 And all her hires shall be burned with fire, 
 
 And all her idols will I lay desolate : 
 
 For of the hire of a harlot hath she gathered them, 
 
 And to the hire of a harlot shall they return. 
 
 field (comp. iii. 12). Perhaps 
 we should read DIE' "V/ for 
 
 and I will pour down, &c] 
 From the top of the hill upon 
 which the city was situated (comp. 
 I Kings xvi. 24). This prophecy 
 was made good by John Hyrcanus 
 (Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. 28, 1). 
 A plausible emendation reads : 
 and I will burn the stones thereof 
 into lime (1??). 
 
 7. graven images] Of stone 
 or metal. 
 
 and all her hires'] The ' ' hire ' ' 
 is the payment received by a 
 harlot or by a temple-prostitute 
 (in the impure rites of the Phoeni- 
 cians in particular, immorality 
 was practised in the worship of a 
 deity, and in the immediate pre- 
 cincts of the temple ; comp. Deut. 
 xxiii. 19; Isa. xxiii. 17; Ezek. xvi. 
 37). The prophets (Hosea and 
 others) represent the idolatrous 
 cult of the Israelites under the 
 
 figure of conjugal infidelity. In 
 our passage the "hires" apparent- 
 ly designate the votive images 
 placed in the temples by the 
 grateful people or by individuals, 
 for favors believed to have been 
 received from the Baals. They 
 are the bribes paid to the para- 
 mour deity (comp. Ezek. xvi. 
 
 33 f-, 4 1 )- 
 
 .will I lay desolate] The verb 
 does not fit the object; perhaps 
 destruction in general is meant. 
 
 of the hire of a harlot] i. e. of 
 her wealth conceived as the gift 
 of the Baals (comp. Hosea ii. 14; 
 also verses 7-13 and ix. 1; simi- 
 larly in Isa. xxiii. 17 f. the com- 
 merce of Tyre is spoken of as the 
 "hire" of her harlotry with all 
 the world). 
 
 hath she gathered thetn] So 
 the Greek Version, Rashi, Ibn 
 Ezra, Kimhi (the object, which is 
 wanting in the Hebrew, is easily 
 supplied from the context, = her
 
 v. 8.] 
 
 MICAH, I. 
 
 } 1 6. The prophet bewails the calamity which will over- 
 whelm Judah likewise. 
 
 For this will I wail and howl, 8 
 
 I will go stripped and naked:- 
 
 idols). On the other hand, the 
 Syriac Version, Vulgate, Targum, 
 Samuel ha-Nagid, Ibn Ganah, and 
 many moderns take the verb as 
 a passive; hence : have they been 
 gathered. 
 
 and to the hire of a harlot shall 
 they return'] Either in the sense 
 that they (the idols, the gold and 
 silver of which they are made) 
 shall be carried away by the vic- 
 tors and placed by them as votive 
 offerings in the temples of their 
 gods (Targum, Ibn Ezra, Kimhi, 
 Ewald, and others); or, prefer- 
 ably, since the idols are doomed 
 to destruction, in a proverbial 
 sense, that they shall go to waste, 
 as money spent on a harlot (Rashi 
 and Wellhausen). 
 
 8 16. The prophet bewails 
 the calamity which will 
 overwhelm judah likewise. 
 Comp. Isa. xxii. 4. 
 
 8. For this] i. e. the impending 
 destruction of Samaria. 
 
 stripped] So Vulgate, Ibn Ezra, 
 Kimhi. The Greek Version more 
 specifically: barefoot, a symbol 
 
 of mourning or self-abasement 
 (comp. II Sam. xv. 30 ; Isa. 
 xx. 2). 
 
 naked] Comp. Isa. xx. 2 and 
 the apocryphal Ascension of 
 Isaiah, ii. 10. The removal of 
 one's garments was apparently 
 meant to express self-abasement, 
 although in more ancient times it 
 may have expressed passionate 
 grief, and in primitive times may 
 have been associated with super- 
 stitious rites. The rending of 
 one's garments frequently referred 
 to in Scripture (II Sam. i. 11 ; 
 iii. 31, and elsewhere) seems to 
 have been symbolic of the same 
 ideas. The rabbis fix the tear at 
 a hand's-breadth at the breast 
 (Mo'ed katon 26 , Yoreh De'ah, 
 3 34. 3)> According to the Mish- 
 nah (Mo'ed katon iii. 4), it was 
 customary for mourners to bare 
 their arms and shoulders (see 
 Biichler, Zeitschr.f alttestamentl. 
 Mss., xxi. [1901], 81 ff. ). Baring 
 the feet (comp. Ezek. xxiv. 17) is 
 prescribed in a Baraita (Mo'ed 
 katon 15^ = Yoreh De'ah, 8382).
 
 MICAH, I. 
 
 [vv. 9, 10. 
 
 I will make a wailing like the jackals, 
 
 And a mourning like the ostriches. 
 
 For her wound is incurable: 
 
 For it is come even unto Judah; 
 
 It reacheth unto the gate of my people, even to 
 
 Jerusalem. 
 Tell it not in Gath, 
 
 like the jackals] So Syriac 
 Version and Tanhum of Jerusalem 
 (quoted by Roediger). The ren- 
 dering "dragons" is given by 
 several of the ancient versions 
 and by Saadya and Ibn Ganah. 
 
 like the ostriches] ' ' The cry of 
 the ostrich which is often emitted 
 at night is a loud, dolorous, and 
 stridulous sound, and in the still- 
 ness of the desert plains may be 
 heard at a great distance" (Tris- 
 tram, Fauna and Flora of Pales- 
 tine, p. 109 f., 233 f. ). 
 
 9. her wound] So the Greek 
 and Syriac Versions and the Vul- 
 gate. The Hebrew text may be 
 rendered : for she is incurable as 
 to her wounds (Joseph Kara). 
 
 for it is come] i. e. the wound, 
 the stroke. 
 
 even unto Judah] Spreading 
 from Samaria. When Samaria 
 was destroyed (in 722), Judah 
 was not molested. Soon enough 
 (720), however, the Palestinian 
 states were in rebellion. At first 
 
 Judah seems to have remained 
 neutral. But in 713 another revolt 
 was started by Azuri, king of Ash- 
 dod. This time Judah along with 
 Edom and Moab joined in the 
 movement. Ashdod was captured 
 in 711, and quiet restored. Jeru- 
 salem escaped the fate of the 
 Philistine city by timely submis- 
 sion. Micah's fears, however, 
 uttered in the beginning of the 
 campaign, were well-grounded 
 (comp. Isa. xx. 1 ; see Paton, 
 loc. cit., p. 246 ff.). 
 
 it reacheth] A letter appears 
 to be missing in the Hebrew (read 
 
 unto the gate of my people] 
 The gate metonymically for the 
 city, the principal part of which 
 was the place before the gate, its 
 political centre. " My people " = 
 Judah. 
 
 10. Tell it not in Gath] The 
 words are usually interpreted to 
 mean that the tidings of the ca- 
 lamity of Judah should be kept
 
 II.] 
 
 MICAH, I. 
 
 23 
 
 Weep not at all : 
 
 At Beth-le-Aphrah roll thyself in the dust. 
 Pass ye away, O inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness 11 
 and shame : 
 
 from the knowledge of Philistine 
 Gath (comp. II Sam.i. 20). Gath, 
 however, seems to figure here, 
 together with the Judaean villages, 
 as a town along the route of the 
 Assyrian army. The tone appears 
 to be one of mock pity : Tell it 
 not in Gath, for the tidings will 
 be painful to her. The prophet, 
 as in the following instances, plays 
 on the name of the city {be- Gat at 
 taggidu). Graetz conjectures that 
 the prophet is alluding to the 
 Judaean Gittaim (II Sam. iv. 3; 
 Neh. xi. 33), or to the Danite 
 Gath-Rimmon (Joshua xix. 45). 
 
 weep not at aW] So all the 
 ancient versions with the excep- 
 tion of the Greek. The latter, 
 aside from misreading the verb 
 (132n for 1321*1), recognized in the 
 first Hebrew word the name of a 
 town, Bachim (not as some manu- 
 scripts read, Akko, which lay too 
 far to the north ) as Bochint, a town 
 near Bethel (comp. Judges ii. 
 1, 5). The negative still presents 
 a difficulty. 
 
 Beth-le-Aphrafi\ Site unknown. 
 The name suggests to the prophet 
 the meaning Dust-town. 
 
 roll thyself in~\ So the Jewish 
 commentators. The ancient ver- 
 sions for the most part render: 
 besprinkle thyself with. In the 
 Hebrew there is an additional 
 play on Philistia (hilpallashi) ; 
 hence the locality must have been 
 situated on or near Philistine terri- 
 tory. Rolling in dust (or covering 
 the head with dust) is a sign of 
 mourning (comp. Joshua vii. 6, and 
 elsewhere), just as sitting or lying 
 in dust is a symbol of humiliation 
 (Isa. xxix. 4 and elsewhere). 
 
 11. Pass ye away, &c] The 
 Hebrew text presents consider- 
 able difficulty. There is incon- 
 gruity in number, so far as the 
 first two words are concerned ; 
 while a syntactical difficulty at- 
 taches to the last two. The paro- 
 nomasia, it seems, gives way here 
 to thought-incongruity. Shaphir 
 (identified with modern Sawafir, 
 S. E. of Ashdod ; others think of 
 the Judaean town Shamir, Joshua 
 xv. 48, for which a group of Greek 
 manuscripts read Shaphir) = 
 Beauty-town, is to go into exile (?) 
 with her shame exposed (so Jewish 
 commentators).
 
 24 
 
 MICAH, I. 
 
 [VV. 12, 13. 
 
 13 
 
 The inhabitant of Zaanan is not come forth ; 
 
 The wailing of Beth-ezel shall take from you the 
 
 standing-place thereof. 
 For the inhabitant of Maroth waiteth anxiously for good ; 
 Because evil is come down from the Lord unto the gate 
 
 of Jerusalem. 
 Bind the chariots to the steeds, O inhabitant of Lachish 
 
 Zaanan] Thought to be the 
 same as Zenan, Joshua xv. 37 ; site 
 unknown ; = March-town. 
 
 is not come forth] i. e. has not 
 marched out to battle (comp. 
 Amos v. 3), or is shut in by siege 
 (comp. Joshua vi. 1). 
 
 the wailing, &c] Beth-ezel 
 unknown. "The standing-place 
 thereof" is supposed to mean the 
 possibility of remaining there, i. e. 
 it will afford you no refuge. But 
 the text is exceedingly dubious. 
 
 12. Maroth] Site unknown ; 
 = Bitter-town. 
 
 waiteth anxiously] So Sym- 
 machus,Theodotion,Targum, Ibn 
 Ganah, Rashi. The inhabitant of 
 Bitter-town waiting for good 
 what a contradiction ! Aquila, 
 Syriac Version, Vulgate, Mena- 
 hem bar Helbo, Ibn Ezra, Kimhi 
 translate less plausibly : is in 
 travail (anguish) for the good 
 (which has passed away). 
 
 because evil, &c] Supply: but 
 they will be disappointed. 
 
 13. Bind the chariots to the 
 steeds ] The meaning of the verb 
 is gathered from the context. It 
 is objected that the horse is har- 
 nessed to the chariot, and not the 
 reverse. Perhaps, disregarding 
 the accentuation, we ought to 
 render (comp. theTargum): Bind 
 the chariots, to horse! The in- 
 habitants of Lachish are ad- 
 monished to take to flight (Kimhi 
 and others); or, the prophet iron- 
 ically bids them prepare their 
 chariots and mount their horses 
 all in vain (nearly so Ibn Ezra). 
 The Hebrew word for steeds 
 {rekesh) is chosen as a play on 
 the name of the city. 
 
 Lachish] A city in the Shephe- 
 lah, in existence as far back as the 
 fifteenth pre-Christian century. 
 It has been identified with the 
 mound Tell-el-Hesy See F. J. 
 Bliss, A Mound of Many Cities ; 
 or Tell-el-Hesy Excavated, 1898 ; 
 Flinders Petrie, Tell-el-Hesy, a 
 Memoir, 1891. As a fortified city
 
 i 4 .] 
 
 MICAH, I. 
 
 25 
 
 It is the chiefest sin of the daughter of Zion ; 
 For the transgressions of Israel are found in thee. 
 Therefore shalt thou give a parting gift to Moresheth- 14 
 gath: 
 
 it is mentioned II Chron. xi. 9; 
 Jer. xxxiv. 7. Sennacherib cap- 
 tured it while on his way to Egypt, 
 and sent the Rabshakeh thence to 
 Jerusalem (II Kings xviii. 14, 17; 
 xix. 8). A bas-relief commemo- 
 rating Sennacherib's successes in 
 Lachish is preserved in the British 
 Museum. In the language of G. 
 A. Smith {Historical Geography 
 of the Holy Land, p. 235), it was 
 "an outpost, a customs-station, 
 between Judaea and Egypt ; war 
 and commerce both swept past 
 her". 
 
 it] i. e. the military equipment. 
 Or, they, i. e. those chariots and 
 horses. Less plausibly : she, i. e. 
 Lachish (Kimhi). 
 
 the chiefest sin] The sin of 
 Lachish was not "some specific 
 idolatrous cult" (Ibn Ezra, Kim- 
 hi), but its horses and chariots 
 and its equipment as a fortress 
 on the Egyptian border. The 
 prophets, as the representatives 
 of the convictions of the Mosaic 
 times, have a natural aversion to 
 the civilization of their day. 
 Treasures of gold and silver 
 which old Israel did not possess, 
 
 the palatial mansions of the rich, 
 the luxury of the women, and, in 
 a higher degree still, chariots and 
 horses are viewed by them as 
 foreign importations from Nine- 
 veh or Babylon or Memphis. The 
 defiant display of human strength 
 which renders the divine help 
 seemingly unnecessary is partic- 
 ularly obnoxious to them. The 
 leaning on the great powers, now 
 on Assyria, now on Egypt, is in 
 their judgment apostasy. The 
 Law (Deut. xvii. 16 f. ) forbids the 
 king to keep a large number of 
 horses imported from Egypt, or 
 store up treasures of gold and 
 silver. Solomon, the very opposite 
 of the type of an ideal king, had 
 special cities for his chariots and 
 horses (I Kings ix. 9; x. 26); the 
 latter were imported from Egypt 
 (ibid., x. 28 f. ). Lachish apparent- 
 ly was such a city; there were 
 kept the horses and chariots of 
 the king of Jiidah the chiefest 
 sin of Zion. 
 
 Israel] The ideal name for the 
 entire people. 
 
 14. Therefore shalt thou give] 
 In all probability the "daughter
 
 26 
 
 MICAH, I. 
 
 [v. 15. 
 
 The houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing unto the 
 
 kings of Israel. 
 15 I will yet bring unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah, 
 
 him that shall possess thee : 
 The glory of Israel shall come even unto Adullam. 
 
 of Zion" is addressed, although 
 in the verse immediately pre- 
 ceding Lachish is addressed. 
 
 a parting gift~\ So Aquila, 
 Symmachus, Theodotion, Tar- 
 gum, Joseph Kara, Ibn Ezra, 
 Kimhi (comp. I Kings ix. 16); 
 i. e. the gift which a father gives 
 to his daughter on her marriage. 
 The prophet plays on the name 
 of the town which suggests to him 
 the word meaning a betrothed 
 woman (m\_e]oreselh). Others 
 (Syriac Version, Menahem bar 
 Helbo,Rashi, and many moderns) 
 render: dismissal, i. e. divorce. 
 The city is to go into captivity. 
 
 Moresheth-gath~\ Apparently 
 the same as the town which was 
 the home of the prophet (see In- 
 troduction, \ 1). The name indi- 
 cates that it was situated in the 
 territory of Gath. 
 
 the houses'] Not necessarily the 
 temples (Kimhi), but the entire 
 town with all its houses. 
 
 Achzib] A Judsean town (Gen. 
 
 xxxviii. 5 ; Joshua xv. 44 ; in the 
 latter passage it is mentioned by 
 the side of Mareshah). The 
 name suggests the adjective fol- 
 lowing. 
 
 a deceitful thing] The Hebrew 
 word (akzab) is usually applied 
 to the brooks in the steppes, the 
 waters of which dry up in the sum- 
 mer, thus deceiving the traveller 
 (comp. Jer. xv. 18, and especially 
 the beautiful poetic description, 
 Job vi. 15 ff.). 
 
 unto the kings of Israel] Kings 
 in the plural = dynasty. Israel = 
 Judah. 
 
 15. Mareshah] Identified with 
 modern Marash. 
 
 him that shall possess thee] In 
 Hebrew (ha-yoresh) there is a 
 play on the name of the town. 
 
 the glory] Either = wealth, or 
 nobility. 
 
 come] i. e. flee (?). 
 
 Adullam] Comp. Joshua xv. 35. 
 Modern site not quite certain. 
 There is no play on the name 
 here ; possibly the text is corrupt.
 
 vv. 16; I.] 
 
 MICAH, I, II. 
 
 27 
 
 Make thee bald, and poll thee for the children of thy 16 
 
 delight : 
 Enlarge thy baldness as the vulture ; 
 For they are gone into captivity from thee. 
 
 Chap. II. 1 5. The sins of the rich and their corresponding 
 punishment. 
 
 Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon 1 
 
 their beds ! 
 When the morning is light, they execute it, 
 Because it is in the power of their hand. 
 
 16. Make thee bald, and poll 
 thee} Poll = cut the hair of the 
 head. Shaving the head was a 
 mourning custom (comp. Isa. 
 xv. 2, and elsewhere), which, how- 
 ever, is forbidden in the Law 
 (Deut. xiv. 1); probably a sign of 
 grief and self-abasement, though 
 in primitive times perhaps con- 
 nected with superstitious con- 
 ceptions. 
 
 the children of thy delight} 
 i. e. thy tenderly loved children. 
 
 as the vulture'] More specifically 
 the griffon-vulture with neck and 
 head "destitute of true feathers, 
 and either naked, or thinly cov- 
 ered with a powdery down" 
 (Tristram, loc. cit., p. 172 ff. ). 
 
 they are gone] The tense is 
 prophetic. Subject: thy children. 
 3 
 
 Of course, the "daughter of Zion" 
 is addressed in the closing verse. 
 
 Chapter II. 
 
 15. The sins of the rich 
 and their corresponding 
 punishment. 
 
 i. and work evil] "Work" 
 means here the same as "plot" 
 (comp. Ps. lviii. 3). 
 
 upon their beds] At night time 
 when men are alone with their 
 own thoughts, the pious commune 
 with God (Ps. lxiii. 7), but the 
 wicked devise evil against their 
 fellow-men. 
 
 they execute it] Comp. Hosea 
 xi. 9; " it " in a neuter sense. 
 
 because it is in the power of 
 their hand] And "might is 
 right." 
 
 Or. DAVID L L1KNAITZ
 
 28 
 
 MICAH, II. 
 
 [vv. 2-4. 
 
 And when they covet fields, they seize them ; 
 
 And when they covet houses, they take them away : 
 
 Thus they oppress a man and his house, 
 
 Even a man and his heritage. 
 
 Therefore thus saith the Lord: 
 
 Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, 
 
 From which ye shall not remove your necks, 
 
 Neither shall ye walk upright; 
 
 For it shall be an evil time. 
 
 In that day shall they take up a parable against you, 
 
 2. they covet] Thus breaking 
 the tenth commandment (Exod. 
 xx. 17). 
 
 seize them] By violence, as 
 in the case of Naboth (I Kings 
 xxi). 
 
 oppress] i. e. do injustice to. 
 The injustice is felt not only by 
 the persons, but as it were also 
 by the things. See Additional 
 Note II. 
 
 3. family'] The word in the 
 larger sense for a group of people 
 related by blood, a kindred, tribe, 
 or race. The Hebrew equivalent 
 usually denotes the subdivision 
 of a tribe, a clan (Joshua vii. 14), 
 but also the tribe itself (Judges 
 xiii. 12), and even a larger 
 national aggregate (Jer. x. 25, 
 and elsewhere). See Additional 
 Note III. 
 
 devise an evil] The punish- 
 
 ment corresponds to their sin 
 (comp. verse i; Joseph Kara). 
 
 remove your necks] The evil 
 as it will press upon them and 
 keep them down is likened to a 
 yoke. Of course, foreign servitude 
 is meant. 
 
 upright] i. e. as freemen. 
 
 for it shall be an evil time] 
 Reference is to the judgment 
 when it comes. 
 
 4. take up a parable] The 
 Hebrew equivalent (mashal) de- 
 notes a poem constructed in 
 parallel sentences expressing re- 
 lated ideas, but also in general a 
 prophetic, figurative discourse, in 
 particular one containing veiled 
 allusions of a character at once 
 pathetic and ironical (comp. Isa. 
 xiv. 4; Hab. ii. 6; also Num. 
 xxi. 27).
 
 5-] 
 
 MICAH, II. 
 
 29 
 
 And lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, 
 
 'We are utterly undone: 
 
 He changeth the portion of my people : 
 
 How doth he remove it from me ! 
 
 Instead of restoring our fields, he divideth them? 
 
 Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast the line 5 
 
 by lot 
 In the congregation of the Lord. 
 
 and lament with a doleful la- 
 mentation] So Kimhi (similarly 
 Targum and Syriac Version). 
 The Greek Bible and the Vulgate 
 render: with a melodious lamen- 
 tation. Possibly the Hebrew text 
 contains three letters thought- 
 lessly repeated (nVT^ni). We 
 should perhaps render simply: 
 and sing a lamentation ( an elegy ) . 
 
 and say] Perhaps, with the 
 change of a single letter ( 1 into ^ ) : 
 saying. 
 
 he changeth the portion of my 
 people] The subject is indefinite ; 
 the enemy is meant (Ibn Ganah). 
 The verb, however, is inappro- 
 priate ; perhaps we ought to read 
 with the Greek Version : he meas- 
 ureth off(1\\), i. e. apportions 
 among his own. 
 
 how doth he remove it from me] 
 Or, how doth it depart from me! 
 
 Instead of restoring, &c] So 
 Ibn Ezra and Kimhi. The versions 
 
 vary in their interpretation of the 
 text which, with minor changes, 
 was read by them all. It is 
 impossible to elicit a satisfactory 
 sense. So much is clear, that the 
 rich landlords who steal the fields 
 of the poor shall be punished in 
 losing them to the enemy (Ibn 
 Ezra). 
 
 5. thou] The individual be- 
 longing to the class of grasping 
 landlords is addressed ( Ibn Ezra). 
 Possibly, however, a letter has 
 dropped out in the original 
 (I^PD D3^) ; we should render 
 accordingly: ye. 
 
 none] i. e. neither son nor 
 daughter (Ibn Ezra, Kimhi). 
 
 the line] i. e. the measuring- 
 cord (comp. II Sam. viii. 2). 
 
 by lot] Lots, probably con- 
 sisting of stones put into the 
 fold of a garment (Prov. xvi. 33), 
 or into a vessel, and shaken, 
 were cast, among other purposes,
 
 3 
 
 MICAH, II. 
 
 [vv. 6, 7. 
 
 6, 7. The rebuked impatient tvitli the stern prophet. 
 'Talk ye not,' thus they talk: 
 ' They shall not talk of these things, 
 That they shall not take shame.' 
 Shall the house of Jacob say, 
 ' Is the spirit of the Lord waxed short ? 
 
 for the assignment of property 
 (comp. Num. xxvi. 33-36). The 
 reference is to the distribution 
 of a man's property among his 
 children after his death. 
 
 in the congregation of the Lord~\ 
 A solemn name for the people of 
 Israel. Membership therein is 
 every Israelite's by birth; exactly 
 as he succeeds to his patrimony 
 upon the death of his father, so 
 does he take his father's place 
 in the community, both in the 
 smaller community of the town 
 and in the larger community of 
 the nation. See Additional 
 Note III. 
 
 6, 7. The rebuked impatient 
 with the stern prophet. 
 
 6. ' Talk ye not,'' thus they talk~\ 
 The rebuked sinners address 
 prophets like Micah with the re- 
 quest that they shall not talk to 
 them (Ibn Ezra, Kimhi, Ewald). 
 Amos and Isaiah record similar 
 experiences (Amos vii. 16; Isa. 
 xxx. 10 f. ). There is a contemp- 
 tuous note in the Hebrew verb, 
 
 which properly means to " drop," 
 or " drivel," with reference to the 
 drivelling mouth of the common 
 prophets in their fits of epileptic 
 ecstasy. 
 
 they shall not talk, &c] So 
 Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Kimhi. The 
 people are supposed to be speak- 
 ing one to another. The prophets 
 must not talk of these things, of 
 punishment and the like. If they 
 do, they will receive ignominious 
 treatment at our hands. 
 
 7. Shall the house of Jacob say~\ 
 The rendering presupposes the 
 slight change of a vowel ("ifCSn 
 for "TlftXH), which seems to be sup- 
 ported by the Targum. The 
 prophet anticipates the people's 
 query, or really hears it, and ex- 
 presses his astonishment. 
 
 Is the spirit of the Lord waxed 
 short] In the idiom of the Biblical 
 language, long of spirit means 
 "patient," "forbearing," and 
 short of spirit, "impatient." 
 Spirit is used in the sense of 
 "temper," especially "anger."
 
 v. 8] 
 
 MICAH, II. 
 
 3i 
 
 Are these His doings ? ' 
 
 Do not My words do good to him that walketh 
 uprightly ? 
 
 8 10. The doings of the rich once more described. 
 
 But of late they have made of My people an enemy ; 
 With the garment, ye strip also the mantle 
 
 Is the Lord, ask the people in 
 feigned piety, given to anger and 
 impatience ? 
 
 Are these His doing s~\ i. e. are 
 the punishments announced by 
 the prophet ( verse 3 ff. ) conso- 
 nant with the divine character? 
 
 Do not My words, &c] The 
 Lord's answer to the people's 
 query ; or the prophet's answer 
 to his own question. The prophets 
 frequently identify themselves 
 with the Lord in whose name 
 they speak. The Lord's words 
 are at once His deeds (Ps. xxxiii. 
 9 ; Isa. lv. 11); hence it can be 
 said of them that they do good. 
 
 to him that walketh uprightly] 
 Why, then, O house of Jacob, do 
 you not change your conduct? 
 Walk uprightly, and the Lord 
 will rejoice to do you good. If 
 you persist in your evil conduct, 
 the Lord must punish you, though 
 it be contrary to His nature to 
 punish. 
 
 810. The doings of the 
 rich once more described. 
 
 8. 0/ late'] Hebrew : yesterday 
 (so the Greek Version, Sym- 
 machus, and the Midrash [Exod. 
 rabba, ch. xlii], which, with a 
 view to the present passage, re- 
 marks that Israel's enthusiasm, 
 displayed at the time of the divine 
 manifestation on Mount Sinai, 
 lasted but one day: "Yesterday 
 ye said, We will do and hearken 
 [Exod. xxiv. 7], but to-day, This 
 is thy God, O Israel [ibid., xxxii. 
 4]"), i. e. the other day, quite 
 recently, thus emphasizing the 
 contrast between the accusations 
 which they bring forward against 
 the haste of the divine punish- 
 ment, and their own wickedness. 
 Aquila, Targum, Rashi, Ibn 
 Ganah, on the other hand, take 
 the Hebrew in the sense of 
 "against." See the following 
 note. 
 
 they have made of My people
 
 32 
 
 MICAH, II. 
 
 [vv. 9, 10. 
 
 From them that pass by securely, so that they are as 
 they that return from war. 
 9 The women of My people ye cast out from their pleasant 
 houses; 
 From their young children ye take away My glory for 
 ever, 
 io Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your resting-place: 
 
 an enemy] This is the approxi- 
 mate sense of the Hebrew. 
 "They," impersonal subject; you 
 (Ibn Ganah, Wellhausen) would 
 suit the context much better. 
 "My people," i. e. the poor 
 classes (comp. Exod. xxii. 24 ; 
 Kimhi). Menahem bar Helbo 
 renders less plausibly : My people 
 is risen up as an enemy. The text 
 may have read originally : But 
 ye rise up as an enemy against 
 My people (Wellhausen). 
 
 with the garment, ye strip also 
 the mantle] So Joseph Kimhi. 
 The garment is the poor man's 
 cover by night (Exod. xxii. 25 f. ). 
 The mantle (read perhaps 
 }1t3B>BJ1 nVIX) need not be a pre- 
 tentious cloak (of the kind de- 
 scribed in Joshua vii. 21), but a 
 plain mantle similar to those worn 
 by the prophets (I Kings xix. 13 ; 
 Zech. xiii. 4). 
 
 from them that pass by, &c] 
 So the Jewish commentators. 
 
 Peaceful passers-by are mal- 
 treated, stripped of their garments 
 and despoiled as those who come 
 back from war. The text is diffi- 
 cult. 
 
 9. The women of My people, 
 &c] The allusion is unclear. It 
 is possible that the prophet has in 
 mind the ejection of poor tenants 
 from their dwellings. Even women 
 and children are not spared. 
 
 My glory] No satisfactory ex- 
 planation can be given of the word 
 "glory" in the present context. 
 The text is certainly obscure. 
 
 10. Arise ye, and depart] The 
 Greek Version has the singular : 
 Arise thou, and depart. The 
 people as a whole, or the com- 
 munity, is addressed : Depart 
 hence into exile. 
 
 for this is not your resting- 
 place] The Greek reads : for it 
 is not for thee, this resting-place. 
 Palestine is called a place of rest 
 for Israel (Deut. xii. 9); but it is 
 not for you ; you must go hence.
 
 VV. II, 12.] 
 
 MICAH, II. 
 
 33 
 
 Because of the uncleanness thereof, it shall destroy you, 
 even with a sore destruction. 
 
 1 1 . The popular prophet. 
 If a man walking in wind and falsehood do lie, saying, 
 'I will talk unto thee of wine and of strong drink'; 
 He shall even be the prophet of this people. 
 
 1 2, 1 3. A passage of disputed meaning and connection. 
 I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee ; 
 I will surely gather the remnant of Israel ; 
 I will render them all as sheep in a sheepfold : 
 
 because of the uncleanness 
 thereof] i. e. because you have 
 defiled the land by your evil deeds. 
 The Torah (Lev. xviii. 258".) 
 speaks of Palestine as defiled by 
 the Canaanites and warns Israel 
 not to imitate their abominations, 
 "that the land vomit not you out 
 also, when ye defile it, as it 
 vomited out the nation that was 
 before you." 
 
 it shall destroy, &c. ] So Kimhi. 
 Probably, however, on the basis 
 of the Greek Version, we should 
 read : ye shall be destroyed, even 
 with a sore, or complete, destruc- 
 tion (bin -i^nn). 
 
 II. The POPULAR PROPHET. 
 
 walking in wind] i. e. fol- 
 lowing after wind, after things 
 as unsubstantial and delusive as 
 
 the wind; the second noun ex- 
 plains the first. 
 
 / will talk, &c] The easy- 
 going, flattering false prophet is 
 introduced as speaking. He de- 
 ludes the people with the assur- 
 ance that all is well, and that no 
 evil need be feared. 
 
 he shall even be, &c] Such 
 prophets are acceptable to the 
 people. Contrast the unpopular 
 prophet who preaches of duty and 
 of the punishment which must 
 follow its infringement (verse 6). 
 
 12, 13. A PASSAGE OF DIS- 
 PUTED MEANING AND CONNEC- 
 TION. See Introduction, ?8. 
 
 12. / will render them all] 
 Supply from the end of the verse : 
 a bustling, noisy mass of people. 
 The English Bible (/ will put
 
 34 
 
 MICAH, II. 
 
 [v. 13- 
 
 As a flock in the midst of their pasture, 
 They shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of 
 men. 
 13 The breaker is gone up before them : 
 They have broken forth and passed on, 
 By the gate, and are gone out thereat: 
 And their king is passed on before them, 
 And the Lord at the head of them. 
 
 them together) misunderstands 
 the Hebrew idiom. 
 
 as sheep in a sheepfold] The 
 rendering (Targum followed by 
 Rashi, Vulgate, and apparently 
 also Aquila and Symmachus) im- 
 plies perhaps a different vocali- 
 zation (be-strah ; in Arabic the 
 word means "enclosure for 
 cattle"). The English Version 
 (following Ibn Ezra and Kimhi) 
 takes the Hebrew word as Bozrah, 
 capital of the land of Edom 
 (Amos i. 12). Others think of the 
 Moabite Bozrah (Jer. xlviii. 24; 
 the same as Bezer, Deut. iv. 43). 
 Moab was a land rich in cattle, 
 particularly in sheep (II Kings 
 iii. 4). The sheep of Bozrah or 
 Bezer may have been as famous 
 as the kine of Bashan (Amos 
 iv. 1), or the rams of Nebaioth 
 (Isa. lx. 7). 
 
 as a flock in the midst of their 
 pasture] The Hebrew presents a 
 
 mixture of two readings: (1) a 
 pasture; (2) their pasture. 
 
 they] The grammatical subject 
 in Hebrew is the word sheep, to 
 which the verbal form is con- 
 tiguous, but the logical subject is 
 clearly the people, Jacob-Israel. 
 
 shall make great noise] i. e. 
 the loud, indistinct, confused noise 
 of a large mass of people. 
 
 13. The breaker] i. e. the bell- 
 wether, which breaks through the 
 gate of the enclosure first (Ibn 
 Ezra). Some ancients (the Tar- 
 gum followed by Rashi, Vulgate) 
 understand by the breaker the re- 
 deemer who is to lead the people 
 out of exile, or the one who will 
 pave the way for the advent of the 
 Messiah ( Elijah ; so an ancient 
 Midrash quoted by Kimhi; comp. 
 also Gen. rabba, ch. lxxxv), 
 or the Lord Himself (so Lev. 
 rabba, ch. xxxii, and apparently 
 Pesikta rabbeti, ed. Friedmann,
 
 VV. I, 2.] 
 
 MICAH, III. 
 
 35 
 
 Chap. III. I 4. Arraignment of the ruling class. 
 And I said, 
 Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, 
 And rulers of the house of Israel : 
 Is it not for you to know justice? 
 Who hate the good, and love the evil ; 
 
 p. 161). Joseph Kimhi believes 
 that Zedekiah is referred to, who 
 fled from Jerusalem by night, " by 
 the way of the gate between the 
 two walls, which was by the king's 
 garden" (Jer. Hi. 7; comp. 
 Ezek. xii. 12). It is worthy of 
 note that a manuscript of the 
 Greek Bible (cod. 91 in Holmes- 
 Parsons) contains the word Zede- 
 kiah above the word "king." 
 
 they have broken forth and 
 passed on] The people follow 
 close upon the breaker. 
 
 by the gate] Supply: they 
 have broken. 
 
 their king] i. e. the Messiah; 
 or, the Lord Himself (comp. 
 Jer. viii. 19). 
 
 Chapter III. 
 
 1 4. Arraignment of the 
 ruling class. Their principal 
 sin consists in the maladministra- 
 tion of justice. The prophet an- 
 nounces their punishment. 
 
 1. And I said] The pronoun 
 is without stress. A fresh start. 
 
 rulers'] i. e. men in authority. 
 The Hebrew word (kasin) is 
 perhaps related to the Arabic 
 kadi(n), "judge." 
 
 is it not for you] i. e. your 
 province and duty. 
 
 to know] That is : to regard. 
 Knowing, in Hebrew, often im- 
 plies, above mere intellectual 
 cognition, taking note of an ob- 
 ject, considering it of value or 
 moment so as to care for it. 
 
 justice] i. e. right relations 
 between men, more particularly 
 between the rich and the poor, 
 or, more abstractly, the idea of 
 just relationship or of right. 
 
 2. Who hate, &c] Properly 
 the prophet meant to say, Ye 
 hate, &c, this being the subject 
 to which he invites the attention of 
 the leaders addressed in verse 1 ; 
 but, carried away by indignation, 
 with his finger, so to speak, still 
 pointed at them, he continues, be- 
 yond the query at the end of verse 
 1, in the same style of direct ad-
 
 36 
 
 MICAH, III. 
 
 [w. 3, 4. 
 
 Who rob their skin from off them, 
 
 And their flesh from off their bones ; 
 
 Who also eat the flesh of my people, 
 
 And flay their skin from off them, 
 
 And break their bones .- 
 
 Yea, they chop them in pieces, as meat in the pot, 
 
 And as flesh within the caldron. 
 
 Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but He will not 
 
 answer them: 
 Yea, He will hide His face from them at that time, 
 According as they have wrought evil in their doings. 
 
 dress. The construction, though 
 logically at fault, is for that reason 
 all the more forcible. 
 
 the good'] i. e. that which is 
 morally good. 
 
 the evil] i. e. that which is 
 morally evil. They thus invert 
 values (comp. Isa. v. 20 ; Amos 
 v. 14 f. ). 
 
 who rob their skin, &c] Hy- 
 perbolical language describing 
 the heartlessness with which the 
 rich proceed against the poor, 
 robbing them of all their posses- 
 sions through usury and exactions 
 in excess of what is due or proper, 
 generally with some show of legal 
 formality, but often unfairly and 
 under false pretences (comp. for 
 similar complaints Amos ii. 6 f.; 
 iii. 9 f. ; iv. 1 ; v. 11 f. ; Isa. iii. 
 i4f. ; Jer. v. 27, and elsewhere). 
 
 The pronouns have no antecedent ; 
 but the reference is perfectly 
 obvious. 
 
 3. who also eat the flesh of 
 my people] Like sheep the poor 
 are not only fleeced, but eaten up 
 (comp. Zech. xi. 16). 
 
 and break their bones] They 
 are eaten up, flesh and bones. 
 
 yea, they chop them in pieces] 
 "Them," i. e. the poor. 
 
 as meat in the pot] So read 
 with the Greek Version ("IKE'D for 
 TffVQ). 
 
 4. Then] i. e. in that evil day 
 of reckoning. 
 
 but He will not answer them] 
 Exactly as they refused to heed 
 the cry of the poor. 
 
 yea, He will hide His face] 
 The Lord is said to lift up His 
 countenance (Num. vi. 26), when
 
 v. 5-] 
 
 MICAH, III. 
 
 37 
 
 5 8. The doings of the mercenary prophets and their fate. 
 Micah contrasts their flattering speeches with his own 
 courageous castigation of Israel's sin. 
 Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make 5 
 
 my people to err ; 
 That cry, Peace, when their teeth have any thing to bite ; 
 And whoso putteth not into their mouths, 
 They even prepare war against him : 
 
 He is favorably inclined ; con- 
 versely, when He withdraws His 
 favor, He is said to hide His face 
 (Deut. xxxi. 17 f. ; Isa. viii. 17, 
 and elsewhere ; comp. also Isa. 
 lix. 2; Job xiii. 24; xix. 25 ff. ). 
 Similarly the rabbis say that cer- 
 tain sins cause the Divine Presence 
 (Shekinah) to withdraw from 
 Israel (Yebamot 64 a). 
 
 58. The doings of the 
 mercenary prophets and 
 their fate. mlcah contrasts 
 their flattering speeches 
 with his own courageous 
 castigation of israel's sin. 
 
 After the rulers, the prophets 
 come next in order as those who 
 misguide the people. The first 
 prophet whom we find in conflict 
 with the false prophets is the 
 namesake of our prophet, Micaiah 
 ben Imlah (I Kings xxii). Jere- 
 miah is particularly bitter against 
 them (Jer. ch. xxiii, and else- 
 where); we find them inveighed 
 
 against also in Ezekiel (ch. xiii; 
 comp. also Lam. ii. 14). 
 
 5. that make my people to err ] 
 Comp. Isa. iii. 12 ; ix. 15. 
 
 that cry, Peace, &c] For a con- 
 sideration, say a stipend from an 
 influential personage, they delude 
 the nation with their optimistic 
 prophecies (comp. for an exam- 
 ple Hananiah's prophecy, Jer. 
 xxviii. 2 ff. ), "saying, Peace, 
 peace, while there is no peace" 
 (Jer. vi. 14; Ezek. xiii. 10). 
 
 they even prepare war against 
 him~\ Not in the sense of a private 
 feud, but, when their stipend is 
 withdrawn, they announce, to the 
 annoyance of their former political 
 friends in high office, that war is 
 imminent. In Hebrew the phrase 
 reads : they sanctify war ( comp. 
 Jer. vi. 4, and elsewhere). The 
 Greeks commenced their wars 
 with sacrifices of the most solemn 
 kind (the sacrifice of Iphigenia!). 
 It was the custom in the early
 
 38 
 
 MICAH, III. 
 
 [vv. 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 upper lips : 
 For there shall be no answer of God. 
 
 period of Israelitish history to 
 open a campaign with a burnt- 
 offering (Judges vi. 20; I Sam. 
 vii. 9; xiii. 10). The sacrifice 
 constituted the consecration of 
 the warriors (comp. Isa. xiii. 3, 
 and Luzzatto's commentary, ad 
 locum) who, while the cam- 
 paign lasted, were subject to cer- 
 tain restrictions otherwise im- 
 posed upon pilgrims bound for 
 the sanctuary (see W. Robertson 
 Smith, Religion of the Semites, 
 1894, p. 401 ff. ; 454ff. ). Of course, 
 the phrase persisted long after the 
 primitive ideas concerning the 
 sacred nature of war had passed 
 away. The ancient versions par- 
 aphrase in the manner of the 
 English Bible. 
 
 6. night} i. e. mental darkness 
 as a result of the suddenness of 
 the catastrophe (comp. Isa. xxix. 
 10 f.). 
 
 that ye shall not divine] He- 
 
 brew : kasam. From the Arabic 
 we know that the word designates 
 ' ' divining by lot. ' ' For a descrip- 
 tion of the Arab method of divi- 
 nation by means of arrows, see 
 Driver's Commentary on Deuter- 
 onomy, p. 223 f. ; comp. also Ezek. 
 xxi. 26 f. for a Scriptural illustra- 
 tion. The Torah ( Deut. xviii. 9 ff. ) 
 prohibits all manner of divination, 
 and institutes the office of the 
 prophet, the legitimate successor 
 to Moses. Just as the latter is the 
 type of the right kind of a prophet, 
 Balaam represents the heathen 
 diviner (Joshua xiii. 22 ; Num. 
 xxii. 7). The term "diviner" is 
 applied in the Bible to heathen 
 soothsayers (comp. I Sam. vi. 2), 
 or disparagingly to the false 
 prophets of Israel (comp. Isa. iii. 
 2 ; Jer. xxvii. 9 ; Ezek. xiii. 9, 
 and elsewhere). 
 
 7. their upper lips'] The He- 
 brew word properly denotes the
 
 w. 8, 9.] 
 
 MICAH, III. 
 
 39 
 
 But I truly am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, 
 
 And of justice, and of might, 
 
 To declare unto Jacob his transgression, 
 
 And to Israel his sin. 
 
 9 12. A summary of the sins of the three leading classes, 
 
 rulers, priests, a?id prophets. The inevitable 
 
 catastrophe. 
 
 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, 
 
 And rulers of the house of Israel, 
 
 That abhor justice, and pervert all equity; 
 
 hair on the upper lip. Covering 
 the beard was a sign of mourning 
 (Ezek. xxiv. 17) or humiliation 
 (Lev. xiii. 45). Whatever the 
 origin of the various mourning 
 rites, they came to mean the 
 reversal of the ordinary habits of 
 life, in food and dress and the 
 like. The beard, which was con- 
 sidered the ornament of manhood 
 (II Sam. x. 4; the rabbis speak 
 of it as "beauty of the counte- 
 nance," Baba mesi'a 84 a), was 
 either shaved (Jer. xli. 5), or 
 else covered up. The rabbis pre- 
 scribe that the mourner cover 
 head and cheeks after the fashion 
 of the Arabs (Mo'ed katon 15 a; 
 24 a); this rite, however, later 
 fell into disuse (Yoreh De'ah, 
 386). 
 
 answer of God] The term is 
 not specifically Israelitish. 
 
 8. But I] The prophet con- 
 trasts himself with the false 
 prophets. 
 
 by the spirit of the Lord] The 
 implication is that the false 
 prophets are not in communion 
 with the spirit of the Lord. The 
 spirit that is in them is the spirit 
 of falsehood, to whose agency 
 Micaiah ben Imlah ascribes the 
 delusions of the false prophets 
 (I Kings xxii. 22 f. ). 
 
 justice'] i. e. a sense of what is 
 right. 
 
 might] The true prophet does 
 not flatter. He speaks the truth. 
 He has convictions as to right 
 and wrong, and he possesses 
 the manhood to speak them out.
 
 4o 
 
 MICAH, III. 
 
 [vv. IO, II. 
 
 That build up Zion with blood, 
 And Jerusalem with iniquity. 
 The heads thereof judge for reward, 
 And the priests thereof teach for hire, 
 And the prophets thereof divine for money: 
 Yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, 
 ' Is not the Lord in the midst of us ? 
 No evil shall come upon us.' 
 
 9 12. A SUMMARY OF THE 
 SINS OF THE THREE LEADING 
 CLASSES, RULERS, PRIESTS, AND 
 PROPHETS. The INEVITABLE 
 
 CATASTROPHE. 
 
 IO. that build up Zion with 
 blood] Either with the actual 
 shedding of blood through judi- 
 cial murder ( I Kings xxi ; comp. 
 Ezek. xxii. 27), or by working 
 the poor to death and thus en- 
 riching themselves, so that their 
 palaces are, as it were, built with 
 the blood of the poor. Jeremiah 
 upbraids King Jehoiakim for fail- 
 ure to pay the workmen who built 
 his palace (Jer. xxii. 13). Comp. 
 also Amos v. 11 ; Hab. ii. 12. 
 
 iniquity] i. e. unfairness, the 
 opposite of equity. 
 
 1 1 The heads] i. e. the rulers, 
 those in high office. 
 
 for reward] i. e. for a bribe 
 (comp. Isa. i. 23, and elsewhere). 
 
 and the priests thereof teach for 
 
 hire] The priests who are con- 
 sulted by the people as to what is 
 right or wrong (Lev. x. 10 f., and 
 elsewhere) are accused of ve- 
 nality. The questions which the 
 priests were called upon to de- 
 cide comprised the entire sphere 
 of the religious and moral life ; 
 it was within their power either 
 to quicken or deaden the 
 people's conscience. Complaints 
 against the priests meet us else- 
 where in the prophetic literature 
 (Hosea iv. 4ff. ; v. 1 ; vi. 9; 
 Jer. ii. 8 ; Zeph. iii. 4 ; Ezek. 
 xxii. 26). 
 
 divine] The disparaging term 
 is purposely chosen. 
 
 yet will they lean, &c] The 
 form is that of an indignant ques- 
 tion indicating the absurdity of 
 their position. 
 
 Is not the Lord, &c] Comp. 
 Amos iii. 2 ; v. 24 ; ix. 10 ; Jer. 
 v. 12 ; vii. 4; viii. 8.
 
 V. 12.] 
 
 MICAH, III. 
 
 4i 
 
 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, 
 And Jerusalem shall become heaps, 
 
 And the mountain of the house as the high places of a 
 forest. 
 
 12. for your sake] i. e. on 
 account of your sins (Targum). 
 
 be plowed as a field] Comp. 
 i. 6. 
 
 heaps'] i. e. heaps of stones, 
 ruins. 
 
 high places of a forest] i. e. 
 mounds amidst uncultivated sur- 
 roundings, in the wild woods. 
 
 This verse is quoted Jer. 
 xxvi. 18. Jeremiah is accused of 
 high treason, because he predicted 
 the destruction of Jerusalem in an 
 address resembling in general 
 purport the last section of our 
 chapter and preserved Jer. vii. 
 1 ff. He is rescued from death at 
 the hands of the offended princes, 
 prophets, and priests, by Ahikam 
 the son of Shaphan. Some of the 
 elders adduce on this occasion 
 the instance of Micah, who was 
 permitted to prophesy in the same 
 manner in the days of Hezekiah. 
 It is stated there (verse 19) that 
 Hezekiah took Micah's prophecy 
 to heart and implored the Lord's 
 forgiveness, whereupon the Lord 
 refrained from carrying out the 
 evil which He had threatened to 
 bring upon the people. Possibly 
 
 this was the time when Hezekiah 
 set about destroying the high 
 places (II Kings xviii. 4, 22). 
 The reform was, of course, in- 
 effectual, Hezekiah being suc- 
 ceeded by idolatrous kings. 
 Similarly the more comprehen- 
 sive reform of Josiah was made 
 inoperative by his successors. 
 
 The true prophet, who is filled 
 with a deep sense of the right, and 
 is manly enough to give utterance 
 to his views, will, of course, be 
 unpopular. The people always 
 prefer the easy-going prophet, 
 who himself loves wine and song, 
 to the stern castigator of their 
 vices, who is not satisfied with 
 half-hearted allegiance, but de- 
 mands the absolute surrender 
 of all that is hollow and false, 
 and complete devotion to truth 
 and justice. The true prophets, 
 nevertheless, though hated and 
 laughed at as visionaries, are on 
 the whole the inviolable men 
 of God even to their enemies. 
 At times such prophets sway a 
 pious monarch like Hezekiah, 
 and some of their visions become 
 real. And no matter what may be
 
 42 MICAH, IV. [v. i. 
 
 Chapters IV VII. Consolatory prophecies concerning the 
 restoration, the second exodus, the Messianic kingdom of 
 peace, and the glorious future of purified Zion in the end 
 of days. Interspersed are denunciations of the present 
 order of things with its disruption of all social bonds and 
 its perverse notions concerning the service of the Lord. 
 
 Chap. IV. I 4. The future glory of Zion. Paradise Re- 
 gained. An ancient prophecy. 
 
 ' But in the end of days it shall come to pass, 
 'That the mountain of the Lord's house shall be estab- 
 lished as the top of the mountains, 
 
 their standing in the community those *hat utter them. Such is 
 
 of their own day, their words are the power of a word spoken from 
 
 accepted by posterity as the true the fulness of conviction, in the 
 
 words of God, while the oracles service of justice and truth, and by 
 
 of their antagonists perish with the grace of the spirit of the Lord. 
 
 Chapters IV VII. Consolatory prophecies concerning the 
 
 RESTORATION, THE SECOND EXODUS, THE MESSIANIC KINGDOM 
 OF PEACE, AND THE GLORIOUS FUTURE OF PURIFIED ZlON IN 
 THE END OF DAYS. INTERSPERSED ARE DENUNCIATIONS OF 
 THE PRESENT ORDER OF THINGS WITH ITS DISRUPTION OF ALL 
 SOCIAL BONDS AND ITS PERVERSE NOTIONS CONCERNING THE 
 SERVICE OF THE LORD. 
 
 On Micah as the author of these chapters as well as on the sequence 
 of the parts, see Introduction, \ 8, where the arguments to the con- 
 trary are refuted. 
 
 Chapter IV. 1. in the end of days] A pro- 
 
 14. The future glory of phetic phrase denoting a future 
 
 Zion. Paradise regained. An period, particularly the close 
 
 ancient prophecy. thereof, so far as the speaker's
 
 V.I.J 
 
 MICAH, IV. 
 
 43 
 
 ' And it shall be exalted above the hills : 
 'And peoples shall flow unto it. 
 
 perspective reaches. Thus it is 
 used of the period of Israel's 
 possession of Canaan (Gen. xlix. 
 i), or of the period of Israel's 
 future conquest of Moab and 
 Edom (Num. xxiv. 14), or of 
 the period of calamity ensuing 
 upon Israel's apostasy (Deut. 
 xxxi. 29), or of the period of 
 Israel's return to God in the exile 
 (ibid., iv. 30). Usually, however, 
 the phrase denotes either the 
 period ushering in the ideal, or 
 Messianic, age (the time of the 
 final attack by the heathen upon 
 Israel, Ezek. xxxviii. 16 ; Dan. x. 
 14), or the Messianic age itself. 
 So here (see Shabbat 63 a). 
 Comp. Hosea iii. 5. 
 
 the mountain of the Lord's 
 house] The Temple hill is meant. 
 
 established] i. e. firm. 
 
 as the top of the mountains] 
 i. e. the highest mountain. In 
 view of Ezek. xl. 2 and Zech. 
 xiv. 10, it is conceivable that the 
 prophet has in mind physical ele- 
 vation (see Rashi and Kimhi on 
 the passages quoted). In the 
 highly poetical passage Isa. xiv. 
 13 we read of a "mount of as- 
 sembly" of the gods, an Oriental 
 4 
 
 Olympus, in the farthest north, 
 high above the stars. (See article 
 Sinai in the Encyclopaedia Biblica 
 for Babylonian parallels and for 
 the cosmological conceptions in- 
 volved. ) Ezekiel (xxviii. 13 f.) 
 identifies the "sacred mountain 
 of God" with " Eden, the garden 
 of God," where, according to the 
 prophet's version of the story of 
 the fall, lived the first man, wise 
 and magnificent, until he pre- 
 sumed to play the equal of God, 
 and was expelled. The sacred 
 writers, when speaking of the 
 future Zion, frequently invest it 
 with the elements characteristic of 
 the "paradise". Thus Ezekiel 
 (xlvii. 1-12) predicts for the 
 future Zion a marvellous stream, 
 which, issuing thence, shall go 
 forth to the eastern region and 
 transform the salt water of 
 the Dead Sea into fresh water, 
 while on each bank there shall 
 grow trees whose leaves shall not 
 wither, nor their fruit fail, the 
 latter serving for food, and the 
 former for healing. A perennial 
 stream of "living waters" is pro- 
 mised in Zech. xiv. 8 (comp. Joel 
 iv. 18). It is "the river, the
 
 44 
 
 MICAH, IV. 
 
 [v. 2. 
 
 'And many nations shall go and say, 
 
 'Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the 
 
 Lord, 
 'And to the house of the God of Jacob; 
 'And He will teach us of His ways, 
 'And we will walk in His paths : 
 ' For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, 
 'And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 
 
 streams whereof make glad the 
 city of God, the holiest dwelling 
 of the Most High" (Ps. xlvi. 5), 
 the "river of pleasure" ( 'adanim), 
 the river of paradise {Eden), the 
 "fountain of life" (Ps. xxxvi. 9f.). 
 And so Mount Zion is called "the 
 farthest ends of the north" (Ps. 
 xlviii. 3), with unmistakable allu- 
 sion to the "mountain of assem- 
 bly" (see Luzzatto on Isa. xiv. 13, 
 and Gunkel's Commentary on 
 Genesis, 1902, p. 30 ff. ). So also 
 in the present passage, wherein 
 the advent of the golden age on 
 Mount Zion is prophesied, its 
 elevation above all the mountains 
 of the earth is fittingly empha- 
 sized in the very opening, thus 
 clearly designating Zion as Pa- 
 radise Regained in the end of 
 days. The tone of the passage, 
 however, would suggest that, 
 while the prophet is borrowing 
 ancient phraseology, he is at 
 the same time spiritualizing it, 
 
 and that the elevation of Mount 
 Zion is taken b'y him in a figura- 
 tive sense (Ibn Ezra; Kimhi on 
 our passage). Zion is to be the 
 spiritual centre of the world 
 (comp. Isa. xi. 10 ; the Messiah 
 the "banner" of the nations, a 
 signal seen far and wide and 
 attracting the nations). 
 
 flow'] i. e. move in unbroken 
 succession (comp. Zech. viii. 
 20 ff. ). 
 
 2. and say] to one another. 
 
 of His ways] perhaps, out (of 
 the treasure) of His ways, or 
 simply, His ways. The ways of 
 the Lord are His moral and reli- 
 gious precepts. The Lord teaches 
 through His representatives 
 (prophets, priests, the Messiah, 
 His people). 
 
 for, &c] An explanatory re- 
 mark by the prophet. 
 
 instruction] Hebrew : torah. 
 Instruction in the various duties 
 of life is meant.
 
 w. 3, 4.] 
 
 MICAH, IV. 
 
 45 
 
 'And He shall judge between many peoples, 3 
 
 'And shall decide concerning mighty nations afar off; 
 And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, 
 'And their spears into pruning-hooks : 
 ' Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, 
 ' Neither shall they learn war any more. 
 ' But they shall sit every man under his vine and under 4 
 
 his fig-tree; 
 'And none shall make them afraid: 
 'For the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.' 
 
 3. And He shall judge between 
 many peoples] When the Lord 
 is universally acknowledged, He 
 will judge between nations and 
 arbitrate for peoples. In Israel, 
 whenever two persons have a 
 dispute, they come to the sanc- 
 tuary of the Lord and abide by the 
 decision of His representatives 
 (Exod. xxii. 8; Deut. xvii. 8 ff. ). 
 While at present only private 
 feuds are thus terminated, in the 
 future disputes between nations 
 will be adjusted in the same 
 manner. The abolition of war is 
 a consequence of the universal 
 recognition of the sovereignty of 
 the God of Israel. The pilgrimage 
 of humanity to Mount Zion will 
 lead to a permanent and real truce 
 of God. In the language of the 
 liturgy, mankind will then form a 
 single band (comp. the Author- 
 
 ised Daily Prayer Book with a 
 new translation, by the Rev. S. 
 Singer, p. 239). 
 
 plowshares] Or, perhaps, spades. 
 People will settle down to peace- 
 ful occupations ; weapons and 
 military science will be a matter 
 of the past. Comp. Isa xi. 6-10 ; 
 Hosea ii. 20; Zech. ix. 10 ; and, 
 on the other hand, Joel iv (iii). 10. 
 The Talmud (Shabbat 63 a) adds 
 that in the Messianic age arms 
 will not be considered even an 
 ornament; they will be out of 
 place as a candle in daylight . 
 
 4. they] i. e. all mankind. 
 
 under his vine and under his 
 fig-tree] A picture of utmost 
 security. 
 
 the Lord of hosts] Hebrew 
 Adonai Sebaot. Whatever the 
 meaning of the combination may 
 have been in primitive times,
 
 4 6 
 
 MICAH, IV. 
 
 [w. 5, 6. 
 
 5. A lesson for Israel in the present order of things. 
 
 5 For all the peoples walk each one in the name of its god, 
 And we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for 
 
 ever and ever. 
 
 6, 7. The gathering of the dispersed and the constitution of 
 the "remnant." 
 
 6 In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that is 
 
 lame, 
 
 it is conceded that the prophets 
 connected with it the conception 
 of supermundane power or majes- 
 ty (see article Names in the Ency- 
 clopedia Biblica, \ 123 ; also Luz- 
 zatto on Isa. i. 9). The Greek 
 Version renders it usually by 
 "Lord of the powers, or forces," 
 or "the Almighty God," or 
 "Lord Almighty." 
 
 hath spoken it] And therefore 
 will surely bring it to pass (Ibn 
 Ezra, Kimhi). 
 
 5. A LESSON FOR ISRAEL IN 
 THE PRESENT ORDER OF THINGS. 
 
 walk] in the present tense 
 (Abrabanel), or, perhaps, will 
 walk, not in a future sense, but 
 implying a natural habit. 
 
 in the name] i. e. invoking it. 
 
 of its god] Or, gods, "which 
 yet are no gods " (Jer. ii. 11). 
 
 and we will walk in the name 
 of the Lord] The Living God, 
 
 who in the end of days will be 
 recognized by all mankind. The 
 prophet, so to speak, comes down 
 to earth ; with a view to the de- 
 plorable conditions of the present, 
 when the nations are divided, 
 holding fast to their religious tra- 
 ditions, it behooves Israel the 
 more steadfastly to cling to its 
 own religion, which is the true 
 religion destined to survive all 
 others (comp. Isa. ii. 5). 
 
 6, 7. The gathering of the 
 dispersed and the constitu- 
 tion of the "remnant." 
 
 6. In that day] An indefinite 
 phrase. The point in time con- 
 templated by the prophet here is 
 anterior to the period described 
 in the opening of the chapter. 
 The gathering of the dispersed 
 must naturally precede the con- 
 stitution of the ideal community 
 on Mount Zion.
 
 v. 7-] 
 
 MICAH, IV. 
 
 47 
 
 And I will gather her that is driven away, 
 And her that I have afflicted; 
 And I will make her that was lame a remnant, 
 And her that was cast far off a mighty nation : 
 And the Lord shall reign over them from thenceforth 
 even for ever. 
 
 her that is lame'] Israel in 
 exile is likened to maimed and 
 lost sheep (comp. Zeph. iii. 19). 
 
 and her that I have afflicted] 
 The figurative language in the 
 first half of the verse is thus ex- 
 plained. 
 
 7. a remnant] The "remnant" 
 is the community at the time of 
 the Messianic restoration. The 
 idea that the sinful nation must 
 undergo a sifting process is an 
 ancient one. Just as certain as it 
 is to the prophets that the bulk 
 of the nation is doomed to per- 
 dition, the national disaster is by 
 no means complete national ex- 
 tinction to them. No matter how 
 small the number of those "whose 
 knees have not bowed unto Baal" 
 ( I Kings xix. 18 ; comp. Judges vii. 
 5 ff. ), they constitute the remnant 
 that is to be saved. As Elijah, so 
 does Amos distinguish between 
 the sinful kingdom that is des- 
 tined to annihilation, and the 
 righteous nucleus of the future 
 house of Jacob that is inde- 
 
 structible ( Amos ix. 8 ; comp. 
 v. 15). Isaiah symbolically named 
 one of his sons Shear-jashub, i. e. 
 A remnant shall return ( Isa. 
 vii. 3). The people must go 
 through a smelting process (Mai. 
 iii. 2 f. ) : the privileged few who 
 are entered in the Book of the 
 Living (the Book of Life) con- 
 stitute the holy "remnant," those 
 who are escaped or left (Isa. iv. 
 2 f. ; x. 20 ff. ; xxxvii. 31 ; comp. 
 Zeph. iii. 13, and elsewhere in the 
 prophetic literature). The com- 
 munity that survived the fall of 
 Jerusalem, whether under Jere- 
 miah (Jer. xl. 15) or under Ezra 
 and Nehemiah (Ezra ix. 8), knew 
 itself as the "remnant" and as 
 the bearer of the prophetic prom- 
 ises. And so in the liturgy we 
 designate ourselves as the rem- 
 nant and pray: "O Guardian ot 
 Israel, guard the remnant of Is- 
 rael, and suffer not Israel to perish, 
 who say, Hear, O Israel. OGuard- 
 ian of the one nation, guard the 
 remnant of the one people, and
 
 4 8 
 
 MICAH, IV. 
 
 [vv. 8, 9 
 
 io. The revival of the Davidic kingdom. The exile but 
 a transition to the glorious future. 
 
 And thou, Migdal-eder, the hill of the daughter of Zion, 
 
 Unto thee shall it come; 
 
 Yea, the former dominion shall come, 
 
 The kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem. 
 
 Now why dost thou cry out aloud ? 
 
 let not the one nation perish, who 
 confess Thy Unity. O Guardian 
 of the holy nation, guard the 
 remnant of the holy people, and 
 suffer not the holy nation to 
 perish, who call Thee thrice 
 Holy " (Singer's Prayer Book, p. 
 64 f). 
 
 and her that was cast far off~\ 
 Or, with a slight change in one 
 letter (ns6njm for mOTD!!)), and 
 her that was sick. 
 
 8 io. The revival of the 
 Davidic kingdom. The exile 
 but a transition to the 
 glorious future. 
 
 8. Migdal-eder] The place is 
 mentioned Gen. xxxv. 21, and in 
 the Mishnah (Shekalim vii. 4), as 
 a place near Jerusalem. The 
 English Version : O tower of the 
 flock. The prophet, addressing 
 Jerusalem in ruins, calls it, as it 
 were, a solitary flock -tower in the 
 desert, the settlement of a shep- 
 herd and his household (comp. 
 II Kings xvii. 9 ; II Chron. xxvi. 
 
 10). It is possible, however, that 
 with the same end in view, the 
 prophet chooses the name of the 
 older and more modest settle- 
 ment in or near Jerusalem, which 
 the passage in Genesis places 
 in patriarchal times. 
 
 the hill of the daughter of Zion] 
 "Hill," or "stronghold," is the 
 commonly accepted rendering of 
 the Hebrew ( ofel (comp. Isa. 
 xxxii. 14). The Ophel as a part 
 of Jerusalem (S. E. slope of the 
 Temple hill ?) is mentioned Neh. 
 iii. 26 f.; xi. 21, and II Chron. 
 xxvii. 3; xxxiii. 14. "The hill of 
 the daughter of Zion" is probably 
 a poetic appellation for the hill of 
 Zion (comp. Isa. x. 32: "the 
 mount of the daughter of Zion, 
 the hill of Jerusalem"), in appo- 
 sition with Migdal-eder. 
 
 W\ Supply the subject {the 
 dominion or kingdom) from the 
 second half of the verse. 
 
 the former] i. e. Davidic. 
 
 9. The prophet is addressing
 
 V. 10.] 
 
 MICAH, IV. 
 
 49 
 
 Is there no King in thee, 
 
 Is thy Counsellor perished, 
 
 That pangs have taken hold of thee as of a woman in 
 
 travail ? 
 Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of 10 
 
 Zion, like a woman in travail : 
 For now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and shalt 
 
 dwell in the field, 
 And shalt come even unto Babylon; there shalt thou 
 
 be rescued, 
 There shall the Lord redeem thee from the hand of 
 
 thine enemies. 
 
 the city in the throes of the siege 
 on the eve of the exile ; he bids 
 her be of good courage, since the 
 exile will be but the transition to 
 a glorious future. 
 
 Now] In a logical sense, = 
 hence. 
 
 cry out aloud] So Ibn Ezra 
 and Kimhi. 
 
 Is there no King, &c] The 
 King and Counsellor is the Lord 
 (Ibn Ezra, Kimhi, Marti; comp. 
 Jer. viii. 19). 
 
 that pangs have taken hold, &c. ] 
 Comp. Jer. vi. 24 ; xxii. 23. 
 
 10. Be in pain] The agony 
 which Israel about to be exiled is 
 experiencing shall be, in the lan- 
 guage of the rabbis ( Mekilta on 
 Exod. xvi. 25 and 30 ; Shabbat 
 n8fl, and elsewhere), the "throes 
 
 of the Messiah," ushering in new 
 life, the glorious Messianic future. 
 
 and labour to bring forth] So 
 Ibn Ezra. It is the crisis of a 
 new life born in pain. 
 
 now] In contrast with then, 
 implied in there. 
 
 in the field] The city is con- 
 trasted with the field where one 
 is beset by. all the dangers from 
 which one is safe in the former. 
 
 and shalt come even unto Baby- 
 lon] See Introduction, 8. 
 
 there] The Greek and Syriac 
 Versions: thence. 
 
 11 13. The final assault 
 of the heathen world. 
 
 Even when rescued from the 
 exile and brought back to Jerusa- 
 lem, they shall be subjected to one 
 more final assault. Many nations
 
 5 
 
 MICAH, IV. 
 
 [w. 11-13. 
 
 13 
 
 11 13. The final assault of the heathen world. 
 
 And now many nations are assembled against thee, 
 That say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye gaze upon Zion. 
 But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, 
 Neither understand they His counsel : 
 For He hath gathered them as the sheaves to the 
 
 threshing-floor. 
 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion : 
 For I will make thy horn iron, 
 And I will make thy hoofs brass : 
 
 will gather about Jerusalem, but 
 they shall be routed. The appear- 
 ance of a great heathen force 
 about Jerusalem on the eve of the 
 Messianic age and its definitive 
 overthrow form part of the tra- 
 ditional programme in the pro- 
 phetic eschatology (comp. Isa. 
 x. 12 ; xiv. 24-27; xvii. 12-14 ; J oe l 
 iv [iii] ; Zech. ix. 14-16 ; xii. 1-9, 
 and elsewhere). Ezekiel (chap- 
 ters xxxviii and xxxix) designates 
 the assailants as the hosts of Gog 
 (Magog). From Scripture the 
 Gog-Magog episode in the advent 
 of the Messianic kingdom has 
 passed on to the rabbis who make 
 frequent reference thereto ( Bera- 
 koti3a; Sanhedrin 95 b, and else- 
 where). In the liturgy, the pass- 
 ing away from the earth of the 
 arrogant kingdom with all its 
 wickedness ushers in the ever- 
 
 lasting Kingdom of God (Singer's 
 Prayer Book, p. 239). 
 
 11. now] i. e. at an indefinite 
 period in the future. 
 
 Let her be defiled] From the 
 prophet's point of view. Jerusa- 
 lem is holy, when no strangers 
 pass through her (comp. Joel iv 
 [iii]. 17). 
 
 gaze upon] i. e. with malicious 
 joy. 
 
 12. Comp. Isa. xiv. 24, 26 f. 
 counsel] i. e. plan. 
 
 for, &c] Exposition of the 
 divine plan. 
 
 13. and thresh] As a heifer 
 (comp. Hosea x. 11). 
 
 for I will make thy horn iron] 
 Wherewith to gore the assailant 
 (comp. Deut. xxxiii. 17). The 
 figure of the threshing animal 
 is let go to be taken up forth- 
 with.
 
 v. I4-] 
 
 MICAH, IV. 
 
 5i 
 
 And thou shalt beat in pieces many peoples : 
 And thou shalt devote their gain unto the Lord, 
 And their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth. 
 
 14. Extreme humiliation of Zion and of her ruler during 
 a siege of the city. 
 
 Now shalt thou cut thyself, O daughter of troops : 
 'They have laid siege against us, 
 
 They smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the 
 cheek.' 
 
 14 
 
 beat in pieces many peoples] i. e. 
 make dust of them. 
 
 thou] So the ancient versions 
 and apparently also the Hebrew 
 text (archaic form). 
 
 devote] Or, dan. Consecration 
 by means of the "ban" implies 
 absolute withdrawal from human 
 use. Both persons and things 
 may be "banned," turned over 
 to the sanctuary, which, in certain 
 cases, may order their destruction. 
 The "ban" is prescribed in the 
 Torah (Deut. vii. 2, 25 f. ; xx. 
 16-18) for the cities and religious 
 symbols of the Canaanites ; the 
 spoil is to be "devoted" either 
 wholly or in part according to the 
 gravity of the situation. The war 
 upon the nations gathered about 
 Jerusalem for a final assault is 
 thus designated as a holy war, 
 one of complete extermination. 
 
 the Lord of the whole earth] 
 Comp. Zech. vi. 5; Ps. xcvii. 5. 
 
 14. Extreme humiliation 
 of Zion and of her ruler 
 during a siege of the city. 
 
 A fresh start parallel to verse 9 
 (or verse 11), while v. 1 is parallel 
 to iv. 8. The prophet pictures the 
 extreme humiliation which will 
 be meted out to Zion before her 
 turn for the better may come. 
 
 shalt thou cut thyself] This is 
 the most plausible rendering 
 (Graetz); the paronomasia is one 
 of sound, which it is impossible 
 to bring out in the translation. 
 Cutting oneself, i. e. making in- 
 cisions in the body, was a mourn- 
 ing rite (Jer. xvi. 6), which, 
 though prohibited in the Torah 
 (Deut. xiv. 1), was nevertheless 
 practised (Jer. xli. 5). The city 
 will be in mourning.
 
 52 
 
 MICAH, V. 
 
 [v. x. 
 
 Chap. V. i 5. The advent of the Messiah and the inaugu- 
 ration of permanent peace for Israel. 
 
 But thou, Beth-lehem Ephrath, 
 
 Which art little to be among the thousands of Judah, 
 
 Out of thee shall one come forth unto Me that is to be 
 
 ruler in Israel j 
 Whose goings forth are from of old, from ancient days. 
 
 O daughter of troops'] The 
 meaning is obscure. Perhaps the 
 text is in disorder. 
 
 They have laid siege, &c] The 
 people's lamentation. 
 
 they smite .... upon the cheek] 
 Comp. I Kings xxii. 24 ; Isa. i. 6 ; 
 Job xvi. 10. To such humiliation 
 will the city and its ruler be sub- 
 jected. But there is a glorious 
 restoration to come, and a more 
 glorious ruler, who shall exercise 
 dominion over the nations, who 
 now so shamefully humiliate 
 Israel. 
 
 the judge] i. e. the ruler. Comp. 
 I Sam. viii, 20. 
 
 Chapter V. 
 
 1 5. The advent of the 
 Messiah and the inaugura- 
 tion OF PERMANENT PEACE FOR 
 
 Israel 
 
 1. Beth-lehem Ephrath] There 
 were two cities named Beth-lehem, 
 and each had the additional name 
 
 of Ephrath ; the one was situated 
 in Benjamin, between Beth-el and 
 Ramah, and was the site of the 
 tomb of Rachel (Gen. xxxv. 16 ff. ; 
 I Sam. x. 2; Jer. xxxi. 15); the 
 other in Judah ( Ruth iv. 1 1 ; I Sam. 
 xvii. 12). Here, of course, the 
 latter is meant. A third Beth- 
 lehem, in Galilee, is mentioned, 
 Joshua xix. 15 (see Neubauer, La 
 giographie du Talmud, p. 188 ff. ). 
 
 thousands] i. e. families, or 
 clans. Though the least in Judah, 
 it is really the greatest. 
 
 ruler in Israel] i. e. the Messiah 
 (Targum), a second and greater 
 David (Hosea iii. 5; Ezek. xxxiv. 
 23 f. ; xxxvii. 24). The stress is 
 upon the Davidic descent of the 
 Messiah ; for David was a Beth- 
 lehemite. 
 
 from ancient days] A relative 
 term denoting the more or less 
 distant past. In our passage the 
 time of the rise of the Davidic 
 dynasty is meant. The English
 
 vv. 2-4.] 
 
 MICAH, V. 
 
 53 
 
 (Therefore will He give them up, 2 
 
 Until the time that she who travaileth hath brought forth s 
 Then the residue of his brethren shall return with 
 
 the children of Israel.) 
 And he shall stand, and shall feed his flock in the 3 
 
 strength of the Lord, 
 In the majesty of the name of the Lord his God : 
 And they shall dwell in safety, for then shall he be 
 
 great unto the ends of the earth. 
 And this shall be peace : 4 
 
 Version: from everlasting, im- 
 plying the doctrine of the pre- 
 existence of the Messiah. So the 
 Targum : whose name was uttered 
 in the beginning. See Additional 
 Note IV. 
 
 2. Therefore] The verse is 
 parenthetical, the point of time 
 being that of iv. 10, or iv. 14. 
 
 give them up ] i. e. deliver them 
 to their enemies. 
 
 until the time, &c] Until that 
 great child (the ruler of Davidic 
 stock) has been born. Comp. 
 Isa. vii. 14. 
 
 the residue 0/ his brethren] i. e. 
 the tribe of Judah (Rashi, Kimhi). 
 
 shall return] To the Holy Land. 
 
 with] So Kimhi. 
 
 the children 0/ Israel] i. e. the 
 ten tribes (Rashi, Kimhi). There 
 will be a return of All-Israel 
 (comp. Hosea ii. 2; Isa. xi. 13). 
 
 3. feed his flock] The object 
 is added for the sake of the Eng- 
 lish (comp. the Greek Version). 
 
 in the strength, &c] He shall 
 be endowed by the Lord with the 
 power and authority belonging to 
 the ideal ruler and making for a 
 reign of righteousness and peace 
 (comp. Isa. xi. 2 ff. ). 
 
 and they shall dwell in safety] 
 The last two words are easily 
 supplied from the context (Ibn 
 Ezra, Kimhi). Less correctly: 
 and they shall return (Syriac 
 Version, Targum, Vulgate, Rashi, 
 Joseph Kara). Subject: the 
 people, Israel and Judah. 
 
 for then] i. e. at the time when 
 the Messianic kingdom will be 
 established. 
 
 4. And this shall be peace] 
 This peace ensuing upon the ad- 
 vent of the Messiah shall be peace
 
 54 
 
 MICAH, V. 
 
 [v. 5- 
 
 When the Assyrian shall come into our land, 
 
 And when he shall tread in our palaces, 
 
 Then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, 
 
 And eight princes among men. 
 
 And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, 
 
 in all truth, real and abiding, con- 
 sisting, as the following illus- 
 tration shows, in the repulsion of 
 hostile attacks (so Rashi; comp. 
 the Greek Version and Targum). 
 The Hebrew, though with less 
 probability, admits of being ren- 
 dered : and this man shall be our 
 peace (Vulgate, Kimhi), i. e. he 
 shall be the guarantee of our peace 
 (by repelling the attacks of our 
 enemies ) . ( According to the Tal- 
 mud [Shabbat io5], God's name 
 is Peace.) The passage Zech. ix. 
 10 is not quite analogous, inas- 
 much as there, in the spirit of 
 Micah iv. i ff., the Messianic peace 
 implies the cessation of warfare. 
 On the other hand, Isa. ix. 5 f. 
 is quite apposite with its reference 
 to a period of "peace without 
 end" (with which is coupled a 
 reign of "justice and righteous- 
 ness," hence of internal, civic 
 peace) ushered in by a king- 
 liberator of warlike character, who 
 is to break down the yoke of 
 his people's oppressors, making 
 away with ' ' every boot that treads 
 down noisily, and every cloak that 
 
 is rolled in blood." The present 
 passage is but the prelude to 
 iv. 1 ff. ; first peace to Israel, 
 through warfare if necessary; then 
 peace to human kind, when war 
 shall be no more. 
 
 the Assyrian] The enemy 
 threatening the Messianic king- 
 dom is identified with the domi- 
 nant power in the times of the 
 prophet. 
 
 in our palaces] The Greek 
 Version: inourland(=:im'3~\H2}). 
 
 raise against him] i. e. as adver- 
 saries, to be leaders in combating 
 the intruding foe. Perhaps we 
 should render: set by his side, 
 i. e. by the side of the Messiah, 
 as his aids and lieutenants. 
 
 seven . . . eight] A goodly 
 number (Ibn Ezra, Kimhi ; comp. 
 Eccles. xi. 2, and elsewhere). 
 Possibly, however, the numbers 
 are to be taken as traditional, and 
 the reference is here to the 
 "Companions of the Messiah." 
 See Additional Note V. 
 
 among tnen] The sense is ob- 
 scure. 
 
 5. waste] The Hebrew properly
 
 v. 6.] 
 
 MICAH, V. 
 
 55 
 
 And the land of Nimrod with the naked sword : 
 
 And he shall deliver us from the Assyrian, when he 
 
 cometh into our land, 
 And when he treadeth within our border. 
 
 6 8. The greatness of the restored community. 
 
 *And the remnant of Jacob, in the midst of many 6 
 
 peoples, shall be 
 As dew from the Lord, as showers upon the grass, 
 That are not looked for from man, 
 Nor awaited at the hands of the sons of Adam. 
 
 *Haftarah (Prophetic Lesson) corresponding to the Lesson from the 
 Torah, B'alak (Num. xxii. 2 xxv. 9). 
 
 means : feed on, eat up ( said of 
 grazing cattle), and the verb is 
 intended as a play on shepherds 
 in the preceding verse. 
 
 the land of Nimrod ] A poetic 
 appellation of Assyria for the sake 
 of parallelism. According to Gen. 
 x. 8 ff., Nimrod was the founder of 
 Babylonian civilization. Assyria 
 is clearly indicated there as an off- 
 shoot (colony) from Babylonia. 
 In Nimrod, Babylonia and Assyria 
 may be said to be united. 
 
 with the naked sword] So 
 Aquila, an anonymous Greek 
 version ( "Quinta"), Vulgate, Ibn 
 Ezra, Kimhi. Perhaps a slight 
 change of the text (nrvr\23 for 
 rvnrts:)) is necessary. 
 
 and he shall deliver us] The 
 object is supplied from the con- 
 text. Subject : the Messiah (Kim- 
 hi), or read: they {VST*). 
 
 when he cometh . . . when he 
 treadeth'] Implying: so that he 
 may not come nor tread. 
 
 6 8. The greatness of the 
 restored community. 
 
 6. And the remnant of Jacob, 
 &c] So with the accents. 
 
 as dew] The Biblical "dew" 
 is the night-mist of the summer 
 months in Palestine, which rep- 
 resents the condensed moisture 
 brought by westerly winds from 
 the Mediterranean and cooled by 
 the night air. As rain does not 
 fall from the beginning of May to
 
 56 
 
 MICAH, V. 
 
 [vv. 7-9. 
 
 And the remnant of Jacob, among the nations, in the 
 
 midst of many peoples, shall be 
 As a lion among the beasts of the forest, 
 As a young lion among the flocks of sheep : 
 Who, if he go through, treadeth down and teareth in pieces, 
 And there is none to deliver. 
 
 Let Thy hand be lifted up above Thine adversaries, 
 And let all Thine enemies be cut off. 
 
 9 14. The community freed from the reprehensible features 
 of the present order of things and unmolested by enemies. 
 
 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, 
 
 the latter part of October, the 
 night-mist supplies to the parched 
 vegetation moisture abundant 
 enough to sustain the summer 
 crops (see article Dew in the 
 Encyclopedia Biblica). The point 
 of comparison is set forth in the 
 end of the verse. Just as the dew 
 and the rain are blessings from 
 the Lord which no human effort 
 can bring about, so the re- 
 stored community, as it shall stand 
 forth among the nations, will be 
 the direct result of the divine 
 salvation coming spontaneously 
 and when least expected (Mena- 
 hem bar Helbo). The dew is 
 
 elsewhere (Isa. xxvi. 19) an em- 
 blem of resurrection ; comp. the 
 Targumic phrase: "the dew of 
 resurrection" ( HAITI A"l f^O, Ps. 
 lxviii. 10; comp. Hagigah 12^). 
 
 from the Lord} Explained in 
 the second half of the verse. 
 
 7. The community thus con- 
 stituted will be an object of fear. 
 
 among the nations} The words 
 are inserted by the Greek Version 
 also in verse 6. 
 
 8. The uplifted hand, to which 
 is opposed the slack hand, is the 
 symbol of powerful activity. The 
 enemies of Israel are the enemies 
 of the Lord. As the text reads, 
 we have here a prayer, a sigh of 
 the community in exile. 
 
 9 14. The community freed 
 from the reprehensirle fea- 
 tures of the present order 
 of things and unmolested by 
 
 ENEMIES. 
 
 9. in that day} According to 
 the context, in the Messianic 
 period, the aim of the prophet
 
 W. IO-I2.] 
 
 MICAH, V. 
 
 57 
 
 That I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, 
 
 And will destroy thy chariots: 
 
 And I will cut off the cities of thy land, 10 
 
 And will throw down all thy strongholds: 
 
 And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thy hand; 
 
 And thou shalt have no more soothsayers : 
 
 And I will cut off thy graven images and thy pillars 12 
 
 out of the midst of thee ; 
 And thou shalt no more worship the work of thy 
 
 hands. 
 
 being not so much to describe 
 the latter as, by contrast, to 
 castigate the reprehensible prac- 
 tices in vogue in his own day. 
 Thus a transition is effected to 
 the subject-matter of the follow- 
 ing sections. 
 
 thy horses . . . thy chariots] 
 See note on i. 13. 
 
 10. the cities] Fortified cities 
 are meant. 
 
 1 1 . witchcrafts out of thy hand] 
 Apparently such magic arts are 
 alluded to as were manipulated 
 by the hand. 
 
 soothsayers'] Probably those 
 who divine by observing the 
 clouds (Hebrew meonenim; for 
 rabbinic explanations see Sanhe- 
 drin 65a). 
 
 12. pillars] The word ( masse- 
 bah) occurs in Phoenician and 
 Palmyrene, and, as may be 
 gathered from the objects on 
 
 which it is inscribed, designates 
 a commemorative obelisk erected 
 over a tomb (hence in late He- 
 brew: a tombstone in general), 
 or in honor of a deity. The 
 massebah, though employed 
 freely by the patriarchs (Gen. 
 xxviii. 22; xxxi. 45, 51 f. ; comp. 
 also Exod. xxiv. 4; Isa. xix. 19; 
 Hosea iii. 4; in the last two 
 passages, however, an accom- 
 modation to the custom of the 
 Egyptians and the idolatrous 
 Israelites), is usually charac- 
 terized as a heathen symbol 
 of the Canaanites, and pro- 
 scribed (Exod. xxiii. 24, and else- 
 where). 
 
 worship the work of thy hands] 
 The images alone were properly 
 an object of worship ; never- 
 theless, the massebot were like- 
 wise associated with the impure 
 worship.
 
 58 
 
 MICAH, V, VI. 
 
 [vv. 13, 14 ; 1. 
 
 13 And I will pluck up thine Asherim out of the midst 
 
 of thee: 
 And I will destroy thine enemies. 
 
 14 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon 
 
 the nations, 
 Because they hearkened not. 
 
 Chap. VI. 1 8. A controversy between the Lord and Israel. 
 The false and the true service of the Lord. 
 
 1 Hear ye now what the Lord is saying : 
 'Arise, contend thou before the mountains, 
 And let the hills hear thy voice.' 
 
 13. Asherim'] Singular: Ashe- 
 ra/i, a post or pole, planted in the 
 ground beside an altar and vene- 
 rated as a sacred symbol. The 
 Asherah is prohibited in the 
 Torah (Deut. xvi. 21 f. ) ; the de- 
 struction of Canaanite Asherim 
 is likewise enjoined (Exod. xxxiv. 
 13, and elsewhere). Nevertheless 
 the Canaanite custom was imitated 
 by the unspiritual Israelites. A 
 famous Asherah in Samaria is 
 alluded to II Kings xiii. 6 (comp. 
 I Kings xvi. 33). Josiah destroyed 
 the Asherah erected by Manasseh 
 in the Temple (II Kings xxiii. 6f.; 
 xxii. 7). 
 
 thine enemies] So the Masorah, 
 Targum, Rashi, Ibn Ganah, Kimhi. 
 
 14. upon the nations] The 
 
 enemies are the nations that 
 are both directly and indirectly a 
 source of danger to Israel. From 
 the nations come the attacks on 
 Israel's security; from them the 
 idolatrous worship and the mili- 
 tary ambitions. The nations must 
 be destroyed, so that Israel, living 
 in safety and freed from the con- 
 tagion, may devote itself to that 
 life which is truly consonant with 
 its genius, and become the holy 
 nation the Lord has destined it 
 to be. 
 
 because they hearkened not] 
 In the language of the Midrash 
 (Sifre on Deut. xxxiii. 2), be- 
 cause they refused to receive 
 the Law at the time that Israel 
 did.
 
 VV. 2, 3.] 
 
 MICAH, VI. 
 
 59 
 
 Hear, O ye mountains, the Lord's controversy, 
 
 And ye enduring rocks, the foundations of the earth 
 
 For the Lord hath a controversy with His people, 
 
 And He will plead with Israel. 
 
 O My people, what harm have I done unto thee? 
 
 And wherein have I wearied thee? 
 
 Testify against Me. 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 
 18. A CONTROVERSY BE- 
 TWEEN the Lord and Israel. 
 The false and the true ser- 
 vice of the Lord. 
 
 1. is saying] So, correctly, Tar- 
 gum and Vulgate. The prophet 
 bids the people listen to the divine 
 word just at this moment becom- 
 ing audible to him. 
 
 contend thou before the moun- 
 tains] Not with, which, though 
 the usual meaning of the Hebrew 
 particle, is clearly impossible here. 
 In the ensuing controversy, the 
 Lord, as it were, keeps in the 
 background, the prophet appear- 
 ing in His stead and on His behalf 
 as prosecutor. 
 
 2. The prophet forthwith exe- 
 cutes the divine command. The 
 everlasting mountains, as wit- 
 nesses of the Lord's dealings with 
 Israel in ancient times, are im- 
 panelled as a jury. The Midrash 
 takes the mountains as the "fa- 
 thers" (patriarchs), and the hills 
 
 as the "mothers" (Exod. rabba 
 ch. xv and xxviii, Rosh ha- 
 shanah 1 1 a, certain manuscripts 
 of the Targum). 
 
 and ye enduring rocks] The 
 meaning "strong" is assigned 
 to the Hebrew adjective fre- 
 quently in the ancient versions, 
 also in the Talmud (Sotah 46a; 
 Rosh ha-shanah 11 a). Arabic, 
 however, suggests the rendering 
 adopted in the text (comp. Num. 
 xxiv. 21, and elsewhere). 
 
 3. The argument is entered 
 upon. There is a tone of tender- 
 ness throughout. The Lord for 
 the moment plays the defendant. 
 The fault is not on His side ; for 
 He has been uniformly kind to 
 Israel. Thus, indirectly, the nation 
 is accused of ingratitude. 
 
 what harm, &c] So, correctly, 
 Ibn Ezra and Kimhi. 
 
 And wherein have I wearied 
 thee] By what excessive de- 
 mands (comp. Isa. xliii. 23), by 
 what unkept promises (comp.
 
 6o 
 
 MICAH, VI. 
 
 [w. 4, 5. 
 
 Is it because I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, 
 And redeemed thee out of the house of bondage, 
 And sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam ? 
 O My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab 
 
 devised, 
 And what Balaam the son of Beor answered him ; 
 From Shittim unto Gilgal, 
 That ye may know the righteous acts of the Lord. 
 
 Jer. ii. 31) have I subjected 
 thee to too great exertion, or ex- 
 hausted thy patience, and thus 
 afforded thee a pretext for desert- 
 ing Me ? 
 
 4. On the contrary, I bestowed 
 upon thee singular favors. The 
 arraignment gains in force by the 
 ironical query. Comp. Amos ii. 
 10; Jer. ii. 6; also Hosea xi. 1; 
 xii. 14. 
 
 and redeemed thee out of the 
 house of bondage] Comp. Deut. 
 vii. 8; xiii. 6, and elsewhere. 
 
 and sent before thee~\ The 
 "sending" implies a divine com- 
 mission; "before thee", guid- 
 ance in the flight from Egypt and 
 the journeyings from the wilder- 
 ness as well as spiritual ministry. 
 Moses and Aaron are coupled 
 together as the people's guides, 
 or priests, Ps. lxvii. 21 (20); xcix. 6 
 (comp. Exod. iii. 14 ff., and else- 
 where). After the passage through 
 the Red Sea, Miriam arouses the 
 
 enthusiasm of the women asMoses 
 does that of the men ( Exod. xv. 1, 
 20). The three are designated as 
 prophets (Num. xii) ; but the 
 primacy of Moses is emphasized 
 (ibid. ). Comp. also Hosea xii. 14; 
 Isa. lxiii. 12, and elsewhere. The 
 Targum paraphrases : three 
 prophets, Moses to teach the Law, 
 Aaron to atone for the people, and 
 Miriam to instruct the women. 
 
 5. Balak king of Moab devised] 
 Comp. Num. xxii. 6. 
 
 Balaam the son of Beor an- 
 swered him] Comp. Num. xxiii. 
 7ff; 18 ff.; xxiv. 3ff; 15 ff; Joshua 
 xxiv. 9 f. 
 
 from Shittim unto Gilgal] 
 There is an apparent difficulty in 
 construing these words. The ref- 
 erence, however, can only be to 
 the crossing of the Jordan and the 
 transition from the camp life in 
 the plains of Moab (comp. Joshua 
 ii. 1) to settled conditions on the 
 other side of the Jordan (ibid.,
 
 v. 6.] 
 
 MICAH, VI. 
 
 61 
 
 Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, 
 And bow myself before God on high ? 
 Shall I come before Him with burnt-offerings, 
 With calves of a year old ? 
 
 x. 9-12; comp. Exod. xvi. 35). 
 So, correctly, the Targum. The 
 possession of the Holy Land 
 is the climax to the divine favors 
 begun with the exodus (comp. 
 Amos ii. 10; Jer. ii. 7). 
 
 the righteous acts'] The Hebrew 
 sedakah means more than " right- 
 eousness " in the sense of justice, 
 i. e. of giving to every man that 
 which is his due by law; it in- 
 cludes equity and humane con- 
 duct, kindness. As an attribute 
 of the Lord, it is coupled with 
 hesed, ' lovingkindness " ( Ps. 
 xxxvi. n [10]; ciii. 17); His 
 righteous acts are those which 
 work blessings (Ps. xxiv. 5) and 
 salvation (Isa. xlv. 8, and else- 
 where). Here (as in I Sam. xii. 7) 
 the divine favors to Israel in the 
 course of the nation's history, and 
 especially in the beginning there- 
 of, are meant. 
 
 6. The reply of the penitent 
 people, which only serves to bring 
 out their utter lack of understand- 
 ing as to the right kind of service 
 demanded by the Lord. The 
 willingness of the people to repay 
 the Lord's favors is pathetic, ex- 
 
 actly as the kind of service they 
 offer in their indolent, cringing, 
 cowardly spirit is insulting to the 
 Deity. The arraignment thus 
 really continues, and the people 
 are condemned out of their own 
 mouth. 
 
 come before] i. e. meet, as one 
 meets, or receives, a friend, or 
 guest, with gifts, with bread and 
 water (Isa. xxi. 14; Deut. xxiii.5). 
 Hence come before make an 
 offering to (Vulgate). 
 
 bow myself] i. e. bend my head 
 (Isa. lviii. 5) in humble submis- 
 sion and worship. 
 
 before God on high] i. e. in 
 heaven. The great and lofty God 
 who inhabits the height of heaven 
 (comp. Isa. xxxiii. 5) is the Holy 
 God (ibid., lvii. 15), transcendent 
 in character, yet by no means un- 
 approachable and distant. 
 
 burnt-offerings] i. e. offerings 
 in which the victim is totally con- 
 sumed by fire upon the altar, no 
 portion of the flesh being used for 
 food, distinguished from the other 
 sacrificial variety called "sacri- 
 fice' ' ( zebah ) or " peace-offering ' ' 
 (shetem, shelamim), of which, after
 
 62 
 
 MICAH, VI. 
 
 [v. 7. 
 
 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, 
 Or with ten thousands of rivers of oil ? 
 Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, 
 The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? 
 
 the internal organs together with 
 the fat have been consumed on 
 the altar, the flesh is eaten by the 
 sacrificer and his invited guests, 
 barring certain portions, which are 
 given to the priest as his due 
 (comp. Lev. i; iii ; vi. 1-6; vii. 
 1 1-34). The Torah speaks also 
 of "sin-offerings" (of which the 
 "guilt-offering " is a sub-variety), 
 of which the flesh is either eaten 
 by the priest, or burnt outside the 
 camp (comp. Lev. iv; v; vi. 17- 
 vii.6). The burnt and sin-offerings 
 are holy in the first degree, while 
 the peace-offerings are holy only 
 in the second degree. The burnt- 
 offering is clearly typical of the 
 idea of sacrifice as a gift to the 
 Deity; it is wholly accepted by 
 Him, while in the case of 
 the other sacrifices He cedes of 
 His own "food" (ibid., xxi. 6, 
 and elsewhere) to the priest, or 
 to the sacrificer, entertaining 
 them, as it were, at His own 
 "table" (Mai. i. 7; comp. Lev. 
 rabba, ch. xxii). While in the 
 early period, antedating even the 
 beginnings of the national life of 
 Israel, crude notions were enter- 
 
 tained with reference to the needs 
 of the Deity, it is certain that, 
 though the phrases persisted to a 
 late date, their grosser conno- 
 tations had been eliminated from 
 the consciousness of the people, 
 and the sacrifices had come to be 
 looked upon merely as symbolic 
 of the readiness of the worshipper 
 to give up his very best as an ex- 
 pression of his dependence on the 
 Deity. See Additional Note VI. 
 
 with calves of a year old] 
 Comp. Lev. i. 3, 5. 
 
 7. Nor is it a question of 
 quantity. 
 
 rams'] Poetic specification 
 (comp. I Sam. xv. 22). 
 
 oil] Oil was used, as far as we 
 know, principally in connection 
 with the "meal-offering" (Lev. 
 ii; comp. ibid., xiv. 10 ff.; Ezek. 
 xlv. 14). In the Mishnah (Zebahim 
 x. 8) a votive or freewill-offering 
 of oil (without flour) is recognized. 
 
 my first-born . . . the fruit of my 
 body] The Torah prescribes that 
 all male first-born, whether of man 
 or beast, belong to the Lord 
 (Exod. xiii. 2, and elsewhere), 
 and must be dedicated, or offered
 
 v. 8.] 
 
 MICAH, VI. 
 
 63 
 
 It hath been declared unto thee, O man, what is good: 8 
 And what doth the Lord require of thee, 
 
 to Him (Exod. xiii. 2, 12), i. e. 
 the offerable animals as sacrifices 
 (ibid., 15), while certain unclean 
 animals and the human first-born 
 are to be redeemed, the former 
 by an offerable animal, and the 
 latter by the payment of money 
 to the priest (ibid., 13, 15; see 
 Mekilta on verse 13). On the 
 other hand, the sacrifice of chil- 
 dren "unto Moloch" is forbidden 
 as a profanation of the name of 
 the Lord under the penalty of 
 death (Lev. xviii. 21; xx. 2-5; 
 comp. Deut. xviii. 10). Moreover, 
 it is included among the abomin- 
 able practices of the Canaanites 
 which the Israelites are ad- 
 monished to shun (Deut. xii. 31). 
 See Additional Note VII. 
 
 for my transgression . . .for the" 
 sin of my soul] The principal 
 function of the sacrificial cult is 
 piacular. The gift is to symbolize 
 the devotion of the repentant 
 sinner, who, estranged from God 
 by his sin, would restore himself 
 to divine favor and re-establish 
 relations with the Deity. As a 
 symbol of repentance sacrifice is, 
 of course, by no means reprehen- 
 sible ; from this point of view 
 sacrifice as an institution is or- 
 
 dained in the Torah. See Ad- 
 ditional Note VI. 
 
 8. The prophet replies. 
 
 It hath been declared unto 
 thee'] The logical subject is in- 
 definite (Greek Version, Aquila, 
 Theodotion, Targum). It is 
 characteristic of the Hebrew idiom 
 to suppress the subject when 
 indefinite ; sometimes, with the 
 same force, the subject is ex- 
 pressed according to the well- 
 known pattern : when he who 
 hears, hears. (II Sam. xvii. 9) 
 = when it is heard. So here, 
 in a fuller manner, it might have 
 been said : He who hath declared, 
 or the declarer, hath declared 
 unto thee, i. e. those charged with 
 declaring (revealing, making 
 known) the word of God, the 
 prophets, have made known to 
 thee. Micah, it may be for 
 reasons of modesty, refrains from 
 pronouncing the following teach- 
 ing in his own name ; but, in truth, 
 with Amos and Hosea before him, 
 not to mention Moses, he could 
 scarcely claim originality for him- 
 self. 
 
 O man] The individual Jew, 
 though a member of the holy 
 nation, is a man among men,
 
 6 4 
 
 MICAH, VI. 
 
 [v. 8. 
 
 But to execute justice, and to love kindness, 
 And to walk humbly with thy God ? * 
 
 * Here ends the Lesson. 
 
 having duties to his fellow-men 
 of whatever nationality, and 
 recognizing the supra-national 
 foundations of morality. In intro- 
 ducing the laws prohibiting incest 
 and other gross immoralities, 
 among them also the law for- 
 bidding child sacrifice, the Law- 
 giver, though clearly declaring 
 that such immoralities are prac- 
 tised both by the Egyptians and 
 Canaanites, nevertheless desig- 
 nates those laws as ordinances 
 " by which, if a man do them, he 
 shall live" (Lev. xviii 5). The 
 rabbis have certainly grasped the 
 full meaning of this word when 
 they say by way of explicit com- 
 ment : " It is not written, A priest, 
 a Levite, or an Israelite, but a 
 man ; hence, even a Gentile who 
 keeps the Torah is as worthy as 
 the high priest. So it is also 
 written, 'And this is the law of 
 man' (II Sam. vii. 19); 'Open ye 
 the gates, that the righteous Gen- 
 tile- ('IJ) who keepeth truth may 
 enter in' (Isa. xxvi. 2); 'This is 
 the gate of the Lord : the right- 
 eous shall enter into it ' (Ps. cxviii. 
 20) ; ' Rejoice in the Lord, O ye 
 righteous' (Ps. xxxiii. 1); 'Do 
 
 good, O Lord, unto those who 
 are good' (Ps. cxxv. 4)" (Sifra 
 on Lev. xviii. 5 ; Baba kamma 
 38a; Sanhedrin 59 a ; 77a). 
 
 and to love kindness] Hebrew : 
 hesed, a term signifying the doing 
 of such favors as are not exactly 
 a matter of justice, and certainly 
 not of legal requirement ; it is 
 more comprehensive than, and 
 therefore inclusive of, "mercy," 
 i. e. kindness extended to the 
 lowly, needy, and miserable. In 
 the phraseology of the rabbis, 
 "the doing of kindnesses (nib'OJ 
 D'TDn)" is a wide term desig- 
 nating all charitable acts to per- 
 sons not necessarily dependent, 
 especially such as go with personal 
 service (Sukkah 49 b). According 
 to Rabbi Eleazar, almsgiving be- 
 comes a complete act of charity 
 only if coupled with a deed of 
 kindness (ibid. ). The same 
 teacher maintains that, while 
 almsgiving transcends in value all 
 sacrifices, deeds of kindness are 
 greater than almsgiving (ibid. ) 
 
 and to walk humbly with thy 
 God] Walking with God means 
 living in intimacy and close fellow-
 
 v. 9-] 
 
 MICAH, VI. 
 
 65 
 
 9 16. Denunciation of the injustice of the rich and ruling 
 
 classes. 
 
 Hark ! the Lord crieth unto the city, 
 
 (And the man of wisdom will see Thy name .) 
 
 Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it. 
 
 ship with God and in a manner 
 pleasingto Him (comp. Gen. v. 22, 
 and elsewhere). Humbly = mod- 
 estly, retiringly, unobtrusively, 
 unostentatiously, not with the 
 devotion which must express it- 
 self in costly and public sacrificial 
 gifts (or acts of charity), but with 
 inward devotion and noiseless acts 
 of love. Humility is the keynote 
 of Jewish ethical teachings. The 
 Jewish saint is pre-eminently 
 humble (Num. xii. 3; Berakot 6b). 
 According to Rabbi Phinehas ben 
 Jair, Torah leads to caution ; 
 caution leads to forethought ; 
 forethought leads to sinlessness ; 
 sinlessness leads to asceticism ; 
 asceticism leads to purity ; purity 
 leads to holiness ; holiness leads 
 to humility; humility leads to 
 the fear of sin ; fear of sin leads 
 to piety ; piety leads to the holy 
 spirit ; the holy spirit paves the 
 way for the resurrection ( Abodah 
 zarah 20 b). The rabbis add that 
 piety, leading as it does to the 
 holy spirit, is the highest degree 
 of all; while Rabbi Joshua ben 
 
 Levi assigns the highest place to 
 humility (ibid.). Modesty, says 
 the Midrash (Pesikta rabbeti, ed. 
 Friedmann, p. 185 b), is most 
 pleasing to God. It is especially 
 a virtue of the Jewish woman 
 (Shabbat 140 ; Num. rabba, 
 ch. i), but also of the Jewish 
 man (ibid., 53 ; Menahot 43a). 
 
 9 16. Denunciation of the 
 injustice of the rich and 
 ruling classes. See Addi- 
 tional Note II. 
 
 9. Hark ! &c] The prophet 
 is speaking. The city is appar- 
 ently Jerusalem ; the Lord crieth 
 unto her, i. e. declares to her 
 her guilt and the consequences 
 thereof. 
 
 and the man of wisdom, &c] 
 So Ibn Ezra and Kimhi. But the 
 words "the man of" are not in 
 the Hebrew, and their omission 
 does not appear justified by other 
 analogies. Nor does the rendering 
 "and Thy name shall see that 
 zvhich is," yield a satisfactory 
 sense. Others translate : it is
 
 66 
 
 MICAH, VI. 
 
 [vv. IO, II. 
 
 IO 
 
 Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house 
 
 of the wicked, 
 And the scant measure that is abominable ? 
 Shall I be pure with wicked balances, 
 And with a bag of deceitful weights ? 
 
 wisdom to look for Thy name, 
 a parenthetical remark urging the 
 importance of giving heed to the 
 following warning and threat 
 (Reuss) ; or (on the basis of the 
 ancient versions) : it is salvation 
 (salutary) to fear Thy name, 
 equally a side-remark showing 
 how, when the Lord's voice of 
 rebuke is heard, those who, like 
 the prophet, fear God's name, need 
 not feel alarmed, while the wicked 
 must tremble (Ewald). The text 
 remains obscure. 
 
 hear ye the rod, &c] So Rashi, 
 Ibn Ezra, Kimhi. The rod is the 
 rod of punishment ; thus Assyria 
 is designated as the rod of the 
 Lord's anger in Isa. x. 5. "And 
 who hath appointed it " the 
 pronoun with emphasis; of course, 
 the Lord is meant. The Lord 
 appoints the rod, as He is said 
 to appoint the sword (Jer. 
 xlvii. 7). Ewald (comp. Greek 
 Version, Vulgate, Targum, Mena- 
 hem bar Helbo) : Hear, O tribe, 
 and whoso assembleth it (the 
 king). 
 
 10. Are there yet, &c] So 
 Kimhi (comp. Targum). The 
 arraignment proceeds in the form 
 of interrogation. Yet = all this 
 time, in spite of repeated warn- 
 ings. Other renderings have 
 been proposed, which, however, 
 are not convincing. 
 
 and the scant] Hebrew: lean. 
 Comp. Amos viii. 5; Deut. xxv. 
 13 ff. 
 
 measure] Hebrew : ephah, a 
 grain measure = about 40 litres. 
 
 abominable] Comp. Deut. xxv. 
 16. 
 
 1 r. Shall I be pure] The im- 
 personal "I" in the sense of 
 "one." The Greek Version 
 seems to have read the third 
 person, equally in an impersonal 
 sense. Pure = blameless. 
 
 with wicked balances] Comp. 
 Lev. xix. 36 ; Deut. xxv. 13. 
 Wicked = fraudulent. 
 
 and with a bag] Comp. Deut. 
 xxv. 13; Prov. xvi. 11. It was 
 customary to carry small weights 
 in a bag about the body.
 
 w. 12-14.] 
 
 MICAH, VI. 
 
 67 
 
 For the rich men thereof are full of violence, 
 And the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, 
 And their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. 
 Therefore I also do smite thee with a grievous wound ; 
 I do make 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 remove, but shalt not carry away safe; 
 And that which thou earnest away will I give up to the 
 sword. 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 12. For, &c] In Hebrew: 
 She (= the city; comp. verse 9), 
 whose rich men. 
 
 are full of violence] i. e. full of 
 the spirit of violence. And so 
 they fill their houses with the pro- 
 ceeds of their violence (comp. 
 verse 10 and Amos iii. 10 ; see 
 also note on iii. 10). 
 
 have spoken lies'] i. e. are un- 
 truthful. 
 
 deceitful] So, correctly, Ibn 
 Ganah and Kimhi. 
 
 13. Therefore I also] In ac- 
 cordance with thy deeds and in 
 just retribution. 
 
 do smite thee] The prophet is 
 addressing an individual among 
 the rich as a typical example. His 
 fate, of course, will be the fate of 
 them all. 
 
 14. Thou shalt eat, &c] Comp. 
 Lev. xxvi. 26. 
 
 and thy humiliation shall be in 
 the midst of thee] So Vulgate, 
 Ibn Ganah, Ibn Ezra, Kimhi. The 
 Hebrew word rendered "humili- 
 ation" occurs nowhere else. 
 The Syriac Version and the Tar- 
 gum think of dysentery (comp. 
 Sifre on Deut. xi. 12). The other 
 versions seem to have had read- 
 ings more or less at variance with 
 the received text. Thus certain 
 manuscripts of the Greek Version 
 render : / will cast thee out 
 ("IHDN1), while others, in agree- 
 ment with Theodotion, have : // 
 shall become dark (*lK>m); Sym- 
 machus : // shall destroy thee 
 (inn^l); Aquila: I will plant 
 thee (-frriKW). None of these 
 readings is satisfactory, nor is the 
 rendering "hunger" (Ewald) ac- 
 ceptable. Aquila's text, however, 
 suggests a plausible emendation
 
 68 
 
 MICAH, VI. 
 
 [vv. 15, 16. 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 Thou shalt sow, but shalt not reap : 
 
 Thou shalt tread the olives, but shalt not anoint thee 
 
 with oil; 
 And the vintage, but shalt not drink the wine. 
 For the statutes of Omri are kept, 
 And all the works of the house of Ahab, 
 And ye walk in their counsels : 
 That I may make thee an astonishment, 
 And the inhabitants thereof a hissing; 
 And ye shall bear the reproach of My people. 
 
 which is given in the following 
 note. 
 
 and thou shalt remove, but shalt 
 not carry away safe ; and that 
 which thou carriest away} sc. of 
 thy 'belongings (in particular 
 women and children). So Ewald 
 (comp. Aquila and certain manu- 
 scripts of the Greek Version, 
 hence the Vulgate). Ibn Ganah 
 (followed by Ibn Ezra and Kimhi) 
 renders: and she ( = thy wife) 
 shall conceive, but shall not bear 
 (comp. Deut. xxviii. 18, and for 
 the verb Job xxi. 10) ; and whom- 
 soever she beareth. The sense 
 is excellent, and it may be per- 
 missible to suggest for the two 
 preceding words the emended 
 reading : and thy wife in her body 
 
 (m-ipa "in^&o). 
 
 15. Thou shalt sow, &c] 
 Comp. Amos v. 11. 
 
 anoint thee with oil} The 
 warm climate of Palestine re- 
 quires application of fat to the 
 skin. It was customary to oil the 
 body after a bath (II Sam. xii. 20, 
 and elsewhere), and also to pour 
 oil upon the head ( Ps. cxli. 5, and 
 elsewhere). The custom is fre- 
 quently alluded to in the Mishnah 
 (e. g. Yoma viii. 1). 
 
 vintage} The Hebrew word 
 properly means "must" (accord- 
 ing to Kimhi metonymically for 
 "grapes"). 
 
 16. For the statutes of Omri 
 are kept} Or, with a slight change 
 of the text (VietPm), for ye keep, 
 &c. The plural and the singular 
 interchange, the person addressed 
 in the preceding verses being typ- 
 ical of the whole class of grandees. 
 "The statutes of Omri" the 
 phrase immediately suggests the
 
 V. I.] 
 
 MICAH, VII 
 
 69 
 
 Chap. VII. 1 6. The prophet laments the complete dis- 
 ruption of the moral order. 
 
 Woe is me ! for I am as when they have gathered the 1 
 
 summer fruits, 
 As when they glean the grapes of the vintage : 
 There is no cluster to eat ; 
 Nor first-ripe fig which my soul desireth. 
 
 contrast : the Lord's statutes are 
 not kept. Omri was the father of 
 Ahab (I Kings xvi. 28). The 
 author of the Book of Kings 
 describes him as a king more 
 wicked than any of his predeces- 
 sors (ibid., 25). 
 
 and all the works of the house 
 of Ahab] The "works" of the 
 house of Ahab, and primarily of 
 Ahab, were the introduction of 
 the Baal and Asherah cults 
 (ibid., 31 f. ), the persecution and 
 slaughter of the prophets of the 
 Lord (ibid., xxii. 27; xviii. 4), and 
 rapacity exemplified by the rob- 
 bery and judicial murder of Na- 
 both (ibid., xxi). From Israel the 
 idolatrous worship passed on to 
 Judah (II Kings viii. 27; comp. 
 also ibid., xvi. 3). 
 
 that I may, &c. ] The conse- 
 quence is frequently presented by 
 the Scriptural writers ironically as 
 design. 
 
 thee] i. e. the Judaean grandee. 
 It is quite likely that the king is 
 
 addressed throughout the last 
 verses. 
 
 an astonishment] i. e. an object 
 of astonishment. 
 
 thereof] i. e. of Jerusalem. 
 
 a hissing] The two nouns 
 are coupled together frequently 
 (comp. Jer. xviii. 16, and else- 
 where. 
 
 and ye shall bear, &c] As 
 leaders of the people, the reproach 
 to which they shall be subjected 
 will be yours. Our text was read 
 by Targum and Vulgate. 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 
 16. The prophet laments 
 the complete disruption of 
 the moral order. 
 
 1. The prophet speaks in the 
 name of the community. 
 
 lam] as stripped of good men 
 as an orchard or vineyard after 
 the fruit has been gathered in and 
 only gleanings are left. 
 
 as when they have gathrrcd, 
 &c] And a few of the worst are
 
 7o 
 
 MIC AH, VII. 
 
 [w. 2. 3. 
 
 The godly man is perished out of the earth, 
 
 And the upright among men is no more : 
 
 They all lie in wait for blood ; 
 
 They hunt every man his brother with a net. 
 
 Their hands are upon that which is evil to do it 
 
 diligently: 
 The prince asketh, and the judge is ready for a reward ; 
 
 left in the orchard. Possibly we 
 should render (comp. Targum 
 and Rashi) : as the last of the 
 summer fruits. 
 
 as when they glean the grapes of 
 the vintage] Or, as the grape 
 gleanings of the vintage. 
 
 there is no cluster to eat~\ Only 
 scattered grapes remain. Or the 
 reference is to the quality, as in 
 the following verse. 
 
 nor first-ripe fig, &c] The 
 early figs were regarded as a 
 delicacy (comp. Isa. xxviii. 4). 
 At the end of the summer they 
 are, of course, no more. For the 
 figurative sense, comp. Isa. v. 2 ; 
 Hosea ix. 10. The soul, as often, 
 the seat of the appetites. 
 
 2. The godly man] Hebrew : 
 hasid, the man who actively prac- 
 tises hesed, "kindness," "love," 
 the pious and saintly man. In the 
 Talmud and the post-Talmudic 
 literature the term comes nearest 
 to the English " saint. " In Scrip- 
 ture, the emphasis seems to lie on 
 
 the humanitarian activities of the 
 hasid (comp. Isa. lvii. 1; Ps. xii. 
 
 2[l]ff.). 
 
 perished] i. e. disappeared. 
 
 out of the earth] Although the 
 prophet is speaking with a view 
 to his own circle, he may con- 
 ceivably exaggerate. Moreover, 
 each godly man, as he disappears, 
 may well be said to be gone out 
 of the earth. The earth, the world, 
 is poorer for the loss of him. See 
 the next clause. 
 
 and the upright, &c. ] Upright- 
 ness is a human quality : one is 
 upright as a man among men. 
 See note on vi. 8. 
 
 lie in wait for blood ] See note 
 on iii. 10. In Sirach xiii. 19 we 
 read : "Wild asses of the wilder- 
 ness are food for the lion : so the 
 poor are the prey of the rich." 
 
 3. the prince asketh] Supply: 
 the judge for a bribe. 
 
 and the judge is ready for a 
 reward] From the hands of the 
 rich man.
 
 v. 4-] 
 
 MICAH, VII. 
 
 7i 
 
 And the great man, he uttereth the evil desire of his soul : 
 
 Thus they weave it together. 
 
 The best of them is as a brier, 4 
 
 The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge : 
 
 The day of thy watchmen, even thy visitation, is come; 
 
 Now shall be their perplexity. 
 
 and the great man] i. e. the 
 rich man, the man of influence 
 who corrupts the judge. 
 
 he uttereth the evil desire of his 
 soul] So the versions unani- 
 mously; " evil desire " =: wicked 
 thought, plot. 
 
 thus they] i. e. the three leading 
 classes amongst themselves. 
 
 weave it together] "It," indefi- 
 nite neuter object. The rendering 
 of the verb goes back to a Tal- 
 mudic authority ( Rabbi Berechiah 
 in Palestinian Talmud, Ta'anit 
 65^), and is apparently correct. 
 Weaving = intriguing. Thus the 
 intrigue is accomplished, the plot 
 against the poor. 
 
 4. is as a brier] i. e. as crooked 
 and as prickly. 
 
 the most upright is worse than, 
 &c.J Possibly we should read : 
 the most upright of them is as a 
 thorn hedge (H31DQ D~lt^). Comp. 
 II Sam. xxiii. 5 f. 
 
 the day of thy watchmen] The 
 prophet is a watchman seeing the 
 danger ahead of the people and 
 
 signalling to them, warning them 
 betimes (comp. Isa. xxi. 6 ; Ezek. 
 xxxiii. 2 ff., and elsewhere). Others 
 (Targum, Rashi, Kimhi ; comp. 
 also theTalmudic passage referred 
 to above) think of the optimistic 
 false prophets; then, "the day of 
 thy watchmen," an ironical 
 phrase, the hopes raised by the 
 words being dashed by the fol- 
 lowing exposition. 
 
 thy visitation, is come] The 
 prophetic tense. "Visitation" 
 (from the Latin visitare, frequen- 
 tative of visere, "look at atten- 
 tively") is the Scriptural word 
 for God's providential and retrib- 
 utive activity, both in rewarding 
 and punishing. Here the latter 
 connotation is meant : it is the 
 day of reckoning, the day of 
 judgment. 
 
 no7t>] = then, at that point in 
 the future. 
 
 shall be] i. e. come to pass. 
 
 their perplexity] So the Tar- 
 gum correctly (comp. Isa. xxii. 5 ; 
 Exod. xiv. 3). The other versions
 
 72 
 
 MICAH, VII. 
 
 [vv. 5, 6. 
 
 Trust ye not in a friend, 
 
 Put ye not confidence in a familiar friend ; 
 
 Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy 
 
 bosom. 
 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 house. 
 
 (except the Vulgate, which incor- 
 rectly renders: devastation, ruin) 
 and the Talmud (in the passage 
 referred to above) read (or mis- 
 translate) : their weeping. 
 
 5. A fresh start. The corrup- 
 tion has gone so far that the most 
 intimate relations of friendship 
 and domestic life are disrupted. 
 Comp. Jer. ix. 3. 
 
 Trust ye~\ Impersonal address. 
 
 6. the men of his own house] 
 i. e. his domestic servants (comp. 
 Job xix. 15). 
 
 In the Mishnah (Sotah ix. 15) 
 our verse is embodied in a passage 
 descriptive of the conditions which 
 are to obtain in the period immedi- 
 ately preceding the advent of the 
 Messiah (comp. also Matthew x. 
 35 f. ; Luke xii. 53). Similar 
 thoughts and phraseology occur 
 in the apocalyptic writings (Ba- 
 ruch lxx. 3 ff. ; IV Ezra v. 9 ; vi. 24 ; 
 Enoch ii) and in the Midrashim 
 (Sifre on Deut. xxxh. 36; Pesikta 
 
 rabbeti, p.4 b\ 75 a, and elsewhere ; 
 Derek eres zutta, ch. x ; Cant, 
 rabba, ch. ii ; comp. also San- 
 hedrin 97 a ff. ). The idea under- 
 lying these expectations is that 
 evil must have run its course 
 before the good can come. The 
 hope in the triumphant advent of 
 the Kingdom of God is intensified 
 by the very contemplation of the 
 evil as it exists. When the moral 
 corruption is greatest, salvation 
 is surest; or, as the rabbis say, 
 "out of distress cometh relief" 
 (Midrash Shoher Tob on Ps. xxii; 
 Jer. xxx. 7 is appositely quoted). 
 (Comp. Friedmann's remarks at 
 the end of section xxxvii of the 
 Pesikta, which show penetration 
 into the religious contents of the 
 Jewish eschatology. "The hope," 
 he says, "in the regeneration of 
 the world after a period of greatest 
 physical and moral evil is deeply 
 implanted in the Jewish soul."). 
 This thought dominates the pres-
 
 vv. 7-9.] 
 
 MICAH, VII. 
 
 73 
 
 13. Nevertheless the community hopes for a better future 
 and for triumphant restoration after the exile. 
 
 But as for me, I will look unto the Lord : 
 
 I will wait for the God of my salvation : 
 
 My God will hear me. 
 
 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: 
 
 Though I be fallen, I shall arise ; 
 
 Though I sit in darkness, the Lord is a light unto me. 
 
 I will bear the indignation of the Lord, 
 
 Because I have sinned against Him ; 
 
 Until He plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: 
 
 ent passage, and is expressed in 
 phraseology which antedates the 
 prophets. Hence the seemingly 
 sudden transition to the hopeful 
 vision, verse 7 ff., where the 
 prophet speaks for the "rem- 
 nant" (verse 18), the ideal com- 
 munity which, when freed from 
 its own sin, is destined to triumph 
 over the nations now rejoicing in 
 its downfall. 
 
 7 13. Nevertheless the 
 community hopes for a better 
 future and for triumphant 
 restoration after the exile. 
 
 7. The prophet speaks in the 
 name of the "remnant." 
 
 8. Rejoice not, &c] Assyria, 
 typical of the inimical heathen 
 world, is addressed. Comp. iv. 14. 
 
 in darkness] Figuratively for 
 
 great distress and humiliation 
 ( comp. Isa. ix. 1 ; Ps. xxiii. 4 ; 
 Lam. iii. 6). 
 
 the Lord is a light unto me] 
 Comp. Ps. xxvii. 1. 
 
 9. Penitent Israel acknowledges 
 its sins and the justification of 
 its humbled condition. But the 
 day of salvation must dawn. 
 
 / will bear] i. e. willingly and 
 resignedly ; for my punishment is 
 well deserved. Comp. Jer. xiv. 
 7, 20; Ps. cvi. 
 
 because I have sinned] It is 
 the formula of confession. 
 
 my cause] The cause of Israel 
 against the nations is this, that, 
 though chosen by God as the 
 instrument of punishment, they 
 have largely exceeded the limits 
 set to them, and are bent on
 
 74 
 
 MICAH, VII. 
 
 [v. 10. 
 
 He will bring me forth to the light, 
 
 And I shall behold His righteousness. 
 
 Then mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her ; 
 
 Who said unto me, 'Where is the Lord thy God?' 
 
 Mine eyes shall gaze upon her; 
 
 Now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets. 
 
 annihilating Israel (comp. Isa. x. 
 5 ff. ; xl. 27 ; xlix. 4 ; Ezek. xxv. 
 8 ff. ; xxviii. 22 ff. ; Ps. xliii. 1). 
 Hence the Seventh Benediction : 
 "Look now upon our affliction, 
 and plead our cause, and redeem 
 us, O Lord, speedily for the sake 
 of Thy name. Blessed be Thou, 
 O Lord, Redeemer of Israel." 
 (Singer's Prayer Book, p. 47.) 
 The immediately preceding Bene- 
 diction contains the confession 
 of sin. 
 
 bring me forth to the light] 
 Out of my present darkness 
 (verse 8). 
 
 His righteousness] The Lord 
 vindicates His own righteous 
 character by taking up the cause 
 of the downtrodden and wronged. 
 Hence the Lord's righteousness 
 is tantamount to His favor and 
 salvation ; see note on vi. 5. 
 
 10. who said unto me, &c] 
 The taunt implies both the humil- 
 iation of Israel abandoned by the 
 Lord, and the Lord's impotence. 
 The community appeals to the 
 
 Lord's honor (comp. II Kings 
 xviii. 34; Joel ii. 17; Ps. lxxix. 
 . 10; cxv. 2). 
 
 shall gaze upon her] i. e. gaze 
 with delight upon her downfall. 
 
 now] See note on verse 4. 
 
 11-13. These verses are exceed- 
 ingly difficult and ambiguous. 
 "The earth" or "the land" 
 (verse 13) may be Palestine or 
 the surrounding countries. The 
 prophet, if the direct speaker, 
 may be threatening Israel, or, on 
 the contrary, the nations. In the 
 former case, he may after all 
 mention the devastation of the 
 Holy Land, not as final, but as 
 preliminary to the gathering of 
 the dispersed (verse 12). It would 
 appear that the person addressed 
 in verses n and 12 is the same, 
 yet the vocalization introduces a 
 distinction by making the one in 
 verse 11 a feminine, and the one 
 in verse 12 a masculine person. 
 The translation and interpretation 
 adopted here are therefore tenta- 
 tive.
 
 VV. II, 12.] 
 
 MICAH, VII. 
 
 75 
 
 'The day for building thy walls, even that day, shall be n 
 
 far removed ! ' 
 There shall be a day when they shall come unto thee, 12 
 From Assyria even to the cities of Egypt, 
 And from Egypt even to the River, 
 And from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. 
 
 11. The words, it would seem, 
 are spoken by Israel's enemy 
 (verses 8 and 10). The day upon 
 which Israel expects the walls 
 (literally : fences) of the holy city 
 to be rebuilt, the day of restora- 
 tion, shall be far removed, shall 
 never come (so Rashi). Other 
 translations and interpretations : 
 A day for building thy walls! 
 in that day shall the decree be far 
 removed. The prophet is then 
 the speaker. The day shall come 
 when thy walls shall be rebuilt, 
 and the irksome subjugation by 
 the nations (= decree) shall cease 
 (Vulgate, Targum ; comp. Ibn 
 Ezra). Or: A day for building 
 thy walls! in that day shall the 
 boundary ( = decree, limit) be far 
 extended (Reuss and others). 
 Or: A day for building thy walls ! 
 that day shall be far removed. 
 That is, the day of Israel's res- 
 toration shall come, but it is 
 still distant, and, before it comes, 
 the Holy Land must suffer devas- 
 tation on account of Israel's sins 
 ( E wald ) . All the ancient versions 
 
 presuppose the Masoretic text. 
 The last word, however, may be 
 a faulty repetition of the last 
 two letters of the preceding verb 
 (pn prTV) ; or the two words 
 should be read as one (pnprW). 
 12. The rendering adopted in 
 the text comes nearest to the He- 
 brew. The Hebrew, however, says: 
 he shall come unto thee. "Egypt" 
 for Masor in agreement with com- 
 mentators quoted by Kimhi and 
 most moderns (comp. Isa. xix. 6, 
 and elsewhere). The Vulgate and 
 Targum (comp. Kimhi) take the 
 word as a common noun : " forti- 
 fied cities," "fortress" (Aquila, 
 Theodotion, Targum [for the 
 second]: "besieged cities," or 
 "siege " ). According to the Tar- 
 gum and most moderns Israel is 
 addressed by the prophet, who 
 predicts for that glorious day the 
 gathering of the dispersed from 
 all parts of the world (comp. 
 Deut. xxx. 3 f., and elsewhere). 
 To this interpretation it may be 
 objected, in the first place, that the
 
 7 6 
 
 MICAH, VII. 
 
 [vv. 13, 14. 
 
 13 And the land shall be desolate for them that dwell therein, 
 Because of the fruit of their doings. 
 
 14 20. The prophet 's concluding word. A prayer on behalf 
 
 of Israel. 
 
 14 Feed Thy people with Thy rod, the flock of Thy heritage, 
 
 Hebrew (attested by Aquila, Vul- 
 gate, and Syriac Version) reads : 
 he shall come, and not : they 
 shall come (the Hebrew, it is true, 
 may be taken as an impersonal 
 construction ; see note on vi. 8) ; 
 secondly, that, after the return of 
 the dispersed, verse 13 with its 
 reference to a "desolate land" 
 yields no satisfactory sense, 
 whether the countries containing 
 exiled Jews, or Palestine, be meant 
 by the "land"; thirdly, that the 
 phraseology of the present verse 
 {from Assyria even to the cities 
 of Egypt, or, according to a plau- 
 sible emendation **ttf1 for ,, "iyi , 
 from Assyria even to Egypt) 
 points rather to an area to which 
 the subject implied in the Hebrew 
 verb is to go, and not from which 
 it is to come. It is therefore pos- 
 sible that we have here the retort 
 to the taunt of Israel's enemy: 
 There shall be a day when he, i. e. 
 the enemy, shall come, laying 
 waste the whole stretch of the 
 country' from Assyria even to 
 Egypt, and from Egypt even to the 
 
 River (=Euphrates; Gen. xxxi. 
 21, and elsewhere), and from sea 
 to sea (from the Mediterranean to 
 the Persian Gulf), and from 
 mountain to mountain (from the 
 Syro-Arabian plateau to the Ira- 
 nian and Armenian highlands). 
 Out of the desolation of Western 
 Asia (or of the world; see Midrash 
 ShoherTob on Ps. 1. 2) shall arise 
 the Messianic Kingdom (and a 
 regenerated world). It is true, 
 against thee would suit the inter- 
 pretation adopted here better 
 than unto thee. Perhaps the He- 
 brew should be emended to read 
 thy enemy (Ttin for T"Ufi). 
 
 13. And the land, &c] See 
 note on the preceding verse. 
 "Notwithstanding," "yet" (Eng- 
 lish Versions), makeshifts not 
 warranted by the Hebrew idiom. 
 
 for them, &c] So that they 
 shall not dwell therein. It shall 
 be uninhabited. 
 
 1420. The prophet's con- 
 cluding WORD. A PRAYER ON 
 BEHALF OF ISRAEL. 
 
 The prophets are not merely
 
 v. I5-] 
 
 MICAH, VII. 
 
 77 
 
 That dwell solitarily, as a forest in the midst of the fruitful 
 
 field: 
 Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days 
 
 of old. 
 'As in the days of thy coming forth out of the land of 15 
 
 Egypt, 
 Will I show unto him marvellous things.' 
 
 castigators of their people's sins ; 
 they often, and always in the end, 
 intercede for them. Comp. Jer. 
 xviii. 20. 
 
 14' Feed] i. e. tend, as a shep- 
 herd (comp. Gen. xlix. 24, and 
 elsewhere). 
 
 with Thy rod] Comp. Ps. 
 xxiii. 1 11. 
 
 the flock of Thy heritage] 
 Israel is called the "heritage" 
 (= portion) of the Lord (Deut. 
 iv. 20, and elsewhere) as His elect 
 people. As here, "people" (or 
 ' ' nation ' ' ) and ' ' heritage ' ' are 
 frequently conjoined (Isa. xix. 25, 
 and elsewhere ) . Equally the Holy 
 Land and the Temple are called 
 the Lord's heritage (I Sam. xxvi. 
 19, and elsewhere ; Exod. xv. 17, 
 and elsewhere). The designation 
 of Israel as the Lord's flock is 
 quite frequent (Jer. xiii. 20, and 
 elsewhere). 
 
 that dwell solitarily] i. e. in 
 seclusion and inaccessible to foes 
 
 (comp. Judges xviii. 7), hence se- 
 curely (comp. Deut. xxxiii. 28). 
 
 as a forest in the midst of the 
 fruitful field] i. e. as inaccessible 
 as a forest, &c. (IbnEzra). Per- 
 haps we should read : let them feed 
 (11TV for 10") in the midst of the 
 fruitful field ( = Western Pales- 
 tine). 
 
 Bashan and Gilead] On the 
 east of the Jordan, occupied in 
 "the days of old" by Reuben, 
 Gad, and half of Manasseh(Num. 
 xxxii). 
 
 15. The Lord's reply. The 
 Masoretic text is supported by 
 all the ancient versions. The 
 marvellous things are the miracles 
 incident to the deliverance from 
 Egypt (Exod. Hi. 20, and else- 
 where), indeed, the deliverance 
 itself as a wonderful act of divine 
 power and intercession (comp. 
 Jer. xxi. 2 ; Sirach xxxv. 6). See 
 Additional Note VIII. 
 
 16 ff. The prophet again is 
 speaking.
 
 78 
 
 MICAH, VII. 
 
 [vv. 16-18. 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 The nations shall see and be put to shame for all their 
 might : 
 
 They shall lay their hand upon their mouth, 
 
 Their ears shall be deaf. 
 
 They shall lick the dust like a serpent; 
 
 Like crawling things of the earth they shall come trem- 
 bling out of their close places : 
 
 They shall come with fear* unto the Lord our God, 
 
 And shall be afraid because of Thee. 
 
 Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth the iniquity, 
 
 And passeth by the transgression, of the remnant of His 
 heritage ? 
 
 16. shall see] sc - tne glory of 
 Israel. 
 
 for all their might] In spite of 
 all the brute force in which they 
 trusted, and which shall in no wise 
 avail them. 
 
 lay their hand upon their mouth'] 
 i. e. be speechless as a result of 
 their discomfiture. 
 
 their ears shall be deaf] i. e. 
 stupefied with the magnitude of 
 the catastrophe which has over- 
 whelmed them. 
 
 17. They shall lick, &c] The 
 serpent, moving as it does with 
 its mouth upon the ground, may 
 readily be supposed to swallow 
 more dust than other animals (see 
 the commentaries on Gen. iii. 14). 
 Licking the dusj: of another per- 
 son's feet means humble subjec- 
 
 tion (Targum, Ibn Ezra; comp. 
 Isa. xlix. 23). 
 
 crawling things of the earth] 
 i. e. reptiles crawling into the 
 earth to hide. 
 
 out of their close places] i. e. 
 their fastnesses ( Kimhi ; comp. 
 Ps. xviii. 46. 45), which are likened 
 here to the holes of reptiles. 
 
 come with fear unto the Lord ] 
 i. e. submit to Him in fear (comp. 
 Hosea iii. 5). 
 
 18 ff. The prophet prays in the 
 name of the "remnant." 
 
 18. Who is a God, &c] Comp. 
 Exod. xv. 11, and elsewhere. 
 
 that pardoneth the iniquity] 
 Comp. ibid., xxxii. 6 ff. 
 
 of the remnant of His heritage] 
 See note on iv. 7.
 
 w. 19, 20.] 
 
 MICAH, VII. 
 
 79 
 
 He retaineth not His anger for ever, 
 Because He delighteth in lovingkindness. 
 He will again have compassion upon us ; 19 
 
 He will subdue our iniquities : 
 
 And Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. 
 Thou wilt show thy faithfulness to Jacob, and thy loving- 20 
 kindness to Abraham, 
 
 He retaineth not His anger for 
 ever] Comp. Exod. xxxii. 6. 
 
 because He delighteth in loving- 
 kindness] Comp. Ezek. xviii. 23 ; 
 Ps. cxxx. In our Book of Prayer 
 (Closing Prayer of the Day of 
 Atonement): For Thou de lightest 
 not in the destruction of the world, 
 but art a God of forgiveness, 
 gracious and compassionate, long- 
 suffering, plentiful in loving- 
 kindness, and abundant in doing 
 good (Singer's Prayer Book, 
 p. 268). 
 
 19. He will again have com- 
 passion upon us] Comp. Hosea 
 xiv. 5 ft. 
 
 He will subdue our iniquities] 
 Thus they shall have no power 
 over us (Ibn Ezra). Others 
 render: suppress (Kimhi), or: 
 tread under foot, i. e. destroy. 
 
 Thou wilt cast] Hence the 
 custom on the afternoon of the 
 New Year to gather beside a 
 river (near which the synagogues 
 in ancient times were usually situ- 
 
 ated ; see Schurer, History of the 
 fewish People, Second Division, 
 II, p. 69 f. ) and to pray for for- 
 giveness of sins while reciting 
 our passage ( Tashlik, the Hebrew 
 for Thou wilt cast ; see Singer's 
 Prayer Book, p. 254). Thecustom 
 is first mentioned by Jacob Molin 
 (died in Worms in 1427). 
 
 their] The Greek Version: our. 
 
 into the depths of the sea] 
 Whence they may not come up 
 again. 
 
 20. Thou wilt show, &c] 
 "Faithfulness" and "mercy" are 
 frequently associated as attributes 
 of the Lord indicating His firm- 
 ness, reliableness, and kindness 
 in His dealings with men (comp. 
 Gen. xxiv. 27, and elsewhere). 
 The Lord is a God of truth 
 (= fidelity) (Ps. xxxi. 6 [5]), as 
 He is abundant in lovingkindness 
 (Num. xiv. 18, and elsewhere). 
 His faithfulness and lovingkind- 
 ness endure for ever (Ps. cxvii. 
 2, and elsewhere). Jacob and
 
 80 MICAH, VII. [v. 20. 
 
 Which Thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days 
 of old. 
 
 Abraham = the seed of Jacob and The last three verses are joined 
 
 Abraham. to the Book of Jonah in the Lesson 
 
 which Thou hast sworn unto (Haftarah) on the afternoon of 
 
 our fathers'] Gen. xxii. 16; xxviii. t h e Day of Atonement. 
 13 f. Comp. Ps. cv. 8-1 1, 42.
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 I 
 
 Oni. 5 
 THE HIGH PLACES 
 
 Hebrew: bamot, singular: bamah. The Torah (Num. xxxiii. 52) 
 commands, along with the extermination of the Canaanite population 
 upon the Israelitish occupation of Palestine, the destruction of their 
 bamot, or, in the language of Deuteronomy (xii. 2), "all the places 
 wherein they served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon 
 the hills, and under every leafy tree," together with their appurte- 
 nances, as altars, sacred pillars, images, and the like. The idolatrous 
 and impure practices of the Canaanites, to which frequent reference is 
 made in the Torah (Exod. xxiii. 24, and elsewhere), are to the mind 
 of the Lawgiver a constant source of danger (a "snare" ; Exod. xxiii. 
 33, and elsewhere) to the incoming Israelites, who are to found in 
 Palestine a new order of things befitting a ' ' holy nation ' ' ( Exod. xix, 6, 
 and elsewhere) ; hence the repeated injunctions for the complete 
 rooting out of the idolatrous population as well as the destruction 
 of their sanctuaries. The Lawgiver, however, is also a prophet. 
 Although the entire Law which he is setting before the people has for 
 its aim the safeguarding of Israel's vocation as a holy nation, free 
 from the impurities and immoralities of the Egyptians on the one hand 
 and of the Canaanites on the other, he anticipates the reality which 
 will be just the reverse of the ideal contemplated by him. Israel will 
 be seduced into the unholy practices of the Canaanite population only 
 partially conquered by the invaders ; the long road of apostasy and 
 the inevitably ensuing divine punishment which the Lawgiver would 
 fain spare his people, will have to be traversed, that then perchance, 
 tried through loss of country and exile, they may address them- 
 selves to a realization of the Mosaic ideal, and become in all truth the 
 people of the Lord, who, for all His chastisements, is mindful of the 
 ancient covenant with the fathers. Such is the outlook in the prophetic 
 portions of the Torah (Deut. xxviii ; Lev. xxvi ; Deut. iv. 25-ff. ;
 
 82 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 xxixf. ). And so Israel crossed the Jordan and succumbed to the 
 allurements of a superior civilization (Judges ii. 22 ; iii. 1 ). The impuri- 
 ties of the Canaanite religion crept into such a sanctuary as that of 
 Shiloh (I Sam. ii. 22), where a Levitical priesthood ministered. 
 Canaanite sanctuaries were taken over with all their idolatrous appur- 
 tenances (Judges ix). Even where the rites were purer, the Canaanite 
 custom was adopted, and sanctuaries at which a Samuel and a 
 Solomon offered their sacrifices were situated upon elevations, and 
 were designated in Canaanite fashion as "high places," bamot (I Sam. 
 ix ; I Kings iii. 4). Great hopes were no doubt entertained by the leaders 
 upon the erection of the Temple of Solomon. But those hopes were 
 not realized. A period of acute foreign influence and religious 
 syncretism set in, and, though some of the pious kings of Judah did 
 away with the grosser immoralities and impurities introduced by their 
 wicked predecessors, the bamot continued. The energies of Israel's 
 leaders were directed to the eradication of the pernicious Baal cult and 
 the other idolatrous cults. It was truly a "special dispensation" 
 (nut? nXlin ; Sifre on Deut. xii. 13), a mode of procedure warranted 
 by the special conditions obtaining under the rigime of Ahab, that 
 Elijah, the great zealot-prophet, sought to restore the demolished 
 altars of the Lord, preferring a plurality of sanctuaries devoted to the 
 worship of the Lord of Israel to the temples of the foreign and impure 
 Baal (I Kings xviii). The Mosaic idea of the single sanctuary, how- 
 ever, was resumed with vigor by the prophets of the Assyrian period. 
 Our passage is weighty testimony to this fact. Hezekiah and, with 
 greater thoroughness, Josiah (II Kings xvi. 38".; xxiii), set about 
 carrying the old Mosaic ideal of the single sanctuary into execution. The 
 bamot were removed, and the Temple cleansed of all impurities. 
 Their efforts, however, were neutralized by their wicked successors 
 (ibid., 32, 37; xxiv. 9, 19). When, after the exile, the restoration 
 came, the idea of the single sanctuary had become definitively real. 
 Schismatics, like the Samaritans or Onias, may have disputed the 
 claims of Jerusalem ; but no one questioned the law of the single 
 sanctuary as the very foundation of the true worship of the Lord. 
 Moreover, the Temple of Onias was situated outside of Palestine. 
 Similarly the Bamah (Aram. Agor) of Elephantine. 
 See on the whole subject Mishnah, Zebahim xiv. 4 ff.
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES 83 
 
 II 
 On ii. 2 and vi. 9 ff. 
 
 THE RICH AND THE POOR 
 
 Inequality in the possession of wealth is presupposed by the Law- 
 giver (Deut. xv. 11 ; contrast verse 4, which is merely the ideal condi- 
 tional on the people's obedience to the Law); accordingly, the Law 
 contains a number of provisions having for their purpose the mitiga- 
 tion of the evils arising from an unequal distribution of wealth, as well 
 as exhortations addressed to the conscience of the wealthy. The 
 sacredness of property is categorically proclaimed in the Decalogue 
 (Exod. xx. 13) ; theft is a crime, whether committed by the poor or by 
 the rich. Nor is the rich man alone prone to unlawful aggression ; 
 for hunger is a great tempter to dishonesty and theft ( Prov. xxx. 9; 
 comp. ibid., vi. 30). Nevertheless, in the ordinary course of life, 
 crimes against property, though of a subtler kind, are perpetrated 
 rather by the wealthy classes. The Law enjoins honesty in trade 
 (Lev. xix. 35 f. ; Deut. xxv. 13 ff. ) and the scrupulous administration 
 of justice (Exod. xxiii. 1-3; 6-8; Deut. xvi. 18-20). The removal of 
 landmarks is made one of those great offences against which the 
 divine curse is invoked (Deut. xxvii. 17; comp. xix. 14). The agra- 
 rian laws are intended to prevent violent changes in the tenure of land 
 and the accumulation of large estates in the hands of the few. Thus 
 the jubilee year is instituted (Lev. xxv. 8 ff. ). The land, the Law 
 declares, properly belongs to the Lord, who is sole landlord, the 
 Israelites being but His tenants. The land may therefore not be sold 
 in perpetuity. It may be leased, or its crops may be sold. For 
 in the jubilee year the land returns to its original owner, or, to use 
 the characteristic language of the Law, the Israelite returns to his 
 possession and to his family, from both of which he temporarily became 
 detached. The original owner may reclaim his property at any time 
 he chooses by refunding to the buyer the value of the crops remaining 
 until the jubilee. When, through poverty, he is not in a position to 
 redeem his property himself, the right and the duty of reclaiming it 
 devolve upon his nearest kinsman. The poor Israelite cannot be 
 bought as a slave in perpetuity. Elsewhere, the limit of service for 
 the Hebrew slave is fixed at seven years, after which time he goes
 
 84 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 free (Exod. xxi. 2 ff. ; Deut. xv. 12 ff. ). Moreover, the care of the de- 
 pendent classes is repeatedly enjoined as a duty. The rich Israelite 
 should manifest his gratitude for the blessings he has received at the 
 hands of Providence by inviting his poorer brethren, especially the 
 stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, to the sacrificial meals (Deut. 
 xvi. 10 ff., 14) ; the third year's tithe (the poor's tithe, as the rabbis 
 call it) belongs entirely to them (ibid. xv. 28 f.; comp. xxvi. 12 f. )_ 
 The corners of the field, a forgotten sheaf, and the gleanings of the 
 vineyard (HK21 TinDW ->p7) are equally to be left for the poor (Lev- 
 xix. 9 f. ; xxiii. 22 ; Deut. xxiv. 19-22). The proceeds from the field 
 which lies fallow in the sabbatic year go to the poor (Exod. xxiii. n) ; 
 nor are debts to be exacted in the year of release (Deut. xv. 1 ff.). 
 Money may not be lent on interest to an Israelite (Exod. xxii. 24 ; Lev. 
 xxv. 35 ff. ; Deut. xxiii. 20) ; nor are pledges to be taken except on 
 certain conditions ( Exod. xx. 25 f. ; Deut. xxiv. 10 ff. ) The wages of a 
 hired man must be paid the same day (Lev. xix. 13 ; Deut. xxiv. 14 f. ). 
 Such are the wise and humane provisions of the Law. How far the 
 specific laws of an agrarian character were kept, it is impossible to 
 ascertain. That the institution of the year of release remained an 
 ideal, we may gather from Lev. xxvi. 34, 43 ; according to the Tal- 
 mud (Arakin 32 ) the jubilee year ceased to be observed with the 
 transportation of the trans-Jordanic tribes by the King "of Assyria 
 (referred to II Chron. v. 26). We hear of a singular case of encroach- 
 ment on the part of the wicked King Ahab (I Kings xxi). In the time 
 of Elisha, a poor widow complains of the enslavement of her two 
 children by a cruel creditor (II Kings iv. 1). In the prophetic litera- 
 ture we frequently meet with complaints about the rapacity of the 
 rich (Isa. iii. 14 f. ; v. 8ff. ; Jer. v. 26 ff. ; xxii. 136. ; Ezek. xxii. 7, 29; 
 Amos ii. 6 ff. ; iii. 9 f. ; iv. 1 ; v. 11 f. ; viii. 4 ff. ; Mai. iii. 5). The 
 rich, in order to indulge their appetites for all kinds of luxury (Amos 
 vi. 4-6), and particularly in order to gratify the extravagant desires of 
 their wives and daughters (ibid., iv. 1 ; Isa. iii. 16-23), are unscrupulous 
 as landlords (Isa. v. 8) and merchants (Hosea xii. 8 f. ), selling such 
 commodities as grain at their own prices (Amos viii. 5), and harsh as 
 creditors, receiving in pledge not only the poor man's belongings, 
 but his person as well (Amos ii. 8; Jer. xxxiv. 11; comp. II Kings 
 iv. 1). The. picture of life in the higher circles of Samaria and
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES 85 
 
 Jerusalem, as presented by the prophets, may perhaps be a trifle 
 overdrawn, and there may be some exaggeration in their portrayal of 
 the rapacity and dishonesty of the rich landlord or trader, or of the 
 venality of justice ; nor is the prophetic bent of mind capable of con- 
 doning the inequalities inherent in all civilization. But it is this very 
 one-sidedness that made of the prophets "tribunes of the people," 
 and their sympathy with those that are crushed in the battle of life was 
 bequeathed to all posterity. In the Psalms, the poor are at the same 
 time the humble and the pious, and rich is almost synonymous with 
 tyrannical (^"V) and wicked (JW). In the Wisdom books (among 
 which may be reckoned the apocryphal Sirach), poverty and wealth are 
 made the subject of many a sententious utterance. Not that poverty is 
 pronounced a virtue, for the wise man knows how often it follows in 
 the wake of sloth (Prov. vi. 11), nor, on the other hand, is it deemed a 
 vice. Poverty and wealth are accepted as realities. The gulf between 
 the rich and the poor could not be portrayed more strikingly than by 
 Sirach in the famous saying : "What fellowship shall wolf have with 
 lamb ? Such is the wicked unto the righteous : and so is the rich unto 
 a man that is destitute" (xiii. 17 f. ). (SeeSchechter, "Jewish Life in 
 the Time of Ben Sira," in Studies in Judaism, Second Series, 1908, 
 77 ff. ) But no matter what the reality may be, religion demands the 
 equality of poor and rich before God, who is the Maker of both ( Prov. 
 xxii. 2; comp. xiv. 31). Poverty is to be accepted as a discipline 
 (Sirach ii. 5), and the hope of a better future must never be given up 
 (ibid., 4, 6). The wealth of the rich is often ill-gotten and hastily 
 acquired (Prov. xiii. 11 ; xvi. 8; xx. 21 ; xxviii. 22) ; the rich live in 
 constant dread of losing their wealth, frightened by the phantoms 
 which a guilty conscience conjures up (Job xv. 20 ff. ) ; when they die, 
 they must leave their wealth behind them, it does not descend after 
 them (Ps. xlix. 7 ff. ). A frugal meal in peace and love is to be pre- 
 ferred to sumptuous banquets full of strife and hatred (Prov. xv. 16 f.; 
 xvii. 1); and a good name is better than great riches (ibid., xxii. 1). 
 With the Scriptural estimate of wealth goes the well-known rabbinic 
 saying; He is rich who is content with his lot (Abot iv. 1). Wealth 
 should be put to rightful use : he is rich who truly enjoys his wealth 
 (whether great or small; Shabbat 25^). Of Israel as a whole, how- 
 ever, it is said that poverty is most comely to it (Hagigah 9 b). While
 
 86 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 strictest impartiality in the administration of justice is insisted on, 
 charity to the poor in deed and word and personal service is made a 
 chief virtue, and "righteousness" (npTtf) is synonymous with alms- 
 giving. The liberality of individuals should, however, not go beyond 
 due limits ; and no man should give away more than one-fifth of his 
 wealth (Ketubot 50 a). Above all, the rabbis enjoin scrupulous com- 
 mercial honesty. "They who withdraw products from the market, or 
 raise prices arbitrarily, and they who tamper with measures, and they 
 who lend money on interest, of them it is said (Amos viii. 7) : The 
 Lord sweareth by the pride of Jacob, surely I will never forget any of 
 their works" (Derek eres rabba ii. ; Baba batra 90 ; Abot de-rabbi 
 Nathan, ed. Schechter, p. 86). The punishment for falsifying measures 
 transcends that for incest" (Baba batra 88 b). "Wronging one's 
 neighbor" (comp. Lev. xxv. 14), according to the rabbis, refers not 
 merely to monetary frauds, but also to vexing a person by word of 
 mouth, as, for instance, when a repentant sinner is reminded of his 
 former life, or a proselyte of his pagan antecedents, or when one sets 
 his eye upon buying anything when he has no money ; for touching all 
 matters which are given over to the heart, Scripture says (ibid., 17), 
 Thou shalt fear thy God (Baba mesi'a 58^). 
 
 Ill 
 On ii. 3, 5 
 
 THE TERMS BY WHICH ISRAEL IS DESIGNATED IN BIBLICAL 
 AND POST-BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 The subject is a vast one and requires special treatment in a mono- 
 graph. It will suffice here to specify the appellations and define 
 them as nearly as we may. In Scripture, we are designated as a nation 
 (MJ, idvog), ox people (DT, D&6, ^aor), ox race (German Statnm, nnDK'D, 
 $vli]). The last term clearly indicates blood-relationship, which is 
 also implied in the term seed (IPT, yhog). We are members of one 
 people and race, inx W ^2 (dfioedvelg) and WIN nHD^D *J2 (6fc6<pv?M). 
 The prevailing term in Talmudic and post-Talmudic literature is HD1X, 
 which, though synonymous with DV, is inclusive of our character as a 
 religious body. The Talmudic term 7&HK" ADJ3, which corresponds
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES 87 
 
 to eiwlTioia, is a solemn term denoting us chiefly on our religious side ; 
 it replaced the Biblical "congregation" (i"6np, ?np, emcXriaia; mr, 
 owayuyfj), which designates in the first place the people assembled for 
 communal or national endeavor, war included, in other words as an 
 organized body, but also simply the nation considered as forming a 
 unit of cultural (religious) effort. Membership in the "congregation " 
 implies among other privileges the right of connubium. It is every 
 Israelite's by birth. Certain persons, however, specified in Deut. 
 xxiii. 2 f., are excluded. With the exception of the Canaanites, who 
 must be exterminated (ibid., vii. 2 f . ), the Ammonites and Moabites, 
 and the Egyptians and Edomites in the first two generations (ibid., 
 xxiii. 4-9), admission to the "congregation" is apparently open to 
 the "stranger " ("ti). In a religious sense, at all events, the "stranger," 
 after submitting to the rite of initiation, is certainly considered as a 
 member of the "congregation", on an equal footing with the "native " 
 (Num. xv. 15; comp., however, Kiddushin 73d). Thus the Torah 
 provides for the integration of outsiders into our national and reli- 
 gious organism. 
 
 IV 
 On v. 1 
 
 THE PRE-EXISTENT MESSIAH 
 
 According to a Baraita (Pesahim 54a; Nedarim39^), the "name 
 of the Messiah " is one of the seven things made before the creation of 
 the world. The rabbis find Scriptural confirmation thereof in the 
 word of the Psalmist (Ps. lxxii. 13), which in their rendering (comp. 
 the Greek Version ) reads : Before the sun his name was established. 
 Similarly it is said in the Book of Enoch (xlviii. 3) : "Before the sun 
 and the signs (of the Zodiac) were created, before the stars of the heaven 
 were made, his name was named before the Lord of spirits " (comp. 
 Dan. vii. 13 ; IV Ezra xii. 32 ; xiii. 26, 52). The pre-existent " name " 
 is equivalent to a transcendent figure ; the Messiah, though appearing 
 on the scene of history at a definite period, is really in existence long 
 before his mundane career begins. (According to Klausner, Die 
 messianischen Vorstellungen des judischen Volkes im Zeitalter der 
 Tannailen, 1903, p. 66, the "name" Indicates merely the "idea";
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 similarly Friedmann, in his Introduction to Seder Elijahu, p. 114.) 
 Thus, no matter what may delay his coming, he must come, for he 
 has been in the world since its beginning. The author of the Simili- 
 tudes in the Book of Enoch places him in heaven with God, "under 
 the wings of the Lord of spirits" (xxxvii. 7; in the language of the 
 rabbis [Pesikta rabbeti, p. 161 b], "hidden under the throne of 
 God " ), at the head of " the righteous and elect, beautifully resplendent 
 as lights of fire," among them "the first fathers who from the begin- 
 ning dwell in that place" (lxx. 4). The Messiah is accordingly the 
 celestial first man. The celestial first man is ultimately a mytho- 
 logical figure. While the sacred writers are acquainted with the 
 old mythologies and frequently borrow poetic images from them, the 
 Biblical books accepted by the Synagogue as canonical character- 
 istically divest the received figures of their mythological coloring 
 by investing them with ethical significance and frequently by 
 combining them with historical persons in Israel or with the nation 
 itself. It was reserved for the literature of a later day (the 
 apocalyptic, which was kept out of the canon; the Haggadah 
 always subordinated to the Halakah) to re-introduce the ancient 
 mythological figures which the folk-religion had not discarded, 
 bequeathing them to the new religion as its fundamental element. 
 Such is the Pauline Son of God, "the image of the invisible God, the 
 first-born of all creation" (Colossians i. 15), the "heavenly man" 
 (I. Corinthians xv. 48), who in the person of Jesus was sent into 
 the world "in the likeness of sinful flesh " (Romans viii. 3), "empty- 
 ing and humbling himself, becoming obedient even unto death " 
 (Philippians ii. 7 f. ), then proving himself heavenly by conquering 
 death, a second and worthier Adam, bringing the world not sin and 
 death, but the deliverance therefrom, reigning until all things shall 
 have been subjected to him, that then the Son also shall "himself be 
 subjected to Him that did subject all things unto him, that God may 
 be all in all" (I Corinthians xv). In the sequel, the pre-existent 
 celestial Man of Oriental mythology became the pre-existent and 
 eternal Word, the Logos, or Reason, of Neo-Platonism, which 
 " was in the beginning with God, and became flesh in Jesus Christ, 
 the only begotten Son" ( John i) Our Book of Prayer, on lines truly 
 Scriptural, emphasizes the national character of the Messiah, though
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES 89 
 
 the ethico-religious implications are not forgotten ; nay, the person of 
 the Messiah is more or less kept in the background, and the heart of the 
 Jew, as he prays for national restoration, the gathering of the dispersed, 
 and the rebuilding of Zion, centres in the advent of the Kingdom of 
 God for a humanity integrated into Israel, banded together to do 
 God's will with a perfect heart, with Zion as the spiritual centre of 
 the world (see Singer's Prayer Book, p. 239). 
 
 V 
 
 On v. 4 
 
 THE COMPANIONS OF THE MESSIAH 
 
 The Talmud (Sukkah 52 b) specifies the seven shepherds as Adam, 
 Seth, and Methuselah (another reading : Seth, Enoch, and Methuselah) 
 on the right, and Abraham, Jacob, and Moses on the left, with David in 
 the centre; and the eight princes as Jesse, Saul, Samuel, Amos, 
 Zephaniah, Zedekiah (another reading: Hezekiah), Elijah, and the 
 Messiah. (Num. rabba, ch. xiv, records a difference of opinion 
 concerning the number of "anointed persons," DTR&D, xP' aT0 K as 
 Symmachus has it here; according to some, it amounts to seven, while 
 others bring it up to eight. See also Pesikta rabbeti, p. 75 a. ) Rashi 
 confesses his ignorance of the source of this Haggadic list of names or 
 the principle of selection. Perhaps more than one principle under- 
 lies it. The Messiah requires no explanation. David is frequently 
 spoken of as the future ruler (Hosea iii. 5, and elsewhere); moreover, 
 he bears the Messianic title ("the Lord's Anointed," II Sam. xix. 22, 
 and elsewhere). The same title is given to Saul (I Sam. xxiv. 7); 
 also in Lam. iv. 20 to one of the last kings of Judah, whom some (Ibn 
 Ezra) identify with Zedekiah, while others (Targum) think of Josiah. 
 Enoch and Elijah were translated to heaven (Gen. v. 24; II Kings ii. 11), 
 entering paradise while alive (Derek eres zutta i. 14), without having 
 tasted death (Gen. rabba, ch. xxi); and Moses died by the kiss of 
 the Lord (Deut. rabba, ch. xi). Similarly it is said of Jacob that he 
 did not suffer death (Taanit 5^). Of Abraham we read (Testament 
 of Abraham xvi f.) that (the angel of) death presented himself to him 
 in beautiful form and with a crown upon his head, and the "bosom of
 
 go ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 Abraham " is the place to which the righteous are carried upon their 
 death (Kiddushin 72 b; comp. Luke xvi. 22). Adam, Seth, and 
 Methuselah represent the righteous patriarchs of the antediluvian 
 period. Jesse is the father of David ; moreover, the rabbis tell 
 of him that he was sinless at the time of his death, thus meriting 
 the latter only in consequence of the universal fall of man 
 (Shabbat 55 b). Samuel is the prophet who anointed David 
 (I Sam. xvi). I can find no reason why Amos and Zephaniah should 
 be singled out from among all the "literary " prophets. Hezekiah is a 
 would-be Messiah (Sanhedrin 94 a; comp. Berakot 28 b). Elijah is 
 frequently mentioned as the forerunner of the Messiah (see Fried- 
 mann's Introduction to his Edition of Seder Elijahu, p. 8 ff. ) ; according 
 to Deut. rabba, ch. iii, and the Fragmentary Targum, Exod. xii. 42, 
 he will be accompanied by Moses. In the story of the transfiguration 
 (Mark ix. 2 ff. ), Jesus is surrounded by Moses and Elijah, the com- 
 panions of the Messiah. In all probability, back of the "seven" 
 "anointed persons" (or "eight," if the Messiah himself be 
 counted) are mythological conceptions concerning the seven planets 
 or archangels (see Zimmern, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testa- 
 ment, 1903, p. 620 ff. ), another example of mythological matter 
 which has been nationalized, i. e. combined with the hopes of the 
 nation. 
 
 VI 
 
 On vi. 6 ff. 
 
 THE PROPHETIC ESTIMATES OF THE SACRIFICIAL CULT 
 
 Prophetic estimates of the sacrificial cult and of ritualism as an in- 
 ferior mode of worship occur in Amos v. 21 ff.; Hosea vi. 6, comp. 
 viii. 13; Isa. i. 11 ff.; Jer. vii. 21 ff. ; comp. I Sam. xv. 22; Isa. 
 lviii. 5 ff. ; Zech. vii. 5 ff.; viii. 16 ff. Indifference to the sacrificial cult 
 is met with in the Psalms (xl. 7 ff . ; li. 18 f. ), and in the Haggadic 
 utterances of the rabbis. To quote but one : "They asked Wisdom, 
 What is the consequence of sin ? It answered, Evil pursueth sinners 
 (Prov. xiii. 21). Prophecy answered : The soul that sinneth, it shall 
 die (Ezek. xviii. 4). The Torah answered : Let him bring a guilt- 
 offering and it shall be forgiven him. God answered : Let him repent
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES 91 
 
 and it shall be forgiven him, for thus it is written : ' Good and upright 
 is the Lord ; therefore will he teach sinners in the way (of repentance)' 
 (Ps. xxv. 8)" (Palestinian Talmud, Makkot 31 d). As a summary of 
 man's duty to God, Micah vi. 8 is certainly classic; as such it is recog- 
 nized by the Haggadist Simlai, according to whom, however, " Keep 
 justice, and do righteousness" (Isa. lvi. 1) and "The just shall live by 
 his faith" (Hab. ii. 4) are still shorter compendia (Makkot 24 a). 
 Neither Simlai, however, nor any of the prophets desired the abroga- 
 tion of the Torah. AndtheTorah itself contains just such compendious 
 summaries which, with fine literary' insight, Steinthal {Zur Bibel, II 
 [1895], p. 145 f. ) pronounces much superior in diction and tone. The 
 prophet is too much the ecstatic mouthpiece of the Deity, too much 
 carried away by the impulse of the moment, to be truly artistic. The 
 Deuteronomic orator is quite different: "he is general; he has no 
 specific period in view, but all periods; he speaks for eternity ". And 
 so he addresses Israel : " What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, 
 but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love 
 Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all 
 thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and His statutes, 
 which I am commanding thee this day for thy good?" (Deut. x. 12). 
 According to Maimuni {Guide of the Perplexed, III, ch. xxii), 
 the sacrificial cult was ordained by Moses as an accommodation to 
 the unspiritual conceptions of the people and for the purpose of wean- 
 ing them away from the idolatrous rites of their neighbors. By a 
 circuitous road, the people were thus to be led slowly and gradually 
 up to a perception of the right kind of service, which is spiritual. 
 Although attacked by Nahmani (Commentary on Lev. i. 9), Mai- 
 muni's explanation is defended by Abrabanel (Introduction to his 
 Commentary on Leviticus), who finds support for that view in a sig- 
 nificant passage in the Midrash (Lev. rabba, ch. xxii). "Rabbi 
 Phinehas in the name of Rabbi Levi said," we read there, "It is like a 
 prince whose appetite was gross, and he was wont to eat of the meat 
 of animals that had died of themselves, or that had been torn by 
 beasts. So the king said, Let him eat constantly at my table, and he 
 will wean himself from that habit. So it was with the Israelites who 
 were engrossed in Egyptian idolatry, and were wont to offer their 
 sacrifices on the high places to the demons, and punishments used to
 
 92 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 come upon them ; so the Holy One, blessed be He, said, Let them 
 offer their sacrifices before Me at all times, in the Tabernacle, and 
 they will be weaned from idolatry, and thus be saved." It goes with- 
 out saying that, notwithstanding such views, the rabbis did not cease 
 to look forward to a restoration of the sacrificial cult in the Mes- 
 sianic times. 
 
 VII 
 On vi. 7 
 
 HUMAN SACRIFICES 
 
 The custom of child sacrifice in antiquity is met with in many parts 
 of the world ; but nowhere among civilized nations was it as estab- 
 lished a part of the public religion as among the Phoenicians, and 
 especially the Carthaginians. The author of the Book of Kings 
 reports that Ahaz " offered his son by fire " (II Kings xvi. 3) ; similarly 
 of Manasseh (ibid., xxi. 6). Jeremiah and Ezekiel allude to the prac- 
 tice in their days (Jer. vii. 31 ; xix. 5 ff. ; xxxii. 35 ; comp. iii. 24 ; Ezek. 
 xvi. 20 f., 36; xx. 26, 31 ; xxiii. 37, 39). According to the testimony 
 of the former, the scene of the child sacrifices was the Tophet in the 
 valley of Ben Hinnom outside of Jerusalem, not far from the Temple. 
 The children were slain and then offered as burnt-offerings (Ezek. 
 xvi. 20 f., 36; xxiii. 39; Jer. xix. 5; see Nahmani on Lev. xviii. 21). 
 It is also clear from several of the Biblical references that the sacrifices 
 were offered to the Lord under the aspect of King ( Melek = Molek ; the 
 latter is a conscious mispronunciation for the purpose of suggesting 
 Boshet, "Shame"), although the practice was introduced in Israel 
 from abroad. Jeremiah (vii. 31, and elsewhere) vehemently protests 
 against the idea that such sacrifices were ordered by the Lord ; and 
 Ezekiel (xx. 29 f.) declares that, inasmuch as the people disobeyed 
 the Lord's commandments "by which, if a man do them, he will live" 
 (the phrase is borrowed from Lev. xviii. 5), He implanted in them 
 the pernicious idea that He desired such sacrifices, thus defiling them 
 by their very gifts to the Lord and preparing their destruction (so, cor- 
 rectly, the Targum). (On Lev. xxvii. 29, see Dillmann's Commentary. ) 
 In the form of a story, Gen. xxii conveys the lesson that, although the 
 motive which prompts the sacrifice of one's dearest child has a religious
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES 93 
 
 basis in obedience to the Lord, such sacrifices are not desired by Him. 
 While, however, the denouement of that didactic story is not quite sat- 
 isfactory with its accommodation to the popular need of tangible devo- 
 tion by means of animal sacrifices ( a " ram ' ' is substituted for the child ; 
 Cheyne, article Isaac in Encyclopaedia Biblica, aptly compares it with 
 the accommodation to popular standards in the epilogue of the Book of 
 Job), our passage rises to a higher view by proclaiming that even 
 "rams" are not demanded by the Lord. Child sacrifices are men- 
 tioned in the Bible in two other places (the son of Mesha, II Kings 
 iii. 27, the vow of Jephthah, Judges xi). The rabbis, in commenting on 
 Jer. xix. 5, maintain that neither the sacrifice of the son of Mesha, nor 
 that of the daughter of Jephthah, nor that of Isaac, was commanded 
 by the Lord (Ta'anit 4 a). 
 
 VIII 
 
 On vii. 15 
 
 THE PASSOVER WHICH IS TO COME 
 
 The future, Messianic, redemption is frequently likened to the first, 
 and the latter exodus from the exile to the former exodus from Egypt 
 (comp. Isa. xi. 15 f. [ch. xii corresponds to Exod. xv] ; Jer. 
 xxiii. 7 f. ). The rabbis frequently liken the last redeemer (the 
 Messiah) to the first (Moses) (Pesikta rabbeti, p. 72 b ; Cant, rabba on 
 Cant. ii. 9, and parallel passages), and place the latter redemption in 
 Nisan, the month of the former redemption (Exod. rabba, ch. xv). 
 In our Book of Prayer, no less than in the Midrashic literature, the 
 emotions of Israel oscillate between the memory of the glorious 
 beginning of our national life and the hope in the still more 
 glorious future. Hence, after the recital of the marvellous redemp- 
 tion from Egypt, the prayer: "O Rock of Israel, arise as Helper 
 of Israel, and redeem according to Thy word Judah and Israel ; 
 Thy name of old is our redeemer, Lord of hosts, Holy One of Israel. 
 Blessed be Thou, O Redeemer of Israel " (Singer's Prayer Book, 
 p. 44). According to the Mekilta (on Exod. xv. 1), the "new song" 
 (Isa. xlii. 10) is the song of final triumph in the Passover which is to 
 come, corresponding to the song of Moses at the Passover of Egypt.
 
 94 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 Hence the prayer in the Passover Haggadah (antedating the 
 Mishnah, Pesahim x. 6; comp. Mahzor Vitry, p. 296): "Blessed be 
 Thou, O Lord our God, King of the world, who hast redeemed us 
 and our fathers from Egypt, and hast caused us to reach this night, to 
 eat thereon unleavened bread and bitter herbs ; so mayest Thou, O 
 Lord our God, cause us to reach other seasons and festivals which 
 are before us in peace, rejoicing in the rebuilding of Thy city and glad of 
 Thy service, that we may eat there of the paschal sacrifice and of the 
 other offerings, when the blood thereof will touch the wall of Thine altar, 
 that we may be accepted before Thee ; and that we may then praise 
 Thee, O Lord our God and God of our fathers, with a new song for our 
 redemption and the deliverance of our souls. Blessed be Thou, O 
 Lord, Redeemer of Israel." The paitanic insertions in the Evening 
 Prayer of the last day of Passover (Mahzor Vitry, p. 573 f. ) are built 
 on the motive that the Passover of Egypt ( D*^SO riDD ) will be paralleled 
 by the Passover which is to come (Tni?? nDQ). Against Ben Zoma, 
 who, on the basis of Jer. xxiii. 7 f., maintains that the Egyptian exodus 
 will be so far transcended by the latter that the former will no longer 
 be mentioned, the doctors in the Mishnah are of the opinion that the 
 former exodus will still be a secondary theme when the latter will be 
 the main subject of Israel's praises (Berakot i. 5; Talmud, 12 b f. ). 
 Thus the historic continuity of Israel is assured even for the glorious 
 time of the final restoration.
 
 INDEX TO REFERENCES TO THE SCRIPTURES 
 AND OTHER ANCIENT WRITINGS 
 
 a. The Holy Scriptures 
 
 Genesis page 
 
 iii. 14 78 
 
 v. 22 65 
 
 v. 24 89 
 
 x. 8ff 55 
 
 xxii 92 
 
 xxii. 16 80 
 
 xxiv. 27 79 
 
 xxviii. 13 f 80 
 
 xxviii. 22 57 
 
 xxxi. 45, 51 f 57 
 
 xxxv. 16 ff 52 
 
 xxxv. 21 48 
 
 xxxviii. 5 26 
 
 xlix. 1 43 
 
 xlix. 24 77 
 
 Exodus 
 
 iii. 14 ff 60 
 
 xiii. 2 62, 63 
 
 xiii. 12 63 
 
 xiii. 13, 15 63 [2] 
 
 xiv. 3 . . . 
 
 XV 
 
 XV. I, 20 
 XV. II... 
 
 xv. 17... 
 
 71 
 
 93 
 
 60 
 
 78 
 
 77 
 
 xvi. 25, 30 49 
 
 xvi. 35 61 
 
 xix. 6 81 
 
 xx. 13 83 
 
 xx. 17 28 
 
 xx. 25 f 84 
 
 xxi. 2 ff 84 
 
 xxii. 8 45 
 
 xxii. 24 32, 84 
 
 xxii. 25 t" 32 
 
 xxiii. 1-3 83 
 
 xxiii. 6-8 83 
 
 xxiii. 11 84 
 
 xxiii. 24 57, 8i 
 
 xxiii. 33 81 
 
 xxiv. 4 57 
 
 xxiv. 7 31 
 
 xxxii. 4 31 
 
 xxxii 6 ff 78 
 
 xxxiv. 13 58 
 
 Leviticus 
 
 i; i. 3. 5 6a 
 
 i. 9 91 
 
 Leviticus Cont'd page 
 ii; iii; iv; v; vi. 1-6; 
 
 vi. 17-vii. 6; vii. 
 
 n-34 62 
 
 x. 10 f 40 
 
 xiii. 45 39 
 
 xiv. 10 ff 62 
 
 xviii. 5 64 [2], 92 
 
 xviii. 21 63, 92 
 
 xviii. 2 5 ff 33 
 
 xix. 91. 84 
 
 xix. 13 84 
 
 xix. 35 f 83 
 
 xx. 2-5 63 
 
 xxi. 6 62 
 
 xxiii. 22 84 
 
 xxv. 8 ff 83 
 
 xxv. 14 86 
 
 xxv. 17 86 
 
 xxv. 35 ff 84 
 
 xxvi 8i 
 
 xxvi. 26 67 
 
 xxvi. 34, 43 84 
 
 xxvii. 29 92 
 
 Numbers 
 
 vi. 26 36 
 
 xii 60 
 
 xii. 3 65 
 
 xiv. 18 79 
 
 xv. 15 87 
 
 xxi. 27 28 
 
 xxii. 6 60 
 
 xxii. 7 38 
 
 xxiii. 7 ff 60 
 
 xxiii. 18 ff 60 
 
 xxiv. 3 ff 60 
 
 xxiv. 14 43 
 
 xxiv. 15 ft 60 
 
 xxiv. 21 59 
 
 xxvi. 33-36 30 
 
 xxxiii. 52 81 
 
 Deuteronomy 
 
 iv. 20 77 
 
 iv. 25 ff 81 
 
 iv. 30 43 
 
 iv. 43 34 
 
 vii. 2 f 87 
 
 vii. 2, 25 f 51 
 
 vii. 8 60 
 
 Deuter. Cont'd page 
 
 01 
 67 
 
 x. 12 
 
 xi. 12 
 
 xii. 2 81 
 
 xii. 9 32 
 
 xii. 13 82 
 
 xii. 31 63 
 
 xiii. 6 60 
 
 xiv. 1 27 
 
 xv. iff 84 
 
 xv. 11 83 
 
 xv. 12 ff 84 
 
 xv. 28 f 84 
 
 xvi. 10 ff., 14 84 
 
 xvi. 18-20 83 
 
 xvi. 21 f 58 
 
 xvii. 8 ff 4S 
 
 xvii. 16 f 25 
 
 xviii. 9 ff 38 
 
 xviii. 10 63 
 
 xix. 14 83 
 
 xx. 16-18 51 
 
 xxiii. 2 f 87 
 
 xxiii. 4-9 87 
 
 xxjii. 5 61 
 
 xxiii. 19 20 
 
 xxiii. 20 84 
 
 xxiv. 10 ff 84 
 
 xxiv. 14 f 84 
 
 xxiv. 19-22 84 
 
 xxv. 13 66 [2] 
 
 xxv. 13 ff 66, 83 
 
 xxv. 16 66 
 
 xxvi. 12 f 84 
 
 xxvii. 17 83 
 
 xxviii 81 
 
 xxviii. 18. 68 
 
 xxix. f 82 
 
 xxx. 3 f 75 
 
 xxxi. 17 f 37 
 
 xxxi. 29 43 
 
 xxxii. 56 72 
 
 xxxiii. 2 58 
 
 xxxiii. 17 50 
 
 xxxiii. 19 17 
 
 xxxiii. 28 77 
 
 Joshua 
 
 ii. 1 60 
 
 vi. 1 
 
 vii. 14 
 
 %
 
 96 
 
 INDEX TO REFERENCES TO THE SCRIPTURES 
 
 Joshua Cont'd 
 
 vn. 21 . . . 
 x. 9-12. . 
 xiii. 22. . 
 xv. 35... 
 xv. 37... 
 xv. 44 . . . 
 xix. 45.. 
 xxiv. 9 f . 
 
 32 
 
 .60-1 
 
 Judges 
 
 ii. 1, 5 23 
 
 ii. 22 82 
 
 iii. 1 82 
 
 vi. 20 38 
 
 vii. s ff 47 
 
 ix 82 
 
 xi 93 
 
 xiii. 12 28 
 
 xviii. 7 77 
 
 I Samuel 
 ii. 22 
 
 vi. 2 . . . 
 vii. 9. . . 
 viii. 20. 
 
 ix 
 
 ix. 9 . . . 
 x. 2 . . . . 
 
 xn. 7 
 
 xiii. 10 
 
 xv. 22 62, 90 
 
 xvi 90 
 
 xvii. 12 52 
 
 xxiv. 7 89 
 
 xxvi. 19 77 
 
 II Samuel 
 
 in. 31 21 
 
 3 23 
 
 vii. 19 64 
 
 viii. 2 29 
 
 x. 4 39 
 
 xii. 20 68 
 
 xv._ 30 21 
 
 xvii. 9 63 
 
 xix. 22 89 
 
 xxiii. sf 71 
 
 I Kings 
 
 iii. 4 
 
 ix. 9 
 
 ix. 16 
 
 x. 26 
 
 x. 28 f 
 
 xvi. 24 
 
 xvi. 25 
 
 xvi. 28 
 
 xvi. 31 f 
 
 xvi. 33 
 
 I Kings Cont'd page 
 
 xviii 82 
 
 xviii. 4 69 
 
 xix. 13 32 
 
 xix. 18 47 
 
 xxi 28, 40, 69, 84 
 
 xxii 37 
 
 xxii. 8-28 17 
 
 xxii. 22 f 39 
 
 xxii. 24 52 
 
 xxii. 27 69 
 
 II Kings 
 
 ii. 11 89 
 
 iii. 4 34 
 
 iii. 27 93 
 
 iv. 1 84 [*] 
 
 viii. 27 69 
 
 xiii. 6 58 
 
 xv. 33 1 
 
 xvi. 3 4, 69, 92 
 
 xvi. 3 ff 82 
 
 xvii. 9 48 
 
 xviii. 4, 22 41 
 
 xviii. 14, 17 25 
 
 xviii. 21 3 
 
 xviii. 34 74 
 
 xix. 8 25 
 
 xxi. 6 92 
 
 xxii. 7 58 
 
 xxiii 82 
 
 xxiii. 6 f 58 
 
 xxiii. 32, 37 82 
 
 xxiv. 9, 19 82 
 
 Isaiah 
 
 i. 6 52 
 
 i. 1 1 ff 90 
 
 i.. 23 40 
 
 ii. 2-4 12 
 
 ii. 5 46 
 
 iii. 12 37.38 
 
 iii. 14 f 36, 84 
 
 iii. 16-23 84 
 
 iv. 2 f 47 
 
 v. 8 84 
 
 v. 8ff 84 
 
 v. 20 36 
 
 vii. 14 53 
 
 viii. 17 37 
 
 ix. 1 73 
 
 ix. S f 54 
 
 ix. 15 37 
 
 x. 5 66 
 
 x. 5 74 
 
 x. 12 50 
 
 x. 20 ff 47 
 
 x. 32 48 
 
 xi. 2 ff 53 
 
 xi. 6-10 45 
 
 xi. 13 53 
 
 Isaiah Cont'd page 
 
 xi. 15 i 93 
 
 xn 93 
 
 xiii. 3 38 
 
 xiv. 4 28 
 
 xiv. 13 43.44 
 
 xiv. 24-27 50 
 
 xv. 2 27 
 
 xvii. 12-14 50 
 
 xix. 6 75 
 
 xix. 19 57 
 
 xix. 25 77 
 
 xx. 1 22 
 
 xx. 2 21 [2] 
 
 xxi. 6 71 
 
 xxi. 14 61 
 
 xxii. 5 71 
 
 xxiii. 17 20 
 
 xxiii. 17 f 20 
 
 xxvi. 2 64 
 
 xxvi. 19 56 
 
 xxvi. 21 18 
 
 xxviii. 4 70 
 
 xxix. 10 f 38 
 
 xxx. 10 f 30 
 
 xxxii. 14 48 
 
 xxxiii. 5 61 
 
 xxxvii. 31 47 
 
 xl. 27 74 
 
 xhi. 10 93 
 
 xliii, 23 59 
 
 xly. 8 61 
 
 xlix. 4 74 
 
 xlix. 23 78 
 
 lv. 11 31 
 
 lvi. 1 91 
 
 lvii. 1 70 
 
 lvii. 15 61 
 
 lviii. s ff 90 
 
 Hx. 2 37 
 
 lx.,7 34 
 
 lxm. 12 60 
 
 Jeremiah 
 
 ii. 6 60 
 
 ii. 7 61 
 
 ii. 8 40 
 
 ii. 11 46 
 
 ii. 31 66 
 
 iii. 24 92 
 
 iv. 23 ff 19 
 
 v. 12 40 
 
 v. 26 ff 84 
 
 v. 27 36 
 
 vi. 14 37 
 
 vi. 18 f 18 
 
 vi. 24 49 
 
 vii. iff 41 
 
 vii. 4 40 
 
 vii. 21 ff 9 
 
 vii. 31 92
 
 AND OTHER ANCIENT WRITINGS 
 
 97 
 
 Jeremiah Cont'd page 
 
 viii. 8 40 
 
 viii. 19 35.49 
 
 ix. 3 72 
 
 x. 25 28 
 
 xiii. 20 77 
 
 xiv. 7, 20 73 
 
 xvi. 6 51 
 
 xvii. 20 77 
 
 xviii. 16 69 
 
 xix. S 92,93 
 
 xix. 5 ff 92 
 
 xxi. 2 77 
 
 xxii. 13 40 
 
 xxii. 13 ff 84 
 
 xxii. 23 49 
 
 xxiii 37 
 
 xxiii. 7 f 93. 94 
 
 xxiv. 11 84 
 
 xxvi. 18 41 
 
 xxvi. 18 f 1 
 
 xxvii. 9 38 
 
 xxviii. 2 ff 37 
 
 xxx. 7 72 
 
 xxxi. 15 52 
 
 xxxii. 35 92 
 
 xxxiv. 7 25 
 
 xl. IS 47 
 
 xli. 5 39. 5i 
 
 xlvn. 7 66 
 
 xlviii. 24 34 
 
 Hi. 7 35 
 
 EZF.KIEL 
 
 vii. 24 17 
 
 xii. 12 35 
 
 xiii 37 
 
 xiii. 9 38 
 
 xiii. 10 37 
 
 xvi. 20 f., 36.... 92 [2] 
 
 xvi. 33 f 20 
 
 xvi. 37 20 
 
 xvi. 41 20 
 
 xviii. 4 90 
 
 xviii. 23 79 
 
 xx. 26, 31 92 
 
 xx. 29 f 92 
 
 xxi. 26 f 38 
 
 xxii. 7, 29 84 
 
 xxii. 26 40 
 
 xxii. 27 40 
 
 xxiii. 37, 39 92 
 
 xxiii. 39 92 
 
 xxiv. 17 39 
 
 xxv. 8 ff 74 
 
 xxvi. 17 21 
 
 xxviii. 13 f 43 
 
 xxviii. 22 ff 74 
 
 xxxiii. 2ff 71 
 
 xxxiv. 23 i 52 
 
 xxxvii. 24 52 
 
 Ezekiel Cont'd PAGE 
 
 xxxviii 50 
 
 xxxviii. 1 1-13, 17. . . 12 
 
 xxxviii. 16 43 
 
 xxxix 50 
 
 xiv. 14 62 
 
 xlvii. 1-12 43 
 
 IIOSEA 
 
 2 S3 
 
 it. 7-13 20 
 
 ii. 14 20 
 
 ii. 20 45 
 
 i- 4 57 
 
 i. 5 43, 52, 78, 89 
 
 iv. 4 ff 40 
 
 v. 1 40 
 
 v. 15 18 
 
 vi. 6 90 
 
 vi. 9 40 
 
 vii. 8 3 
 
 vii. 11 3 
 
 viii. 13 90 
 
 viii. 14 4 
 
 ix. 1 20 
 
 ix. 10 70 
 
 xi. 1 60 
 
 xi. 9 27 
 
 xii. 8 f 84 
 
 xii. 14 60 [2] 
 
 xiv. 5 ff 79 
 
 Joel 
 
 ii. 17 74 
 
 iv. (ni.) 50 
 
 iv. (iii.) 10 45 
 
 iv. (iii.) 17 50 
 
 iv. 18 43 
 
 Amos 
 
 i- 12, 34 
 
 n. 6 f 36, 84 
 
 ii. 8 84 
 
 ii. 10 60, 61 
 
 iii. 2 40 
 
 iii. 9 f 36, 84 
 
 iii. 10 67 
 
 iv. 1 34, 36, 84 [2] 
 
 v. 3 24 
 
 v. 11 40, 68 
 
 v. u f 36, 84 
 
 v. 14 36 
 
 v. is 47 
 
 v. 21 ff 90 
 
 v. 24 40 
 
 vi. 4-6 84 
 
 vii. 12. 17 
 
 vii. 16 30 
 
 viii. 4 ff 84 
 
 viii. 5 66, 84 
 
 viii. 7 86 
 
 Amos Cont'd page 
 
 ix. 8 47 
 
 ix. 10 40 
 
 Habakkuk 
 
 . 4 91 
 
 ii. 6 28 
 
 ii. 12 40 
 
 Zephaniah 
 
 iii. 4 .'. 40 
 
 iii. 13 47 
 
 i. 19 47 
 
 Zechariah 
 
 vi : 5 5i 
 
 vii. 5 ff 90 
 
 viii. 16 ff 90 
 
 viii. 20 ff 44 
 
 ix. 10 45, 54 
 
 ix. 14-16 50 
 
 xi. 16 36 
 
 xii. 1-9 50 
 
 xiii. 4 32 
 
 Malachi 
 
 i. 7 62 
 
 iii. 2 i 47 
 
 iii. 5 84 
 
 Psalms 
 
 xii. 2 (1) ff 70 
 
 xviii. 46, 45 78 
 
 xxii 72 
 
 xxiii. iff 77 
 
 xxiii. 4 73 
 
 xxiv. 5 61 
 
 xxv. 8 91 
 
 xxvii. 1 73 
 
 xxxi. 6 (5) 79 
 
 xxxiii. 1 64 
 
 xxxiii. 9 31 
 
 xxxvi. 9 f 44 
 
 xxxvi. 11 (10) 61 
 
 xl. 7 ff 90 
 
 xliii. 1 74 
 
 xlvi. 5 44 
 
 xlviii. 3 44 
 
 xlix. 7 ff. 85 
 
 1. 2 76 
 
 li. 18 f 90 
 
 lviii. 3 27 
 
 lxiii. 7 27 
 
 lxvii. 21 (20) 60 
 
 lxviii. 10 56 
 
 lxxii. 13 87 
 
 lxxix. 10 74 
 
 xcvii. s 51 
 
 xcix. 6 60 
 
 ciii. 17 61 
 
 cv. 8-1 1, 42 80 
 
 cvi 73
 
 98 INDEX TO REFERENCES TO THE SCRIPTURES 
 
 Psalms Cont'd page Proverbs Cont'd 
 cvi. 36 4 
 
 cxv. 
 
 cxvii. 2. . 
 cxviii. 2( 
 cxxv. 4. . 
 cxxx. . . . 
 cxli. 5 . . . 
 
 Proverbs 
 
 xiii. 
 
 xiii. 
 
 xiv. 
 
 xv. 
 
 xvi. 
 
 xvi. 
 
 xvi. 
 
 Xvii. 
 
 XX. 
 
 xxii. 
 
 31 ; 
 16 f 
 
 33 
 
 74 
 79 
 64 
 
 64 
 79 
 68 
 
 85 
 83 
 85 
 go 
 
 85 
 8S 
 85 
 66 
 29 
 85 
 85 
 85 
 
 PAGE ECCLESIASTES 
 
 xxii :..2 85 xi. 2 
 
 xxvm. 22 85 
 
 xxx. 9 83 Daniel 
 
 Job 
 vi. 15 ff . 
 xiii. 24 . . 
 xv. 20 ff . 
 xvi. 10 . . 
 xix. 15 
 
 PAGB 
 
 54 
 
 XIX. 
 
 vii. 13. 
 26 x. 14.. 
 
 gj! Ezra 
 
 52 ix. 8 . . 
 
 72 
 
 25 ff 37 Nehemiah 
 
 XXI. 10 
 
 Canticles 
 
 9 
 
 Lamentations 
 
 ii. 14 
 
 iii. 6 
 
 iv. 20 
 
 Ruth 
 
 iv. 11 
 
 68 
 
 93 
 
 iii. 26 f . 
 xi. 21 
 xi. 33 
 
 II Chronicles 
 
 v. 26 , 
 
 9 
 
 XXVI. 10. . 
 
 xxvii. 3. . . 
 xxxiii. 1 4 . 
 
 87 
 43 
 
 47 
 
 48 
 
 2 5 
 
 48 
 
 b. The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha 
 
 Sirach 
 
 ii. 4, 6. 
 
 ii. 5 
 
 xiu. 17 f 
 
 xiii. 19 
 
 xxxv, 
 
 xlix, 
 IV Ezra 
 
 v. 9.., 
 
 IV Ezra Cont'd 
 
 85 
 85 
 8$ 
 
 vi. 24 
 
 xii. 32 
 
 xiii. 26, 52 
 
 19 70 t, 
 
 6 77 Baruch 
 
 10 
 
 Matthew 
 
 x. 35 f . 
 Mark 
 
 ix. 2 ff . 
 Luke 
 
 xii. 52. . 
 
 xvi. 22 . 
 
 72 
 
 72 
 90 
 
 lxx. 3 ff -J2 
 
 Enoch 
 ii 72 
 
 r. The New Testament 
 John 
 
 Enoch Cont'd 
 
 72 xxxvii. 7 88 
 
 87 xlviii. 3 87 
 
 87 lxx. 4 88 
 
 Testament of Abraham 
 xvi. f 89 
 
 Ascension of Isaiah 
 
 10. 
 
 Romans 
 
 viii. 3 
 
 I Corinthians 
 
 xv 
 
 xv. 48 
 
 Philippians 
 ii. 7 f 
 
 Colossians 
 i- 15 : 
 
 88 
 
 Berakot 
 i. 5 
 
 Pesahim 
 x. 6.... 
 
 Shekalim 
 vii. 4 . . . 
 
 48 
 
 d. The Mishnah 
 
 Yoma Abot 
 
 viii. 1 68 iv. 1 . . . 
 
 Mo'ed katon Zebahim 
 
 iii. 4.' 21 x. 8.... 
 
 SOTAH XIV - 4ff 
 
 ix. 15 72 
 
 21 
 
 88 
 
 8s 
 82 
 
 Ta'anit 
 6s b 
 
 e. The Palestinian Talmud 
 
 Makkot 
 
 18,71 31 
 
 91
 
 AND OTHER ANCIENT WRITINGS 
 
 99 
 
 Berakot 
 6" .... 
 
 I2 b f.. 
 
 I3 a ... 
 28" ... 
 
 Shabbat 
 
 /. The Babylonian Talmud 
 
 PAGE Mo'ED KATON PAGE BaBA BATRA 
 
 Cont'd 
 
 65 
 94 
 5 
 90 
 
 25 S 
 
 53 b 65 
 
 55 b 90 
 
 63 a 43, 45 
 
 n8 a 
 
 I40 b 
 
 Pesahim 
 54 a ' 
 
 SUKKAH 
 
 49 b 
 
 52 b 
 
 Rosh ha-Shanah 
 
 59 UI 
 
 Ta'anit 
 
 Mo'ed katon 
 
 Mekilta 
 
 Exod. xiii. 13 63 
 
 Exod. xv. 1 93 
 
 Exod. xvi. 25, 30.. 49 
 
 SlFRA 
 
 Lev. xviii. 5 64 
 
 SlFRE 
 
 Deut. xi. 12 67 
 
 Deut. xii. 13 82 
 
 Deut. xxxii. 36 72 
 
 Deut xxxiii. 2 58 
 
 Seder Elijahu (ed. 
 Friedmann) 
 
 p. 8 ff 9 
 
 p. 114 88 
 
 Genesis rabba 
 xxi 89 
 
 24 s 
 
 26 b 
 
 Hagigah 
 
 V .... 
 
 Yebamot 
 64 a 
 
 Ketubot 
 50* 
 
 Nedarim 
 39" 
 
 SOTAH 
 
 46" 
 
 KlDDUSHIN 
 
 7- 
 7i h 
 
 Baba kamma 
 
 38 a ' 
 
 Baba mesi'a 
 
 S 8 b ..:... 
 
 30 
 
 86 
 
 87 
 
 59 
 
 90 
 
 87 
 
 88 b 
 
 90 b 
 
 Sanhedrin 
 
 59 a 
 
 65" 
 
 77' 
 
 94 a 
 
 95 b 
 
 97 a 
 
 Makkot 
 
 24" 
 
 Abodaii zarah 
 
 page 
 .. 86 
 
 g. The Midrashim 
 
 Genesis rabba Cont'd 
 
 xxxiii 18 
 
 xlviii 11 
 
 lxxxv 34 
 
 Exodus rabba 
 
 xv. 59, 93 
 
 xxviii 59 
 
 xlii 3' 
 
 Leviticus rabba 
 
 xxii. 91 
 
 xxxii 34 
 
 Numbers rabba 
 
 i 65 
 
 xiv. 89 
 
 Deuteronomy rabba 
 
 iii 9 
 
 xi 89 
 
 Abot de-rabbi Nathan 
 (ed. Schechter) 
 
 p. 86 
 
 Derek eres rabba 
 
 11. 
 
 Derek eres zutta 
 i. 14.... '....'... 
 
 Menahot 
 43" ' 
 
 "Arakin 
 32 b 
 
 64 
 
 57 
 64 
 90 
 50 
 
 72 
 
 91 
 65 
 
 86 
 86 
 
 89 
 65 
 84 
 
 Canticles rabba 
 
 Pesikta rabbeti 
 Friedmann) 
 
 4 b ; 75 a ---- 
 
 72 b 
 
 75 a 
 
 8 5 b 
 
 161 
 
 i6i b 
 
 ..72.93 
 (ed. 
 
 72 
 
 93 
 . 89 
 
 65 
 34-5 
 
 xxxvii. 
 
 7^ 
 
 SlIOHER TOB 
 
 Ps. xxii 72 
 
 Ps. 1. 2 76 
 
 [For references to other works and authors, see the general Index, pp. 100-104.]
 
 INDEX 
 
 Aaron, 60. 
 
 Abrabanel. See Isaac Abrabanel. 
 
 Abraham, 89. 
 
 Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra, cited, 
 11, 17, 18, 20 [2], at, 24 [2], 25, 
 26, 29 [4], 30 [>], 34 [2], 44, 46, 
 49 [J], 53. 54. 55. 59. 65, 66, 67, 
 68 75. 77. 78, 89; commentator on 
 Micah, 15. 
 
 Abulwalid Merwan Ibn C-anah, com- 
 mentator on Micah, 15; cited, 21, 
 22, 24, 29, 31, 32, 58, 67 [2], 68. 
 
 Achzib, 26. 
 
 Adam, 89, 90. 
 
 Adonai Sebaot, 45-6. 
 
 Agrarian' laws, 83. 
 
 Ahab, 4, 69, 82, 84. 
 
 Ahaz, 1, 4, 13, 92. 
 
 Ahikam the son of Shaphan, 41. 
 
 Almsgiving, 64; and righteousness, 86. 
 
 Ammonites, the, 87. 
 
 Amos, 5, 63, 89, 90. 
 
 Aquila, text of Micah, 14; cited, 24, 
 26, 31, 34, 63, 67-8, 75, 76. 
 
 Asceticism, 65. 
 
 Ashdod, captured, 22. 
 
 Asherah cult, 69. 
 
 Asherim, 58. 
 
 Assyria, 55, 66, 73; and Palestine, 2-3. 
 
 Assyrian loan-word, 18. 
 
 Assyrian supremacy, 2. 
 
 Authorised Daily Prayer Book, trans- 
 lation by S. Singer, cited, 45, 47-8, 
 5.. 74, 79 [-?]. 89, 93. 
 
 Azuri, king of Ashdod, 22. 
 
 Baal cult, 69. 
 
 Babylon, 25, 55. 
 
 Babylon, metropolis, 13. 
 
 Balaam, 38. 
 
 Ban, the, 51. 
 
 Bamot. See High Places, the. 
 
 Bashan, 77. 
 
 Baudissin, introduction to Micah, 16. 
 
 Beard, the, 39. 
 
 Benediction, the Seventh, 74. 
 
 Ben Ilinnom, Valley of, 92. 
 
 Ben Zoma, 94. 
 Berechiah, rabbi, 71. 
 Beth-ezel, 24. 
 Beth-le-Aphrah, 23. 
 Beth-lehem, 52. 
 Bezer, 34. 
 
 Bliss, F. J., cited, 24. 
 Bochim, 23. 
 Boshet, 92. 
 Bozrah, 34. \ 
 Breaker, the, 34. 
 
 Burnt-offering, to begin war, 38; de- 
 fined, 61. 
 
 Canaanite religion, 81-2. 
 
 Canaanites, the, defile Palestine, 33, 
 
 87. 
 Caution, 65. 
 
 Chariots, prophets object to, 25. 
 Charity, laws of, 84. 
 Cheyne, commentator on Micah, 15; 
 
 cited, 93. 
 Child sacrifices, 13, 92. See also 
 
 Human sacrifices. 
 Commentators on Micah, 15-16. 
 Companions of the Messiah, 54, 89- 
 
 90. 
 Congregation, Israel, 87. 
 Congregation of the Lord, 30. 
 Conjugal infidelity, figure for idolatry, 
 
 20. 
 Connubium, 87. 
 Corners of the field, 84. 
 Cornill, introduction to Micah, 16. 
 
 Damascus, fall of, 2. 
 
 David, 3, 89; ancestor of the Messiah, 
 52, 53- 
 
 David ben Joseph Kimhi, cited, 11, 17 
 [2], 20 [2], 31, '24 )>], 25 [2], 26 
 Mi 29 [3], 30 [2], 32, 33, 34 [2], 
 43. 44. 46, 49 !>]> 53 UL 54 U1, 
 55 Ul, 58, 59, 65, 66 [*], 67 [*], 
 68, 71, 75 [2], 78; commentator on 
 Micah, 15. 
 
 Devoted, definition of, 51. 
 
 Dew, 55-6.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Dillmann, cited, 92. 
 
 Divination, 38. 
 
 Driver, introduction to Micah, 16; 
 
 cited, 38. 
 Dust, rolling in, 23; licking the, 78. 
 Dysentery, 67. 
 
 Earthquake, figure for sin, 19. 
 
 Eden, 43, 44. 
 
 Edom, 22. 
 
 Edomites, the, 87. 
 
 Egypt, and Palestine, 2-3, 75. 
 
 Egyptians, the, 87. 
 
 Eleazar, rabbi, 64. 
 
 Elijah, 34, 47. 82, 89, 90. 
 
 Encyclopaedia Biblica, cited, 43, 46, 56, 
 
 93- 
 
 End of days, 42-3. 
 
 Enoch, 89. 
 
 Ephrath. See Beth-lehem. 
 
 Eschatology, Jewish, 72. 
 
 Ewald, commentator on Micah, 15; 
 cited, 21, 30, 66 [2], 67, 68, 75. 
 
 Exodus, the, and the Messianic re- 
 demption, 93-4. 
 
 Ezra, 47. 
 
 Fear of sin, 65. 
 Figs, early, 70. 
 First-born, the, 62-3.* 
 Flock, the Lord's, 77. 
 Forethought, 65. 
 Forgotten sheaf, 84. 
 
 Gad, 77. 
 
 Gath, 22-3. 
 
 Gath-Rimmon, 23. 
 
 Gilead, 77. 
 
 Gittaim, 23. 
 
 Gleanings, 84. 
 
 Gog, 12, 50. 
 
 Graetz, cited, 23, 51. 
 
 Greek Version of Micah, text of, 14; 
 cited, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 29, 31, 32, 
 33. 36, 46, 49. S3. 54 l>]> 56, 63, 
 66 [2], 68, 87. 
 
 Gressmann, cited, 9. 
 
 Griffon-vulture, the, 27. 
 
 Guilt-offering, 62. 
 
 Gunkel, cited, 44. 
 
 Haftarah, 55-64, 80. 
 
 Hananiah, 37. 
 
 Harlot, the hire of a, 20, 21. 
 
 Hasid, 70. 
 
 ,J Heritage," 77. 
 
 Hesed, 61, 64, 70. 
 
 Hezekiah, 1, 13, 41, 89, 90. 
 
 High places, the, 18, 19, 81-2. 
 
 Hills, the " mothers," 59. 
 
 Hitzig-Steiner, commentators on Mi- 
 cah, 15. 
 
 Holiness, 65. 
 
 Holy Land, the, devastation of, 74-5. 
 
 Holy Spirit, the, 65. 
 
 Honesty in trade, 83. 
 
 Horses, prophets object to, 25. 
 
 Hosea, 63. 
 
 Human sacrifices, 92-3. See also Child 
 sacrifices. 
 
 Humiliation, symbol of, 23, 39. 
 
 Humility, 64-5. 
 
 Ibn Ezra. See Abraham ben Meir Ibn 
 Ezra. 
 
 Ibn Ganah. See Abulwalid Merwan 
 Ibn Ganah. 
 
 Idolatry, conjugal infidelity figure for, 
 20; warning against, 81; -and sacri- 
 fices, 91. 
 
 Incisions, symbol of mourning, 51. 
 
 Interest, laws on, 84. 
 
 Iphigenia, 37. 
 
 Isaac, sacrifice of, 93. 
 
 Isaac Abrabanel, commentator on Mi- 
 cah, 15; cited, 12, 91. 
 
 Isaiah, 1, 4, 12; the son of, 47. 
 
 Israel, political relations of, 3-4; and 
 idolatry, 81-2; terms for, 86-7. 
 
 Israel, interchanged with Jacob, 19. 
 
 Jacob, 89. 
 
 Jacob, interchanged with Israel, 19. 
 
 Jehoiakim, 40. 
 
 Jephthah, vow of, 93. 
 
 Jeremiah, accused of treason, 41. 
 
 Jeremias, cited, 13. 
 
 Jeroboam, 3. 
 
 Jerusalem, defiled, 4, 5; destruction 
 of, announced, 5, 6; the spiritual 
 centre, 12; sin personified, 19; in 
 the Messianic age, 50. 
 
 Jesse, 89, 90. 
 
 Jesus, 88. 
 
 Jew, the, as a man, 63-4.
 
 INDEX 
 
 John Hyrcanus, 20. 
 
 Jonah. See Abulwalid Merwan Ibn 
 
 Ganah. 
 Jonah, the Book of, 80. 
 Joseph Kara, commentator on Micah, 
 
 15; cited, 22, 26, 28, 53. 
 Joseph Kimhi, cited, 11, 32, 35. 
 Josephus, cited, 20. 
 Josiah, 58, 89. 
 Jotham, 1. 
 
 Jubilee year, 83, 84. 
 Judicial murder, 40. 
 Justice, administration of, 35, 83, 86. 
 
 Kimhi. See David ben Joseph Kimhi_; 
 
 Joseph Kimhi. 
 Kindnesses, the doing of, 64. 
 Kingdom of God, 72. 
 Kittel, cited, 1. 
 Klausner, cited, 87. 
 Knowing, in Hebrew, 35- 
 Konig, introduction to Micah, 96. 
 Koppe, cited, 12. 
 Kuenen, introduction to Micah, 16. 
 
 Lachish, 24-5. 
 Landlords, 29. 
 Landmarks, removal of, 83. 
 Levi, rabbi, 91. 
 Logos, the, 88. 
 Lots, 29-30. 
 
 Lovingkindness, 64, 79. 
 Luzzatto, cited, 38, 44, 46. 
 
 Magog. See Gog. 
 
 Malizor Vitry, cited, 94 [2]. 
 
 Mai'muni, cited, 91. 
 
 Manasseh, 13, 58, 92. 
 
 Manasseh, half of, 77. 
 
 Mantle, 32. 
 
 Mareshah, 26. 
 
 Maroth, 24. 
 
 Marti, commentator on Micah, 16. 
 
 Mashal, 28. 
 
 Masor, 75. 
 
 Mas'orah, the, cited, 58. 
 
 Masoretic text, 14. 
 
 Massebah, 57. 
 
 Memphis, 25. 
 
 Menahem bar Helbo, commentator on 
 
 Micah, 15; cited, 24, 26, 32, 66. 
 Merodach-baladan II, 3. 
 Mesha, 93. 
 
 Messiah, the, 34, 35, 44, 52, 53, 54, 72, 
 89; pre-existent, 87-9; companions 
 of, 89; and Moses, 93. 
 
 Messianic age, the, 8, 12, 13-14, 43, 
 45. 49. SO. 53-4. 76. 
 
 Messianic redemption, the, and the 
 Exodus, 93-4. 
 
 Methuselah, 89, 90. 
 
 Micah, place and time of, 1 ; compared 
 with Isaiah, 4; as social reformer, 
 4-5; unpopular, 5; and the false 
 prophets, 5-6; uses an ancient proph- 
 ecy, 6-7, 12; on divine service, 7; 
 diction of, 7, 9; theology of, 7-8; the 
 unity of his authorship, 8-14; text of 
 book of, 14; versions of book of, 15; 
 commentaries on book of, 15-16; and 
 Hezekiah, 41; modesty of, 63. 
 
 Micaiah the son of Imlah, 17, 39. 
 
 Migdal-eder, 48. 
 
 Miriam, 60. 
 
 Moab, 22, 34. 
 
 Moabites, the, 87. 
 
 Modesty, 65. 
 
 Molin, Jacob, 79. 
 
 Moloch, 63*. 
 
 Moresheth, 1. 
 
 Moresheth-gath, 26. 
 
 Moses, 60, 89, 90, 93. 
 
 Mountain of the Lord's house, 43-4. 
 
 Mountains, the " fathers," 59. 
 
 Mourning, 21, 23, 27, 39, 51. 
 
 Naboth, 28, 69. 
 
 Nahmani, cited, 91. 
 
 Nation, Israel, 86-7. 
 
 Nebaioth, 34. 
 
 Nehemiah, 47. 
 
 Neubauer, cited, 52. 
 
 Nimrod, 55. 
 
 Nineveh, 25. 
 
 Nowack, commentator on Micah, 15. 
 
 Oil, 62, 68. 
 Omri, 69. 
 Onias, 82. 
 Ophel, the, 48. 
 Optimism, false, 37. 
 Ostrich, the, 22. 
 
 Palestine, political relations of, 2-3; 
 place of rest, 32; denied, 33.
 
 INDEX 
 
 103 
 
 Parable, 28. 
 
 Paradise, 43. 
 
 Paradise Regained, 44. 
 
 Passover, the second, 93-4. 
 
 Paton, cited, 3, 13, 22. 
 
 Pauline Son of God, 88. 
 
 Peace-offering, 61-2. 
 
 People, Israel, 86-7. 
 
 Petrie, Flinders, cited, 24. 
 
 Philistia, play on, 23. 
 
 Phinehas, rabbi, 91. 
 
 Phinehas ben Jair, rabbi, 65. 
 
 Phoenician Baal, 4. 
 
 Phoenicians, the, rites of, 20. 
 
 Piety, 65. 
 
 Pledges, laws on, 84. 
 
 Poverty, the law and prophets on, 
 83-6. 
 
 Pre-existence of the Messiah, 53. 
 
 Presence, the Divine. See Shekinah, 
 the. 
 
 Priests, the, complaints against, 40; 
 representatives of God, 44. 
 
 Property, assigned by lot, 30; sacred- 
 ncss of, 83. 
 
 Prophecy, an ancient, used by Micah, 
 6-7. 
 
 Prophets, the, called seers, 17; and 
 wealth, 25; epileptics, 30; identify 
 themselves with the Lord, 31; true, 
 39, 41-2; representatives of God, 44; 
 Moses, Aaron, Miriam, 60; castigate 
 and intercede, 76-7; tribunes of the 
 people, 85; and the sacrifices, 90-2. 
 
 Prophets, the false, 5-6, 33, 37, 38, 39, 
 
 Purity, 65. 
 
 " Quinta," the, cited, 55. 
 
 Rabshakeh, 25. 
 
 Race, Israel, 86-7. 
 
 Rachel, the tomb of, 52. 
 
 Rain, 55-6. 
 
 Rashi, commentator on Micah, 15; 
 cited, 18 [2], 20, 24, 26, 30, 31, 34 
 W\, 43. 53 [Jl. 54. 58, 66, 70, 71, 
 75, 89. 
 
 Reason, 88. 
 
 " Remnant," the, 47-8, 73. 
 
 Repentance and sacrifices, 63. 
 
 Resurrection, 65; the dew of the, 56. 
 
 Reuben, 77. 
 
 Reuss, commentator on Micah, 15; 
 
 cited, 66, 75. 
 Rich, the, arraigned, 35, 36. 
 Riches, the law and the prophets on, 
 
 83-6. 
 Righteousness and almsgiving, 86. 
 Rod of punishment, the, 66. 
 Roediger, cited, 22. 
 Ryssel, commentator on Micah, 15. 
 
 Saadya, cited, 22. 
 Sabbatic year, 84. 
 Sacrifices, Micah on, 7; to begin war, 
 
 37-8; kinds of, 61-2; piacular, 63; as 
 
 viewed by the prophets, 90-2. 
 Saint, 70. 
 Samaria, the destruction of, 1, 2, 4, 
 
 5; sin personified, 19. 
 Samaritans, the, 82. 
 Samuel, 89, 90. 
 Samuel ha-Nagid, on Micah, 15; cited, 
 
 21. 
 Sargon II, 2. 
 Saul, 89. 
 Sawafir, 23. 
 Schechter, cited, 85. 
 Schurer, cited, 79. 
 Sedakah, 61. 
 Seed, Israel, 86. 
 Self-abasement, 21, 27. 
 Sennacherib, 2, 25. 
 Septuagint. See Greek Version. 
 Seth, 89, 90. 
 
 Seventh Benediction, the, 74. 
 Shalmaneser IV, 2. 
 Shamir, 23. 
 Shaphir, 23. 
 Shaving, 2j. 
 Shear-Jashub, 47. 
 Shekinah, the, 18, 37, 
 Shelamim, 61-2. 
 Shishak I, 3. 
 Simlai, 91. 
 Sin, Micah on, 7-8; a cataclysm, 19; 
 
 according to the prophets, 25. 
 Sinlessness, 65. 
 Sin-offering, 62. 
 Slavery, laws of, 83-4. 
 Smith, G. A., cited, 25. 
 Smith, W. Robertson, cited, 38. 
 Social evils in Judah and Israel, 4-5. 
 Solomon, 3, 25. 
 Soothsayers, 57.
 
 104 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Spirit, long and short of, 30. 
 
 Stade, cited, 8, 13. 
 
 Steinthal, cited, 91. 
 
 Symmachus, text of Micah, 14; cited, 
 
 19, 24, 26, 31, 34. 
 Syriac Version, text of Micah, 14; 
 
 cited, 21, 22 [2], 24, 26, 29, 49, 53, 
 
 67, 76. 
 
 Tahutimes III, 2. 
 
 Tanhum of Jerusalem, cited, 22. 
 
 Targum, cited, 11, 18 [>], 21 [2], 24 
 [2], 26, 29, 31, 34 [*], 41, 52, 53 
 [<?]> 54, 58, 59 [-?]. 6o, 61, 63, 66 
 [2], 67, 69, 70, 71 [2], 75 [2], 78, 
 89, 92; text of Micah, 14; para- 
 phrastic, 15. 
 
 Tashlik, 79. 
 
 Tell-el-Hesy, 24-5. 
 
 Temple,' the, 82. 
 
 Theodotion, text of Micah, 14; cited, 
 26, 63, 75. 
 
 Tiglath-pileser III, 2. 
 
 Tithes, 84. 
 
 Top of the mountains, 43-4. 
 
 Tophet, 92. 
 
 Torah, denned, 44. 
 
 Torah, the, 65; and the prophets, 91. 
 
 Tristram, cited, 22, 27. 
 
 Tyre, 20. 
 
 Uprightness, 70. 
 
 Venality among priests, 40. 
 
 Visitation, 71. 
 
 Vulgate, the, text of Micah, 14; cited, 
 19, 21 [2], 22, 24, 29, 34 [2], 53, 
 S4. 55. 59. 61, 66, 67, 68, 69, 72, 75 
 M, 76. 
 
 Wages, laws on, 84. 
 
 War, sanctified, 37-8; abolition of, 45. 
 
 Wellhausen, commentator on Micah, 
 
 15; cited, 32 fij. 
 Wildeboer, introduction to Micah, 16. 
 Word, the eternal, 88. 
 
 Yalkut Makiri, on Micah, 15. 
 Yalkutim, on Micah, 15. 
 Yoreh'De'ah, cited, 21 [2], 39. 
 
 Zaanan, 24. 
 Zebah, 61. 
 Zedekiah, 35, 89. 
 Zenan, 24. 
 Zephaniah, 89, 90. 
 Zimmern, cited, 90. 
 Zion, the future, 43-4. 
 Zion, Mount, 43-4.
 
 nauMMuZ 
 
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