A verse by verse commentary on Micah 7 dealing with Israel's misery because all has become corrupt, but Israel will rise again, and so this chapter ends with prayer and praise.

1. MICAH 7 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Israel’s Misery
1 What misery is mine!
I am like one who gathers summer fruit
at the gleaning of the vineyard;
there is no cluster of grapes to eat,
none of the early figs that I crave.
BAR ES. "Woe - o is me! for I am, as when they have gathered the summer fruits ,
as the grape-gleanings of the vintage “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts,” Isaiah said at
the same time, “is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plants” Isa_
5:7. Isaiah said, brought forth wild grapes; Micah, that there are but gleanings, few and
poor.
It is as though Satan pressed the vineyard of the Lord, and made the most his prey,
and few were left to those who glean for Christ; “the foxes have eaten the grapes” Son_
2:15. Some few remain too high out of their reach, or hidden behind the leaves, or, it
may be , falling in the time of gathering, fouled, sullied, marred and stained, yet left.” So
in the gleaning there may be three sorts of souls; “two or three in the top of the
uppermost bough” Isa_17:6, which were not touched; or those unripe, which are but
imperfect and poor; or those who had fallen, yet were not wholly carried away. These too
are all sought with difficulty; they had escaped the gatherer’s eye, they are few and rare;
it might seem at first sight, us though there were none. There is no cluster to eat; for the
vintage is past, the best is but as a sour grape which sets the teeth on edge.
My soul desired the first-ripe fig. These are they which, having survived the sharpness
of winter, ripen early, about the end of June; they are the sweetest ; but he longed for
them in vain. He addressed a carnal people, who could understand only carnal things, on
the side which they could understand. Our longings, though we pervert them, are God’s
gift. As they desired those things which refresh or recruit the thirsty body, as their whole
self was gathered into the craving for that which was to restore them, so was it with him.
Such is the longing of God for man’s conversion and salvation; such is the thirst of His
ministers; such their pains in seeking, their sorrow in not finding. Dionysius: “There
were none, through whose goodness the soul of the prophet might spiritually be
refreshed, in joy at his growth in grace, as Paul saith to Philemon, “refresh my bowels in

2. the Lord” Phm_1:20. So our Lord saith in Isaiah, “I said, I have labored in vain, I hate
spent my strength for nought and in vain” Isa_49:4. “Jesus was grieved at the hardness
of their hearts” Mar_3:5.
Rib.: “The first-ripe fig may be the image of the righteous of old, as the Patriarchs or
the Fathers, such as in the later days we fain would see.”
CLARKE, "Wo is me! - This is a continuation of the preceding discourse. And here
the prophet points out the small number of the upright to be found in the land. He
himself seemed to be the only person who was on God’s side; and he considers himself
as a solitary grape, which had escaped the general gathering. The word ‫קץ‬ kayits, which
is sometimes used for summer, and summer fruits in general, is here translated late figs;
and may here, says Bishop Newcome, be opposed to the early ripe fig of superior quality.
See on Hos_9:10 (note), and Amo_8:1 (note), Amo_8:2 (note). He desired to see the
first-ripe fruit - distinguished and eminent piety; but he found nothing but a very
imperfect or spurious kind of godliness.
GILL, "Woe is me!.... Alas for me unhappy man that I am, to live in such an age, and
among such a people, as I do! this the prophet says in his own name, or in the name of
the church and people of God in his time; so Isaiah, who was contemporary with him,
Isa_6:5; see also Psa_120:5;
for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape
gleanings of the vintage; when there are only an apple or a pear or two, or such sort
of fruit, and such a quantity of it left on the top of the tree, or on the outermost branches
of it, after the rest are gathered in; or a few single grapes here and there, after the vintage
is over; signifying either that he was like Elijah left alone, or however that the number of
good men were very few; or that there were very few gathered in by his ministry,
converted, taught, and instructed by it; or those that had the name of good men were but
very indifferent, and not like those who were in times past; but were as refuse fruit left
on trees, and dropped from thence when rotten, and when gathered up were good for
little, and like single grapes, small and withered, and of no value; see Isa_17:6;
there is no cluster to eat; no large number or society of good men to converse with,
only here and there a single person; and none that have an abundance of grace and
goodness in them, and a large experience of spiritual and divine things; few that attend
the ministry of the word; they do not come in clusters, in crowds; and fewer still that
receive any advantage by it;
my soul desired the first ripe fruit; the company and conversation of such good
men as lived in former times; who had the firstfruits of the Spirit, and arrived to a
maturity of grace, and a lively exercise of it; and who were, in the age of the prophet, as
scarce and rare as first ripe fruits, and as desirable as such were to a thirsty traveller; see
Hos_9:10. The Targum is,
"the prophet said, woe unto me, because I am as when good men fail, in a time in which
merciful men perish from the earth; behold, as the summer fruits, as the gleanings after
the vintage, there is no man in whom there are good works; my soul desires good men.''

3. HE RY 1-6, "This is such a description of bad times as, some think, could scarcely
agree to the times of Hezekiah, when this prophet prophesied; and therefore they rather
take it as a prediction of what should be in the reign of Manasseh. But we may rather
suppose it to be in the reign of Ahaz (and in that reign he prophesied, ch. 1:1) or in the
beginning of Hezekiah's time, before the reformation he was instrumental in; nay, in the
best of his days, and when he had done his best to purge out corruptions, still there was
much amiss. The prophet cries out, Woe is me! He bemoans himself that his lot was cast
in such a degenerate age, and thinks it his great unhappiness that he lived among a
people that were ripening apace for a ruin which many a good man would unavoidably
be involved in. Thus David cries out, Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech! He laments, 1.
That there were so few good people to be found, even among those that were God's
people; and this was their reproach: The good man has perished out of the earth, or out
of the land, the land of Canaan; it was a good land, and a land of uprightness (Isa_
26:10), but there were few good men in it, none upright among them, Mic_7:2. The good
man is a godly man and a merciful man; the word signifies both. Those are completely
good men that are devout towards God and compassionate and beneficent towards men,
that love mercy and walk with God. “These have perished; those few honest men that
some time ago enriched and adorned our country are now dead and gone, and there are
none risen up in their stead that tread in their steps; honesty is banished, and there is no
such thing as a good man to be met with. Those that were of religious education have
degenerated, and become as bad as the worst; the godly man ceases,” Psa_12:1. This is
illustrated by a comparison (Mic_7:1): they were as when they have gathered the
summer fruits; it was as hard a thing to find a good man as to find any of the summer-
fruits (which were the choicest and best, and therefore must carefully be gathered in)
when the harvest is over. The prophet is ready to say, as Elijah in his time (1Ki_19:10), I,
even I only, am left. Good men, who used to hang in clusters, are now as the grape-
gleanings of the vintage, here and there a berry, Isa_17:6. You can find no societies of
them as bunches of grapes, but those that are are single persons: There is no cluster to
eat; and the best and fullest grapes are those that grow in large clusters. Some think that
this intimates not only that good people were few, but that those few who remained, who
went for good people, were good for little, like the small withered grapes, the refuse that
were left behind, not only by the gatherer, but by the gleaner. When the prophet
observed this universal degeneracy it made him desire the first-ripe fruit; he wished to
see such worthy good men as were in the former ages, were the ornaments of the
primitive times, and as far excelled the best of all the present age as the first and full-ripe
fruits do those of the latter growth, that never come to maturity. When we read and hear
of the wisdom and zeal, the strictness and conscientiousness, the devotion and charity,
of the professors of religion in former ages, and see the reverse of this in those of the
present age, we cannot but sit down, and wish, with a sigh, O for primitive Christianity
again! Where are the plainness and integrity of those that went before us? Where are the
Israelites indeed, without guile? Our souls desire them, but in vain. The golden age is
gone, and past recall; we must make the best of what is, for we are not likely to see such
times as have been. 2. That there were so many wicked mischievous people among them,
not only none that did any good, but multitudes that did all the hurt they could: “They
all lie in wait for blood, and hunt every man his brother. To get wealth to themselves,
they care not what wrong, what hurt, they do to their neighbours and nearest relations.
They act as if mankind were in a state of war, and force were the only right. They are as
beasts of prey to their neighbours, for they all lie in wait for blood as lions for their prey;
they thirst after it, make nothing of taking away any man's life or livelihood to serve a
turn for themselves, and lie in wait for an opportunity to do it. Their neighbours are as

4. beasts of prey to them, for they hunt every man his brother with a net; they persecute
them as noxious creatures, fit to be taken and destroyed, though they are innocent
excellent ones.” We say of him that is outlawed, Caput gerit lupinum - He is to be hunted
as a wolf. “Or they hunt them as men do the game, to feast upon it; they have a thousand
cursed arts of ensnaring men to their ruin, so that they may but get by it. Thus they do
mischief with both hands earnestly; their hearts desire it, their heads contrive it, and
then both hands are ready to put it in execution.” Note, The more eager and intent men
are upon any sinful pursuit, and the more pains they take in it, the more provoking it is.
3. That the magistrates, who by their office ought to have been the patrons and
protectors of right, were the practicers and promoters of wrong: That they may do evil
with both hands earnestly, to excite and animate themselves in it, the prince asketh, and
the judge asketh, for a reward, for a bribe, with which they well be hired to exert all
their power for the supporting and carrying on of any wicked design with both hands.
They do evil with both hands well (so some read it); they do evil with a great deal of art
and dexterity; they praise themselves for doing it so well. Others read it thus: To do evil
they have both hands (they catch at an opportunity of doing mischief), but to do good
the prince and the judge ask for a reward; if they do any good offices they are
mercenary in them, and must be paid for them. The great man, who has wealth and
power to do good, is not ashamed to utter his mischievous desire in conjunction with the
prince and the judge, who are ready to support him and stand by him in it. So they wrap
it up; they perplex the matter, involve it, and make it intricate (so some understand it),
that they may lose equity in a mist, and so make the cause turn which way they please. It
is ill with a people when their princes, and judges, and great men are in a confederacy to
pervert justice. And it is a sad character that is given of them (Mic_7:4), that the best of
them is as a brier, and the most upright is sharper than a thorn-hedge; it is a
dangerous thing to have any thing to do with them; he that touches them must be fenced
with iron (2Sa_23:6, 2Sa_23:7), he shall be sure to be scratched, to have his clothes
torn, and his eyes almost pulled out. And, if this be the character of the best and most
upright, what are the worst? And, when things have come to this pass, the day of thy
watchmen comes, that is, as it follows, the day of thy visitation, when God will reckon
with thee for all this wickedness, which is called the day of the watchmen, because their
prophets, whom God set as watchmen over them, had often warned them of that day.
When all flesh have corrupted their way, even the best and the most upright, what can be
expected but a day of visitation, a deluge of judgments, as that which drowned the old
world when the earth was filled with violence? 4. That there was no faith in man; people
had grown so universally treacherous that one knew not whom to repose any confidence
in, Mic_7:5. “Those that have any sense of honour, or spark of virtue, remaining in them,
have a firm regard to the laws of friendship; they would not discover what passed in
private conversation, nor divulge secrets, to the prejudice of a friend. But those things
are now made a jest of; you will not meet with a friend that you dare trust, whose word
you dare take, or who will have any tenderness or concern for you; so that wise men shall
give it and take it for a rule, trust you not in a friend, for you will find him false, you can
trust him no further than you can see him; and even him that passes for an honest man
you will find to be so only with good looking to. Nay, as for him that undertakes to be
your guide, to lead you into any business which he professes to understand better than
you, you cannot put a confidence in him, for he will be sure to mislead you if he can get
any thing by it.” Some by a guide understand a husband, who is called the guide of thy
youth; and that agrees well enough with what follows, “Keep the doors of thy lips from
her that lieth in thy bosom, from thy own wife; take heed what thou sayest before her,
lest she betray thee, as Delilah did Samson, lest she be the bird of the air that carries the
voice of that which thou sayest in thy bed-chamber,” Ecc_10:20. It is an evil time indeed

5. when the prudent are obliged even thus far to keep silence. 5. That children were abusive
to their parents, and men had no comfort, no satisfaction, in their own families and their
nearest relations, Mic_7:6. The times are bad indeed when the son dishonours his
father, gives him bad language, exposes him, threatens him, and studies to do him a
mischief, when the daughter rises up in rebellion against her own mother, having no
sense of duty, or natural affection; and no marvel that then the daughter-in-law quarrels
with her mother-in-law, and is vexatious to her. Either they cannot agree about their
property and interest, or their humours and passions clash, or from a spirit of bigotry
and persecution, the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the
child, Mat_10:4; Luk_21:16. It is sad when a man's betrayers and worst enemies are the
men of his own house, his own children and servants, that should be his guard and his
best friends. Note, The contempt and violation of the laws of domestic duties are a sad
symptom of a universal corruption of manners. Those are never likely to come to good
that are undutiful to their parents, and study to be provoking to them and cross them.
JAMISO , "Mic_7:1-20. The universality of the corruption; The chosen remnant,
driven from every human confidence, turns to God; Triumphs by faith over her
enemies; Is comforted by God’s promises in answer to prayer, and by the confusion of
her enemies, and so breaks forth into praises of God’s character.
I am as when, etc. — It is the same with me as with one seeking fruits after the
harvest, grapes after the vintage. “There is not a cluster” to be found: no “first-ripe fruit”
(or “early fig”; see on Isa_28:4) which “my soul desireth” [Maurer]. So I look in vain for
any good men left (Mic_7:2).
K&D, "That the prophet is speaking in Mic_7:1 ff. not in his own name, but in the
name of the church, which confesses and bemoans its rebellion against the Lord, is
indisputably evident from Mic_7:7 ff., where, as all the expositors admit, the church
speaks of itself in the first person, and that not “the existing corrupt Israelitish church,”
as Caspari supposes, but the penitential, believing church of the future, which discerns
in the judgment the chastising hand of its God, and expresses the hope that the Lord will
conduct its conflict with its foe, etc. The contents of Mic_7:1-6, also, do not point to the
prophet in distinction from the congregation, but may be understood throughout as the
confession of sin on the part of the latter. Mic_7:1. “Woe to me! for I have become like a
gathering of fruit, like a gleaning of the vintage: Not a grape to eat! an early fig, which
my soul desired.” ‫י‬ ַ‫ל‬ ְ‫ל‬ፍ, which only occurs again in Job_10:15, differs from ‫,הוֹי‬ and is “vox
dolentis, gementis, et ululantis magis quam minantis” (March); and ‫י‬ ִⅴ is not “that,” but
“for,” giving the reason for ‫.אללי‬ The meaning of ‫כאס‬ ‫י‬ ִ‫ית‬ִ‫י‬ ָ‫ה‬ is not, “it has happened to me
as it generally happens to those who still seek for early figs at the fruit gathering, or for
bunches of grapes at the gleaning of the vintage” (Caspari and others); for ‫ץ‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫ק‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫פ‬ ְ‫ס‬ፎ ְⅴ does
not mean as at the fruit-gathering, but like the fruit-gathering. The nation or the church
resembles the fruit-gathering and gleaning of the vineyard, namely, in this fact, that the
fruit-gathering yields not more early figs, and the gleaning of the vintage yields no more
grapes to eat; that is to say, its condition resembles that of an orchard in the time of the
fruit-gathering, when you may find fruit enough indeed, but not a single early fig, since
the early figs ripen as early as June, whereas the fruit-gathering does not take place till

6. August (see at Isa_28:4). The second simile is a still simpler one, and is very easily
explained. ‫י‬ ֵ‫פ‬ ְ‫ס‬ፎ is not a participle, but a noun - ‫ף‬ ֶ‫ּס‬‫א‬ the gathering (Isa_32:10); and the
plural is probably used simply because of ‫ּת‬‫ל‬ ְ‫,עוֹל‬ the gleaning, and not with any allusion
to the fact that the gleaning lasts several days, as Hitzig supposes, but because what is
stated applies to all gatherings of fruit. ‫ץ‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫,ק‬ fruit; see at Amo_8:1. ‫ה‬ ָ‫ת‬ְ‫וּ‬ ִ‫א‬ is to be taken in a
relative sense, and the force of ‫ין‬ ֵ‫א‬ still extends to ‫ה‬ ָ‫וּר‬ⅴ ִ (compare Gen_30:33). The figure
is explained in Mic_7:2 ff.
CALVI , "The meaning of the first verse is somewhat doubtful: some refer what
the Prophet says to punishment; and others to the wickedness of the people. The
first think that the calamity, with which the Lord had visited the sins of the people,
is bewailed; as though the Prophet looked on the disordered state of the whole land.
But it may be easily gathered from the second verse, that the Prophet speaks here of
the wickedness of the people, rather than of the punishment already inflicted. I have
therefore put the two verses together, that the full meaning may be more evident to
us.
Woe then to me! Why? I am become as gatherings Too free, or rather too licentious
is this version, — “I am become as one who seeks to gather summer-fruits, and finds
none;” so that being disappointed of his hope, he burns with desire. This cannot
possibly be considered as the rendering of the Prophet’s words. There is indeed
some difficulty in the expressions: their import, however, seems to be this, — that
the land, which the Prophet undertakes here to represent and personify, was like to
a field, or a garden, or a vineyard, that was empty. He therefore says, that the land
was stripped of all its fruit, as it is after harvest and the vintage. So by gatherings
we must understand the collected fruit. Some understand the gleanings which
remain, as when one leaves carelessly a few clusters on the vines: and thus, they say,
a few just men remained alive on the land. But the former comparison harmonizes
better with the rest of the passage, and that is, that the land was now stripped of all
its fruit, as it is after the harvest and the vintage. I am become then as the gatherings
of summer, that is, as in the summer, when the fruit has been already gathered; and
as the clusters of the vintage, that is when the vintage is over. (181)
There is no cluster, he says to eat. The Prophet refers here to the scarcity of good
men; yea, he says that there were no longer any righteous men living. For though
God had ever preserved some hidden seed, yet it might have been justly declared
with regard to the whole people, that they were like a field after gathering the corn,
or a vineyard after the vintage. Some residue, indeed, remains in the field after
harvest, but there are no ears of corn; and in the vineyard some bunches remain,
but they are empty; nothing remains but leaves. ow this personification is very
forcible when the Prophet comes forth as though he represented the land itself; for
he speaks in his own name and person, Woe is to me, he says, for I am like summer-
gatherings! It was then the same thing, as though he deplored his own nakedness
and want, inasmuch as there were not remaining any upright and righteous men.

7. “Woe is me! For I am become
As the gatherers of late figs,
As the gleaners of the vintage:
There isno cluster to eat;
My soul desireth the first ripe fig.”
Substantially the same is the version of Dathius and of Henderson. “Late figs” is not
strictly the meaning of ‫,קיף‬ which is properly summer or summer-fruit; yet, as the
early or first ripe fig is mentioned in the last line, which forms a contrast with this,
what is meant, no doubt, is the late figs. Then the word for “gleaners,” ‫,עללת‬ is
properly, gleanings; but here it is evidently to be taken as a concrete, gleaners, to
correspond with gatherers, though ewcome considers the women-gleaners to be
intended. The four last lines form a parallelism, in which the first and the early fig,
— the vintage and the cluster. — Ed.
COFFMA , "Verse 1
The chapter falls into two divisions, the first being a representation in the mouth of
the prophet upon behalf of Zion-Jerusalem, "bewailing the absence of any righteous
ones within her borders."[1] It is not necessary to suppose that the general
population of the city engaged in any such lament; it is rather an outline of the
dreadful social conditions uttered by Micah in the form of a lament. The conditions
revealed show "a complete social rebellion against constituted authority and natural
relations."[2] The first paragraph (Micah 7:1-6). reads very much like the front
pages of newspapers in the United States at the present time.
Micah 7:7-17 are spoken upon behalf of the spiritual remnant, in whose mouths
Micah places a confession of sins and a plea for Jehovah to receive them. A final
prophecy of what God will do (Micah 7:18-20) brings the prophecy of Micah to a
close.
Micah 7:1
"Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape
gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat; my soul desireth the first-ripe
fig."
Beginning here and through Micah 7:6, we have "one of the most poignant
criticisms of a commercial community ever to appear."[3] othing "to eat" is a
metaphor of the lack of honesty and integrity in Jerusalem, as appears in succeeding
verses. Just as in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, "There were not `ten righteous
persons' for whose sake the city might have been spared!"[4]
"Like Jeremiah, a century later (Jeremiah 5:1), he is unable to find a single godly
person. He compares himself to a man wandering in the fields in search of
something to eat."[5]
COKE, "Micah 7:1. For I am as when they have gathered— For I am like to those

8. who are about to gather the summer fruits, and to him who is about to pluck the
vintage: there are no grapes which I can eat, nor first-fruits which my soul desireth.
Houbigant; who supposes, that the prophet here introduces our Saviour speaking;
and certainly the discourse of the prophet, and the conduct of our Lord, Mark 11:13
have a great conformity to each other.
ELLICOTT, "(1) Woe is me!—Micah gives here a fearful picture of the demoralised
state of society in Judah which had called down the vengeance of God. As the early
fig gathered in June is eagerly sought for by the traveller, so the prophet sought
anxiously for a good man; but his experience was that of the Psalmist: “The godly
man ceaseth; the faithful fail from among the children of men.”
TRAPP, "Micah 7:1 Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer
fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: [there is] no cluster to eat: my soul
desired the firstripe fruit.
Ver. 1. Woe is me, for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits] Allai li,
Alas for me. This last sermon of his the prophet begins with a pathetic queritation,
bewailing his own unhappiness in the little good success of his ministry. Mirifice
autem nostris temporibus hic sermo convenit, saith Gualther. This discourse suits
well with these times; wherein we may justly cry out with the prophet Isaiah, "Who
hath believed our report?" And again, "O my leanness, my leanness! woe is me, for
there is only as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the
vintage is done," Isaiah 24:13; Isaiah 24:16. Hei mihi quam pingui macer est mihi
taurus in arvo. Though he had worn himself to a very skeleton in the Lord’s work;
yet had he laboured in vain, Israel was not gathered, Isaiah 49:4-5, and hence his
woeful complaint. The like we read of Elias, 1 Kings 19:10, where he bitterly bewails
his aloneness; so did Athanasius in his age; and Basil in his Fasciculus temporum, A.
D. 884, cries out, for the paucity of good people, Heu, heu, Domine Deus, Alas, Lord,
how few appear to be on thy side.
“ Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto. ”
And Gualther complains, that the Anabaptists in Germany urged this as a chief
argument to draw people from communion with our Churches, that there was so
little good done by preaching, and so few souls converted. Hence some ministers
despond, and are ready to kick up all. Latimer tells of one who gave this answer
why he left off preaching, because he saw he did no good. This, saith Latimer, is a
naughty, a very naughty answer. A grief it will be, and fit it should be; piety to God
and pity to men calls for it. Christ wept over Jerusalem; Paul had great heaviness
and continual sorrow in his heart (not inferior to that of a woman in travail ’
Oδυνη, Romans 9:2) for his contumacious countrymen; neither could he speak of
those lewd lowlies at Philippi with dry eyes, Philippians 3:18. But an utter
discouragement it should not be, since our reward is with God however, Isaiah 49:5,
and perhaps a larger, because we have wrought with so little encouragement: we
have ploughed when others have only trod out the grain: they trod and fed together,
when as those that plough have no refreshing till the work be done, Hosea 10:13.

9. Certain it is that God will reward his faithful servants, secundum laborem, non
secundum proventum, according to their pains taken in the ministry, and not
according to their people’s profiting, Kατα κοπον ου κατα καρπον..
There is no cluster to eat] one to speak of: hedge fruit there is great store; wild
grapes not a few; grapes of Sodom, clusters of Gomorrah; but for good grapes,
pleasant fruit, godly people, there is a wondrous scarcity of such. Diogenes lighted a
candle at noonday to look for a man; the host of ola went to the graves to call for
the good men of the town. Cicero saith, that if there be one good poet in an age it is
well. Christ wondered at one good athaniel, and tells us in the same chapter, that
they are but few that receive him, and with him the adoption of sons, John 1:12.
Clusters we must not look for; but if there be found two or three berries in the top
of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches, it is well,
Isaiah 17:6. Sufficit mihi auditor unus, sufficit nullus. Paul when he came first to
Philippi had a poor audience, only a few women, Acts 16:13, and one convert:
neither had he much better success at Athens, and no Church could be planted
there, Acts 17:33-34.
My soul desired the firstripe fruits] Praecocem fructum, the early ripening fruit, as
a great dainty, a precious rarity. We highly prize nettlebuds when they first bud; so
doth God our young services. Jeremiah 1:11, he made choice of the almond tree
because it blossometh first; so of Jeremiah from his infancy. He called for firstfruits
of trees, and of the earth, in the sheaf, in the threshingfioor, in the dough, in the
loaves. He would have ears of corn dried by the fire; and wheat beaten out of the
green ears, Leviticus 2:14. He would have the primrose of our childhood. There
were three sorts of firstfruits. 1. Of ears of grain offered about the passover. 2. Of
the loaves, offered about Pentecost. 3. About the end of the year, in autumn. ow of
the two first God had a part, not of the last. He likes not of those arbores
autumnales, autumn trees, 1:12 ( φθινοπωρινα), that bud at latter end of harvest.
Conversion (as divines observe) usually occures between eighteen years of age and
twenty-eight: besides Abraham in the Old Testament, and icodemus in the ew,
we have not many instances of men converted in old age. When people grow
crooked and rooted in evil practices they are hardly ever set straight again.
"Remember therefore thy Creator in the days of thy youth"; his soul delighteth in
the first ripe fruits. Remember that Jesus Christ shed his blood for thee when he
was but eight days old when he was circumised; and took thee into his family by
baptism when thou didst hang on thy mother’s breast.
BE SO , "Verse 1-2
Micah 7:1-2. Wo is me, &c. — Judea, or rather the prophet himself, is here
introduced as complaining, that though good men once abounded in the land, there
were now few or none to be found. I am as when they have gathered the summer
fruits, &c. — I am like one who gathers up the ears of corn after the harvest, or
grapes after the vintage: who meets with very few. There is no cluster, &c. — Good
men, that used to be found in clusters, are now as the grape-gleanings of the vintage,

10. here and there a berry. o societies of pious men are to be found, assembling
together for the purposes of devotion and mutual edification: those that are such,
are individuals, unconnected with, and standing aloof from each other. And these
are but very imperfectly pious, like the small withered grapes, the refuse, left
behind, not only by the gatherer, but by the gleaner. My soul desired the first ripe
fruit — I wish to see such worthy good men as lived in the former ages, were the
ornaments of the primitive times, and as far excelled the best of the present age, as
the first and full ripe fruits do those of the later growth, that never come to
maturity. To meet with such as these would be a refreshment, to me like that which
a thirsty traveller receives when he finds the early fruits in the summer season. The
good man — Hebrew, ‫,חסיד‬ the pious, kind, merciful, and beneficent; is perished out
of the earth — Rather, out of the land, namely, Judea. There are few or none that
are so truly and consistently pious as to delight in doing good to others, or making
them as happy as lies in their power. And there is none upright — “As the early fig,
of excellent flavour, cannot be found in the advanced season of summer, or the
choice cluster of grapes after vintage, so neither can the good and upright man be
discovered by diligent searching in Israel.” — ewcome. They hunt every man his
brother, &c. — They make a prey, each one of his neighbour, or those they have to
do with, and use all arts to deceive and injure them.
PARKER, "A Standard of Morality
Micah 7
This is Micah when he has lost his mantle. This is not the Micah we have been
accustomed to hear. A man is not always his best self. Do not find a man in a period
of gloom, and represent his depression as being the real character and quality of his
soul. Micah has been working hard; he is undergoing the misery of reaction. Micah
came forth from the village thinking he would convert the whole kingdom, north
and south; that men had only to hear his ringing and dominant voice, and they
would instantaneously begin to weep and pray and repent. It is the old routine. Bless
God for young enthusiasm. It dashes forth into the fray, saying, I have only got to
show this banner, and that battlefield will become a church. We could not do
without such high rapture and chivalrous passion. We know the end of it all. But he
would be a cruel man who would discourage young devotion. Micah the villager
begins to feel that he has been toiling all day, and has taken nothing. This is
personal disappointment. The moment we cut our relation with the Infinite we are
shorn Samsons. Micah hand-in-hand with God makes the kingdom reel again under
the volley of his thundering; but when Micah withdraws his hands, and becomes a
simple unit, he wraps his head with the mantle of midnight, and groans and
complains, and says he has wasted his strength for nought. But that could not be. o
man ever wastes his strength who gives it to God. "In all labour there is profit." The
young scribe is nearer being a good writer for the last attempt he made, though his
friends smile at the rude caligraphy; the musician is nearer being master of his
vocation through the last song he sung as the result of industry, though he was
wrong in every note. "In all labour there is profit,"—not always palpable, and
estimable in figures; but there is some increase in the quality of the mind, some

11. cunning added to the craft and skill of the fingers. So Micah should not have
complained with so utter a depression. He has added something to the store of the
world"s best riches. Every life well lived makes its addition to the sum-total. The
world would not have been so rich had you, poorest mother of the race, never lived.
You exclaim, What have I done? You cannot tell what you have done; it is no
business of yours to make up the account. There is a registrar; running night and
day through the ages, there is a recording pen: you will have the issue in the future.
We are so impatient that we want to see results now. When did you sow the seed?
Yesterday. When did you look for the harvest? This morning. This is impatience;
this is ignorance; this is want of that restfulness which comes of deep practical
learning in the school of experience.
Let us hear Micah , and, listening, we shall discover a tone that has come down to
the present moment,—
"The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men:
they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net" ( Micah
7:2).
When we ourselves are down it is hard to believe that anybody else is up; when our
prayer is choked in our throat it is easy to believe that God hears no prayer at all,
nor cares for petitioning and supplicating man. We interpret all things by ourselves.
There is a curious self-projection of the soul upon the disc of history, and we read
according to the shadow which we throw upon that disc. This is what we call
pessimism. We are always inventing strange words, and imagining that thereby we
are making some kind of progress. Man has a fatal gift of giving names to things,
and once give a name, and it will be almost impossible to obliterate it. We call this
pessimism,—that Isaiah , seeing all the wickedness and none of the goodness; seeing
all the darkness and none of the light; seeing the utter desolation of all things, and
not seeing in all the wilderness one green blade, one tiny flower, or hearing in the
grim silence one trill of lark or soft note of thrush or nightingale. There are persons
gifted with the genius of darkness. It may do us good to visit them occasionally; but
on the whole it is better to live in the sunshine, and to hear the music, and to come
under the influence of intelligent vivacity and cheerfulness. If people will shut
themselves up in their own little houses—for the biggest house is little, the palace is
a mere hut—and never keep any company but their own, they will go down. It is so
ecclesiastically. There are persons who never see the universe except through their
own church window, and as no window is as big as the horizon, there steals
insidiously upon the mind a disposition to deny the existence of the horizon itself. It
is so with reading. There are those who read only a certain set of books. They go
down; there is no mental range, no scope, no variety, no mystery of colour, no
hopefulness, no imagination. The very earth needs to have its crops changed. If you
will go on growing the same crops you will cease to have any crop to grow that is
worth gathering. There Isaiah , on the other hand, what is termed optimism. That is
the exact contrary of pessimism. Optimism sees the best of everything. There is a
danger along that line also; the danger is that we may not be stern enough, real
enough, penetrating enough, going into the heart and inmost fibre of things to find

12. out reality and truth, how bad or good soever the case may be. A most mischievous
talent is this of giving names. You cannot now introduce an idea but some pedant
will say, That is Buddhism. Well, suppose it is Buddhism, where is the crime? If you
introduce another proposition there will be those who will tell you that it is a Greek
thought Well, suppose it is a Greek thought, may it not have modern applications,
new meanings, fresh aspects? May it not be utilised in the civilisation of to-day?
Propound some doctrine that is apparently novel, and there will be those who will
fasten upon it a term—as if the term were an argument. Do not be afraid of such
men. Polysyllables never broke any bones. Have you the truth? Then utter it. Do
you believe you have it? Make it known, submit it for discussion; and be sure that if
you see no blue sky above you, your eye is wrong, not the sky. The good man is not
perished out of the earth. This is reaction. Elijah thought the same thing, and the
Lord told him there were seven thousand men in the world better than ever he was
perhaps; at all events they were faithful, loyal, constant hearts. But do not believe
that the prophet is literally signifying the absolute non-existence of good men. You
must read the Bible imaginatively as well as grammatically; and you must hear all
your friends through the medium of your imagination as well as through the
medium of the dictionary and the grammar, or your friendship will soon come to
nothing. There are those who can be measured by dictionary and grammar, because
they never say anything with any colour in it, any vitality, any possibility of
expansion; by all means give them the largest lexicographical hospitality you can,
and let them be interpreted through the medium of the alphabet. But there are other
men who, when they say, "The good man is perished out of the earth," do not mean
it in the literal definite sense which the literalist would attach to the term. They
simply feel that a process of decay has set in, that things are not so far on as they
ought to be, and that the old mystery and glow of prayer are not so predominant
and visible as in the former days. Thus read the prophets, and you will find that in
them there is that central average truth which looks all ways, and takes in all
passing time, and all days and ages to come.
Then we err so much in having a false standard of the good Prayer of Manasseh ,
and the progress of society, and the results of earnest work. Thus the Lord sends
upon us the punishment of perplexity, because he is growing plants we do not know
the names or the uses of, and he is continually rebuking our faithlessness by new
miracles of production. The Lord will not let us hold the reins. Sometimes he
permits us to sit on the front seat as if we were actually taking part in the
administration of the chariot. There is but one Lord, one Captain, one Sovereign,
one Ruler,—great, gracious, wise, tender, sympathetic, pitiful, and redeeming; and
thou, poor Prayer of Manasseh , seated on the box-seat, and imagining thyself of
consequence to the chariot, take care that thou do not fall oft", and be crushed
under the wheels thou didst falsely imagine to be under thine own direction. We are
sailing in God"s ship, we are being driven in God"s chariot, we are part and parcel
of a great system of economics we cannot understand, and wise is he up to the point
of rest who says, Let the Lord have his own way: the darkness and the light are both
alike to him; he made every road he drives upon; he made every sea he sails over, he
first created the tempest, and he holds the whirlwinds in his fist. Fretful,
meddlesome, selfish, vain, eccentric man would like to sit upon the throne, if only

13. for one moment, but in that one moment God knows he would wreck eternity.
Micah says, that in his day they were doing evil "with both hands earnestly." A
better word is "well," and a better word is perhaps "skilful"; but we see the
paradox more clearly by putting in the word "well," then we read, "That they may
do evil with both hands well." There is no contradiction of terms. There are men
who make a study of doing things that are wrong, skilfully, cunningly, well. There
are thieves who are discovered, and there are thieves who are not discovered,
because they thieve so well, so skilfully; they shake hands with the man they have
robbed, and say Good-night to the soul they have plundered. Men may become
experts in the devil"s academy. The cleverness does not excuse the iniquity; the
ability does not restore the character. If that ability had been devoted otherwise,
what fortunes lay within its grasp, what influence belonged of right to its mastery!
But men love to work in the dark, they seem to be more at home there than in the
sunlight; they have a gift of sight which enables them to see all their spectral
comrades in the black darkness of night. How was it in the time of Micah? Once
more he falls back on the prince and the judge and the great man. ot a word does
he say about the poor, the oppressed, and the despised; he says, The wickedness of
my age I trace to the prince and the judge and the great men—to the men who have
been to school and to college and university; certificated men, gold-medalists—men
who have had every advantage that society and civilisation can give them. We are so
busy in looking after the small fry. Here we have seized upon a little boy who has
stolen a pocket-handkerchief, and we say, We have got him now! And the man who
took him up—what may we say of him? And the judge who sentenced him, the grey-
haired Judges , the judge with the ploughed cheeks, the wrinkled forehead, the
judge with solemn voice, the voice of doom? Open your hand, judge! What is there
in it?
Micah said they did things so well in his day, so cleverly, that "they wrap it up."
They made an intricacy of it. The man who was not in the ring did not understand
what was going on; they had a system that they called a quid pro quo—(men do
many things under dog Latin they would not do in plain English)—they understood
one another. othing was said; the reporter looked up for the purpose of catching
the incriminating sentence, and the men said nothing; the prince nodded to the
Judges , and the judge made a sign to the great Prayer of Manasseh , and so they
wrap it up. But there it Isaiah , and it will be opened out, and it will be read, and
every signature will be attested, and every writer will be called for to say whether he
wrote it, how much he wrote, why he wrote it: they shall all stand before the
judgment-seat of Christ. This is a terror; but on the other hand this is a joy, for
righteousness then shall shine forth as the morning and judgment as the noonday,
and misrepresented and misunderstood men will have all the advantage of morning
light.
Micah continues his threnody,—
"The best of them is as a briar: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge" (
Micah 7:4).

14. This is pessimism in all the completeness of its depression. The best is bad; the most
upright, the picked men of society, are all thorns. Take care how you try to get
through a thorn hedge; the scratches may identify you, the wounds may be witnesses
against you in the day of visitation. This is what society comes to without God. Lose
the religious element, and society falls to pieces. Society thinks not; for a time society
thinks it can keep itself very well together, but experience shows that when the
morale of society goes down, its money securities are waste paper. The reputation of
a country is in its morality, and morality properly interpreted is the active or
practical side of true spiritual religion. Morality may be derived from a word which
signifies mere manner, attitude, posture, and the like; but not from this
contemptible mos is morality truly derived, but from the very Spirit of God, and the
very genius of the Cross. o morality can be trusted in the dark that is not
metaphysical, spiritual, divine.
The Lord would send upon the people who acted criminally what is called
"perplexity." The word "perplexity" has a singular meaning. Herod was
"perplexed." He saw things in crosslights; all the roads came together, and he could
not tell which one to take; it was not a question of two roads, but a question of five
roads, bisecting and intersecting, and leaving the mind in a state of whirl and
puzzle. That is perplexity. The Lord will send upon people who disbelieve him and
disobey him the spirit of perplexity; they shall not know one another. Perplexity
shall enter into the very use of words; terms shall lose their natural application.
Man shall say to Prayer of Manasseh , What sayest thou? And man shall reply to
Prayer of Manasseh , Fool, hearest thou not what I say in thy mother tongue? And
thus the fray shall increase until it become fury and craziness and disintegration of
social bond and trust. The Lord hath many ways of judgment; in heaven there are
many bolts of fire; we cannot tell when one will fall, or how it will come. In such an
hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh: what I say unto one I say unto all,
Watch. The Lord goeth forth at all hours—at midnight, at the crowing of the cock,
at the early dawn, in the midday sun, and in the evening twilight; none can tell when
he will open the door and step forth in majesty and rigour, and in the spirit of
judgment. Thus we are trained, thus we are kept on the alert; we have no notice;
our breath is in our nostrils, and we may die now: there is but a step between thee
and death. The broadest, most herculean man always walks by the side of his own
tomb—a false step, and he is in. Be sober, be vigilant; walk as children of the light.
What is to guarantee society against this apostasy and this infamous declension in
all high and sacred energies? There is only one guarantee, and that is the indwelling
and perfect sovereignty of God the Holy Ghost. Do not try to evade the term, or to
make a mystery of it; there is mystery enough in it, but there is more in it than
mystery—a simple, solemn, profound fact. We cannot keep ourselves; our lamps are
only of a certain little size, and our oft is but a spoonful, and there is no
independence in man; we live and move, and have our being in God. o man can go
to the fountain once for all and take out water enough to keep his life going
evermore. He may take his vessel full of water, and may quench his thirst for the
moment, but he must keep the way to the fountain always open; never shut up the

15. road: you are full and you abound for the present, but the time of necessity and of
pain will inevitably recur. Here is the glory of Christianity: it provides for all time
and for all need; it is the salt of the earth, it is the light of the world, it is the
disinfector of all pestilential atmosphere. Do not make an argument of it, but submit
it to practical test. Why should you make an argument of the ship when you want to
go across the ocean, and the ship is ready to receive you into its hospitality? If you
make an argument of it you will never risk the deep, and cross the ocean and touch
the farther shore. There are questions which Christianity invites you to ask; there
are inquiries which it is eager to consider and discuss with you, and so long as you
keep within the lines of intelligence and reason and fair inquiry, you are entitled to
push your interrogations; but when you begin to wriggle, and confuse yourselves,
and use words that have more meanings in them than you have ever grasped, you
are allowing the time to escape, and presently the ship will weigh anchor and be off,
and you will be left behind. If society with a Christian element in it has come down
to a state that may be described as unrighteous and unworthy, it is not because of
the Christianity that was in it, but because the Christianity was misunderstood, or
ignored, or misapplied. Do not blame Christianity because Christian countries are
among the worst in the world. They are only amongst the worst because they are
amongst the best That is not paradoxical; it is practical, simple, and literal. This
colour that you hold in your hand may appear to be very white, but if you take in
the other hand a real white, as pure as it can be obtained under our conditions, and
bring the two together, you will then see that what you thought was white falls far
short of the standard. And so there are many countries that are thought to be very
good, very excellent—really countries that might be lived in; but try them by
comparison with Christian countries, even Christian countries of an inferior grade,
and there will come a time when you will say, After all there is something in
Christianity that is not to be found out of it; there is a standard of morality peculiar
to itself; in it there is a unique righteousness. There may be a world of hypocrisy,
but the hypocrisy would have been impossible but for the very glory of the thing
that is simulated. Go forth into society, and take its best aspect. Do not believe
yourselves when you are all moaning and complaining and reproaching. You are not
yourselves; for the moment you are beside yourselves, and know not the real reason
and progress of things. The progress of society is guaranteed by the existence of
God. It is not guaranteed by the existence of your pulpit and your institutions and
your literature and your fretful impetuosity: the progress of society is guaranteed by
the Spirit of God, and heaven is guaranteed not because of your worth, but because
of God"s purpose. God cannot be turned aside, his word cannot fail; the word of the
Lord abideth for ever, and though it be oftentimes night and storm and cloud and
strenuous battle, yet through it all there goes the soul of eternity, the spirit of the
Cross, the purpose of God, and in the wilderness we shall find garden, and in stony
places we shall find habitations of comfort. This is not the voice of human poetry.
The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
ote
"In the last section (6 , 7) Jehovah, by a bold poetical figure, is represented as
holding a controversy with his people, pleading with them in justification of his

16. conduct towards them and the reasonableness of his requirements. The dialogue
form in which chap6 is cast renders the picture very dramatic and striking. In
Micah 6:3-5 Jehovah speaks; the inquiry of the people follows in Micah 6:6,
indicating their entire ignorance of what was required of them; their inquiry is met
by the almost impatient rejoinder, "Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of
rams, with myriads of torrents of oil?" The still greater sacrifice suggested by the
people, "Shall I give my firstborn for my transgressions?" calls forth the definition
of their true duty, "to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with their
God." How far they had fallen short of this requirement is shown in what follows
(9-12), and judgment is pronounced upon them (13-16). The prophet acknowledges
and bewails the justice of the sentence ( Micah 7:1-6); the people in repentance
patiently look to God, confident that their prayer will be heard (7-10), and are
reassured by the promise of deliverance announced as following their punishment
(11-13) by the prophet, who in his turn presents his petition to Jehovah for the
restoration of his people (14 , 15). The whole concludes with a triumphal song of joy
at the great deliverance, like that from Egypt, which Jehovah will achieve, and a full
acknowledgment of his mercy and faithfulness to his promises (16-20). The last
verse is reproduced in the song of Zacharias ( Luke 1:72-73)."—Smith"s Dictionary
of the Bible.
PETT, "Verses 1-6
Micah (Or The Righteous Of Israel) Bewails The Condition Of The People (Micah
7:1-6).
Micah (or the righteous of Israel whom he represents) now describe(s) the dreadful
moral condition of his own people. From rich and powerful to the lowest level of
society all are untrustworthy and undependable. Even close members of families
cannot trust each other.
This passage bore heavily on the heart of Jesus when He considered the conditions
of the people of His own day, and what was to come. The idea behind Micah 7:1
may well be the motivation which led to Jesus’ dealings with the fig tree in Mark
11:11-25; compare Matthew 21:18-22, while Micah 7:6 was cited by Him in
Matthew 10:21; Matthew 10:35-36.
Micah 7:1
‘Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits,
As the grape gleanings of the vintage,
There is no cluster to eat,
My soul desires the first–ripe fig.
Micah is on the search for righteous people. He likens himself to a man going out
into the orchards after the summer fruits have been gathered in, when according to

17. the Law there should have been some left-overs, the gleanings, for the poor. But
there were none. The rich had stripped every branch bare for greatest profit. Thus
all that was left to him was to long for the firstripe fig which would begin the next
season (which men could pluck if they were hungry). That was either an early green
fig from a particular type of fig tree which could be gathered before the usual fig
crop, or simply ‘the firstripe fig before the summer, which when he who looks on it
sees, he eats it up while it is in his hand’ mentioned in Isaiah 28:4. There are two
points to the illustration. Firstly that Micah went looking for fruit and found none,
and could only wait in hope for the first ripe fig of the following season, (a
disastrous situation for the poor who depended on the gleanings) an illustration of
the barrenness of the nation. And secondly that the growers were failing to observe
God’s commandments. Thus accentuating the barrenness. Jesus did not even find
the first ripe figs, so bad were the spiritual and moral conditions in Jerusalem in His
day.
PULPIT, "Woe is me! (Job 10:15). Micah threatens no more; he represents
repentant Israel confessing its corruption and lamenting the necessity of
punishment. I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits; literally, I am as
the gatherings of the fruit harvest. The point of comparison is only to be inferred
from the context. At the fruit. harvest no early figs are to be found, and (in the next
clause) after the vintage no more grapes; so in Israel there is none righteous left.
The Septuagint gives a plainer exposition, ἐγενήθην ὡς συνάγων καλάµην ἐν ἀµητῷ,
"I became as one that gathereth straw in harvest;" so the Vulgate, Factus sum sicut
qui collegit in autumno racemos vindimiae, joining the two clauses together. My soul
desired the first ripe fruit; better, nor early fig which my soul desired. The holiness
and grace of more primitive times are wholly absent from this later period (see
Hosea 9:10, where a similar figure is used; compare also Christ's dealing with the
barren fig tree, Matthew 21:18, etc.). The first ripe figs were proverbially sweet and
good (see Isaiah 28:4; Jeremiah 24:2; and Hosea, loc cit.).
BI, "There is no cluster to eat
The unrevived church
The picture before the eye of the prophet is that of famine in the midst of plenty, want in
time of harvest, sterility amid summer fruits, soul fasting and wretchedness in a season
of external prosperity and fulness. The time of ingathering is at hand. And yet Israel
knew not the day of Divine visitation; she had no appreciation of the golden fruit, no
heart or no capacity to pluck and eat the ripe clusters. This is a truthful representation of
the experience of very many Christians and churches. There is no heartfelt appreciation
of God’s outward mercies, or of His gracious, spiritual manifestations.” He comes to
them in the “summer fruits,” and in the autumn “vintage”; but so dull are their spiritual
perceptions, so vitiated are their tastes, so surfeited are they with the “apples of Sodom”
and the wild grapes of sinful indulgence, that they know it not, and feel no hungering
after righteousness; “there is no cluster” in all God’s vintage which they can eat. So have
we seen souls in times of glorious revival, when sinners were pressing into the kingdom,
and many souls were refreshed and full of rejoicing, unrevived, unblest, crying, “Woe is
me!” “There is no cluster to eat.” So have we seen whole churches and communities left
to darkness and desolation and death, while the mighty God had bared His arm for

18. salvation, and was deluging the land with a wave of regenerating and sanctifying power.
(Homiletic Monthly.)
My soul desired the first ripe fruit—
The joy of the harvest inaugural
The nation of Israel had fallen into so sad and backsliding a condition that it was not like
a vine covered with fruit, but like a vineyard after the whole vintage has been gathered,
so that there was not to be found a single cluster. The prophet, speaking in the name of
Israel, desired the first fruit., but there was none to be had. The lesson of the text, as it
stands, would be that good men are the best fruit of a nation; they make it worth while
that the nation should exist; they are the salt which preserves it; they are the fruit which
adorns it, and blesses it. But I take the text out of its connection, and use it as the
heading of a discourse upon “ripeness in grace.” We can all say, “My soul desired the
first ripe fruit.” We would go on to maturity, and bring forth fruit unto perfection, to the
honour and praise of Jesus Christ.
I. The marks of ripeness in grace.
1. Beauty. There is no more lovely object in all nature than the apple blossom. Much
loveliness adorns youthful piety. Can anything be more delightful than our first
graces? Autumn has a more sober aspect, but still it rivals the glory of spring. Ripe
fruit has its own peculiar beauty. What a delicacy of bloom there is upon the grape,
the peach, the plum, when they have attained perfection! Nature far excels art. The
perfumed bloom yields in value to the golden apple, even as promise is surpassed by
fulfilment. The blossom is painted by the pencil of hope, but the fruit is dyed in the
hue of enjoyment. There is in ripe Christians the beauty of realised sanctification
which the Word of God knows by the name of the “beauty of holiness.” This
consecration to God, this setting apart for His service, this avoidance of evil, this
careful walking in integrity, this dwelling near God, this being made like unto
Christ,—in a word, this beauty of holiness, is one of the surest emblems of maturity
in grace.
2. Tenderness. The young green fruit is hard and stone-like; but the ripe fruit is soft,
yields to pressure, can almost be moulded, retains the mark of the finger. The mature
Christian is noted for tenderness of spirit. I think I would give up many of the graces
if I might possess very much tenderness of spirit. An extreme delicacy concerning sin
should be cultivated by us all.
3. Sweetness. The unripe fruit is sour, and perhaps it ought to be, or else we should
eat all the fruits while they were yet green. As we grow in grace we are sure to grow in
charity, sympathy, and love. We shall have greater sweetness towards our fellow
Christians.
4. A loose hold of the earth. Ripe fruit soon parts from the bough. You shake the tree
and the ripest apples fall. You should measure your state of heart by your
adhesiveness, or your resignation, in reference to the things of this world. The
master will not let his ripe fruit hang long on the tree.
II. The causes of this ripeness. So gracious a result must have a gracious cause.
1. The inward working of the sap. The fruit could never be ripe in its raw state were it
taken away from the bough. Outward agencies alone may produce rottenness, but

19. not ripeness; sun, shower, what not, all would fail,—it is the vital sap within the tree
that perfects the fruit. It is especially so in grace. Everything between hell and heaven
which denotes salvation is the work of the Spirit of God, and the work of the grace of
Jesus. That blessed Spirit, flowing to us from Christ, as He is the former of the first
blossom, so He is the producer of the fruit, and He is the ripener of it until it is
gathered into the heavenly garner.
2. The teaching of experience. Some fruit, like the sycamore fig, never will ripen
except it be bruised. Many of us seem as if we never would be sweet till first we have
been dipped in bitterness; never would be perfected till we have been smitten. We
may trace many of our sharp trials, our bereavements, and our bodily pains, to the
fact that we are such sour fruit; nothing will ripen us but heavy blows. Ripeness in
grace is not the necessary result of age. Little children have been ripe for glory. Many
an aged Christian is not an experienced Christian. Time may be wasted as well as
improved; we may be petrified rather than perfected by the flow of years.
III. The desirability of ripeness in grace. Many Christians appear to think that if they are
just believers it is enough. To be just alive as a Christian is horrid work. The fruit which
under proper circumstances does not ripen is not a good fruit,; it must be an
unwholesome production. Your soul can surely not be as it should be if it does not ripen
under the influence of God’s love and the work of His grace. It is the ripe fruit that
proves the excellence of the tree. The Church wants mature Christians very greatly, and
especially when there are many fresh converts added to it. The Church wants, in these
days of flimsiness and time-serving, more decided, thorough going, well-instructed and
confirmed believers. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
2 The faithful have been swept from the land;
not one upright person remains.
Everyone lies in wait to shed blood;
they hunt each other with nets.
BAR ES. "The, good - or godly, or merciful, the English margin
Man - The Hebrew word contains all. It is “he who loveth tenderly and piously” God,
for His own sake, and man, for the sake of God. Mercy was probably chiefly intended,
since it wits to this that the prophet had exhorted, and the sins which he proceeds to
speak of, are against this. But imaginary love of God without love of man, or love of man
without the love of God, is mere self-deceit. “Is perished out of the earth,” that is, by an

20. untimely death. The good had either been withdrawn by God from the evil to come Isa_
57:1, or had Leon cut off by those who laid wait for blood; in which case their death
brought a double evil, through the guilt which such sin contracted, and then, through
the loss of those who might be an example to others, and whose prayers God would hear.
The loving and upright, all, who were men of mercy and truth, had ceased. They who
were left, “all lie in wait for blood,” literally, bloods , that is, bloodshedding; all, as far as
man can see; as Elijah complains that he was left alone.
Amid the vast number of the wicked, the righteous were as though they were not.
Isaiah, at the same time, complains of the like sins, and that it was as though there were
none righteous; “Your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your
lips hate spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice,
nor any pleadeth for truth” Isa_59:2-3. Indirectly, or directly, they destroyed life . To
violence they add treachery. The good and loving had perished, and all is now violence;
the upright had ceased, and all now is deceit. “They hunt every man his brother with a
net.” Every man is the brother of every man, because he is man, born of the same first
parent, children of the same Father: yet they lay wait for one another, as hunters for wild
beasts (Compare Psa_35:7; Psa_57:7; Psa_140:6; Jer_5:26).
CLARKE, "The good man is perished out of the earth - A similar sentiment
may be found, Psa_12:1; Isa_57:1. As the early fig of excellent flavor cannot be found in
the advanced season of summer, or a choice cluster of grapes after vintage, so neither
can the good and upright man be discovered by searching in Israel. This comparison,
says Bp. Newcome, is beautifully implied.
They hunt every man his brother with a net - This appears to be an allusion to
the ancient mode of duel between the retiarius and secutor. The former had a casting
net, which he endeavoured to throw over the head of his antagonist, that he might then
despatch him with his short sword. The other parried the cast; and when the retiarius
missed, he was obliged to run about the field to get time to set his net in right order for
another throw. While he ran, the other followed, that he might despatch him before he
should be able to recover the proper position of his net; and hence the latter was called
secutor, the pursuer, as the other was called retiarius, or the net man. I have explained
this before on Job, and other places; but because it is rarely noticed by commentators, I
explain the allusion here once more. Abp. Newcome by not attending to this, has
translated ‫חרם‬ ‫יצודו‬ ‫אחיהו‬ ‫את‬ ‫איש‬ ish eth achihu yatsudu cherem, “They hunt every man his
brother for his destruction;” though he put net in the margin.
GILL, "The good man is perished out of the earth,.... Here the prophet expresses
in plain words what he had before delivered in figurative terms. The "good" or "godly"
man, as in Psa_12:1; is one that has received the grace of God, and blessings of grace
from him, and lives a godly life and conversation; who has the good work of grace begun
in him and is found in the performance of good works, and does his duty both to God
and man from godly principles; and particularly is kind and merciful to the poor and
needy, and those in distress. The complaint is, that there were few, or scarce any, of this
character in the earth, in the land of Israel, where there used to be great numbers of
them, but now they were all dead and gone; for this is to be understood, not of the
perishing of their graces or comforts, much less of their perishing in their sins, or
perishing eternally, but of their corporeal death:

21. and there is none upright among men; that are upright in heart and life; that have
right spirits renewed in them, are Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile; and walk
uprightly, according to the rule of the divine word, truly honest, faithful men; very few
such were to be found, scarce any; see Psa_12:1;
they all lie in wait for blood; for the substance, wealth, and riches of men, which is
as their blood and life; is their livelihood, that on which they live; this they wait for an
opportunity to get from them, and, when it offers, greedily seize it; and stick not even to
shed blood, and take away life, for the sake of gain:
they hunt every man his brother with a net; as men lay nets for fish, and fowl, and
beasts, and hunt them till they have got them into them; so these men laid snares, not
for strangers only, but for their own brethren, to entangle them in, and cheat and
defraud them of their substance; and this they would do, even to the destruction of
them, as some (s) render it; for the word also signifies "anathema", destruction, as well
as a "net". So the Targum.
"betray or deliver his brother to destruction.''
JAMISO , "The Hebrew expresses “one merciful and good in relation to man,”
rather than to God.
is perished out of the earth — (Psa_12:1).
K&D 2-3, "“The godly man has disappeared from the earth, and there is no more a
righteous man among men. All lie in wait for blood, they hunt every man his brother
with the net. Mic_7:3. Their hands are after evil, to make it good. The prince asks, and
the judge is for reward; and the great man, he speaks the evil of his soul: and they twist
it together.” The grape and the early fig signify the good and the righteous man. ‫יד‬ ִ‫ס‬ ָ‫ח‬ is
not the God-fearing man, but, according to the context, the man who cherishes love and
fidelity. ‫ד‬ ַ‫ב‬ፎ, not “to have perished,” but to be lost, to have disappeared. ‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ፎ ָ‫ה‬ ‫ן‬ ִ‫,מ‬ not “out
of the land,” but, as the parallel ‫ם‬ ָ‫ד‬ፎ ָ shows, from the earth, out of the world. For the fact
itself, compare Psa_12:2 and Isa_57:1. They all lie in wait for blood, i.e., not that they all
go about committing murder, but simply that they set their minds upon quarrels,
cheating, and treachery, that they may rob their neighbour of his means of existence, so
that he must perish (cf. Mic_3:2-3; Mic_2:1-2); at the same time, even murderous
thoughts are not excluded. The same thing is implied in the hunting with the net. ‫ח‬ፎ, the
brother, is the fellow-countryman (for this figure, compare Psa_10:9; Psa_35:7-8, etc.).
In Mic_7:3 the words from ‫ע‬ ַ‫ר‬ ָ‫ה‬ ‫ל‬ ַ‫ע‬ to ‫יב‬ ִ‫יט‬ ֵ‫ה‬ ְ‫ל‬ are not to be joined to what follows so as to
form one sentence. Such a combination is not only opposed to the accents, but is at
variance with the structure of the whole verse, which consists of several short clauses,
and it does not even yield a natural thought; consequently Ewald proposes to alter the
text (‫ל‬ ֵ‫א‬ְ‫.)שׁו‬ ‫ע‬ ַ‫ר‬ ָ‫ה‬ is hardly the inf. hiph. “to do evil,” but most likely a noun with the article,
“the evil;” and the thought is therefore either “both hands are (sc., busy) with evil,” or
“both hands are stretched out to evil,” to make it good, i.e., to carry out the evil well

22. (‫יב‬ ִ‫יט‬ ֵ‫ה‬ as in Jer_2:33), or to give evil such a form that it shall appear to be good, or right.
This thought is then made special: the prince, the judge, and the great man, i.e., the rich
man and mighty man (Lev_19:15; 1Sa_25:2), weave a thing to make evil good. ‫ת‬ ֵ ִ‫,ע‬ to
weave, to twist together, after ‫בוֹת‬ ֲ‫,ע‬ twist or string. The subject to ָ‫תוּה‬ ְ ַ‫ע‬ְ‫י‬ַ‫ו‬ is to be found in
the three classes already named, and not merely in the judge and the great man. There is
just as little reason for this limitation as for the assumption that the great man and the
prince are one person. The way in which the three twist the thing or the evil plan
together is indicated in the statements of the three previous clauses. The prince asks, sc.
for the condemnation of a righteous or innocent man; and the judge grants this for
recompense against compensation; and the rich man co-operates by speaking havvath
napshō. Havvâh in most passages is universally allowed to signify hurt, mischief,
destruction; and the only question is, whether this meaning is to be traced to ‫הוה‬ = ‫,אוה‬ to
breathe (Hupfeld on Psa_5:10), or to ‫,הוה‬ to occur, an occurrence, then specially an evil
occurrence (Hengstenberg, Diss. on the Pentateuch, vol. i. p. 252). Only in Pro_10:3 and
the passage before us is havvâh said to signify desire in a bad sense, or evil lust. But, as
Caspari has shown, the meaning is neither necessary nor established in either of these
two passages. In Pro_10:3 the meaning aerumna activa aliisque inferenda is quite
sufficient; and C. B. Michaelis has adopted it for the present passage: “The great man
speaks the mischief of his soul,” i.e., the injury or destruction of another, for which he
cherishes a desire. Nephesh, the soul as the seat of desire. ‫הוּא‬ is not introduced to
strengthen the suffix attached to ‫שׁוֹ‬ ְ‫פ‬ַ‫,נ‬ “of his, yea of his soul” (Ewald, Hitzig, Umbreit);
for not only are the accents against this, but also the thought, which requires no such
strengthening. It is an emphatic repetition of the subject haggâdōl. The great man weaves
evil with the king and judge, by desiring it, and expressing the desire in the most open
manner, and thereby giving to the thing an appearance of right.
CALVI , "In the second verse he expresses more clearly his mind, Perished, he
says, has the righteous (182) from the land, and there is none upright (183) among
men. Here now he does not personify the land. It was indeed a forcible and an
emphatic language, when he complained at the beginning, that he groaned as
though the land was ashamed of its dearth: but the Prophet now performs the office
of a teacher, Perished, he says, has the righteous from the land; there is no one
upright among men; all lay in wait for blood; every one hunts his brother as with a
net In this verse the Prophet briefly shows, that all were full both of cruelty and
perfidy, that there was no care for justice; as though he said, In vain are good men
sought among this people; for they are all bloody, they are all fraudulent. When he
says, that they all did lay in wait for blood, he no doubt intended to set forth their
cruelty, as though he had said, that they were thirsting for blood. But when he adds,
that each did lay in wait for their brethren, he alludes to their frauds or to their
perfidy.
We now then perceive the meaning of the Prophet: and the manner he adopts is

23. more emphatical than if God, in his own name, had pronounced the words: for, as
men were fixed, and as though drowned, in their own carelessness, the Prophet
introduces here the land as speaking, which accuses its own children, and confesses
its own guilt; yea, it anticipates God’s judgment, and acknowledges itself to be
contaminated by its own inhabitants, so that nothing pure remained in it.
COFFMA , ""The godly man is perished out of the earth, and there is none
upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother
with a net."
The description of deplorable conditions continues. "Brutal egotism everywhere
prevails; justice is perverted; bribery is rampant; the best are like briars, rough and
ugly to deal with."[6] This verse explains the metaphor of Micah 7:1. "The grape
and the early fig represent the righteous man."[7] The prophet was "like Diogenes
who went about Athens with a lantern, trying to find an honest man."[8]
CO STABLE, "The prophet, using hyperbole, said he could find no faithful godly
(Heb. hasid, from hesed; cf. Hosea 4:1-2) or morally and ethically upright people
(evidently rulers, cf. Micah 7:3) in the land. Obviously there were some righteous,
including Isaiah , but by overstating his case he made his point: there were very few.
All of them seemed to wait for the opportunity to advance their own interests, even
resorting to violence and bloodshed to do so (cf. Micah 3:10; Micah 6:12). They
behaved like hunters waiting to snare unsuspecting birds in their nets.
TRAPP, "Micah 7:2 The good [man] is perished out of the earth: and [there is] none
upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother
with a net.
Ver. 2. The good man is perished out of the earth] Heb. The saint, or, gracious man,
that out of mercy obtained from God, can extend mercy to men. Rari quippe boni.
Of such it may be said, as one doth of faithful friends in this age, that they are all
(for the most part) gone on pilgrimage; and their return is uncertain.
And there is none upright among men] one (to speak of) that maketh straight
paths for his feet, Hebrews 12:13, that foots it aright ( ορθοπαδει), according to the
truth of the gospel, Galatians 2:14, that walketh evenly, Genesis 17:1, and accurately
( ακριβως), as it were by line and by rule, Ephesians 5:15, and that halts not
between two opinions, as those Israelites; but is right in his judgment, and undefiled
in his way, Psalms 119:1, rather desiring to be good than to seem to be so: few such
to be found surely; black swans you may count and call them.
“ Sed nec Brutus erit, Bruti nec avunculus usquam ”( Juven.).
They all lie in wait for blood] A company of sanguinaries, blood suckers, hunting
for the precious lives of men; but especially of such as reprove them in the gate. If

24. you touch them in their lusts, they will seek to touch you in your life, as Joash did
Zechariah, and as the priests and people said of Jeremiah, This man worthy to die.
All malice is bloody, and wisheth him out of the world whom it spiteth.
They hunt every man his brother with a net] They add fraud to their force and craft
to their cruelty; these seldom go sundered: as some write of the asp, he never
wanders alone without his companion with him; and as the Scripture speaks of
those birds of prey and desolation, none of them shall want their mate, Isaiah 34:16.
The matter is made the worse, because it is a brother whom they hunt: whether he
be so by race, place, or grace, a brother should be better dealt with.
PETT, "Micah 7:2
The godly man is perished out of the earth,
And there is none upright among men,
They all lie in wait for blood,
They hunt every man his brother with a net.
In the same way as there was no fruit on the fruit trees, so were there no godly
people in the land. As Micah looked around he bewailed the fact that ‘the godly man
is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men.’ That was how it
seemed to him. Christians in places where there is little fellowship often feel that
way. But things are never quite as bad as they seem, as is evidenced by the fact that
righteousness wins in the end, because of the activity of God.
Indeed rather than being upright men are steeped in sin. Like a hunter out to get his
victim every man is out to entrap his brother. Violence abounds, and there is
internecine rivalry. Brotherly love is totally lacking.
PULPIT, "Micah 7:2
This verse explains the preceding comparison; the grape and the early fig represent
the righteous man. The good man; LXX; εὐσεβής, the godly, pious man. The
Hebrew word (khasidh) implies one who exercises love to others, who is merciful,
loving, and righteous. Is perished out of the earth; has disappeared from the world
(comp. Psalms 14:2, Psalms 14:3; and especially Isaiah 57:1). They all lie in wait for
blood. They all practise violence and rapine, and meditate how they may pursue
their evil designs, even to the shedding of blood. LXX; πάντες εἰς αἶµατα δικάζονται,
which narrows the charge to one special kind of iniquity, vie. committing judicial
murders. They hunt every man his brother with a net. They ought to love their
brethren, their fellow countrymen, partakers of the same hope and privileges (Le
19:18). Instead of this, they pursue them as the fowler traps birds, or the hunter
beasts. The word rendered "net" (cherem) is in most versions translated

25. "destruction." Thus, Septuagint, ἐκθλίβουσιν ἐκθλιβῇ: Vulgate, ad mortem
venatur; so the Syriac and Chaldee. In the present connection it is best taken as
"net" (Habakkuk 1:15).
BI 2-6, "The good man is perished out of the earth
The wail of a true patriot over the moral corruption of his country
He bemoans—
I.
The departure of excellence from his country. “The good man is perished out of the
earth.” Probably they had emigrated to distant lands, perhaps they had gone into
eternity. Goodmen are the “lights of the world.” Their influence penetrates the mass as
salt, counteracts its tendency to corruption, removes its moral insipidity, gives it a new
spirit—a spirit pungent and savoury.
II. The rampancy of avarice in this country.
1. The working amongst the general community. To get wealth for themselves was
with them such a furious passion that the rights and lives of others were disregarded.
2. Its working amongst the higher classes. “That they may do evil with broth hands
earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he
uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.” The idea seems to be this: that
the “great man,” the “prince,” for some corrupt motive, seeks the condemnation of
some innocent person; and the “judge,” for a bribe, gratifies his wish. A judge from
avarice will pronounce an innocent man guilty. All this is done very industriously,
“with two hands.” Possible, lest some event should start up to thwart them; and
when it is done “they wrap it up.” “So they wrap it up.” Avarice, like all sinful
passions, seeks to wrap up its crimes.
III. The mischievousness of the best in his country. “The best of them is as a briar; the
most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge.” There is a gradation of wickedness of the
men in the country, but the best of them is like a prickly thorn, and worse than a thorn
hedge. The prophet is so struck with this, that the thought of retribution takes hold of
him, and he says, “The day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh: now shall be
their visitation.” Another thing which the patriot here bemoans is—
IV. The lack of truthfulness in the country. “Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not
confidence in a guide,” etc. “Place no faith in a companion; trust not a familiar friend;
from her that lieth in thy bosom guard the doors of thy mouth. For the son despiseth the
father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her
mother-in-law, a man’s enemies are the members of his own family.”—Henderson. All
social faith was gone; a man had lost all confidence in his brother. Social scepticism and
suspicion prevailed in all circles. No faith was to be put in a friend. (Homilist.)
The lack of good men
These words are the cause of the prophet’s sorrow. So deep a concern it was, that the
words of Mic_7:1 may signify not only mourning but howling. It arises from the scarcity
of men truly good. Such a passion as this for the want of good men became the prophet
in all capacities, as a man, as a subject, and as a prophet. As a man, he could not but be
concerned to see a nation of men so changed and degenerated by vice and luxury. As a

26. subject, he could but consider what misery would suddenly betide the nation, for want of
goodness and religion. As a prophet, he could but note how they slighted his errand, and
were sturdy and resolute in their vices.
I. Wherein the goodness of this good man, the prophet mentions, did express itself. The
Christian Church, as well as the prophet, may justly bewail her barren Christians, and
the scarcity of men truly good. We call ourselves saints and elect, but where is the
patience, the temper, and the spirit of them? Let our religion be never so primitive and
apostolical, except it makes us really good it is but wrangling hypocrisy and noise.
1. True goodness doth express itself in plainness and sincerity in all our respective
dealings with men.
2. Goodness expresses itself in the exercise of good nature, and charitable allowances
for the errors of others.
3. The good man is of a spirit truly public, whose care and attention looks abroad.
4. The good man takes up religion only to serve a spiritual purpose. Religion without
this good purpose is only fashion or faction, hypocrisy and formality, superstition or
interest.
II. What grew up and prevailed in the prophet’s time in the place of true religion or
goodness.
1. Superstition and false religion, which naturally produce trouble and disquiet in all
governments.
2. Wicked lives in the professors of the true religion, which will surely cause misery
and ruin in a nation.
3. Atheistical persuasions prevailed, or there was no religion at all.
III. What particular reasons may move us to bewail the want of real goodness.
1. The want of it is the principal cause of our distractions about religion.
2. Real goodness is the best way to unite us among ourselves. Real goodness purges
our judgment, removes our prejudices. (Gregory Hascard, D. D.)
Ancient and modern pessimism
When we ourselves are down it is hard to believe that anybody else is up; when our
prayer is choked in our throat it is easy to believe that God hears no prayer at all, nor
cares for petitioning and supplicating men. We interpret all things by ourselves. There is
a curious self-projection of the soul upon the disc of history, and we read according to
the shadow which we throw upon that disc. This is what we call pessimism. We are
always inventing strange words, and imagining that thereby we are making some kind of
progress. Man has a fatal gift of giving names to things, and once give a name and it will
be almost impossible to obliterate it. We call this pessimism,—that is, seeing all the
wickedness, and none of the goodness; seeing all the darkness, and none of the light;
seeing the utter desolation of all things, and not seeing in all the wilderness one green
blade, one tiny flower, or hearing in the grim silence one trill of lark or soft note of
thrush or nightingale. There are persons gifted with the genius of darkness. It may do us
good to visit them occasionally; but on the whole it is better to live in the sunshine, and
to hear the music, and to come under the influence of intelligent vivacity and

27. cheerfulness. If people will shut themselves up in their own little houses—for the biggest
house is little, the palace is a mere hut—and never keep any company but their own, they
will go down. It is so ecclesiastically. There are persons who never see the universe
except through their own church window, and as no window is as big as the horizon,
there steals insidiously upon the mind a disposition to deny the existence of the horizon
itself. It is so with reading. There are those who read only a certain set of books. They go
down; there is no mental range, no scope, no variety, no mystery of colour, no
hopefulness, no imagination. The very earth needs to have its crops changed. If you will
go on growing the same crops you will cease to have any crop that is worth gathering.
There is, on the other hand, what is termed optimism. That is the exact contrary of
pessimism. Optimism sees the best of everything. There is a danger along that line also;
the danger is that we may not be stern enough, real enough, penetrating enough, going
into the heart and inmost fibre of things to find out reality and truth, how bad or good
soever the case may be. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
3 Both hands are skilled in doing evil;
the ruler demands gifts,
the judge accepts bribes,
the powerful dictate what they desire—
they all conspire together.
BAR ES. "That they may do evil with both hands earnestly - (Literally, upon
evil both hands to do well,) that is, “both their hands are upon evil to do it well,” or
“earnestly” , as our translation gives the meaning; only the Hebrew expresses more, that
evil is their good, and their good or excellence is in evil. Bad men gain a dreadful skill
and wisdom in evil, as Satan has; and cleverness in evil is their delight. Jerome: “They
call the evil of their hands good.” “The prince asketh, and the judge asketh (or, it may
more readily be supplied, judgeth, doth that which is his office,) against right “for a
reward”, (which was strictly forbidden,) “and the great man he uttereth his mischievos
desire” (Deu_16:19. See above Mic_3:11), (or the “desire of his soul”.) Even the shew of
good is laid aside; whatever the heart conceives and covets, it utters; - mischief to others
and in the end to itself.
The mischief comes forth from the soul, and returns upon it. “The elders and nobles in
the city” 1Ki_21:8, 1Ki_21:11, as well as Ahab, took part, (as one instance,) in the murder
of Naboth. The great man, however, here, is rather the source of the evil, which he
induces others to effect; so that as many as there were great, so many sources were there
of oppression. All, prince, judges, the great, unite in the ill, and this not once only, but

28. they are ever doing it and “so they wrap it up”, (literally, twist, intertwine it.) Things are
twisted, either to strengthen, or to pervert or intricate them. It might mean, they
“strengthen” it, that which their soul covets against; the poor, or they “pervert” it, the
cause of the poor.
CLARKE, "That they may do evil with both hands - That is, earnestly, greedily,
to the uttermost of their power. The Vulgate translates: Malum manuum suarum dicunt
bonum; “The evil of their hands they call good.”
The prince asketh - A bribe, to forward claims in his court.
The judge asketh for a reward - That he may decide the cause in favor of him who
gives most money, whether the cause be good or evil. This was notoriously the case in
our own country before the giving of Magna Charta; and hence that provision, Nulli
vendemus justitiam aut rectum: “We will not sell justice to any man.” And this was not
the only country in which justice and judgment were put to sale.
The great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire - Such consider themselves
above law, and they make no secret of their unjust determinations. And so they wrap it
up - they all conjoin in doing evil in their several offices, and oppressing the poor; so our
translators have interpreted the original ‫ויעבתוה‬ vayeabtuha, which the versions translate
variously. Newcome has, “And they do abominably.”
GILL, "That they may do evil with both hands earnestly,.... Or "well" (t),
strenuously, diligently, to the utmost of their power, labouring at it with all their might
and main; as wicked men generally are more industrious, and exert themselves more to
do evil than good men do to do good; and even weary themselves to commit iniquity: or,
"instead of doing good", as Marinus in Aben Ezra, take a great deal of pains to do evil;
work with both hands at it, instead of doing good. The Septuagint and Arabic versions
render it, "they prepare their hands for evil"; the Syriac version is, "their hands are read?
to evil, and they do not do good"; with which agrees the Targum,
"they do evil with their hands, and do not do good.''
Some make the sense to depend on what goes before and follows; "to do evil, both
hands" are open and ready, and they hurt with them; "but to do, good the prince asketh,
and the judge for a reward" (u); forward enough to do evil, but very backward to do any
good office;
the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and, if they do it, must be
bribed, and have a reward for it, even persons of such high character; but this sense is
not favoured by, the accents; besides, by what follows, it seems as if the "prince", by
whom may be meant the king upon the throne, and the "judge" he that sits upon the
bench under him, sought for bribes to do an ill thing; to give a cause wrong against a
poor man, and in favour of a rich man that will bribe high:
and the great man he uttereth his mischievous desire; the depravity,
corruption, and perverseness of his soul; who is either some great man at court, that,
being encouraged by the example of the prince and judge, openly and publicly requires a

29. bribe also to do an ill thing; and without any shame or blushing promises to do it on that
consideration; or a counsellor at the bar, who openly declares that he will speak in such a
cause, though a bad one, and defend it, and not doubt of carrying it; or else this is some
rich wicked man, that seeks to oppress his poor neighbour, and, being favoured by the
prince and judge he has bribed, does without fear or shame speak out the wickedness of
his heart, and what an ill design he has against his neighbour, whose mischief, hurt, and
ruin, he seeks:
so they wrap it up together; or, "twist it together" (w); as cords are, which thereby
become strong; slid so these three work up this mischievous business, and strengthen
and establish it; and such a threefold cord of wickedness is not easily broken or
unravelled: or, "they perplex it" (x); as thick branches of trees are implicated and
wrapped together; so these agree to puzzle and perplex a cause, that they may have some
show of carrying it with justice and truth. So the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "they
trouble it"; confound the matter, and make it dark, dubious, and difficult. The Targum
is, "they corrupt it"; or deprave it; put an ill sense on things, and make a wrong
construction of them.
JAMISO , "That they may do evil with both hands earnestly — literally,
“Their hands are for evil that they may do it well” (that is, cleverly and successfully).
the great man, he — emphatic repetition. As for the great man, he no sooner has
expressed his bad desire (literally, the “mischief” or “lust of his soul”), than the venal
judges are ready to wrest the decision of the case according to his wish.
so they wrap it up — The Hebrew is used of intertwining cords together. The
“threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecc_4:12); here the “prince,” the “judge,” and the
“great man” are the three in guilty complicity. “They wrap it up,” namely, they conspire
to carry out the great man’s desire at the sacrifice of justice.
CALVI , "This verse is properly addressed to the judges and governors of the
people, and also to the rich, who oppressed the miserable common people, because
they could not redeem themselves by rewards. The Prophet therefore complains,
that corruptions so much prevailed in judgments, that the judges readily absolved
the most wicked, provided they brought bribes. The sum of what is said then is, that
any thing might be done with impunity, for the judges were venal. This is the
Prophet’s meaning.
But as interpreters differ, something shall be said as to the import of the words. ‫על‬
‫כפים‬ ‫,הרע‬ ol ero caphim, For the evil of their hands to do good. Some give this
explanation, “Though they are openly wicked, yet they make pretenses, by which
they cover their wickedness:” and the sense would be this, — that though they had
cast aside every care for what was right, they yet had become so hardened in
iniquity, that they wished to be deemed good and holy men; for in a disordered state
of things the wicked always show an iron front, and would have silence to be
observed respecting their shameful deeds. Some interpreters therefore think that the
Prophet here complains, that there was now no difference between what was
honorable and base, right and wrong; for wicked men dared so to disguise their
iniquities, that they did not appear, or, that no one ventured to say any thing against

30. them. Do you, however, examine and consider, whether what the Prophet says may
be more fitly connected together in this way, That they may do good for the
wickedness of their hands, that is, to excuse themselves for the wickedness of their
hands, they agree together; for the prince asks, the judge is ready to receive a bribe.
Thus, the rich saw that exemption might have been got by them, for they had the
price of redemption in their hands: they indeed knew that the judges and princes
could be pacified, when they brought the price of corruption. And this is the
meaning which I approve, for it harmonizes best with the words of the Prophet. At
the same time, some give a different explanation of the verb ‫,להיטיב‬ laeithib, that is
that they acted vigorously in their wickedness: but this exposition is frigid. I
therefore embrace the one I have just stated, which is, — that corruptions so
prevailed in the administration of justice, that coverings were ready for all crimes;
for the governors and judges were lovers of money, and were always ready to
absolve the most guilty, but not without a reward. For the wickedness then of their
works, that they may do good, that is, that they may obtain acquittance, the prince
only asks; he examines not the case, but only regards the hand; and the judge, he
says, judges for reward: the judges also were mercenary. They did not sit to
determine what was right and just; but as soon as they were satisfied by bribes, they
easily forgave all crimes; and thus they turned vices into virtues; for they made no
difference between white and black, but according to the bribe received. (184)
This view is consistent with what the Prophet immediately subjoins, The great, he
says, speaks of the wickedness of his soul, even he By the great, he does not mean the
chief men, as some incorrectly think, but he means the rich, who had money enough
to conciliate the judges. They then who could bring the price of redemption, dared
to boast openly of their wickedness: for so I render the word ‫,הות‬ eut, as it cannot be
suitable to translate it here, corruption. Speak then of the wickedness of his soul
does the great; there was then nothing, neither fear nor shame, to restrain the rich
from doing wrong. — How so? For they knew that they had to do with mercenary
judges and could easily corrupt them. They hence dared to speak of the wickedness
of their soul: they did not cloak their crimes, as it is the case when some fear of the
Law prevails, when justice is exercised: but as no difference was made between good
and evil, the most guilty boasted openly of his wickedness. And the pronoun ‫,הוא‬
eva, he himself, is also emphatical; and this has not been observed by interpreters.
He then himself speaks of the wickedness of his soul; he did not wait until others
accuse him of doing wrong, but he shamelessly dared to glory in his crimes; for
impunity was certain, as he could close the mouth of the judges by bringing a bribe.
Speak then of the wickedness of his soul does he himself. (185)
And further, they fold up wickedness; which means, that raging cruelty prevailed,
because the governors, and those who wished to purchase liberty to sin, conspired
together; as though they made ropes, and thus rendered firm their wickedness. For
the great man, that is, the rich and the monied, agreed with the judge, and the judge
with him; and so there was a collusion between them. It hence happened, that
wickedness possessed, as it were, a tyrannical power; for there was no remedy. We
now apprehend the real design of the Prophet, at least as far as I am able to
discover. It now follows —