9 The Lord's voice cries to the city-- Wisdom shall see Your name: "Hear the Rod! Who has appointed it? 10 Are there yet the treasures of wickedness In the house of the wicked, And the short measure that is an abomination? 11 Shall I count pure those with the wicked scales, And with the bag of deceitful weights? 12 For her rich men are full of violence, Her inhabitants have spoken lies, And their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. 13 "Therefore I will also make you sick by striking you, By making you desolate because of your sins. 14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied; Hunger shall be in your midst. You may carry some away, but shall not save them; And what you do rescue I will give over to the sword. 15 "You shall sow, but not reap; You shall tread the olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; And make sweet wine, but not drink wine. 16 For the statutes of Omri are kept; All the works of Ahab's house are done; And you walk in their counsels, That I may make you a desolation, And your inhabitants a hissing. Therefore you shall bear the reproach of My people."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Micah 6:9-16
Commentary on Micah 6:9-16
(Read Micah 6:9-16)
God, having showed how necessary it was that they should do justly, here shows how plain it was that they had done unjustly. This voice of the Lord says to all, Hear the rod when it is coming, before you see it, and feel it. Hear the rod when it is come, and you are sensible of the smart; hear what counsels, what cautions it speaks. The voice of God is to be heard in the rod of God. Those who are dishonest in their dealings shall never be reckoned pure, whatever shows of devotion they may make. What is got by fraud and oppression, cannot be kept or enjoyed with satisfaction. What we hold closest we commonly lose soonest. Sin is a root of bitterness, soon planted, but not soon plucked up again. Their being the people of God in name and profession, while they kept themselves in his love, was an honour to them; but now, being backsliders, their having been once the people of God turns to their reproach.