9 Yahweh’s voice calls to the city,
and wisdom sees your name:
“Listen to the rod,
and he who appointed it. 10 Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
and a short ephah [1] that is accursed? 11 Shall I be pure with dishonest scales,
and with a bag of deceitful weights? 12 Her rich men are full of violence,
her inhabitants speak lies,
and their tongue is deceitful in their speech. 13 Therefore I also have struck you with a grievous wound.
I have made you desolate because of your sins. 14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied.
Your humiliation will be in your midst.
You will store up, but not save;
and that which you save I will give up to the sword. 15 You will sow, but won’t reap.
You will tread the olives, but won’t anoint yourself with oil;
and crush grapes, but won’t drink the wine. 16 For the statutes of Omri are kept,
and all the works of the house of Ahab.
You walk in their counsels,
that I may make you a ruin,
and her inhabitants a hissing;
And you will 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.