9 A voice of Jehovah to the city calleth, And wisdom doth fear Thy name, Hear ye the rod, and Him who appointed it. 10 Are there yet 'in' the house of the wicked Treasures of wickedness, And the abhorred scanty ephah? 11 Do I reckon 'it' pure with balances of wickedness? And with a bag of deceitful stones? 12 Whose rich ones have been full of violence, And its inhabitants have spoken falsehood, And their tongue 'is' deceitful in their mouth. 13 And I also, I have begun to smite thee, To make desolate, because of thy sins. 14 Thou—thou eatest, and thou art not satisfied, And thy pit 'is' in thy midst, And thou removest, and dost not deliver, And that which thou deliverest, to a sword I give. 15 Thou—thou sowest, and thou dost not reap, Thou—thou treadest the olive, And thou pourest not out oil, And new wine—and thou drinkest not wine. 16 And kept habitually are the statutes of Omri, And all the work of the house of Ahab, And ye do walk in their counsels, For My giving thee for a desolation, And its inhabitants for a hissing, And the reproach of My people ye do bear!
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.