Micah 7:6

7:1-7 The prophet bemoans himself that he lived among a people ripening apace for ruin, in which many good persons would suffer. Men had no comfort, no satisfaction in their own families or in their nearest relations. Contempt and violation of domestic duties are a sad symptom of universal corruption. Those are never likely to come to good who are undutiful to their parents. The prophet saw no safety or comfort but in looking to the Lord, and waiting on God his salvation. When under trials, we should look continually to our Divine Redeemer, that we may have strength and grace to trust in him, and to be examples to those around us.

For the son dishonoureth the father,.... Speaks contemptibly of him; behaves rudely towards him; shows him no respect and reverence; exposes his failings, and makes him the object of his banter and ridicule; who ought to have honoured, reverenced, and obeyed him, being the instrument of his being, by whom he was brought up, fed, clothed, and provided for; base ingratitude! the daughter riseth up against her mother; by whom she has been used in the most tender and affectionate manner; this being still more unnatural, if possible, as being done by the female sex, usually more soft and pliable; but here, losing her natural affection, and forgetting both her relation and sex, replies to her mother, giving ill language; opposes and disobeys her, chides, wrangles, and scolds, and strives and litigates with her, as the Targum: or rises up as a witness against her, to her detriment, if not to the taking away of her life: the daughter in law against her mother in law; this is not so much to be wondered at as, the former instances, which serve to encourage and embolden those that are in such a relation to speak pertly and saucily; to reproach and make, light of mothers in law, as the Targum; or slight and abuse them: a man's enemies are the men of his own house; his sons and his servants, who should honour his person, defend his property, and promote his interest; but, instead of that, do everything that is injurious to him.

These words are referred to by Christ, and used by him to describe the times in which he lived, Matthew 10:35; and the prophet may be thought to have an eye to the same, while he is settling forth the badness of his own times; and the Jews seem to think be had a regard to them, since they say (y), that, when the Messiah comes, "the son shall dishonour his father", &c. plainly having this passage in view; and the; whole agrees with the times of Christ, in which there were few good men; it was a wicked age, an adulterous generation of men, he lived among; great corruption there was in princes, priests, and people; in the civil and ecclesiastical rulers, and in all ranks and degrees of men; and he that ate bread with Christ, even Judas, lifted up his heel against him. The times in which Micah the prophet here speaks of seem to he the times of Ahaz, who was a wicked prince; and the former part of Hezekiah's reign, before a reformation was started, or at least brought about, in whose reigns he prophesied; though some have thought he here predicts the sad times in the reign of Manasseh, which is not so probable. (y) Misn. Sotah, c. 9. sect. 15.

6 . dishonoureth ] Lit. ‘treateth as a fool.’ The same verb in the same form occurs in Deuteronomy 32:6 . It is unsafe however to argue that Deuteronomy must have been already written in the time of Micah, for we also find the word in Jeremiah 14:21 , Nahum 3:6 . Micah 7:7-20 . Here the thread of thought is broken; the following verses appear to have been attached later. The speaker is, indeed, still the true Israel; but here she appears already overpowered by her enemies, whereas in Micah 7:1-6 the day of chastisement was still far off. Here, accordingly, consolation is the chief object of the prophetic writer; in the earlier passage, he had to warn his people of the still future calamity. In its tone this section reminds us of the Book of Israel’s Consolation which follows on chap. 37 of the Book of Isaiah.

Verse 6. - For the son dishonoureth; Septuagint, ἀτιμάζει : Vulgate, contumeliam facit ; literally, treats as a fool, despises ( Deuteronomy 32:6, 15 ). (For the rest of the verse, see Matthew 10:21, 35 , etc.) Men of his own house. His domestic servants ( Genesis 17:27 ). Henderson, referring to this dissolution of every natural tie, compares Ovid, 'Metamorph.,' 1:144, etc. - "Vivitur ex rapto; non hospes ab hespite tutus,Non socer a genero; fratrum quoque gratia rara est;Imminet exitio vir conjugis, illa mariti;Lurida terribiles miscent aconita novercae;Filius ante diem patrios iuquirit in annos;Victa jacet pietas." Micah 7:6

For: the prophet here gives us a reason of his advice to be wary how and whom they trust. The son; who received his being, maintenance, education, and inherits the honour as well as estate of his father; the son, obliged by most inviolable laws to please, preserve, and honour his father, dishonoureth, seeks to accuse, vilify, endanger, and ruin the father; whose dishonour and loss, or ruin, is also the son’s dishonour and ruin; yet unnatural treachery will be so rife in those times, that the father had need keep his guard upon his very son. The daughter, whose love and affection are usually more tender than the sons’ towards parents, yet will forget their duty. Riseth up against her mother, that bare them, that nursed them, that, more than fathers, tend, indulge, and bear with them. So monstrous shall the perfidiousness of that age be. The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law: in consanguinity there was not any faithfulness, in affinity much less may you expect it. A man’s enemies, the worst and most perilous enemies, who will be most ready and most able to do them mischief, are the men of his own house; among relations and retainers, who by law of God and nature should have been faithfullest friends. So it fell out through the civil wars of the Jews, in their seditious and in their calamitous days. Much like to this is that of Christ, Matthew 10:21,35,36 . For: the prophet here gives us a reason of his advice to be wary how and whom they trust.

The son; who received his being, maintenance, education, and inherits the honour as well as estate of his father; the son, obliged by most inviolable laws to please, preserve, and honour his father, dishonoureth, seeks to accuse, vilify, endanger, and ruin the father; whose dishonour and loss, or ruin, is also the son’s dishonour and ruin; yet unnatural treachery will be so rife in those times, that the father had need keep his guard upon his very son. The daughter, whose love and affection are usually more tender than the sons’ towards parents, yet will forget their duty. Riseth up against her mother, that bare them, that nursed them, that, more than fathers, tend, indulge, and bear with them. So monstrous shall the perfidiousness of that age be. The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law: in consanguinity there was not any faithfulness, in affinity much less may you expect it. A man’s enemies, the worst and most perilous enemies, who will be most ready and most able to do them mischief, are the men of his own house; among relations and retainers, who by law of God and nature should have been faithfullest friends. So it fell out through the civil wars of the Jews, in their seditious and in their calamitous days. Much like to this is that of Christ, Matthew 10:21,35,36 . For: the prophet here gives us a reason of his advice to be wary how and whom they trust.

Trust ye not in a friend - It is part of the perplexity of crooked ways, that all relationships are put out of joint. Selfishness rends each from the other, and disjoints the whole frame of society. Passions and sin break every band of friendship, kindred, gratitude, nature. "Everyone 'seeketh his own'." Times of trial and of outward harass increase this; so that God's visitations are seasons of the most frightful recklessness as to everything but sell: So had God foretold Deuteronomy 28:53 ; so it was in the siege of Samaria 2 Kings 6:28 , and in that of Jerusalem both by the Chaldeans Lamentations 4:3-16 and by the Romans . When the soul has lost the love of God, all other is but sceming love, since "natural affection" is from Him, and it too dies out, as God gives the soul over to itself Romans 1:28 . The words describe partly the inward corruption, partly the outward causes which shall call it forth. There is no real trust in any, where all are eorrupt. The outward straitness and perplexity, in which they shall be, makes that to crumble and fall to pieces, which was inwardly decayed and severed before. The words deepen, as they go on. First, "the friend", or neighbor, the common band of man and man; then "the guide", (or, as the word also means, one "familiar", united by intimacy, to whom, by continual intercourse, the soul was "used";) then the wife who lay in the bosom, nearest to the secrets of the heart; then those to whom all reverence is due, "father" and "mother".

Our Lord said that this should be fulfilled in the hatred of His Gospel. He begins His warning as to it, with a caution like that of the prophet; "Be ye wise as serpents" Matthew 10:16-17, and "beware of men". Then He says, how these words should still be true Matthew 10:21, Matthew 10:35-36. There never were wanting pleas of earthly interest against the truth. He Himself was "cut off" lest "the Romans should take away their place and nation" John 11:48. The Apostles were accused, that they meant to "bring this Man's Blood upon" the chief priests Acts 5:28; or as "ringleaders of the sect of the Nazarenes, pestilant fallows and movers of sedition, turning the world upside down, setters up of another king; troublers of the city; comanding things unlawful for Romans to practice; setters forth of strange gods; turning away much people" Acts 24:5; Acts 16:20-21; Acts 17:6-7, Acts 17:18; 1 Peter 2:12; endangering not men's craft only, but the honor of their gods; "evil doers". Truth is against the world's ways, so the world is against it. Holy zeal hates sin, so sinners hate it. It troubles them, so they count it, "one which troubleth Israel" 1 Kings 18:17. Tertullian, in a public defense of Christians in the second century, writes, , "Truth set out with being herself hated; as soon as she appeared, she is an enemy.