ol Chron. v. 26.

A.C. 772, opened not to him, therefore he smote it ; and all the women

that were therein that were with child he ripped up.

17 In the nine and thirtieth year of Azariab king of Judah began Menahem the son of Gadi to reign over Israel, and reigned ten years in Samaria.

18 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.

19 Ando Pul the king of Assyria came against the land : and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand.

20 And Menahem * exacted the money of Israel, even of to come forth. all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of

silver, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria
turned back, and stayed not there in the land.

21 | And the rest of the acts of Menahem, and all that
he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of
the kings of Israel?

22 And Menahem slept with his fathers; and Pekahiah his son reigned in his stead.

Heb. caused

SECTION X.

Reign of Pekahiah.

2 KINGS XV. ver. 23-27.

768.

750.

23 | In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pe kahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned two years.

24 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.

25 But Pekah the son of Remaliah, a captain of his, conspired against him, and smote him in Samaria, in the palace of the king's house, with Argob and Arieh, and with him fifty men of the Gileadites ; and he killed him, and reigned in his room.

26 And the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

a 2 Chron.
xxvii. 1.

2 KINGS XV. ver. 32.
32 G In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah A. C. 758.
king of Israel began a Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Ju-
dah to reign.

2 CHRONICLES XXVII. VER. 1, 2.
1 Jotham • was twenty and five years old when he began b2 Kingo xv.
to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His 32, &c.
mother's name also was Jerushah, the daughter of Zadok.

2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the
Lord, according to all that his father Uzziah did': howbeit
he entered not into the temple of the LORD. And the
people did yet corruptly.

2 KINGS XV. PART OF VER. 35.
35 g Howbeit the high places were not removed : the
people sacrificed and burned'incense still in the high places.

MICAH 1 25,

1 Micah shewetk the wrath of God against Jacob for idolatry. 10 He exhorteth

to mourning.
1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Moras-
thite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of
Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

753.

% I. Micah, the third of the minor prophets, according to the arrangement
in the Hebrew and all modern copies, as well as in the Septuagint, was a native
of Morasthi, a small town in the southern part of the territory of Judah ; and,
as we learn from the commencement of his predictions, prophesied in the reigns
of Jotham, Abaz, and Hezekiah, kings of that country: consequently he was
contemporary with Isaiah, Joel, Hosea, and Amos.

II. The people of Judah and Israel being very profane and impenitent in the
days of Isaiah, (in consequence of which the Assyrian captivity was then hasten-
ing upon Israel, and the Chaldean not long after fell upon Judah,) the prophet
Micah was raised up to second Isaiah, and to confirm his predictions against the
Jews and Israelites, whom he invited to repentance, both by threatened judg-
ments, and by promised mercies.

II. These two chapters were delivered before the destruction of Samaria, which is predicted (chap. i. 6.), in the reign of Jotham. Dr. Wells differs from Taylor and Lightfoot

, and places the first chapter in this reign : he refers the second to the reign of Abaz. There does not, however, appear sufficient grounds for his

A.C.753.

2 * Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and + all

that therein is: and let the Lord God be witness against * Heb. Hear, ge people, all

you,

the Lord from his holy temple.
of them.
c Deut. xxxii.
1. Is. i. 2.
# Heb, the ful. conjecture. The first chapter denounces the judgments of God upon Judah and
ness thereof.

Israel ; the second is an uninterrupted continuation of the address to these na-
tions, and specifies those sins for which punishment was threatened.

IV. The book of Micah, the contemporary of Isaiah, contains a summary of
the prophecies delivered by the latter concerning the Messiah and the final return
of the Jews, which are thus translated and arranged by Dr. Hales.
Chap. V. 2. “And art thou, Bethlehem Ephratah little to be [esteemed]

Among the thousands of Judah ?-
From thee shall issue (THE LEADER,]

Who shall rule my people, the Israel (of God]
II. (But his issuings are from old,

From days of eternity.)
III. 3. Therefore he will give them up (for a season]

Until the time that she which shall bear
Have borne : Then shall return
The residue of thy brethren (the Jews]

Along with the outcasts of Israel
IV. 4. And he shall stand and guide them

In the strength of THE LORD,
In the majesty of THE NAME OF THE LORD HIS God.
And when they return, He shall be magnified
Unto the ends of the earth,

And He shall be their PEACE."
“ This prophecy,” Dr. Hales remarks, “consists of four parts, 1. The human
birth-place of Christ. 2. His eternal generation. 3. His temporary desertion
of the Jews, until his miraculous birth of the Virgin, after which they are to re-
turn with the true Israelites. 4. His spiritual and universal dominion."

The application of the first part of this prophecy was decided at the time of
OUR SAVIOUr's birth, by the most respectable Jewish synod that ever sate,
convened by Herod, to determine from prophecy the birth-place of the MES-
slay, which they agreed to be Bethlehem, upon the authority of Micah, which
they cited. Their citation of the first part only is given by the evangelist Mat-
thew, in an improved translation of the original, greatly superior to any of the
ancient versions.

Matt. ii. 6. " And thou, Bethlehem, territory of Judah,

Art by no means least among the captains of Judah ;
From thee shall issue THE LEADER,

Who shall guide my people, the Israel (of God.)"
1. Here the evangelist has removed the ambiguity of the question proposed
by the prophet, by supplying the answer in the negative. As in Nathan's pro-
phecy, “ Shalt thou build me an house ?" (2 Sam. vii. 5.) the parallel passage
answers in the negative, Thou shalt not build me an house,” (1 Chron. xvii. 4.)

2. He has supplied a chasm in the Masorete text of 733, Nagid, an usual
epithet of the MessIAH (1 Chrop. v. 2. Isa. lv. 4. Dan, ix. 25.) usually ren-

d Is. xxvi. 21.
e Ps. cxv. 3.
f Deut. xxxil.

* Heb. a de scent.

3 For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, A.C. 753. and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.

4 And & the mountains shall be molten under him, and 13. & xXxiii. the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the "Ps. xcvii. 5. waters that are poured down * a steep place. 5 For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria ? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem ?

6 Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard : and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof.

dered 'Hyepievos, "leader," by the Septuagint, and retained here by the evan-
gelist

, as a necessary distinction of his character, as supreme commander, from
" the captains of thousands," styled 'Hyenoot, judiciously substituted for the
thousands themselves in Micah, to mark the analogy more correctly.

3. He has also determined the pastoral nature of the Messiau's "rule" by
the verb

ποιμανει, , "shall guide as a shepherd,” afterwards intimated by Micah,
myn kai moijavil, as there rendered by the Septuagint. For He is “ the
shepherd of Israel," (Gen. xlix. 24. Psalm lxxx. 1.) “ the chief shepherd,"
(1 Pet. v. 4.) and " the good shepherd,” (John X. 14.) who appointed his apos-
tles to " guide and pasture his sheep,” (John xxi. 6.)

4. The human birth of the Messiah is carefully distinguished by Micah from
his eternal generation, in the parenthetical clause, which strongly resembles the
account of the primeval birth of Wisdom, (Prov. viii. 22—25.)

3. The blessed virgin of Isaiah's former prophecy (vii. 14.) is evidently alluded
to by Micah, and also the return of the remnant of the Jews (Is. X. 20, 21.) and
of the final peace of his kingdom (Isa. ix. 6, 7.)

This prophecy of Micah is perhaps the most important single prophecy in the
Old Testament, and the most comprehensive, respecting the personal character
of the Messian, and his successive manifestation to the world. It crowns the
whole chain of prophecies descriptive of the several limitations of the blessed seed
of the woman to the line of Shem, to the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
to the tribe of Judah, and to the royal house of David, here terminating in his
birth at Bethlehem, " the city of David.” It carefully distinguishes his human
nativity from his eternal generation; foretels the rejection of the Israelites and
Jews for a season ; their final restoration, and the universal peace destined to
prevail throughout the earth in the Regeneration. It forms, therefore, the basis
of the New Testament, which begins with his human birth at Bethlehem, the
miraculous circumstances of which are recorded in the introductions of Matthew's
and Luke's Gospels ; his eternal generation, as the ORACLE OF Wisdom, in the
sublime introduction of John's Gospel; his prophetic character, and second
coming, illustrated in the four Gospels and Epistles, ending with a prediction of
the speedy approach of the latter in the Apocalypse,” (Rev. xxii. 20.)—Dr.
Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. ii. pp. 462, 463.

. + Or, she is

sick

h 2 Sam. 1. 20.

Tami

i Jer. vi. 26. Or, thou that

bitress.
*Or, the coun

+Or, a place near Or, was grieved.

A.C. 753. 7 And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to

pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the
fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she
gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to
the hire of an harlot.

8 Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and

naked : I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mournHeb daugh. ing as the * owls.

9 For f her wound is incurable ; for it is come unto JuSher wounds. dah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jeru

salem,

10 9 Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all : in That is, dust, the house of Aphrah ' roll thyself in the dust.

11 Pass ye away, Ş thou || inhabitant of Saphir, having dwellest fairly. thy shame naked: the inhabitant of * Zaanan came not

forth in the mourning of + Beth-ezel; he shall receive of you try of flocks. his standing.

12 For the inhabitant of Maroth I waited carefully for good : but evil came down from the LORD unto the gate of Jerusalem.

13 O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast: she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion : for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee.

14 Therefore shalt thou give presents § to Moresheth|| That is, a lie. gath: the houses of || Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of

Israel.

15 Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of #Or, the glory Mareshah : * he shall come unto Adullam the glory of

Israel.
k 18. xxii. 12. 16 Make thee k bald, and poll thee for thy delicate chil-

dren : enlarge thy baldness as the eagle ; for they are gone
into captivity from thee.

MICAH II.
1 Against oppression. 4 lamentation. 7 A reproof of injustice and idolatry,

12 A promise of restoring Jacob.
1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon
their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, be-
cause it is in the power of their hand.

· 2 And they covet' fields, and take them by violence; and +Or, defraud. houses, and take them away: so they + oppress a man and

his house, even a man and his heritage.

3 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which

ye

shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye go haughtily : for this time is evil.

Or, for.

of Isracl shall come, &c.

I ls, v. 8.