interference, their plan of
capturing Jerusalem is frustrated. Thus the matter is constantly
represented in Isaiah; thus also in Hosea i. 7. We can, moreover,
adduce proofs from Micah himself, that his spiritual eye was not
pre-eminently, or exclusively, directed to the Assyrians. In the
prophecy from chap. iii. to v., where he describes the judgment upon
Judah in a manner altogether similar to that in which he mentions it
here, he passes over the Assyrians altogether in silence. Babylon is,
in iv. 10, mentioned as the place to which Judah is to be led into
captivity.

Yet here, as well as everywhere else in the threatenings and promises
of the prophets, we must beware, lest, in referring them to some
particular historical event, we lose sight of the animating idea. If
this, on the other hand, be rightly understood, it will be seen that a
particular historical event may indeed be pre-eminently referred to,
but that it can never exhaust the prophecy. Although, therefore, the
main reference here be to the destruction by the Chaldeans, we must not
on that account exclude anything in which the same law of retaliation
was manifested, either before, as in the invasion of the Syrians and
Assyrians; or afterwards, as in the destruction by the Romans. The
prophet himself points, in iv. 11-14 (iv. 11-v. 1), to two other phases
of the divine judgment which are to follow upon that by the Chaldeans.

After the prophet has thus hitherto described the impending divine
judgment in great general outlines, he passes on, in chap. ii., to
chastise particular vices, which, however, must always be at the same
time, yea, prominently, considered as indications of the wholly
depraved condition of the nation, and of the punishments to follow upon
it. One feature upon which he here chiefly dwells, and which must,
therefore, have been a peculiarly prominent manifestation of the sinful
corruption, consists in the acts of injustice and oppression committed
by the great, the description of which presents striking resemblances
to that in Is. v. 8 ff. The prophet interrupts this description only in
order [Pg 434] to rebuke the false prophets, who reproved him for the
severity of his discourses, and asserted that they were unworthy of the
merciful God. Such severity, answered the prophet, was true mildness,
because it alone could be the means of warding off the approaching
punitive judgment; that his God did not punish from want of
forbearance--from w