observe lying vanities, placing their trust in idols and in false worship, forsake their own mercy, deliberately abandon their one hope of deliverance, namely, through the loving-kindness and tender mercies of Jehovah. V. 9. But I will sacrifice unto Thee with the voice of thanksgiving, loudly proclaiming his gratitude for mercies received, Ps. 42, 5; I will pay that that I have vowed. Cp. Ps. 50, 14. 23. Salvation is of the Lord, it belongs to Jehovah, it is in His power, He

alone can grant deliverance from all evil. V. 10. And the Lord, who heard the repentant prayer of His servant, spake unto the fish, giving it a definite command, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land, very likely on the coast of Palestine. As far as the subject-matter of the story is concerned, it will be well to remember that one of the ancient teachers of the Church rightly calls all subtle inquiries concerning these things a foolish officiousness.

Jonah's Message to the Ninevites and Its Results.

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The disobedient prophet had received severe lesson at the hand of God, but he now profited by this lesson and was ready to undertake the commission which had originally been issued to him. V. 1. And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, v. 2. Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, the Assyrian capital and metropolis, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee, loudly proclaiming the message which the Lord would reveal to him in due time, yielding himself in ready obedience to whatever the Lord may see fit to have him speak. V. 3. So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord, in unquestioning obedience. Now, Nineveh was an exceeding great city, literally, "a great city to God," regarded by Him as such, of three days' journey, that is, it took three days to make the round of its main sections, if a person passed through all the chief market-places. V. 4. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, he commenced his trip through the various centers comprising the larger city, preaching wherever he found a suitable place and a fitting opportunity; and he cried and said, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown, this threat being the climax of his proclamation, of his call to repentance. V. 5. So the people of Nineveh believed God, they accepted His word, they were filled with a wholesome fear, and proclaimed a fast, as an outward evidence of their sorrow, and put on sackcloth, the garment of mourning, from the greatest of them even to the least of them, old and young, all without exception. V. 6. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, into the neighborhood of whose palace the prophet had very likely progressed in his first day's journey, and he arose from his throne, symbol of his earthly power, and

he laid his robe from him, his royal mantle, and covered him with sackcloth, also adopting the mourning-dress, and sat in ashes, all signs of sorrow and repentance. Cp. Job 2, 8; Ezek. 27, 30. V. 7. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, the royal heralds being dispatched in accordance with the custom of making edicts of this kind known, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything, the domestic animals being included in this order, as sufferers with the people; let them not feed nor drink water, v. 8. but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, clothed in mourning, and cry mightily unto God, the very lowing of the cattle and the bleating of the sheep in their distress being considered appeals for mercy; yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, from his sinful habits, and from the violence that is in their hands. Cp. Is. 59, 6. V. 9. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, the possibility of His doing so being suggested by His interest in sending a prophet to warn them, and turn away from His fierce anger that we perish not? It was a true repentance on the part of the Ninevites and is so cited by Christ in reproof of those who, with much greater light and privileges, did not repent, Matt. 12, 41; Luke 11, 32, even if its effects were not lasting. V. 10. And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, from the security of their open transgressions of the Lord's will; and God repented of the evil that He had said that he would do unto them; and He did it not, letting His mercy guide His actions rather than a stern and immutable justice. As God spared Nineveh when its inhabitants turned to Him in repentance, so He is ready to show mercy to all those who lay aside their obstinate impenitence and plead with Him for forgiveness.

Jonah's Displeasure and the Lord's

Reproof.

That Jonah was easily swayed by his emotions is evident from the entire story of his book, but appears particularly from the last chapter. At the same time, the Lord's patience in dealing with His erring children is brought out in a most remarkable manner. V. 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, namely, that the Lord did not carry out His threat of punishment upon the people of Nineveh, and he was very angry, provoked, filled with grief and vexation. V. 2. And he prayed unto the Lord and said, I pray Thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, the arguIment which he had used within himself, when I was yet in my country? when he first received the commission to go to Nineveh. Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish, that is, he anticipated the fruitlessness of his errand, the fact that his prediction against Nineveh was not fulfilled; for I knew that Thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil. Cp. Ex. 34, 6. The words were spoken out of a very decided ill humor, because Jonah, as he thought, had been sent to deliver a message which the Lord intended to revoke, and which so readily produced repentance. It was a sad contradiction between a peevish mood and the better knowledge of his head and heart. V. 3. Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. "Jonah's impatience of life under disappointed hopes of Israel's reformation through the destruction of Nineveh is like that of Elijah at his plan for reforming Israel, 1 Kings 18, failing through Jezebel. Cp. 1 Kings 19, 4." V. 4. Then said the Lord, in a preliminary, gentle reproof, Doest thou well to be angry? Was there any justification for Jonah's attitude? V. 5. So Jonah, still smarting under the displeasure which he felt, went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, choosing a place in its immediate neighborhood, and there made him a booth, a temporary hut of branches and leaves, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city, whether the original judgment would not, after all, be carried out upon it; for the forty days named in his message had not yet elapsed. V. 6. And the Lord God prepared a gourd, the castor-oil plant, commonly called palm-crist, and made it to come up over Jonah, the plant growing up very rapidly,

with its large leaves quickly casting a pleasant coolness, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief, to cause his peevishness to disappear and thus to afford him some relief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd, he enjoyed the shadow offered by the green plant. V. 7. But God, intending to teach Jonah a further lesson, prepared a worm, appointing it to that end, when the morning rose the next day, at the breaking of the dawn, and it smote the gourd that it withered, for it is a peculiarity of the castor-oil plant that it fades readily when injured. V. 8. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind, blowing with a sultry heat; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted, overcome with the heat, and wished in himself to die, the reaction once more being rapid and furious, and said, It is better for me to die than to live, namely, in such circumstances, with everything combining to make life unpleasant. V. 9. And God, taking this opportunity to drive home His lesson, said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, with a sudden flare of bitterness, I do well to be angry, even unto death. V. 10. Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, which had cost him no toil to rear, neither madest it grow, Jonah not being obliged so much as to water it; which came up in a night and perished in a night, being, as the Hebrew has it, the son of a night, of only a night's duration; v. 11. and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein there are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, that is, 120,000 infants, who could not be accused of any particular wrong-doing, and also much cattle? This argument of Jehovah, in exposing the selfishness of the prophet, was at the same time sufficient to silence him, as he stood rebuked before this exhibit of God's mercy. Moreover, the tidings which Jonah was able to bring back to his countrymen was a most emphatic call to repentance, as Jesus brings out in His reference to the repentance of the Ninevites. Israel failed to learn the lesson and therefore was cast out of its land. All the more is it necessary for us to consider the sign of the prophet Jonah and to cling to the confession of Him who could say of Himself, "Behold, here is more than Jonah!"

The prophet Micah ("Who is like Jehovah?") was a native of Moresheth, near Gath, a small town about twenty miles southwest of Jerusalem, and therefore was known as the Morasthite. His prophetic activity extended through all or parts of the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, during the second half of the eighth century before Christ. He was therefore a contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea. Like the former prophet, he prophesied chiefly in Jerusalem, against the southern kingdom, but the northern kingdom is also included.

The prophecy of Micah agrees with the conditions under which he labored. He witnessed a gradual falling away from the worship of the one true God, especially under Ahaz, and even Hezekiah experienced great difficulty in introducing the reforms which he knew to be necessary. The conditions in the northern kingdom were even worse. At the same time, Assyria was developing as a world-power, and both kingdoms made the bad mistake of calling upon the foreign power for assistance. Thus the history of Micah's time is a history of a gradual decay, and it was one of the prophet's objects

to stem the tide of destruction. For that reason his message abounds in rebukes of the idolatrous people, of the greed of those in power, of the unrighteousness of the judges, and of the lying spirit of the false prophets.

However, after the judgment has been executed, the Lord's people are to be rescued, their full deliverance being accomplished through the coming of Messiah, to whose coming the true believers ever looked forward.

The Book of Micah is readily divisible into three parts, the first, chaps. 1 and 2, containing a call to repentance addressed to Israel and to Judah, the second, chapters 3 to 5, a rebuke of the cruel heads and princes of the people and of the false prophets, together with promises of the Messiah and of the spiritual glory of His Church, and the third, chapters 6 and 7, a recital of the Lord's controversy with His people, of the nation's moral corruption, and of the renewal of God's former mercies. "A summary of the contents of Micah's prophecies clearly indicates that this prophet, in the certainty and clearness of his Messianic prophecy, as well as in the power and energy exhibited by him in combating the sins and vices of his people, does not rank beneath his contemporary Isaiah, while the main point of difference consists in this, that Micah raises his voice against the religious and moral corruption of the people's rulers only and is not concerned with the political side of their machinations." 1)

1) Cp. Fuerbringer, Einleitung in das Alte Testament, 87. 88; Concordia Bible Class, June, 1919, 86.87.

The Judgment upon Samaria and Judah. EPHRAIM'S DESTRUCTION THREATENED.-V. 1. The word of the Lord that came to Micah, the Morasthite, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem, the two capitals being named as representative of the respective nations. V. 2. Hear, all ye people, cp. 1 Kings 22, 28; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is, cp. Is. 1, 2; and let the Lord God be witness against you, in testifying to their transgressions, the Lord from His holy temple, that is, from heaven; cp. Ps. 11, 4. V. 3. For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of His place, as one getting ready to execute His vengeance, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth, on the mountains, as the places where He has revealed Himself to His people in more than one instance. V. 4. And the mountains shall be molten under Him, dissolving before His almighty power, and the valleys shall be cleft, cleaving asunder before His majesty, as wax

before the fire and as the waters that are poured down a steep place, tearing down the abysses and causing a general dissolution of the entire surface of the earth. V. 5. For the transgression of Jacob is all this, as a due recompense for the wickedness of the covenant people, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? The sin of idolatry had reached such a climax in Samaria that it was part and parcel of the life of the people. And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem? The inhabitants of Jerusalem had also become so guilty of idolatry that its hills were entirely devoted to the worship of idols. V. 6. Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, as ruins that fall into dust and finally become a part of the soil, and as plantings of a vineyard, that is, places where vineyards may be planted; and I will pour down the stones thereof, those which King Omri had used in building the city, into the valley, and I will discover, lay bare, the foun

dations thereof, destroying it to the very ground. V. 7. And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces and all the hires thereof, namely, those of spiritual harlotry, the consecrated offerings placed on the idol altars, shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate, making them a wilderness; for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, by her spiritual adultery, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot, for the rich treasures were taken away by the enemies and devoted to their own idols. The vanity of false worship, also in this respect, seems rarely to strike the consciousness of idolaters.

LAMENTATION OVER JUDAH'S CHASTISEMENT. V. 8. Therefore, on account of the calamity which would strike Samaria and Judah, I will wail and howl, in a most bitter and mournful cry, I will go stripped and naked, robbed by the enemies and deprived of his upper garment, that is, in the condition of a captive; I will make a wailing like the dragons, like the jackals of the desert, and mourning as the owls, like ostriches crying in pain. Cp. Job 30, 29. V. 9. For her wound is incurable, deadly her strokes, for it is come unto Judah, the territory which harbored the Sanctuary of the Lord being included in the general ruin; he is come unto the gate of My people, to the place where the solemn assemblies of Jehovah were held, even to Jerusalem. V. 10. Declare ye it not in Gath, one of the chief cities of the Philistines, weep ye not at all, lest the message cause these enemies to rejoice; in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust, literally, "in Beth-leaphra I wallow in the dust," for such scattering of dust was a sign of deep grief. Throughout this paragraph the prophet, in the Hebrew, uses puns, for Gath means "announcement” and Ophra "dust-house." V. 11. Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir (fair-view), having thy shame naked, in shameful nakedness, also robbed by the enemy; the inhabitant of Zaanan (outlet) came not forth in the mourning of Beth-ezel; he shall receive of you his standing, rather, "not has gone out the inhabitant of Zaanan," since she did not have the courage to face the enemy in the open field, "the mourning of Beth-haezel [house of separation] takes you away from its standing-place"; for its inhabitants would not

permit the Jews to seek shelter behind its walls. V. 12. For the inhabitants of Maroth (bitterness) waited carefully for good, being anxiously and bitterly concerned about it, writhing in grief and pain on account of her lost prosperity; but evil came down from the Lord unto the gate of Jerusalem. But while all these towns were in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, the prophet next shows that the punishment would not be confined to the immediate neighborhood of the capital. V. 13. O thou inhabitant of Lachish, a fortified city in the plain toward the southwest, bind the chariot to the swift beast, to the fastest horses, namely, to escape the impending punishment; she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion, for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee, she was the first city of Judah to introduce the idolworship of the northern kingdom. V. 14. Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moresheth-gath (the betrothed of Gath), the daughter of Zion being obliged to dismiss or release this city to the enemy, like the gift of a marriage portion; the houses of Achzib (deception) shall be a lie to the kings of Israel, a deceitful brook, which offers no refreshment to the thirsty wanderer; just so the city would slip from the grasp of the kings of Judah (the southern kingdom being meant in this instance), so that it would no longer be in their possession. V. 15. Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah (town of inheritance), for Israel had been the heir obtaining it from the Canaanites, and the enemy would now be the heir receiving it from the people of Judah; he shall come unto Adullam, the glory of Israel, rather, “even unto Adullam will the nobility of Israel come," to hide themselves in the cave in which David once sought refuge from Saul. Cp. 1 Sam. 22, 1. V. 16. Make thee bald, Zion as the mother of the nation being addressed, and poll thee, shearing her head, for thy delicate children, in deep grief and sorrowful lamentation; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle, the griffin vulture of the Orient, the entire forepart of whose head is without feathers; for they are gone into captivity from thee. The entire paragraph is a powerful and vivid description of the overthrow of the land by the armies of the invaders, which would be sent to punish the transgression of Judah.

The Wickedness, the Punishment, and the Restoration of Israel.

DENUNCIATION OF THE PREVALENT EVILS. V. 1. Woe to them that devise iniquity, not on a sudden impulse, but with deliberate planning, and work evil upon their beds! using even the night-time to hatch out further

schemes of wickedness. When the morning is light, as soon as the day dawns, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand, or, "their hand is as a god"; they know no higher authority, they recognize no other power but that of their arm; they think they have a right to do what they please.

V. 2. And they covet fields, the property and inheritance of others, and take them by violence, seizing them as it suits their fancy, and houses, and take them away, oppressing the poor with a show of right. So they oppress, overwhelm and put to their own use, a man and his house, even a man and his heritage, which by the Law of God was to remain in the possession of his family. Cp. Ex. 20, 14. 17; Deut. 5, 18. V. 3. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, Behold, against this family, upon this generation of evil-doers, do I devise an evil, He, in turn, planning how He may punish them adequately with a severe judgment, from which ye shall not remove your necks, like a yoke which may not be shaken off no matter how heavy it presses; neither shall ye go haughtily, walking and behaving themselves in lofty pride; for this time is evil, in which depression of spirits and gloomy silence would come upon the members of the nation on account of the yoke of oppression laid upon them by the conquest of their country and the distress of the exile. V. 4. In that day shall one take up a parable against you, the enemies inventing bywords and mocking jingles, and lament with a doleful lamentation, for the mocking song of the enemies would be a mournful dirge in the mouths of the children of Israel, and say, We be utterly spoiled, completely destroyed! He hath changed the portion of my people, Jehovah Himself permitting the heathen to take possession of it; how hath He removed it from me! so that it was no longer in Israel's possession. Turning away, He hath divided our fields, dealing out the portions to the invaders. V. 5. Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the Lord, to cast a measuring-line on a lot of ground in the assembly of Jehovah, for the possessions of the children of Israel belonged to them only as long as they remained faithful to the God of the covenant and would be taken away when they became unfaithful. V. 6. Prophesy not, say they to them that prophesy, literally, "Drop not," or, "drivel not, they drivel," almost like the American slang, "Dry up! they drivel," in speaking to the true prophets in a silly fashion. They shall not prophesy to them that they shall not take shame, that is: If the prophecy, which the apostate Jews regarded as drivel, would not continue, then there would be no chance for them to escape the shame which would come upon the entire nation by the conquest of the enemies. unbelievers to this day refuse to realize that the very preaching which they consider drivel and rot is the one means of saving them from the impending Judgment.

The

EXPULSION OF THE LEADERS AND RESTORATION OF THE LORD'S PEOPLE. — V. 7. O thou that art named the house of Jacob, the people who still considered themselves the covenant nation, is the Spirit of the Lord

straitened, impatient? Did He not exercise patience and long-suffering? Are these His doings? Are the impending punishments coming because He delights in them, because He is vindictive? Do not My words do good to him that walketh uprightly? Is He not always ready to show goodness to those who conduct themselves in accordance with His righteous and holy will? The guilt, therefore, is entirely on the part of the people. V. 8. Even of late, in fact, yesterday, My people is risen up as an enemy, taking an open stand against Jehovah. And this hostility is openly shown. Ye pull off the robe with the garment, stripping off the mantle or upper garment, from them that pass by securely, considering themselves safe from robbery and violence, as men averse from war, that is, from peaceable people, such as seek no quarrel with any one. V. 9. The women of My people, the unprotected widows, have ye cast out from their pleasant houses, the houses of their delight, to which they were attached by the memory of their wedded love; from their children have ye taken away My glory, the ornament or gift which He has given them, forever, namely, by depriving them of their dress and of their rightful property. Cp. Ex. 22, 25. V. 10. Arise ye and depart! into the exile which the enemies would force upon them; for this is not your rest, they would not be permitted to remain in Canaan; because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction, or, "on account of the corruption which brings destruction, and that a most powerful destruction." Such prophecies, setting forth the depth of the nation's corruption, are, of course, very unwelcome to the wicked leaders. V. 11. If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood, in vanity and falsehood, namely, in preaching his own ideas, do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink, that is, of the enjoyment of this present life, he shall even be the prophet of this people, he would meet with the approval of their leaders and those who desired a cover for their lives of luxury and dissipation. But in the very midst of this denunciation the prophet places a wonderful promise of the restoration of the Lord's people in the Messianic era. V. 12. I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee, all those whom He intended as members of His congregation; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel, collecting the believers from all the nations of the earth; I will put them together, in one fold, John 10, 16, as the sheep of Bozrah, the rich meadowland east of Jordan, as the flock in the midst of the fold, secure from the attack of the enemies. They shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men, surging with their great numbers. V. 13. The breaker is come up before them, rather, "There will go up before them He that breaketh through," their power