Exposition of the Whole Bible

their root in it, and are of the nature of it, andj ee night, continued one whole day, to the great delight of Yonah; and by the morning of the following day this worm or grub was prepared in it, or fent to it, to the root of it: this fhows that God is the creator of the leaft, as well as the largeft of creatures, of worms as well as whales, contrary to the notion of Valentinus, Marcion and Apelles; who, as Ferom * fays, introduce another creator of ants, worms, fleas, locufts, &c. and another of the heavens, earth, fea and angels: but it is much that Arvobius', an orthodox ancient chriftian father, fhould deny fuch creatures to be the work of God, and profefs his ignorance of the maker of them. His words are, ‘* fhould we deny ** flies, beetles, worms, mice, weafels and moths ‘© to be the work of the king omnipotent, it does not follow that it fhould be required of us to fay who made and formed them; for we may without blame be ignorant who gave them their original;” whereas, in the miracle of the lice, the magicians of Egypt themfelves owned that the finger of God was there, and were out of their power to effect; and to the prophet mos, the great God was reprefented in a vifion as making locufts or grafhoppers, ch. vii. 1. and indeed the fmalleft infect or reptile is a difplay of the wifdom and power of God, and not at all below his dignity and greatnefs to produce; and for which there are wife reafons in nature and providence, as here, for the production of this worm: the fame God that prepared a great fifth to fwallow Fonab, and a gourd to fhadow him, and an eaft-wind to blow upon him, prepared this worm to deftroy his fhade, and try his patience: and it fmote the gourd, that it withered, it bit its root, and its moifture dried up, and it withered away at once, and became ufelefs: that fame hand that gives mercies, can take them away, and that very fuddenly, in a a trice, in a few hours, as in the cafe of Fob; and fometimes very fecretly and invifibly, that men are not aware of; their fubftance waftes, and they fall to decay, and they can fcarcely tell the reafon of it; there is a worm at the root of their enjoyments, -which kill them; God is as a moth and rottennefs unto them; and he does this fometimes by fimall means, by little inftruments, as he plagued Pharaoh and the Egyptians with lice and flies. | ¥. 8. And it came to pals when the fun did arife, &c.] After that the gourd was {mitten and withered; when it was not only rifen, but fhone out with great force and heat: that God prepared a vebement eaft-wind; or, a deafning eaft-wind*; which blowed fo ftrong, and fo loud, as R. Marinus in Aben Ezra and Kimchi fay, made people deaf that heard it: or, a filencing eaft-wind,; which when it blew, all other winds were filent, as Farchi: or it made men filent, not being to be heard for it: or, a filent *, that is, a ftill quiet wind, as the Targum; which blew fo gently and flowly, that it increafed the heat, inftead of leflening it: or rather, a plowing eaft-wind *; fuch as are frequent 7 in the eaftern countries, which plow up the dry land, caufe the fand to arife and cover men and camels, and bury them in it. Of thefe winds Monfieur Thevenot * fpeaks more than once; in fandy deferts, between Cairo and Suez, he fays, ‘‘ it blew “© {9 furioufly, that I thought all the tents iow ave

Shea ‘St have been carried away with the wind; which *< drove before it fuch clouds of fand, that we ** were almoft buried under it; for feeing nobody ** could ftay abroad, without having mouth and ** eyes immediately filled with fand, we lay under “¢ the tents, where the wind drove in the fand *¢ above a foot deep round about us;” and in another place he obferves.*, ‘* from Suez to Cairo, ‘© for a day’s time or more, we had fo hot a wind, ** that we were forced to turn our backs to it, to “ take a little breath, and fo foon as we opened “* our mouths they were full of fand;” fuch an one was here raifed, which blew the fand and duft into the face of Yonah, and almoft fuffocated him, which, with the heat of the fun, was very afflictive to him: and the fun beat upon the head of Fonah, that be fainted, the boughs of trees, of which the booth was made, being withered, and his gourd, or whatever plant it was, alfo, he had nothing to fhelter him from the heat of the fun; but the beams of it darted directly upon him, fo that he was not able to fuftain them; they quite overwhelmed him, and caufed him to faint, and juft ready to die away: and wifhed in bimfelf to die; or, defred his foul might die»; not his rational foul, which was immortal; but his animal or fenfitive foul, which he had in common with animals; he wifhed his animal life might be taken from him, becaufe the diftrefs thro’ the wind and fun was intolerable to him: and faid, it is better for ane to die than to live; in fo much pain and mifery; Seve Bs

¥. 9. And God faid to Fonah, doft thou well to be angry for the gourd? &c.] Or, art thou very angry for it? as the Targum: no mention is made of the bluftring wind and fcorching fun, becaufe the gourd or plant raifed up over him would have protected him from the injuries of both, had it continued; and it was for the lofs of that that Jonah was fo difpleafed, and in fuch a paffion. This queftion is put in order to draw out the following anfwer, and fo give an opportunity of improving this affair, to the end for which it was defigned: and he faid, I do well to be angry, even unto death; or, I am very angry unto death, as the Targum; I am fo very angry that I cannot live under it, for fretting and vexing; and it is right for me to be fo, tho’ I die with the paffion of it: how ungovernable are the paffions of men, and to what infolence do they rife when under the power of them!

y. 10. Then faid the Lord, thou haft had pity on the gourd, &c.| Or, haft fpared it*; that is,. would have fpared it, had it lain in his power, tho” but a weed, and worthlefs thing: for the which thou haft not laboured; in digging the ground, and by fowing or planting it; it being raifed up at once by the Lord himfelf, and not by any human art and induftry, nor by any of his: meither madeft

it grow; by dunging the earth abour it, or by watering and pruning it: which came up ina night, and perifbed in a night, not in the fame night; for it fprung up one night, continued a whole day, and then perifhed the next night. The Yargum is more explicit, ‘* which was in this (or one) night, “¢ and perifhed in another night;” by all which the Lord fuggefts to Yonah, the vaft difference bes tween the gourd he would have fpared, and for the lofs of which he was fo angry, and the city of Nineveh the Lord fpared, which fo highly difpleafed him; the one was but a herb, a plant, the other a great city; that a fingle plant, but the city confifted of thoufands of perfons; the plant was not the effect of his toil and labour, but the inhabitants of this city were the works of God’s hands. In the building of this city, according to hiftorians *, a million and a half of men were employed eight years together; the plant was like a mufhroom, it fprung up in a night, and perifhed in one; whereas this was a very ancient city, that had ftood ever fince the days of Nimrod.

¥. 11. And fhould not 1 [pare Nineveh that great city, 8c.] See ch. i. 2. and iii. 3. what is fuch a gourd or plant to that? wherein are more than Six [core thoufand perfons; or twelve myriads; that is, twelve times ten thoufand, or an hundred and twenty thoufand; meaning not all the inhabitants of Nineveb; for then it would not have appeared to be fo great a city; but infants only, as next de~ fcribed: that cannot difcern between their right-hand, and their left-hand; don’t know one from another; can’t diftinguifh between good and evil, right and wrong; are not comé to years of maturity and difcretion; and therefore there were room and reafon for pity and fparing mercy; efpecially fince they had not been guilty of adtual tranfgreffions, at leaft not very manifeft, and yet muft have perifhed with their parents had Nineveh been overthrown. The number of infants in this city is a proof of the greatnefs of it, tho’ not fo as to render the account incredible; for admitting thefe to be a fifth part of its inhabitants, as they ufually are of any place, as Bochart * obferves; it makes the number of its inhabitants to be but fix or feven hundred thoufand; and as many there were in Seleucia and Thebes, as Pliny ‘ relates of the one, and Tacitus © of the other: and alfo much cattel,; and thefe more valuable than goods, as animals are preferable to, and more ufetul than, vegetables; and yet thefe muft have perifhed in the common calamity. Farchi underftands by thefe grown-up perfons, whofe knowledge is like the. beafts that know not their creator. No-anfwer being returned, it may be reafonably fuppofed Yonab was convinced of his fin and folly; and to fhew his repentance for it, penned this narrative, which records his infirmities and weakneffes, for the good of the church, and the inftruction of faints in fucceeding ages.

HIS book is called, in the Hebrew copies,

Sepher Micah, the book of Micah; in the

Vulgate Latin verfion, the prophecy of Micab; and in the Syriac verfion, the prophecy of the prophet Micah. ‘This prophet is not the fame with Micaiah the fon of Imlah, who lived in the times of Abad and Febofoaphat, 1 Kings xxii. 8. for as Aben Ezra obferves, there were many generations between them, at leaft many.reigns of kings, as 7ehoram, Abaziah, Foafe, Amaziah, and Uzziah, all which made up a hundred and thirty years;. their names indeed feem to be the fame, fince he that is called Micaiah, 1 Kings xxii. 8. is called Micah, 2 Chron. xviii. 14. and this our prophet is named Micaiah in Fer. xxvi. 18. which is with fome of the fame fignification with Michael. So Abarbinel interprets it, who is as God; fee ch. vii. 18. which Hillerus * confates, and renders it, the contrition, attrition, attenuation, and depauperation of the Lord, deriving it from 4), which fignifies to be deprefled, humbled, weakened, and impoverifhed, as others do; which name, fome think, was given him by. his parents, becaufe of their low eftate, their meannefs and poverty; -but of them we have no account: however, this is much more probable, than the reafon Cornelius a Lapide gives of his name, that he was fo called, becaufe he prophefied of Chrift who was poor, and that he fhould be born in a poor country-village. As for his country, and the place of his birth, and the time in which he lived, they may be gathered from ch. i. 1. by which it will appear, that he was not of the tribe of Ephraim, as Pfeudo-Epiphanius ” fays, but of the tribe of Fadab; whole kings reigns, in which he prophefies, are only made mention of; tho’ his prophecies concerned both J/rae/ and Fudab, and he reproves both for their fins, and foretels their feveral captivities; and for the comfort of God’s people, fays many things concerning the

HIS chapter treats of the judgments of God on I/rael and Fudab, for their idolatry. It begins with the title of the whole book, in which is given an account of the prophet, the time of his prophefying, and of the perfons againft whom he prophefied, ¥. 1. next a preface to this chapter, requiring attention to what was about to be:

delivered, urged from the confideration of the awful appearance of God, which is reprefented, as very grand and terrible, ¥. 2, 3, 4. the caufe of all which wrath that appeared in him, was the tranfgreffion of faced 5 particularly their idolatry,

Meffiah, his incarnation, the place of his birth; which no prophet fo clearly points at as he, thé execution of his offices, prophetic, prieftly, and kingly; the bleffings of grace that came by him, pardon of fin, atonement, ec. and the happinefs and glory of his church in the latter day. The authority of this book is confirmed, both by the elders of ‘Fudab in the times of Jeremiah, who quote a paffage out of it, ch. iii. 12. which they improve in favour of that prophet, fer. xxvi. 17, 18, 19. and by the chief priefts and {cribes in the time of Herod, who refer that prince to a prophecy in this book, for the place of the Meffiah’s birth, ch. v. 2. fee Matt. ii. 4,.5,,.6. He is thought to have prophefied thirty or forty years.. Bifhop Ujber * places him in the year of the world 3291, and of the Fulian period 4001, and before Chrift 7133 but according to Mr. Wéifion 4, he prophefied 750 years before the era of Chrift, and fo Mr. Bedford *, and three after the building of the city of Rome; and he foretels the captivity of the ten tribes thirty years, and the coming of Sexzacherib forty years, before they came to pafs; but when and where he died, and was buried, no certain proof can be given. P/eudo-Epiphanius, confounding him with Micaiah in Abab’s time, fays ‘, he was killed by his fon Yoram, who caft him down from a precipice, and was buried at Morathi his native place, near the burying-ground of Exakeim, and his grave was well known to that day. And according to Ferom*, the grave of this our prophet was at Mora/thi, and in his time turned into a church or temple. Sozomen" reports, that in the times of Theodofius the Elder, the body of Micah was found by Zebennus bifthop of Eleutheropolis at Berathfalia, ten furlongs from the city, near which was the grave of Micah, called by the common people the faithful monument, and in their country language Neph/ameemana, — as appears by the fpecial mention of their idols and graven images, in the account of their deftruction, ¥. 5, 6, 7. which deftruction is exag,-

. and by the mourning of the inhabitants of the feveral places that fhould be involved in it, which are particularly mentioned, ¥. 10—16.

¥. 1. The word of the Lord that came to Micah the Morafthite, 8cc.} So called, either from A42- refoab, mentioned y, 15..and was_a city. in the tribe of Fudab, Fofd. xv. 44. as the Targum, Farchi,