Micah 7:14

New Living Translation

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Contextual Overview

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Feed: or, Rule, Micah 5:4, *marg. Psalms 23:1-4, Psalms 28:9, Psalms 95:7, Psalms 100:3, Isaiah 40:11, Isaiah 49:10, Matthew 2:6, *marg. John 10:27-30

which: Exodus 33:16, Numbers 23:9, Deuteronomy 33:28, John 17:16

in the midst: Isaiah 35:2, Isaiah 37:24, Isaiah 65:10, Jeremiah 50:19, Jeremiah 50:20, Ezekiel 34:13, Ezekiel 34:14, Zephaniah 3:13

as: Psalms 77:5-11, Psalms 143:5, Lamentations 1:7, Lamentations 5:21, Amos 9:11, Malachi 3:4

Reciprocal: Exodus 4:2 - a rod Leviticus 27:32 - passeth under the rod Numbers 17:2 - twelve rods Numbers 32:1 - the place Deuteronomy 32:14 - of Bashan Psalms 23:4 - thy rod Psalms 68:15 - of Bashan Psalms 110:2 - the rod Song of Solomon 7:5 - Carmel Isaiah 11:11 - set his hand Isaiah 33:9 - Bashan Jeremiah 23:4 - I Jeremiah 29:11 - thoughts Jeremiah 33:7 - and will Jeremiah 49:31 - which dwell Ezekiel 34:16 - I will feed Ezekiel 34:31 - ye my Ezekiel 36:11 - and I will settle Ezekiel 37:23 - but Hosea 2:14 - and speak Obadiah 1:19 - Benjamin Micah 2:12 - I will put Micah 7:18 - the remnant Zechariah 9:16 - shall save Zechariah 10:10 - into Acts 3:19 - when Acts 20:28 - all 1 Peter 5:2 - Feed 1 Peter 5:3 - heritage Revelation 7:17 - feed

Cross-References

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Gill's Notes on the Bible

Feed thy people with thy rod,.... These are either the words of God the Father to Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep, calling upon him to do his office as such; to feed the people he had given him, the sheep of his hand, the flock of his pasture, by his Spirit, and with his word and ordinances; see Zechariah 11:5; or of Christ to his ministers, his undershepherds, to feed his sheep and his lambs, the people committed to their care and charge, with wholesome words, with sound and good doctrine, by faithfully preaching the Gospel, and administering the ordinances to them: or rather the words of the prophet, a prayer of his to God or Christ, to take care of the people of God in their desolate state, in captivity; to guide and lead them, protect and defend them, by his power and providence, as a shepherd directs, leads, governs, and preserves his flock with his pastoral crook or rod; or, as before, to feed the church of God as a shepherd does his flock, lead them into good pastures, and secure them from all their enemies: and this, being a prayer of faith, may be considered as a prophecy or prediction of what would be; and so some render the words, "thou shalt feed thy people", c. h. The Targum is,

"feed thy people with thy word, the people of thine inheritance, in the age which is to be renewed''

in the new world, the world to come; plainly referring to the times of the Messiah;

the flock of thine heritage; who are like to sheep for their harmlessness and innocence, and to a flock of them, being associated together, and folded in the church; and though but a little flock, yet the lot, the portion, the inheritance of Christ; all which is a strong reason for his feeding, keeping, and preserving them, being committed to his care and charge for that purpose:

which dwell solitary [in] the wood; dwell alone in the world, which is like a wood and a wilderness; separated from the men of the world; distinguished by the grace of God, chosen and called out from among them, and different from them both in principle and practice: this may have respect to the Jews, in their dispersion, living separate from and unmixed with the nations of the world; or rather to their dwelling in safety and security under the protection of the great Shepherd, the Messiah, David their Prince, when they shall be returned to their own land in the latter day:

in the midst of Carmel; or of a fruitful field, as Carmel was; enjoying all happiness and prosperity, temporal and spiritual:

let them feed [in] Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old; places in the land of Israel famous for rich and fat pastures; and so express the great plenty of good things wished for, and which will be enjoyed by the Jews when converted to Christ, and replaced in their own land; and are an emblem of those spiritual good things, and of those rich and green pastures of the word and ordinances, which the great Shepherd is desired to lead, and does lead, his people into; see Psalms 23:1; these places are now in the hand of the Turks, and so the words may be a petition for their conversion, as well as for the Jews, that this country may no more be inhabited by Heathens, but by the Israel of God, as Gulichius i very well observes.

h רעה "pasces", so some in Vatablus. i Apud Burkium in loc.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Feed Thy people with Thy rod - The day of final deliverance was still a great way off. There was a weary interval before them of chastisement, suffering, captivity. So Micah lays down his pastoral office by committing his people to Him who was their true and abiding Shepherd. who that has had the pastoral office, has not thought, as the night drew near in which no man can work, “what will be after him?” Micah knew and foretold the outline. It was for his people a passing through the valley of the shadow of death. Micah then commits them to Him, who had Himself committed them to him, who alone could guide them through it. It is a touching parting with his people; a last guidance of those whom he had taught, reproved, rebuked, in vain, to Him the Good Shepherd who led Israel like a flock. The rod is at times the shepherd’s staff Leviticus 27:32; Psalms 23:4, although more frequently the symbol of chastisement. God’s chastisement of His people is an austere form of His love. So He says, “If his children forsake My law, I will visit their offences with a rod and their sin with scourges: nevertheless My loving-kindness will I not utterly take from them” Psalms 89:31, Psalms 89:33.

The flock of Thine inheritance - So Moses had appealed to God, “Destroy not Thy people and Thine inheritance which Thou hast redeemed through Thy greatness - They are Thy people and Thine inheritance” Deuteronomy 9:26, Deuteronomy 9:29; and Solomon, in his dedication-prayer, that, on their repentance in their captivity, God would forgive His people, “for they be Thy people and Thine inheritance which Thou broughtest forth out of Egypt” 1 Kings 8:51; and Asaph, “O Lord, the pagan are come into Thine inheritance” Psalms 79:1; and again, “Why doth Thine anger smoke against the sheep of Thy pasture? Remember the tribe of Thine inheritance which Thou hast redeemed” Psalms 74:1-2; and Joel, “Spare Thy people and give not Thine heritage to reproach” Joel 2:17; and a Psalmist, “They break in pieces Thy people, O Lord, and afflict Thine heritage” Psalms 94:5; and Isaiah, “Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of Thine inheritance” Isaiah 63:17.

The appeal excludes all merits. Not for any deserts of their’s, (for these were but evil,) did the prophets teach them to pray; but because they were God’s property. It was His Name, which would be dishonored in them; it was His work, which would seemingly come to nothing; it was He, who would be thought powerless to save. Again, it is not God’s way, to leave half-done what He has begun. “Jesus, having loved His own which were in the world, loved them unto the end” John 13:1. God’s love in creating us and making us His, is the earnest, if we will, of His everlasting love. We have been the objects of His everlasting thought, of His everlasting love. Though we have forfeited all claim to Ills love, He has not forfeited the work of His Hands; Jesus has nor forfeited the price of His Blood. So holy men have prayed; , “I believe that Thou hast redeemed me by Thy Blood: permit not the price of the Ransom to perish.” “O Jesus Christ, my only Saviour, let not Thy most bitter Passion and Death be lost or wasted in me, miserable sinner!” .

Which dwell solitarily, or alone - Micah uses the words of Balaam, when he had been constrained by God to bless Israel. “The people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations” Numbers 23:9. Moses had repeated them, “Israel shall dwell in safety alone” Deuteronomy 33:28. This aloneness among other nations, then, was a blessing, springing from God’s being in the midst of them Exodus 33:16, Deuteronomy 4:7, the deeds which He did for them Exodus 34:10; Deuteronomy 4:3, the law which He gave Deuteronomy 4:8, Deuteronomy 4:33. So Moses prayed, “Wherein shall it be known here, that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight?” Exodus 33:16, is it “not in that Thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are on the face of the earth”. It was, then, a separate appeal to God by all His former loving-kindness, whereby He had severed and elected His people for Himself.

In the wood, in the midst of Carmel - God “turneth a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. He turneth the wilderness into a standing water and dry ground into watersprings” Psalms 107:34, Psalms 107:5. Isaiah at the same time used the like image, that “Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field (Carmel), and the fruitful field (Carmel) shall be esteemed as a forest” Isaiah 29:17. The wild forest was to be like the rich domestic exuberance of Carmel (see the note at Amos 1:2). He would say, “Feed Thy people in Babylon, which is to them a wild homeless tract, that it may be to them as their own peaceful Carmel.” Without God, all the world is a wilderness; with God, the wilderness is Paradise.

Let them feed in Basha and Gilead - The former words were a prayer for their restoration. Gilead and Bashan were the great pasture-countries of Palestine (see the note at Amos 1:3, vol. i. p. 234; iv. L p 280), , “a wide tableland, with undulating downs clothed with rich grass throughout,” where the cattle ranged freely.

They were the first possessions, which God had bestowed upon Israel; the first, which they forfeited. Micah prays that God, who protected them in their desolation, would restore and protect them in the green pasture where He placed them. They are a prayer still to the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep John 10:11, John 10:15, our Lord Jesus Christ, that He would feed His flock whom He has redeemed, who have been given to Him as an inheritance Psalms 2:8, the little flock Luke 12:32, to which it is the Fathers good pleasure to give the kingdom, which cleaveth to Him and shall be heirs with Him Romans 8:17. Cyril: “Christ feedeth His own with a rod, guiding them gently, and repressing by gentle fears the tendency of believers to listlessness. He bruiseth as with a rod of Iron, not them, but the rebellious disobedient and proud, who receive not the faith; believers He instructs and forms tenderly, feeds them among the lilies Song of Solomon 6:3, and leads them into good pastures and rich places, namely the divinely-inspired Scriptures, making the hidden things thereof clear through the Spirit to those of understanding, that they “may grow up unto Him in all things which is the Head, even Christ” Ephesians 4:15, with minds well-fed and nourished and gladdened with all spiritual delights.

But the chosen and elect dwell solitarily, being apart from the rest who think only of the things of earth, and give themselves to the pleasures of sense. So then these, having the mind at rest, freed from the vain and abominable tumults, are placed apart as in a wood and in a mountain. By the wood you may understand, the rich and varied and solid instruction (as it were trees and flowers) both in doctrine and life; by the mountain, what is high and lofty. For none of the wisdom, accounted of in the Church, is low. They are “fed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old”, rich pastures; for the mind of the holy is beautified, delighting itself in the contemplation of the inspired Scriptures, and filled, as it were, with a certain richness, and shares without stint all excellence in though or in deed; and that, not for a brief and narrow season, but forever. For what gladdeneth the flesh falleth therewith and fadeth and hasteth away like a shadow; but the participation of the good things from above and of the Spirit, stretcheth out along endless ages.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Micah 7:14. Feed thy people with thy rod — בשבטך beshibtecha, "with thy crook." The shepherd's crook is most certainly designed, as the word flock immediately following shows. No rod of correction or affliction is here intended; nor does the word mean such.

Solitarily — They have been long without a shepherd or spiritual governor.

In the midst of Carmel — Very fruitful in vines.

Bashan and Gilead — Proverbially fruitful in pasturages.