Commentary on Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah and Nahum John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
happened to thee from Shittim to Gilgal, from the beginning to the end; at the time when thou didst enter the wilderness, thou hadst begun to provoke the wrath of God.'' And we know that even in Shittim the Israelites fell away into idolatry; and that defection, in a manner, alienated them from God. Hence God shows here that he, in his goodness and mercy, had contended with the ungodly ways of the people even to Gilgal; that is, ``Thou hast never ceased to provoke me.'' We indeed know that the people continually excited against themselves the displeasure of God, and that their defections were many and various. In short, then the Prophet shows that God had so mercifully dealt with the people, that he had, in a most astonishing manner, overcome their wickedness by his goodness.
He at length subjoins, That thou mayest know the righteousnesses of Jehovah.
By righteousnesses he means acts of kindness, as the sense of the word is in many other passages: for the righteousness of God is often taken not only for uprightness, but also for the faithfulness and truth which he manifests towards his people. It betokens therefore the relation between God and his Church, whenever the word, righteousness, is to be understood in this sense. That thou mayest then know the righteousnesses of Jehovah; that is, that experience itself may prove to thee how faithful, how beneficent, how merciful has God ever been towards your race. 241
Since then the righteousness of God was conspicuous, the people must surely have been mute, and had nothing for which they could justly expostulate with God: what remained, but that their extreme impiety, fully detected before heaven and earth and all the elements, exposed them to his judgment? It now follows ---
Micah 6:6-8
6. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
6. In quo occurram Jehovae? Incurvabo me coram Deo excelso? Occurramne ei in holocaustis? In vitulis anniculis?
7. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
7. An complacitum erit Jehovae in millibus arietum? In decem millibus vallium olei (vel, pinguedinis?) An dabo primogenitum peccatum meum (hoc est, piaculum peccati mei? Fructum ventris mei, piaculum sceleris animae mea?
8. He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
8. Indicavit tibi, homo, quid bonum; et quid Jehova quaerit abs te nisi facere judicium et deligere clementiam (vel, bonitatem,) et humiliari ut ambules cum Deo tuo.
The Prophet now inquires, as in the name of the people, what was necessary to be done: and he takes these two principles as granted, --- that the people were without any excuse, and were forced to confess their sin, --- and that God had hitherto remember, I pray, What did Balak, the king of Moab, consult, And what did Balaam, the son of Beor, answer him, (And what I did) from Shittim even to Gilgal, That ye may know the faithful dealings of Jehovah. --- Ed.
241"His justice in destroying the Canaanites, his goodness in giving rest to his people Israel, and his faithfulness to his promises made unto the Fathers." — Henry.