Micah 6:13

Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee,.... With the rod to be heard, Micah 6:9; by sending among them some of his sore judgments, as famine, pestilence, the sword of the enemy,

Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins.

Therefore, for these many sins of violence, frauds, and lies, also will I make thee sick in smiting thee; some read, I have begun to smite thee, so it suits well with the history of the wars, rapine, captivity, or desolation by the Syrians, Assyrians, Arabians, &c. brought upon Israel and Judah, which were the beginnings of their sorrows, and God’ s just punishments; but as we read it sick in smiting; it will as well suit with the grammatical construction of the words, with the history too, and thus it will give the greater emphasis to the words; God will ere long so smite, that the strokes of his rod should reach the very heart, and make Israel heart-sick of his wounds, inflicted on him by the Lord. In making thee desolate: this was fully accomplished, when the kingdom of the ten tribes was overthrown by Shalmaneser, and the kingdom of the two tribes captivated by Nebuchadnezzar. Because of thy sins; multiplied, aggravated, obstinately retained, and not repented of. Therefore, for these many sins of violence, frauds, and lies, Because of thy sins; multiplied, aggravated, obstinately retained, and not repented of.

Micah 6:13 Therefore also will I make [thee] sick in smiting thee, in making [thee] desolate because of thy sins.Ver. 13. Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee] This is one twig of that rod, Micah 6:9, that now they shall hear and feel too, that would not hearken to God’ s word. Bernard telleth us concerning a brother of his; that when he gave him many good instructions and he, being a soldier, minded them not, he put his finger to his sides and said, One day a spear shall make way to this heart of thine, for instructions and admonitions to enter. God can (and, where he intendeth mercy will) make way for his word by his rod; and seal up instructions by chastening men with pain upon their beds, "and the multitude of their bones with strong pain," Job 33:16; Job 33:19. He can fasten them to their beds, as he did Abimelech, David, Hezekiah, and thereby tame them, and take them a link lower, Job 33:17. He can smite them with sickness, and make them desolate, as it is here; with such sickness as shall make their best friends afraid of them, and that none dare look at them, but as through a grate; and all this with a sting too in the tail of it, because of thy sins. "Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat" (so sick they are and stomachless, that nothing will down with them); "and they draw near to the gates of death," Psalms 107:17-18. This was the case of that rich and wretched cardinal, Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England, in the reign of Henry VI, who, tossing upon his sick bed and perceiving he must die, murmured at sickness and death, that his riches could neither relieve him under the one, nor reprieve him from the other (Fox, Martyrs, tel. 925). This was also the case of that great Emperor Charles V, of whom Duplessy reporteth, that when he was old and crazy he cursed his honours, his victories, trophies, riches, saying, Abite hinc, abite longe, Away, begone, miserable comforters are ye all. Mention is made before of a great man that wrote this a little before his death, Spes et fortuna valete. Farewell hope and prosperity. And surely there are not a few rich cormorants, who may well say to their wealth when they are sick, as Cornelius Agrippa did to his familiar spirit, Abi perdita bestia, quae me perdidisti, Begone, thou wicked beast, thou hast been mine undoing, &c. A promise contrary to this threatening in the text is that Isaiah 33:24, "And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity."

Verse 13. Will I make thee sick in smiting thee] Perhaps better, "I also am weary with smiting thee, in making thee desolate for thy sins." They were corrected, but to no purpose; they had stroke upon stroke, but were not amended.

13. will I make thee sick] Deadly sick is the meaning; comp. Nahum 3:19, where the term is explained in the parallel clause to mean ‘incurable.’

Therefore also will I - (Literally, And I too,) that is, this dost thou, and thus will I too do.

11. Shall I count them pure — This is an impossible rendering of the Hebrew, but it is supported by Vulgate; the Hebrew reads, “Shall I be pure?” If this is original, the people must be the speaker;