Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Micah 1:8
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked, etc.] To his shut, putting off his upper garment; the rough one, such as the prophets used to wear; which he did as the greater sign of his mourning: sometimes, in such cases, they rent their garments; at other times they stripped themselves of them, and walked naked, as Isaiah did, (<232003>Isaiah 20:3,4); he went about like a madman, one disturbed in his mind, bereft of his senses, because of the desolation coming upon Israel; and without his clothes, as such persons often do: so the word rendered “stripped” signifies, as the Jewish commentators observe. This lamentation, and with these circumstances, the prophet made in his own person, to show the reality and certainty of their ruin, and to represent to them the desolate condition they would be in, destitute of all good things, and to them with it; as well as to express the sympathy of his heart, and thereby to assure them that it was not out of ill will to them, or a spirit of revenge, that he delivered such a message: or this he did in the person of all the people, showing what they would do, and that this would be their case shortly. So the Targum, “for this they shall wail and howl, and go naked among the spoilers;” I will make a wailing like the dragons; as in their fight with elephants, at which time they make a hideous noisef38; and whose hissings have been very terrible to large bodies of men. Aelianusf39 speaks of a dragon in India, which, when it perceived Alexander’s army near at hand, gave such a prodigious hiss and blast, that it greatly frightened and disturbed the whole army: and he relatesf40 of another, that was in a valley near Mount Pellenaeus, in the isle of Chios, whose hissing was very terrible to the inhabitants of that place; and Bochartf41 conjectures that this their hissing is here referred to; and who observes of the whale, that it has its name from a word in the Hebrew tongue, which signifies to lament; and which word is here used, and is frequently used of large fishes, as whales, sea calves, dolphins, etc. which make a great noise and bellowing, as the sea calf; particularly the balaena, which is one kind of a whale, and makes such a large and continued noise, as to be heard at the distance of two miles, as Rondeletiusf42 says; and dolphins are said to make a moan and groaning like human creatures, as Plinyf43 and Solinusf44 report: and Peter Gillius relates, from his own experience, that lodging one night in a vessel, in which many dolphins were taken, there were such weeping and mourning, that he could not sleep for them; he thought they deplored their condition with mourning, lamentation, and a large flow of tears, as men do, and therefore could not help pitying their case; and, while the fisherman was asleep, took that which was next him, that seemed to mourn most, and cast it into the sea; but this was of no avail, for the rest increased their mourning more and more, and seemed plainly to desire the like deliverance; so that all the night he was in the midst of the most bitter moaning: wherefore Bochart, who quotes these instances, elsewheref45 thinks that the prophet compares his mourning with the mourning of these creatures, rather than with the hissing of dragons. Somef46 think crocodiles are here meant; and of them it is reportedf47, that when they have eaten the body of a creature, which they do first, and come to the head, they weep over it with tears; hence the proverb of crocod…
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