Micah 6:14

14 You will eat. But you will not be satisfied. Your stomachs will still be empty. You will try to save what you can. But you will not be able to. If you do save something, it will be destroyed in battle.

Micah 6:14 Meaning and Commentary

Micah 6:14

Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied
Either not having enough to eat, for the refreshing and satisfying of nature; or else a blessing being withheld from food, though eaten, and so not nourishing; or a voracious and insatiable appetite being given as a curse; the first sense seems best: and thy casting down [shall be] in the midst of thee;
meaning they should be humbled and brought down, either by civil discords and wars among themselves, or through the enemy being suffered to come into the midst of their country, and make havoc there; which would be as a sickness and disease in their bowels. So the Targum,

``thou shalt have an illness in thy bowels.''

The Syriac version is,

``a dysentery shall be in thine intestines;''

a secret judgment wasting and destroying them; and thou shall take hold, but shall not deliver; and [that] which thou
deliverest will I give up to the sword;
the sense is, that they should take hold of their wives and children, and endeavour to save them from the sword of the enemy, and being carried captive: or should "remove" them ^F16, as the word is sometimes used, in order to secure them from them; or should "overtake" ^F17; the enemy, carrying them captive; but should not be able by either of these methods to save them from being destroyed, or carried away by them; and even such as they should preserve or rescue for a while, yet these should be given up to the sword of the enemy, the same or another. Aben Ezra and Kimchi interpret this of their women conceiving, and not bringing forth; and, if they should, yet what they brought forth should be slain by the sword ^F18. But the Targum and Jarchi incline to the former sense.

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FOOTNOTES:

F16 (gotw) "et amovebis", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Tarnovius; "summovebis", Drusius, so Ben Melech; "et removebis", Burkius.
F17 "Assequeris", Syr.
F18 R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 35. 2.

Micah 6:14 In-Context

12 The rich people among you harm others. You are always telling lies. You try to fool others by what you say.

13 So I will strike you down. I will destroy you because you have sinned so much.

14 You will eat. But you will not be satisfied. Your stomachs will still be empty. You will try to save what you can. But you will not be able to. If you do save something, it will be destroyed in battle.

15 You will plant seeds. But you will not harvest any crops. You will press olives. But you will not use the oil for yourselves. You will crush grapes. But you will not drink the wine that is made from them.

16 You have followed the evil practices of King Omri of Israel. You have done what the family of King Ahab did. You have followed their bad example. So I will let you be destroyed. Others will make fun of you. The nations will laugh at you."