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Selected Verse: Micah 6:10 - King James

Verse	Translation	Text
Mic 6:10	King James	Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
Are there yet--notwithstanding all My warnings. Is there to be no end of acquiring treasures by wickedness? Jehovah is speaking (Mic 6:9). scant measure . . . abominable-- (Pro 11:1; Amo 8:5).

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

Are there yet--notwithstanding all My warnings. Is there to be no end of acquiring treasures by wickedness? Jehovah is speaking (Mic 6:9).

scant measure . . . abominable-- (Pro 11:1; Amo 8:5).

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
Are there yet - Still after all the warnings and long-suffering of God, "the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked?" "Treasures of wickedness" are treasures gotten by wickedness; yet it means too that he wicked shall have no treasure, no fruit, but his wickedness. He treasureth up treasures, but of wickedness; as James saith, "Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days" Jam 5:3, that is, of the miseries that shall come upon them James 1. The words stand over against one another; "house of the wicked, treasures of wickedness;" as though the whole house of the wicked was but a "treasure-house of wickedness." Therein it began; therein and in its rewards it shall end. "Are there yet?" the prophet asks. There shall soon cease to be. The treasure shall be spoiled; the iniquity alone shall remain. And the scant ephah - (Literally, "ephah of leanness" the English margin) which is abominable? Scant itself, and, by the just judgment of God, producing scantness, emaciated and emaciating (See Mic 6:14); as He says, "He gave them their desire, and sent leanness withal into their soul" Psa 106:15; and James, "it shall eat your flesh as it were fire" Jam 5:3. Even a pagan said, , "Gain gotten by wickedness is loss;" and that, as being "abominable" or "accursed" or, one might say, "bewrathed," lying under the wrath and curse of God. Rib.: "What they minish from the measure, that they add to the wrath of God and the vengeance which shall come upon them; what is lacking to the measure shall be supplied out of the wrath of God." The Ephah was a corn-measure Amo 8:5, containing about six bushels; the rich, in whose house it was, were the sellers; they were the necessaries of life then, which the rich retailers of corn were selling dishonestly, at the price of the lives of the poor . Our subtler ways of sin cheat ourselves, not God. In what ways do not competitive employers use the scant measure which is accursed? What else is all our competitive trade, our cheapness, our wealth, but scant measure to the poor, making their wages lean, full and overflowing with the wrath of God?

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

Are there yet - Still after all the warnings and long-suffering of God, "the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked?" "Treasures of wickedness" are treasures gotten by wickedness; yet it means too that he wicked shall have no treasure, no fruit, but his wickedness. He treasureth up treasures, but of wickedness; as James saith, "Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days" Jam 5:3, that is, of the miseries that shall come upon them James 1. The words stand over against one another; "house of the wicked, treasures of wickedness;" as though the whole house of the wicked was but a "treasure-house of wickedness." Therein it began; therein and in its rewards it shall end. "Are there yet?" the prophet asks. There shall soon cease to be. The treasure shall be spoiled; the iniquity alone shall remain.

And the scant ephah - (Literally, "ephah of leanness" the English margin) which is abominable? Scant itself, and, by the just judgment of God, producing scantness, emaciated and emaciating (See Mic 6:14); as He says, "He gave them their desire, and sent leanness withal into their soul" Psa 106:15; and James, "it shall eat your flesh as it were fire" Jam 5:3. Even a pagan said, , "Gain gotten by wickedness is loss;" and that, as being "abominable" or "accursed" or, one might say, "bewrathed," lying under the wrath and curse of God. Rib.: "What they minish from the measure, that they add to the wrath of God and the vengeance which shall come upon them; what is lacking to the measure shall be supplied out of the wrath of God." The Ephah was a corn-measure Amo 8:5, containing about six bushels; the rich, in whose house it was, were the sellers; they were the necessaries of life then, which the rich retailers of corn were selling dishonestly, at the price of the lives of the poor . Our subtler ways of sin cheat ourselves, not God. In what ways do not competitive employers use the scant measure which is accursed? What else is all our competitive trade, our cheapness, our wealth, but scant measure to the poor, making their wages lean, full and overflowing with the wrath of God?

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
The threatening words commence in Mic 6:10; Mic 6:10-12 containing a condemnation of the prevailing sins. Mic 6:10. "Are there yet in the house of the unjust treasures of injustice, and the ephah of consumption, the cursed one? Mic 6:11. Can I be clean with the scale of injustice, and with a purse with stones of deceit? Mic 6:12. That their rich men are full of wickedness, and their inhabitants speak deceit, and their tongue is falseness in their mouth." The reproof is dressed up in the form of a question. In the question in Mic 6:10 the emphasis is laid upon the עוד, which stands for that very reason before the interrogative particle, as in Gen 19:12, the only other place in which this occurs. אשׁ, a softened form for ישׁ, as in Sa2 14:19. Treasures of wickedness are treasures acquired through wickedness or acts of injustice. The meaning of the question is not, Are the unjust treasures not yet removed out of the house, not yet distributed again? but, as Mic 6:10 and Mic 6:11 require, Does the wicked man still bring such treasures into the house? does he still heap up such treasures in his house? The question is affirmative, and the form of a question is chosen to sharpen the conscience, as the unjust men to whom it is addressed cannot deny it. איפת רזון, ephah of consumption or hungriness, analogous to the German expression "a hungry purse," is too small an ephah (cf. Deu 25:14; Amo 8:5); the opposite of א שׁלמה (Deu 25:15) or א צדק (Lev 19:36), which the law prescribed. Hence Micah calls it זעוּמה = זעוּם יהוה in Pro 22:14, that which is smitten by the wrath of God (equivalent to cursed; cf. Num 23:7; Pro 24:24). Whoever has not a full ephah is, according to Deu 25:16, an abomination to the Lord. If these questions show the people that they do not answer to the demands made by the Lord in Mic 6:8, the questions in Mic 6:11 also teach that, with this state of things, they cannot hold themselves guiltless. The speaker inquires, from the standpoint of his own moral consciousness, whether he can be pure, i.e., guiltless, if he uses deceitful scales and weights, - a question to which every one must answer No. It is difficult, however, to decide who the questioner is. As Mic 6:9 announces words of God, and in Mic 6:10 God is speaking, and also in Mic 6:12, Mic 6:13, it appears as though Jehovah must be the questioner here. But אזכּה does not tally with this. Jerome therefore adopts the rendering numquid justificabo stateram impiam; but זכה in the kal has only the meaning to be pure, and even in the piel it is not used in the sense of niqqh, to acquit. This latter fact is sufficient to overthrow the proposal to alter the reading into piel. Moreover, "the context requires the thought that the rich men fancy they can be pure with deceitful weights, and a refutation of this delusive idea" (Caspari). Consequently the prophet only can raise this question, namely as the representative of the moral consciousness; and we must interpret this transition, which is so sudden and abrupt to our ears, by supplying the thought, "Let every one ask himself," Can I, etc. Instead of רשׁע we have the more definite mirmh in the parallel clause. Scales and a bag with stones belong together; 'ăbhanı̄m are the stone weights (cf. Lev 19:36; Deu 25:13) which were carried in a bag (Pro 16:11). In Mic 6:12 the condemnation of injustice is widened still further. Whereas in the first clause the rich men of the capital (the suffix pointing back to עיר in Mic 6:9), who are also to be thought of in Mic 6:10, are expressly mentioned, in the second clause the inhabitants generally are referred to. And whilst the rich are not only charged with injustice or fraud in trade, but with châmâs, violence of every kind, the inhabitants are charged with lying and deceit of the tongue. Leshōnâm (their tongue) is not placed at the head absolutely, in the sense of "As for their tongue, deceit is," etc. Such an emphasis as this is precluded by the fact that the preceding clause, "speaking lies," involves the use of the tongue. Leshōnâm is the simple subject: Their tongue is deceit or falsehood in their mouth; i.e., their tongue is so full of deceit, that it is, so to speak, resolved into it. Both clauses express the thought, that "the inhabitants of Jerusalem are a population of liars and cheats" (Hitzig). The connection in which the verse stands, or the true explanation of אשׁר, has been a matter of dispute. We must reject both the combination of Mic 6:12 and Mic 6:13 ("Because their rich men, etc., therefore I also," etc.), and also the assumption that Mic 6:12 contains the answer to the question in Mic 6:10, and that אשׁר precedes the direct question (Hitzig): the former, because Mic 6:12 obviously forms the conclusion to the reproof, and must be separated from what precedes it; the latter, because the question in Mic 6:11 stands between Mic 6:10 and Mic 6:12, which is closely connected with Mic 6:10, and Mic 6:12 also contains no answer to Mic 6:10, so far as the thought is concerned, even if the latter actually required an answer. We must rather take אשׁר as a relative, as Caspari does, and understand the verse as an exclamation, which the Lord utters in anger over the city: "She, whose rich men are full," etc. "Angry persons generally prefer to speak of those who have excited their wrath, instead of addressing their words to them."

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

The threatening words commence in Mic 6:10; Mic 6:10-12 containing a condemnation of the prevailing sins. Mic 6:10. "Are there yet in the house of the unjust treasures of injustice, and the ephah of consumption, the cursed one? Mic 6:11. Can I be clean with the scale of injustice, and with a purse with stones of deceit? Mic 6:12. That their rich men are full of wickedness, and their inhabitants speak deceit, and their tongue is falseness in their mouth." The reproof is dressed up in the form of a question. In the question in Mic 6:10 the emphasis is laid upon the עוד, which stands for that very reason before the interrogative particle, as in Gen 19:12, the only other place in which this occurs. אשׁ, a softened form for ישׁ, as in Sa2 14:19. Treasures of wickedness are treasures acquired through wickedness or acts of injustice. The meaning of the question is not, Are the unjust treasures not yet removed out of the house, not yet distributed again? but, as Mic 6:10 and Mic 6:11 require, Does the wicked man still bring such treasures into the house? does he still heap up such treasures in his house? The question is affirmative, and the form of a question is chosen to sharpen the conscience, as the unjust men to whom it is addressed cannot deny it. איפת רזון, ephah of consumption or hungriness, analogous to the German expression "a hungry purse," is too small an ephah (cf. Deu 25:14; Amo 8:5); the opposite of א שׁלמה (Deu 25:15) or א צדק (Lev 19:36), which the law prescribed. Hence Micah calls it זעוּמה = זעוּם יהוה in Pro 22:14, that which is smitten by the wrath of God (equivalent to cursed; cf. Num 23:7; Pro 24:24). Whoever has not a full ephah is, according to Deu 25:16, an abomination to the Lord. If these questions show the people that they do not answer to the demands made by the Lord in Mic 6:8, the questions in Mic 6:11 also teach that, with this state of things, they cannot hold themselves guiltless. The speaker inquires, from the standpoint of his own moral consciousness, whether he can be pure, i.e., guiltless, if he uses deceitful scales and weights, - a question to which every one must answer No. It is difficult, however, to decide who the questioner is. As Mic 6:9 announces words of God, and in Mic 6:10 God is speaking, and also in Mic 6:12, Mic 6:13, it appears as though Jehovah must be the questioner here. But אזכּה does not tally with this. Jerome therefore adopts the rendering numquid justificabo stateram impiam; but זכה in the kal has only the meaning to be pure, and even in the piel it is not used in the sense of niqqh, to acquit. This latter fact is sufficient to overthrow the proposal to alter the reading into piel. Moreover, "the context requires the thought that the rich men fancy they can be pure with deceitful weights, and a refutation of this delusive idea" (Caspari). Consequently the prophet only can raise this question, namely as the representative of the moral consciousness; and we must interpret this transition, which is so sudden and abrupt to our ears, by supplying the thought, "Let every one ask himself," Can I, etc. Instead of רשׁע we have the more definite mirmh in the parallel clause. Scales and a bag with stones belong together; 'ăbhanı̄m are the stone weights (cf. Lev 19:36; Deu 25:13) which were carried in a bag (Pro 16:11). In Mic 6:12 the condemnation of injustice is widened still further. Whereas in the first clause the rich men of the capital (the suffix pointing back to עיר in Mic 6:9), who are also to be thought of in Mic 6:10, are expressly mentioned, in the second clause the inhabitants generally are referred to. And whilst the rich are not only charged with injustice or fraud in trade, but with châmâs, violence of every kind, the inhabitants are charged with lying and deceit of the tongue. Leshōnâm (their tongue) is not placed at the head absolutely, in the sense of "As for their tongue, deceit is," etc. Such an emphasis as this is precluded by the fact that the preceding clause, "speaking lies," involves the use of the tongue. Leshōnâm is the simple subject: Their tongue is deceit or falsehood in their mouth; i.e., their tongue is so full of deceit, that it is, so to speak, resolved into it. Both clauses express the thought, that "the inhabitants of Jerusalem are a population of liars and cheats" (Hitzig). The connection in which the verse stands, or the true explanation of אשׁר, has been a matter of dispute. We must reject both the combination of Mic 6:12 and Mic 6:13 ("Because their rich men, etc., therefore I also," etc.), and also the assumption that Mic 6:12 contains the answer to the question in Mic 6:10, and that אשׁר precedes the direct question (Hitzig): the former, because Mic 6:12 obviously forms the conclusion to the reproof, and must be separated from what precedes it; the latter, because the question in Mic 6:11 stands between Mic 6:10 and Mic 6:12, which is closely connected with Mic 6:10, and Mic 6:12 also contains no answer to Mic 6:10, so far as the thought is concerned, even if the latter actually required an answer. We must rather take אשׁר as a relative, as Caspari does, and understand the verse as an exclamation, which the Lord utters in anger over the city: "She, whose rich men are full," etc. "Angry persons generally prefer to speak of those who have excited their wrath, instead of addressing their words to them."

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
Yet - After so many express laws, and so many examples of punishment. Treasures - Gotten by injurious courses.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
Are there yet the treasures of wickedness - Such as false balances and deceitful weights. See on Hos 12:7 (note). This shows that they were not Doing Justly. They did not give to each his due.

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⁵ Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?

¹ A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.

⁹ The LORD'S voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.

⁵ Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?

³ Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

¹⁵ And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.

¹⁴ Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee; and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver; and that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword.

³ Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

¹⁰ Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

¹² For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

¹⁰ Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

¹² For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

¹⁰ Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

¹¹ Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?

¹² For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

¹⁰ Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

¹² For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

¹³ Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins.

¹² For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

¹⁰ Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

⁹ The LORD'S voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.

¹² For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

¹¹ A just weight and balance are the LORD'S: all the weights of the bag are his work.

¹³ Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small.

³⁶ Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.

¹³ Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins.

¹² For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

¹⁰ Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

⁹ The LORD'S voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.

¹¹ Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?

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?

¹⁶ For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the LORD thy God.

²⁴ He that saith unto the wicked, Thou art righteous; him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him:

⁷ And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel.

¹⁴ The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.

³⁶ Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁵ But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

⁵ Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?

¹⁴ Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small.

¹¹ Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?

¹⁰ Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

¹⁹ And the king said, Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this? And the woman answered and said, As thy soul liveth, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from ought that my lord the king hath spoken: for thy servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of thine handmaid:

¹² And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place:

¹⁰ Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

¹² For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

¹¹ Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?

¹⁰ Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

¹⁰ Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?
¹¹ Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?
¹² For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

¹⁰ Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

⁷ He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress.