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Mic_2:6 Prophesy ye not, [say they to them that] prophesy: they shall not prophesy to them, [that] they shall not take shame.
Ver. 6. Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy] Prodigious impudence thus to silence the prophets, or else to prescribe to them, according to the other reading of the text. Prophesy not, as they prophesy, for they are too tart; therefore drop not ye, who thus drop vinegar and nitre, who vex our galled consciences no less then the cruel Spaniards do the poor Indians’ naked bodies, which, for a sport, they do day by day drop with burning bacon. But let these drop that can smooth us up, that can utter toothless truths, that will drop oil into our ears, and give us silken words ( byssina verba), these be prophets for our turns, &c. God cannot please some hearers unless he speak tinkling and tickling words. Now, these must get their ears healed (as Demosthenes advised his countrymen of Greece) ere they can be in case to hear with profit. They must learn of bees, to pass by roses and violets and sit upon thyme; to heed, I mean, sound rebukes rather than smooth supparasitations. There are those who note a jeer in the term drop. It is well known that the word preached is often compared to rain, Deu_32:2 Isa_55:10-11. The prophets therefore are here in derision called droppers or distillers, and forbidden to do their office, or at least, to drop in that sort. Thus their successors in evil, the Pharisees, who were likewise covetous, derided Christ, Luk_16:14. And thus their predecessors also, in Isaiah’s time, put a scoff upon him and his preaching, Isa_28:10, where the sound of the words in the original carries a taunt, as scornful people, by the tone of their voice and rhyming words, gibe and jeer at those whom they vilify.
They shall not prophesy to them] q.d. You shall have your wish; my droppers shall give over dropping, and be no further troublesome, nor take shame any more by prophesying to such a perverse people, so shamefully, so lawlessly wicked.
That they shall not take shame] Or, shall they not take shame? q.d. though they will not hear of it, that shame shall be their promotion and confusion their portion; yea, they shall surely feel and find it so.