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Mic_7:4 The best of them [is] as a brier: the most upright [is sharper] than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen [and] thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.
Ver. 4. The best of them is as a brier] Which a man cannot handle without harm. See 2Sa_23:6 Psa_55:21; Psa_58:10 Eze_2:6 Mat_7:16; Mat_13:7; Mat_13:22; so, you cannot deal with them without danger; guilt, or grief you shall be sure of. Lot felt it so at Sodom, 2Pe_2:7-8, and so did those that set up that bramble Abimelech for their king, Jdg_9:15-16.
The most upright is sharper than a thornhedge] Ut ibi inveniatur dolor, ubi sperabatur auxilium, saith Jerome here; so that a man shall have grief where he hoped for help and succour; as a man that, taking hold of a thorn hedge to get over, hath his fingers pricked by it, and is glad to let go; or, as a sheep that, fleeing to the bush for defence in weather, loses part of her fleece. Now if the best and most upright among them were no better, what can be imagined of the many ( ïé ðïëëïé )? and what better can be hoped for by us (for one egg is not more like another than these times are those here described; it is but the same fable acted over again, only everything is now worse than ever) than a day of visitation, a time of perplexity, as it followeth here? For while they be folded together as thorns, and while they be drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry, Nah_1:10, as sear thorns under the pot, Ecc_7:6. I will go through these briers, saith God, I will burn them together, Isa_27:4, they shall be utterly burnt with fire in the same place, 2Sa_23:7, that is, in hell, as some interpret it.
The day of thy watchmen, and thy visitation cometh] Where sin is in the saddle punishment will be upon the crupper. {a} God will have a visitation day; and that for his watchmen, prophets, and governors, as well as for the common sort. "Thy visitation cometh," thou shalt share in punishment with them, as thou hast done in sin; neither shall it help thee to say, Our watchmen were in fault; for God will visit you all; and his visitation articles will be very strict and critical.
Now shall be their perplexity] They shall be so intricated and entangled; so ensnared and ensnarled, as that they shall not know which way to turn them. They shall be in as great a distress as Israel was at the Red Sea, Exo_14:3, or as the Jews at Shushan were, when the decree was gone out for their utter destruction, Est_3:15, or as Manasseh was, when taken by the Assyrians among the thorns, he was bound with fetters, and carried to Babylon, 2Ch_33:11.
{a} A leathern strap buckled to the back of the saddle and passing under the horse’s tail, to prevent the saddle from slipping forwards. ŒD