(10) This is not your rest.—The Lord, requiting them for their cruelty to the poor and defenceless, declares that their own time of trouble was imminent. They should be thrust forth from the land which they polluted. It was no place of rest for them. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”

Micah 2:10. Arise ye, and depart — Ye Israelites prepare for your departure out of this land, for it shall be no longer yours; it is not your rest, because it is polluted — Though it was given to the posterity of Jacob for a place of rest, under my protection, yet this was on condition of their continued obedience. And because you have polluted it by your sins — You shall be cast out of it, or shall be destroyed in it; even with a sore destruction — This threatening is to the same effect with the declaration made by Moses concerning the Canaanites whom God drove out before Israel. The land is defiled, therefore do I visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. And it accords with the solemn caution which God then gave his people, saying, Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and shall not commit any of these abominations; that the land spew not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spewed out the nations that were before you, Leviticus 18:25-28.

2:6-11 Since they say, Prophesy not, God will take them at their word, and their sin shall be their punishment. Let the physician no longer attend the patient that will not be healed. Those are enemies, not only to God, but to their country, who silence good ministers, and stop the means of grace. What bonds will hold those who have no reverence for God's word? Sinners cannot expect to rest in a land they have polluted. You shall not only be obliged to depart out of this land, but it shall destroy you. Apply this to our state in this present world. There is corruption in the world through lust, and we should keep at a distance from it. It is not our rest: it was designed for our passage, but not for our portion; our inn, but not our home; here we have no continuing city; let us therefore arise and depart, let us seek a continuing city above. Since they will be deceived, let them be deceived. Teachers who recommend self-indulgence by their doctrine and example, best suit such sinners.Arise ye and depart - Go your way, as being cast out of God's care and land. It matters not where they went. "For this is not your rest." As ye have done, so shall it be done unto you. As ye cast out the widow and the fatherless, so shall ye be cast out; as ye gave no rest to those "averse from war," so shall ye have none Revelation 13:10. "He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity; he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword." The land was given to them as a temporary rest, a symbol and earnest of the everlasting rest to the obedient. So Moses spake, "ye are not as yet come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you. But when ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit, and when He giveth you rest from your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety ..." (Deuteronomy 12:9-10, add 1 Kings 8:56). And Joshua, "Remember the word which Moses commanded you, saying, The Lord your God giveth you rest" Joshua 1:13. But the Psalmist had warned them, that, if they hardened their hearts like their forefathers, they too would "not enter into His rest" Psalm 95:11.

Because it is polluted - (Literally, because of its pollution ) by idolatry, by violence, by uncleanness. So Moses (using the same word) says, "the land is defiled" by the abominations of the pagan; and warns them, "that the land spue you not out, when you defile it, as it spued out the nations which were before you." Ezekiel speaks of that "defilement" Ezekiel 36:17, as the ground why God expelled Israel. "It shall destroy you, even with a sore (literally sharp) destruction" (Ezekiel 36:18, add Jeremiah 2:7). . It is a sore thing to abuse the creatures of God to sin, and it is unfit that we should use what we have abused. Hence, Holy Scripture speaks, as though even the inanimate creation took part with God, "made subject to vanity, not willingly," and could not endure those who employed it against His Will.

The words, "Arise, depart, ye, for this is not your rest," became a sort of sacred proverb, spoken anew to the soul, whenever it would find rest out of God. : "We are bidden to think of no rest for ourselves in any things of the world; but, as it were, arising from the dead, to stretch upwards, and walk after the Lord our God, and say, 'My soul cleaveth hard after Thee.' This if we neglect, and will not hear Him who saith, 'Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light,' we shall indeed slumber, but shall be deceived and shall not find rest; for where Christ enlighteneth not the risen soul, what seemeth to be rest, is trouble." All rest is wearisome which is not in Thee, O our God.

10. Arise ye, and depart—not an exhortation to the children of God to depart out of an ungodly world, as it is often applied; though that sentiment is a scriptural one. This world is doubtless not our "rest," being "polluted" with sin: it is our passage, not our portion; our aim, not our home (2Co 6:17; Heb 13:14). The imperatives express the certainty of the future event predicted. "Since such are your doings (compare Mic 2:7, 8, &c.), My sentence on you is irrevocable (Mic 2:4, 5), however distasteful to you (Mic 2:6); ye who have cast out others from their homes and possessions (Mic 2:2, 8, 9) must arise, depart, and be cast out of your own (Mic 2:4, 5): for this is not your rest" (Nu 10:33; De 12:9; Ps 95:11). Canaan was designed to be a rest to them after their wilderness fatigues. But it is to be so no longer. Thus God refutes the people's self-confidence, as if God were bound to them inseparably. The promise (Ps 132:14) is quite consistent with temporary withdrawal of God from Israel for their sins.

it shall destroy you—The land shall spew you out, because of the defilements wherewith ye "polluted" it (Le 18:25, 28; Jer 3:2; Eze 36:12-14).

Arise ye, and depart; you inhabitants of Israel, especially you oppressors, bestir yourselves. and prepare for your departure out of this land; for, will ye nill ye, so it is, you shall be carried away: the words also may fairly be applied to the oppressed, to lessen the troubles they were under, and to advise them to retire out of this land.

This is not your rest: though it was given this people for a rest under God’s wing, yet it was on condition of continued obedience; but since they do not observe the condition, they shall never find the expected rest; one trouble shall succeed another, until the captivity sweep them all away, both oppressors and oppressed; these therefore should grieve the less at their present trouble, nor grudge to transplant themselves.

Because it is polluted, with many, and great, and old sins,

it shall destroy; spew them out as a burden intolerable to the earth that bears them, as Leviticus 18:25; this polluted land shall be destroyed.

A sore destruction; such as may well require a lamentation; such as Micah 2:4; a grievous desolation, such as never shall be repaired.

Arise ye, and depart,.... That is, out the land; do not think of a continuance in it, but expect a removal from it; prepare for captivity and exile; look for it every moment, to hear it said to you, arise, and be gone from hence; for, since you have drove others out of their inheritances and possessions, this shall be your case:

for this is not your rest; the land in which the ten tribes then dwelt, and which was given to their fathers for an inheritance, and for a resting place, and had been so for ages past, now would be no more so, because of their sins and transgressions; they must not expect to abide here long, and enjoy rest and ease; but to be turned out, and deprived of all the blessings of it, and be carried into a foreign country, where, instead of rest and case, they should be in slavery and bondage:

because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction; because the land that was given them to dwell in was defiled by their manifold iniquities, particularly adulteries, before hinted at: all sin is of a defiling nature; it defiled the bodies and souls of these men; defiled the estates they were possessed of, and the land on which they dwelt, and their fellow inhabitants of it; therefore utter destruction, even a sore and grievous one, should come upon them, by which their land should be laid waste, and they consumed off of it: or; "it shall corrupt you, even with a grievous corruption" (s); or you being corrupt upon it, it shall spew you out as a corrupt thing, as it did the Canaanites, the ancient inhabitants of it; when you will appear to be as you are, extremely corrupt: or, "it shall be in pain, even with sore pains" (t); such as those of a woman in travail, not being able to bear them any longer, but ease itself of them, through the judgments of God upon them. This may be applied to the present state and condition of the people of God in this world, which is not their rest; there remains one for them in another world, but they are not yet come to it; for while here they are in trouble, through indwelling sin, the temptations of Satan, divine desertions, and various fears that attend them, so that they have little rest; besides, this is a warfare state, and they are engaged with many enemies; and at best are but travellers passing through this world to their Father's house: this is also their working time, and they are attended with a variety of afflictions within and without; and since there are so many corruptions and pollutions in the world, through lust, which make it that it can be no resting place for a good man; it becomes them not to take up their rest here, but seek after it elsewhere; and to live in an expectation of being called out of it, and to be in a readiness to depart when the Lord shall call for them.

(s) "in corrumpet et corruptione acri", Moutanus; "et quidem corruptione vehementissima", Cocceius. (t) So Aben Ezra and Kimchi in Sepher Shorash. rad.

Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your {l} rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction.

(l) Jerusalem will not be your safeguard, but rather the cause of your destruction.