John Trapp on Micah 7:4

Verſe 4. The beſt of them is as a brier] which a man cannot handle without hurt. See 2 Sam. 23.6. Pſal. 55.21. and 58.10. Ezek. 2.6. Mat. 7.16. and 13, 7, 22. ſo, you cannot deal with them without danger: guilt, or grief you ſhall be ſure of. Lot felt it ſo at Sodom, 2 Pet. 2.7, 8. and ſo did tho[illegible: 1 letter]e that ſet up that bramble Abimelech, for their king, Judg. 9.

The moſt upright is ſharper then a thorn-hedge] Ʋt ibi inveniatur dolor, ubi ſperabatur auxilium, ſaith Hierom 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 prickt by it, and is glad to let go: Or, as a ſheep, that flying to the buſh for defence in weather, loſeth part of her fleece. Now if the beſt, and moſt upright among them were no better: what can be imagined of the many? and what better can be hoped for by us (for one egge is not more like another, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. then theſe times are thoſe here deſcribed: it is but the ſame fable acted over again, onely every thing is now worſe then ever) then a day of viſitation, a time of perplexily, as it followeth here? For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they bee drunken as drunkards, they ſhall be devoured as ſtubble fully dry, Nah. 1, 10. as ſear thorns under the pot, Eccleſ. 7.6. I will go thorow theſe briers, ſaith God, I will burn them together, Eſay 27.4. they ſhall be utterly burnt with fire in the ſame place, 2 Sam. 23.7. that is, in hell, as ſome interpret it.

The day of thy watch-men, and thy viſitation cometh] Where ſinne is in the ſaddle, puniſhment will be upon the crupper. God will have a viſitation-day: and that for his Watch-men, Prophets, and Governours, as well as for the common ſort. Thy viſitation cometh, Thou ſhalt ſhare in puniſhment with them, as thou haſt done in ſinne: neither ſhall it help thee to ſay, Our Watch-men were in fault: for God will viſit you all: and his Viſitation-Articles will bee very ſtrict and criticall.

Now ſhall be their perplexity] They ſhall be ſo intricated, and intangled; ſo enſnared and enſnarled, as that they ſhall not know which way to turn them. They ſhall be in as great a diſtreſſe as Iſrael was at the red-ſea, Exod. 14.3. or as the Jews at Shuſhan were, when the decree was gone out for their utter deſtruction, Eſth. 3.15. or as Manaſſeh was, when taken by the Aſſyrians among the thorns, he was bound with fetters, and carried to Babylon, 2 Chron. 33.11.