Micheas 6:1
Hear ye what the Lord saith: Arise, contend thou in judgment against the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Audite quæ Dominus loquitur : Surge, contende judicio adversum montes, et audiant colles vocem tuam.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Ἀκούσατε δὴ λόγον. κύριος Κύριος εἶπεν Ἀνάστηθι κρίθητι πρὸς τὰ ὄρη, καὶ ἀκουσάτωσαν οἱ βουνοὶ φωνήν σου.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- שִׁמְעוּ נָ֕א אֵ֥ת אֲשֶׁר יְהוָ֖ה אֹמֵ֑ר ק֚וּם רִ֣יב אֶת הֶהָרִ֔ים וְתִשְׁמַ֥עְנָה הַגְּבָע֖וֹת קוֹלֶֽךָ
Haydock's commentary
The mountains, &c. That is, the princes, the great ones of the people. (Challoner)
But Hebrew intimates real mountains, which had witnessed the impiety of the people, (Calmet) and had been defiled with their altars, &c. Protestants, "Contend thou before the," &c., (Haydock) as God's advocate. He condescends to justify his conduct towards Israel, Isaias iii. 13. (Calmet)
He had shewn them great favours, but they were ungrateful. (Office for Good Friday) (Worthington)
Haydock wrote amid the controversies of his day. The Church teaches that those born into communities separated from her cannot be charged with the sin of separation, and embraces them as brothers (CCC 818).
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Homily V on Rom. i. 28
Now let each man enter into his own conscience, and reckoning up his transgressions, let him call himself to a strict account, that we be not then condemned with the world. ( 1 Cor. xi. 32 .) For fearful is that court, awful the tribunal, full of trembling the accounts, a river of fire rolls along ( ἕλκεται ). “A brother doth not redeem: shall man redeem?” ( Ps. xlix. 8 . LXX.) Call then to mind what is said in the Gospel, the Angels running to and fro, of the bridechamber being shut, of the lamps going out, of the powers which drag to the furnaces. …