Hear, {b} all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

(b) Because of the malice and obstinacy of the people, whom he had so often exhorted to repentance, he summons them to God's judgments, taking all creatures, and God himself as witness, that the preaching of the Prophets, which they have abused, will be avenged.

Wesley's Notes

1:2 O earth - This seems to be an appeal to the senseless creatures, or a summons to bring them in evidences for God against those kingdoms. Therein - Animate or inanimate creatures, all that are on the earth. Temple - Either from his temple at Jerusalem, or from heaven.

King James Translators' Notes

all ye...: Heb. ye people, all of them

all that...: Heb. the fulness thereof

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. all that therein is-Hebrew, "whatever fills it." Micaiah, son of Imlah, our prophet's namesake, begins his prophecy similarly, "Hearken, O people, every one of you." Micah designedly uses the same preface, implying that his ministrations are a continuation of his predecessor's of the same name. Both probably had before their mind Moses' similar attestation of heaven and earth in a like case (De 31:28; 32:1; compare Isa 1:2).

God be witness against you-namely, that none of you can say, when the time of your punishment shall come, that you were not forewarned. The punishment denounced is stated in Mic 1:3, &c.

from his holy temple-that is, heaven (1Ki 8:30; Ps 11:4; Jon 2:7; compare Ro 1:18).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

1:1-7 The earth is called upon, with all that are therein, to hear the prophet. God's holy temple will not protect false professors. Neither men of high degree, as the mountains, nor men of low degree, as the valleys, can secure themselves or the land from the judgments of God. If sin be found in God's people he will not spare them; and their sins are most provoking to him, for they are most reproaching. When we feel the smart of sin, it behoves us to seek what is the sin we smart for. Persons and places most exalted, are most exposed to spiritual diseases. The vices of leaders and rulers shall be surely and sorely punished. The punishment answers the sin. What they gave to idols, never shall prosper, nor do them any good. What is got by one lust, is wasted on another.