1 Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil on their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand.
2 They covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.
KJVKing James Version
1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.
2 And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
1 Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! When the morning is light, they execute it, because it is in the power of their hand.
2 And they covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away; thus they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.
Psalms 36:4(v1)He plots iniquity on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He doesn’t abhor evil.
Isaiah 32:7(v1)The ways of the scoundrel are evil. He devises wicked plans to destroy the humble with lying words, even when the needy speaks right.
Psalms 7:14-16(v1)Behold, he travails with iniquity. Yes, he has conceived mischief, and brought out falsehood. He has dug a hole, and has fallen into the…
Hosea 7:6-7(v1)For they have prepared their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait. Their baker sleeps all the night. In the morning it burns as a…
Proverbs 6:12-19(v1)A worthless person, a man of iniquity, is he who walks with a perverse mouth, who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who…
Show all 44 cross-references
Nahum 1:11(v1)There is one gone out of you, who devises evil against Yahweh, who counsels wickedness.
Romans 1:30(v1)backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Proverbs 3:27(v1)Don’t withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do it.
Proverbs 4:16(v1)For they don’t sleep unless they do evil. Their sleep is taken away, unless they make someone fall.
Isaiah 5:8(v2)Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the middle of the…
Jeremiah 18:18(v1)Then they said, “Come! Let’s devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law won’t perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the…
Genesis 31:29(v1)It is in the power of my hand to hurt you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful that you don’t speak to…
Deuteronomy 28:32(v1)Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will look, and fail with longing for them all day long. There will…
Isaiah 59:3(v1)For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness.
Luke 22:2-6(v1)The chief priests and the scribes sought how they might put him to death, for they feared the people. Satan entered into Judas, who was…
John 19:11(v1)Jesus answered, “You would have no power at all against me, unless it were given to you from above. Therefore he who delivered me to you…
Acts 23:12(v1)When it was day, some of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until…
Jeremiah 22:17(v2)But your eyes and your heart are only for your covetousness, for shedding innocent blood, for oppression, and for doing violence.”
Amos 8:4(v2)Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail,
Psalms 140:1-8(v1)Deliver me, Yahweh, from the evil man. Preserve me from the violent man: those who devise mischief in their hearts. They continually gather…
Proverbs 12:2(v1)A good man shall obtain favor from Yahweh, but he will condemn a man of wicked plans.
Luke 20:19(v1)The chief priests and the scribes sought to lay hands on him that very hour, but they feared the people—for they knew he had spoken this…
Esther 3:8(v1)Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your…
Esther 5:14(v1)Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, “Let a gallows be made fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak to the king about…
Esther 9:25(v1)but when this became known to the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked plan, which he had planned against the Jews, should return…
Ezekiel 11:2(v1)He said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity, and who give wicked counsel in this city;
Ezekiel 18:12(v2)has wronged the poor and needy, has taken by robbery, has not restored the pledge, and has lifted up his eyes to the idols, has committed…
Matthew 27:1-2(v1)Now when morning had come, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death: and they…
Mark 15:1(v1)Immediately in the morning the chief priests, with the elders and scribes, and the whole council, held a consultation, bound Jesus, carried…
Acts 23:15(v1)Now therefore, you with the council inform the commanding officer that he should bring him down to you tomorrow, as though you were going…
Exodus 20:17(v2)“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his…
Exodus 22:21-24(v2)“You shall not wrong an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. “You shall not take advantage of any widow or…
1 Samuel 12:3-4(v2)Here I am. Witness against me before Yahweh, and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I…
1 Kings 21:2-19(v2)Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near my house; and I will…
2 Kings 9:26(v2)‘Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons,’ says Yahweh; ‘and I will repay you in this plot of ground,’…
Nehemiah 5:1-5(v2)Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brothers the Jews. For there were some who said, “We, our sons…
Job 24:2-12(v2)There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them. They drive away the donkey of the fatherless,…
Micah 3:9(v2)Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity.
Malachi 3:5(v2)I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the…
Matthew 23:13(v2)“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will…
1 Timothy 6:10(v2)For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves…
Job 31:38(v2)If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together;
Ezekiel 22:12(v2)In you have they taken bribes to shed blood. You have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by…
Habakkuk 2:5-9(v2)Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous. An arrogant man who doesn’t stay at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and he is like death, and…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (26 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv1–2The Prophet does not here speak only against the…
The Prophet does not here speak only against the Israelites, as some think, who have incorrectly confined this part of his teaching to the ten tribes; but he, on the contrary, (in discharging his office, addresses also the Jews. He refers not here to idolatry, as in the last chapter; but inveighs against sins condemned in the second table. As then the Jews had not only polluted the worship of God, but also gave loose reins to many iniquities, so that they dealt wrongfully with their neighbors, and there was among them no attention to justice and equity, so the prophet inveighs here as we shall see, against avarice, robberies, and cruelty: and his discourse is full of vehemence; for there was no doubt such licentiousness then prevailing among the people, that there was need of severe and sharp reproofs. It is at the same time easy to perceive that his discourse is mainly directed against the chief men, who exercised authority, and turned it to wrong purposes.
Woe, he says, to those who meditate on iniquity, and devise evil on their beds, that, when the morning shines, they may execute it Here the Prophet describes to the life the character and manners of those who were given to gain, and were intent only on raising themselves. He says, that in their beds they were meditating on iniquity, and devising wickedness. Doubtless the time of night has been given to men entirely for rest; but they ought also to use this kindness of God for the purpose of restraining themselves from what is wicked: for he who refreshes his strength by nightly rest, ought to think within himself, that it is an unbecoming thing and even monstrous, that he should in the meantime devise frauds, and guiles, and iniquities. For why does the Lord intend that we should rest, except that all evil things should rest also? Hence the Prophet shows here, by implication, that those who are intent on devising frauds, while they ought to rest, subvert as it were the course of nature; for they have no regard for that rest, which has been granted to men for this end, — that they may not trouble and annoy one another.
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He afterwards shows how great was their desire to do mischief, When it shines in the morning, he says, they execute it He might have said only, They do in the daytime what they contrive in the night: but he says, In the morning; as though he had said, that they were so heated by avarice, that they rested not a moment; as soon as it shone, they were immediately ready to perpetrate the frauds they had thought of in the night. We now then apprehend the import of the Prophet’s meaning.
He now subjoins, For according to their power is their hand As אל, al, means God, an old interpreter has given this rendering, Against God is their hand: but this does not suit the passage. Others have explained it thus, For strength is in their hand: and almost all those well-skilled in Hebrew agree in this explanation. Those who had power, they think, are here pointed out by the Prophet, — that as they had strength, they dared to do whatever they pleased. But the Hebrew phrase is not translated by them; and I greatly wonder that they have mistaken in a thing so clear: for it is not, There is power in their hand; but their hand is to power. The same mode of speaking is found in Proverbs 3, and there also many interpreters are wrong; for Solomon there forbids us to withhold from our neighbor his right, When thine hand, he says, is for power; some say, When there is power to help the miserable. But Solomon means no such thing; for he on the contrary means this, When thine hand is ready to execute any evil, abstain. So also the Lord says in Deuteronomy 28,
“When the enemy shall take away thy spoils, thy hand will not be for power;”
that is, “Thou wilt not dare to move a finger to restrain thy enemies; when they will plunder thee and rob thee of thy substance, thou wilt stand in dread, for thy hand will be as though it were dead.” I come now to the present passage, Their hand is for power: the Prophet means, that they dared to try what they could, and that therefore their hand was always ready; whenever there was hope of lucre or gains the hand was immediately prepared. How so? Because they were restrained neither by the fear of God nor by any regard for justice; but their hand was for power, that is, what they could, they dared to do. We now then see what the Prophet means as far as I can judge. He afterwards adds —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn v1As soon as they rise, they execute their wicked…
As soon as they rise, they execute their wicked devices of the night, and according to their power hurt others.
Hebrew, is in power.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv1–2Mic 2:1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and…
Mic 2:1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.
Ver. 1. Woe to them that devise iniquity] Or, labour, affliction, vanity, a lie. The Hebrew word Aven is of large use; applied to all kinds of sin which causeth pain, sorrow, and misery; and here in particular to covetousness, that root of all evil to a man’s self and others, 1Ti 6:9-10. Our prophet flings a woe at it, as doth likewise Habakkuk, Hab 2:9, calling it an evil covetousness, as the prophet Isaiah tells us, that for the iniquity of his covetousness God was wroth with Israel and smote him, Isa 57:17. The world counts it a light offence; and casts a cloak of good husbandry over it, 1Th 2:5. But this disguise will serve such no better than that which Ahab once put on and perished. "Let no man deceive you with vain words" (those plastered words, πλαστοις λογοις, 2Pe 2:3, used by bell’s proctors): "for because of these things" (sc. fornication, covetousness, &c., those peccadillos as they are counted) "cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience," Eph 5:6. For what reason? They devise iniquity, cogitant quasi coagitant, they plot and plough mischief, being men of wicked devices, Pro 14:2, talking again to themselves, as that covetous wretch did, Luk 12:17, beating their brains about their worldly projects, and resting no more, no, not upon their beds by night (a time and place appointed for rest, when men should together with their clothes put off their cares, and compose themselves to sleep, that nurse of nature, and sweet parenthesis), than one doth upon a rack or bed of thorns.
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Thus they work evil upon their beds] They work hard at it, having the devil for their taskmaster, who shall therefore also be their paymaster. He hath their souls here as in a sling, 1Sa 25:29, violently tossed about and restless; they are his drudges and dromedaries, driven about by him at his pleasure, 2Ti 2:26, wholly acted and agitated by him, Eph 2:2, having as many lords as lusts, wherewith their hearts are night and day exercised, 2Pe 2:14, without intermission. See this in Felix, who at the same instant trembled and coveted a bribe; in Ahab, who, sick of Naboth’s vineyard, laid him down upon his bed, but rested not, 1Ki 21:4. His heart did more afflict and vex itself with greedy longing for that bit of earth than the vast and spacious compass of a kingdom could counter comfort.
When the morning is light they practise it] And so they lose no time, being up and at it by peep of day; when others are fast asleep, and so more easily surprised and circumvented by them. The morning is the most precious part of the day; and should be employed to better purpose. But "wickedness proceedeth from the wicked, as saith the proverb of the ancients," 1Sa 24:13, and as they like not to have God in their heads, Psa 10:4, nor hearts, Psa 14:1, so neither in their words, Psa 12:4, nor ways, Tit 1:16, but the contrary; surely Satan is rightly called the god of this world; because as God at first did but speak the word and it was done, so, if the devil do but hold up his finger, give the least hint, they are ready pressed to practise.
Because it is in the power of their hand] The Vulgate hath it, Because their hand is against God; and, indeed, the same word El signifieth God and power. The Seventy render it, Because they have not lifted up their hands to God (an exercise proper and fit for the morning, Psa 5:4). The Tigurine, Quia viribus pollent, They have strength enough to do it. Their hand is to power (so the original hath it), that is, saith Calvin, quantum possunt, tantum audent, they dare do their utmost, they will try what they can do; their hand is ever ready to rake and scrape together commodity; neither can they be hindered either by the fear of God or any respect to righteousness. Nihil cogitant quod non idem patrare ausint. (De Monachis, Lutherus).
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv1–2The prophet now denounceth judgment against oppressors in particular,…
The prophet now denounceth judgment against oppressors in particular, of which sort of men Judah had too many, and Israel had many more at that day.
That devise iniquity; contrive and frame mischiefs to others, how they may be ruined, as appears Mic 2:2, and all the gain that can be made of their fall may be brought into the hand of the contrivers; which was the sin of the great ones in Israel, who for near forty years together were plotting to undo one another. And work evil: here is a dislocation of the words, unless the prophet would intimate to us, that in God’s account the resolving to do evil is doing it.
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Upon their beds; when they should rest from making trouble to others, as well as rest from their labour and troubles of the day, when they should praise God for their own ease, safety, and rest, then their inhumanity and cruelty is forecasting how to grieve, vex, and swallow up others.
When the morning is light; so soon as they rise, and that is early; when such practices are in design, these cannot sleep till they make them fall on whom they fix their designs.
They practise it; finish or execute their mischievous purposes. Because it is in the power of their hand; they care not whether there be either justice or reason for what they do; if they have power enough to do, they will take confidence to do it, and never blush.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v1Here is, I. The injustice of man contriving the…
Here is, I. The injustice of man contriving the evil of sin, Mic 2:1, Mic 2:2. God was coming forth against this people to destroy them, and here he shows what was the ground of his controversy with them; it is that which is often mentioned as a sin that hastens the ruin of nations and families as much as any, the sin of oppression. Let us see the steps of it. 1. They eagerly desire that which is not their own - that is the root of bitterness, the root of all evil, Mic 2:2. They covet fields and houses, as Ahab did Naboth's vineyard. "Oh that such a one's field and house were mine! It lies convenient for me, and I would manage it better than he does; it is fitter for me than for him." 2. They set their wits on work to invent ways of accomplishing their desire (Mic 2:4); they devise iniquity with a great deal of cursed art and policy; they plot how to do it effectually, and yet so as not to expose themselves, or bring themselves into danger, or under reproach, by it. This is called working evil! they are working it in their heads, in their families, and are as intent upon it, and with as much pleasure, as if they were doing it, and are as confident of their success (so wisely do they think they have laid the scheme) as if it were assuredly done. Note, It is bad to do mischief upon a sudden thought, but much worse to devise it, to do it with design and deliberation; when the craft and subtlety of the old serpent appear with his poison and venom, it is wickedness in perfection. They devised it upon their beds, when they should have been asleep; care to compass a mischievous design held their eyes waking. Upon their beds, where they should have been remembering God, and meditating upon him, where they should have been communing with their own hearts and examining them, they were devising iniquity. It is of great consequence to improve and employ the hours of our retirement and solitude in a proper manner. 3. They employ their power in executing what they have designed and contrived; they practise the iniquity they have devised, because it is in the power of their hand; they find that they can compass it by the help of their wealth, and the authority and interest they have, and that none dare control them, or call them to an account for it; and this, they think, will justify them and bear them out in it. Note, It is the mistake of many to think that as they can do they may do; whereas no power is given for destruction, but all for edification. 4. They are industrious and very expeditious in accomplishing the iniquity they have devised; when they have settled the matter in their thoughts, in their beds, they lose no time, but as soon as the morning is light they practice it; they are up early in the prosecution of their designs, and what ill their hand finds to do they do it with all their might, which shames our slothfulness and dilatoriness in doing good, and should shame us out of them. In the service of God, and our generation, let it never be said that we left that to be done tomorrow which we could do today. 5. They stick at nothing to compass their designs; what they covet they take away, if they can, and, (1.) They care not what wrong they do, though it be ever so gross and open; they take away men's fields by violence, not only by fraud, and underhand practices and colour of law, but by force and with a high hand. (2.) They care not to whom they do wrong nor how far the iniquity extends which they devise: They oppress a man and his house; they rob and ruin those that have numerous families to maintain, and are not concerned though they send them and their wives and children a begging. They oppress a man and his heritage; they take away from men that which they have an unquestionable title to, having received it from their ancestors, and which they have but in trust, to transmit it to their posterity; but those oppressors care not how many they impoverish, so they may but enrich themselves. Note, If covetousness reigns in the heart, commonly all compassion is banished from it; and if any man love this world, as the love of the Father, so the love of his neighbour is not in him.
II. The justice of God contriving the evil of punishment for this sin (Mic 2:3): Therefore thus saith the Lord, the righteous God, that judges between man and man, and is an avenger on those that do wrong, Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, that is, against the whole kingdom, the house of Israel, and particularly those families in it that were cruel and oppressive. They unjustly devise evil against their brethren, and God will justly devise evil against them. Infinite Wisdom will so contrive the punishment of their sin that it shall be very sure, and such as cannot be avoided, very severe, and such as they cannot bear, very signal and remarkable, and such as shall be universally observed to answer to the sin. The more there appears of a wicked wit in the sin the more there shall appear of a holy wisdom and fitness in the punishment; for the Lord will be known by the judgments he executes; he will be owned by them. 1. He finds them very secure, and confident that they shall in some way or other escape the judgment, or, though they fall under it, shall soon throw it off and get clear of it, and therefore he tells them, It is an evil from which they shall not remove their neck. They were children of Belial, that would not endure the easy yoke of God's righteous commands, but broke those bonds asunder, and cast away those cords from them; and therefore God will lay upon them the heavy yoke of his righteous judgments, and they shall not be able to withdraw their necks from that; those that will not be overruled shall be overcome. 2. He finds them very proud and stately, and therefore he tells them that they shall not go haughtily, with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go (Isa 3:16); for this time is evil, and the events of it are very humbling and mortifying, and such as will bring down the stoutest spirit. 3. He finds them very merry and jovial, and therefore tells them their note shall be changed, their laughter shall be turned into mourning and their joy into heaviness (Mic 2:4): In that day, when God comes to punish you for your oppression, shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, with a lamentation of lamentations (so the word is), a most lamentable lamentation, as a song of songs is a most pleasing song. Their enemies shall insult over them, and make a jest of their griefs, for they shall take up a parable against them. Their friends shall mourn over them, and lay to heart their calamities, and this shall be the general cry, "We are utterly spoiled; we are all undone." Note, Those that were most haughty and secure in their prosperity are commonly most dejected and most ready to despair in their adversity. 4. He finds them very rich in houses and lands, which they have gained by oppression, and therefore tells them that they shall be stripped of all. (1.) They shall, in their despair, give it all up; they shall say, We are utterly spoiled; he has changed the portion of my people, so that it is now no longer theirs, but it is in the possession and occupation of their enemies: How has he removed it from me! How suddenly, how powerfully! What is unjustly got by us will not long continue with us; the righteous God will remove it. Turning away from us in wrath, he has divided our fields, and given them into the hands of strangers. Woe to those from whom God turns away. The margin reads it, "Instead of restoring, he has divided our fields; instead of putting us again in the possession of our estates, he has confirmed those in the possession of them that have taken them from us." Note, It is just with God that those who have dealt fraudulently and violently with others should themselves be dealt fraudulently and violently with. (2.) God shall ratify what they say in their despair (Mic 2:5); so it shall be: Thou shalt have none to cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the Lord, none to divide inheritances, because there shall be no inheritances to divide, no courts to try titles to lands, or determine controversies about them, or cast lots upon them, as in Joshua's time, for all shall be in the enemies' hand. This land, which should be taken from them, they had not only an unquestionable title to, but a very comfortable enjoyment of, for it was in the congregation of the Lord, or rather the congregation of the Lord was in it; it was God's land; it was a holy land, and therefore it was the more grievous to them to be turned out of it. Note, Those are to be considered the sorest calamities which cut us off from the congregation of the Lord, or cut us short in the enjoyment of the privileges of it.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv1–2Woe to them that devise iniquity,.... Any kind of…
Woe to them that devise iniquity,.... Any kind of iniquity; idolatry, or worshipping of idols, for the word is used sometimes for an idol; or the sin of uncleanness, on which the thoughts too often dwell in the night season; or coveting of neighbours' goods, and oppressing the poor; sins which are instanced in Mic 2:2; and every thing that is vain, foolish, and wicked, and in the issue brings trouble and distress: now a woe is denounced against such that think on such things, and please themselves with them in their imaginations, and contrive ways and means to commit them:
and work evil upon their beds; when, the senses being less engaged, the thoughts are more free; but should not be employed about evil; but either in meditating on the divine goodness, and praising the Lord for his mercies; or in examining a man's heart, state, and case, and mourning over his sins, and applying to God for the remission of them; but, instead of this, the persons here threatened are said to "work evil on their beds", when they should be asleep and at rest, or engaged in the above things; that is, they plot and contrive how to accomplish the evil they meditate; they determine upon doing it, and are as sure of effecting it as if it was actually done; and do act it over in their own minds, as if it was real; see Psa 36:4;
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when the morning is light, they practise it; they wish and wait for the morning light, and as soon as it appears they rise; and, instead of blessing God for the mercies of the night, and going about their lawful business, they endeavour to put in practice with all rigour and diligence, and as expeditiously as they can, what they have projected and schemed in the night season;
because it is in the power of their hand; to commit it; and they have no principle of goodness in them, nor fear of God before them, to restrain them from it: or, "because their hand is unto power" (b); it is stretched out, and made use of in the commission of sin to the utmost of their power, without any regard to God or man. The Vulgate Latin version is, "because their hand is against God"; their hearts are enmity to God, and therefore they oppose him with both their hands, and care not what iniquity they commit; they are rebels against him, and will not be subject to him. The Septuagint and Arabic versions are, "because they lift not up their hands to God"; they do not pray to him, and therefore are bold and daring to perpetrate the grossest iniquity, which a praying man dared not do; but the Syriac version is the reverse, "they do lift up their hands to God"; make a show of religion and devotion, when their hearts and their hands are deeply engaged in, sinning; which shows their impudence and hypocrisy; but the passages in Gen 31:29 favour and confirm our version, and the sense of it; so the Targum.
(b) "quia est ad potentiam manus ipsorum", Calvin.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv1–2The sins of Israel and the judgments hanging over…
The sins of Israel and the judgments hanging over them, ver. 1- 11. Gracious promises of comfort, ver. 12, 13.
That devise - Contrive and frame mischief. Evil work - Contrive how to work it. It is in the power - Because they can; without regarding right or wrong.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv1–2Here the prophet denounces a wo against the plotters…
CHAPTER II
Here the prophet denounces a wo against the plotters of
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wickedness, the covetous and the oppressor, 1, 2.
God is represented as devising their ruin, 3.
An Israelite is then introduced as a mourner, personating his
people, and lamenting their fate, 4.
Their total expulsion is now threatened on account of their
very numerous offences, 5-10.
Great infatuation of the people in favour of those pretenders
to Divine inspiration who prophesied to them peace and plenty,
11.
The chapter concludes with a gracious promise of the
restoration of the posterity of Jacob from captivity; possibly
alluding to their deliverance from the Chaldean yoke, an event
which was about two hundred years in futurity at the delivery
of this prophecy, 12, 13.
NOTES ON CHAP. II
Verse 1. Wo to them that devise iniquity] Who lay schemes and plans for transgressions; who make it their study to find out new modes of sinning; and make these things their nocturnal meditations, that, having fixed their plan, they may begin to execute it as soon as it is light in the morning.
Because it is in the power of their hand.] They think they may do whatever they have power and opportunity to do.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v1Mic 2:1-2. Wo to them that devise iniquity —…
Mic 2:1-2. Wo to them that devise iniquity — That design and frame mischief; and work evil upon their beds — Contrive how to work it, and actually execute their plans when they rise in the morning. Because it is in the power of their hand — Because they can do it; because there is none that can hinder them. They make their strength the law of justice; and do whatsoever they have a mind to do, whether right or wrong, because they have power in their hands. And they covet fields — Set their minds upon the estates of their meaner neighbours, thinking how convenient they lie to theirs, as Ahab thought concerning the field of Naboth. And take them by violence — By power wrest the estates out of the hands of the owners of them. And houses, and take them away — They take both houses and lands. So they oppress a man and his house — They not only do injustice to a man himself, but to his whole family also, by taking away his heritage, whereby his family, as well as himself, and his posterity after him, were to be supported.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv1–2The prophet had declared that evil should come down…
The prophet had declared that evil should come down on Samaria and Jerusalem for their sins. He had pronounced them sinners against God; he now speaks of their hard unlovingness toward man, as our Blessed Lord in the Gospel speaks of sins against Himself in His members, as the ground of the condemnation of the wicked. The time of warning is past. He speaks as in the person of the Judge, declaring the righteous judgments of God, pronouncing sentence on the hardened, but blessing on those who follow Christ. The sins thus visited were done with a high hand; first, with forethought:
Woe - All woe, woe from God ; “the woe of temporal captivity; and, unless ye repent, the woe of eternal damnation, hangeth over you.” Woe to them that devise iniquity. They devise it , “they are not led into it by others, but invent it out of their own hearts.” They plot and forecast and fulfill it even in thought, before it comes to act. And work evil upon their beds. Thoughts and imaginations of evil are works of the soul Psa 58:2. “Upon their beds” (see Psa 36:4), which ought to be the place of holy thought, and of communing with their own hearts and with God Psa 4:4. Stillness must be filled with thought, good or bad; if not with good, then with bad. The chamber, if not the sanctuary of holy thoughts, is filled with unholy purposes and imaginations. Man’s last and first thoughts, if not of good, are especially of vanity and evil. The Psalmist says, “Lord, have I not remembered Thee in my bed, and thought upon Thee when I was waking?” Psa 63:6. These men thought of sin on their bed, and did it on waking. When the morning is light, literally in the light of the morning, that is, instantly, shamelessly, not shrinking from the light of day, not ignorantly, but knowingly, deliberately, in full light. Nor again through infirmity, but in the wantonness of might, because it is in the power of their hand , as, of old, God said, “This they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do” Gen 11:6. Rup.: “Impiously mighty, and mighty in impiety.”
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Lap.: See the need of the daily prayer, “Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin;” and “Almighty God, who hast brought us to the beginning of this day, defend us in the same by Thy mighty power, that we may fall into no sin, etc.” The illusions of the night, if such be permitted, have no power against the prayer of the morning.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv1–2Evil. Septuagint, "labours." Hebrew, "vanity, or an idol." (Haydock)…
Evil. Septuagint, "labours." Hebrew, "vanity, or an idol." (Haydock) --- That is called unprofitable, which is very detrimental. (Worthington) --- Morning, suddenly and with zeal. (Calmet) --- Is. Hebrew, "has power," (Chaldean) "they have not raised their hands to God." (Septuagint; Arabic)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v1Mic_2:1 to Mic_3:12.1
SECOND DISCOURSE
Mic_2:1 to Mic_3:12.1
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1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds ! In the morning 2 light they will practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.2 And they have coveted fields, and seized them, and houses, and taken them; and have oppressed a man and his house, even a man3 and his possession. 3Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I am devising against this family an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; and ye shall not walk loftily, for an evil time is this. 4In that day shall one take up a by-word concerning you, and wail a wail of woe,4 [and] say:
We are utterly destroyed!
He changeth the portion of my people;
How he removeth it from me!5
To an apostate he divideth our fields!
5Therefore thou shalt have none to cast a cord upon a lot [of ground] in the assembly of Jehovah. 6Prophesy ye not, they prophesy.6 They shall not prophesy to 7 [or, of] these: shame shall not depart. Thou that art called7 the house of Jacob, was the spirit of Jehovah impatient, or are these his doings? Do not my words 8 do good8 to him that walketh uprightly? But lately my people has risen up as an enemy: from off the garment ye strip the mantle, from those that pass by securely, averse from war. 9The women of my people ye drive out of the house of their delight; from their children ye take away my ornament foreMicah Mic_2:10 Arise ye, and depart; for this is not the rest: because of pollution it shall destroy [you], and with a sharp destruction. 11If a man walking in vanity9 and falsehood should lie, saying: I will prophesy to thee of wine and of strong drink, he would be a prophet for this people.
12 I will surely gather all of thee, O Jacob,
I will surely collect the remnant of Israel,
I will put them together as sheep in the fold,
As a herd in the midst of his pasture;
It shall be noisy with men.
He that breaketh through has gone up before them:
They have broken through, and passed the gate,
And gone forth by it.
And their king passes on before them,
And Jehovah at their head.
III. 1And I said : Hear now, ye heads of Jacob, and ye magistrates of the house of 2 Israel: is it not for you to know the right? Ye that hate good and love evil, 3 and tear their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; and who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, 4 and divide them, as in the pot, and as flesh within the kettle. Then will they cry to Jehovah, and he will not answer them; and he will hide his face from them at that time, even as they have made their deeds evil.
5 Thus saith Jehovah concerning the prophets that lead my people astray, who biting with their teeth cry: Peace; and he that giveth nothing for their mouth, against him they sanctify war.
6 Therefore a night shall be for you without a vision,
And darkness for you without divination,
And the sun shall go down over the prophets,
And the day be dark over them.
7 And the seers shall be ashamed,
And the diviners shall blush;
And they shall cover the beard, all of them;
Because there is no answer of God.
8 Nevertheless I am filled with power, through the spirit of Jehovah,10 and judgment, and boldness, to announce unto Jacob his transgression, and unto Israel his sin.
9 Hear this now, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and ye magistrates of the house 10 of Israel, that abhor judgment; yea, they pervert all that is right, building Zion 11 with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. Her heads judge for a bribe, and her priests teach for a reward, and her prophets divine for money, and lean upon Jehovah, saying; Is not Jehovah among us? evil shall not come upon us.
12 Therefore, for your sakes
Zion shall be ploughed as a field,
And Jerusalem shall become heaps,
And the mountain of the house high places of a forest.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
As the first discourse fell into two parts, by the parallel between Samaria and Jerusalem, so this second one falls into the two nearly equal divisions, chaps, Micah 2 : and Micah 3 :, thus carrying through the principle of parallelism. The ground of division, however, is here not the analogy, but the antithesis of the leading thoughts. Thus Micah 2 : begins with a description of the corruption of the great (Mic_2:1-5), and then proceeds to depict the current false hood of the sham prophets (Mic_2:6-13), the essence of which is comprehended at the close, in a deceitful but brilliant prediction of the certain prosperity of Judah in the afflictions which are soon to be experienced (Mic_2:12-13). Corresponding to this, Micah 3 : also begins with denunciation of the guilty nobles (Mic_2:1-4), and then turns likewise to the judgment against false prophecy (Mic_2:5-13), at the conclusion of which, however, Micah communicates the substance of his genuine proclamation, so opposite to their spurious illusions (Mic_2:12).
This obvious plan, which represents the discourse as a double climax, is of itself a sufficient justification of the compass which we ascribe to the whole. With those interpreters who connect chaps, 1 and 2 outwardly in one discourse (Hitzig, Umbreit, Hengst., Hiivernick, Keil) we, although not denying the interior connection of chaps, 1–5 in general, cannot agree, for this reason, if no other, that chap. 1 manifestly bears the character of a pure prophecy, complete in itself, while in the division before us, from beginning to end, rebuke and opposition to the reigning sins of the day are the main characteristic; with those who feel obliged to put a full period to the discourse before Micah 3 we differ, because they rend asunder the beautiful symmetry of chaps, n. and m. The reason given for this separation, that a new beginning is marked by the “Hear, I pray, you” (Mic_3:1), proves nothing, since the same summons is found Mic_3:9, where no critic could suppose a new discourse to begin.
Micah 2 : the thesis, Mic_2:1-5. The Nobility, vers, 1, 2. Their Conduct The discourse runs parallel to the similar denunciation of Isaiah (Mic_5:8 ff. against the sins of the higher ranks and like that, this takes, from the beginning, the character of a “woe.” Woe to them that devise iniquity, and prepare evil on their beds; in the morning light they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. Wickedness is more criminal in proportion as it is more deliberate. The gradation from the design to its accomplishment, elsewhere often represented by the steps of conception, pregnancy parturition (Psa_7:15 et al), is here described. without figure, by the stages of השׁב “to devise,” form the plan (Psa_36:5), פעל, “to prepare ways and means” and עשׂה “to put in execution” (Isa_41:4). The construction proceeds from the piivtie. to the verbum finit., as in 1Sa_2:8; Ewald, §350 b. Upon their bed they think it out, at the time when the pious still their heart (Psa_4:5; Psa_1:2); in the light of morning they carry it out;—their first thought, therefore, at the gray dawn, is not of prayer (Psa_5:4) but of covetousness: for it is in the power of their hand, i. e., they are able to do it and no one hinders them (Gen_31:29; Neh_5:5), cf. the LXX. at Gen_50:10 : ἰσχύει ἡ χείρ μου. Hitzig and Keil translate: “for their hand is their God” [ist zum Gott], thier power avails to them as a God, none else do they fear. But this would require יֵשׁ יָדָם לֵאלֹהֵיהֶם, Hab_1:11.
Mic_2:2. We are now told wherein these their evil deeds consist; And they covet (against the law, Exo_20:17, whose expression תמד is not without emphasis repeated here) fields and size them; and oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. The transgression of the laws for the protection of each man’s real estate and inheritance (Lev_25:23 ff.), by destroying the property of the peasants and oppressing them themselves, this is what the prophet, like his contemporary, Isa_5:8 ff. most bitterly reproves, as being the surest way to the creation of a helpess proletariate, to the hostile separation of proprietors from those without property, and popular life ruin of the national welfare and the popular life. (The second בית may, for the sake of the parallelism, be referred to the household or family, as in Gen_7:1). This one breach of the law is sufficient to provoke God’s anger judgment upon this generation.11
Mic_2:3-5 : Therefore, thus saith Jehovah, behold, I devise evil upon this generation, [family]. The phrase תשׁב רע is emphatically repeated from Mic_2:1, to set clearly before our eyes the jus tahonis prevalent in God’s providence (Exo_21:23; Isa_33:1). “This generation,” is, an in Amo_3:1, the whole people; cf. the γενεά, Mat_12:41-42. There is the same antithesis to the “oppression” in Mic_2:2, in the following phrase Jehovah devises evil, from which ye shall not withdraw your necks; like a yoke becomes the hard rule of the stranger on the fat cows of shaken off (Jer_23:12), And ye shall not walk loftily—רוֹמָה, acc. adv. with verbs of going (Psa_58:9; Ges., Lehry. §178, 4); the necks that are used to carrying themselves stiffly (Isa_3:16) will have to bend; for an evil time is this, in which depression of spirits and gloomy silence comes over the people (Amo_5:13). This also is said with an application: your guilt causes the present to be an evil time before God, and so God will bring a time which is evil for you, the πονηρόν, sensu activo and passivo at once; Eph_5:6; Mat_6:13.
Mic_2:4. In that day will one (the verbs are used impresonally, Ewald, §294 b 2 γ.) take up a taunt against thee (cf. Hab_2:6; Isa_14:4), and utter a lamentation. What in the mind of the adversaries is derision, is, in the mouth of friends and the members of this community, a lamentation: cf. Mic_1:10; and what follows is spoken from the position of the latter; all is over, will one say, נהיה, actum est, all is lost, cf. Dan_8:27, and also the γεγονε, Rev_15:1-8 We are utterly destroyed. On the form with u instead of o, cf. Olah., §263 b. “The obsure vowel is adapted to the sound of lamentation,” Hitzig.—The portion of my people he (Jehovah, cf. Mic_1:9) takes back. המיר of taking back of a promised benfit (Psa_15:4). Thus God repents of having granted it (Gen_6:6). How he withdraws it from me!—Cf. Mic_2:3, against Hitzig’s translation: how he lets me depart! To the apostate—i. e., to the heathen (Jer_49:4), who is born and grows up in apostasy from God—he divideth our fields!
Mic_2:5. Therefore, the prophecy proceeds, looking back to Mic_2:3. thou (all Israel, transition, as Mic_1:14) shalt have no one to cast a measuring line on a lot of ground (Jdg_1:3) in the assembly of Jehovah. For to the congregation of God belong the lots of ground so long only as they bear in mind that it is God’s land (Lev_25:23); but since they, by the sins named in Mic_2:1-2, appropriate it to themselves, there is no longer a congregation of Jehovah, and the owner, God, gives his land to the apostate, who have been rebellious from their birth, and so with less guilt. The words of the prophet are keen, and provoke to contradiction. Imagining this present to him, he comes to the new turn of the discourse.
Mic_2:6-13. State of the Prophetic Function. Mic_2:6. The people will not listen to any genuine prophecy (Amo_5:10). This second reproof also runs parallel to one of Isaiah (Isa_23:7 ff.). Indeed, the prophet associates Isaiah with himself in thought, when he makes the people call out to a plurality of prophets: “Drivel not,” they drivel. The expression הִטִּיף (from נטף, therefore prop. “to let drop,” trickle (Amo_9:13), to pour out copious discourse. to prophesy=נבא, cf. הִבִּיַע, to let bubble, gush forth; Psa_94:4), appears here, as in Amo_7:15, in the mouth of the malignant opposition. whose it a tone of contempr. (But cf. Eze_21:2; Eze_21:9.) The prophet straightway returns this contempt; their indignation is in reality an unreasonable driveling, as he then (Mic_2:7 c) further evnices. First, however, he answers their objection by the double sentence, 6 b, c, which, according to the analogy of the following verse, is best understood as an impatient question. Shall they not drivel for that? shall the shame not depart? For such rhetorical questions without the particle of interrogation, cf, Hab_2:19; Jer_25:29; Hos. 23:14.—Ewald, Hitzig, Maurer, Umbreit, Caspari: “Let them not prate of these things; the reviling has no end.” Ch. V. Michaelis, Hengstenberg, Keil: “If they prophesy not to these, the reproach will not depart.”13—The proceeding verb stands in the sing. (Gesen., §147, a), and כְּלִמּוֹת signifies not merely revilings but everything, which can serve as reproach and ruin to one (Isa_30:3).
Mic_2:7. The first words of this verse also are an important exclamation: O for what is spoken in the house of Israel! cf. on this acc. indignationis, Ewald, §101, 6; Isa_29:16. In like manner, Umvreit.—Caspari, Hitzig: num dicendum? But the gerundive idea is not contained in the part. pass. Rosenmüller and Keil: “O thou so called house of Jacob!” But that in connection with the following gives no sense. בית יעקב is not stat. abs. but acc. loci, while אמור, regarded as a verbal from, is (as Isa_26:3 : if he is stayed on thee): “O for the fact that it is said in the house of Jacob,” as follows. cf. 1Ki_7:48; Rth_1:9.14. The prphet up the words of the opposers, in order then to reply to them. They say: is then the spirit of Jehovah become short, i. e. impatient? That would be against the word of God (Exo_36:6), to which they appeal like Satan before Christ (Mat_4:6). Orare these—the plagues prophesied by the prophets—his deeds? Should he plague Israel whom he is wont to foster as his first—born son (Exo_4:23). The prophet replies to this foolish speech, which claims the promise for itself regardless of the condition, by reminding them that God remains indeed the same, but that they (Mic_2:8 ff.) have changes, so that the promise can no longer avail for them. Do not, in fact, my words deal kindly with him that walks uprightly? “The word ישׁר, as an appositive to the person in דֹולֵךְ (Job_31:26), could take the place which the emphasis resting on it assigns to it, because as an adjective it draws to itself the article belonging to hwlech.” Hitzig.
Mic_2:8. But lately—properly: yesterday—my people has stood up as—an enemy. My words would have remained kind, as they were, but you have sought hostility. The hostile attitude still continues, as the imperf, indicates. On the use of לְ cf. Ewald, § 217. d. a. 1.—Others, retaining the causative signification of קו̇מֵם, translate: but my people make me stand up as their enemy/ But the suffix is wanting, an the Polel is not necessarily causative.15.—And in what does this hostility consist? Off from the garment ye strip the mantle of those who in secure confidence of safety (Lev_25:18) pass by, averse from war, i. e., peaceably (Psa_120:7). The part. pass. שׁוּב takes the place of the part. act. שָׁב (Olsh., §245 a, cf. Psa_112:7).
Mic_2:9. And as they spare not the peaceable, so still less the defenseless: the women of mypeople, the unprotected widows (Isa_10:2), ye drive out of the house of their delight, the house inherited from the husband, to which they are attached by the memory of their wedded love (Son_7:7; Ecc_2:8); from their children (the stiff, is in the sing, not to denote the children severally as sons of the widows, fatherless (Keil), for that would be a nota mala, but because נָשׁים is taken collectively Mic_1:9), ye take away my ornament forever. To belong to Jehovah is the honor and ornament of every individual Israelite (Jer_2:11; Psa_73:28); whoever thrusts out the children in Israel among the heathen takes away this ornament of God (1Sa_26:19).16
From this results now (Mic_2:10), of itself as it were, the threatening, according to the law of the tatio (cf. on Mic_2:3, “those that expel shall be expelled”): Arise ye, and go: for here is not the rest (Zec_9:1) which was promised to the righteous people in Canaan (Deu_12:9 f.; Psa_95:11; cf. Heb_3:11 ff.): for uncleanness worketh destruction (cf. Lev_18:25; Isa_54:16), and that a sharp destruction. So must God’s prophet speak (Mic_2:3; Mic_2:6), whether the hearers regard it as driveling or not. Were he, indeed, one of the prophets whom they would fain hear, (cf. Isa_30:10), the proclamation would sound very differently; what they announce we are told in Mic_2:11-13.
Mic_2:11. If a man followed vanity, רוּחַ as in Isa_26:18, and falsehood (לוּcum part, as Psa_81:14; 2Sa_18:12), he would lie (the apodosis ἀσυνδέτως, as Deu_32:29): I will prophesy to thee, people of Israel, of wine and strong drink, i. e. either: of these things, that they shall be bestowed on you, or better: so that my predictions shall come to you as sweet as wine and strong drink, or also: prophesy to thee at the banquet (cf. Mic_2:6).17And would prophesy to this people:18 namely, what follows in Mic_2:12-13. והח continues the apodosis begun by כּזב, and, with the part, takes the place of the simple הִטִּיף while hinting besides that this prophesying is permanent (Ewald, § 168 c.).19 Instead of the verbal construction לָעָם, the part, is construed as a noun with stat. abs. as Mic_2:8 (Hab_2:15; Psa_30:4).
Mic_2:12. To the part, is adjoined, as Mic_2:7, the direct discourse: I will surely gather all of thee, so would the liars, clothing themselves in the garb of the old prophets, prophesy in the name of Jehovah, O, Jacob, I will surely collect the remnant of Israel. That, indeed, a remnant only can be spoken of, who shall be gathered (according to Oba_1:17; Joe_1:5, cf. Amo_5:15), even the false prophets know; but in view of the destruction of Samaria, they might tickle the ears of the men of Judah by pretending that the whole (כּלּד) of Judah, unpurified, was this remnant, and would undoubtedly enter alone into the promise. They might plausibly appeal to the precedent set by Hosea, who (Hos_2:2 [Mic_1:11], cf. Micah 1.) had said that after the punishment of Israel and the bestowment of favor on Judah, both would gather about One Head. They evidently refer to the יהדו in that passage when they go on to say: I will bring them (Israel) together as sheep in the field, as a herd in the midst of its pasture. The appellative signification of בּצרהseptum-ovile, is quite possible according to the erymology, is found in the oldest versions, and is sufficiently supported by the parallelism of “pasture.”—So Hitzig, Umbreit, Caspari; Hengstenberg, on the contrary: the Moabite, Keil: the Edomite Bozrah.—The article with the suffix in הדברו, as Jos_7:21; Ewald, § 290, d. And not merely Judah and Israel in their present condition, but also all the scattered and sold will return, of whom Obadiah (Ob. 2:20) before, and Joel (Joel 4:6 ff.) had made mention: They, the fold and pasture of Israel, shall swarm (תּהימנה instead of תּהימינה, Olsh., § 244, e.) with men, for the multitude of the men also is a necessary element of the promises of prosperity (Hos_2:2 [Mic_1:11]). הים is, like הום, a cognate form for המם ,המה (Psa_55:3). But how do they suppose that this can take place when, after the destruction of Samaria, the northern part of the holy land is inclosed by the Assyrians round about? This question is answered by
Mic_2:13. There will go up before them—a traditional Messianic expression (Ob. 2:21)—He that breaks through: the head, the leader whom they will set over them, according to Hos_2:2. He will place himself at their head in the holy city whither God will gather Israel, will collect them into an army and break the ring of the heathen.20They break through, pass into the gate (cf. oh Mic_1:11), and go out through it. And their king passes on before them, for no other than the king, out of the house of David, can be that “Breaker” (Amo_9:11), and Jehovah at their head, as in the marches in the desert (Num_10:35; Exo_13:21).
The foregoing explanation of Mic_2:12-13, which regards these as the quintessence of the golden promises with which the false prophets steal the favor of the people, rests not only on the plan of the whole discourse (chaps, 2, 3) but also especially on the impossibility of establishing otherwise a clear connection between Mic_2:11-12, and on the numerous references of the following chapter. The objections which have been raised against it, particularly that from the term “remnant,” have been met in the exegesis. The passage is similarly explained by J. D. Michaelis, Hartmann, Ewald, Hofmann in the Schriflbeweis, while the majority, however, and among them of recent authors, Hengstenberg, Hitzig, Caspari, Keil [Maurer, Pusey], separate the last two verses from the connection, and explain them as a Messianic promise from Micah’s point of view.
But according to this latter understanding of the subject, it is unintelligible how, immediately after this, the antithesis (Micah 3.) can begin, as indicated by the manifestly adversative ואמר “but I say” (cf. Isa_24:16), and by the diametrically opposite prophecy, which continues, with the express assurance (Mic_2:8), that it gives the proper sentiment of the prophet, to the end of the chapter and culminates in the last verse.
See Mic_3:1 ff for DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL and HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Footnotes:
[1][We follow Kleinert’s course in printing these chapters, as if less decidedly poetical than the remainder of the book. in some parts the style gives reason for this procedure, yet interpreters generally make not such distinction; and to those who differ with our author in not making a separate division of these two chapters, his conception of the form of the discourse will seem particularly arbitrary.—Tr.]
[2][Mic_2:1. כִּי יֶשׂ־לְאֵל ידָם, There is in this, almost certainly, a reminiscence of Gen_31:29 (cf. Pro_3:27; Deu_28:32; Neh. Mic_2:5); otherwise there would be much plausibility in the rendering: “For their hand is as a God.”—Tr.]
[3][Mic_2:2. We must fail somewhat here in representing the original, from the lack in our language of a word for “man” as generically human being (אישׁ, here=ᾰνθρωποδ, hamo, Mensch), in distinction from “man” sensu eminenli (גֶּבֶר, ᾰνηρ, vir, Mann).—Tr.]
[4] [Mic_2:4. So Pusey happily indicates the paronomasia in נָהָה נְהִי נִהְיָה: “wail a wailing wail” would be still more analogous in sound, if the expression could be allowed.
Kleinert, sustained by Gesenius and others, separates the ἅπαξ λεγ. נִהְיָה, from the preceding, and translates as if it were a part. Niph. of היה: (it was; Ilium fuit) "All is over ! they will say," etc. This is ingenious, almost too much so, having the appearance of a modern improvement. For although the form was long ago; regarded by some as Niph. pret. or part. of היה it seems always to have been with a different interpretation. Vid. Pococke in loc.__TR.]
[5][Mic_2:4. לִי, dat incom.: “for me,” “to my hurt.”—Tr.]
[6] [Mic_2:6. נָטַף .אַל־תּטִּיפוּ יַטּיפוּן, “to drop,” “drip,” “distil,” is here, as in other places (cf. Eng. Vers. Amo_7:16), applied to the utterance of discourse. As to the reference of the several verbs here, and in the remainder of the verse, there has been the greatest diversity of opinion. We take it thus: The ungodly crowd, weary of the pious and faithful inculcations of the true prophets, meet their exhortations to repentance with the contemptuous order to stop preaching. “Prophesy not,” in their taunting sense is, Don’t keep driveling, drooling. Compare (we shrink from quoting it here, yet we think it well illustrates the spirit with which the mass always meet their pious advisers) the slang of our rabble: “Dry up!”—“They prophesy” (drivel) is thus the expression of the prophet, retaliating in the right use of the word which their feeble sarcasm had suggested. What follows, in the most literal translation, “they shall not prophesy to these; shame (lit. shames) shall not depart,” may then be understood as God through his prophet taking them at their word: “Even so; people like these shall cease to enjoy the benefit of that which they call driveling; I will give them up to their own wish, and the shames, which my word should have turned away, shall not depart, but come upon them.” This we think consistent with the most direct rendering of the verse word for word.
Klelnert’s somewhat modified view will be seen in the Exeg. note, where he gives a synopsis also of the principal recent translations. Pococke in loc. gives a good and tedious account of what had come into men’s heads about it in previous ages. We may add, that Zunz renders (less literally than usual): Preach not, ye that preach! let none preach to such, (that) they bring not disgraces upon them.—Tr.]
[7][Mic_2:7. הֶֽאָמוּר בֵית־י׳, Our author denies that the usual rendering of this, which we also have, with some hesitation, adopted, can be harmonized with what follows, but maurer explains very well: “O dicta domus Jacobi (in quan lot ac lanta beneficia contulit Jora!) … detrectaris vos quidem audire quas jacimus minas (Mic_2:6). Sed quœtandem causa est minarum? deusne? at ille quam longe alium se exhibet agentibus recle! In causa esse insos Israelicos dicit rersus proximus.”
[8][Mic_2:7. Or, “are not my words good,” etc.?]
[9][Mic_2:11. Lit. “wind.” Maurer renders not badly: “Si quis irel, (st) ventum et mendacium mentiretur.” Dr. Kleinert finds the apodosis here begining with כִּזֵּב, which וְהָיָה would then merely continue. Thus he puts vers 12, 13 into the mouth of the supposed false prophet, as grammatically the object of מַטִּיף. we think rather, that the conj. in והיה must almost necessarlly mark the apodosis, and that the sentiment of the two following verses is too unlike the probable expression of the false prophet to be balanced by the alleged antithesis in Mic_3:1.—Tr.]
[10][Mic_3:8. The absence of the conj., and use of אֶת with ר–ה י׳ alone of the four nouns well warrants the idea of the Eug. Vers. adopted by Pusey, that “spirit of Jehovah” stands out of the series, as rather the ground and cause of all the rest—by the spirit, etc.—Tr.]
[11][“Such is the fire of concupiscence, raging within, that, as those seized by burning fevers cannot rest, no bed suffices them, so no houses or fields content these. Yet no more than seven feet of earth will suffice them soon. ‘Death only owns how small the frame of man’ ” Rib. apud. Pusey in loe.—Tr.]
[12][Cf. Text. and Gram. in loc.]
[13][Cf. Text. and Gram. in loc.—Tr.]
[14][Cf. Text. and Gram. on this ver.—Tr.]
[15]A good connection for the whole verse would be afforded if, taking the sentence עמי, κ.τ.λ., as parenthetical, we should translate: “but lately, when my people,” namely, the northern kingdom, Israel, already attacked “stood up” (cf. Job_20:27) against the enemy, Assyria, “from off the garment ye stripped off the mantle, from them that passed by securely,” those namely, that fled from the war.
[16][Primarily, the glory, comeliness was the fitting apparel which God had given them, and laid upon them, and which oppressors stripped off from them. But it includes all the gifts of God, wherewith God would array them. Instead of the holy home of parental care, the children grew up in want and neglect, away from all the ordinances of God, it may be, in a strange land. Pusey in loc.—Tr.].
[17][“Man’s conscience must needs have some plea in speaking falsely of God. The false prophets had to please the rich men, to embolden them in their self-indulgence, to tell them that God would not punish. They doubtless spoke of God’s temporal promises to his people, the land flowing with milk and honey, His promise of abundant harvest and vintage, and assured them, that God would not withdraw these, that He was not so precise about his law. Micah tells them in plain words, what it all came to; it was a prophesying of wine and strong drink.” Pusey in loc.—Tr.].
[18]Or, adhering more closely to the accents: If a man followed the wind and lied deceit: I will prophesy for thee to wine and strong drink, he would prophesy to this people ; etc. The translation above is logically more perspicuous, and appropriate to the Heb. words.
[19][Cf. Gram, and Text. note.—Tr.]
[20][Dr. Pusey expresses well the opposite and more satisfactory view, that the breaking through and the going forth, is out of captivity. “The image is not of conquest, but of deliverance. They break through, not to enter in, but to pass through the gate and go forth. The wall of the city is ordinarily broken through, in order to make an entrance, or to secure to a conqueror the power of entering in. at any time, or by age and decay. But there the object is expressed, to go forth. Plainly then they were confined before, as in a prison; and the gate of the prison was burst open, to set them free. It is there the same image as when God says by Isaiah: I will say to the North, give up: and to the South, hold not back, or, Go ye forth of Babylon, Say ye, the Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob,” etc. This author’s long note on the verse before us affords an admirable specimen of the manner in which he connects a treasure of evangelical sentiment with the brief hints of ancient prophecy. But it is often rather put on than drawn out; it is a crystallization of the gospel around a Hebrew sentence rather than a blossoming forth from the bud cf clearly enfolded truth.”—Tr.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn v2Parallelism, "Take by violence," answers to "take away"; "fields"…
Parallelism, "Take by violence," answers to "take away"; "fields" and "houses," to "house" and "heritage" (that is, one's land).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn v1CAUSES OF THE IMPENDING JUDGMENT, Mic_2:1-11.
CAUSES OF THE IMPENDING JUDGMENT, Mic_2:1-11.
It is commonly assumed that chapters 2 and 3 form a “single prophecy, the subject of which is the cause of the coming judgment.” That both chapters deal substantially with the same subjects is undoubtedly true, but it is equally clear that, as the chapters stand now, there is a distinct break at the close of the second chapter. Hence there seems good reason for separating 2 and 3, and joining the latter more closely with Mic_4:5. Only by cutting out Mic_2:12-13, can a connection between 2 and 3 be established; on the other hand, if chapter 3is connected with 4, 5, at least some of the reasons for omitting these verses disappear (see p. 363, and on Mic_2:12-13). The following comments are based upon the assumption that chapters 1, 2 form a complete whole, and that chapter ii is intended to set forth the causes making inevitable the judgment threatened in the preceding chapter. It opens with a woe upon the proud nobles, who have become misleaders of the people (Mic_2:1-4). The accused resent the denunciation; the attempt is made to silence the prophet, and to find consolation in the message of the mercenary prophets. But, the prophet insists, there is no escape from the wrath of Jehovah; as they have driven the poor from their homes, so they will be driven from their possessions into exile (Mic_2:5-11). From this exile only a remnant will return under the leadership of Jehovah (Mic_2:12-13).
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1, 2. A vivid description of the corrupt conduct of the aristocracy.
Work evil upon their beds — To be distinguished from “they practice it” in the next clause; the first refers to the preparation of the ways and means with which they carry out their evil schemes. In the darkness of the night they lay their plans; in the morning they carry them out.
In the power of their hand — No one can prevent their crimes, for their wealth and power enable them to do anything they please (Mic_7:3).
The general accusation in Mic_2:1 is followed by a specific condemnation of the greed and avarice manifesting itself in the attempts to rob poor property owners of their holdings. Elijah (1 Kings 21) and Isaiah (Isa_5:8 ff.) championed the rights of the common people against similar outrages. The accumulation of wealth and resources in the hands of a few seriously threatened the national stability and permanence. “The old Israelite state was so entirely based on the participation of every freeman in the common soil, and so little recognized the mere possession of capital, that men were in danger of losing civil rights along with house and fields, and becoming mere hirelings or even slaves.”
Oppress — Margin, “defraud.”
Heritage — The hereditary portion of the land assigned to each family at the time of the conquest and guarded by the “Jubilee Law” (Lev_25:8 ff.; compare Num_27:1-11; Deu_27:17).
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv1–21–5. Sin and its corresponding Punishment
1–5. Sin and its corresponding Punishment
1. and work evil] To ‘work,’ as distinguished from ‘devise’ and to ‘practise’ or ‘execute,’ is to prepare ways and means (see Isa_41:4). Obs., it is no mere act of thoughtlessness, or passionate impulse, which is here denounced, but a set purpose of dispossessing the small proprietors.
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upon their beds] The natural place for reflexion, whether in a bad sense (as here and Psa_36:4), or in a good (as Psa_63:6).
it is in the power of their hand] A doubt as to the meaning has arisen from the fact that the word el here rendered ‘power’ is more commonly used for ‘god.’ But Lagarde has shewn that the root meaning of el is ‘that to which one reaches out.’ Comp. Act_17:27.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv1–2(1) Woe to them that devise.—The prophet proceeds to…
II.
(1) Woe to them that devise.—The prophet proceeds to denounce the sins for which the country was to receive condign punishment at the hands of God. There is a gradation in the terms employed: they mark the deliberate character of the acts: there were no extenuating circumstances. In the night they formed the plan, they thought it out upon their beds, and carried it out into execution in the morning. So also the gradually increasing intercourse with the wicked is described, as reaching its culmination, in the first Psalm: Walking with the ungodly leads to standing among sinners, and at last sitting habitually in the seat of the scornful.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv1–2Vers. 1-5. The prophet justifies his threat by recounting…
Vers. 1-5. The prophet justifies his threat by recounting the sins of which the grandees and guilty.
The prophet, himself one of the people, first inveighs against the sins of injustice and oppression of the poor. Devise... work... practise. A gradation. They are not led into these sins by others; they themselves conceive the evil purpose in their own heart; then they prepare and mature their scheme by reflection; then they proceed to execute it. Work evil; i.e. prepare the means for carrying out their conception. (comp Isa_41:4) Upon their beds. At night, the natural time for reflection. (comp. Psa_4:4 Psa_36:4) Is light. Far from shrinking from the light of day in putting into effect their evil projects, they set about their accomplishment as soon as ever the morning allows them. Because it is in the power of their hand. Their might makes their right. (For the phrase, Gen_31:29 Pro_3:27) As the word el may be taken to mean "God" as well as "power," some render here, "For their hand is their god," comparing the boast of Mezentius in Virgil, "AEneid," 10:773"Dextra mihi Deus et telum quod missile libro.
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The Vulgate has, Quoniam contra Deum est manus eorum; LXX, Diotiouk hran pro , Because they lifted not up their hands unto God." So the Syriac, with the omission of the negative.
Vers. 1-11. Delineations of deep transgression, righteous retribution, and Divine equity.
We have in these verses three pictures, drawn by a master hand, and very suggestive of practical teaching.
I A PICTURE OF DEEP TRANSGRESSION. (Vers. 1, 2, 8, 9) Observe delineated in it:
1. The abuse of privilege. (Ver. 1) What a boon is night! "The season of repose; the blessed barrier betwixt day and day," when the hum and bustle, the anxiety and fatigue, of business is suspended, when the tired artisan rests from his toil; when the voyager on the wide sea forgets awhile the perils of the main; when the warrior ceases for a time to hear the roar of the cannon and to face the foe; and when all nature is hushed to slumber, save the weary watchers by the bed of suffering, and wakeful, loving mothers tending their dear ones in their quiet nests. We bless God for the day with its early sunrise, its noontide glory, its evening shades; but we bless him also for the night, with her sable mantle, her vague solitude, her quiet rest. And this high privilege was grossly abused. "Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds!" (ver. 1). It was not that evil thoughts unwillingly invaded their minds, but that they deliberately planned evil they devised it. It is one thing for evil thoughts to enter the mind in its quiet hours unbidden; it is quite another to entertain these; and worst of all is it to "devise" these, and in the very seasons given to man for rest, to be found plotting and contriving harm. So has it ever been with the ungodly, that they have abused God"s best gifts. (Psa_36:4 Pro_4:16)
2. The non-improvement of opportunity. (Ver. 1) Each morning comes bearing to us a new gift of time from our God. With our waking hours comes the Divine call to fresh service. Strength has been gathered up, now to be expended in the improvement of the opportunities of holy service which will assuredly arise. Happy they who begin the day with God, and then go forth to hallow every engagement of life, and to use for him every opportunity which may be given "True hearts spread and heave Unto their God, as flowers do to the sun: Give him thy first thoughts, so shalt thou keep Him company all day.
The grave charge here urged was that with the breaking of the day they went forth to renew their evil deeds; that the fresh strength imparted to them by God became employed by them against him; the evil plotted by them in the night they went forth with the morning"s dawn to commit; the energies which ought to have been consecrated to God they devoted to dark and daring deeds of impiety. "When the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand" (ver. 1).
3. The perversion of power. (Vers. 2, 8, 9) Both Micah and Isaiah laid stress upon the prevailing sin of covetousness, leading the mighty and influential to pervert the power and influence they possessed, to the injury of the feeble and obscure, oppressing and tyrannizing over them. Thus they are charged here with
(1) unscrupulously depriving them of their inheritance (ver. 2);
(2) stripping of their raiment peaceful, unoffending persons (ver. 8);
(3) driving widows from their houses, and causing fatherless children to suffer from want and neglect (ver. 9).
In this way the sad picture of shameless sin here presented to us is rendered increasingly dark through the prevailing sin of covetousness, leading to harsh oppression and grievous wrong.
4. The wilful rejection of light and preference of darkness. (Vers. 6, 11) To the true prophets of the Lord, who sought to bring home to them a sense of their guilt, and to lead them to return unto the Lord, they said, "Prophesy ye not" (ver. 6), whereas to lying spirits they would readily give. (Joh_3:19, Joh_3:20)
II A PICTURE OF MERITED CHASTISEMENT. (Vers. 3, 4, 5, 10) The main feature in this picture is the illustration it affords of the retributive character of the Divine chastisement for sin. Observe:
1. They had "devised" evil against others; now God would "devise" evil against them (ver. 3).
2. They had oppressed others; now they should be oppressed (ver. 3), and even their own sad elegies, wrung from them through their sorrow, should be taken up and repeated against them in sheer mockery by their oppressors (vers. 4, 5).
3. They had voluntarily chosen their false prophets and had welcomed their lying words, and they should now get no comfort from the words of hope which, in the dark days, should be spoken by the true prophets, and which should prove consolatory to the remnant of God"s people who had remained faithful (ver. 6).
4. They had cast out the widows and the fatherless, and they should be themselves cast out (ver. 10). We look on this picture of coming chastisement, and we learn from it that retribution follows sin; we see in it an Old Testament illustration of the New Testament assurance that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap". (Gal_6:7, Gal_6:8)
III A PICTURE OF THE DIVINE EQUITY. (Ver. 7) God, through his prophet, expostulated with the people who had acted so unworthily, who bore the name of Israel, but who so dishonoured their pious ancestry; and declared to them that his ways were not unequal; that rectitude and mercy characterized all his operations; that through all he had been seeking their good; that it was not his will that the threatened woes should befall them; that this was entirely their own act; and that neither their sins nor their sorrows could truthfully be charged upon him. There are many such passages scattered throughout the prophetical writings, in which God deigned to expostulate with the erring passages which are inexpressibly tender and touching. (Jer_2:5 Isa_5:4 Isa_43:22, Isa_43:25) So Christ to the Jews of his day, when they took up stones to stone him, asked," For which of these works do ye stone me?". (Joh_10:32) And the same Divine voice expostulates with us in our sinfulness; and our response should be, "Unto thee," etc. (Dan_9:6, Dan_9:7) These Divine expostulations are the arrows of conviction coming from God to the hearts of men, and which, unlike the poisoned arrows of the ancients that carded death in their flight, carry mercy and life into the human soul.
HOMILIES BY E.S. PROUT Vers. 1-3. Deliberate sins bringing predestined punishments.
We see here
I THE GENESIS OF CRIME. Three stages are described.
1. Sinful desires are cherished in the heart. These sinners "devise iniquity," think over it, (Psa_7:14) imagine it (the same word as in 1Sa_18:25, referring to Saul"s thought and plan to secure David"s death), dwell on it; for wickedness is "sweet in their mouth". (Job_20:10-12) Illustrate from the licentious thoughts of David (2Sa_11:2, 2Sa_11:3) or Amnon, (2Sa_13:1, 2Sa_13:2) the covetous thoughts of Ahab, (1Ki 21) or the envious and revengeful thoughts of Haman. (Est_3:5, Est_3:6; see Jam_1:14, Jam_1:15) Here sin is not traced during its growth. From its birth St. James passes on to its maturity: "The sin, when it is full grown, bringeth forth death." But Micah points out stages in its growth.
2. Plans of wickedness are deliberately contrived. They "work," prepare or fabricate, "evil upon their beds." In their hours of rest they "cannot cease from sin." On their beds, where they might enjoy the sleep of God"s beloved, where in wakeful hours they might commune with God and their own hearts, (Psa_4:4 Psa_16:7 Psa_63:6 Psa_104:34) they plot their crimes. (Psa_36:4 Pro_4:16) If they want allies they hesitate not to secure the aid of the false witness, the procuress, the dishonest lawyer, the bribed judge. Illust.: Jezebel; the priests; (Mat_28:11-14) the assassins. (Act_23:12-15)
3. The plot is executed in a crime. They act promptly, early, showing no signs of repentance or reflection; (Jer_8:6) in the daylight, without (Est_6:4 Mat_27:1, Mat_27:2) to shed blood," or defraud, or debauch. Might constitutes their right; "impiously mighty and mighty in impiety," "because it is in the power of their hands." "Dextra mihi Deus" (Virgil). They are reckless of the ruin caused to an innocent man or a whole family robbed of their heritage, (Neh_5:1-5) or of their head, (1Ki_21:13) or of the flower of the flock, some beloved child more precious than any heritage. (2Sa_12:1-9)
II ITS INEVITABLE CONNECTION WITH RETRIBUTION. While sinners are coveting, plotting, plundering, God is watching, devising, and framing punishment. This is:
1. Predestined; on the ground of deliberate sin. God"s "therefores" have all the force of demonstrative reasoning. (Pro_1:31 Isa_65:12, etc)
2. Hard to be borne. Compared to a yoke. Contrast the yoke of the Father"s discipline, (Lam_3:27) and of the Redeemer"s service. (Mat_11:29, Mat_11:30) If these yokes are contemptuously cast away, the evil yoke of punishment, a "yoke of iron," is prepared. (Jer_28:14)
3. Inevitable. See the striking figures in Amo_9:1-4 and Zec_14:16-18 (God"s manifold instruments of punishment); cf. 1Ti_6:9, 1Ti_6:10.
4. Humiliating. "Neither shall ye go haughtily." How often the retribution on the proud or the extortioner is strikingly appropriate to their sin! Man"s skill in successful sinning is outmatched by God"s wisdom in punishing. (Job_9:4) When God"s wisdom and power are both arrayed against us, it is an evil time indeed.
5. Utterly disastrous. A revolution in their entire circumstances (ver. 4). Thus the consequences of sin may be irreparable in this world; but the gospel of the grace of God tells of a forgiveness whereby sin may be righteously forgiven, and the eternal consequences may be cut off. E.S.P. (Isa_43:25 Joh_5:24)
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1-4. Avarice.
"Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand," etc. The prophet, in the preceding chapter, foretold the judgment that would befall both kingdoms on account, of their apostasy from the living God. He begins this chapter by denouncing the rapacious avarice of their leading men. Oppression is one of the greatest social crimes; alas! one that has been prevalent in every age and land; a crime this, too, which the Bible denounces with great frequency and with terrific force. Avarice, or greed, is the spring and spirit of all oppression. In the text we have this rapacious avarice presented to us in three aspects.
I SCHEMING IN THE LIGHT. The avaricious men "devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds." When avarice takes possession of a man, it works the brain by night as well as by day. It keeps the intellectual faculties busy in the stillness of nocturnal hours. What schemes to swindle, defraud, and plunder men are fabricated in this London of ours every night upon the pillow! Perhaps there is no passion that takes a stronger hold upon man than this, and that moves his intellect with such concentration and constancy. It has been called "the great sepulchre of all other passions.
II WORKING IN THE DAY "When the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand." Delitzsch renders this," In the light of the morning they carry it out, for their hand is their god." The idea is, perhaps, that which they esteem most is the worldly gain of their avaricious labour. So it ever is; gain is the god of the greedy man. He sacrifices all his time and labour on its altar. Before it he prostrates his soul Your avaricious man in the day trots about the streets, the shops, the markets, like a hungry hound in search of food. Shakespeare compares such a man to a whale, which plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry before him, and at last devours them all at a mouthful. Such whales have I heard of on the land, who never leave gaping till they"ve swallowed the whole parish church, steeple, bells, and all.
III SUFFERING IN THE JUDGMENT. "Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks," etc. Judgment comes at last; and in the judgment, as these words give us to understand, the punishment will correspond with the sin. "Because they reflect upon evil," says Delitzsch, "to deprive their fellow men of their possessions, Jehovah will bring evil upon this generation, lay a heavy yoke upon their necks, under which they will not be able to walk loftily or with extended neck." Ay, the time will come when the avaricious millionaire will exclaim, "We be utterly spoiled." "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you," etc.. D.T. (Jam_5:1)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn v1And they covet fields, and take them by violence
Mic_2:1-4
And they covet fields, and take them by violence
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Avarice
Greed is the spring and spirit of all oppression.
Here rapacious avarice is presented in three aspects.
I. Scheming in the night. When avarice takes possession of a man, it works the brain by night as well as by day. What schemes to swindle, defraud, and plunder men are fabricated every night upon the pillow!
II. Working in the day. The idea esteemed most is the worldly gain of avaricious labour. So it ever is; gain is the God of the greedy man. He sacrifices all his time and labour on its altar. Shakespeare compares such a man to a whale which plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry before him, and at last devours them all at a mouthful.
III. Suffering in the judgment. For judgment comes at last, and in the judgment these words give us to understand the punishment will correspond with the sin. Because they reflect upon evil, says Delitzsch, to deprive their fellow men of their possessions, Jehovah will bring evil upon this generation, lay a heavy yoke upon their necks, under which they will not be able to walk loftily or with extended neck. Ay, the time will come when the avaricious millionaire will exclaim, We be utterly spoiled. Go to, now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you, etc. (Homilist.)
The wrong which Micah attacks
Micah scourges the avarice of the landowner, and the injustice which oppresses the peasant. Social wrongs are always felt most acutely, not in the town, but in the country. It was so in the days of Rome, whose earliest social revolts were agrarian. It was so in the Middle Ages; the fourteenth century saw both the Jacquerie in France and the Peasants rising in England; Langland, who was equally familiar with town and country, expends nearly all his sympathy upon the poverty of the latter, the poure folk in cotes. It was so after the Reformation, under the new spirit of which the first social revolt was the Peasants war in Germany. It was so at the French Revolution, which began with the march of the starving peasants into Paris. And it is so still, for our new era of social legislation has been forced upon us, not by the poor of London and the large cities, but by the peasantry of Ireland and the crofters of the Scottish Highlands. Political discontent and religious heresy take their start among industrial and manufacturing centres, but the first springs of the social revolt are nearly always found among rural populations. Why the country should begin to feel the acuteness of social wrong before the town is sufficiently obvious. In the town there are mitigations, and there are escapes. If the conditions of one trade become oppressive, it is easier to pass to another. The workers are better educated and better organised; there is a middle class, and the tyrant dare not bring matters to so high a crisis. The might of the wealthy, too, is divided; the poor mans employer is seldom at the same time his landlord. But in the country power easily gathers into the hands of the few. The labourers opportunities and means of work, his house, his very standing ground are often all the property of one man. In the country the rich have a real power of life and death, and are less hampered by competition with each other, and by the force of public opinion. One man cannot hold a city in fee, but one man can affect for evil or for good almost as large a population as a citys, when it is scattered across a country side. This is precisely the state of wrong which Micah attacks. This is the evil, the ease with which wrong is done in the country. It lies to the power of their hands; they covet and seize. Micah feels that by themselves the economic wrongs explain and justify the doom impending on the nation. (G. A. Smith, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible1887 · Public DomainOn v1Micah 2,3
THE PROPHET OF THE POOR
Micah 2,3
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WE have proved Micahs love for his countryside in the effusion of his heart upon her villages with a grief for their danger greater than his grief for Jerusalem. Now in his treatment of the sins which give that danger its fatal significance, he is inspired by the same partiality for the fields and the folk about him. While Isaiah chiefly satirizes the fashions of the town and the intrigues of the court, Micah scourges the avarice of the landowner and the injustice which oppresses the peasant. He could not, of course, help sharing Isaiahs indignation for the fatal politics of the capital, any more than Isaiah could help sharing his sense of the economic dangers of the provinces; {Isa_5:8} but it is the latter with which Micah is most familiar and on which he spends his wrath. These so engross him, indeed, that he says almost nothing about the idolatry, or the luxury, or the hideous vice, which, according to Amos and Hosea, were now corrupting the nation.
Social wrongs are always felt most acutely, not in the town, but in the country. It was so in the days of Rome, whose earliest social revolts were agrarian. It was so in the Middle Ages: the fourteenth century saw both the Jacquerie in France and the Peasants Rising in England; Langland, who was equally familiar with town and country, expends nearly all his sympathy upon the poverty of the latter, "the poure folk in cotes." It was so after the Reformation, under the new spirit of which the first social revolt was the Peasants War in Germany. It was so at the French Revolution, which began with the march of the starving peasants into Paris. And it is so still, for our new era of social legislation has been forced open, not by the poor of London and the large cities, but by the peasantry of Ireland and the crofters of the Scottish Highlands. Political discontent and religious heresy take their start among industrial and manufacturing centers, but the first springs of the social revolt are nearly always found among the rural populations.
Why the country should begin to feel the acuteness of social wrong before the town is sufficiently obvious. In the town there are mitigations, and there are escapes. If the conditions of one trade become oppressive, it is easier to pass to another. The workers are better educated and better organized; there is a middle class, and the tyrant dare not bring matters to so high a crisis. The might, of the wealthy, too, is divided; the poor mans employer is seldom at the same time his landlord. But in the country power easily gathers into the hands of the few. The laborers opportunities and means of work, his home, his very standing-ground, are often all of them the property of one man. In the country the rich have a real power of life and death, and are less hampered by competition with each other and by the force of public opinion. One man cannot hold a city in fee, but one man can affect for evil or for good almost as large a population as a citys, when it is scattered across a countryside.
This is precisely the state of wrong which Micah attacks. The social changes of the eighth century in Israel were peculiarly favorable to its growth. The enormous increase of money which had been produced by the trade of Uzziahs reign threatened to overwhelm the simple economy under which every family had its croft. As in many another land and period, the social problem was the descent of wealthy men, land-hungry, upon the rural districts. They made the poor their debtors, and bought out the peasant proprietors. They absorbed into their power numbers of homes, and had at their individual disposal the lives and the happiness of thousands of their fellow-countrymen. Isaiah had cried. "Woe upon them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no room" for the common people, and the inhabitants of the rural districts grow fewer and Isa_5:8. Micah pictures the recklessness of those plutocrats - the fatal ease with which their wealth enabled them to dispossess the yeomen of Judah.
The prophet speaks:-
"Woe to them that plan mischief, And on their beds work out evil! As soon as morning breaks they put it into execution, For-it lies to the power of their hands!"
"They covet fields and-seize them, Houses and-lift them up. So they crush a good man and his home, A man and his heritage."
This is the evil-the ease with which wrong is done in the country! "It lies to the power of their hands: they covet and seize." And what is it that they get so easily-not merely field and house, so much land and stone and lime: it is human life, with all that makes up personal independence, and the security of home and of the family. That these should be at the mercy of the passion or the caprice of one man-this is what stirs the prophets indignation. We shall presently see how the tyranny of wealth was aided by the bribed and unjust judges of the country; and how, growing reckless, the rich betook themselves, as the lords of the feudal system in Europe continually did, to the basest of assaults upon the persons of peaceful men and women. But meantime Micah feels that by themselves the economic wrongs explain and justify the doom impending on the nation. When this doom falls, by the Divine irony of God it shall take the form of a conquest of the land by the heathen, and the disposal of these great estates to the foreigner.
The prophet speaks:-
"Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold I am planning evil against this race, From which ye shall not withdraw your necks, Nor walk upright: For an evil time it is! In that day shall they raise a taunt-song against you And wail out the wailing ("It is done"); and say, We be utterly undone: My peoples estate is measured off! How they take it away from me! To the rebel our fields are allotted. So thou shalt have none to cast the line by lot In the congregation of Jehovah."
No restoration at time of Jubilee for lauds taken away in this fashion! There will be no congregation of Jehovah left!
At this point the prophets pessimist discourse, that must have galled the rich, is interrupted by their clamor to him to stop.
The rich speak:-
"Prate not, they prate, let none prate of such things! Revilings will never cease! O thou that speakest thus to the house of Jacob, Is the spirit of Jehovah cut short? Or are such His doings? Shall not His words mean well with him that walketh uprightly?"
So the rich, in their immoral confidence that Jehovah was neither weakened nor could permit such a disaster to fall on His own people, tell the prophet that his sentence of doom on the nation, and especially on themselves, is absurd, impossible. They cry the eternal cry of Respectability: "God can mean no harm to the like of us! His words are good to them that walk uprightly-and we are conscious of being such. What you, prophet, have charged us with are nothing but natural transactions." The Lord Himself has His answer ready. Upright indeed! They have been unprovoked plunderers!
God speaks:-
"But ye are the foes of My people, Rising against those that are peaceful; The mantle ye strip from them that walk quietly by, Averse to war! Women of My people ye tear from their happy homes, From their children ye take My glory forever. Rise and begone-for this is no resting-place! Because of the uncleanness that bringeth destruction. Destruction incurable."
Of the outrages on the goods of honest men, and the persons of women and children, which are possible in a time of peace, when the rich are tyrannous and abetted by mercenary judges and prophets, we have an illustration analogous to Micahs in the complaint of Peace in Langlands vision of English society in the fourteenth century. The parallel to our prophets words is very striking:-
"And thanne come Pees into parlement and put forth a bille, How Wronge ageines his wille had his wyf taken. "Both my gees and my grys his gadelynges feccheth; I dar noughte for fere of hym fyghte ne chyde. He borwed of me bayard he broughte hym home nevre, Ne no ferthynge therefore or naughte I couthe plede. He meynteneth his men to marther myne hewen, Forstalleth my feyres and fighteth in my chepynge, And breketh up my bernes dore and bereth aweye my whete, And taketh me but a taile for ten quarters of ores, And yet he bet me ther-to and lythbi my mayde, I nam noughte hardy for hym "uneth to loke."
They pride themselves that all is stable and God is with them. How can such a state of affairs be stable! They feel at ease, yet injustice can never mean rest. God has spoken the final sentence, but with a rare sarcasm the prophet adds his comment on the scene. These rich men had been flattered into their religious security by hireling prophets, who had opposed himself. As they leave the presence of God, having heard their sentence, Micah looks after them and muses in quiet prose.
The prophet speaks:-
"Yea, if one whose walk is wind and falsehood were to try to cozen "thee, saying, "I will babble to thee of wine and strong drink, then he might be the prophet of such a people."
At this point in chapter 2 there have somehow slipped into the text two verses (Mic_2:12-13), which all are agreed do not belong to it, and for which we must find another place. They speak of a return from the Exile, and interrupt the connection between Mic_2:11 and the first verse of chapter 3 (Mic_3:1). With the latter Micah begins a series of three oracles, which give the substance of his own prophesying in contrast to that of the false prophets whom he has just been satirizing. He has told us what they say, and he now begins the first of his own oracles with the words, "But I said." It is an attack upon the authorities of the nation, whom the false prophets flatter. Micah speaks very plainly to them. Their business is to know justice, and yet they love wrong. They flay the people with their exactions; they cut up the people like meat.
The prophet speaks:-
"But I said, Hear now, O chiefs of Jacob, And rulers of the house of Israel: Is it not yours to know justice? Haters of good and lovers of evil, Tearing their hide from upon them."
(he points to the people)
"And their flesh from the bones of them; And who devour the flesh of my people, And their hide they have stripped from them And their bones have they cleft, And served it up as if from a pot, Like meat from the thick of the caldron! At that time shall they cry to Jehovah, And He will not answer them; But hide His face from them at that time, Because they have aggravated their deeds."
These words of Micah are terribly strong, but there have been many other ages and civilizations than his own of which they have been no more than true. "They crop us," said a French peasant of the lords of the great Louis time, "as the sheep crops grass." "They treat us like their food," said another on the eve of the Revolution. Is there nothing of the same with ourselves?
While Micah spoke he had wasted lives and bent backs before him. His speech is elliptic till you see his finger pointing at them. Pinched peasant faces peer between all his words and fill the ellipses. And among the living poor today are there not starved and bitten faces-bodies with the blood sucked from them, with the Divine image crushed out of them? Brothers, we cannot explain all of these by vice. Drunkenness and unthrift do account for much; but how much more is explicable only by the following facts! Many men among us are able to live in fashionable streets and keep their families comfortable only by paying their employs a wage upon which it is impossible for men to be strong or women to be virtuous. Are those not using these as their food? They tell us that if they are to give higher wages they must close their business, and cease paying wages at all; and they are right if they themselves continue to live on the scale they do. As long as many families are maintained in comfort by the profits of businesses in which some or all of the employees work for less than they can nourish and repair their bodies upon, the simple fact is that the one set are feeding upon the other set. It may be inevitable, it may be the fault of the system and not of the individual, it may be that to break up the system would mean to make things worse than ever-but all the same the truth is clear that many families of the middle class, and some of the very wealthiest of the land, are nourished by the waste of the lives of the poor. Now and again the fact is acknowledged with as much shamelessness as was shown by any tyrant in the days of Micah. To a large employer of labor who was complaining that his employees, by refusing to live at the low scale of Belgian workmen, were driving trade from this country, the present writer once said: "Would it not meet your wishes if, instead of your workmen being leveled down, the Belgians were leveled up? This would make the competition fair between you and the employers in Belgium." His answer was, "I care not so long as I get my profits." He was a religious man, a liberal giver to his Church, and he died leaving more than one hundred thousand pounds.
Micahs tyrants, too, had religion to support them. A number of the hireling prophets, whom we have seen both Amos and Hosea attack, gave their blessing to this social system, which crushed the poor, for they shared its profits. They lived upon the alms of the rich, and flattered according as they were fed. To them Micah devotes the second oracle of chapter 3, and we find confirmed by his words the principle we laid down before, that in that age the one great difference between the false and the true prophet was what it has been in every age since then till now-an ethical difference; and not a difference of dogma, or tradition, or ecclesiastical note. The false prophet spoke, consciously or unconsciously, for himself and his living. He sided with the rich; he shut his eyes to the social condition of the people; he did not attack the sins of the day. This made him false - robbed him of insight and the power of prediction. But the true prophet exposed the sins of his people. Ethical insight and courage, burning indignation of wrong, clear vision of the facts of the day-this was what Jehovahs spirit put into him, this was what Micah felt to be respiration.
The prophet speaks:-
"Thus saith Jehovah against the prophets who lead my people astray, Who while they have aught between their teeth proclaim peace, But against him who will not lay to their mouths they sanctify war! Wherefore night shall be yours without vision, And yours shall be darkness without divination; And the sun shall go down on the prophets, And the day shall darken about them; And the seers shall be put to the blush, And the diviners be ashamed: All of them shall cover the beard, For there shall be no answer from God. But I am full of power by the spirit of Jehovah, and justice and might, To declare to Jacob his transgressions and to Israel his sin."
In the third oracle of this chapter rulers and prophets are combined-how close the conspiracy between them! It is remarkable that, in harmony with Isaiah, Micah speaks no word against the king. But evidently Hezekiah had not power to restrain the nobles and the rich. When this oracle was uttered it was a time of peace, and the lavish building, which we have seen to be so marked a characteristic of Israel in the eighth century, was in process. Jerusalem was larger and finer than ever. Ah, it was a building of Gods own city in blood! Judges, priests, and prophets were all alike mercenary, and the poor were oppressed for a reward. No walls, however sacred, could stand on such foundations. Did they say that they built her so grandly, for Jehovahs sake? Did they believe her to be inviolate because He was in her? They should see. Zion-yes, Zion-should be ploughed like a field, and the Mountain of the Lords Temple become desolate.
The prophet speaks:-
"Hear now this, O chiefs of the house of Jacob, And rulers of the house of Israel, Who spurn justice and twist all that is straight, Building Zion in blood, and Jerusalem with crime! Her chiefs give judgment for a bribe,"
"And her priests oracles for a reward, And her prophets divine for silver; And on Jehovah they lean, saying: Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? Evil cannot come at us. Therefore for your sakes shall Zion be ploughed like a field, And Jerusalem become heaps, And the Mount of the House mounds in a jungle."
It is extremely difficult for us to place ourselves in a state of society in which bribery is prevalent, and the fingers both of justice and of religion are gilded by their suitors. But this corruption has always been common in the East. "An Oriental state can never altogether prevent the abuse by which officials, small and great, enrich themselves in illicit ways." The strongest government takes the bribery for granted, and periodically prunes the rank fortunes of its great officials. A weak government lets them alone. But in either case the poor suffer from unjust taxation and from laggard or perverted justice. Bribery has always been found, even in the more primitive and puritan forms of Semitic life. Mr. Doughty has borne testimony with regard to this among the austere Wahabees of Central Arabia. "When I asked if there were no handling of bribes at Hayil by those who are nigh the princes ear, it was answered, Nay. The Byzantine corruption cannot enter into the eternal and noble simplicity of this peoples (airy) life, in the poor nomad country; but (we have seen) the art is not unknown to the subtle-headed Shammar princes, who thereby help themselves with the neighbor Turkish governments." The bribes of the ruler of Hayil "are, according to the shifting weather of the world, to great Ottoman government men; and now on account of Kheybar, he was gilding some of their crooked fingers in Medina." Nothing marks the difference of Western government more than the absence of all this, especially from our courts of justice. Yet the improvement has only come about within comparatively recent centuries. What a large space, for instance, does Langland give to the arraigning of "Mede," the corrupter of all authorities and influences in the society of his day! Let us quote his words, for again they provide a most exact parallel to Micahs, and may enable us to realize a state of life so contrary to our own. It is Conscience who arraigns Mede before the King:-
"By ihesus with here jeweles youre justices she shendeth, And lith agein the lawe and letteth hym the gate, That leith may noughte have his forth here floreines go so thikke, She ledeth the lawe as hire list and lovedays maketh And doth men lese thorw hire love that law myghte wynne, The mase for a mene man though he mote hit cure. Law is so lordeliche and loth to make ende, Without presentz or pens she pleseth wel fewe. For pore men mowe have no powere to pleyne hem though the smerte; Suche a maistre is Mede amonge men of gode"
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v1CRITICAL NOTES.] Judgment has been pronounced in general, now…
CRITICAL NOTES.] Judgment has been pronounced in general, now special sins are described. The conduct of the nobility is denounced. Devise] Heb. to form plans (Psa_36:5). Work] Fabricate, mature the plan (Psa_58:2). Practise] To execute (Isa_41:4). Beds] i.e. by night (Cf. Psa_4:5; Job_4:13). Morning] i.e. at break of day. Hand] Their hand is their God; right is overruled by might.
THE CONCEPTION AND PRACTICE OF INJUSTICE.—Mic_2:1-2
Special sins are now condemned. The injustice and oppression of the rich are denounced and threatened with punishment.
I. Injustice in its purpose. “That devise iniquity.” Iniquity is first conceived, purposed, or planned. They plot and forecast before they act it. Actions are traced to principles. Devising is the incipient working of the principle. The thought is the fountain of the deed. God calls it the work of evil, and holds us responsible for it (Pro_14:22; Mat_9:3-4). It is bad enough to be led into wickedness by others, but to devise, to scheme it is the depravity of “inventors of evil things” (Rom_1:30).
II. Injustice in its maturity. They “work evil,” mature it in thoughts and desires.
1. It is matured in the night, “upon their beds.” In the rest and stillness of night when they should commune with their own hearts and their God. They turn the chamber of sleep into a place for plotting, and abuse retirement by wicked designs. “He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good.”
2. It is matured in the day. “When the morning is light.” Early, very soon after conception it is perfected. On their bed, and in their waking hours; no leisure between deliberation and practice. It is done
(1) Openly, in the light.
(2) Deliberately, in full light.
(3) Shamefully, against knowledge and conscience.
3. It is matured by might. “Because it is in the power of their hand.” Might, not right, regulated their conduct. The lust for power increases in strength and lawlessness, until it becomes a law to itself, the master passion of the soul. Then no sacrifices are too costly, no measures too atrocious, for the attainment of its object. “This they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do.”
III. Injustice in its practice. “They practise it.” There is a gradation in evil. First they sin in thought, then desire, and afterwards in act. To covet and to rob, to desire and to take, were the same thing with them.
1. It is a forbidden practice. They covet, disregard law, and seek to add field to field.
2. It is a violent practice. “Take them by violence.” Grossly and openly, by force and fraud, did they seize the property of others.
3. It is an inhuman practice. “They oppress a man and his house.” They took away houses and heritages, and ruined whole families and their offspring. Human life was not held sacred. Like Ahab, they first coveted, then sought to destroy their fellow-men by violence and false accusation. “Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.”
4. It is a cursed practice. “Woe to them!” Woe in Hebrew means all kind of pain, sorrow, and misery. Covetousness is the root of all evil to ourselves and others (1Ti_6:9-10). A covetous man is cursed in this life and in that to come. “Beware of covetousness.”
“You take my house when you do take the prop
That doth sustain my house; you take my life
When you do take the means whereby I live” [Shakespeare].
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
The reign of selfishness.
1. Each one strives and plans for himself alone.
2. Each one trusts in his own strength.
3. Each one disregards the law [Lange (adapted)]. What a temptation it is to have the power to do what evil spite suggests! What would many a one do if the power of the hand were as great as the boldness of the heart! As it is, however, God judges according to the counsel of the heart, and brings to light what a man has been occupied with even on his bed [Ibid.].
1. Notice the gradation of the evil. Conception, earnest preparation, and execution by force. “They say, they coveted, they took,” like Achan.
2. The relation between wicked thoughts and wicked deeds. The oppressor in his bed, in his heart, and in his life. Resist the first attacks of sin lest ye be eventually overcome.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Mic_2:1-2. Covet fields. No passion so deeply agitates and degrades, so effectually enslaves and destroys, the soul as covetousness. The man who sets his heart upon riches must be a stranger to peace and enjoyment. Fear, care, anxiety, suspicion, and jealousy place him on a constant rack. To the toil of getting is added the trouble of keeping his pelf. Avarice is insatiable as the grave, or rather as a gulf without bottom. The more this passion is supplied with fresh fuel the more vehement is the flame [Rusticus]. No houses, no fields content those who cannot rest in the lust of concupiscence. Yet only seven feet of earth will suffice them at last.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible1900 · Public DomainOn v1This verse introduces us to a reflection which it…
Mic 2:1
This verse introduces us to a reflection which it is very important that we should sometimes thoughtfully dwell on; that thought is, the responsibility of power, or the temptations peculiar to power.
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I. Of all things in heaven and earth which the human heart craves for most vehemently, there is nothing that it longs for so intensely and unceasingly, as power. "To be weak, is to be miserable, doing and suffering," says our great poet. To be weak is to be always craving and never having; always yearning and never possessing. We flatter ourselves with the belief that we lack nothing but strength, to make us heroes; nothing but resources to make us higher than the angels, and like unto God. Something better than mere power is wanted to make a hero or an angel. If we be blessed with the gifts of power, and vigour, and force, we must reflect that we watch them wisely, lest what God meant should be a boon become in our case a bane.
II. Had these men of Israel, over whose heads a heavy doom was hanging, been men of the mob, poor and feeble, how different their thoughts on their beds might have been, in that they would then have lacked the power of gratification. No man meditates long upon the doing of what he is convinced at starting is an impossibility. And therefore, if we be wise, we shall give thanks to God at times for weakness, as well as for strength, for failures as well as successes, for the difficulties that meet us day by day, as well as for our many helps and supporters. We shall thank G6d that we have been found out in many an unworthy act, and not suffered to go on in it, and that we have been put to shame in the course of many a wicked plan, and stopped ere we could quite accomplish it; and have been held back from the doing of many a shameful deed which we had devised upon our beds, and were only restrained from practising, because it was not in the power of our hands.
A. Jessopp, Norwich School Sermons, p. 11.
Mic 2:7
I. Consider the promise of the Pentecost. There was (i) the promise of a Divine Spirit by symbols which express some, at all events, of the characteristics and wonderfulness of His work. The "rushing of a mighty wind" spoke of a power which varies in its manifestations, from the gentlest breath that scarce moves the leaves on the summer trees to the wildest blast that casts down all which stands in its way. The twin symbol of the fiery tongues which parted and sat upon each of them speaks in like manner of the Divine influence, not as destructive, but full of quick, rejoicing energy and life, the power to transform and to purify. (ii) There is, further, in the fact of Pentecost the promise of a Divine Spirit which is to influence the moral side of humanity. (iii) The Pentecost carried in it the promise and prophecy of a Spirit granted to all the Church. "They were all filled with the Holy Ghost." (iv) The promise of the early history was that of a Spirit which should fill the whole nature of the men to whom He was granted; filling them in the measure of their receptivity, as the great sea does all the creeks and indentations along the shore.
II. Look at the apparent failure of the promise. "Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?" Look at Christendom. Will anyone say that the religious condition of any body of professed believers at this moment corresponds to Pentecost? Is not the gap so wide that to fill it up seems almost impossible? (i) Does the ordinary tenour of our own religious life look as if we had that Divine Spirit in us which transforms everything into its own beauty? (ii) Do the relations of modern Christians and their churches to one another attest the presence of a unifying Spirit? (iii) Look at the comparative impotence of the Church in its conflict with the growing worldliness of the world. "If God be with us, why has all this come upon us?"
III. Think for a moment of the solution of the contradiction. It is our own fault and the result of evil in ourselves that may be remedied, that we have so little of the Divine gift. The same fulness of the Spirit which filled the believers on the day of Pentecost, is available for us all. "Ask, and ye shall receive," and be filled with the Holy Ghost, and with power.
A. Maclaren, Christ in the Heart, p. 305.
References: Mic 2:7.—J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. x., p. 65. Mic 2:8.—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 339. Mic 2:10.—Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 38; Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 33. Mic 2:13.—Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 237.
Mic 2:13
The title of the "Breaker" was most appropriately given to the Lord Jesus, (i) because it was through His agency alone that the power of sin was broken; (ii) because, by His death, the distinction between Jews and Gentiles was for ever removed; (iii) because, by His death He destroyed death, and by His triumphant resurrection He has given an earnest of what He will one day accomplish for all who sleep in Him
J. N. Norton, Every Sunday, p. 11.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow1909 · Public DomainOn v1The Sins that Bring Ruin
The Sins that Bring Ruin
Micah 2, 3, as dealing with the same subject, should be read together.
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Micah now enumerates the sins which must bring punishment on Judah. He inveighs bitterly against the rapacity of the rich towards their poorer neighbours. The leaders in the capital, judges, prophets, and priests alike are destitute of the religion which makes a man interpret his power as a means of helping men and so glorifying God. Instead they regard it as a means to win money and position to themselves. The national institutions have been degraded into a means by which selfish men aggrandise themselves (Mic_2:1-2, Mic_2:8-9; Mic_3:1-5, Mic_3:9-10). Therefore these shall not continue (Mic_2:3-5), and even Jerusalem shall be plowed as a field (Mic_3:12). The leaders reproach Micah as no patriot since he utters such things against his people, and no prophet since he forgets that God must save His chosen nation (Mic_2:6-7). Micah replies that God will keep His nation, but that Jerusalem is not essential to God's purpose. When the capital is mined, the nation may only be made more fit to fulfil its true ends in the world (Mic_2:12-13).
2. Cp. 1 Kings 21 for the Israelite's attachment to his heritage.
3. This family] cp. 'The whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt' (Amo_3:1). I devise] as contrasted with their devising (Mic_2:1).
4. Turning away] RV 'to the rebellious,' i.e. God divides the ill-gotten fields to heathen and idolaters. 5. This may mean that the oppressor nobles shall have none to cast the measuring line on an allotment, when the periodical redistribution of the land took place, and some respect was had to old family rights. Their line is to fail.
The text of Mic_2:4 and Mic_2:5 is uncertain, but the sense is clear. It shall be rendered to them as they have rendered to others.
6. Cp. Isa_30:9-11. Translate: 'prattle not, thus they (the nobles) prattle. They (the prophets) should not prattle of these things; their scoldings are unceasing.' The nobles turn on Micah. Prophets have no right to meddle with social and political questions, but should leave them to men whose business it is to deal with them. We are weary of this eternal scolding.
7. The first part of the V. probably continues the speech of the nobles: 'Shall it be said, O. house of Jacob, is the spirit of the Lord straitened? are these His doings?' Can we, a nation whom God called the house of Jacob, endure to hear a prophet foretell its ruin? Micah replies abruptly, 'Tour sins are blinding you. My words are good to men who bring a conscience to their appreciation.'
8. Even] RV 'but.' With the garment] RV 'from off the garment.' The robe is a mantle, the garment what is usually called the upper garment. Men averse from war] quiet, peaceful people. Micah seems to refer to some merciless treatment meted out by creditors to their debtors: cp. Exo_22:26, Exo_22:27.
9. My glory] i.e. their inheritance in the holy land. The prophet implies that women and children are being sold into foreign captivity.
10. Because it is polluted, etc.] better, 'because of uncleanness ye shall be destroyed with a sore destruction.' They shall be driven from the land from which they have driven others. Their guilt makes the land no resting-place for them.
11. In the spirit and falsehood] better, 'after wind and lies.' What promises material benefits alone appeals to them.
12, 13. An oracle of restoration, which has been inserted between the two denunciations, when the separate oracles were collected in writing. Micah promises restoration, when the judgment has done its work. The expulsion from the land (Mic_2:10) shall not be permanent.
12. The sheep of Bozrah, etc.] better, 'as sheep into a fold, as a flock into the midst of the pasture.' The great noise is the noise of the joy at return.
13. Read the verbs throughout as perfect. The writer speaks as though what he promises had already taken place. The breaker] or, 'deliverer': they have been shut up as in a prison. One will come to open their way.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein1922 · Public DomainOn v11. The guilt and punishment of Israel (Mic 2:1-11)
CHAPTER 2
1. The guilt and punishment of Israel (Mic 2:1-11)
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2. The future restoration (Mic 2:12-13)
Mic 2:1-11. In the first two verses the special sins of Israel are mentioned, the same as in Amos--idolatry, covetousness and oppression. Therefore punishment is to fall upon them. There would be a doleful lamentation: “We be utterly spoiled: he changeth the portion of my people; how does he take it away from me!” Their fields would be divided. Nor did they listen to the true prophets; they gave ear to the false prophets who flattered them. It is interesting to note that the sentence, “Prophesy ye not, thus they prophesy,” literally translated is, “Do not sputter, thus they sputter.” They did not give out the real message, but they sputtered out their own words. These false prophets tried to prevent the true prophets from announcing the judgment of the Lord.
Then comes a passionate appeal: “O, thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? Are these His doings? Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?” He still appeals to their consciences. The Spirit of God does not change, nor was it His doings, when the nation drifted into idolatry and judgment was impending. Still, if they but walked uprightly His words would surely do them good. But they had risen as an enemy against Him; and yet the Lord, in spite of all, called them “My people.”
Mic 2:12-13. In this prophecy Christ is announced as the Breaker, the One who goes before them, clears the way, and removes every obstacle out of the way. In Mic 2:10 we read, “Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest.” The true rest for His people Israel comes when the King comes and brings with Him the promised blessing and glory. Then the remnant of Israel will be gathered, “and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord at the head of them.” It is a great prophecy of the ultimate restoration of Israel. “We must not exclude all allusion to the deliverance of the Jewish nation out of the earthly Babylon by Cyrus; at the same time, it is only in its typical significance that this comes into consideration at all, namely, as a preliminary stage and pledge of the redemption to be effected by Christ.”
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v1Denunciation of the Prevalent Evils
Denunciation of the Prevalent Evils
v. 1. Woe to them that devise iniquity, not on a sudden impulse, but with deliberate planning, and work evil upon their beds! using even the night-time to hatch out further schemes of wickedness. When the morning is light, as soon as the day dawns, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand, or, "their hand is as a god"; they know no higher authority, they recognize no other power but that of their arm; they think they have a right to do what they please.
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v. 2. And they covet fields, the property and inheritance of others, and take them by violence, seizing them as it suits their fancy, and houses, and take them away, oppressing the poor with a show of right. So they oppress, overwhelm and put to their own use, a man and his house, even a man and his heritage, which by the Law of God was to remain in the possession of his family. Cf Exo 20:14-17; Deu 5:18.
v. 3. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, Behold, against this family, upon this generation of evil-doers, do I devise an evil, He, in turn, planning how He may punish them adequately with a severe judgment, from which ye shall not remove your necks, like a yoke which may not be shaken off no matter how heavy it presses; neither shall ye go haughtily, walking and behaving themselves in lofty pride; for this time is evil, in which depression of spirits and gloomy silence would come upon the members of the nation on account of the yoke of oppression laid upon them by the conquest of their country and the distress of the exile.
v. 4. In that day shall one take up a parable against you, the enemies inventing bywords and mocking jingles, and lament with a doleful lamentation, for the mocking song of the enemies would be a mournful dirge in the mouths of the children of Israel, and say, We be utterly spoiled, completely destroyed!. He hath changed the portion of my people, Jehovah Himself permitting the heathen to take possession of it; how hath He removed it from me! so that it was no longer in Israel’s possession. Turning away, He hath divided our fields, dealing out the portions to the invaders.
v. 5. Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the Lord, to cast a measuring-line on a lot of ground in the assembly of Jehovah, for the possessions of the children of Israel belonged to them only as long as they remained faithful to the God of the covenant and would be taken away when they became unfaithful.
v. 6. Prophesy not, say they to them that prophesy, literally, "Drop not," or, "drivel not, they drivel," almost like the American slang, "Dry up! they drivel," in speaking to the true prophets in a silly fashion. They shall not prophesy to them that they shall not take shame, that is: If the prophecy, which the apostate Jews regarded as drivel, would not continue, then there would be no chance for them to escape the shame which would come upon the entire nation by the conquest of the enemies. The unbelievers to this day refuse to realize that the very preaching which they consider drivel and rot is the one means of saving them from the impending Judgment.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On v1General Information:
General Information:
Micah speaks against the leaders in Israel who are taking advantage of the poor and not following God's commands.
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They oppress a man
"They oppress any man they choose to oppress." This is a generalization. Micah is not speaking of one individual man here.
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On v12:1-2 Power had corrupted the wealthy, who should have…
2:1-2 Power had corrupted the wealthy, who should have been ready to help their fellow Israelites (cp. Gen 4:9; Josh 1:14). • Thinking up evil plans . . . because you have the power to do so indicates a corrupt heart, mind, and character (Gen 6:5). • When you want: They possessed the property of others in a way that amounted to stealing and broke God’s law that forbids coveting (Exod 20:17). A family’s inheritance was a sacred gift from the Lord, intended as a permanent possession (Lev 25:8-55; cp. 1 Kgs 21; Isa 5:8). God looked for righteousness among his people, but instead he found oppression (1 Kgs 10:9; Isa 5:7; 2 Pet 2:13).
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–2 The Prophet does not here speak only against the…
The Prophet does not here speak only against the Israelites, as some think, who have incorrectly confined this part of his teaching to the ten tribes; but he, on the contrary, (in discharging his office, addresses also the Jews. He refers not here to idolatry, as in the last chapter; but inveighs against sins condemned in the second table. As then the Jews had not only polluted the worship of God, but also gave loose reins to many iniquities, so that they dealt wrongfully with their neighbors, and there was among them no attention to justice and equity, so the prophet inveighs here as we shall see, against avarice, robberies, and cruelty: and his discourse is full of vehemence; for there was no doubt such licentiousness then prevailing among the people, that there was need of severe and sharp reproofs. It is at the same time easy to perceive that his discourse is mainly directed against the chief men, who exercised authority, and turned it to wrong purposes.
Woe, he says, to those who meditate on iniquity, and devise evil on their beds, that, when the morning shines, they may execute it Here the Prophet describes to the life the character and manners of those who were given to gain, and were intent only on raising themselves. He says, that in their beds they were meditating on iniquity, and devising wickedness. Doubtless the time of night has been given to men entirely for rest; but they ought also to use this kindness of God for the purpose of restraining themselves from what is wicked: for he who refreshes his strength by nightly rest, ought to think within himself, that it is an unbecoming thing and even monstrous, that he should in the meantime devise frauds, and guiles, and iniquities. For why does the Lord intend that we should rest, except that all evil things should rest also? Hence the Prophet shows here, by implication, that those who are intent on devising frauds, while they ought to rest, subvert as it were the course of nature; for they have no regard for that rest, which has been granted to men for this end, — that they may not trouble and annoy one another.
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He afterwards shows how great was their desire to do mischief, When it shines in the morning, he says, they execute it He might have said only, They do in the daytime what they contrive in the night: but he says, In the morning; as though he had said, that they were so heated by avarice, that they rested not a moment; as soon as it shone, they were immediately ready to perpetrate the frauds they had thought of in the night. We now then apprehend the import of the Prophet’s meaning.
He now subjoins, For according to their power is their hand As אל, al, means God, an old interpreter has given this rendering, Against God is their hand: but this does not suit the passage. Others have explained it thus, For strength is in their hand: and almost all those well-skilled in Hebrew agree in this explanation. Those who had power, they think, are here pointed out by the Prophet, — that as they had strength, they dared to do whatever they pleased. But the Hebrew phrase is not translated by them; and I greatly wonder that they have mistaken in a thing so clear: for it is not, There is power in their hand; but their hand is to power. The same mode of speaking is found in Proverbs 3, and there also many interpreters are wrong; for Solomon there forbids us to withhold from our neighbor his right, When thine hand, he says, is for power; some say, When there is power to help the miserable. But Solomon means no such thing; for he on the contrary means this, When thine hand is ready to execute any evil, abstain. So also the Lord says in Deuteronomy 28,
“When the enemy shall take away thy spoils, thy hand will not be for power;”
that is, “Thou wilt not dare to move a finger to restrain thy enemies; when they will plunder thee and rob thee of thy substance, thou wilt stand in dread, for thy hand will be as though it were dead.” I come now to the present passage, Their hand is for power: the Prophet means, that they dared to try what they could, and that therefore their hand was always ready; whenever there was hope of lucre or gains the hand was immediately prepared. How so? Because they were restrained neither by the fear of God nor by any regard for justice; but their hand was for power, that is, what they could, they dared to do. We now then see what the Prophet means as far as I can judge. He afterwards adds —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v1 As soon as they rise, they execute their wicked…
As soon as they rise, they execute their wicked devices of the night, and according to their power hurt others.
Hebrew, is in power.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Mic 2:1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and…
Mic 2:1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.
Ver. 1. Woe to them that devise iniquity] Or, labour, affliction, vanity, a lie. The Hebrew word Aven is of large use; applied to all kinds of sin which causeth pain, sorrow, and misery; and here in particular to covetousness, that root of all evil to a man’s self and others, 1Ti 6:9-10. Our prophet flings a woe at it, as doth likewise Habakkuk, Hab 2:9, calling it an evil covetousness, as the prophet Isaiah tells us, that for the iniquity of his covetousness God was wroth with Israel and smote him, Isa 57:17. The world counts it a light offence; and casts a cloak of good husbandry over it, 1Th 2:5. But this disguise will serve such no better than that which Ahab once put on and perished. "Let no man deceive you with vain words" (those plastered words, πλαστοις λογοις, 2Pe 2:3, used by bell’s proctors): "for because of these things" (sc. fornication, covetousness, &c., those peccadillos as they are counted) "cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience," Eph 5:6. For what reason? They devise iniquity, cogitant quasi coagitant, they plot and plough mischief, being men of wicked devices, Pro 14:2, talking again to themselves, as that covetous wretch did, Luk 12:17, beating their brains about their worldly projects, and resting no more, no, not upon their beds by night (a time and place appointed for rest, when men should together with their clothes put off their cares, and compose themselves to sleep, that nurse of nature, and sweet parenthesis), than one doth upon a rack or bed of thorns.
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Thus they work evil upon their beds] They work hard at it, having the devil for their taskmaster, who shall therefore also be their paymaster. He hath their souls here as in a sling, 1Sa 25:29, violently tossed about and restless; they are his drudges and dromedaries, driven about by him at his pleasure, 2Ti 2:26, wholly acted and agitated by him, Eph 2:2, having as many lords as lusts, wherewith their hearts are night and day exercised, 2Pe 2:14, without intermission. See this in Felix, who at the same instant trembled and coveted a bribe; in Ahab, who, sick of Naboth’s vineyard, laid him down upon his bed, but rested not, 1Ki 21:4. His heart did more afflict and vex itself with greedy longing for that bit of earth than the vast and spacious compass of a kingdom could counter comfort.
When the morning is light they practise it] And so they lose no time, being up and at it by peep of day; when others are fast asleep, and so more easily surprised and circumvented by them. The morning is the most precious part of the day; and should be employed to better purpose. But "wickedness proceedeth from the wicked, as saith the proverb of the ancients," 1Sa 24:13, and as they like not to have God in their heads, Psa 10:4, nor hearts, Psa 14:1, so neither in their words, Psa 12:4, nor ways, Tit 1:16, but the contrary; surely Satan is rightly called the god of this world; because as God at first did but speak the word and it was done, so, if the devil do but hold up his finger, give the least hint, they are ready pressed to practise.
Because it is in the power of their hand] The Vulgate hath it, Because their hand is against God; and, indeed, the same word El signifieth God and power. The Seventy render it, Because they have not lifted up their hands to God (an exercise proper and fit for the morning, Psa 5:4). The Tigurine, Quia viribus pollent, They have strength enough to do it. Their hand is to power (so the original hath it), that is, saith Calvin, quantum possunt, tantum audent, they dare do their utmost, they will try what they can do; their hand is ever ready to rake and scrape together commodity; neither can they be hindered either by the fear of God or any respect to righteousness. Nihil cogitant quod non idem patrare ausint. (De Monachis, Lutherus).
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–2 The prophet now denounceth judgment against oppressors in particular,…
The prophet now denounceth judgment against oppressors in particular, of which sort of men Judah had too many, and Israel had many more at that day.
That devise iniquity; contrive and frame mischiefs to others, how they may be ruined, as appears Mic 2:2, and all the gain that can be made of their fall may be brought into the hand of the contrivers; which was the sin of the great ones in Israel, who for near forty years together were plotting to undo one another. And work evil: here is a dislocation of the words, unless the prophet would intimate to us, that in God’s account the resolving to do evil is doing it.
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Upon their beds; when they should rest from making trouble to others, as well as rest from their labour and troubles of the day, when they should praise God for their own ease, safety, and rest, then their inhumanity and cruelty is forecasting how to grieve, vex, and swallow up others.
When the morning is light; so soon as they rise, and that is early; when such practices are in design, these cannot sleep till they make them fall on whom they fix their designs.
They practise it; finish or execute their mischievous purposes. Because it is in the power of their hand; they care not whether there be either justice or reason for what they do; if they have power enough to do, they will take confidence to do it, and never blush.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 Here is, I. The injustice of man contriving the…
Here is, I. The injustice of man contriving the evil of sin, Mic 2:1, Mic 2:2. God was coming forth against this people to destroy them, and here he shows what was the ground of his controversy with them; it is that which is often mentioned as a sin that hastens the ruin of nations and families as much as any, the sin of oppression. Let us see the steps of it. 1. They eagerly desire that which is not their own - that is the root of bitterness, the root of all evil, Mic 2:2. They covet fields and houses, as Ahab did Naboth's vineyard. "Oh that such a one's field and house were mine! It lies convenient for me, and I would manage it better than he does; it is fitter for me than for him." 2. They set their wits on work to invent ways of accomplishing their desire (Mic 2:4); they devise iniquity with a great deal of cursed art and policy; they plot how to do it effectually, and yet so as not to expose themselves, or bring themselves into danger, or under reproach, by it. This is called working evil! they are working it in their heads, in their families, and are as intent upon it, and with as much pleasure, as if they were doing it, and are as confident of their success (so wisely do they think they have laid the scheme) as if it were assuredly done. Note, It is bad to do mischief upon a sudden thought, but much worse to devise it, to do it with design and deliberation; when the craft and subtlety of the old serpent appear with his poison and venom, it is wickedness in perfection. They devised it upon their beds, when they should have been asleep; care to compass a mischievous design held their eyes waking. Upon their beds, where they should have been remembering God, and meditating upon him, where they should have been communing with their own hearts and examining them, they were devising iniquity. It is of great consequence to improve and employ the hours of our retirement and solitude in a proper manner. 3. They employ their power in executing what they have designed and contrived; they practise the iniquity they have devised, because it is in the power of their hand; they find that they can compass it by the help of their wealth, and the authority and interest they have, and that none dare control them, or call them to an account for it; and this, they think, will justify them and bear them out in it. Note, It is the mistake of many to think that as they can do they may do; whereas no power is given for destruction, but all for edification. 4. They are industrious and very expeditious in accomplishing the iniquity they have devised; when they have settled the matter in their thoughts, in their beds, they lose no time, but as soon as the morning is light they practice it; they are up early in the prosecution of their designs, and what ill their hand finds to do they do it with all their might, which shames our slothfulness and dilatoriness in doing good, and should shame us out of them. In the service of God, and our generation, let it never be said that we left that to be done tomorrow which we could do today. 5. They stick at nothing to compass their designs; what they covet they take away, if they can, and, (1.) They care not what wrong they do, though it be ever so gross and open; they take away men's fields by violence, not only by fraud, and underhand practices and colour of law, but by force and with a high hand. (2.) They care not to whom they do wrong nor how far the iniquity extends which they devise: They oppress a man and his house; they rob and ruin those that have numerous families to maintain, and are not concerned though they send them and their wives and children a begging. They oppress a man and his heritage; they take away from men that which they have an unquestionable title to, having received it from their ancestors, and which they have but in trust, to transmit it to their posterity; but those oppressors care not how many they impoverish, so they may but enrich themselves. Note, If covetousness reigns in the heart, commonly all compassion is banished from it; and if any man love this world, as the love of the Father, so the love of his neighbour is not in him.
II. The justice of God contriving the evil of punishment for this sin (Mic 2:3): Therefore thus saith the Lord, the righteous God, that judges between man and man, and is an avenger on those that do wrong, Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, that is, against the whole kingdom, the house of Israel, and particularly those families in it that were cruel and oppressive. They unjustly devise evil against their brethren, and God will justly devise evil against them. Infinite Wisdom will so contrive the punishment of their sin that it shall be very sure, and such as cannot be avoided, very severe, and such as they cannot bear, very signal and remarkable, and such as shall be universally observed to answer to the sin. The more there appears of a wicked wit in the sin the more there shall appear of a holy wisdom and fitness in the punishment; for the Lord will be known by the judgments he executes; he will be owned by them. 1. He finds them very secure, and confident that they shall in some way or other escape the judgment, or, though they fall under it, shall soon throw it off and get clear of it, and therefore he tells them, It is an evil from which they shall not remove their neck. They were children of Belial, that would not endure the easy yoke of God's righteous commands, but broke those bonds asunder, and cast away those cords from them; and therefore God will lay upon them the heavy yoke of his righteous judgments, and they shall not be able to withdraw their necks from that; those that will not be overruled shall be overcome. 2. He finds them very proud and stately, and therefore he tells them that they shall not go haughtily, with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go (Isa 3:16); for this time is evil, and the events of it are very humbling and mortifying, and such as will bring down the stoutest spirit. 3. He finds them very merry and jovial, and therefore tells them their note shall be changed, their laughter shall be turned into mourning and their joy into heaviness (Mic 2:4): In that day, when God comes to punish you for your oppression, shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, with a lamentation of lamentations (so the word is), a most lamentable lamentation, as a song of songs is a most pleasing song. Their enemies shall insult over them, and make a jest of their griefs, for they shall take up a parable against them. Their friends shall mourn over them, and lay to heart their calamities, and this shall be the general cry, "We are utterly spoiled; we are all undone." Note, Those that were most haughty and secure in their prosperity are commonly most dejected and most ready to despair in their adversity. 4. He finds them very rich in houses and lands, which they have gained by oppression, and therefore tells them that they shall be stripped of all. (1.) They shall, in their despair, give it all up; they shall say, We are utterly spoiled; he has changed the portion of my people, so that it is now no longer theirs, but it is in the possession and occupation of their enemies: How has he removed it from me! How suddenly, how powerfully! What is unjustly got by us will not long continue with us; the righteous God will remove it. Turning away from us in wrath, he has divided our fields, and given them into the hands of strangers. Woe to those from whom God turns away. The margin reads it, "Instead of restoring, he has divided our fields; instead of putting us again in the possession of our estates, he has confirmed those in the possession of them that have taken them from us." Note, It is just with God that those who have dealt fraudulently and violently with others should themselves be dealt fraudulently and violently with. (2.) God shall ratify what they say in their despair (Mic 2:5); so it shall be: Thou shalt have none to cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the Lord, none to divide inheritances, because there shall be no inheritances to divide, no courts to try titles to lands, or determine controversies about them, or cast lots upon them, as in Joshua's time, for all shall be in the enemies' hand. This land, which should be taken from them, they had not only an unquestionable title to, but a very comfortable enjoyment of, for it was in the congregation of the Lord, or rather the congregation of the Lord was in it; it was God's land; it was a holy land, and therefore it was the more grievous to them to be turned out of it. Note, Those are to be considered the sorest calamities which cut us off from the congregation of the Lord, or cut us short in the enjoyment of the privileges of it.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Woe to them that devise iniquity,.... Any kind of…
Woe to them that devise iniquity,.... Any kind of iniquity; idolatry, or worshipping of idols, for the word is used sometimes for an idol; or the sin of uncleanness, on which the thoughts too often dwell in the night season; or coveting of neighbours' goods, and oppressing the poor; sins which are instanced in Mic 2:2; and every thing that is vain, foolish, and wicked, and in the issue brings trouble and distress: now a woe is denounced against such that think on such things, and please themselves with them in their imaginations, and contrive ways and means to commit them:
and work evil upon their beds; when, the senses being less engaged, the thoughts are more free; but should not be employed about evil; but either in meditating on the divine goodness, and praising the Lord for his mercies; or in examining a man's heart, state, and case, and mourning over his sins, and applying to God for the remission of them; but, instead of this, the persons here threatened are said to "work evil on their beds", when they should be asleep and at rest, or engaged in the above things; that is, they plot and contrive how to accomplish the evil they meditate; they determine upon doing it, and are as sure of effecting it as if it was actually done; and do act it over in their own minds, as if it was real; see Psa 36:4;
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when the morning is light, they practise it; they wish and wait for the morning light, and as soon as it appears they rise; and, instead of blessing God for the mercies of the night, and going about their lawful business, they endeavour to put in practice with all rigour and diligence, and as expeditiously as they can, what they have projected and schemed in the night season;
because it is in the power of their hand; to commit it; and they have no principle of goodness in them, nor fear of God before them, to restrain them from it: or, "because their hand is unto power" (b); it is stretched out, and made use of in the commission of sin to the utmost of their power, without any regard to God or man. The Vulgate Latin version is, "because their hand is against God"; their hearts are enmity to God, and therefore they oppose him with both their hands, and care not what iniquity they commit; they are rebels against him, and will not be subject to him. The Septuagint and Arabic versions are, "because they lift not up their hands to God"; they do not pray to him, and therefore are bold and daring to perpetrate the grossest iniquity, which a praying man dared not do; but the Syriac version is the reverse, "they do lift up their hands to God"; make a show of religion and devotion, when their hearts and their hands are deeply engaged in, sinning; which shows their impudence and hypocrisy; but the passages in Gen 31:29 favour and confirm our version, and the sense of it; so the Targum.
(b) "quia est ad potentiam manus ipsorum", Calvin.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–2 The sins of Israel and the judgments hanging over…
The sins of Israel and the judgments hanging over them, ver. 1- 11. Gracious promises of comfort, ver. 12, 13.
That devise - Contrive and frame mischief. Evil work - Contrive how to work it. It is in the power - Because they can; without regarding right or wrong.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Here the prophet denounces a wo against the plotters…
CHAPTER II
Here the prophet denounces a wo against the plotters of
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wickedness, the covetous and the oppressor, 1, 2.
God is represented as devising their ruin, 3.
An Israelite is then introduced as a mourner, personating his
people, and lamenting their fate, 4.
Their total expulsion is now threatened on account of their
very numerous offences, 5-10.
Great infatuation of the people in favour of those pretenders
to Divine inspiration who prophesied to them peace and plenty,
11.
The chapter concludes with a gracious promise of the
restoration of the posterity of Jacob from captivity; possibly
alluding to their deliverance from the Chaldean yoke, an event
which was about two hundred years in futurity at the delivery
of this prophecy, 12, 13.
NOTES ON CHAP. II
Verse 1. Wo to them that devise iniquity] Who lay schemes and plans for transgressions; who make it their study to find out new modes of sinning; and make these things their nocturnal meditations, that, having fixed their plan, they may begin to execute it as soon as it is light in the morning.
Because it is in the power of their hand.] They think they may do whatever they have power and opportunity to do.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v1 Mic 2:1-2. Wo to them that devise iniquity —…
Mic 2:1-2. Wo to them that devise iniquity — That design and frame mischief; and work evil upon their beds — Contrive how to work it, and actually execute their plans when they rise in the morning. Because it is in the power of their hand — Because they can do it; because there is none that can hinder them. They make their strength the law of justice; and do whatsoever they have a mind to do, whether right or wrong, because they have power in their hands. And they covet fields — Set their minds upon the estates of their meaner neighbours, thinking how convenient they lie to theirs, as Ahab thought concerning the field of Naboth. And take them by violence — By power wrest the estates out of the hands of the owners of them. And houses, and take them away — They take both houses and lands. So they oppress a man and his house — They not only do injustice to a man himself, but to his whole family also, by taking away his heritage, whereby his family, as well as himself, and his posterity after him, were to be supported.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–2 The prophet had declared that evil should come down…
The prophet had declared that evil should come down on Samaria and Jerusalem for their sins. He had pronounced them sinners against God; he now speaks of their hard unlovingness toward man, as our Blessed Lord in the Gospel speaks of sins against Himself in His members, as the ground of the condemnation of the wicked. The time of warning is past. He speaks as in the person of the Judge, declaring the righteous judgments of God, pronouncing sentence on the hardened, but blessing on those who follow Christ. The sins thus visited were done with a high hand; first, with forethought:
Woe - All woe, woe from God ; “the woe of temporal captivity; and, unless ye repent, the woe of eternal damnation, hangeth over you.” Woe to them that devise iniquity. They devise it , “they are not led into it by others, but invent it out of their own hearts.” They plot and forecast and fulfill it even in thought, before it comes to act. And work evil upon their beds. Thoughts and imaginations of evil are works of the soul Psa 58:2. “Upon their beds” (see Psa 36:4), which ought to be the place of holy thought, and of communing with their own hearts and with God Psa 4:4. Stillness must be filled with thought, good or bad; if not with good, then with bad. The chamber, if not the sanctuary of holy thoughts, is filled with unholy purposes and imaginations. Man’s last and first thoughts, if not of good, are especially of vanity and evil. The Psalmist says, “Lord, have I not remembered Thee in my bed, and thought upon Thee when I was waking?” Psa 63:6. These men thought of sin on their bed, and did it on waking. When the morning is light, literally in the light of the morning, that is, instantly, shamelessly, not shrinking from the light of day, not ignorantly, but knowingly, deliberately, in full light. Nor again through infirmity, but in the wantonness of might, because it is in the power of their hand , as, of old, God said, “This they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do” Gen 11:6. Rup.: “Impiously mighty, and mighty in impiety.”
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Lap.: See the need of the daily prayer, “Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin;” and “Almighty God, who hast brought us to the beginning of this day, defend us in the same by Thy mighty power, that we may fall into no sin, etc.” The illusions of the night, if such be permitted, have no power against the prayer of the morning.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Evil. Septuagint, "labours." Hebrew, "vanity, or an idol." (Haydock)…
Evil. Septuagint, "labours." Hebrew, "vanity, or an idol." (Haydock) --- That is called unprofitable, which is very detrimental. (Worthington) --- Morning, suddenly and with zeal. (Calmet) --- Is. Hebrew, "has power," (Chaldean) "they have not raised their hands to God." (Septuagint; Arabic)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Mic_2:1 to Mic_3:12.1
SECOND DISCOURSE
Mic_2:1 to Mic_3:12.1
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1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds ! In the morning 2 light they will practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.2 And they have coveted fields, and seized them, and houses, and taken them; and have oppressed a man and his house, even a man3 and his possession. 3Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I am devising against this family an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; and ye shall not walk loftily, for an evil time is this. 4In that day shall one take up a by-word concerning you, and wail a wail of woe,4 [and] say:
We are utterly destroyed!
He changeth the portion of my people;
How he removeth it from me!5
To an apostate he divideth our fields!
5Therefore thou shalt have none to cast a cord upon a lot [of ground] in the assembly of Jehovah. 6Prophesy ye not, they prophesy.6 They shall not prophesy to 7 [or, of] these: shame shall not depart. Thou that art called7 the house of Jacob, was the spirit of Jehovah impatient, or are these his doings? Do not my words 8 do good8 to him that walketh uprightly? But lately my people has risen up as an enemy: from off the garment ye strip the mantle, from those that pass by securely, averse from war. 9The women of my people ye drive out of the house of their delight; from their children ye take away my ornament foreMicah Mic_2:10 Arise ye, and depart; for this is not the rest: because of pollution it shall destroy [you], and with a sharp destruction. 11If a man walking in vanity9 and falsehood should lie, saying: I will prophesy to thee of wine and of strong drink, he would be a prophet for this people.
12 I will surely gather all of thee, O Jacob,
I will surely collect the remnant of Israel,
I will put them together as sheep in the fold,
As a herd in the midst of his pasture;
It shall be noisy with men.
He that breaketh through has gone up before them:
They have broken through, and passed the gate,
And gone forth by it.
And their king passes on before them,
And Jehovah at their head.
III. 1And I said : Hear now, ye heads of Jacob, and ye magistrates of the house of 2 Israel: is it not for you to know the right? Ye that hate good and love evil, 3 and tear their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; and who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, 4 and divide them, as in the pot, and as flesh within the kettle. Then will they cry to Jehovah, and he will not answer them; and he will hide his face from them at that time, even as they have made their deeds evil.
5 Thus saith Jehovah concerning the prophets that lead my people astray, who biting with their teeth cry: Peace; and he that giveth nothing for their mouth, against him they sanctify war.
6 Therefore a night shall be for you without a vision,
And darkness for you without divination,
And the sun shall go down over the prophets,
And the day be dark over them.
7 And the seers shall be ashamed,
And the diviners shall blush;
And they shall cover the beard, all of them;
Because there is no answer of God.
8 Nevertheless I am filled with power, through the spirit of Jehovah,10 and judgment, and boldness, to announce unto Jacob his transgression, and unto Israel his sin.
9 Hear this now, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and ye magistrates of the house 10 of Israel, that abhor judgment; yea, they pervert all that is right, building Zion 11 with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. Her heads judge for a bribe, and her priests teach for a reward, and her prophets divine for money, and lean upon Jehovah, saying; Is not Jehovah among us? evil shall not come upon us.
12 Therefore, for your sakes
Zion shall be ploughed as a field,
And Jerusalem shall become heaps,
And the mountain of the house high places of a forest.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
As the first discourse fell into two parts, by the parallel between Samaria and Jerusalem, so this second one falls into the two nearly equal divisions, chaps, Micah 2 : and Micah 3 :, thus carrying through the principle of parallelism. The ground of division, however, is here not the analogy, but the antithesis of the leading thoughts. Thus Micah 2 : begins with a description of the corruption of the great (Mic_2:1-5), and then proceeds to depict the current false hood of the sham prophets (Mic_2:6-13), the essence of which is comprehended at the close, in a deceitful but brilliant prediction of the certain prosperity of Judah in the afflictions which are soon to be experienced (Mic_2:12-13). Corresponding to this, Micah 3 : also begins with denunciation of the guilty nobles (Mic_2:1-4), and then turns likewise to the judgment against false prophecy (Mic_2:5-13), at the conclusion of which, however, Micah communicates the substance of his genuine proclamation, so opposite to their spurious illusions (Mic_2:12).
This obvious plan, which represents the discourse as a double climax, is of itself a sufficient justification of the compass which we ascribe to the whole. With those interpreters who connect chaps, 1 and 2 outwardly in one discourse (Hitzig, Umbreit, Hengst., Hiivernick, Keil) we, although not denying the interior connection of chaps, 1–5 in general, cannot agree, for this reason, if no other, that chap. 1 manifestly bears the character of a pure prophecy, complete in itself, while in the division before us, from beginning to end, rebuke and opposition to the reigning sins of the day are the main characteristic; with those who feel obliged to put a full period to the discourse before Micah 3 we differ, because they rend asunder the beautiful symmetry of chaps, n. and m. The reason given for this separation, that a new beginning is marked by the “Hear, I pray, you” (Mic_3:1), proves nothing, since the same summons is found Mic_3:9, where no critic could suppose a new discourse to begin.
Micah 2 : the thesis, Mic_2:1-5. The Nobility, vers, 1, 2. Their Conduct The discourse runs parallel to the similar denunciation of Isaiah (Mic_5:8 ff. against the sins of the higher ranks and like that, this takes, from the beginning, the character of a “woe.” Woe to them that devise iniquity, and prepare evil on their beds; in the morning light they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. Wickedness is more criminal in proportion as it is more deliberate. The gradation from the design to its accomplishment, elsewhere often represented by the steps of conception, pregnancy parturition (Psa_7:15 et al), is here described. without figure, by the stages of השׁב “to devise,” form the plan (Psa_36:5), פעל, “to prepare ways and means” and עשׂה “to put in execution” (Isa_41:4). The construction proceeds from the piivtie. to the verbum finit., as in 1Sa_2:8; Ewald, §350 b. Upon their bed they think it out, at the time when the pious still their heart (Psa_4:5; Psa_1:2); in the light of morning they carry it out;—their first thought, therefore, at the gray dawn, is not of prayer (Psa_5:4) but of covetousness: for it is in the power of their hand, i. e., they are able to do it and no one hinders them (Gen_31:29; Neh_5:5), cf. the LXX. at Gen_50:10 : ἰσχύει ἡ χείρ μου. Hitzig and Keil translate: “for their hand is their God” [ist zum Gott], thier power avails to them as a God, none else do they fear. But this would require יֵשׁ יָדָם לֵאלֹהֵיהֶם, Hab_1:11.
Mic_2:2. We are now told wherein these their evil deeds consist; And they covet (against the law, Exo_20:17, whose expression תמד is not without emphasis repeated here) fields and size them; and oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. The transgression of the laws for the protection of each man’s real estate and inheritance (Lev_25:23 ff.), by destroying the property of the peasants and oppressing them themselves, this is what the prophet, like his contemporary, Isa_5:8 ff. most bitterly reproves, as being the surest way to the creation of a helpess proletariate, to the hostile separation of proprietors from those without property, and popular life ruin of the national welfare and the popular life. (The second בית may, for the sake of the parallelism, be referred to the household or family, as in Gen_7:1). This one breach of the law is sufficient to provoke God’s anger judgment upon this generation.11
Mic_2:3-5 : Therefore, thus saith Jehovah, behold, I devise evil upon this generation, [family]. The phrase תשׁב רע is emphatically repeated from Mic_2:1, to set clearly before our eyes the jus tahonis prevalent in God’s providence (Exo_21:23; Isa_33:1). “This generation,” is, an in Amo_3:1, the whole people; cf. the γενεά, Mat_12:41-42. There is the same antithesis to the “oppression” in Mic_2:2, in the following phrase Jehovah devises evil, from which ye shall not withdraw your necks; like a yoke becomes the hard rule of the stranger on the fat cows of shaken off (Jer_23:12), And ye shall not walk loftily—רוֹמָה, acc. adv. with verbs of going (Psa_58:9; Ges., Lehry. §178, 4); the necks that are used to carrying themselves stiffly (Isa_3:16) will have to bend; for an evil time is this, in which depression of spirits and gloomy silence comes over the people (Amo_5:13). This also is said with an application: your guilt causes the present to be an evil time before God, and so God will bring a time which is evil for you, the πονηρόν, sensu activo and passivo at once; Eph_5:6; Mat_6:13.
Mic_2:4. In that day will one (the verbs are used impresonally, Ewald, §294 b 2 γ.) take up a taunt against thee (cf. Hab_2:6; Isa_14:4), and utter a lamentation. What in the mind of the adversaries is derision, is, in the mouth of friends and the members of this community, a lamentation: cf. Mic_1:10; and what follows is spoken from the position of the latter; all is over, will one say, נהיה, actum est, all is lost, cf. Dan_8:27, and also the γεγονε, Rev_15:1-8 We are utterly destroyed. On the form with u instead of o, cf. Olah., §263 b. “The obsure vowel is adapted to the sound of lamentation,” Hitzig.—The portion of my people he (Jehovah, cf. Mic_1:9) takes back. המיר of taking back of a promised benfit (Psa_15:4). Thus God repents of having granted it (Gen_6:6). How he withdraws it from me!—Cf. Mic_2:3, against Hitzig’s translation: how he lets me depart! To the apostate—i. e., to the heathen (Jer_49:4), who is born and grows up in apostasy from God—he divideth our fields!
Mic_2:5. Therefore, the prophecy proceeds, looking back to Mic_2:3. thou (all Israel, transition, as Mic_1:14) shalt have no one to cast a measuring line on a lot of ground (Jdg_1:3) in the assembly of Jehovah. For to the congregation of God belong the lots of ground so long only as they bear in mind that it is God’s land (Lev_25:23); but since they, by the sins named in Mic_2:1-2, appropriate it to themselves, there is no longer a congregation of Jehovah, and the owner, God, gives his land to the apostate, who have been rebellious from their birth, and so with less guilt. The words of the prophet are keen, and provoke to contradiction. Imagining this present to him, he comes to the new turn of the discourse.
Mic_2:6-13. State of the Prophetic Function. Mic_2:6. The people will not listen to any genuine prophecy (Amo_5:10). This second reproof also runs parallel to one of Isaiah (Isa_23:7 ff.). Indeed, the prophet associates Isaiah with himself in thought, when he makes the people call out to a plurality of prophets: “Drivel not,” they drivel. The expression הִטִּיף (from נטף, therefore prop. “to let drop,” trickle (Amo_9:13), to pour out copious discourse. to prophesy=נבא, cf. הִבִּיַע, to let bubble, gush forth; Psa_94:4), appears here, as in Amo_7:15, in the mouth of the malignant opposition. whose it a tone of contempr. (But cf. Eze_21:2; Eze_21:9.) The prophet straightway returns this contempt; their indignation is in reality an unreasonable driveling, as he then (Mic_2:7 c) further evnices. First, however, he answers their objection by the double sentence, 6 b, c, which, according to the analogy of the following verse, is best understood as an impatient question. Shall they not drivel for that? shall the shame not depart? For such rhetorical questions without the particle of interrogation, cf, Hab_2:19; Jer_25:29; Hos. 23:14.—Ewald, Hitzig, Maurer, Umbreit, Caspari: “Let them not prate of these things; the reviling has no end.” Ch. V. Michaelis, Hengstenberg, Keil: “If they prophesy not to these, the reproach will not depart.”13—The proceeding verb stands in the sing. (Gesen., §147, a), and כְּלִמּוֹת signifies not merely revilings but everything, which can serve as reproach and ruin to one (Isa_30:3).
Mic_2:7. The first words of this verse also are an important exclamation: O for what is spoken in the house of Israel! cf. on this acc. indignationis, Ewald, §101, 6; Isa_29:16. In like manner, Umvreit.—Caspari, Hitzig: num dicendum? But the gerundive idea is not contained in the part. pass. Rosenmüller and Keil: “O thou so called house of Jacob!” But that in connection with the following gives no sense. בית יעקב is not stat. abs. but acc. loci, while אמור, regarded as a verbal from, is (as Isa_26:3 : if he is stayed on thee): “O for the fact that it is said in the house of Jacob,” as follows. cf. 1Ki_7:48; Rth_1:9.14. The prphet up the words of the opposers, in order then to reply to them. They say: is then the spirit of Jehovah become short, i. e. impatient? That would be against the word of God (Exo_36:6), to which they appeal like Satan before Christ (Mat_4:6). Orare these—the plagues prophesied by the prophets—his deeds? Should he plague Israel whom he is wont to foster as his first—born son (Exo_4:23). The prophet replies to this foolish speech, which claims the promise for itself regardless of the condition, by reminding them that God remains indeed the same, but that they (Mic_2:8 ff.) have changes, so that the promise can no longer avail for them. Do not, in fact, my words deal kindly with him that walks uprightly? “The word ישׁר, as an appositive to the person in דֹולֵךְ (Job_31:26), could take the place which the emphasis resting on it assigns to it, because as an adjective it draws to itself the article belonging to hwlech.” Hitzig.
Mic_2:8. But lately—properly: yesterday—my people has stood up as—an enemy. My words would have remained kind, as they were, but you have sought hostility. The hostile attitude still continues, as the imperf, indicates. On the use of לְ cf. Ewald, § 217. d. a. 1.—Others, retaining the causative signification of קו̇מֵם, translate: but my people make me stand up as their enemy/ But the suffix is wanting, an the Polel is not necessarily causative.15.—And in what does this hostility consist? Off from the garment ye strip the mantle of those who in secure confidence of safety (Lev_25:18) pass by, averse from war, i. e., peaceably (Psa_120:7). The part. pass. שׁוּב takes the place of the part. act. שָׁב (Olsh., §245 a, cf. Psa_112:7).
Mic_2:9. And as they spare not the peaceable, so still less the defenseless: the women of mypeople, the unprotected widows (Isa_10:2), ye drive out of the house of their delight, the house inherited from the husband, to which they are attached by the memory of their wedded love (Son_7:7; Ecc_2:8); from their children (the stiff, is in the sing, not to denote the children severally as sons of the widows, fatherless (Keil), for that would be a nota mala, but because נָשׁים is taken collectively Mic_1:9), ye take away my ornament forever. To belong to Jehovah is the honor and ornament of every individual Israelite (Jer_2:11; Psa_73:28); whoever thrusts out the children in Israel among the heathen takes away this ornament of God (1Sa_26:19).16
From this results now (Mic_2:10), of itself as it were, the threatening, according to the law of the tatio (cf. on Mic_2:3, “those that expel shall be expelled”): Arise ye, and go: for here is not the rest (Zec_9:1) which was promised to the righteous people in Canaan (Deu_12:9 f.; Psa_95:11; cf. Heb_3:11 ff.): for uncleanness worketh destruction (cf. Lev_18:25; Isa_54:16), and that a sharp destruction. So must God’s prophet speak (Mic_2:3; Mic_2:6), whether the hearers regard it as driveling or not. Were he, indeed, one of the prophets whom they would fain hear, (cf. Isa_30:10), the proclamation would sound very differently; what they announce we are told in Mic_2:11-13.
Mic_2:11. If a man followed vanity, רוּחַ as in Isa_26:18, and falsehood (לוּcum part, as Psa_81:14; 2Sa_18:12), he would lie (the apodosis ἀσυνδέτως, as Deu_32:29): I will prophesy to thee, people of Israel, of wine and strong drink, i. e. either: of these things, that they shall be bestowed on you, or better: so that my predictions shall come to you as sweet as wine and strong drink, or also: prophesy to thee at the banquet (cf. Mic_2:6).17And would prophesy to this people:18 namely, what follows in Mic_2:12-13. והח continues the apodosis begun by כּזב, and, with the part, takes the place of the simple הִטִּיף while hinting besides that this prophesying is permanent (Ewald, § 168 c.).19 Instead of the verbal construction לָעָם, the part, is construed as a noun with stat. abs. as Mic_2:8 (Hab_2:15; Psa_30:4).
Mic_2:12. To the part, is adjoined, as Mic_2:7, the direct discourse: I will surely gather all of thee, so would the liars, clothing themselves in the garb of the old prophets, prophesy in the name of Jehovah, O, Jacob, I will surely collect the remnant of Israel. That, indeed, a remnant only can be spoken of, who shall be gathered (according to Oba_1:17; Joe_1:5, cf. Amo_5:15), even the false prophets know; but in view of the destruction of Samaria, they might tickle the ears of the men of Judah by pretending that the whole (כּלּד) of Judah, unpurified, was this remnant, and would undoubtedly enter alone into the promise. They might plausibly appeal to the precedent set by Hosea, who (Hos_2:2 [Mic_1:11], cf. Micah 1.) had said that after the punishment of Israel and the bestowment of favor on Judah, both would gather about One Head. They evidently refer to the יהדו in that passage when they go on to say: I will bring them (Israel) together as sheep in the field, as a herd in the midst of its pasture. The appellative signification of בּצרהseptum-ovile, is quite possible according to the erymology, is found in the oldest versions, and is sufficiently supported by the parallelism of “pasture.”—So Hitzig, Umbreit, Caspari; Hengstenberg, on the contrary: the Moabite, Keil: the Edomite Bozrah.—The article with the suffix in הדברו, as Jos_7:21; Ewald, § 290, d. And not merely Judah and Israel in their present condition, but also all the scattered and sold will return, of whom Obadiah (Ob. 2:20) before, and Joel (Joel 4:6 ff.) had made mention: They, the fold and pasture of Israel, shall swarm (תּהימנה instead of תּהימינה, Olsh., § 244, e.) with men, for the multitude of the men also is a necessary element of the promises of prosperity (Hos_2:2 [Mic_1:11]). הים is, like הום, a cognate form for המם ,המה (Psa_55:3). But how do they suppose that this can take place when, after the destruction of Samaria, the northern part of the holy land is inclosed by the Assyrians round about? This question is answered by
Mic_2:13. There will go up before them—a traditional Messianic expression (Ob. 2:21)—He that breaks through: the head, the leader whom they will set over them, according to Hos_2:2. He will place himself at their head in the holy city whither God will gather Israel, will collect them into an army and break the ring of the heathen.20They break through, pass into the gate (cf. oh Mic_1:11), and go out through it. And their king passes on before them, for no other than the king, out of the house of David, can be that “Breaker” (Amo_9:11), and Jehovah at their head, as in the marches in the desert (Num_10:35; Exo_13:21).
The foregoing explanation of Mic_2:12-13, which regards these as the quintessence of the golden promises with which the false prophets steal the favor of the people, rests not only on the plan of the whole discourse (chaps, 2, 3) but also especially on the impossibility of establishing otherwise a clear connection between Mic_2:11-12, and on the numerous references of the following chapter. The objections which have been raised against it, particularly that from the term “remnant,” have been met in the exegesis. The passage is similarly explained by J. D. Michaelis, Hartmann, Ewald, Hofmann in the Schriflbeweis, while the majority, however, and among them of recent authors, Hengstenberg, Hitzig, Caspari, Keil [Maurer, Pusey], separate the last two verses from the connection, and explain them as a Messianic promise from Micah’s point of view.
But according to this latter understanding of the subject, it is unintelligible how, immediately after this, the antithesis (Micah 3.) can begin, as indicated by the manifestly adversative ואמר “but I say” (cf. Isa_24:16), and by the diametrically opposite prophecy, which continues, with the express assurance (Mic_2:8), that it gives the proper sentiment of the prophet, to the end of the chapter and culminates in the last verse.
See Mic_3:1 ff for DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL and HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Footnotes:
[1][We follow Kleinert’s course in printing these chapters, as if less decidedly poetical than the remainder of the book. in some parts the style gives reason for this procedure, yet interpreters generally make not such distinction; and to those who differ with our author in not making a separate division of these two chapters, his conception of the form of the discourse will seem particularly arbitrary.—Tr.]
[2][Mic_2:1. כִּי יֶשׂ־לְאֵל ידָם, There is in this, almost certainly, a reminiscence of Gen_31:29 (cf. Pro_3:27; Deu_28:32; Neh. Mic_2:5); otherwise there would be much plausibility in the rendering: “For their hand is as a God.”—Tr.]
[3][Mic_2:2. We must fail somewhat here in representing the original, from the lack in our language of a word for “man” as generically human being (אישׁ, here=ᾰνθρωποδ, hamo, Mensch), in distinction from “man” sensu eminenli (גֶּבֶר, ᾰνηρ, vir, Mann).—Tr.]
[4] [Mic_2:4. So Pusey happily indicates the paronomasia in נָהָה נְהִי נִהְיָה: “wail a wailing wail” would be still more analogous in sound, if the expression could be allowed.
Kleinert, sustained by Gesenius and others, separates the ἅπαξ λεγ. נִהְיָה, from the preceding, and translates as if it were a part. Niph. of היה: (it was; Ilium fuit) "All is over ! they will say," etc. This is ingenious, almost too much so, having the appearance of a modern improvement. For although the form was long ago; regarded by some as Niph. pret. or part. of היה it seems always to have been with a different interpretation. Vid. Pococke in loc.__TR.]
[5][Mic_2:4. לִי, dat incom.: “for me,” “to my hurt.”—Tr.]
[6] [Mic_2:6. נָטַף .אַל־תּטִּיפוּ יַטּיפוּן, “to drop,” “drip,” “distil,” is here, as in other places (cf. Eng. Vers. Amo_7:16), applied to the utterance of discourse. As to the reference of the several verbs here, and in the remainder of the verse, there has been the greatest diversity of opinion. We take it thus: The ungodly crowd, weary of the pious and faithful inculcations of the true prophets, meet their exhortations to repentance with the contemptuous order to stop preaching. “Prophesy not,” in their taunting sense is, Don’t keep driveling, drooling. Compare (we shrink from quoting it here, yet we think it well illustrates the spirit with which the mass always meet their pious advisers) the slang of our rabble: “Dry up!”—“They prophesy” (drivel) is thus the expression of the prophet, retaliating in the right use of the word which their feeble sarcasm had suggested. What follows, in the most literal translation, “they shall not prophesy to these; shame (lit. shames) shall not depart,” may then be understood as God through his prophet taking them at their word: “Even so; people like these shall cease to enjoy the benefit of that which they call driveling; I will give them up to their own wish, and the shames, which my word should have turned away, shall not depart, but come upon them.” This we think consistent with the most direct rendering of the verse word for word.
Klelnert’s somewhat modified view will be seen in the Exeg. note, where he gives a synopsis also of the principal recent translations. Pococke in loc. gives a good and tedious account of what had come into men’s heads about it in previous ages. We may add, that Zunz renders (less literally than usual): Preach not, ye that preach! let none preach to such, (that) they bring not disgraces upon them.—Tr.]
[7][Mic_2:7. הֶֽאָמוּר בֵית־י׳, Our author denies that the usual rendering of this, which we also have, with some hesitation, adopted, can be harmonized with what follows, but maurer explains very well: “O dicta domus Jacobi (in quan lot ac lanta beneficia contulit Jora!) … detrectaris vos quidem audire quas jacimus minas (Mic_2:6). Sed quœtandem causa est minarum? deusne? at ille quam longe alium se exhibet agentibus recle! In causa esse insos Israelicos dicit rersus proximus.”
[8][Mic_2:7. Or, “are not my words good,” etc.?]
[9][Mic_2:11. Lit. “wind.” Maurer renders not badly: “Si quis irel, (st) ventum et mendacium mentiretur.” Dr. Kleinert finds the apodosis here begining with כִּזֵּב, which וְהָיָה would then merely continue. Thus he puts vers 12, 13 into the mouth of the supposed false prophet, as grammatically the object of מַטִּיף. we think rather, that the conj. in והיה must almost necessarlly mark the apodosis, and that the sentiment of the two following verses is too unlike the probable expression of the false prophet to be balanced by the alleged antithesis in Mic_3:1.—Tr.]
[10][Mic_3:8. The absence of the conj., and use of אֶת with ר–ה י׳ alone of the four nouns well warrants the idea of the Eug. Vers. adopted by Pusey, that “spirit of Jehovah” stands out of the series, as rather the ground and cause of all the rest—by the spirit, etc.—Tr.]
[11][“Such is the fire of concupiscence, raging within, that, as those seized by burning fevers cannot rest, no bed suffices them, so no houses or fields content these. Yet no more than seven feet of earth will suffice them soon. ‘Death only owns how small the frame of man’ ” Rib. apud. Pusey in loe.—Tr.]
[12][Cf. Text. and Gram. in loc.]
[13][Cf. Text. and Gram. in loc.—Tr.]
[14][Cf. Text. and Gram. on this ver.—Tr.]
[15]A good connection for the whole verse would be afforded if, taking the sentence עמי, κ.τ.λ., as parenthetical, we should translate: “but lately, when my people,” namely, the northern kingdom, Israel, already attacked “stood up” (cf. Job_20:27) against the enemy, Assyria, “from off the garment ye stripped off the mantle, from them that passed by securely,” those namely, that fled from the war.
[16][Primarily, the glory, comeliness was the fitting apparel which God had given them, and laid upon them, and which oppressors stripped off from them. But it includes all the gifts of God, wherewith God would array them. Instead of the holy home of parental care, the children grew up in want and neglect, away from all the ordinances of God, it may be, in a strange land. Pusey in loc.—Tr.].
[17][“Man’s conscience must needs have some plea in speaking falsely of God. The false prophets had to please the rich men, to embolden them in their self-indulgence, to tell them that God would not punish. They doubtless spoke of God’s temporal promises to his people, the land flowing with milk and honey, His promise of abundant harvest and vintage, and assured them, that God would not withdraw these, that He was not so precise about his law. Micah tells them in plain words, what it all came to; it was a prophesying of wine and strong drink.” Pusey in loc.—Tr.].
[18]Or, adhering more closely to the accents: If a man followed the wind and lied deceit: I will prophesy for thee to wine and strong drink, he would prophesy to this people ; etc. The translation above is logically more perspicuous, and appropriate to the Heb. words.
[19][Cf. Gram, and Text. note.—Tr.]
[20][Dr. Pusey expresses well the opposite and more satisfactory view, that the breaking through and the going forth, is out of captivity. “The image is not of conquest, but of deliverance. They break through, not to enter in, but to pass through the gate and go forth. The wall of the city is ordinarily broken through, in order to make an entrance, or to secure to a conqueror the power of entering in. at any time, or by age and decay. But there the object is expressed, to go forth. Plainly then they were confined before, as in a prison; and the gate of the prison was burst open, to set them free. It is there the same image as when God says by Isaiah: I will say to the North, give up: and to the South, hold not back, or, Go ye forth of Babylon, Say ye, the Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob,” etc. This author’s long note on the verse before us affords an admirable specimen of the manner in which he connects a treasure of evangelical sentiment with the brief hints of ancient prophecy. But it is often rather put on than drawn out; it is a crystallization of the gospel around a Hebrew sentence rather than a blossoming forth from the bud cf clearly enfolded truth.”—Tr.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v2 Parallelism, "Take by violence," answers to "take away"; "fields"…
Parallelism, "Take by violence," answers to "take away"; "fields" and "houses," to "house" and "heritage" (that is, one's land).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v1 CAUSES OF THE IMPENDING JUDGMENT, Mic_2:1-11.
CAUSES OF THE IMPENDING JUDGMENT, Mic_2:1-11.
It is commonly assumed that chapters 2 and 3 form a “single prophecy, the subject of which is the cause of the coming judgment.” That both chapters deal substantially with the same subjects is undoubtedly true, but it is equally clear that, as the chapters stand now, there is a distinct break at the close of the second chapter. Hence there seems good reason for separating 2 and 3, and joining the latter more closely with Mic_4:5. Only by cutting out Mic_2:12-13, can a connection between 2 and 3 be established; on the other hand, if chapter 3is connected with 4, 5, at least some of the reasons for omitting these verses disappear (see p. 363, and on Mic_2:12-13). The following comments are based upon the assumption that chapters 1, 2 form a complete whole, and that chapter ii is intended to set forth the causes making inevitable the judgment threatened in the preceding chapter. It opens with a woe upon the proud nobles, who have become misleaders of the people (Mic_2:1-4). The accused resent the denunciation; the attempt is made to silence the prophet, and to find consolation in the message of the mercenary prophets. But, the prophet insists, there is no escape from the wrath of Jehovah; as they have driven the poor from their homes, so they will be driven from their possessions into exile (Mic_2:5-11). From this exile only a remnant will return under the leadership of Jehovah (Mic_2:12-13).
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1, 2. A vivid description of the corrupt conduct of the aristocracy.
Work evil upon their beds — To be distinguished from “they practice it” in the next clause; the first refers to the preparation of the ways and means with which they carry out their evil schemes. In the darkness of the night they lay their plans; in the morning they carry them out.
In the power of their hand — No one can prevent their crimes, for their wealth and power enable them to do anything they please (Mic_7:3).
The general accusation in Mic_2:1 is followed by a specific condemnation of the greed and avarice manifesting itself in the attempts to rob poor property owners of their holdings. Elijah (1 Kings 21) and Isaiah (Isa_5:8 ff.) championed the rights of the common people against similar outrages. The accumulation of wealth and resources in the hands of a few seriously threatened the national stability and permanence. “The old Israelite state was so entirely based on the participation of every freeman in the common soil, and so little recognized the mere possession of capital, that men were in danger of losing civil rights along with house and fields, and becoming mere hirelings or even slaves.”
Oppress — Margin, “defraud.”
Heritage — The hereditary portion of the land assigned to each family at the time of the conquest and guarded by the “Jubilee Law” (Lev_25:8 ff.; compare Num_27:1-11; Deu_27:17).
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–2 1–5. Sin and its corresponding Punishment
1–5. Sin and its corresponding Punishment
1. and work evil] To ‘work,’ as distinguished from ‘devise’ and to ‘practise’ or ‘execute,’ is to prepare ways and means (see Isa_41:4). Obs., it is no mere act of thoughtlessness, or passionate impulse, which is here denounced, but a set purpose of dispossessing the small proprietors.
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upon their beds] The natural place for reflexion, whether in a bad sense (as here and Psa_36:4), or in a good (as Psa_63:6).
it is in the power of their hand] A doubt as to the meaning has arisen from the fact that the word el here rendered ‘power’ is more commonly used for ‘god.’ But Lagarde has shewn that the root meaning of el is ‘that to which one reaches out.’ Comp. Act_17:27.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–2 (1) Woe to them that devise.—The prophet proceeds to…
II.
(1) Woe to them that devise.—The prophet proceeds to denounce the sins for which the country was to receive condign punishment at the hands of God. There is a gradation in the terms employed: they mark the deliberate character of the acts: there were no extenuating circumstances. In the night they formed the plan, they thought it out upon their beds, and carried it out into execution in the morning. So also the gradually increasing intercourse with the wicked is described, as reaching its culmination, in the first Psalm: Walking with the ungodly leads to standing among sinners, and at last sitting habitually in the seat of the scornful.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Vers. 1-5. The prophet justifies his threat by recounting…
Vers. 1-5. The prophet justifies his threat by recounting the sins of which the grandees and guilty.
The prophet, himself one of the people, first inveighs against the sins of injustice and oppression of the poor. Devise... work... practise. A gradation. They are not led into these sins by others; they themselves conceive the evil purpose in their own heart; then they prepare and mature their scheme by reflection; then they proceed to execute it. Work evil; i.e. prepare the means for carrying out their conception. (comp Isa_41:4) Upon their beds. At night, the natural time for reflection. (comp. Psa_4:4 Psa_36:4) Is light. Far from shrinking from the light of day in putting into effect their evil projects, they set about their accomplishment as soon as ever the morning allows them. Because it is in the power of their hand. Their might makes their right. (For the phrase, Gen_31:29 Pro_3:27) As the word el may be taken to mean "God" as well as "power," some render here, "For their hand is their god," comparing the boast of Mezentius in Virgil, "AEneid," 10:773"Dextra mihi Deus et telum quod missile libro.
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The Vulgate has, Quoniam contra Deum est manus eorum; LXX, Diotiouk hran pro , Because they lifted not up their hands unto God." So the Syriac, with the omission of the negative.
Vers. 1-11. Delineations of deep transgression, righteous retribution, and Divine equity.
We have in these verses three pictures, drawn by a master hand, and very suggestive of practical teaching.
I A PICTURE OF DEEP TRANSGRESSION. (Vers. 1, 2, 8, 9) Observe delineated in it:
1. The abuse of privilege. (Ver. 1) What a boon is night! "The season of repose; the blessed barrier betwixt day and day," when the hum and bustle, the anxiety and fatigue, of business is suspended, when the tired artisan rests from his toil; when the voyager on the wide sea forgets awhile the perils of the main; when the warrior ceases for a time to hear the roar of the cannon and to face the foe; and when all nature is hushed to slumber, save the weary watchers by the bed of suffering, and wakeful, loving mothers tending their dear ones in their quiet nests. We bless God for the day with its early sunrise, its noontide glory, its evening shades; but we bless him also for the night, with her sable mantle, her vague solitude, her quiet rest. And this high privilege was grossly abused. "Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds!" (ver. 1). It was not that evil thoughts unwillingly invaded their minds, but that they deliberately planned evil they devised it. It is one thing for evil thoughts to enter the mind in its quiet hours unbidden; it is quite another to entertain these; and worst of all is it to "devise" these, and in the very seasons given to man for rest, to be found plotting and contriving harm. So has it ever been with the ungodly, that they have abused God"s best gifts. (Psa_36:4 Pro_4:16)
2. The non-improvement of opportunity. (Ver. 1) Each morning comes bearing to us a new gift of time from our God. With our waking hours comes the Divine call to fresh service. Strength has been gathered up, now to be expended in the improvement of the opportunities of holy service which will assuredly arise. Happy they who begin the day with God, and then go forth to hallow every engagement of life, and to use for him every opportunity which may be given "True hearts spread and heave Unto their God, as flowers do to the sun: Give him thy first thoughts, so shalt thou keep Him company all day.
The grave charge here urged was that with the breaking of the day they went forth to renew their evil deeds; that the fresh strength imparted to them by God became employed by them against him; the evil plotted by them in the night they went forth with the morning"s dawn to commit; the energies which ought to have been consecrated to God they devoted to dark and daring deeds of impiety. "When the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand" (ver. 1).
3. The perversion of power. (Vers. 2, 8, 9) Both Micah and Isaiah laid stress upon the prevailing sin of covetousness, leading the mighty and influential to pervert the power and influence they possessed, to the injury of the feeble and obscure, oppressing and tyrannizing over them. Thus they are charged here with
(1) unscrupulously depriving them of their inheritance (ver. 2);
(2) stripping of their raiment peaceful, unoffending persons (ver. 8);
(3) driving widows from their houses, and causing fatherless children to suffer from want and neglect (ver. 9).
In this way the sad picture of shameless sin here presented to us is rendered increasingly dark through the prevailing sin of covetousness, leading to harsh oppression and grievous wrong.
4. The wilful rejection of light and preference of darkness. (Vers. 6, 11) To the true prophets of the Lord, who sought to bring home to them a sense of their guilt, and to lead them to return unto the Lord, they said, "Prophesy ye not" (ver. 6), whereas to lying spirits they would readily give. (Joh_3:19, Joh_3:20)
II A PICTURE OF MERITED CHASTISEMENT. (Vers. 3, 4, 5, 10) The main feature in this picture is the illustration it affords of the retributive character of the Divine chastisement for sin. Observe:
1. They had "devised" evil against others; now God would "devise" evil against them (ver. 3).
2. They had oppressed others; now they should be oppressed (ver. 3), and even their own sad elegies, wrung from them through their sorrow, should be taken up and repeated against them in sheer mockery by their oppressors (vers. 4, 5).
3. They had voluntarily chosen their false prophets and had welcomed their lying words, and they should now get no comfort from the words of hope which, in the dark days, should be spoken by the true prophets, and which should prove consolatory to the remnant of God"s people who had remained faithful (ver. 6).
4. They had cast out the widows and the fatherless, and they should be themselves cast out (ver. 10). We look on this picture of coming chastisement, and we learn from it that retribution follows sin; we see in it an Old Testament illustration of the New Testament assurance that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap". (Gal_6:7, Gal_6:8)
III A PICTURE OF THE DIVINE EQUITY. (Ver. 7) God, through his prophet, expostulated with the people who had acted so unworthily, who bore the name of Israel, but who so dishonoured their pious ancestry; and declared to them that his ways were not unequal; that rectitude and mercy characterized all his operations; that through all he had been seeking their good; that it was not his will that the threatened woes should befall them; that this was entirely their own act; and that neither their sins nor their sorrows could truthfully be charged upon him. There are many such passages scattered throughout the prophetical writings, in which God deigned to expostulate with the erring passages which are inexpressibly tender and touching. (Jer_2:5 Isa_5:4 Isa_43:22, Isa_43:25) So Christ to the Jews of his day, when they took up stones to stone him, asked," For which of these works do ye stone me?". (Joh_10:32) And the same Divine voice expostulates with us in our sinfulness; and our response should be, "Unto thee," etc. (Dan_9:6, Dan_9:7) These Divine expostulations are the arrows of conviction coming from God to the hearts of men, and which, unlike the poisoned arrows of the ancients that carded death in their flight, carry mercy and life into the human soul.
HOMILIES BY E.S. PROUT Vers. 1-3. Deliberate sins bringing predestined punishments.
We see here
I THE GENESIS OF CRIME. Three stages are described.
1. Sinful desires are cherished in the heart. These sinners "devise iniquity," think over it, (Psa_7:14) imagine it (the same word as in 1Sa_18:25, referring to Saul"s thought and plan to secure David"s death), dwell on it; for wickedness is "sweet in their mouth". (Job_20:10-12) Illustrate from the licentious thoughts of David (2Sa_11:2, 2Sa_11:3) or Amnon, (2Sa_13:1, 2Sa_13:2) the covetous thoughts of Ahab, (1Ki 21) or the envious and revengeful thoughts of Haman. (Est_3:5, Est_3:6; see Jam_1:14, Jam_1:15) Here sin is not traced during its growth. From its birth St. James passes on to its maturity: "The sin, when it is full grown, bringeth forth death." But Micah points out stages in its growth.
2. Plans of wickedness are deliberately contrived. They "work," prepare or fabricate, "evil upon their beds." In their hours of rest they "cannot cease from sin." On their beds, where they might enjoy the sleep of God"s beloved, where in wakeful hours they might commune with God and their own hearts, (Psa_4:4 Psa_16:7 Psa_63:6 Psa_104:34) they plot their crimes. (Psa_36:4 Pro_4:16) If they want allies they hesitate not to secure the aid of the false witness, the procuress, the dishonest lawyer, the bribed judge. Illust.: Jezebel; the priests; (Mat_28:11-14) the assassins. (Act_23:12-15)
3. The plot is executed in a crime. They act promptly, early, showing no signs of repentance or reflection; (Jer_8:6) in the daylight, without (Est_6:4 Mat_27:1, Mat_27:2) to shed blood," or defraud, or debauch. Might constitutes their right; "impiously mighty and mighty in impiety," "because it is in the power of their hands." "Dextra mihi Deus" (Virgil). They are reckless of the ruin caused to an innocent man or a whole family robbed of their heritage, (Neh_5:1-5) or of their head, (1Ki_21:13) or of the flower of the flock, some beloved child more precious than any heritage. (2Sa_12:1-9)
II ITS INEVITABLE CONNECTION WITH RETRIBUTION. While sinners are coveting, plotting, plundering, God is watching, devising, and framing punishment. This is:
1. Predestined; on the ground of deliberate sin. God"s "therefores" have all the force of demonstrative reasoning. (Pro_1:31 Isa_65:12, etc)
2. Hard to be borne. Compared to a yoke. Contrast the yoke of the Father"s discipline, (Lam_3:27) and of the Redeemer"s service. (Mat_11:29, Mat_11:30) If these yokes are contemptuously cast away, the evil yoke of punishment, a "yoke of iron," is prepared. (Jer_28:14)
3. Inevitable. See the striking figures in Amo_9:1-4 and Zec_14:16-18 (God"s manifold instruments of punishment); cf. 1Ti_6:9, 1Ti_6:10.
4. Humiliating. "Neither shall ye go haughtily." How often the retribution on the proud or the extortioner is strikingly appropriate to their sin! Man"s skill in successful sinning is outmatched by God"s wisdom in punishing. (Job_9:4) When God"s wisdom and power are both arrayed against us, it is an evil time indeed.
5. Utterly disastrous. A revolution in their entire circumstances (ver. 4). Thus the consequences of sin may be irreparable in this world; but the gospel of the grace of God tells of a forgiveness whereby sin may be righteously forgiven, and the eternal consequences may be cut off. E.S.P. (Isa_43:25 Joh_5:24)
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1-4. Avarice.
"Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand," etc. The prophet, in the preceding chapter, foretold the judgment that would befall both kingdoms on account, of their apostasy from the living God. He begins this chapter by denouncing the rapacious avarice of their leading men. Oppression is one of the greatest social crimes; alas! one that has been prevalent in every age and land; a crime this, too, which the Bible denounces with great frequency and with terrific force. Avarice, or greed, is the spring and spirit of all oppression. In the text we have this rapacious avarice presented to us in three aspects.
I SCHEMING IN THE LIGHT. The avaricious men "devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds." When avarice takes possession of a man, it works the brain by night as well as by day. It keeps the intellectual faculties busy in the stillness of nocturnal hours. What schemes to swindle, defraud, and plunder men are fabricated in this London of ours every night upon the pillow! Perhaps there is no passion that takes a stronger hold upon man than this, and that moves his intellect with such concentration and constancy. It has been called "the great sepulchre of all other passions.
II WORKING IN THE DAY "When the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand." Delitzsch renders this," In the light of the morning they carry it out, for their hand is their god." The idea is, perhaps, that which they esteem most is the worldly gain of their avaricious labour. So it ever is; gain is the god of the greedy man. He sacrifices all his time and labour on its altar. Before it he prostrates his soul Your avaricious man in the day trots about the streets, the shops, the markets, like a hungry hound in search of food. Shakespeare compares such a man to a whale, which plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry before him, and at last devours them all at a mouthful. Such whales have I heard of on the land, who never leave gaping till they"ve swallowed the whole parish church, steeple, bells, and all.
III SUFFERING IN THE JUDGMENT. "Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks," etc. Judgment comes at last; and in the judgment, as these words give us to understand, the punishment will correspond with the sin. "Because they reflect upon evil," says Delitzsch, "to deprive their fellow men of their possessions, Jehovah will bring evil upon this generation, lay a heavy yoke upon their necks, under which they will not be able to walk loftily or with extended neck." Ay, the time will come when the avaricious millionaire will exclaim, "We be utterly spoiled." "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you," etc.. D.T. (Jam_5:1)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v1 And they covet fields, and take them by violence
Mic_2:1-4
And they covet fields, and take them by violence
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Avarice
Greed is the spring and spirit of all oppression.
Here rapacious avarice is presented in three aspects.
I. Scheming in the night. When avarice takes possession of a man, it works the brain by night as well as by day. What schemes to swindle, defraud, and plunder men are fabricated every night upon the pillow!
II. Working in the day. The idea esteemed most is the worldly gain of avaricious labour. So it ever is; gain is the God of the greedy man. He sacrifices all his time and labour on its altar. Shakespeare compares such a man to a whale which plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry before him, and at last devours them all at a mouthful.
III. Suffering in the judgment. For judgment comes at last, and in the judgment these words give us to understand the punishment will correspond with the sin. Because they reflect upon evil, says Delitzsch, to deprive their fellow men of their possessions, Jehovah will bring evil upon this generation, lay a heavy yoke upon their necks, under which they will not be able to walk loftily or with extended neck. Ay, the time will come when the avaricious millionaire will exclaim, We be utterly spoiled. Go to, now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you, etc. (Homilist.)
The wrong which Micah attacks
Micah scourges the avarice of the landowner, and the injustice which oppresses the peasant. Social wrongs are always felt most acutely, not in the town, but in the country. It was so in the days of Rome, whose earliest social revolts were agrarian. It was so in the Middle Ages; the fourteenth century saw both the Jacquerie in France and the Peasants rising in England; Langland, who was equally familiar with town and country, expends nearly all his sympathy upon the poverty of the latter, the poure folk in cotes. It was so after the Reformation, under the new spirit of which the first social revolt was the Peasants war in Germany. It was so at the French Revolution, which began with the march of the starving peasants into Paris. And it is so still, for our new era of social legislation has been forced upon us, not by the poor of London and the large cities, but by the peasantry of Ireland and the crofters of the Scottish Highlands. Political discontent and religious heresy take their start among industrial and manufacturing centres, but the first springs of the social revolt are nearly always found among rural populations. Why the country should begin to feel the acuteness of social wrong before the town is sufficiently obvious. In the town there are mitigations, and there are escapes. If the conditions of one trade become oppressive, it is easier to pass to another. The workers are better educated and better organised; there is a middle class, and the tyrant dare not bring matters to so high a crisis. The might of the wealthy, too, is divided; the poor mans employer is seldom at the same time his landlord. But in the country power easily gathers into the hands of the few. The labourers opportunities and means of work, his house, his very standing ground are often all the property of one man. In the country the rich have a real power of life and death, and are less hampered by competition with each other, and by the force of public opinion. One man cannot hold a city in fee, but one man can affect for evil or for good almost as large a population as a citys, when it is scattered across a country side. This is precisely the state of wrong which Micah attacks. This is the evil, the ease with which wrong is done in the country. It lies to the power of their hands; they covet and seize. Micah feels that by themselves the economic wrongs explain and justify the doom impending on the nation. (G. A. Smith, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Micah 2,3
THE PROPHET OF THE POOR
Micah 2,3
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WE have proved Micahs love for his countryside in the effusion of his heart upon her villages with a grief for their danger greater than his grief for Jerusalem. Now in his treatment of the sins which give that danger its fatal significance, he is inspired by the same partiality for the fields and the folk about him. While Isaiah chiefly satirizes the fashions of the town and the intrigues of the court, Micah scourges the avarice of the landowner and the injustice which oppresses the peasant. He could not, of course, help sharing Isaiahs indignation for the fatal politics of the capital, any more than Isaiah could help sharing his sense of the economic dangers of the provinces; {Isa_5:8} but it is the latter with which Micah is most familiar and on which he spends his wrath. These so engross him, indeed, that he says almost nothing about the idolatry, or the luxury, or the hideous vice, which, according to Amos and Hosea, were now corrupting the nation.
Social wrongs are always felt most acutely, not in the town, but in the country. It was so in the days of Rome, whose earliest social revolts were agrarian. It was so in the Middle Ages: the fourteenth century saw both the Jacquerie in France and the Peasants Rising in England; Langland, who was equally familiar with town and country, expends nearly all his sympathy upon the poverty of the latter, "the poure folk in cotes." It was so after the Reformation, under the new spirit of which the first social revolt was the Peasants War in Germany. It was so at the French Revolution, which began with the march of the starving peasants into Paris. And it is so still, for our new era of social legislation has been forced open, not by the poor of London and the large cities, but by the peasantry of Ireland and the crofters of the Scottish Highlands. Political discontent and religious heresy take their start among industrial and manufacturing centers, but the first springs of the social revolt are nearly always found among the rural populations.
Why the country should begin to feel the acuteness of social wrong before the town is sufficiently obvious. In the town there are mitigations, and there are escapes. If the conditions of one trade become oppressive, it is easier to pass to another. The workers are better educated and better organized; there is a middle class, and the tyrant dare not bring matters to so high a crisis. The might, of the wealthy, too, is divided; the poor mans employer is seldom at the same time his landlord. But in the country power easily gathers into the hands of the few. The laborers opportunities and means of work, his home, his very standing-ground, are often all of them the property of one man. In the country the rich have a real power of life and death, and are less hampered by competition with each other and by the force of public opinion. One man cannot hold a city in fee, but one man can affect for evil or for good almost as large a population as a citys, when it is scattered across a countryside.
This is precisely the state of wrong which Micah attacks. The social changes of the eighth century in Israel were peculiarly favorable to its growth. The enormous increase of money which had been produced by the trade of Uzziahs reign threatened to overwhelm the simple economy under which every family had its croft. As in many another land and period, the social problem was the descent of wealthy men, land-hungry, upon the rural districts. They made the poor their debtors, and bought out the peasant proprietors. They absorbed into their power numbers of homes, and had at their individual disposal the lives and the happiness of thousands of their fellow-countrymen. Isaiah had cried. "Woe upon them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no room" for the common people, and the inhabitants of the rural districts grow fewer and Isa_5:8. Micah pictures the recklessness of those plutocrats - the fatal ease with which their wealth enabled them to dispossess the yeomen of Judah.
The prophet speaks:-
"Woe to them that plan mischief, And on their beds work out evil! As soon as morning breaks they put it into execution, For-it lies to the power of their hands!"
"They covet fields and-seize them, Houses and-lift them up. So they crush a good man and his home, A man and his heritage."
This is the evil-the ease with which wrong is done in the country! "It lies to the power of their hands: they covet and seize." And what is it that they get so easily-not merely field and house, so much land and stone and lime: it is human life, with all that makes up personal independence, and the security of home and of the family. That these should be at the mercy of the passion or the caprice of one man-this is what stirs the prophets indignation. We shall presently see how the tyranny of wealth was aided by the bribed and unjust judges of the country; and how, growing reckless, the rich betook themselves, as the lords of the feudal system in Europe continually did, to the basest of assaults upon the persons of peaceful men and women. But meantime Micah feels that by themselves the economic wrongs explain and justify the doom impending on the nation. When this doom falls, by the Divine irony of God it shall take the form of a conquest of the land by the heathen, and the disposal of these great estates to the foreigner.
The prophet speaks:-
"Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold I am planning evil against this race, From which ye shall not withdraw your necks, Nor walk upright: For an evil time it is! In that day shall they raise a taunt-song against you And wail out the wailing ("It is done"); and say, We be utterly undone: My peoples estate is measured off! How they take it away from me! To the rebel our fields are allotted. So thou shalt have none to cast the line by lot In the congregation of Jehovah."
No restoration at time of Jubilee for lauds taken away in this fashion! There will be no congregation of Jehovah left!
At this point the prophets pessimist discourse, that must have galled the rich, is interrupted by their clamor to him to stop.
The rich speak:-
"Prate not, they prate, let none prate of such things! Revilings will never cease! O thou that speakest thus to the house of Jacob, Is the spirit of Jehovah cut short? Or are such His doings? Shall not His words mean well with him that walketh uprightly?"
So the rich, in their immoral confidence that Jehovah was neither weakened nor could permit such a disaster to fall on His own people, tell the prophet that his sentence of doom on the nation, and especially on themselves, is absurd, impossible. They cry the eternal cry of Respectability: "God can mean no harm to the like of us! His words are good to them that walk uprightly-and we are conscious of being such. What you, prophet, have charged us with are nothing but natural transactions." The Lord Himself has His answer ready. Upright indeed! They have been unprovoked plunderers!
God speaks:-
"But ye are the foes of My people, Rising against those that are peaceful; The mantle ye strip from them that walk quietly by, Averse to war! Women of My people ye tear from their happy homes, From their children ye take My glory forever. Rise and begone-for this is no resting-place! Because of the uncleanness that bringeth destruction. Destruction incurable."
Of the outrages on the goods of honest men, and the persons of women and children, which are possible in a time of peace, when the rich are tyrannous and abetted by mercenary judges and prophets, we have an illustration analogous to Micahs in the complaint of Peace in Langlands vision of English society in the fourteenth century. The parallel to our prophets words is very striking:-
"And thanne come Pees into parlement and put forth a bille, How Wronge ageines his wille had his wyf taken. "Both my gees and my grys his gadelynges feccheth; I dar noughte for fere of hym fyghte ne chyde. He borwed of me bayard he broughte hym home nevre, Ne no ferthynge therefore or naughte I couthe plede. He meynteneth his men to marther myne hewen, Forstalleth my feyres and fighteth in my chepynge, And breketh up my bernes dore and bereth aweye my whete, And taketh me but a taile for ten quarters of ores, And yet he bet me ther-to and lythbi my mayde, I nam noughte hardy for hym "uneth to loke."
They pride themselves that all is stable and God is with them. How can such a state of affairs be stable! They feel at ease, yet injustice can never mean rest. God has spoken the final sentence, but with a rare sarcasm the prophet adds his comment on the scene. These rich men had been flattered into their religious security by hireling prophets, who had opposed himself. As they leave the presence of God, having heard their sentence, Micah looks after them and muses in quiet prose.
The prophet speaks:-
"Yea, if one whose walk is wind and falsehood were to try to cozen "thee, saying, "I will babble to thee of wine and strong drink, then he might be the prophet of such a people."
At this point in chapter 2 there have somehow slipped into the text two verses (Mic_2:12-13), which all are agreed do not belong to it, and for which we must find another place. They speak of a return from the Exile, and interrupt the connection between Mic_2:11 and the first verse of chapter 3 (Mic_3:1). With the latter Micah begins a series of three oracles, which give the substance of his own prophesying in contrast to that of the false prophets whom he has just been satirizing. He has told us what they say, and he now begins the first of his own oracles with the words, "But I said." It is an attack upon the authorities of the nation, whom the false prophets flatter. Micah speaks very plainly to them. Their business is to know justice, and yet they love wrong. They flay the people with their exactions; they cut up the people like meat.
The prophet speaks:-
"But I said, Hear now, O chiefs of Jacob, And rulers of the house of Israel: Is it not yours to know justice? Haters of good and lovers of evil, Tearing their hide from upon them."
(he points to the people)
"And their flesh from the bones of them; And who devour the flesh of my people, And their hide they have stripped from them And their bones have they cleft, And served it up as if from a pot, Like meat from the thick of the caldron! At that time shall they cry to Jehovah, And He will not answer them; But hide His face from them at that time, Because they have aggravated their deeds."
These words of Micah are terribly strong, but there have been many other ages and civilizations than his own of which they have been no more than true. "They crop us," said a French peasant of the lords of the great Louis time, "as the sheep crops grass." "They treat us like their food," said another on the eve of the Revolution. Is there nothing of the same with ourselves?
While Micah spoke he had wasted lives and bent backs before him. His speech is elliptic till you see his finger pointing at them. Pinched peasant faces peer between all his words and fill the ellipses. And among the living poor today are there not starved and bitten faces-bodies with the blood sucked from them, with the Divine image crushed out of them? Brothers, we cannot explain all of these by vice. Drunkenness and unthrift do account for much; but how much more is explicable only by the following facts! Many men among us are able to live in fashionable streets and keep their families comfortable only by paying their employs a wage upon which it is impossible for men to be strong or women to be virtuous. Are those not using these as their food? They tell us that if they are to give higher wages they must close their business, and cease paying wages at all; and they are right if they themselves continue to live on the scale they do. As long as many families are maintained in comfort by the profits of businesses in which some or all of the employees work for less than they can nourish and repair their bodies upon, the simple fact is that the one set are feeding upon the other set. It may be inevitable, it may be the fault of the system and not of the individual, it may be that to break up the system would mean to make things worse than ever-but all the same the truth is clear that many families of the middle class, and some of the very wealthiest of the land, are nourished by the waste of the lives of the poor. Now and again the fact is acknowledged with as much shamelessness as was shown by any tyrant in the days of Micah. To a large employer of labor who was complaining that his employees, by refusing to live at the low scale of Belgian workmen, were driving trade from this country, the present writer once said: "Would it not meet your wishes if, instead of your workmen being leveled down, the Belgians were leveled up? This would make the competition fair between you and the employers in Belgium." His answer was, "I care not so long as I get my profits." He was a religious man, a liberal giver to his Church, and he died leaving more than one hundred thousand pounds.
Micahs tyrants, too, had religion to support them. A number of the hireling prophets, whom we have seen both Amos and Hosea attack, gave their blessing to this social system, which crushed the poor, for they shared its profits. They lived upon the alms of the rich, and flattered according as they were fed. To them Micah devotes the second oracle of chapter 3, and we find confirmed by his words the principle we laid down before, that in that age the one great difference between the false and the true prophet was what it has been in every age since then till now-an ethical difference; and not a difference of dogma, or tradition, or ecclesiastical note. The false prophet spoke, consciously or unconsciously, for himself and his living. He sided with the rich; he shut his eyes to the social condition of the people; he did not attack the sins of the day. This made him false - robbed him of insight and the power of prediction. But the true prophet exposed the sins of his people. Ethical insight and courage, burning indignation of wrong, clear vision of the facts of the day-this was what Jehovahs spirit put into him, this was what Micah felt to be respiration.
The prophet speaks:-
"Thus saith Jehovah against the prophets who lead my people astray, Who while they have aught between their teeth proclaim peace, But against him who will not lay to their mouths they sanctify war! Wherefore night shall be yours without vision, And yours shall be darkness without divination; And the sun shall go down on the prophets, And the day shall darken about them; And the seers shall be put to the blush, And the diviners be ashamed: All of them shall cover the beard, For there shall be no answer from God. But I am full of power by the spirit of Jehovah, and justice and might, To declare to Jacob his transgressions and to Israel his sin."
In the third oracle of this chapter rulers and prophets are combined-how close the conspiracy between them! It is remarkable that, in harmony with Isaiah, Micah speaks no word against the king. But evidently Hezekiah had not power to restrain the nobles and the rich. When this oracle was uttered it was a time of peace, and the lavish building, which we have seen to be so marked a characteristic of Israel in the eighth century, was in process. Jerusalem was larger and finer than ever. Ah, it was a building of Gods own city in blood! Judges, priests, and prophets were all alike mercenary, and the poor were oppressed for a reward. No walls, however sacred, could stand on such foundations. Did they say that they built her so grandly, for Jehovahs sake? Did they believe her to be inviolate because He was in her? They should see. Zion-yes, Zion-should be ploughed like a field, and the Mountain of the Lords Temple become desolate.
The prophet speaks:-
"Hear now this, O chiefs of the house of Jacob, And rulers of the house of Israel, Who spurn justice and twist all that is straight, Building Zion in blood, and Jerusalem with crime! Her chiefs give judgment for a bribe,"
"And her priests oracles for a reward, And her prophets divine for silver; And on Jehovah they lean, saying: Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? Evil cannot come at us. Therefore for your sakes shall Zion be ploughed like a field, And Jerusalem become heaps, And the Mount of the House mounds in a jungle."
It is extremely difficult for us to place ourselves in a state of society in which bribery is prevalent, and the fingers both of justice and of religion are gilded by their suitors. But this corruption has always been common in the East. "An Oriental state can never altogether prevent the abuse by which officials, small and great, enrich themselves in illicit ways." The strongest government takes the bribery for granted, and periodically prunes the rank fortunes of its great officials. A weak government lets them alone. But in either case the poor suffer from unjust taxation and from laggard or perverted justice. Bribery has always been found, even in the more primitive and puritan forms of Semitic life. Mr. Doughty has borne testimony with regard to this among the austere Wahabees of Central Arabia. "When I asked if there were no handling of bribes at Hayil by those who are nigh the princes ear, it was answered, Nay. The Byzantine corruption cannot enter into the eternal and noble simplicity of this peoples (airy) life, in the poor nomad country; but (we have seen) the art is not unknown to the subtle-headed Shammar princes, who thereby help themselves with the neighbor Turkish governments." The bribes of the ruler of Hayil "are, according to the shifting weather of the world, to great Ottoman government men; and now on account of Kheybar, he was gilding some of their crooked fingers in Medina." Nothing marks the difference of Western government more than the absence of all this, especially from our courts of justice. Yet the improvement has only come about within comparatively recent centuries. What a large space, for instance, does Langland give to the arraigning of "Mede," the corrupter of all authorities and influences in the society of his day! Let us quote his words, for again they provide a most exact parallel to Micahs, and may enable us to realize a state of life so contrary to our own. It is Conscience who arraigns Mede before the King:-
"By ihesus with here jeweles youre justices she shendeth, And lith agein the lawe and letteth hym the gate, That leith may noughte have his forth here floreines go so thikke, She ledeth the lawe as hire list and lovedays maketh And doth men lese thorw hire love that law myghte wynne, The mase for a mene man though he mote hit cure. Law is so lordeliche and loth to make ende, Without presentz or pens she pleseth wel fewe. For pore men mowe have no powere to pleyne hem though the smerte; Suche a maistre is Mede amonge men of gode"
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 CRITICAL NOTES.] Judgment has been pronounced in general, now…
CRITICAL NOTES.] Judgment has been pronounced in general, now special sins are described. The conduct of the nobility is denounced. Devise] Heb. to form plans (Psa_36:5). Work] Fabricate, mature the plan (Psa_58:2). Practise] To execute (Isa_41:4). Beds] i.e. by night (Cf. Psa_4:5; Job_4:13). Morning] i.e. at break of day. Hand] Their hand is their God; right is overruled by might.
Mic_2:2. Covet] Cf. Exo_20:14; Deu_5:18. Oppress] Defraud.
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HOMILETICS
THE CONCEPTION AND PRACTICE OF INJUSTICE.—Mic_2:1-2
Special sins are now condemned. The injustice and oppression of the rich are denounced and threatened with punishment.
I. Injustice in its purpose. “That devise iniquity.” Iniquity is first conceived, purposed, or planned. They plot and forecast before they act it. Actions are traced to principles. Devising is the incipient working of the principle. The thought is the fountain of the deed. God calls it the work of evil, and holds us responsible for it (Pro_14:22; Mat_9:3-4). It is bad enough to be led into wickedness by others, but to devise, to scheme it is the depravity of “inventors of evil things” (Rom_1:30).
II. Injustice in its maturity. They “work evil,” mature it in thoughts and desires.
1. It is matured in the night, “upon their beds.” In the rest and stillness of night when they should commune with their own hearts and their God. They turn the chamber of sleep into a place for plotting, and abuse retirement by wicked designs. “He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good.”
2. It is matured in the day. “When the morning is light.” Early, very soon after conception it is perfected. On their bed, and in their waking hours; no leisure between deliberation and practice. It is done
(1) Openly, in the light.
(2) Deliberately, in full light.
(3) Shamefully, against knowledge and conscience.
3. It is matured by might. “Because it is in the power of their hand.” Might, not right, regulated their conduct. The lust for power increases in strength and lawlessness, until it becomes a law to itself, the master passion of the soul. Then no sacrifices are too costly, no measures too atrocious, for the attainment of its object. “This they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do.”
III. Injustice in its practice. “They practise it.” There is a gradation in evil. First they sin in thought, then desire, and afterwards in act. To covet and to rob, to desire and to take, were the same thing with them.
1. It is a forbidden practice. They covet, disregard law, and seek to add field to field.
2. It is a violent practice. “Take them by violence.” Grossly and openly, by force and fraud, did they seize the property of others.
3. It is an inhuman practice. “They oppress a man and his house.” They took away houses and heritages, and ruined whole families and their offspring. Human life was not held sacred. Like Ahab, they first coveted, then sought to destroy their fellow-men by violence and false accusation. “Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.”
4. It is a cursed practice. “Woe to them!” Woe in Hebrew means all kind of pain, sorrow, and misery. Covetousness is the root of all evil to ourselves and others (1Ti_6:9-10). A covetous man is cursed in this life and in that to come. “Beware of covetousness.”
“You take my house when you do take the prop
That doth sustain my house; you take my life
When you do take the means whereby I live” [Shakespeare].
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
The reign of selfishness.
1. Each one strives and plans for himself alone.
2. Each one trusts in his own strength.
3. Each one disregards the law [Lange (adapted)]. What a temptation it is to have the power to do what evil spite suggests! What would many a one do if the power of the hand were as great as the boldness of the heart! As it is, however, God judges according to the counsel of the heart, and brings to light what a man has been occupied with even on his bed [Ibid.].
1. Notice the gradation of the evil. Conception, earnest preparation, and execution by force. “They say, they coveted, they took,” like Achan.
2. The relation between wicked thoughts and wicked deeds. The oppressor in his bed, in his heart, and in his life. Resist the first attacks of sin lest ye be eventually overcome.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Mic_2:1-2. Covet fields. No passion so deeply agitates and degrades, so effectually enslaves and destroys, the soul as covetousness. The man who sets his heart upon riches must be a stranger to peace and enjoyment. Fear, care, anxiety, suspicion, and jealousy place him on a constant rack. To the toil of getting is added the trouble of keeping his pelf. Avarice is insatiable as the grave, or rather as a gulf without bottom. The more this passion is supplied with fresh fuel the more vehement is the flame [Rusticus]. No houses, no fields content those who cannot rest in the lust of concupiscence. Yet only seven feet of earth will suffice them at last.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 This verse introduces us to a reflection which it…
Mic 2:1
This verse introduces us to a reflection which it is very important that we should sometimes thoughtfully dwell on; that thought is, the responsibility of power, or the temptations peculiar to power.
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I. Of all things in heaven and earth which the human heart craves for most vehemently, there is nothing that it longs for so intensely and unceasingly, as power. "To be weak, is to be miserable, doing and suffering," says our great poet. To be weak is to be always craving and never having; always yearning and never possessing. We flatter ourselves with the belief that we lack nothing but strength, to make us heroes; nothing but resources to make us higher than the angels, and like unto God. Something better than mere power is wanted to make a hero or an angel. If we be blessed with the gifts of power, and vigour, and force, we must reflect that we watch them wisely, lest what God meant should be a boon become in our case a bane.
II. Had these men of Israel, over whose heads a heavy doom was hanging, been men of the mob, poor and feeble, how different their thoughts on their beds might have been, in that they would then have lacked the power of gratification. No man meditates long upon the doing of what he is convinced at starting is an impossibility. And therefore, if we be wise, we shall give thanks to God at times for weakness, as well as for strength, for failures as well as successes, for the difficulties that meet us day by day, as well as for our many helps and supporters. We shall thank G6d that we have been found out in many an unworthy act, and not suffered to go on in it, and that we have been put to shame in the course of many a wicked plan, and stopped ere we could quite accomplish it; and have been held back from the doing of many a shameful deed which we had devised upon our beds, and were only restrained from practising, because it was not in the power of our hands.
A. Jessopp, Norwich School Sermons, p. 11.
Mic 2:7
I. Consider the promise of the Pentecost. There was (i) the promise of a Divine Spirit by symbols which express some, at all events, of the characteristics and wonderfulness of His work. The "rushing of a mighty wind" spoke of a power which varies in its manifestations, from the gentlest breath that scarce moves the leaves on the summer trees to the wildest blast that casts down all which stands in its way. The twin symbol of the fiery tongues which parted and sat upon each of them speaks in like manner of the Divine influence, not as destructive, but full of quick, rejoicing energy and life, the power to transform and to purify. (ii) There is, further, in the fact of Pentecost the promise of a Divine Spirit which is to influence the moral side of humanity. (iii) The Pentecost carried in it the promise and prophecy of a Spirit granted to all the Church. "They were all filled with the Holy Ghost." (iv) The promise of the early history was that of a Spirit which should fill the whole nature of the men to whom He was granted; filling them in the measure of their receptivity, as the great sea does all the creeks and indentations along the shore.
II. Look at the apparent failure of the promise. "Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?" Look at Christendom. Will anyone say that the religious condition of any body of professed believers at this moment corresponds to Pentecost? Is not the gap so wide that to fill it up seems almost impossible? (i) Does the ordinary tenour of our own religious life look as if we had that Divine Spirit in us which transforms everything into its own beauty? (ii) Do the relations of modern Christians and their churches to one another attest the presence of a unifying Spirit? (iii) Look at the comparative impotence of the Church in its conflict with the growing worldliness of the world. "If God be with us, why has all this come upon us?"
III. Think for a moment of the solution of the contradiction. It is our own fault and the result of evil in ourselves that may be remedied, that we have so little of the Divine gift. The same fulness of the Spirit which filled the believers on the day of Pentecost, is available for us all. "Ask, and ye shall receive," and be filled with the Holy Ghost, and with power.
A. Maclaren, Christ in the Heart, p. 305.
References: Mic 2:7.—J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. x., p. 65. Mic 2:8.—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 339. Mic 2:10.—Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 38; Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 33. Mic 2:13.—Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 237.
Mic 2:13
The title of the "Breaker" was most appropriately given to the Lord Jesus, (i) because it was through His agency alone that the power of sin was broken; (ii) because, by His death, the distinction between Jews and Gentiles was for ever removed; (iii) because, by His death He destroyed death, and by His triumphant resurrection He has given an earnest of what He will one day accomplish for all who sleep in Him
J. N. Norton, Every Sunday, p. 11.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Sins that Bring Ruin
The Sins that Bring Ruin
Micah 2, 3, as dealing with the same subject, should be read together.
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Micah now enumerates the sins which must bring punishment on Judah. He inveighs bitterly against the rapacity of the rich towards their poorer neighbours. The leaders in the capital, judges, prophets, and priests alike are destitute of the religion which makes a man interpret his power as a means of helping men and so glorifying God. Instead they regard it as a means to win money and position to themselves. The national institutions have been degraded into a means by which selfish men aggrandise themselves (Mic_2:1-2, Mic_2:8-9; Mic_3:1-5, Mic_3:9-10). Therefore these shall not continue (Mic_2:3-5), and even Jerusalem shall be plowed as a field (Mic_3:12). The leaders reproach Micah as no patriot since he utters such things against his people, and no prophet since he forgets that God must save His chosen nation (Mic_2:6-7). Micah replies that God will keep His nation, but that Jerusalem is not essential to God's purpose. When the capital is mined, the nation may only be made more fit to fulfil its true ends in the world (Mic_2:12-13).
2. Cp. 1 Kings 21 for the Israelite's attachment to his heritage.
3. This family] cp. 'The whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt' (Amo_3:1). I devise] as contrasted with their devising (Mic_2:1).
4. Turning away] RV 'to the rebellious,' i.e. God divides the ill-gotten fields to heathen and idolaters. 5. This may mean that the oppressor nobles shall have none to cast the measuring line on an allotment, when the periodical redistribution of the land took place, and some respect was had to old family rights. Their line is to fail.
The text of Mic_2:4 and Mic_2:5 is uncertain, but the sense is clear. It shall be rendered to them as they have rendered to others.
6. Cp. Isa_30:9-11. Translate: 'prattle not, thus they (the nobles) prattle. They (the prophets) should not prattle of these things; their scoldings are unceasing.' The nobles turn on Micah. Prophets have no right to meddle with social and political questions, but should leave them to men whose business it is to deal with them. We are weary of this eternal scolding.
7. The first part of the V. probably continues the speech of the nobles: 'Shall it be said, O. house of Jacob, is the spirit of the Lord straitened? are these His doings?' Can we, a nation whom God called the house of Jacob, endure to hear a prophet foretell its ruin? Micah replies abruptly, 'Tour sins are blinding you. My words are good to men who bring a conscience to their appreciation.'
8. Even] RV 'but.' With the garment] RV 'from off the garment.' The robe is a mantle, the garment what is usually called the upper garment. Men averse from war] quiet, peaceful people. Micah seems to refer to some merciless treatment meted out by creditors to their debtors: cp. Exo_22:26, Exo_22:27.
9. My glory] i.e. their inheritance in the holy land. The prophet implies that women and children are being sold into foreign captivity.
10. Because it is polluted, etc.] better, 'because of uncleanness ye shall be destroyed with a sore destruction.' They shall be driven from the land from which they have driven others. Their guilt makes the land no resting-place for them.
11. In the spirit and falsehood] better, 'after wind and lies.' What promises material benefits alone appeals to them.
12, 13. An oracle of restoration, which has been inserted between the two denunciations, when the separate oracles were collected in writing. Micah promises restoration, when the judgment has done its work. The expulsion from the land (Mic_2:10) shall not be permanent.
12. The sheep of Bozrah, etc.] better, 'as sheep into a fold, as a flock into the midst of the pasture.' The great noise is the noise of the joy at return.
13. Read the verbs throughout as perfect. The writer speaks as though what he promises had already taken place. The breaker] or, 'deliverer': they have been shut up as in a prison. One will come to open their way.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. The guilt and punishment of Israel (Mic 2:1-11)
CHAPTER 2
1. The guilt and punishment of Israel (Mic 2:1-11)
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2. The future restoration (Mic 2:12-13)
Mic 2:1-11. In the first two verses the special sins of Israel are mentioned, the same as in Amos--idolatry, covetousness and oppression. Therefore punishment is to fall upon them. There would be a doleful lamentation: “We be utterly spoiled: he changeth the portion of my people; how does he take it away from me!” Their fields would be divided. Nor did they listen to the true prophets; they gave ear to the false prophets who flattered them. It is interesting to note that the sentence, “Prophesy ye not, thus they prophesy,” literally translated is, “Do not sputter, thus they sputter.” They did not give out the real message, but they sputtered out their own words. These false prophets tried to prevent the true prophets from announcing the judgment of the Lord.
Then comes a passionate appeal: “O, thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? Are these His doings? Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?” He still appeals to their consciences. The Spirit of God does not change, nor was it His doings, when the nation drifted into idolatry and judgment was impending. Still, if they but walked uprightly His words would surely do them good. But they had risen as an enemy against Him; and yet the Lord, in spite of all, called them “My people.”
Mic 2:12-13. In this prophecy Christ is announced as the Breaker, the One who goes before them, clears the way, and removes every obstacle out of the way. In Mic 2:10 we read, “Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest.” The true rest for His people Israel comes when the King comes and brings with Him the promised blessing and glory. Then the remnant of Israel will be gathered, “and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord at the head of them.” It is a great prophecy of the ultimate restoration of Israel. “We must not exclude all allusion to the deliverance of the Jewish nation out of the earthly Babylon by Cyrus; at the same time, it is only in its typical significance that this comes into consideration at all, namely, as a preliminary stage and pledge of the redemption to be effected by Christ.”
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Denunciation of the Prevalent Evils
Denunciation of the Prevalent Evils
v. 1. Woe to them that devise iniquity, not on a sudden impulse, but with deliberate planning, and work evil upon their beds! using even the night-time to hatch out further schemes of wickedness. When the morning is light, as soon as the day dawns, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand, or, "their hand is as a god"; they know no higher authority, they recognize no other power but that of their arm; they think they have a right to do what they please.
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v. 2. And they covet fields, the property and inheritance of others, and take them by violence, seizing them as it suits their fancy, and houses, and take them away, oppressing the poor with a show of right. So they oppress, overwhelm and put to their own use, a man and his house, even a man and his heritage, which by the Law of God was to remain in the possession of his family. Cf Exo 20:14-17; Deu 5:18.
v. 3. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, Behold, against this family, upon this generation of evil-doers, do I devise an evil, He, in turn, planning how He may punish them adequately with a severe judgment, from which ye shall not remove your necks, like a yoke which may not be shaken off no matter how heavy it presses; neither shall ye go haughtily, walking and behaving themselves in lofty pride; for this time is evil, in which depression of spirits and gloomy silence would come upon the members of the nation on account of the yoke of oppression laid upon them by the conquest of their country and the distress of the exile.
v. 4. In that day shall one take up a parable against you, the enemies inventing bywords and mocking jingles, and lament with a doleful lamentation, for the mocking song of the enemies would be a mournful dirge in the mouths of the children of Israel, and say, We be utterly spoiled, completely destroyed!. He hath changed the portion of my people, Jehovah Himself permitting the heathen to take possession of it; how hath He removed it from me! so that it was no longer in Israel’s possession. Turning away, He hath divided our fields, dealing out the portions to the invaders.
v. 5. Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the Lord, to cast a measuring-line on a lot of ground in the assembly of Jehovah, for the possessions of the children of Israel belonged to them only as long as they remained faithful to the God of the covenant and would be taken away when they became unfaithful.
v. 6. Prophesy not, say they to them that prophesy, literally, "Drop not," or, "drivel not, they drivel," almost like the American slang, "Dry up! they drivel," in speaking to the true prophets in a silly fashion. They shall not prophesy to them that they shall not take shame, that is: If the prophecy, which the apostate Jews regarded as drivel, would not continue, then there would be no chance for them to escape the shame which would come upon the entire nation by the conquest of the enemies. The unbelievers to this day refuse to realize that the very preaching which they consider drivel and rot is the one means of saving them from the impending Judgment.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v1 General Information:
General Information:
Micah speaks against the leaders in Israel who are taking advantage of the poor and not following God's commands.
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They oppress a man
"They oppress any man they choose to oppress." This is a generalization. Micah is not speaking of one individual man here.
translationWords
woe
iniquity
evil
light
power
house
inherit
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v1 2:1-2 Power had corrupted the wealthy, who should have…
2:1-2 Power had corrupted the wealthy, who should have been ready to help their fellow Israelites (cp. Gen 4:9; Josh 1:14). • Thinking up evil plans . . . because you have the power to do so indicates a corrupt heart, mind, and character (Gen 6:5). • When you want: They possessed the property of others in a way that amounted to stealing and broke God’s law that forbids coveting (Exod 20:17). A family’s inheritance was a sacred gift from the Lord, intended as a permanent possession (Lev 25:8-55; cp. 1 Kgs 21; Isa 5:8). God looked for righteousness among his people, but instead he found oppression (1 Kgs 10:9; Isa 5:7; 2 Pet 2:13).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.