Michea 2:3 Commento

In this chapter we have, I. The sins with which the people of Israel are charged - covetousness and oppression, fraudulent and violent practices (Mic 2:1, Mic 2:2), dealing barbarously, even with women and children, and other harmless people (Mic 2:8, Mic 2:9). Opposition of God's prophets and silencing them (Mic 2:6, Mic 2:7), and delighting in false prophets (Mic 2:11). II. The judgments with which they are threatened for those sins, that they should be humbled, and impoverished (Mic 2:3-5), and banished (Mic 2:10). III. Gracious promises of comfort, reserved for the good people among them, in the Messiah (Mic 2:12, Mic 2:13). And this is the sum and scope of most of the chapters of this and other prophecies.

INTRODUCTION TO MICAH 2 In this chapter complaint is made of the sins of the people of Israel, and they are threatened with punishment for them. The sins they are charged with are covetousness, oppression, and injustice, which were premeditated, and done deliberately, Mic 2:1; therefore the Lord devised evil against them, they should not escape; and which would bring down their pride, and cause them to take up a lamentation, because they should not enjoy the portion of land that belonged to them, Mic 2:3; they are further charged with opposing the prophets of the Lord, the folly and wickedness of which is exposed, Mic 2:6; and with great inhumanity and barbarity, even to women and children, Mic 2:8; and therefore are ordered to expect and prepare for a removal out of their land, Mic 2:10; and the rather, since they gave encouragement and heed to false prophets, and delighted in them, Mic 2:11; and the chapter is concluded with words of comfort to the remnant among them, and with precious promises of the Messiah, and the blessings of grace by him, Mic 2:12.

Therefore thus saith the Lord, behold, against this family do I devise an evil,.... Because of those evils of covetousness, oppression, and injustice, secretly devised, and deliberately committed, the Lord, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, declares, and would have it observed, that he had devised an evil of punishment against the whole nation of Israel, the ten tribes particularly, among whom these sins greatly prevailed; even an invasion of their land by the Assyrians, and the carrying of them captive from it into foreign parts: from which ye shall not remove your necks; that is, they should not be able to deliver themselves from it; they would not be able to stop the enemy in his progress, having entered their land; nor oblige him to break up the siege of their city, before which he would sit, and there continue till he had taken it; and being carried captive by him, they would never be able to free themselves from the yoke of bondage put upon them, and under which they remain unto this day. The allusion is to beasts slipping their necks out of the collar or yoke put upon them: these sons of Belial had broke off the yoke of God's commandments, and now he will, put another yoke upon them, they shall never be able to cast off until the time of the restitution of all things, when all Israel shall be saved: neither shall ye go haughtily; as they now did, in an erect posture, with necks stretched out, and heads lifted up high, and looking upon others with scorn and contempt; but hereafter it should be otherwise, their heads would hang down, their countenances be dejected, and their backs bowed with the burdens upon them: for this time is evil; very calamitous, afflictive, and distressing; and so not a time for pride and haughtiness, but for dejection and humiliation; see Eph 5:16.

(Chapter 2—Verse 1 onwards) Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil upon their beds! In the morning light they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. They covet fields, and seize them; houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance. Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I am devising against this family an evil from which you cannot remove your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be an evil time. On that day, this parable shall be taken up against you, and a song shall be sung with sweetness, saying: We have been utterly devastated. The portion of my people has been changed. How shall he withdraw from me, when he shall return, who will divide our regions? For this reason, there will be no one sending out a measuring line to the assembly of the Lord. LXX: They have become those who think about labors and do evil in their beds. And together, on the day of the consummation, they will complete them. For they have not lifted up their hands to God, and they have desired fields, and they have plundered the orphan, and they have oppressed houses, and they have seized a man, and his house, a man and his inheritance. Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I am devising evil against this tribe, from which you will not remove your necks, so that you will not walk upright, for it is a time of disaster. In that day a proverb will be taken up against you, and a lamentation with the singing of mournful songs will be sung: We are utterly ruined; my people's portion is measured out with a measuring line, and there is no one to restore it. Our fields are divided up; therefore there will be no one to set a milestone for you in the inheritance. What we have placed at the end of the chapter according to the Hebrew, in the assembly of the Lord, for which the Seventy translated, in the Church of the Lord; according to the Vulgate edition, the beginning of the following chapter is. And therefore, if the Lord permits, we will discuss it. Woe to you, assembly of the Jews, who both plan evil and carry it out. And you defile the sleeping chambers given for rest with lewdness, and whatever wickedness you engage in during the night, as if it were not permissible to delay, you hastily fulfill it as soon as day breaks, not considering that your hand is strong against the Lord. And in order to teach through Scripture what they were thinking at night and doing during the day, he explains in parts. 'They coveted,' he says, 'the fields and forcefully took them; and the houses, it is understood, they coveted and plundered the ones they coveted. And not only did they malign people and their homes, but they also ravaged their descendants who deserved mercy for their tender age with their voracious mouths. Therefore, because you have done these things and thought them useless, I, the Lord, will plan evil against this family. Not that the evil I plan is actually evil, but because it seems evil to those who suffer when I inflict it. And I will afflict you in such a way that you will not be able to lift up your necks and walk proudly, namely those whom the time of captivity has oppressed.' Then a parable will be spoken against you, and your miseries will be turned into a song: We have been devastated by depopulation, the portion of my people: My temple, which I alone had more than other nations, will be changed into ruin. How will the Assyrian depart from me, when he returns to distribute my fields by lot for himself? Therefore, O family of Israel, against whom I am devising evil, you will not have a portion in the inheritance of the righteous. But even about the final captivity this can be understood, that everything happened to them because they crucified the Lord: in such a way, however, that the version of the Seventy interpreters is discussed. For the glory of the daughter of Israel was stripped, and shaved over the once most delicate sons, and if anything of hair was born afterward, it was immediately cut off and shaved. Then all their plans turned into labor, and what they conceived, with the mind and soul asleep, brought them troubles: and what they did, as soon as the light of Christ and retribution appeared, was disturbed. For when they had read that Israel had conquered, when Moses raised his hands to the Lord, and that Amalek had been defeated when Moses grew weary and lowered his arms (Exodus XVII), they did not lift their hands to the Lord, but committed all kinds of crimes against the poor and the people of the Lord. They desired fields and plundered the houses of orphans, and they ravaged the man and his wife and their children and their possessions. Therefore the Lord planned evil against that tribe: not against the twelve tribes, but against the tribe corrupted by malice and wickedness, who could not lift up their heads or walk uprightly. Finally, up until the present day, they have been subjects of the Roman Empire, and they are burdened by the yoke of captivity, and they do not lift their necks. However, the following phrase, ἐξαίφνης, which means 'suddenly,' is not found in the Hebrew volumes, yet it can correspond with the present passage in such a way that we may say: Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I am devising evil against this tribe suddenly, from which they cannot lift their necks, and for this reason, they will not be able to lift them, because it is a time of evil. For just as they worked evil against the Lord Jesus, so they will endure the evils of perpetual captivity, and they will come into such great distress that all their songs and psalms will be turned into mourning. And the people will know nothing else to say except for this: we have become wretched in our misery. For the promised land, which had previously been divided by lot among the two and a half tribes beyond the Jordan, with Moses sending the measuring cord and later divided among the remaining tribes by Joshua, has now been divided among the Gentiles under Roman rule. And there is no one to prevent them from ruling over all the nations. Not a single Jew possesses the ancient freedom of their homeland. But if we choose to follow the third exposition, we will see that every thought of ours is labor and sorrow, and our bed is filled with evils, and even the light itself, which seems bright, is mixed with darkness. And whatever we handle at night, we do so in darkness. For which of us can lift holy hands to God without anger and thought? Who does not desire the villas of this age, forgetting the possessions of paradise? You may see others connecting fields with fields and joining boundaries with boundaries, and the small body of a man not being sufficient for the countryside of cities. Therefore the Lord thinks upon us evil things, from which we are unable to lift up our necks, nor to walk upright, because it is a very bad time, according to the words of John saying: The world is placed in the evil one (1 John 5:19). The same thing is signified by that noble soul in the Gospel, the daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound and bowed down, and unless she could be raised up before the coming of the Lord, nor could she look upon her Creator. Then Jesus said: 'Shouldn't this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day?' (Luke 13:16). Therefore, because our glory has been completely diminished and we have extended the shaving or our nakedness (for thus it is found in some codices), those who would lament with Jeremiah and take up a parable against us were sent, saying with the Apostle: 'I will mourn for the many who have sinned and have not repented' (2 Corinthians 12:21). For who would not lament seeing human souls as if they were a diverse collection of furniture possessed by demons and various vices? One demon sends the cord of fornication, another of greed. This one extends the lines of murder, while that one of perjury. The portion of the people of God is divided by a cord. And the fields once holy and like paradise, of which Isaac delighted in the smell, were handed over to the Assyrians and to the Babylonian king. And while foxes have dens and birds have nests, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head (Matt. 8). I have explained, according to the limitations of my small intelligence, the first captivity of the people by the Assyrians and Babylonians, the second by the Romans who crucified the Lord, and the third spiritual captivity in which each one of us fell from paradise with Adam and is held captive in this world. When the Lord comes, he will raise up the fallen and release the imprisoned (Psalm 144). He will also gather the once captive of the devil into his possession, fulfilling the words of the Psalmist: As he ascended on high, he led captivity captive (Psalm 68:18). According to this explanation, the fourth captivity can also be understood as the Church, from which each person departs through sin, and then, through Ezra, who interprets as helper, that is, through the word of God, is brought back to Jerusalem (1 Esdras 7). However, if someone has been meditating on the Law of the Lord day and night, they have had greater zeal, greater intelligence, leisure, and grace, and they may be able to say something more probable about the present chapter. I do not envy, I do not reject, but rather I desire to learn from him what I do not know, and I will gladly profess myself as his student, as long as he teaches and does not detract. For nothing is so easy as to debate about the work and efforts of others when one is idle and asleep.

Here the prophet denounces a wo against the plotters of wickedness, the covetous and the oppressor, Mic 2:1, Mic 2:2. God is represented as devising their ruin, Mic 2:3. An Israelite is then introduced as a mourner, personating his people, and lamenting their fate, Mic 2:4. Their total expulsion is now threatened on account of their very numerous offenses, Mic 2:5-10. Great infatuation of the people in favor of those pretenders to Divine inspiration who prophesied to them peace and plenty, Mic 2:11. 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, Mic 2:12, Mic 2:13.

Against this family (the Israelites) do I devise an evil - You have devised the evil of plundering the upright; I will devise the evil to you of punishment for your conduct; you shall have your necks brought under the yoke of servitude. Tiglath-pileser ruined this kingdom, and transported the people to Assyria, under the reign of Hezekiah, king of Judah; and Micah lived to see this catastrophe. See on Mic 2:9 (note).

DENUNCIATION OF THE EVILS PREVALENT: THE PEOPLE'S UNWILLINGNESS TO HEAR THE TRUTH: THEIR EXPULSION FROM THE LAND THE FITTING FRUIT OF THEIR SIN: YET JUDAH AND ISRAEL ARE HEREAFTER TO BE RESTORED. (Mic 2:1-13) devise . . . work . . . practise--They do evil not merely on a sudden impulse, but with deliberate design. As in the former chapter sins against the first table are reproved, so in this chapter sins against the second table. A gradation: "devise" is the conception of the evil purpose; "work" (Psa 58:2), or "fabricate," the maturing of the scheme; "practise," or "effect," the execution of it. because it is in the power of their hand--for the phrase see Gen 31:29; Pro 3:27. Might, not right, is what regulates their conduct. Where they can, they commit oppression; where they do not, it is because they cannot.

against this family--against the nation, and especially against those reprobates in Mic 2:1-2. I devise an evil--a happy antithesis between God's dealings and the Jews dealings (Mic 2:1). Ye "devise evil" against your fellow countrymen; I devise evil against you. Ye devise it wrongfully, I by righteous retribution in kind. from which ye shall not remove your necks--as ye have done from the law. The yoke I shall impose shall be one which ye cannot shake off. They who will not bend to God's "easy yoke" (Mat 11:29-30), shall feel His iron yoke. go haughtily--(Compare Note, see on Jer 6:28). Ye shall not walk as now with neck haughtily uplifted, for the yoke shall press down your "neck." this time is evil--rather, "for that time shall be an evil time," namely, the time of the carrying away into captivity (compare Amo 5:13; Eph 5:16).

Guilt and Punishment of Israel. Its Future Restoration - Mic 2:1-13 After having prophesied generally in ch. 1 of the judgment that would fall upon both kingdoms on account of their apostasy from the living God, Micah proceeds in Mic 2:1-13 to condemn, as the principal sins, the injustice and oppressions on the part of the great (Mic 2:1, Mic 2:2), for which the nation was to be driven away from its inheritance (Mic 2:3-5). He then vindicates this threat, as opposed to the prophecies of the false prophets, who confirmed the nation in its ungodliness by the lies that they told (Mic 2:6-11); and then closes with the brief but definite promise, that the Lord would one day gather together the remnant of His people, and would multiply it greatly, and make it His kingdom (Mic 2:12, Mic 2:13). As this promise applies to all Israel of the twelve tribes, the reproof and threat of punishment are also addressed to the house of Jacob as such (Mic 2:7), and apply to both kingdoms. There are no valid grounds for restricting them to Judah, even though Micah may have had the citizens of that kingdom more particularly in his mind.

"Therefore thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I devise evil concerning this family, from which ye shall not withdraw your necks, and not walk loftily, for it is an evil time. Mic 2:4. In that day will men raise against you a proverb, and lament a lamentation. It has come to pass, they say; we are waste, laid waste; the inheritance of my people he exchanges: how does he withdraw it from me! To the rebellious one he divides our field." The punishment introduced with lâkhēn (therefore) will correspond to the sin. Because they reflect upon evil, to deprive their fellow-men of their possessions, Jehovah will bring evil upon this generation, lay a heavy yoke upon their neck, out of which they will not be able to necks, and under which they will not be able to walk loftily, or with extended neck. המּשׁפּחה הזּאת is not this godless family, but the whole of the existing nation, whose corrupt members are to be exterminated by the judgment (see Isa 29:20.). The yoke which the Lord will bring upon them is subjugation to the hostile conqueror of the land and the oppression of exile (see Jer 27:12). Hâlakh rōmâh, to walk on high, i.e., with the head lifted up, which is a sign of pride and haughtiness. Rōmâh is different from קוממיּוּת, an upright attitude, in Lev 27:13. כּי עת רעה, as in Amo 5:13, but in a different sense, is not used of moral depravity, but of the distress which will come upon Israel through the laying on of the yoke. Then will the opponents raise derisive songs concerning Israel, and Israel itself will bewail its misery. The verbs yissâ', nâhâh, and 'âmar are used impersonally. Mâshâl is not synonymous with nehı̄, a mournful song (Ros.), but signifies a figurative saying, a proverb-song, as in Isa 14:4; Hab 2:6. The subject to ישּׂא is the opponents of Israel, hence עליכם; on the other hand, the subject to nâhâh and 'âmar is the Israelites themselves, as נשׁדּנוּ teaches. נהיה is not a feminine formation from נהי, a mournful song, lamentum lamenti, i.e., a mournfully mournful song, as Rosenmller, Umbreit, and the earlier commentators suppose; but the niphal of היה (cf. Dan 8:27): actum est! it is all over! - an exclamation of despair (Le de Dieu, Ewald, etc.); and it is written after 'âmar, because נהיה as an exclamation is equivalent in meaning to an object. The omission of the copula Vav precludes our taking 'âmar in connection with what follows (Maurer). The following clauses are a still further explanation of נהיה: we are quite laid waste. The form נשׁדּנוּ for נשׁדּונוּ is probably chosen simply to imitate the tone of lamentation better (Hitzig). The inheritance of my people, i.e., the land of Canaan, He (Jehovah) changes, i.e., causes it to pass over to another possessor, namely, to the heathen. The words receive their explanation from the clauses which follow: How does He cause (sc., the inheritance) to depart from me! Not how does He cause me to depart. לשׁובב is not an infinitive, ad reddendum, or restituendum, which is altogether unsuitable, but nomen verbale, the fallen or rebellious one, like שׁובבה in Jer 31:22; Jer 49:4. This is the term applied by mourning Israel to the heathenish foe, to whom Jehovah apportions the fields of His people. The withdrawal of the land is the just punishment for the way in which the wicked great men have robbed the people of their inheritance.