Micah2
New Living Translation
1What sorrow awaits you who lie awake at night, thinking up evil plans. You rise at dawn and hurry to carry them out, simply because you have the power to do so.
2When you want a piece of land, you find a way to seize it. When you want someone’s house, you take it by fraud and violence. You cheat a man of his property, stealing his family’s inheritance.
3But this is what the Lord says: “I will reward your evil with evil; you won’t be able to pull your neck out of the noose. You will no longer walk around proudly, for it will be a terrible time.”
4In that day your enemies will make fun of you by singing this song of despair about you: “We are finished, completely ruined! God has confiscated our land, taking it from us. He has given our fields to those who betrayed us.”
5Others will set your boundaries then, and the Lord’s people will have no say in how the land is divided.
6“Don’t say such things,” the people respond. “Don’t prophesy like that. Such disasters will never come our way!”
7Should you talk that way, O family of Israel? Will the Lord’s Spirit have patience with such behavior? If you would do what is right, you would find my words comforting.
8Yet to this very hour my people rise against me like an enemy! You steal the shirts right off the backs of those who trusted you, making them as ragged as men returning from battle.
9You have evicted women from their pleasant homes and forever stripped their children of all that God would give them.
10Up! Begone! This is no longer your land and home, for you have filled it with sin and ruined it completely.
11Suppose a prophet full of lies would say to you, “I’ll preach to you the joys of wine and alcohol!” That’s just the kind of prophet you would like!
12“Someday, O Israel, I will gather you; I will gather the remnant who are left. I will bring you together again like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture. Yes, your land will again be filled with noisy crowds!
13Your leader will break out and lead you out of exile, out through the gates of the enemy cities, back to your own land. Your king will lead you; the Lord himself will guide you.”
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Micah 2.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The sins and desolations of Israel. (1–5). Their evil practices. (6–11). A promise of restoration. (12, 13).
vv1-5
Woe to the people that devise evil during the night, and rise early to carry it into execution! It is bad to do mischief on a sudden thought, much worse to do it with design and forethought. It is of great moment to improve and employ hours of retirement and solitude in a proper manner. If covetousness reigns in the heart, compassion is banished; and when the heart is thus engaged, violence and fraud commonly occupy the hands. The most haughty and secure in prosperity, are commonly most ready to despair in adversity. Woe to those from whom God turns away! Those are the sorest calamities which cut us off from the congregation of the Lord, or cut us short in the enjoyment of its privileges.
vv6-11
Since they say, “Prophesy not,” God will take them at their word, and their sin shall be their punishment. Let the physician no longer attend the patient that will not be healed. Those are enemies, not only to God, but to their country, who silence good ministers, and stop the means of grace. What bonds will hold those who have no reverence for God's word? Sinners cannot expect to rest in a land they have polluted. You shall not only be obliged to depart out of this land, but it shall destroy you. Apply this to our state in this present world. There is corruption in the world through lust, and we should keep at a distance from it. It is not our rest: it was designed for our passage, but not for our portion; our inn, but not our home; here we have no continuing city; let us therefore arise and depart, let us seek a continuing city above. Since they will be deceived, let them be deceived. Teachers who recommend self-indulgence by their doctrine and example, best suit such sinners.
vv12-13
These verses may refer to the captivity of Israel and Judah. But the passage is also a prophecy of the conversion of the Jews to Christ. The Lord would not only bring them from captivity, and multiply them, but the Lord Jesus would open their way to God, by taking upon him the nature of man, and by the work of his Spirit in their hearts, breaking the fetters of Satan. Thus he has gone before, and the people follow, breaking, in his strength, through the enemies that would stop their way to heaven.
Key Words
הוֹי: oh!
חָשַׁב: properly, to plait or interpenetrate, i.e. (literally) to weave or (generally) to fabricate; figuratively, to plot or contrive (usually in a malicious sense); hence (from the mental effort) to think, regard, value, compute
אָוֶן: strictly nothingness; also trouble. vanity, wickedness; specifically an idol
פָּעַל: to do or make (systematically and habitually), especially to practise
רַע: bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral)
מִשְׁכָּב: a bed (figuratively, a bier); abstractly, sleep; by euphemism, carnal intercourse
בֹּקֶר: properly, dawn (as the break of day); generally, morning
אוֹר: illumination or (concrete) luminary (in every sense, including lightning, happiness, etc.)
עָשָׂה: to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest application
כִּי: (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below); often largely modified by other particles annexed
Cross References
Micah 2The historical prototype of coveting and taking a neighbor's ancestral vineyard and house by violence.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Parallel woe against those who join house to house and field to field to dispossess others.
Supported by JFB
Explicates the phrase 'power of their hand' as having the might but not the moral right.
Supported by John Calvin, JFB
Verbal link to the Hebrew idiom of having power in one's hand to execute action.
Supported by John Calvin, JFB
Parallel indictment of Israel commanding the prophets not to prophesy.
Supported by JFB
Theological fulfillment of 'this is not your rest' applied to the believer's heavenly rest.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Prophetic parallel of Israel and Judah gathered under one head who passes before them.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Deplores the wicked who deliberately devise mischief on their beds during the night.
Supported by John Calvin
The foundational law of land tenure forbidding the permanent alienation of ancestral heritages.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Confirms that the day of judgment and captivity is indeed 'an evil time'.
Supported by JFB
Internal book connection where the inheritance of Israel is transferred to an heir/conqueror.
Supported by JFB
Illuminates the literal meaning of 'prophesy' as 'dropping' words or preaching.
Supported by JFB
Messianic connection where the Shepherd-King goes before His sheep and they follow Him.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Parallels God's judgment against 'this evil family' which faces captivity and death.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Contrast to the original measuring out of the land by lot for the congregation.
Supported by JFB