Bible Commentaries

Mic 2:1-13.

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.

1. 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"

(Ps 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

Ge 31:29; Pr 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.

2. Parallelism, "Take by violence," answers to "take away"; "fields" and "houses," to "house" and "heritage" (that is, one's land).

3. against this family--against the nation, and especially against those reprobated 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"

(Mt 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

Am 5:13; Eph 5:16).

4. one take up a parable against you--that is, Some of your foes shall do so, taking in derision from your own mouth your "lamentation," namely, "We be spoiled," &c.

lament with a doleful lamentation--literally, "lament with a lamentation of lamentations." Hebrew, naha, nehi, nihyah, the repetition representing the continuous and monotonous wail.

he hath changed the portion of my people--a charge of injustice against Jehovah. He transfers to other nations the sacred territory assigned as the rightful portion of our people

(Mic 1:15).

turning away he hath divided our fields--Turning away from us to the enemy, He hath divided among them our fields. CALVIN, as the Margin, explains, "Instead of restoring our territory, He hath divided our fields among our enemies, each of whom henceforward will have an interest in keeping what he hath gotten: so that we are utterly shut out from hope of restoration." MAURER translates as a noun, "He hath divided our fields to a rebel," that is, to the foe who is a rebel against the true God, and a worshipper of idols. So "backsliding," that is, backslider

(Jer 49:4).

English Version gives a good sense; and is quite tenable in the Hebrew.

5. Therefore--resumed from

Mic 2:3.

On account of your crimes described in

Mic 2:1, 2.

thou--the ideal individual ("me,"

Mic 2:4),

representing the guilty people in whose name he spoke.

none that . . . cast a cord by lot--none who shall have any possession measured out.

in the congregation of the Lord--among the people consecrated to Jehovah. By covetousness and violence

(Mic 2:2)

they had forfeited "the portion of Jehovah's people." This is God's implied answer to their complaint of injustice

(Mic 2:4).

6. Prophesy ye not, say they--namely, the Israelites say to the true prophets, when announcing unwelcome truths. Therefore God judicially abandons them to their own ways: "The prophets, by whose ministry they might have been saved from shame (ignominious captivity), shall not (that is, no longer) prophesy to them"

(Isa 30:10; Am 2:12; 7:16).

MAURER translates the latter clause, "they shall not prophesy of such things" (as in

Mic 2:3-5,

these being rebellious Israel's words); "let them not prophesy"; "they never cease from insult" (from prophesying insults to us). English Version is supported by the parallelism: wherein the similarity of sound and word implies how exactly God makes their punishment answer to their sin, and takes them at their own word. "Prophesy," literally, "drop"

(De 32:2; Eze 21:2).

7. O thou . . . named the house of Jacob--priding thyself on the name, though having naught of the spirit, of thy progenitor. Also, bearing the name which ought to remind thee of God's favors granted to thee because of His covenant with Jacob.

is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?--Is His compassion contracted within narrower limits now than formerly, so that He should delight in your destruction (compare

Ps 77:7-9; Isa 59:1, 2)?

are these his doings?--that is, Are such threatenings His delight? Ye dislike the prophets' threatenings

(Mic 2:6):

but who is to blame? Not God, for He delights in blessing, rather than threatening; but yourselves

(Mic 2:8)

who provoke His threatenings [GROTIUS]. CALVIN translates, "Are your doings such as are prescribed by Him?" Ye boast of being God's peculiar people: Do ye then conform your lives to God's law?

do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly--Are not My words good to the upright? If your ways were upright, My words would not be threatening (compare

Ps 18:26; Mt 11:19; Joh 7:17).

8. Your ways are not such that I can deal with you as I would with the upright.

Even of late--literally, "yesterday," "long ago." So "of old." Hebrew, "yesterday"

(Isa 30:33);

"heretofore," Hebrew, "since yesterday"

(Jos 3:4).

my people is risen up as an enemy--that is, has rebelled against My precepts; also has become an enemy to the unoffending passers-by.

robe with the garment--Not content with the outer "garment," ye greedily rob passers-by of the ornamental "robe" fitting the body closely and flowing down to the feet [LUDOVICUS DE DIEU]

(Mt 5:40).

as men averse from war--in antithesis to (My people) "as an enemy." Israel treats the innocent passers-by, though "averse from war," as an enemy" would treat captives in his power, stripping them of their habiliments as lawful spoils. GROTIUS translates, "as men returning from war," that is, as captives over whom the right of war gives the victors an absolute power. English Version is supported by the antithesis.