Micah 2:1-13

The Sins that Bring Ruin

Micah 2:3, as dealing with the same subject, should be read together.

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 (Micah 2:1; Micah 2:8; Micah 3:1; Micah 3:9). Therefore these shall not continue (Micah 2:3), and even Jerusalem shall be plowed as a field (Micah 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 (Micah 2:6). 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 (Micah 2:12).

2. Cp. 1 Kings 21 for the Israelite's attachment to his heritage.