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, Micah 2:1; therefore the Lord... [ Continue Reading ]
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 i... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY COVET FIELDS, AND TAKE [THEM] BY VIOLENCE,.... The fields of their poor neighbours, which lie near them, and convenient for them; they wish they were theirs, and they contrive ways and means to get them into their possession; and if they cannot get them by fair means, if they cannot persuad... [ Continue Reading ]
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... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THAT DAY SHALL [ONE] TAKE UP A PARABLE AGAINST YOU,.... Making use of your name, as a byword, a proverb, a taunt, and a jeer; mocking at your calamities and miseries: or, "concerning you" c; take up and deliver out a narrative of your troubles, in figurative and parabolical expressions; which Kim... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE THOU SHALT HAVE NONE THAT SHALL CAST A CORD BY LOT,.... This confirms what was before delivered in a parabolical way, and as a lamentation; and is spoken either to the false prophet, as Kimchi; who should not be, nor have any posterity to inherit by lot the land of Israel; or to those oppr... [ Continue Reading ]
PROPHESY YE NOT, [SAY THEY TO THEM THAT] PROPHESY,.... Or "drop not" h; such terrible words, such menacing things; let them not flow from your lips with such profusion and abundance; cease from speaking in the name of the Lord, if we can hear nothing else but sharp reproofs, and severe judgments: or... [ Continue Reading ]
O [THOU THAT ART] NAMED THE HOUSE OF JACOB,.... Called after that great and good man, and reckoned the people of God, and have the character of being religious persons; but, alas! have but a name, and not the thing, and are the degenerate offspring of that famous patriarch: IS THE SPIRIT OF THE LOR... [ Continue Reading ]
EVEN OF LATE MY PEOPLE IS RISEN UP AS AN ENEMY,.... Or "yesterday" o; meaning a very little while before this prophecy, the people of Israel, those of the ten tribes, who were the people of God by profession, rose up as an enemy, not only to God and true religion, worshipping idols; but rather to th... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WOMEN OF MY PEOPLE HAVE YE CAST OUT FROM THEIR PLEASANT HOUSES,.... Not content to slay their husbands, they took their wives or widows captive, dispossessed them of their habitations, where they had lived delightfully with their husbands and children; so we find that, at the time before referre... [ Continue Reading ]
ARISE YE, AND DEPART,.... That is, out the land; do not think of a continuance in it, but expect a removal from it; prepare for captivity and exile; look for it every moment, to hear it said to you, arise, and be gone from hence; for, since you have drove others out of their inheritances and possess... [ Continue Reading ]
IF A MAN WALKING IN THE SPIRIT AND FALSEHOOD DO LIE,.... Who pretends to be a prophet, and a spiritual man, and to be under the inspiration and influence of the Spirit of God, but utters nothing but lies and falsehoods; or who is actuated by a spirit of falsehood and lying; or, as in the margin, "wa... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL SURELY ASSEMBLE, O JACOB, ALL OF THEE,.... These words are either the words of the false prophet continued, that prophesied of wine and strong drink, as Aben Ezra; promising great plenty and prosperity, and that the remnant of the ten tribes carried captive by Tiglathpileser should be returne... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BREAKER UP IS COME UP BEFORE THEM,.... Not the enemy, either the Assyrian or Chaldean army, or any part thereof, going up before the rest, breaking down the walls of the city, either of Samaria or Jerusalem, so making way for entrance therein; nor Zedekiah, as Joseph Kimchi, who made his escape... [ Continue Reading ]