Micah 2:9

The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away my glory for ever. THE WOMEN OF MY PEOPLE HAVE YE CAST OUT FROM THEIR PLEASANT HOUSES - i:e., the widows of the men slain by you () ye cast out from their homes, which had been their delight, and seize on them for yourselves. FROM THEIR CHILDREN - i:e., from the orphans of the widows. HAVE YE TAKEN AWAY MY GLORY - namely, their substance and raiment, which, being the fruit of God's blessing on the young, reflected God's glory. Thus Israel's crime was not merely robbery, but sacrilege. Their sex did not save the women, nor their age the children, from violence. FOREVER - there was no repentance. They persevered in sin. The pledged garment was to be restored to the poor before...

He proceeds with the same subject, that they refrained from no acts of injustice. It was indeed a proof of extreme barbarity not to spare women and children, for they are both weak and helpless. Their sex exempts women from violence, and their age, children. (88) Even in wars, women, and also children, escape in safety. We hence see that the Prophet, by stating a part for the whole, proves here that the people had addicted themselves to cruelty really barbarous; they were not restrained from exercising it, no, not even on women and children. Since it was so, it follows, that their boast of being the chosen people was vain and fallacious. _House of delights _he ascribes to the women who, being the weaker sex, prefer being at home and in the shade, rather than going abroad. The more necessary it was that their recesses should remain safe to them. Now, what was taken away from the children,...

6-11 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 dece...

Verse 9. _THE WOMEN OF MY PEOPLE_] Ye are the cause of the women and their children being carried into captivity-separated from their pleasant habitations, and from my temple and ordinances-and from the blessings of the covenant, which it is my _glory_ to give, and theirs to receive. These two verses may probably relate to the war made on Ahaz by Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel. They fell suddenly upon the Jews; killed in one day _one_ _hundred and twenty thousand_, and took _two hundred thousand_ captive; and carried away much spoil. Thus, they _rose up against_ _them as enemies_, when there was peace between the two kingdoms; spoiled them of their goods, carried away _men, women_, and _children_, till, at the remonstrances of the prophet _Oded_, they were released. See 2 Chronicles 28:6, c. Micah lived in the days...

THE WOMEN OF MY PEOPLE HAVE YE CAST OUT FROM THEIR PLEASANT HOUSES - (literally, from her pleasant house,) each from her home. These were probably the widows of those whom they had stripped. Since the houses were their’s, they were widows; and so their spoilers were at war with those whom God had committed to their special love, whom He had declared the objects of His own tender care, “the widows and the fatherless.” The widows they “drove vehemently forth”, as having no portion in the inheritance which God had given them, as God had driven out their enemies before them, each “from her pleasant house,” the home where she had lived with her husband and children in delight and joy. FROM (OFF) THEIR (YOUNG) CHILDREN HAVE YE TAKEN AWAY MY GLORY - Primarily, the glory, comeliness, was the fitting apparel which God had given them (as...

EXPOSITION MICAH 2:1 § 6. _The prophet justifies his threat by recounting the sins of which the grandees and guilty._ MICAH 2:1 The prophet, himself one of the people, first inveighs against the sins of injustice and oppression of the poor. DEVISE … WORK … PRACTISE. A gradation. They are not led into these sins by others; they themselves conceive the evil purpose in their own heart; then they prepare and mature their scheme by reflection; then they proceed to execute it. Work evil; _i.e._ prepare the means for carrying out their conception (comp Isaiah 41:4). UPON THEIR BEDS. At night, the natural time for reflection (comp.

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 referred to, the people of Israel carried captive of their brethren two hundred thousand women, and brought them to Samaria, 2 Chronicles 28:8. Some understand this of divorce, which those men were the cause of, either by committing adultery with them, which was a just reason for their husband's divorcing them; or by frequenting their houses, which caused suspicion and jealousy: FROM THEIR CHILDREN HAVE YE TAKEN AWAY MY GLORY FOR EVER; that which God would have had glory from, and they would have given it to him on account of; as their being brought up in a religious way; the

CHAPTER 2 _ 1. The guilt and punishment of Israel (Micah 2:1) _ 2. The future restoration (Micah 2:12) Micah 2:1. In the first two verses the special sins of Israel are mentioned, the same as in Amos--idolatry, covetousness and oppression. Therefore punishment is to fall upon them. There would be a doleful lamentation: “We be utterly spoiled: he changeth the portion of my people; how does he take it away from me!” Their fields would be divided. Nor did they listen to the true prophets; they gave ear to the false prophets who flattered them. It is interesting to note that the sentence, “Prophesy ye not, thus they prophesy,” literally translated is, “Do not sputter, thus they sputter.” They did not give out the

SOCIAL INJUSTICE AND ITS PENALTY. The prophet denounces those for whom might is right (Psalms 36:4; and work evil seems a thoughtless scribal addition), who acquire property by illegal or inequitable process (Isaiah 5:8). Against such plans Yahweh declares His own to bring this family (_i.e._ Israel as a whole, Amos 3:1) under the foreign yoke (Jeremiah 27:12). A lament shall be made over Israel, whose land shall be given to the heathen (Micah 2:4, _mg._ 1; but text is doubtful here, and often to end of...

FOR EVER: i.e. not to be restored for the rest of their lives....