Micah 2

Micah 2:1-5

In this chapter we have, 1. The foes with which the people of Israel are charged, unattended and oppression, fraudulent and violent practices, ver. 1, 2. Dealing hard-soft, even with misery and children, and other harmless people, ver. 8, 9. Oppenheim of God’s prophets, ver. 6, 7. and designing in false prophets, ver. 11, 2. The judgments with which they are threatened, that they should be humbled, impoverished, ver. 3, 4, 5. and banished, ver. 10, 3. Greatest promises of comfort for them in the Messiah, ver. 12, 13. And this is the foes and judge of most of the chapters of this and other prophecies.

1. WO to them ’that devise iniquity, and ‘work evil upon their beds: when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand. 2. And ’they cover fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. 3. Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks, neither shall ye go haughtily: ‘for this time it evil. 4. ¶ In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and lay, We be utterly spoiled: ‘he hath changed the portion of my people: how hath he removed it from me? turning away, he hath divided our fields. 5. Therefore thou shalt have none that shall ‘call a cord by lot in the congregation of the LORD.

It is true both of nations and individuals, that they would never have been sufferers, if they had not first been sinners.

1. The foes of this people are brought to light. With deep contrivance, even on their beds, they planned their wicked designs; and having in the day cast their greedy eyes on some field or house which lay convenient for them, they devised how

Before Ch I Am, v. 13. ¶ Heb. A presentation of lamentation. ¶ Chap. I. ¶ Qe. Inflated of retheory. ¶ Dom. 1. 1. ¶ 9. Before Christ

to dispossess the owner, and, like Ahab, seize the heritage: and, eager to put their schemes in execution, no sooner does the morning break, than they are in halfe to be at their evil work; and having the power in their hands, stick at no oppression, fraud, or injustice, to accomplish their designs, exerts about the miseries they may entail upon the unhappy families of those who fall the victims of their covetousness. (1.) Where inordinate love of gain possesses the heart, the very feelings of humanity are often banished. (2.) The more design and deliberation there is in sin, the more exceeding sinful it becomes. (3.) They who abuse their power to oppression, will find a greater than they to espouse the cause of the injured.

2. God threatens them with condign punishment. They flattered themselves they could as easily escape the curse, as they had broken the commands of God, and haughtily looked down on their inferiors, and despised the warnings of the prophets; but God will docile on and agreat them, the Asyrian invasion, from which they cannot remove their souls; and in this time of evil, distress, and perplexity, the lofty looks of the proud shall be brought low; for pride will surely sooner or later have a fall, v. 3. To such misery would they be then reduced, that they would be a proverb in the mouth of every beholder; inflicted by their enemies, and by their friends bitterly lamented; the general cry will be, We are utterly spoiled; their persons captives; their substance plundered; their land possessed by strangers; their portion changed, and given into the hands of the heathen. Turning away, he hath avoided our fields; either God in anger hath turned from them, and given them up to the spirit; or the Asyrian conqueror, before he retired, divided their land among others; so that now they should neither have the country to divide, as in the days of Joshua, nor people to inhabit it, nor a congregation of the Lord, wherein to call the lot before him. (1.) What is got by fraud, will usually be no abiding possession. (2.) There is a righteous God, who will shortly deal with proud oppressors according to their defects.

Heb. 1c. 2 Jer. 1c. 3. Or, walk with the word, and be fully.

6. Prophets ye not, say they to them that prophets: they shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not take shame. 7. O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD strained? are these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly? 8. Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy: ye pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by securely, as men averle from war. 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. 10. Arise ye, and depart, for this is not your * rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy you even with a sore destruction. 11. If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood, do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine, and of throng drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.

Micah 2:6-11

They who chuse their own delusions, are justly given up to them. The sins and punishments of this people exactly correspond.

1. Their persecution of the prophets is punished by depriving them of their faithful ministers, and abandoning them to their own inventions. Prophets not, say they to them that prophets; they could not bear their harsh admonitions, nor patiently bear the judgments they denounced, and therefore enjoined them silence. Thus they who will not be reformed, hate to be reproved, and still seek to silence the faithful ministers who will not suffer them to go on quietly in their iniquities, but denounce those terrors of the Lord which disturb their repose. Some read the words Prophets not, an addressed to the true prophets; but prophets ye, the false prophets, who flattered them in their iniquities: such teachers they chuse, as with lies and falsehood lulled them asleep, promising them peace, though they added drunkenness to thrift, the companions or encourages of their wickedness; and though they abused their blessings so vilely, prophesying of wine and strong drink, the best news in a drunkard’s ears; he shall be the prophet of this people. For such abominable conduct God expostulates with them, O thou that art named the house of Jacob, glorying in their descent from this patriarch; is the Spirit of the Lord threatened? will their prohibition stop God’s Spirit? and when he speaks, can the prophets forbear? Or will they limit him to whom of peace, and restrain him from foretelling the judgments they provoked? Are they his doings? does such conduct become the house of Jacob? or, is this like God’s people? or, doth God delight in vengeance? No: they forced him to the strange work. Do not my words, such he, do good to him that suddenly prophesy? If they enjoy not the blessing, they have only themselves to blame, who by their impenitence put good things from them. For those things therefore God gives them up to their own delusions, and bids his prophets be silent. They shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not take shame; either that the prophets

may not expose themselves to the insults they had met with; or that they should rejoice the people on more, who, as they had chosen, v. 11. lying prophets as their sin, shall be cursed with them as their plague, and a heavier one cannot light upon them. (1.) They who are vile themselves, chuse those for teachers who most resemble them, and from whom they leath fear reproof. (2.) None hate God’s word, but those who walk contrary thereto: the upright delight in it, and adore the justice of the wrath therein revealed, as well as the riches of the grace. (3.) Many are happy when their ministers who disturbed them are removed or silenced, not knowing the wrath and reprobacy which is herein contained.

2. Their oppression shall be punished with captivity. Even if late my people is risen up as an enemy; as when the Israelites fell upon their brethren, a Chron. xxviii. 6. or they grew more and more oppressive. To pull off the robe with the garment; stripping the poor quite naked, and this without the half provocation; from their own past by severely, little suspecting such violence; as men averle from war, preamble themselves, they thought to pass unmolested. Nay, to such a pitch of inhumanity they advanced, that they spared not helpless women and children, plundering their pleasant houses; and from their defenceless children have ye taken away my glory for ever; enslaving them, and killing them to the brethren; thus depriving them of all the blessings of God’s worship for ever, and robbing him of his glory. But God will give them according to their deeds: the oppressors shall in their turn be oppressed. Arise ye, and depart; prepare for captivity; for this is not your rest: you flattered yourselves with an abiding munition here, but God hath decreed the contrary. Because it is polluted, it shall destroy you even with a sore destruction; the land shall shake them out, as the Canadians of old, and the Chaldeans turned shall spread dreadful ravages among them, the just punishment of their cruelty and oppression. (1.) To oppose the fatherless and widows is peculiarly criminal, and God will surely be the avenger of their wrongs. (2.) This would is not our rest; we must not think of it here below: it is polluted, and every thing around us is ready to communicate deliement. We must arise and depart, weaned from it in abscission, and passing through it as a pilgrim through a strange land, careful to avoid the pollutions that are in it, and hathering on to our only true rest, which is above with God in glory.

3. ¶ I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee: I will surely gather the remnant of Israel, I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. 13. The breaker is come up before them, they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it, and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them.

v. 12, 13. God still in judgment remembers mercy. The chapter closes with a gracious promise of the adored Messiah.

The Lord will assemble the scattered remnant of his people, and unite them in one glorious fold, where they shall together rejoice aloud under their divine Shepherd’s care; which was accomplished when by the preaching of the gospel God’s spiritual Israel were called into his church, and rejoiced in his salvation. The breaker is gone up before them, Christ Jesus, who hath born down all opposition from sin and Satan, and opened a way for his ransomed to pass unto, especially by his resurrection and ascension, leading their captivity captive: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it; made more than conquerors through his grace, and enabled triumphant to pass through the gate of death: and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord as the head of them. Jesus the captain of their salvation leading the way, opening the kingdom of heaven to all believers, and bringing many sons unto glory, even all that the Father hath given him, that hath which no man can number.

Some suppose this to be still a continued threatening, that they shall be assembled as sheep for the slaughter, and cry out in their distress; whilst the Assyrians, with their king at their head, under the divine guidance, shall enter by the breach into the city, and lead forth the people with their king captives to Babylon; and this sense is very suitable to the foregoing verses.