Micah 2

Micah 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" ( Psalms 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 Genesis 31:29 , Proverbs 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 reprobates in Micah 2:1 Micah 2:2 .
I devise an evil--a happy antithesis between God's dealings and the Jews dealings ( Micah 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" ( Matthew 11:29 Matthew 11:30 ), shall feel His iron yoke. 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 Amos 5:13 , Ephesians 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 ( Micah 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 ( Jeremiah 49:4 ). English Version gives a good sense; and is quite tenable in the Hebrew.

5. Therefore--resumed from Micah 2:3 . On account of your crimes described in Micah 2:1 Micah 2:2 .
thou--the ideal individual ("me," Micah 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 ( Micah 2:2 ) they had forfeited "the portion of Jehovah's people." This is God's implied answer to their complaint of injustice ( Micah 2:4 ).