Micah 2:3

3 Therefore thus says the LORD: behold, against ¹this family I am devising disaster,^[a] from which you cannot remove your necks, and you ²shall not walk haughtily, ³for it will be a time of disaster.

Micah 2:3 Meaning and Commentary

Micah 2:3

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 evil of punishment against the whole nation of Israel, the ten tribes particularly, among whom these sins greatly prevailed; even an invasion of their land by the Assyrians, and the carrying of them captive from it into foreign parts: from which ye shall not remove your necks;
that is, they should not be able to deliver themselves from it; they would not be able to stop the enemy in his progress, having entered their land; nor oblige him to break up the siege of their city, before which he would sit, and there continue till he had taken it; and being carried captive by him, they would never be able to free themselves from the yoke of bondage put upon them, and under which they remain unto this day. The allusion is to beasts slipping their necks out of the collar or yoke put upon them: these sons of Belial had broke off the yoke of God's commandments, and now he will, put another yoke upon them, they shall never be able to cast off until the time of the restitution of all things, when all Israel shall be saved: neither shall ye go haughtily;
as they now did, in an erect posture, with necks stretched out, and heads lifted up high, and looking upon others with scorn and contempt; but hereafter it should be otherwise, their heads would hang down, their countenances be dejected, and their backs bowed with the burdens upon them: for this time [is] evil;
very calamitous, afflictive, and distressing; and so not a time for pride and haughtiness, but for dejection and humiliation; see ( Ephesians 5:16 ) .

Micah 2:3 In-Context

1 Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand.

2 They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.

3 Therefore thus says the LORD: behold, against this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of disaster.

4 In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you and moan bitterly, and say, "We are utterly ruined; he changes the portion of my people; how he removes it from me! To an apostate he allots our fields."

5 Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot in the assembly of the LORD.

Cross References

• 1. [Jeremiah 8:3; Amos 3:1, 2]
• 2. [Isaiah 2:11, 17]
• 3. Amos 5:13

Footnotes

• [a]. The same Hebrew word can mean evil or disaster, depending on the context