Micah 2

Trouble is coming to those who think up wrong plans and work out evil while lying in bed! As soon as it is light in the morning, they go do it, because they have the power to do it.

1Woe 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.

Note"Woe" in the King James is not a mild word. It renders the cry raised over the dead at a funeral, which the prophets borrowed to announce that a group is as good as finished.

2They want other people's fields, and they take them by force. They want houses, and they take those too. So they crush a man and his household, and rob a man of the land handed down to him.

2And they covet 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.

NoteThe "heritage" (inheritance) was a family's ancestral plot of farmland, assigned to that household when Israel settled the land and meant to stay in the family permanently; Israelite law treated it as something that could be leased in hard times but not permanently bought away. Seizing it did not just impoverish a man, it erased his family's standing.

3So this is what the LORD says: "Look, I am planning trouble against this family, and you will not be able to pull your necks out from under it. You will not walk around proudly, because it will be a bad time."

3Therefore 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 is evil.

Note"You will not be able to pull your necks out from under it" pictures a yoke, the wooden bar strapped across the necks of oxen so they cannot get free of the plow. The "family" here is the whole nation, spoken of as one extended household, the same group whose family lands verse 2 says are being stolen.

4On that day people will make up a saying to mock you. They will sing a bitter song of grief and say, "We are completely ruined! He has handed my people's share to someone else. See how he has taken it away from me! He turns away and divides our fields among others."

4In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, 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.

NoteA funeral lament was a formal, patterned song of grief sung over the dead; here it is sung over people still alive, and sung by their enemies as a taunt. "Portion" and "share" mean the measured allotment of land each family held. The last line is genuinely unclear in Hebrew: the fields are handed either to "traitors" or to "rebels," or simply divided up by the one taking them away.

5So you will have no one in the LORD's assembly to stretch out the measuring line and divide land by lot.

5Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the LORD.

NoteLand was distributed by casting lots and then measured out with a knotted rope or cord stretched across the ground, the way Israel's territory was first divided among the tribes. The "assembly of the LORD" was the formal gathering of the people where such allotments were settled. To have no one there casting the line means being written out of the land altogether.

6"Do not prophesy," they say to the prophets. "They must not prophesy about such things; shame will never catch up with us."

6Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy: they shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not take shame.

NoteThe Hebrew verb used for "prophesy" here literally means to drip or let words fall, and it is repeated through the verse in a jabbing wordplay that English cannot reproduce. The second half of the verse is among the hardest lines in the book; translations differ over whether it is the prophets who "will not take shame" or the people saying disgrace will never reach them.

7You who are called the house of Jacob, should it be asked, "Has the LORD's Spirit run short of patience? Are these the kinds of things he does?" Do my words not do good to the person who lives honestly?

7O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD straitened? are these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?

NoteThe "house of Jacob" is the nation of Israel, named for the ancestor from whom the tribes traced their descent. The King James "straitened" means narrowed or cut short, here, of patience running out.

8But lately my people have risen up like an enemy. You strip the robe and the clothing off people who walk by feeling safe, people who want nothing to do with fighting.

8Even 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 averse from war.

NoteThe outer robe was a person's blanket as well as their coat. Israelite law said that if it were taken as security for a debt it had to be handed back before nightfall, because the owner had nothing else to sleep under. The last phrase is uncertain in Hebrew: it describes either peaceful passers-by who want nothing to do with fighting, or men coming home from battle.

9You drive the women of my people out of their pleasant homes. From their children you take away my glory forever.

9The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away my glory for ever.

Note"My glory" translates a word meaning honor, weight, or splendor. What exactly is taken from the children is disputed, most likely their share in the land and the standing that went with it, which once lost could not be recovered.

10Get up and go, because this is not your resting place. It is unclean, and it will destroy you with a terrible destruction.

10Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction.

NoteThe land Israel occupied was described as the "rest" or resting place God had given the people after their wandering. "Get up and go" is therefore an eviction notice: exile. "Unclean" is a ritual term, the land is treated as contaminated by what has been done on it, and so unfit to live in.

11If a man full of wind and lies came and said, "I will prophesy to you about wine and strong drink," he would be just the prophet for this people.

11If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.

NoteThe Hebrew word for "spirit" also means "wind," and the phrase plays on both: a man full of hot air passing himself off as a man full of the Spirit. "Strong drink" is a fermented drink made from something other than grapes, such as barley or dates; promising wine and strong drink means promising good harvests and easy times.

12Jacob, I will surely gather all of you. I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel, the people who are left. I will put them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in the middle of its fold, a crowd loud with the noise of many people.

12I 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.

NoteThe "remnant" is a standing term in the prophets for the portion of a people left alive after a disaster. "Bozrah" in the King James is a place name in Edom known for its sheep, but the same Hebrew letters can be read as an ordinary word for a sheep pen, which is how most modern translations take it.

13The one who breaks the way open goes up ahead of them. They break through the gate and go out through it. Their king passes on ahead of them, with the LORD at their head.

13The 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.

Note"The breaker" is the one who smashes an opening, the image is of a penned flock bursting out through the gate of the fold, led by whoever breaks it open first.