Micahchapter 2
13 verses · Micah · 750 to 686 BC · The Twelve
Key verse
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.
It stands in The breaker goes up before them, verses 12 to 13.
The chapter
Chapter summary
'Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds!': plotting by night and executing at dawn 'because it is in the power of their hand.' The specific crime is land theft: they covet fields and seize them, houses and take them away, evicting a man from his heritage. So God devises against that family an evil they cannot shrug off their necks. Their preachers order Micah to stop, and he answers: do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly? A prophet of wine and strong drink is the one they would welcome. Yet the chapter ends gathering the remnant like a flock, their king passing on before them.
Context
Prophecy · Micah · Micah overview
The world behind this chapter
Micah 2The history
Family land in Israel was not supposed to be for sale. Each clan held its portion as an inheritance from the conquest, marked by boundary stones, and the Law built in protections, a jubilee that returned land to its original family, and a nearest relative's right to buy it back. Naboth refusing to sell his vineyard to a king is the same principle in a story.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
What the chapter describes is the legal machinery being used to defeat that. Men lie awake devising the scheme, then covet fields and seize them, and houses and take them away, meaning foreclosure on debt, manipulated courts, and pressure on families who had a bad harvest. It was, in the strict sense, all above board.
The measuring line and the casting of lots in the assembly refer to how land was allotted in the first place. Micah's sentence is that the men who took land by the line will have the line used on them by a conqueror, and their portions divided among strangers.
The complaint that women are driven from their pleasant houses and children stripped of God's glory forever names the human end of the process: a widow with no land had no income, and children who lost the inheritance lost the only thing that made them part of the covenant community's economy.
What it meant to them
The men being accused had a reply, and Micah quotes it: do not preach, one should not preach of such things. Their argument was that disgrace would not overtake the house of Jacob, because they were God's people.
The kind of prophet they wanted is named exactly: if a man went about uttering wind and lies and said, I will preach to you of wine and strong drink, he would be the preacher for this people. It is one of the sharpest descriptions in Scripture of a congregation choosing its own teacher.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
Where the chapter sits
Micah 2 falls in Three judgment-and-hope cycles (chapters 1–7). Judgment on Samaria and Jerusalem (1–2); hope of the latter-day mountain (4); Bethlehem and the Ruler out of her (5); the LORD's controversy and ‘what doth the LORD require’ (6); hope closing with ‘who is a God like unto thee?’ (7).
The whole shape of Micah→The structure of this chapter
People1
Places1
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Woe to those who plan iniquity on their beds
1. (vv. 1-2)
Micah 2:1
“The prophet had declared that evil should come down on Samaria and Jerusalem for their sins. He had pronounced them sinners against God; he now speaks of their hard unlovingness toward man, as our Blessed Lord in the Gospel speaks of sins against Himself in His members, as the ground of the condemnation of the wicked. The time of warning is past. He speaks as in the person of the Judge, declaring the righteous judgments of God, pronouncing sentence on the hardened, but blessing on those who follow Christ.”
Micah 2:2
“They covet fields and houses, as Ahab did Naboth's vineyard. "Oh that such a one's field and house were mine! It lies convenient for me, and I would manage it better than he does; it is fitter for me than for him." 2.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 2:2
“And his house - His family, which by this means is left to poverty. And his heritage - And this is done against ancient right and possession, nay, in a case where God hath forbidden them to sell their heritage.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Woe to them that devise iniquity: The second chapter opens with a woe against premeditated crime: they devise iniquity on their beds and carry it out at first light because it is in the power of their hand, planning replacing impulse as the mark of settled sin. Verse 2 names the specific crime, land seizure, coveting fields and houses and taking them by violence from a man and his heritage, the inheritance a family held from the original tribal allotment. The commentators read the timing detail, plotted at night and executed at dawn, as evidence of an organized class of landed men rather than isolated theft.
2. (vv. 3-5)
Micah 2:3
“Against this family - God will devise evil against their family, as they devised evil against the family of their neighbours. Haughty - You have made others hang the head; so shall you now. Is evil - Full of miseries on the whole family of Jacob.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 2:3
“Such had been their habitual doings. They had done all this, he says, as one continuous act, up to that time. They were habitually devisers of iniquity, doers of evil. It was ever-renewed. By night they sinned in heart and thought; by day, in act. And so he speaks of it in the present. They do it. But, although renewed in fresh acts, it was one unbroken course of acting. And so he also uses the form, in which the Hebrews spoke of uninterrupted habits, They have coveted, they have robbed, they have taken. Now came God’s part.”
Micah 2:4
“Take up a parable against you - Your wickedness and your punishment shall be subjects of common conversation; and a funeral dirge shall be composed and sung for you as for the dead. The lamentation is that which immediately follows: We be utterly spoiled; and ends, Are these his doings? Mic 2:7.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 2:4
“So "backsliding," that is, backslider (Jer 49:4). English Version gives a good sense; and is quite tenable in the Hebrew.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Micah 2:5
“By covetousness and violence (Mic 2:2) they had forfeited "the portion of Jehovah's people." This is God's implied answer to their complaint of injustice (Mic 2:4).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
against this family do I devise an evil: The Lord answers the schemers in their own vocabulary, devising an evil against this family in exchange for the evil they devised, a measure-for-measure judgment the prophets use often. Verse 4 pictures the mockery that will follow, a doleful parable sung over the fallen landowners, we be utterly spoiled, our fields divided away from us by another, the very reversal they inflicted on their victims now inflicted on them. Verse 5 makes the loss permanent under the old land law: none shall cast a cord by lot to remeasure an inheritance in the congregation of the Lord, because the family holding it will be gone.
B. Do not prophesy, they say: a windy liar would suit them
1. (vv. 6-7)
Micah 2:7
“Also, bearing the name which ought to remind thee of God's favors granted to thee because of His covenant with Jacob. is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?--Is His compassion contracted within narrower limits now than formerly, so that He should delight in your destruction (compare Ps 77:7-9; Isa 59:1, 2)? are these his doings?--that is, Are such threatenings His delight?”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Micah 2:7
“What they are threatened with for this sin; God also will choose their delusions, and, (1.) They shall be deprived of the benefit of a faithful ministry. Since they say, Prophesy not, God will take them at their word, and they shall not prophesy to them; their sin shall be their punishment.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Micah 2:7
“BROTHERS AND SISTERS, what a stern rebuke to the people of Israel is contained in the title with which the Prophet addressed them—"O you that are named the House of Jacob"! It is as much as to say to them—"You wear the name, but you do not bear the character of Jacob." It is the Old Testament version of the New Testament saying, "You have a name to live and are dead." They gloried that they were the seed of Israel! They vaunted the peculiar privileges which came to them as the descendants of God's honored and chosen servant Jacob!”
Prophesy ye not: The false teachers and the landed men Micah has just accused answer him by trying to silence him, prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy, refusing to hear a word that will bring them shame. Verse 7 answers with a question rather than a threat, is the spirit of the Lord straitened, are these his doings, asking whether the Lord has changed or whether the people's own conduct has cut them off from the good his words were meant to do the upright. The commentators read the verse as Micah's own defense of true prophecy against a comfortable silence.
2. (vv. 8-9)
Micah 2:8
“GROTIUS translates, "as men returning from war," that is, as captives over whom the right of war gives the victors an absolute power. English Version is supported by the antithesis.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 2:8
“Is risen up - They have risen up, Israel against Judah, and Judah against Israel, and of late the tribes have conspired against one another; subjects against their kings, and great ones against the meaner sort.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Micah 2:9
“The women of my people--that is, the widows of the men slain by you (Mic 2:2) ye cast out from their homes which had been their delight, and seize on them for yourselves. from their children--that is, from the orphans of the widows. taken away my glory--namely, their substance and raiment, which, being the fruit of God's blessing on the young, reflected God's glory.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 2:9
“Cast out - You have turned out of their old habitations. From their children - You have turned their children out of their houses, and estates, which were secured by the law of God from any sale beyond the jubilee; yet you have confiscated them forever. My glory - Which was the glory of my bounty to them.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
my people is risen up as an enemy: The accusation sharpens into detail: a people who should know covenant loyalty instead behave as an enemy, stripping the robe from peaceable travelers as if plunder were owed them. Verse 9 turns to the most vulnerable, women driven from their pleasant houses and children stripped of my glory for ever, the commentators reading this glory as the inheritance and honor a family passed down, taken permanently rather than for a season. The reversal from chapter 1's national mourning to chapter 2's household cruelty shows the same sin working at every scale.
3. (v. 10)
Micah 2:10
“Arise ye, and depart - Prepare for your captivity; ye shall have no resting place here: the very land is polluted by your iniquities, and shall vomit you out, and it shall be destroyed; and the destruction of it shall be great and sore. Some think this is an exhortation to the godly, to leave a land that was to be destroyed so speedily.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Micah 2:10
“Let him who cannot fly like an eagle fly like a sparrow. Let him who cannot fly to heaven fly to the mountains. Let him flee before the valleys that are quickly destroyed by water. Let him pass over the mountains. Abraham's nephew passed over the mountain of Segor and was saved. But Lot's wife could not climb it, for she looked back in womanly fashion and lost her salvation. "Draw near the everlasting mountains," the Lord says through the prophet Micah, "arise from here, for this is not a rest for you by reason of uncleanness.”
Ambrose of Milan· written before 397· FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 5:31patristic
Micah 2:10
“Arise ye - Ye inhabitants of Israel, prepare for your departure out of this land. Your rest - Though it was given this people for a rest under God's wing; yet it was on condition of continued obedience. Polluted - With many, and great, and old sins.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Micah 2:10
“After threatenings of wrath, the chapter here concludes, as is usual in the prophets, with promises of mercy, which were in part fulfilled when the Jews returned out of Babylon, and had their full accomplishment in the kingdom of the Messiah.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Arise ye, and depart: The sentence falls in the land's own voice: arise and depart, for this is not your rest, the land itself polluted by the crimes just named and no longer able to hold the people who defiled it. The commentators connect the language to Leviticus 18's warning that the land vomits out a nation for its uncleanness, the same principle now applied to Israel as it was once warned against the Canaanites. A sore destruction closes the sentence, exile rather than a lesser correction.
4. (v. 11)
If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood: Micah draws the contrast sharpest here, a prophet of wind and lies who promises wine and strong drink would be welcomed as this people's prophet of choice. The commentators read wine and strong drink as a stand-in for an easy message, prosperity promised without repentance demanded, exactly the flattery Micah refuses to offer. The verse indicts not only the false prophet but the appetite that prefers him.
C. The breaker goes up before themvv. 12-13
I will surely assemble, O Jacob: The chapter turns from judgment to promise without warning, a pattern the Twelve use often, I will surely assemble Jacob, gather the remnant of Israel like sheep crowded into a fold, a noisy multitude restored rather than the scattered exiles of verse 10. Verse 13 pictures a breaker going up before them to open the way out, a leader clearing the path the flock follows, with their king passing before them and the Lord at their head. The commentators name the readings: some hear a historical leader opening the way home from exile, others hear the verse reaching toward the King the book names outright at 5:2, and the text itself does not choose between them.
Micah 2:12
“I will surely assemble - This is a promise of the restoration of Israel from captivity. He compares them to a flock of sheep rushing together to their fold, the hoofs of which make a wonderful noise or clatter. So when one hundred sheep run, eight hundred toes or divisions of these bifid animals make a clattering noise. This appears to be the image.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Micah 2:12
“As the sheep - ln great numbers. Their fold - Their own fold, where they are safe. The multitude of men - This was fulfilled in part, when the Jews returned out of Babylon, but more fully when Christ by his gospel gathered together in one, all the children of God that were scattered abroad.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Micah 2:12
“YOU will remember, dear Friends, from our reading last Sabbath morning, [Sermon #1952, The Holy Spirit—The need of the Age] in the second chapter of the Book of Micah, that the Prophet was delivering reproofs and rebukes against a sinful people, a people who tried to straiten the Spirit and silence the voice of prophecy and refused to listen to the messengers of God. He threatened them with deserved punishment from the Most High. To our surprise, in the very midst of the threat, he delivers a prediction brimming with mercy!”
Micah 2:13
“The breaker up is come up before them,.... Not the enemy, either the Assyrian or Chaldean army, or any part thereof, going up before the rest, breaking down the walls of the city, either of Samaria or Jerusalem, so making way for entrance therein; nor Zedekiah, as Joseph Kimchi, who made his escape through the wall broken down; nor the Maccabees, who were instruments of great salvation and deliverance to the Jews after the captivity, and before the coming of Christ.”
2 more voices on this verse
Micah 2:13
“The gate - The door of escape out of their captivity. No cities so strong, which the Assyrians shall not take and possess, and enter in through the gates. The Lord - Even Jehovah, as he was at the head of Israel, when he brought them out of Egypt.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Micah 2:13
“John was the breaker; he broke the ice, prepared the way of the Lord by the baptism of repentance; in him the gospel began; from his time the kingdom of heaven suffered violence; and so the Christian church is introduced, with Messiah the Prince before it, on the head of it, going forth conquering and to conquer.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
This page carries no textual note on Micah 2. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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