Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 21 July 2024
“Augustine, in his monumental classic [De civitate Dei contra paganos], divided mankind into two cities... ‘Two cities,’ he wrote, ‘have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self.” The earthly city glories in its own power, the heavenly city in the power of God... The earthly city, built on human depravity and weakness, is doomed to conflict and everlasting death; the heavenly, built on love and faith in a righteous and omnipotent God, lives in peace and can never pass away. God called Israel to become citizens of the heavenly; its majority chose the earthly. In the oracle of doom Micah announces that those who had ‘succeeded’ in the earthly city are about to lose their share in the heavenly.” ~Bruce Waltke, 2007 AD
Let’s hear what Micah had to say at the beginning of chapter 2: “Woe to those who plan iniquity and who work out evil while upon their beds. At the light of morning they act it out, because their hand is against God. For instance, they covet fields, so they steal them – houses too, and they take them away. Thus they extort a man and his house – both a man and his inheritance. Therefore, thus says Yahweh, “Look, I am planning against this clan something terrible – that is, something from which you’re not going to remove your necks; indeed, y’all aren’t going to walk arrogantly because it’s going to be a terrible time. During that day, a proverb will take-off against y’all, and it will lament a lamentation of what has been done; it will say, “We have been utterly devastated; the inheritance of my people is retracted. How He removes from my possession. Instead of returning our fields, He disposes the inheritance! Therefore there will not be a commissioner for you in the territorial lottery with the congregation of Yahweh.”
The first word in Micah chapter 2 alerts us that we are about to read a message of “Woe.” This Hebrew word doesn’t appear in the Old Testament until Isaiah1 and the prophets after him. Messages of woe also figure prominently in Jesus’ teachings in the gospels, and we see them pop up again in Revelation.
Why would God pronounce messages of woe at those particular times in history? I suggest that it is God’s pattern of providing warnings before acting in judgment.
God’s pattern is to choose a person and enter into a covenant with them (and their descendants) in which blessings are promised for living in a faithful relationship with God and curses are promised for being unfaithful to God.
But, being the fallen creatures that we are, God’s people inevitably wander off into unfaithfulness to God at some point, making themselves liable to God’s covenant curses.
But God is patient, so He doesn’t “lower the boom” on His people right away. He gives them time to repent and return to Him, but if they don’t do it on their own, He gives them warnings that He is about to strike in judgment and that they had better repent and get right with Him quickly.
And if they still don’t repent, then He brings chastisement.
Micah’s time was just such a time.
God had renewed His covenant with the descendants of Jacob through King David (Ps. 89:3)
and had been very patient with the Israelites under the kingship of David’s descendants for some 200 years, but now, God’s patience was nearing its end,
so God sent multiple witnesses – Isaiah, Micah, and others – to warn the people that, unless they repented of their unfaithfulness to God, punishment would come soon in the form of foreign conquerors.
cf. Woes in Isaiah 5:8-24 just before Samaria was conquered by Assyria: “ 8 Woe, those who extend house to house, they adjoin field to field until there is no more place, and you are made to dwell alone in the inner part of the land… 11 Woe to those who, early in the morning, pursue alcohol; after dusk wine inflames them... 18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin with cart ropes… 20 Woe to those who say to evil, "Good!" and to good, "Evil!" … 24 Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble, and flame withers the dry grass, their root will be like rottenness, and their flower will go up like dust...” (NAW)2
Habakkuk 2:6-19 wrote woes later on, just before Jerusalem was overthrown by Babylon: “… Woe to him who increases what is not his-- For how long-- And makes himself rich with loans? ... 9 Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house To put his nest on high… 18 What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it… Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, 'Awake!' To a mute stone, 'Arise!' And that is your teacher? …” (NASB)3
The same situation happened again 700 years later during the time of the Gospels:
God had renewed His covenant (Jer. 31) with the exiles who were returning from Babylon to rebuild Israel,
and God had given them hundreds of years of patience,
but when Jesus came, God’s patience was nearing an end, and judgment was soon to come in the form of the Roman army if the Jews did not repent, so Jesus warned the unfaithful Jews with His woes.
Matthew 23:13-33 "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you are shutting the kingdom of the heavens in front of men, for you are neither entering yourselves, nor are you allowing those who are inbound to enter. And woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because y'all eat up the houses of the widows, while pretending to pray for a long [time]; on account of this, y'all will receive extra condemnation. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you are circumnavigating the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte, and whenever that happens, y'all are making him a child of hell – twice as much as you are... Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites... However can you escape the sentence of hell?” (NAW)
And there are other woe lists in Luke 6, Luke 11, and Rev. 18.
I believe that woes are God’s warnings that the window of opportunity to repent and get right with God before He brings judgment is closing, and that’s what’s going on in Micah’s day.
Nowadays, we don’t have prophets in the same way that they did in Bible times, but, let me tell you, if your parents, or your church elders, or some other godly man or woman pulls you aside and warns you against doing something foolish and exhorts you to seek God and follow what the Bible says, you’d better pay attention. That’s God giving you a warning before He brings punishment into your life.
Remember in chapter 1, God called His people down for idolatry – for breaking the first table of the law and not loving God with all their hearts. Now in chapter 2, God notes how they have also broken the second table of the law by not loving their neighbor as themselves. (Calvin)
Woe to those who think about/scheme/plan/devise4 iniquity/wickedness and who work out evil while upon their beds...
“Doubtless the time of night has been given to man entirely for rest… [so] it is an unbecoming thing and even monstrous , that he should in the meantime devise frauds, and guiles, and iniquities. For why does the Lord intend that we should rest, except that all evil things should rest also?” ~J. Calvin, 1559 AD
What does God tell us to do while we are in bed? Psalm 4:4-5 “...stop sinning! Speak into your heart upon your bed, and be still. Sacrifice sacrifices of righteousness and trust to Yahweh.” (NAW)
Micah’s warning, of course, applies to evil, wicked people who live every waking and sleeping moment in conscious rebellion against God. But this cycle of dreaming up a plan and carrying it out is also characteristic of folks who, while they may not hate God, are in bondange to some kind of addictive sin.
You may find that you have gotten trapped in a cycle of doing something wrong that is so exciting and feels so good that, even though you believe it is wrong, you find yourself trying to figure out how to get away with doing it again and again and again.
God says here that if you are living out that cycle of addictive sin, this is not o.k.; it’s not just something to live with and find a way to cope with. Whether or not you feel like you are in rebellion against God and headed for destruction, you are, and you need to do whatever it takes to break the cycle, including mourning over your sin like we discussed in chapter 1.
Now, it is not unusual even for a Christian to think a bad thought while in bed every once in a while. On the one hand, even one bad thought is enough of a sin to send you to hell if you are not in Christ, so we need to take all our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ, but on the other hand, if this is not the pattern of your life – if you don’t spend every night scheming up how to do sinful things, and spend every day carrying out those plans, then this woe isn’t for you, so don’t let it tumble you into despair.
The last phrase in v.1 gets interpreted different ways in different versions because the Hebrew word el can either mean “power” or it can mean “God.”
For the first 1500 years of Christian history, all the Bibles read “their hand is against God,”
but, in the 1500’s, English5 Bibles changed to follow the Jewish tradition6 of interpreting it “to the power of their hand.”
Either interpretation works and can be supported by other scriptures, for instance:
Proverbs 3:27 “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in the power of your hand to do so.” (NKJV)
Job 15:24-25 “Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid… For he stretcheth out his hand against God…” (KJV)
The great 19th century Christian Old Testament commentator C.F. Keil brought the two meanings together when he translated it, “for their hand is for a god,” and commented that “their power passes as a god to them; they know of no higher power than their own arm.”
This attitude is humanistic and anti-God. When we focus on what we can do, we push God out of our thoughts. Celebrating the power of humanity is an expression of hostility toward God.
So, what sorts of bad things were Micah’s people plotting to do? The next few verses list particular things they did: First...
they covet fields, so they steal them – houses too, and they take them away. Thus they extort/rob/defraud/oppress a man and his house – both a man and his inheritance.
100 years before Micah, King Ahab and Queen Jezebel had falsely accused Naboth and put him to death in order to steal his vineyard. This apparently was not an unusual thing in Israel’s history.
I could spend quite a while detailing all the passages in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Amos7 that talk about the extortion and oppression that was going on around the time of Micah, but I’ll just quote one from Jeremiah 6:13 “[F]rom the least of them even to the greatest of them, Everyone is given to covetousness; And from the prophet even to the priest, Everyone deals falsely.” (NKJV)
Those outward acts of oppression and robbery, however, start in the heart with the act of coveting. To counteract this, God rounded out His 10 commandments with the command, “Do NOT covet.” (Ex. 20:14, Deut. 5:18) The sin of stealing must be stopped at the mental stage by replacing covetuousness with contented trust in God.
Hebrews 13:5 “Your lifestyle should be without fondness for money, contenting yourselves with the things that have come along, for He Himself has said, ‘I shall never let go of you, neither shall I ever forsake you.’” (NAW)
The emphasis in Micah 2:2&4 on the man’s “house” and “inheritance” being taken away when they stole the rights to his property connects back to the landholding system that God instructed the Israelites to practice (and we’ll see Micah come back around to that in v.5).
Under Moses and Joshua, each family in Israel was given a particular piece of land in the Promised Land, and they were told that it would always belong to their family.
If they ever had to sell it, the property would revert back to their family in the year of Jubilee, so they could never lose it permanently (Lev. 25).
So when these land-grabbers took possession of other families’ lands, they didn’t give the land back in the Jubilee year. They took the land permanently, cutting off the ability of these poor families to pass on their farms to their descendants and recover their farms when they had to sell them to pay off debt.
This was not just an Old Testament problem. We see it in the New Testament,
especially in the book of James: James 2:6 “Y'all, however, dishonored the destitute. Is it not those who are rich who extort y'all and themselves haul y'all into courts-of-law?” 4:2 “When y'all do not possess, y'all covet. When y'all are not able to obtain, y'all are envying and committing murder...” (NAW)
In Luke chapter 12, some guys came up to Jesus, asking Him to make their family split their inheritance fairly with them, and in v.15 He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” (NKJV, cf. Eph. 5:3) – and He followed that up with the parable of the man who stored up treasure for himself but was not rich toward God.
Today, we still have a problem with oppressive rulers who covet and steal:
Some of it is done by creating more and more fiat currency, spending more and more of it on projects which bring financial kickbacks to government leaders, and at the same time devaluing the buying power of everybody else’s money, basically stealing from our paychecks through the currency inflation process.
Some of this is done by bringing false accusations up in court against innocent persons,
or by passing laws that are designed to put political enemies out of business while benefitting the businesses of political allies.
The government can even use the power of eminent domain to force you off your own property and claim it for some other use. Banks can do it with their power of foreclosure.
When my great-grandfather emigrated to the United States to live on a farm that his older siblings had bought, the wealthy landowner who had sold it to them discovered a loophole in the law that allowed him to reclaim the property without returning the money, so he left my ancestors homeless and without capital to buy another farm, so my grandfather had to be a migrant worker. Probably a lot of immigrants have had similar experiences of being taken advantage of.
The proponents of modern social Marxism have run away with the idea of justice and given it a bad name by turning it into a humanistic system with all the arbitrariness and revenge and unfairness that inevitably comes from a man-based system.
But we mustn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Divine justice, according to God’s word, is still something that we should be concerned about, and any thing we do to defraud anyone else – to take advantage of them or treat them unfairly – whether premeditated and maliciously, or carelessly and unintentionally, still needs to be repented of. The New Testament commands us:
Ephesians 4:28 “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need…. 32 And be kind to one another...” (NKJV)
Colossians 4:1 “Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.” (NKJV)Ju
In verse 3, God uses the same word “plan/scheme/devise/חשב” that men do in v.1 to say in v.3, “Behold, I too am devising a plan.”
We humans think much of our ability to think and plan and do what we want, but we often make a great miscalculation: We think we’re the only ones making the plans, but we aren’t.
God is making His own set of plans, and it is His plans that are going to prevail, no matter how clever our plans were. And when we set ourselves against God by making plans based on our desires rather than praying “Let Your will be done,” we put ourselves crosswise with the Maker of the Universe. And when God starts making plans against you, you’re going to lose, and lose big-time.
Jeremiah 18:11 "Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, `Thus says the LORD: "Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good." (NKJV)
The reference in v.3 to their necks being trapped refers back to the covenant curses God made with Israel at the end of Deuteronomy8:
Deuteronomy 28:47-52 "Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young. And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you. They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the LORD your God has given you.” (NKJV)
Jeremiah 27:8ff explicitly says that this yoke which God would place on the necks of the rebellious Israelites was bondage to the king of Babylon, and we see the fulfillment of that in Lamentations 1:14 "The yoke of my transgressions was bound; They were woven together by His hands, And thrust upon my neck. He made my strength fail; The Lord delivered me into the hands of those whom I am not able to withstand.” (NKJV)
Why would God devise harm against His people and put their necks under a yoke of slavery? Because they were “haughty” and God hates pride. He wants His people to mature through hardship and discipline into the kind of humility that makes for wonderful fellowship with Him and other believers.
Isaiah 2:11-12 “The high eyes of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day. For Yahweh of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up and it shall be brought low;” (NAW, cf. 24:1-6)
James 4:6-10 “… God ‘organizes Himself against arrogant men, but it is to lowly ones that He gives grace.’ Therefore, start submitting yourselves to God... Sinners, start purifying hands, and double-minded ones, start sanctifying hearts! ...Let yourselves be humbled in the sight of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” (NAW)
v.4 introduces the words of a lament about the losses that Israel will sustain in God’s judgment.
This ties in with the mourning that Micah talked about in the second half of chapter 1 and which Jeremiah the “Weeping Prophet” later became famous for (Jer. 9:10).
In fact, Micah is prophecying here in v.4, that in about 150 years, the Bible book of Lamentations will be written, and indeed it was!
Perhaps Micah is also indicating that folks from other nations will join in taunting Israel for its sudden reversal under God’s judgment from being the oppressors with wealth and power to being the oppressed, as the Prophet Habbakkuk described in Habakkuk 2:6 "Will not all these take up a proverb against him, And a taunting riddle against him, and say, `Woe to him who increases What is not his how long? And to him who loads himself with many pledges?’” (NKJV)
The song that the Israelites will be singing is that of “utter devastation/ruin/destruction/spoil” and the loss of their “possessions” and “heritage.” Having robbed the poor of their own nation, they will now experience being defrauded themselves, in God’s justice (cf. Jer. 4).
Jeremiah 2:11 “Has a nation changed its gods, Which are not gods? But My people have changed their Glory For what does not profit… 6:12 “[So] their houses shall be turned over to others, Fields and wives together; For I will stretch out My hand Against the inhabitants of the land," says the LORD.” (NKJV)
Amos 7:16-17 “Now therefore, hear the word of the LORD: You say,`Do not prophesy against Israel, And do not spout against the house of Isaac.' Therefore thus says the LORD:`Your wife shall be a harlot in the city; Your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword; Your land shall be divided by survey line; You shall die in a defiled land; And Israel shall surely be led away captive From his own land.'"
Zechariah 14:1-2 “Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, And your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken, The houses rifled, And the women ravished.” (NKJV, cf. Isaiah 34:8-17)
“[T]he Jews were not only expelled from their country [by the Assyrians], but… every hope of return was also taken away, since the enemies had parted among themselves their inheritance, so that they who had been driven out, now in vain thought of a restitution.” ~J. Calvin, AD 1559
But in the N.T. we find that there is a “portion/inheritance” which will not be taken away:
Luke 10:41-42 “And Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.’” (NKJV) What is that part that won’t be taken away? It is Jesus!
Colossians 1:12-14 “giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” (NKJV) By faith in Jesus we can inherit an inheritance in heaven that will never perish, spoil, or fade (1 Peter 1)!
But in v.5, Micah says that those who continue to plan iniquity and work out evil and push against God and covet and steal and oppress and walk haughtily will not remain among God’s people and will lose everything.
The wording of v.5 refers back to the land lottery in Joshua 18. Moses had told the Israelites after the Exodus from slavery in Egypt that a lottery system would be used to decide which tribe would get what land9 after they entered the Promised Land.
Using lots would be a way to take the decision out of the hands of the human political leaders and leave it in the hands of God, who alone is sovereign over who gets what in a lottery. That way nobody could gripe at Joshua if they didn’t get the piece of land they wanted and accuse him of favoritism.
So, when they entered the Promised Land, Joshua said in Joshua 18:4 “Pick out from among you three men for each tribe, and I will send them; they shall rise and go through the land, survey it according to their inheritance, and come back to me….10 Then Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the LORD, and there Joshua divided the land to the children of Israel according to their divisions.” (NKJV)
The Hebrew word חֶ֖בֶל in Micah 2:5 has a root meaning of a “string” or “rope,” but it was a line used in marking out property boundaries, so some English versions translate it literally as a “cord” and others translate it figuratively as “land/territory.”
In Micah’s prophecy it was as though a whole tribe were prevented from sending their three commissioners to Shiloh, so they got left out of the process of divvying up the land among the tribes and so they had no land they could call their own.
Micah is saying that by their greed, the whole nation of his day would lose the right to the Promised Land and go into exile. They would forever have to rent their homes from other landowners, and they would have to rent farm land if they wanted to grow their own food, or buy their daily bread from others who owned land that could produce food.
“[T]hey would hereafter possess the land by no hereditary right; for God, who had given it, would now take it away.” ~J. Calvin, 1559 AD
“[T]here shall be no inheritances to divide, no courts to try titles to lands, or determine controversies about them, or cast lots upon them, as in Joshua's time, for all shall be in the enemies' hand.” ~M. Henry, 1714 AD
It is interesting that the last chapter of Ezekiel describes Israel later, after being restored from exile, receiving new allotments for each of the 12 tribes.
“[And] Micah [also] later clarifies (cf. 2:13; 4:6–7) that the ‘assembly’ of Israel in view here is the restored remnant after the exile. The genitive (‘of [the LORD]’), a genitive of relationship, describes restored Israel as socially organized once again in covenant with [the LORD]. From Jeremiah one learns that it will be a ‘new covenant’ community (cf. Jer 31:31–34). No unclean outsider could be a part of this assembly (Deut 23:2, 3, 4, 9). This conclusion to [Micah’s] sentence at the same time contains the severest punishment for the venal land barons but also his glimmer of hope for the covenant community. The hard-fisted land barons are consigned to eternal death; the righteous remnant have a future hope.” ~B. Waltke, 2007 AD
DouayB (Vulgate) |
LXXC |
BrentonD (Vaticanus) |
KJVE |
NAW |
Masoretic HebrewF |
1
Woe to you that devise
that
which is unprofitable,
and work evil in |
1
|
1
They meditated
troubles,
and wrought wickedness
on their beds, [and]
they put it in
execution with the daylight X;
for they have [not]
|
1 Woe 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. |
1 Woe to those who plan iniquity and who work out evil while upon their beds. At the light of morning they act it out, because their hand is against God. |
(א) הוֹי חֹשְׁבֵי אָוֶן וּפֹעֲלֵיI רָע עַל מִשְׁכְּבוֹתָם בְּאוֹר הַבֹּקֶר יַעֲשׂוּהָJ כִּי יֶשׁ לְאֵלK יָדָם. |
2 And they have coveted fields, and taken them by violence, and houses X they have [forcibly] taken away: and oppressed a man and his house, X a man and his inheritance. |
2
καὶ ἐπεθύμουν ἀγροὺς καὶ
διήρπαζονL
[ὀρφανοὺς]
καὶ οἴκους X |
2
And they desired fields, and plundered [orphans],
and |
2 And 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. |
2 For instance, they covet fields, so they steal them – houses too, and they take them away. Thus they extort a man and his house – both a man and his inheritance. |
(ב) וְחָמְדוּ שָׂדוֹת וְגָזָלוּ וּבָתִּים וְנָשָׂאוּ וְעָשְׁקוּ גֶּבֶר וּבֵיתוֹ Mוְאִישׁ וְנַחֲלָתוֹ. |
3 Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I devise an evil against this family: from which you shall not withdraw your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for this is a [very] evil time. |
3
διὰ τοῦτο τάδε λέγει κύριος Ἰδοὺ
ἐγὼ λογίζομαι ἐπὶ
τὴν φυλὴν ταύτην κακά,
ἐξ ὧν οὐ μὴ |
3
Therefore
thus saith the Lord; Behold, I devise
evil[s]
against this family,
out of which ye shall not |
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 is evil. |
3 Therefore, thus says Yahweh, “Look, I am planning against this clan something terrible – that is, something from which you’re not going to remove your necks; indeed, y’all aren’t going to walk arrogantly because it’s going to be a terrible time. |
(ג) לָכֵן כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה הִנְנִי חֹשֵׁב עַל הַמִּשְׁפָּחָהN הַזֹּאת רָעָה אֲשֶׁר לֹא תָמִישׁוּO מִשָּׁם צַוְּארֹתֵיכֶםP וְלֹא תֵלְכוּ רוֹמָהQ כִּי עֵת רָעָהR הִיא. |
4
In that day a parable
shall [be]
take[n]
up upon you, and a
song shall be
sung |
4
ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ λημφ[θή]σεται
ἐφ᾿ ὑμᾶς παραβολή,
καὶ θρηνηθήσεται
θρῆνος ἐν
μέλει λέγων Ταλαιπωρίᾳ
ἐταλαιπωρήσαμεν·
μερὶς
λαοῦ μου κατεμετρήθη
[ἐν
σχοινίῳ],
[καὶ] |
4
In that day shall a parable
[be]
take[n]
up against you, and a plaintive
lamentation
shall
be
uttered, saying, We are
thoroughly
miserable:
the portion
of my people has been
|
4
In that day shall one
take up a parable
against you, and lament
[with]
|
4 During that day, a proverb will take-off against y’all, and it will lament a lamentation of what has been done; it will say, “We have been utterly devastated; the inheritance of my people is retracted. How He removes from my possession! Instead of returning our fields, He disposes the inheritance! |
(ד) בַּיּוֹם הַהוּאV יִשָּׂא עֲלֵיכֶם מָשָׁלW וְנָהָהX נְהִי נִהְיָהY Zאָמַר שָׁדוֹד נְשַׁדֻּנוּ חֵלֶק עַמִּי יָמִיר אֵיךְAA יָמִישׁAB לִיAC לְשׁוֹבֵבAD שָׂדֵינוּAE יְחַלֵּק. |
5 Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast the cord of a lot in the assembly of the Lord. |
5 διὰ τοῦτο οὐκ ἔσται σοι βάλλων σχοινίον ἐν κλήρῳ ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ κυρίου. |
5 Therefore thou shalt have no one to cast a line for the lot… in the assembly of the LordAF... |
5 Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the LORD. |
5 Therefore there will not be a commissioner for you in the territorial lottery with the congregation of Yahweh. |
(ה) לָכֵן לֹא יִהְיֶה לְךָAG מַשְׁלִיךְ חֶבֶל בְּגוֹרָלAH בִּקְהַל יְהוָה. |
1With the possible exception of 1 Kings 13:30, which might make one time before Isaiah and 48 times between Isaiah and Malachi.
2See also Isaiah 28-33, where each chapter (with only one exception) starts with a Woe.
3Calvin commented that Micah’s prophecy is addressed both to Israel before the fall of Samaria and to Judah before the fall of Jerusalem. Keil agreed.
4See the following for cross references on this kind of wicked scheming that was going on around Micah’s time: Isaiah 32:7, Psalm 36:4, Hosea 7:6-7.
5Such was Gilby’s translation in 1551 “power is in theyr handes,” and Calvin’s translation in 1559 “Their hand is for power,” and that of the Geneva (“their hande hath power”) and King James in the early 1600’s (“it is in the power of their hand” – also reflected by Marckius, Junius, Tremelius, and Owen of Thrussington).
6Targums חֵילָא, Metsudath David: “Their power…,” Kimchi: “power to oppress the poor.”
7Isaiah 1:23, 5:8, 10:1, 57:17, Jeremiah 7:2-15, 22:17, Amos 4:1, 8:4, Ezekiel 22:12
8This curse was lifted in the return from exile later Isaiah 10:27, 52:2, Jer. 30:8.
9Numbers
34:13 Then Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying: "This
is the land which you shall inherit by lot, which the LORD
has commanded to give to the nine tribes and to the half-tribe.”
(NKJV) The Hebrew words for “line/territory” and “lot/dice”
only occur together in Micah 2:4 and Joshua 17:14.
The Jewish
tradition that the “line” and the “lot” mentioned in Micah
were part of the procedure of returning lands to their original
family owners on Jubilee years is not in the Bible.
AMy
original chart includes the following copyrighted English versions:
NASB, NIV, ESV, Bauscher’s version of the Peshitta, and Cathcart’s
version of the Targums, but I remove these columns from my public,
non-copyrighted edition of this chart so as not to infringe on their
copyrights. NAW is my translation. When a translation adds words not
in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done so by the use
of italics or greyed-out text, I put the added words in [square
brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is different
from all the other translations, I underline it. When a
version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs
too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far
from the grammar form of the original text, I use strikeout.
And when a version omits a word which is in the original text, I
insert an X. I also place an X at the end of a word if the original
word is plural but the English translation is singular. I
occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between
the various editions and versions when there are more than two
different translations of a given word. The only known Dead Sea
Scrolls containing Micah 2 are 4Q82 (containing parts of verses 3-4
and dated between 30-1 BC), The Nahal Hever Greek scroll
(containing parts of vs. 7-8 and dated around 25BC), and the Wadi
Muraba’at Scroll (containing parts of verses 1-13 and dated around
135 AD). Where the DSS is legible and in agreement with the MT, the
MT is colored purple. Where the DSS
supports the LXX/Vulgate/Peshitta with omissions or text not in the
MT, I have highlighted with
yellow the LXX and its translation into English, and where I
have accepted that into my NAW translation, I have marked it with
{pointed brackets}.
BDouay Old Testament first published by the English College at Douay, A.D. 1609, Revised and Diligently Compared with the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner, Published in 1582, 1609, 1752. As published on E-Sword.
C“Septuagint” Greek Old Testament, edited by Alfred Rahlfs. Published in 1935. As published on E-Sword.
DEnglish translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton, 1851, “based upon the text of the Vaticanus” but not identical to the Vaticanus. As published electronically by E-Sword.
E1769 King James Version of the Holy Bible; public domain. As published electronically by E-Sword.
FFrom
the Wiki Hebrew Bible
https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%9B%D7%94_%D7%91/%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%AA.
DSS text comes from https://downloads.thewaytoyahuweh.com
GIt appears that the LXX translators mistook הוי (“Woe”) for היו (“they are”), and that resulted in Brenton interpreting the participle verbally instead of subjectively. Aquilla and Symmachus corrected in the second century AD to ουαι (“Woe”).
HLXX translators appear to have interpreted יש as a derivative of נשא (“raise up” – the first and last letter of which are “weak” and prone to disappearing or changing in Hebrew), but the Latin and Syriac traditions support the Hebrew tradition of it being an adverb of affirmation. This spelling occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible as a form of נשא, and the LXX had to insert a negative which is not in the Hebrew text in order to make sense of their interpretation. Aquilla (‘ισχυρον), Symmachus (‘ισχυεν), and Theodotian (‘ισχυν) all opted for “strength” in their later Greek translations.
I"פעל,
the preparation, is distinguished from עשה,
the execution” ~Keil
Walteke disagreed, asserting in his
commentary that “p’l must mean ‘to do,’” but
moderated his position by affirming Renaud’s explanation that “ḥšb
has in view the elaboration of projects and goals, and pʿl
the putting into action of the necessary means for the success of
the enterprise” – but to the average reader this may seem like
splitting hairs.
J“The feminine accusative suffix [ה-] cannot have either ʾāwen or rāʿ as its antecedent because both are masculine; rather, it refers to the situation in general.” ~Waltke
KThis
Hebrew word has an underlying meaning of “strength,” but its
most common meaning in the Hebrew Bible is “God.” For the first
1500 years of Christian history, all the Bibles read “their hand
is to/against God,” but, starting in the 1500’s, English Bibles
changed to follow the Jewish tradition (found in the Targums
חֵילָא) of interpreting it
“strength” instead of “God.” Lamed as a preposition
would be an unusual way to express the idea of “against” (Of the
approximately 59 times the O.T. cites someone’s “hand” being
“against” someone else, the preposition “against” is b-
28x, ‘l
22x, al 7x, and l-
1x in Job 20:22), but
lamed-based
prepositions are the most common expression of “hand[s]
against” (especially
in the post-Davidic books, where על
features twice
as often as -ב).
Waltke
commented, “ʾēl
may mean either “power” or “God.” If the former, it has this
meaning only in this expression. If the latter, it may mean that the
rich exploiters stand up as rivals to God. Although the idiom’s
exact derivation is uncertain, it clearly means ‘it is in the
power of their hand.’ H. Wolff explains,’their success is
guaranteed.’”
LAq, Sym., etc. translated with the synonym εσυκοφαντουν.
MThis
appears to be an ascensive conjunction (“indeed/even”), but the
Vulgate and Peshitta do not use it, and the Greek manuscripts are
ambivalent with apparent inclusion in Vaticanus and in
Aquilla’s and Symmachus’ versions, but not in the majority
represented by Rahlfs in my LXX column. It does not change the
meaning, however.
Owen of Thrussington suggested that gebur
might denote the young, strong men who owned houses and aish
might denote older men who were farm hands, but they words could
just as well be synonymous.
N“In biblical theology the whole ‘family,’ bound together by blood and history, suffers for the sins of individuals within it, especially its leaders (cf. Joshua 7… 2 Sam. 24:17) … [W]hen Samaria fell in 722/721 and Jerusalem fell in 586, the righteous suffered with the wicked...” ~Waltke
O“[A]n abrupt shift between persons [“they” to “you” here] is acceptable Hebrew” ~Waltke “Yoke on … necks is employed to describe how the powerful end up in the control of others. The metaphor is generally used as an image of servitude to a conquering enemy (Isa 9:4[5]; 10:27; 47:6; Jer 27:8; 28:14; Ezek 34:27).” ~J.L. Mays
P4Q82, the only DSS which is legible here, reads instead צוארותיהם (“their neck” instead of the MT’s “your neck” – greyed-out text is in the Wadi Mubara’at DSS, but is illegible in 4Q82). But since the LXX, Vulgate, Peshitta, and Targums match the MT, I think it best not to change. cf. Acts 15:10, which mentions an unbearable yoke of legalism
QHapex Legomenon, but the related word מְר֥וֹם speaks of the same thing in Isa. 24:4.
Rcf. Amos 5:13
SAq., Sym., and Theod. all corrected to the MT with πως (“How”).
T2nd Century Greek versions used synonyms: Aquilla = αποδοθησεται (“it will be given away”), Symmachus = αναχωρησει (“he will vacate”), and Theodotian = ανασαλευσει (“he will shake up”).
ULXX reads “our;” the Vaticanus manuscript which Brenton was translating mis-copied one letter.
Vcf. “evil time” at the end of the previous verse.
WCohen argued for translating mashal as “a dirge,” but Keil argued against that, saying that it is not a “mounful song” but rather a “proverb… a figurative saying… as in Isa. 14:4 and Hab. 2:6.” Waltke instead asserted that it meant “mocking verse,” “taunt.”
XDSS Wadi Murabbaat agrees with the MT spelling, which is Qal Perfect 3ms (“and he will lament”), but 4Q82 reads instead ונהו (“and they will lament,” which is the reading of the Targum and of all the English versions – including Geneva – except for the KJV). The Syriac is similarly plural, but in first person: “we will lament.” Vulgate and LXX read passively “it will be lamented,” although the passive may come from the subsequent word נִהְיָה “it has been done” (which most English versions leave out). It’s hard to see enough agreement on any reading to guess the original, although the majority of ancient witnesses is singular. Part of the confusion may be that this is simply a rare root, only occuring as a verb two other times (1 Sam. 7:2; Ezek. 32:18), and the noun form which is the next word in this verse only occuring in 3 other passages (Jer. 9:9, 17-19; 31:15; Amos 5:16).
YThe Vulgate, LXX, Peshitta, and Targum all seem to have interpreted the first letter in this word as -ב (“with/in”) instead of -נ, which makes this verb-of-being niphal/passive in the MT, but both DSS of this verse confirm that this word starts with נ. cf. Keil: “נהיה is not a feminine formation from נהי, a mounful son… but the niphal of היה (cf. Dan. 8:27): ‘it is all over!’ - an exclamation of despair…” (cf. F. Hitzig and H. Wolff). Waltke, to the contrary saw nihyâ as “a feminine doublet of nĕhî... in which case nĕhî nihyâ is a superlative genitive… ‘one makes the most awful groan.’ … The enemy exaggerates their groaning to mock the disenfranchised barons.” It makes more sense to me to make the “lament” the singular subject and place the lament in the mouths of the Israelites.
ZThe Peshitta and several Hebrew manuscripts insert “and” here, but it doesn’t affect the meaning.
AAPeshitta and LXX appear to have read איך (“How”) as אין (“There was not”).
ABThe subject of this verb and of the next is not stated explicitly: Is it God who “removed” ownership and “reallocated “the property, or is it the Assyrian army? Calvin argued that it could be interpreted either God or the Assyrians, the latter being “the ministers of God’s vengeance.” The singular weighs in favor of “God,” but moreso the fact that the traitor/turncoat/apostate is the object, not the subject. NASB capitalizes “He,” interpreting the subject as God.
ACThe Vulgate and Aquilla and Symmachus’ translations are the only ancient manuscripts which read “to me;” the LXX (and Theodotian) and Peshitta read “him” and the Targums “them.”
ADNKJV, NASB, NIV, ESV, NET, NLT all translate this word as an object: “To the turncoat/apostate/traitor He apportions/assigns/allots our fields,” But Matthew Henry commented on the Geneva Bible, which translated it as a verb, “Instead of restoring, he has divided our fields; instead of putting us again in the possession of our estates, he has confirmed those in the possession of them that have taken them from us.” The AJV’s translation is along the same lines: “Instead of restoring our fields, He divideth them.”
AEDespite the Targums rendering the possessive in the 3rd plural (“their”) and the Vaticanus rendering it in the 2nd plural (“your”), all other known manuscripts affirm the MT with 1st plural (“our”). This word has a root meaning of “turn,” and only occurs 2 other places in the Bible: Jer. 31:22 & 49:4, where it is translated “backsliding/unfaithful/faithless daughter.”
AFBrenton moved this phrase from the end of v.5 to the middle of v. 6.
AG“The singular [לְךָ] is used instead of the plural, to make the address more impressive, that no one may imagine that he is excepted from the threatened judgment.” ~Keil
AH“The expression, to cast the measure begōrâl, i.e., in the nature of a lot (equivalent to for a lot, or as a lot), may be explained on the ground that the land was divided to the Israelites by lot, and then the portion that fell to each tribe was divided among the different families by measure.” ~Keil