Charles Ellicott Commentary Micah 2

Woe to them that devise. —The prophet proceeds to denounce the sins for which the country was to receive deserved punishment at the hands of God. There is a gradation in the terms employed: they mark the deliberate character of the acts: there were no extenuating circumstances. In the night they formed the plan, they thought it out upon their beds, and carried it out into execution in the morning. So also the gradually increasing association with the wicked is described, as reaching its culmination, in Psalm 1: Walking with the ungodly leads to standing among sinners, and at last sitting habitually in the seat of the scornful.

And they covet fields. —The act of Ahab and Jezebel in coveting and acquiring Naboth’s vineyard by violence and murder was no isolated incident. The desire to accumulate property in land, in contravention of the Mosaic Law, was denounced by Micah’s contemporary, Isaiah: Woe unto them that join house to house. that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth (Isaiah 5:8).

I devise an evil. —Just as they devise evil against their brothers, so I am devising an evil against them: they will bow their necks under a hostile yoke.

Shall one take up a parable against you — that is, the enemies will repeat in mockery the mournful lamentations with which you lament your pitiable state.

Turning away he has divided. — Rather, to an apostate — that is, an idolater — he has divided our fields. The land they were taking from others God would give into the hands of an idolatrous king.

You shall have none ... —i.e., you shall have no part or inheritance in the congregation of the Lord—apparently referring to the ancient division of the land by lot.