John Calvin Commentary Micah 2

The Prophet does not speak here only against the Israelites, as some think, who have incorrectly limited this part of his teaching to the ten tribes. On the contrary, in discharging his office, he also addresses the Jews. He does not refer here to idolatry, as in the last chapter, but denounces sins condemned in the second table.

Since the Jews had not only polluted the worship of God but also gave free rein to many iniquities, so that they wronged their neighbors and there was no regard among them for justice and equity, the prophet, as we shall see, denounces here avarice, robberies, and cruelty. His message is full of vehemence, for undoubtedly such licentiousness was then prevailing among the people that there was need for severe and sharp rebukes. At the same time, it is easy to perceive that his message is mainly directed against the leading men, who exercised authority and abused it.

Woe, he says, to those who meditate on iniquity and devise evil on their beds, that, when the morning shines, they may execute it. Here the Prophet vividly describes the character and practices of those who were devoted to gain and intent only on self-advancement.

He says that in their beds they were meditating on iniquity and devising wickedness. Undoubtedly, the night has been given to people entirely for rest; but they should also use this kindness of God to restrain themselves from what is wicked. For whoever refreshes his strength by nightly rest should think within himself that it is an unfitting and even monstrous thing that he should meanwhile devise frauds, deceptions, and iniquities.

For why does the Lord intend that we should rest, except that all evil things should rest also? Thus, the Prophet shows here by implication that those who are intent on devising frauds, while they ought to rest, subvert, as it were, the course of nature. For they have no regard for that rest, which has been granted to people for this purpose—that they may not trouble and annoy one another.

He then shows how great their desire was to do mischief, When it shines in the morning, he says, they execute it. He might have said only, 'They do in the daytime what they contrive in the night.' But he says, In the morning; as if he had said that they were so inflamed by avarice that they did not rest for a moment. As soon as it dawned, they were immediately ready to carry out the frauds they had devised in the night. Thus, we now understand the Prophet’s meaning.

He then adds, For according to their power is their hand. Since אל, al, means God, an old interpreter has rendered it, 'Against God is their hand,' but this does not fit the passage. Others have explained it thus: 'For strength is in their hand,' and almost all those well-skilled in Hebrew agree with this explanation.

They think that those who had power are pointed out here by the Prophet—that because they had strength, they dared to do whatever they pleased. But the Hebrew phrase is not accurately rendered by them, and I greatly wonder that they have been mistaken about such a clear matter. For it is not, 'There is power in their hand,' but 'their hand is to power.'

The same manner of speaking is found in Proverbs 3, and there also many interpreters are wrong. For Solomon there forbids us to withhold from our neighbor his right: 'When your hand,' he says, 'is for power.' Some say, 'When there is power to help the miserable.' But Solomon means no such thing; for on the contrary, he means this: 'When your hand is ready to execute any evil, abstain.' So also the Lord says in Deuteronomy 28:

When the enemy shall take away your spoils,
your hand will not be for power;

That is, “You will not dare to move a finger to restrain your enemies; when they plunder you and rob you of your substance, you will stand in dread, for your hand will be as though it were dead.”

I come now to the present passage: 'Their hand is for power.' The Prophet means that they dared to try what they could, and therefore their hand was always ready; whenever there was hope of profit or gains, their hand was immediately prepared.

How so? Because they were restrained neither by the fear of God nor by any regard for justice. Instead, their hand was for power; that is, what they could do, they dared to do. We now, then, see what the Prophet means, as far as I can judge. He then adds—

Micah confirms here what is contained in the previous verse, for he describes the eagerness with which the greedy were led to commit plunder; indeed, how unbridled was their greed to do evil. As soon as they have coveted anything, he says, they take it by force. And from this we gather that the Prophet, in the previous verse, connected wicked plans with the attempt to carry them out, as if he had said that they indeed carefully planned their deceptions, but that just as they were skillful in their schemes, so they were no less bold and daring in executing them.

He now repeats the same thing in other words for further confirmation: As soon as they have coveted fields, they seize them by force; as soon as they have coveted houses they take them away. They oppress a man and his house together; that is, nothing escaped them. For just as their wickedness in deceptions was great, so their inclination to attempt whatever they wished was furious.

And it would be well if there were no such cruel greed today; but it exists everywhere, so that we may see, as in a mirror, an example of what is said here.

But we ought carefully to consider how greatly displeasing frauds and plunders are to God, so that each of us may keep himself from doing any wrong. We should also be so governed by a desire for what is right that every one of us acts in good faith towards his neighbors, seeks nothing unjust, and restrains his own desires. And whenever Satan attempts to allure us, let what is taught here be a bridle to restrain us.

The Prophet now shows that the avaricious were elevated in vain by their frauds and rapacity, because their hope would be disappointed; for God in heaven was waiting for His time to appear against them. Though they had anxiously heaped together much wealth, yet God would justly dissipate it altogether. This is what he now declares.

Behold, he says, thus saith Jehovah, I am meditating evil against this family. There is a striking contrast here between God and the Jews, between their wicked intentions and the intentions of God, which in themselves were not evil, and yet would bring evil on them. God, he says, thus speaks, Behold, I am purposing; as though He said, While you are thus busying yourselves on your beds, while you are revolving many designs, while you are contriving many artifices, you think I am asleep; you think that all the while I am meditating nothing. Indeed, I have My thoughts too, and those are different from yours; for while you are awake to devise wickedness, I am awake to contrive judgment. We now, then, perceive the meaning of these words: it is God who declares that He meditates evil, and it is not the Prophet who speaks to these avaricious and rapacious men. And the evil is that of punishment, since it is the unique office of God to repay to all what they deserve, and to render to each the measure of evil they have brought on others.

Ye shall not, he says, remove your necks from under it. Since hypocrites always promise themselves impunity and lay hold of subterfuges whenever God threatens them, the Prophet here affirms that though they sought every escape, they would still be held bound by God’s hand, so that they could not by any means shake off the burden designed for them. And this was a reward most fully deserved by those who had withdrawn their necks when God called them to obedience. Those then who refuse to obey God, when He requires from them a voluntary service, will eventually be drawn by force, not to undergo the yoke, but the burden that will altogether overwhelm them. Whoever then will not willingly submit to God’s yoke must eventually undergo the great and dreadful burden prepared for the unnamable.

You will not then be able to withdraw your necks, and ye shall not walk in your height. He expresses even more clearly what I have referred to—that they were so elated with pride that they despised all threats and all instruction. And this presumption became the cause of perverseness; for if a notion of security did not deceive people, they would quickly bend when God threatens them. This, then, is the reason why the Prophet adds this sentence, ye shall no more walk in your height; that is, your haughtiness shall then surely be made to succumb; for it will be a time of evil. He means, as I have said, that those who retain a stiff and unbending neck towards God, when He would lay His yoke on them, shall eventually be made by force to yield, however rebellious they may be. How so? For they shall be broken down, since they will not be corrected. The Prophet then adds—

The verse is in broken sentences; and therefore interpreters vary. But the meaning of the Prophet appears to me to be simply this: In that day they shall take up a proverb against you; that is, it will not be an ordinary calamity, but the report concerning it will spread everywhere so that the Jews will become a common proverb to all.

This is one thing. Regarding the word משל, meshil, it is understood, we know, as a weighty saying, and in the plural, weighty sayings—called by the Latins sentences (sententias) or sayings (dicta), and by the Greeks apophthegmata (ἀποφθέγματα). But these sayings were called weighty by the Hebrews because one who elevated his style made special use of figurative expressions to render his discourse nobler and more splendid. Therefore, many render this word as enigmas.

It accords well with the Prophet’s meaning to suppose that proverbial sayings would spread everywhere concerning the Jews, especially as calamities were usually described in a plaintive song. They shall then mourn over you with lamentable mourning. But this ought to be referred to the fact that the calamity would be everywhere known. Yet it seems that this sentence is applied afterwards to the Jews themselves, and not unsuitably. However, it is an indefinite mode of speaking, since the Prophet is not speaking of one or two men, but of the whole people.

They shall then mourn in this manner: Wasted, we have been wasted: the portion of my people has he changed—(it is the future instead of the past)—He has then changed the portion of my people. This may be applied to God as well as to the Assyrians; for God was the principal author of this calamity; it was he who changed the portion of the people, for as by his blessing he had long cherished that people, so afterwards he changed their lot.

But as the Assyrians were the ministers of God’s vengeance, the expression cannot be unsuitably applied to them. The Assyrian then has taken away the portion of my people. And then he says, How has he made to depart, or has taken away, or removed from me, (literally, to me,) to restore (though שבב, shibeb, may be from the root שוב, shub, it yet means the same).

How then has he taken away from us to restore our fields he divides; that is, which he has divided, for the relative אשר, asher, is understood, and there is also a change of time.

Now as the discourse, as I have said, is in broken sentences, there are various interpretations. I however think that the Prophet simply means this: How as to restoring has he taken away our fields, which he hath divided? That is, how far off are we from restitution? For every hope is far removed, since the Lord himself has divided among strangers our land and possession, or since the enemies have divided it among themselves; for it is usual after victory for everyone to seize on his own portion.

Whether, then, this is understood of the Assyrians, or rather is referred to God, the meaning of the Prophet seems clearly to be this: that the Jews were not only expelled from their country, but that every hope of return was also taken away, since the enemies had divided their inheritance among themselves, so that those who had been driven out now in vain thought of restitution.

But I read this in the present time, for the Prophet introduces here the Jews as uttering this lamentation: “It is now all over with us, and there is no remedy for this evil. For not only are we stripped of all our property and ejected from our country, but what has been taken away by our enemies cannot be restored to us, since they have already divided our possessions among themselves, and everyone occupies his own portion and his own place, as though it were his own inheritance. Therefore, we have to deal not only with the Assyrians in general, but also with every individual, for what everyone now occupies and possesses he will defend, as his rightful and hereditary possession.”

Some conjecture from this verse that the discourse belongs rather to the Israelites, who were banished without any hope of return; but no necessity compels us to explain this as referring to the Israelites, for the Prophet does not declare here what God would do, but what the calamity would be when considered in itself. We have indeed said already in many places that the Prophets, while threatening, speak only of calamities, desolations, deaths, and destructions, but that they afterwards add promises for consolation. But their teaching is discriminative: when the Prophets intend to terrify hypocrites and perverse men, they set forth the wrath of God only, and leave no hope; but when they would inspire with hope those who are by this means humbled, they draw forth comfort to them even from the goodness of God. What is said here, then, may fittingly and indeed be applied to the Jews.

Here the Prophet concludes his discourse concerning God’s design to cleanse Judea of its perverse and wicked inhabitants, so that it might no longer be the inheritance of one people. For we know the land had been given to Abraham's descendants on the condition that they were to hold it as an inheritance. We also know that a boundary line was determined by lot whenever the year of Jubilee returned, so that everyone might regain their own possession. The Prophet now testifies that this advantage would be taken away from the Jews, and that from now on they would possess the land by no right of inheritance, for God, who had given it, would now take it away.

There shall not then be one to cast a line by lot in the assembly of Jehovah. And he seems here to subtly censure the Jews by calling them the assembly of Jehovah. Indeed, He had adopted them. They were the people of God. But he intimates that they were repudiated because they had made themselves unworthy of His favor. Therefore, by ironically calling them the assembly of Jehovah, he denies that they rightly retained this name, since they had deprived themselves of this honor and dignity.