John Calvin Commentary Micah 2:3

"Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks, neither shall ye walk haughtily; for it is an evil time." — Micah 2:3 (ASV)

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 And this was a reward most fully deserved by those who had withdrawn their necks when God called them to obedience.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—