John Calvin Commentary Micah 2:4

"In that day shall they take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, [and] say, We are utterly ruined: he changeth the portion of my people: how doth he remove [it] from me! to the rebellious he divideth our fields." — Micah 2:4 (ASV)

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.