Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Micah 2:5
Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the LORD.
5. Therefore thou shall have none, &c.] Because the Israelites have violated the divinely sanctioned law of land-tenure, ‘therefore’ they shall have no future opportunity of redistributing the soil in accordance with equity. And this, because the ‘congregation of Jehovah,’ from which such a redistribution should proceed, is itself about to be dissolved.
that shall cast a cord by lot ] Rather, that shall cast the measuring-line upon a lot (i.e. an allotment); alluding to the original distribution of Canaan by lot. Of course, the redistribution of the land in the year of Jubilee was governed, not by lot, but by regard for the old family-rights; still the primitive term ‘lot’ held its ground (so Psa 16:5; Psa 125:3).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Therefore thou shalt have none that shall east a cord by lot in the congregation of the Lord – Thou, in the first instance, is the impenitent Jew of that day. God had promised by Hosea to restore Judah; shortly after, the prophet himself foretells it Mic 2:12. Now he forewarns these and such as these, that they would have no portion in it. They had neither part nor lot in this matter Act 8:21. They, the not-Israel then, were the images and ensamples of the not-Israel afterward, those who seem to be Gods people and are not; members of the body, not of the soul of the Church; who have a sort of faith, but have not love. Such was afterward the Israel after the flesh, which was broken off, while the true Israel was restored, passing out of themselves into Christ. Such, at the end, shall be those, who, being admitted by Christ into their portion, renounce the world in word not in deed. Such shall have no portion forever in the congregation of the Lord. For nothing defiled shall enter there, nor whatsoever worketh abomination or a lie, but they which are written in the Lambs book of life Rev 21:27.
The ground of their condemnation is their resistance to light and known truth. These not only entered not in Luk 11:52, themselves, but, being hinderers of Gods word, them that were entering in, they hindered.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. None that shall cast a cord] You will no more have your inheritance divided to you by lot, as it was to your fathers; ye shall neither have fields nor possessions of any kind.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Therefore; because your sins, so great, universal, and incorrigible, have provoked God to frame and design this desolation against you, and because he will punish you according to your ways.
Thou; either oppressor, spoken thus as to one, that it might comprehend every one of them, who are described Mic 2:2, or else this thou is the whole family, spoken of Mic 2:3; perhaps both these may best be meant here.
None that shall cast a cord by lot; none that shall ever return to this land, to claim an inheritance there, or to see it allotted by line, and given to them to possess it. The prophet here alludes to the manner of dividing fields and inheritance of old in use among them, as in Joshuas time. So both the whole family in general, and the great ones, oppressors and extortioners, are more particularly menaced with an utter and perpetuated exclusion out of the land in which they sinned, and whence they are carried captives; whoever do, neither they, nor their posterity, shall possess inheritances in it.
In the congregation of the Lord; they should no more be the congregation of the Lord, nor should their children be so, or stand in the congregation of the Lord at any time hereafter, to claim their portion among Gods people. Thus they are rejected and disinherited, and this to this day is verified on the main body of this people.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. Thereforeresumed from Mic2:3. On account of your crimes described in Mic 2:1;Mic 2:2.
thouthe idealindividual (“me,” Mic2:4), representing the guilty people in whose name he spoke.
none that . . . cast a cordby lotnone who shall have any possession measured out.
in the congregation of theLordamong the people consecrated to Jehovah. By covetousnessand violence (Mic 2:2) they hadforfeited “the portion of Jehovah’s people.” This is God’simplied answer to their complaint of injustice (Mic2:4).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot,…. This confirms what was before delivered in a parabolical way, and as a lamentation; and is spoken either to the false prophet, as Kimchi; who should not be, nor have any posterity to inherit by lot the land of Israel; or to those oppressors that took away houses and fields from others, these should have no part nor lot in the land any more; or rather to the whole, people of Israel, who should no more inherit their land after their captivity, as they have not to this day. The allusion is to the distribution of the land by lot, and the dividing of it by a cord or line, as in Joshua’s time; but now there should be no land in the possession of Israelites to be divided among them; nor any people to divide it to, being scattered up and down in the world, and so no need of any person to be employed in such service; nor any sanhedrim or court of judicature to apply unto for a just and equal division and distribution, who perhaps may be meant in the next clause:
in the congregation of the Lord; unless this is to be understood of the body of the people, who were formerly called the congregation of the Lord, De 23:1; though now they had forfeited this character, and are only called so ironically, as some think. Aben Ezra interprets it, when the Lord returns the captivity of his people; and so Kimchi, who applies it to the false prophet, as before observed, who at this time should have no part nor lot in the land.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“Therefore wilt thou have none to cast a measure for the lot in the congregation of Jehovah.” With lakhen (therefore) the threat, commenced with lakhen in Mic 2:3, is resumed and applied to individual sinners. The whole nation is not addressed in , still less the prophet, as Hitzig supposes, but every individual among the tyrannical great men (Mic 2:1, Mic 2:2). The singular 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. For a similar transition from the plural to the singular, see Mic 3:10. The expression, to cast the measure b e goral , 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. The words are not to be taken, however, as referring purely to the future, as Caspari supposes, i.e., to the time when the promised land would be divided afresh among the people on their return. For even if the prophet does proclaim in Mic 2:12, Mic 2:13 the reassembling of Israel and its restoration to its hereditary land, this thought cannot be arbitrarily taken for granted here. We therefore regard the words as containing a general threat, that the ungodly will henceforth receive no further part in the inheritance of the Lord, but that they are to be separated from the congregation of Jehovah.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Here the Prophet concludes his discourse respecting God’s design to cleanse Judea from its perverse and wicked inhabitants, that it might no longer be the inheritance of one people. For the land, we know, had been given to the posterity of Abraham, on the condition, that it was to be held by them as an heritage: and we also know, that a line was determined by lot whenever the year of Jubilee returned, that every one might regain his own possession. The Prophet now testifies that this advantage would be taken away from the Jews, and that they would hereafter possess the land by no hereditary right; 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 touch the Jews, by calling them the assembly of Jehovah. He indeed adopted them, they were the people of God: but he intimates that they were repudiated, because they had rendered themselves unworthy of his favor. He therefore, by calling them ironically the assembly of Jehovah, denies that they rightly retained this name, inasmuch as they had deprived themselves of this honor and dignity. It now follows —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(5) Thou shalt have none . . .i.e., thou shalt have no part or inheritance in the congregation of the Lordapparently referring to the ancient division of the land by lot.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Mic 2:5 Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the LORD.
Ver. 5. Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot ] Fields were divided with cords of old, and inheritances also. See Psa 16:5 ; Psa 105:11 ; Psa 78:55 2Sa 8:2 . This hope is henceforth cut off from revolted Israel; the ten tribes never returned, the other two did, and some few of the ten among them. Whether upon their conversion to Christ they shall be restored to the promised land, Time, the mother of Truth, will make manifest.
In the congregation of the Lord
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
cast a cord by lot. Referring to the custom, by which, round every village in Palestine, the land was divided by lot every year to the various families; hence, the expression in Psa 16:6, “cord” being put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Cause), App-6, for the portion of land marked out by it. It therefore = divide your inheritances. Reference to Pentateuch (Num 26:55, Num 26:56). App-92.
congregation = assembly. Compare Deu 23:1-3, Deu 23:8.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
cast: Deu 32:8, Jos 18:4, Jos 18:10, Psa 16:6, Hos 9:3
the congregation: Deu 23:2, Deu 23:8, Neh 7:61
Reciprocal: Deu 32:9 – lot 1Ch 16:18 – lot
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Mic 2:5. The one who will express such a depressing sentiment will not be popular in the minds of the people. Cord is from a word that means a group of people bound together by eorne common opinion. The meaning is that the man making the above lamentation will not have any group of sympathizers for his gloom in the congregation of the Lord.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2:5 Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in {c} the congregation of the LORD.
(c) You will have no more lands to divide as you had in times past, and as you used to measure them in the Jubilee.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Evidently the Israelites determined the boundaries between some land plots by casting lots (cf. Jos 14:1-5; Psa 16:6). No one would remain in the land who could do this in the assembly of Yahweh, namely, the covenant nation. The reason was that God would send His people into captivity and give their land to their captors.
This is one of many examples of God’s talionic justice. The Israelites would reap what they had sowed (cf. Gal 6:7). They had taken land from their countrymen greedily and illegally, so God would take their land from them and let others occupy it.