Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Micah 2:9
The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away my glory forever.
9. The women of my people ] i.e. the unprotected widows. A similar complaint is made in Isaiah (Isa 10:2).
my glory ] i.e. the privileges which every Israelite possessed as a member of God’s people. The prophet implies that the children of the widows have been sold into foreign slavery, which virtually annulled their glorious birthright. ‘How could they sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?’
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses – (literally, from her pleasant house,) each from her home. These were probably the widows of those whom they had stripped. Since the houses were theirs, they were widows; and so their spoilers were at war with those whom God had committed to their special love, whom He had declared the objects of His own tender care, the widows and the fatherless. The widows they drove vehemently forth, as having no portion in the inheritance which God had given them, as God had driven out their enemies before them, each from her pleasant house, the home where she had lived with her husband and children in delight and joy.
From (off) their (young) children have ye taken away My glory – Primarily, the glory, comeliness, was the fitting apparel which God had given them (as Hos 2:11), and laid upon them , and which these oppressors stripped off from them. But it includes all the gifts of God, wherewith God would array them. Instead of the holy home of parental care, the children grew up in want and neglect, away from all the ordinances of God, it may be, in a strange land. For ever. They never repented, never made restitution; but so they incurred the special woe of those who ill-used the unprotected, the widow, and the fatherless. The words forever anticipate the punishment. The punishment is according to the sin. They never ceased their oppression. They, with the generation who should come after them, should be deprived of Gods glory, and cast out of His land forever.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 9. The women of my people] Ye are the cause of the women and their children being carried into captivity-separated from their pleasant habitations, and from my temple and ordinances-and from the blessings of the covenant, which it is my glory to give, and theirs to receive. These two verses may probably relate to the war made on Ahaz by Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel. They fell suddenly upon the Jews; killed in one day one hundred and twenty thousand, and took two hundred thousand captive; and carried away much spoil. Thus, they rose up against them as enemies, when there was peace between the two kingdoms; spoiled them of their goods, carried away men, women, and children, till, at the remonstrances of the prophet Oded, they were released. See 2Ch 28:6, &c. Micah lived in the days of Ahaz, and might have seen the barbarities which he here describes.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The women; the poor disconsolate widows, whose husbands you had first slain with the sword of war, or unjustly condemned to death; or else the wives of husbands whom you had oppressed, and by perverted judgment had condemned to forfeit their estates.
Of my people: this aggravates the sin, that this was done against Israelitish women, not strangers, against those that were by peculiar provision of Gods law to be tenderly and mercifully dealt with, Exo 22:22.
Cast out; disseised, and turned out, as if unworthy to dwell longer in their old habitations, which they pretend forfeited, as Paradise by Adam, who was therefore in this very word east out, Gen 3:24, or as Hagar out of Abrahams family, Gen 21:14.
Pleasant houses; either pleasant for situation, such seats were to these as dangerous as Naboths vineyard was to him, or else pleasant to them because they were their own, where they enjoyed their husbands and children, and wished no more preferment, content with their beloved habitation, and domestic conveniencies,
From their children have ye taken away; you have by your violence and oppression ruined their posterity, turned their children out of houses and estates, which were secured by the law of God from any legal alienation and sale beyond the jubilee; you have confiscated them for ever.
My glory; which was the glory of my bounty to them, in use of which they did give glory to me, and by continuance of which they might have lived above contempt.
For ever; either continually you have done this, or what you have done you intend to stand for ever.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. The women of my peoplethatis, the widows of the men slain by you (Mic2:2) ye cast out from their homes which had been their delight,and seize on them for yourselves.
from their childrenthatis, from the orphans of the widows.
taken away my glorynamely,their substance and raiment, which, being the fruit of God’s blessingon the young, reflected God’s glory. Thus Israel’s crime wasnot merely robbery, but sacrilege. Their sex did not save the women,nor their age the children from violence.
for everThere was norepentance. They persevered in sin. The pledged garment was to berestored to the poor before sunset (Exo 22:26;Exo 22:27); but these neverrestored their unlawful booty.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses,…. Not content to slay their husbands, they took their wives or widows captive, dispossessed them of their habitations, where they had lived delightfully with their husbands and children; so we find that, at the time before referred to, the people of Israel carried captive of their brethren two hundred thousand women, and brought them to Samaria, 2Ch 28:8. Some understand this of divorce, which those men were the cause of, either by committing adultery with them, which was a just reason for their husband’s divorcing them; or by frequenting their houses, which caused suspicion and jealousy:
from their children have ye taken away my glory for ever; that which God would have had glory from, and they would have given it to him on account of; as their being brought up in a religious way; their liberties, both civil and religious; their paternal estates and inheritances, and the enjoyment of their own land; and especially the worship of God in the temple, of which they were deprived by being carried away from their own country: or it may be understood of the glory that accrues to God by honourable marriage, and the bed undefiled; and the dishonour cast upon him by the contrary, as well as upon children, who may be suspected to be illegitimate.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He proceeds with the same subject, that they refrained from no acts of injustice. It was indeed a proof of extreme barbarity not to spare women and children, for they are both weak and helpless. Their sex exempts women from violence, and their age, children. (88) Even in wars, women, and also children, escape in safety. We hence see that the Prophet, by stating a part for the whole, proves here that the people had addicted themselves to cruelty really barbarous; they were not restrained from exercising it, no, not even on women and children. Since it was so, it follows, that their boast of being the chosen people was vain and fallacious.
House of delights he ascribes to the women who, being the weaker sex, prefer being at home and in the shade, rather than going abroad. The more necessary it was that their recesses should remain safe to them. Now, what was taken away from the children, God calls it his ornament; for his blessing, poured forth on children, is the mirror of his glory: he therefore condemns this plunder as a sacrilege. The word לעולם, laoulam, designates the continuance of their crimes, as though he had said, that they were cruel without ever showing any repentance. Now it follows —
(88) This verse presents several anomalies. We have “women” and the verbs in the plural, and then “house,” “ her delights,” and “ her children.” It may be thus rendered, —
The women of my people ye drive away, Each from the house of her delights; From off her children ye take away my ornament forever.
The word rendered in our version “flory,” is הדר, which means ornament, beauty. Piscator says, pulchras vestes quas Deus illis donavit — “the beautiful garments which God gave them.” God claimed the land of Canaan and all its blessings as his own. They took these away without restoring them according to the law. Henderson justly observes, that “ornament” is to be taken “collectively for the ornamental clothes which they wore, and with which they had been provided by Jehovah.” — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(9) The women of my people.They spared not even the widows and fatherless, the objects of Gods tender care.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Mic 2:9. From their children, &c. “Because, when ye plunder their houses, ye take away their children, and sell them to strangers and idolaters; and they are no longer esteemed my children, because they become the worshippers of false gods.” See 2Ch 28:8.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mic 2:9 The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away my glory for ever.
Ver. 9. The women of my people ] Or, the wives; once wives, but now widows, and therefore calamitous, friendless, comfortless, as a vine whose root is uncovered, as a wandering bird, or a nest forsaken, Isa 16:2 .
Have ye cast out from their pleasant houses
From their children have ye taken away my glory
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
for ever: i.e. not to be restored for the rest of their lives.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
women: or, wives
cast: Mic 2:2, Mat 23:14, Mar 12:40, Luk 20:47
from their children: 1Sa 26:19, Joe 3:6
my glory: Psa 72:19, Eze 39:21, Hab 2:14, Zec 2:5, 2Co 3:18, 2Co 4:6
Reciprocal: Job 20:19 – he hath violently Psa 102:16 – he shall Pro 10:30 – the wicked Ecc 5:8 – regardeth Jer 17:11 – he that Eze 45:9 – exactions Amo 2:7 – pant
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Mic 2:9. The outrages against the helpless women was similar to that charged against the hypocrites by Jesus (Mat 23:14). It is one of the traits of men who are greedy of material gain to take advantage of those who cannot protect themselves.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2:9 The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away {k} my glory for ever.
(k) That is, their substance and living, which is God’s blessing, and as it were part of his glory.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The rich Israelites also exacted payment from the dependent women of Israel so they could no longer afford to live in their own houses (cf. Mat 23:14; Mar 12:40). Their conduct affected the children since these children would have to live out their lives in a foreign land as exiles (cf. Exo 22:21; Psa 146:9). The splendid heritage of the Israelites was the land Yahweh had given them (cf. Jer 3:19).