2<\/strong>. And they covet fields<\/em>, &c.] ‘To covet’ is itself a gross offence against the law of God, as the deepest of all the Ten Commandments shews (Exo 20:17<\/span>). Large additions to one’s estates were diametrically opposed to the spirit, if not always to the letter, of the law of land-tenure among the Israelites. See Num 27:1-11<\/span>; Num 33:54<\/span>, 1Ki 21:4<\/span>, Lev 25:8-17<\/span>. These rich men would have had a perfect right to purchase the lease of another man’s property, subject indeed to the law of redistribution in the 49th year (the year of Jubilee) a relic of the old Village Community system, which seems to have prevailed anciently among Semitic as well as Aryan races (comp. Sir R. Maine’s Village Communities<\/em>, and Mr Fenton’s article on the Law of Jubilee, in the Theological Review<\/em>, 1878). But, as the account of Naboth the Jezreelite (1 Kings 21<\/span>.) shews, the small Israelitish proprietors were too sturdy and too law-abiding to accede to proposals of purchasers when they could possibly avoid it. Hence, on the immoral principle that ‘might is right’ (or, as the prophet says, ‘because it is in the power of their hands’), they followed the example of Ahab, and used fraudulent or openly violent means fraud is suggested by the language of Mic 2:1<\/em><\/span>, open violence by that of Mic 2:2<\/em><\/span>. Isaiah denounces the same offences in Mic 5:8<\/span>; Amos, probably, in Mic 4:1<\/span>.<\/p>\n And they covet fields and take them by violence – <\/B>(rend them away) and houses, and take them away Still, first they sin in heart, then in act. And yet, with them, to covet and to rob, to desire and to take, are the same. They were prompt, instantaneous, without a scruple, in violence. So soon as they coveted, they took. Desired, acquired! Coveted, robbed! They saw, they coveted, they took, had been their past history. They did violence, not to one only, but, touched with no mercy, to whole families, their little ones also; they oppressed a man and his house. They spoiled pot goods only, but life, a man and his inheritance; destroying him by false accusations or violence and seizing upon his inheritance . Thus, Ahab first coveted Naboths vineyard, then, through Jezebel, slew him; and , they who devoured widows houses, did at the last plot by night against Him of whom they said, Come, let us kill Him, and the inheritance shall be ours; and in the morning, they practiced it, leading Him away to Pilate. : Who of us desires not the villas of this world, forgetful of the possessions of Paradise? You see men join field to field, and fence to fence. Whole places suffice not to the tiny frame of one man. : Such is the fire of concupiscence, raging within, that, as those seized by burning fevers cannot rest, no bed suffices them, so no houses or fields content these. Yet no more than seven feet of earth will suffice them soon . Death only owns, how small the frame of man.<\/P><\/p>\n Verse 2<\/span>. They covet fields<\/B><\/I>] These are the rich and mighty in the land; and, like Ahab, they will take the vineyard or inheritance of any poor Naboth on which they may fix their covetous eye; so that they take away even the heritage<\/I> of the poor.<\/P> <\/p>\n And they, who devised mischief, Mic 2:1<\/span>, <\/P> covet fields; first set their minds upon their meaner neighbours estate, think how convenient it lieth to theirs, as Ahab thought Naboths did for him. <\/P> And take them by violence; by power wrest the estates out of their hands, at their own rate; or, if they will not so part with them, these mischievous oppressors will act a Jezebels part with Naboth, which was no hard matter to do in Israel, during the times that ran parallel with those of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. <\/P> Houses, in which their poorer and innocenter neighbours dwelt; but perhaps these houses spoiled a prospect, or straitened the great ones, who, right or wrong, will have them, that they may enlarge their own houses, orchards, or gardens. <\/P> Take them away; they tear, devour, and swallow up the poor man. <\/P> His house; his family, which by this means is left to poverty and beggary. <\/P> His heritage: this explains the former, and addeth somewhat to the greatness of their sin, that this is done against ancient right and possession, which the oppressed plead, nay, in a case where God hath forbidden them to sell their heritage, Lev 25:23<\/span>; Num 36:7<\/span>; 1Ki 21:3<\/span>. <\/P> <\/p>\n 2.<\/B> Parallelism, “Take byviolence,” answers to “take away”; “fields”and “houses,” to “house” and “heritage”(that is, one’s land).<\/P><\/p>\n And they covet fields, and take [them] by violence<\/strong>,…. The fields of their poor neighbours, which lie near them, and convenient for them; they wish they were theirs, and they contrive ways and means to get them into their possession; and if they cannot get them by fair means, if they cannot persuade them to sell them, or at their price, they will either use some crafty method to get them from them, or they will take them away by force and violence; as Ahab got Naboth’s vineyard from him:<\/p>\n and houses, and take [them] away<\/strong>; they covet the houses of their neighbours also, and take the same course to get them out of their hands, and add them to their own estates:<\/p>\n so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage<\/strong>; not only dispossess him of his house to dwell in, but of his paternal inheritance, what he received from his ancestors, and should have transmitted to his posterity, being unalienable; and so distressed a man and his family for the present, and his posterity after him. The Vulgate Latin version is, “they calumniate a man and his house”; which seems to be designed to make it agree with the story of Ahab,<\/p>\n 1Ki 21:13<\/span>.<\/p>\n Micah confirms here what is contained in the former verse; for he sets forth the alacrity with which the avaricious were led to commit plunder; nay, how unbridled was their cupidity to do evil. As soon as they have coveted any thing, he says, they take it by force. And hence we gather, that the Prophet, in the last verse, connected wicked counsels with the attempt of effecting them; as though he had said, that they indeed carefully contrived their frauds, but that as they were skillful in their contrivances, so they were not less bold and daring in executing then. <\/p>\n The same thing he now repeats in other words for a 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; (80) that is, nothing escaped them: for as their wickedness in frauds was great, so their disposition to attempt whatever they wished was furious. And well would it be were there no such cruel avarice at this day; but it exists every where, so that we may see, as in a mirror, an example of what is here said. But it behaves us carefully to consider how greatly displeasing to God are frauds and plunders, so that each of us may keep himself from doing any wrong, and be so ruled by a desire of what is right, that every one of us may act in good faith towards his neighbors, seek nothing that is unjust, and bridle his own desires: and whenever Satan attempts to allure us, let what is here taught be to us as a bridle to restrain us. It follows — <\/p>\n (80) This verse presents an instance of parallelism not uncommon, in which the first and the last line correspond, and the second and the third; as will be seen in the following version: — <\/p>\n And they covet fields and forcibly seize them, And houses, and they take them away; Yea, they oppress the young man and his house, And the old man and his inheritance. <\/p>\n There must be some distinction between גבר, which I render, “the young man,” and איש, rendered above, “the old man.” The first means, robust, strong; and the second is a common term for man, but sometimes signifies a husband, and also a man in years. We may, indeed in harmony with the passage, consider the first as meaning a householder, and the latter as signifying a husbandman. The fields in the first line are the same with the inheritance in the last: and houses and a house are mentioned in the two intervening lines. — Ed. <\/p>\n (2) And they covet fields.<\/strong>The act of Ahab and Jezebel in coveting and acquiring Naboths vineyard by violence and murder was no isolated incident. The desire to accumulate property in land, in contravention of the Mosaic Law, was denounced by Micahs contemporary, Isaiah: Woe unto them that join house to house. that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth (Isa. 5:8<\/span>). Mic 2:2<\/span><\/em><\/strong>. <\/strong>They oppress<\/em><\/strong><\/strong> They plunder.<\/em> <\/p>\n Mic 2:2 And they covet fields, and take [them] by violence; and houses, and take [them] away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.<\/p>\n Ver. 2. And they covet fields, and take them by violence<\/strong> ] See here the several degrees of sin, and what descents covetous men dig to hell, and beware betimes. Surely as the plot of all diseases lies in the humours of the body, so of all sin in the lust of the soul. The heathen could say (Laertins), <\/p>\n P .<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Covetousness is called the lust of the eyes, 1Jn 2:16<\/span> , because from looking comes lusting, from lusting acting (hence lusts of the soul are called deeds of the body, Rom 8:13 ), yea, acting with violence, they covet and take, they rob and ravish, Psa 10:9<\/span> , there is neither equity nor honesty to be had at their hands; but as they take away fields, houses, heritages shamelessly; so they bear them away boldly, and think to escape scot free; because it is facinus maioris abollae<\/em> (Juvenal), the fact of a great one, whose hand is to power, as Mic 2:1<\/span> . <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And houses, and take them away<\/strong> ] Though a man’s house be his castle, as we say, yet it cannot secure him from these cormorants. Scribes and Pharisees devoured widows’ houses, Mat 23:14<\/span> , where was a concurrence of covetousness and cruelty, for these seldom go sundered, besides the putrid hypocrisy of doing this under a pretence of long prayers. A poor man in his house is like a snail in his shell; crush that and you kill him. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n So they oppress (or defraud) a man and his house] Either by fraud or force, by craft or cruelty, they ruin a man (a well-set man, virum validum,<\/em> ) and his family, his whole progeny; which might not be done to the unreasonable creatures, Deu 22:6<\/span> . This is to be like Uladus, that cruel prince of Valachia; whose manner was, together with the offender, to execute the whole family; yea, sometimes the whole kindred.<\/p>\n covet fields. Reference to Pentateuch (Lev 6:4. Deu 5:21). App-92. <\/p>\n they oppress, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Lev 19:13, where the words are the same). App-92. <\/p>\n man = a human being Hebrew. geber. App-14. <\/p>\n even. So in some codices, with four early printed editions; but many codices, with six early printed editions, Aramaean, Septuagint, and Vulgate, omit the word “even”. <\/p>\n man. Hebrew. ‘ish. App-14. <\/p>\n they covet: Exo 20:17, 1Ki 21:2-19, Job 31:38, Isa 5:8, Jer 22:17, Amo 8:4, Hab 2:5-9, 1Ti 6:10 <\/p>\n so: Mic 3:9, Exo 22:21-24, 2Ki 9:26, Neh 5:1-5, Job 24:2-12, Eze 18:12, Eze 22:12, Amo 8:4, Mal 3:5, Mat 23:14 <\/p>\n oppress: or, defraud, 1Sa 12:3, 1Sa 12:4 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: Lev 6:4 – which he Lev 25:14 – General Deu 5:21 – General Deu 24:17 – pervert Jos 7:21 – took them Jdg 21:25 – right 1Sa 2:16 – I will take 1Ki 21:7 – I will give thee Job 20:19 – he hath violently Job 24:4 – turn Job 24:14 – murderer Job 31:21 – when Psa 55:10 – Day Psa 73:6 – violence Psa 101:3 – set Pro 3:29 – Devise not evil Pro 10:15 – the destruction Pro 22:16 – that oppresseth Pro 30:14 – to devour Ecc 3:16 – General Isa 3:14 – ye have eaten Isa 32:6 – and his heart Isa 57:17 – the iniquity Jer 6:7 – violence Jer 6:13 – For Jer 17:11 – he that Eze 7:11 – Violence Eze 7:23 – for Eze 8:17 – for Eze 11:2 – General Eze 22:29 – people Eze 28:16 – filled Eze 33:26 – stand Eze 34:18 – to have Eze 45:9 – exactions Amo 2:7 – pant Amo 5:11 – treading Mic 2:9 – cast Mic 6:12 – the rich Hab 1:4 – for Zep 3:1 – to the Zep 3:7 – they Mar 12:40 – devour Luk 12:15 – Take Luk 20:47 – devour Rom 7:7 – Thou shalt 1Co 6:8 – General Eph 5:3 – covetousness 1Th 4:6 – defraud<\/p>\n Mic 2:2. Some details of the wicked schemes of these men are stated, A man would be lying in his bed thinking about increasing his possessions. He would think of some field that impressed him as being very desirable, but it might not be for sale so he would plan some way to get it by violence if necessary. There is a notable instance of this kind of wickedness performed by Ahab, recorded in 1Ki 21:1-16.<\/p>\n The plotting in view involved robbing others of their fields, houses, and inheritances ( including lands) through deception (cf. 1Ki 21:3; Isa 5:8). The wealthy not only violated the tenth commandment against coveting what belongs to a neighbor but also the eighth commandment against stealing (Exo 20:15; Exo 20:17; Lev 19:13; Deu 5:19; Deu 5:21; Col 3:6-7). Furthermore they broke the second greatest commandment that said they should love their neighbors as themselves (Lev 19:18; cf. Mat 22:34-40).<\/p>\n "They practiced the world’s version of the Golden Rule: ’Whoever has the gold makes the rules.’" [Note: Wiersbe, p. 392.] <\/span><\/p>\n And they covet fields, and take [them] by violence; and houses, and take [them] away: so they oppress a man and his house even a man and his heritage. 2. And they covet fields, &c.] ‘To covet’ is itself a gross offence against the law of God, as the deepest of all the Ten Commandments … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Micah 2:2”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
<\/em><\/p>\nFuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"