Micah 2:3

Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye go haughtily: for this time [is] evil.

Ver. 3. Behold, against this family do I devise an evil] They had devised iniquity, Micah 2:1, and now he deviseth their misery. God usually retaliates, and proportions provocation to provocation, Deuteronomy 32:21, frowardness to frowardness, Psalms 18:26, contrariety to contrariety, Leviticus 26:18; Leviticus 26:21, and device to device, as here. He loves to pay sinners home in their own coin; and to make them know, by sad experience, and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter to forsake the Lord and his fear, Jeremiah 2:19. Woe be to that man against whom the Almighty sets himself to devise an evil; such a one shall find, that thought is not free (as that pestilent proverb would make it), either from the notice of God's holy eye, the censure of his mouth, or the stroke of his hand, see Jeremiah 4:14; Jeremiah 6:19 Rev 2:23 Deuteronomy 29:19. And this nature itself had some notion of, as appeareth by his censure who judged that Antiochus did therefore die loathsomely, because he had but an intent to burn Diana's temple (Polybius). Fecit quisque quantum voluit, saith Seneca; and Incesta est, et sine stupro, quae stuprum cupit, saith the same author. Vain thoughts are very sins, and expose men to punishment; these shall either excuse or accuse at the last day, Romans 2:15. Meanwhile, God is devising what to do to them; he is preparing his bow and making ready his arrows upon the string, even a Tophet of the most tormenting temper will shortly swallow them up, without true and timely repentance.

From which ye shall not remove your necks] It shall so halter and hamper you, that, like "fishes taken in an evil net, and as birds caught in a snare, so shall ye be snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon you," Ecclesiastes 9:12, ye shall never be able either to avoid it or to abide it. But as the bird in a gin, the fish on the hook, the more it strives the more it sticks (Sic laqueos fera, dum iactat, astringit. Sen.); and as the bullock under the yoke, the more he wriggles the more he galls; so shall it be here. Your fair necks, that would not bear the easy yoke of God's obedience, shall be ridden on by the enemy and bound to your two furrows, Hosea 10:10,11; yea, a yoke of iron shall be put upon thee, until thou be destroyed, Deuteronomy 28:48 .

Neither shall ye go haughtily] Heb. Romah; and hence haply Roma had its surname, from its height and haughtiness; according to that of the poet (Virg. Aeneid. I),

“ atque altae moenia Romae. ”

The meaning here is, God would deject and darken them, so as that they shall utterly lose their former renown and splendour. He will thrust them down, as it were, with a thump on the back, and there hold them. See Ezekiel 21:26,27; the scene shall be changed, and the haughty abased.

For this time is evil] Both sinfully and penally evil. The apostle seemeth to allude to this text when he saith, "Redeem the time, because the days are evil"; and "Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof" (κακια, i.e. κακωσις), that is, the misery of it, saith Christ, Matthew 6:34. And again, Those very days shall be affliction, θλιψις (so the Greek text hath it), Mark 13:19, as if the time were turned into affliction; because of that evil, that only evil, without mixture of mercy, Ezekiel 7:5, here foretold, and therefore foretold that it might have been prevented, ideo minatur Deus ut non puniat.