Micah 2:3

This family] cp. 'The whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt' (Amos 3:1). I devise] as contrasted with their devising (Micah 2:1).

4. Turning away] RV 'to the rebellious,' i.e. God divides the ill-gotten fields to heathen and idolaters. 5. This may mean that the oppressor nobles shall have none to cast the measuring line on an allotment, when the periodical redistribution of the land took place, and some respect was had to old family rights. Their line is to fail.

The text of Micah 2:4 and Micah 2:5 is uncertain, but the sense is clear. It shall be rendered to them as they have rendered to others.

6. Cp. Isaiah 30:9. Translate: 'prattle not, thus they (the nobles) prattle. They (the prophets) should not prattle of these things; their scoldings are unceasing.' The nobles turn on Micah. Prophets have no right to meddle with social and political questions, but should leave them to men whose business it is to deal with them. We are weary of this eternal scolding.

7. The first part of the V. probably continues the speech of the nobles: 'Shall it be said, O. house of Jacob, is the spirit of the Lord straitened? are these His doings?' Can we, a nation whom God called the house of Jacob, endure to hear a prophet foretell its ruin? Micah replies abruptly, 'Tour sins are blinding you. My words are good to men who bring a conscience to their appreciation.'