Micah 2:1

Woe to them that devise iniquity,.... Any kind of iniquity; idolatry, or worshipping of idols, for the word is used sometimes for an idol; or the sin of uncleanness, on which the thoughts too often

Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand. Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds!

MICAH CHAPTER 2 God’ s judgment against oppression, . A lamentation for the removal of his people, . A reproof for their injustice and delight in false prophets, . A promise of restoration, ,13. The prophet now denounceth judgment against oppressors in particular, of which sort of men Judah had too many, and Israel had many more at that day. That devise iniquity; contrive and frame mischiefs to others, how they may be ruined, as appears , and all the gain that can be made of their fall may be brought into the hand of the contrivers; which was the sin of the great ones in Israel, who for near forty years together were plotting to undo one another. And work evil: here is a dislocation of the words, unless the prophet would intimate to us, that in God’ s account the resolving to do evil is doing it. Upon their beds; when they should rest from making trouble to others, as well as rest from their labour and troubles of the day, when they should praise God for their own ease, safety, and rest, then their inhumanity and cruelty is forecasting how to grieve, vex, and swallow up others. When the morning is light; so soon as they rise, and that is early; when such practices are in design, these cannot sleep till they make them fall on whom they fix their designs. They practise it; finish or execute their mischievous purposes. Because it is in the power of their hand; they care not whether there be either justice or reason for what they do; if they have power enough to do, they will take confidence to do it, and never blush.

Micah 2:1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.Ver. 1. Woe to them that devise iniquity] Or, labour, affliction, vanity, a lie. The Hebrew word Aven is of large use; applied to all kinds of sin which causeth pain, sorrow, and misery; and here in particular to covetousness, that root of all evil to a man’ s self and others, 1 Timothy 6:9-10. Our prophet flings a woe at it, as doth likewise Habakkuk, Habakkuk 2:9, calling it an evil covetousness, as the prophet Isaiah tells us, that for the iniquity of his covetousness God was wroth with Israel and smote him, Isaiah 57:17. The world counts it a light offence; and casts a cloak of good husbandry over it, 1 Thessalonians 2:5. But this disguise will serve such no better than that which Ahab once put on and perished. "Let no man deceive you with vain words" (those plastered words, πλαστοιςλογοις, 2 Peter 2:3, used by bell’ s proctors): "for because of these things" (sc. fornication, covetousness, &c., those peccadillos as they are counted) "cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience," Ephesians 5:6. For what reason? They devise iniquity, cogitant quasi coagitant, they plot and plough mischief, being men of wicked devices, Proverbs 14:2, talking again to themselves, as that covetous wretch did, Luke 12:17, beating their brains about their worldly projects, and resting no more, no, not upon their beds by night (a time and place appointed for rest, when men should together with their clothes put off their cares, and compose themselves to sleep, that nurse of nature, and sweet parenthesis), than one doth upon a rack or bed of thorns. Thus they work evil upon their beds] They work hard at it, having the devil for their taskmaster, who shall therefore also be their paymaster. He hath their souls here as in a sling, 1 Samuel 25:29, violently tossed about and restless; they are his drudges and dromedaries, driven about by him at his pleasure, 2 Timothy 2:26, wholly acted and agitated by him, Ephesians 2:2, having as many lords as lusts, wherewith their hearts are night and day exercised, 2 Peter 2:14, without intermission. See this in Felix, who at the same instant trembled and coveted a bribe; in Ahab, who, sick of Naboth’ s vineyard, laid him down upon his bed, but rested not, 1 Kings 21:4. His heart did more afflict and vex itself with greedy longing for that bit of earth than the vast and spacious compass of a kingdom could counter comfort. When the morning is light they practise it] And so they lose no time, being up and at it by peep of day; when others are fast asleep, and so more easily surprised and circumvented by them. The morning is the most precious part of the day; and should be employed to better purpose.

II. (1) Woe to them that devise.—The prophet proceeds to denounce the sins for which the country was to receive condign punishment at the hands of God. There is a gradation in the terms employed: they mark the deliberate character of the acts: there were no extenuating circumstances. In the night they formed the plan, they thought it out upon their beds, and carried it out into execution in the morning. So also the gradually increasing intercourse with the wicked is described, as reaching its culmination, in the first Psalm: Walking with the ungodly leads to standing among sinners, and at last sitting habitually in the seat of the scornful.

CHAPTER II Here the prophet denounces a wo against the plotters of wickedness, the covetous and the oppressor, 1, 2. God is represented as devising their ruin, 3. An Israelite is then introduced as a mourner, personating his people, and lamenting their fate, 4. Their total expulsion is now threatened on account of their very numerous offences, 5-10. Great infatuation of the people in favour of those pretenders to Divine inspiration who prophesied to them peace and plenty, 11. The chapter concludes with a gracious promise of the restoration of the posterity of Jacob from captivity; possibly alluding to their deliverance from the Chaldean yoke, an event which was about two hundred years in futurity at the delivery of this prophecy, 12, 13. NOTES ON CHAP. II Verse 1. Wo to them that devise iniquity] Who lay schemes and plans for transgressions; who make it their study to find out new modes of sinning; and make these things their nocturnal meditations, that, having fixed their plan, they may begin to execute it as soon as it is light in the morning. Because it is in the power of their hand.] They think they may do whatever they have power and opportunity to do.

1–5. Sin and its corresponding Punishment 1. and work evil] To ‘work,’ as distinguished from ‘devise’ and to ‘practise’ or ‘execute,’ is to prepare ways and means (see Isaiah 41:4). Obs., it is no mere act of thoughtlessness, or passionate impulse, which is here denounced, but a set purpose of dispossessing the small proprietors. upon their beds] The natural place for reflexion, whether in a bad sense (as here and Psalms 36:4), or in a good (as Psalms 63:6). it is in the power of their hand] A doubt as to the meaning has arisen from the fact that the word el here rendered ‘power’ is more commonly used for ‘god.’ But Lagarde has shewn that the root meaning of el is ‘that to which one reaches out.’ Comp. Acts 17:27.

The prophet had declared that evil should come down on Samaria and Jerusalem for their sins.

1, 2. A vivid description of the corrupt conduct of the aristocracy.