Micah 2:6–11

2:6 Micah’s message of judgment did not sit well with many in his audience, including his prophetic colleagues. They tell him to stop preaching, using a word that may be a derogatory word for prophesying, implying that he is “dripping on” like an annoying nag. The word is used for droplets of moisture in many contexts (Judg. 5:4; Prov. 5:3; Joel 3:18). These prophets view Micah and people like him as needlessly bothering others with their judgment oracles. After this initial sentence, it becomes difficult to identify the speakers in the text. The best view (cf. Introduction: Interpretive Challenges for other options) is perhaps to understand Micah as immediately responding to these prophets with, “They will not preach about these things” (i.e., judgment), rather than to understand the false prophets to be saying, “One should not preach of such things.”

Micah then goes on to say that “He [God] will not remove disgraces,” or “Disgraces will not be removed.” In other words, Micah is stating that if judgment is not preached, people will keep going on merrily along their way, assuming that everything is all right, and judgment will not be averted. (The other interpretation requires significant textual emendation to read, “Disgrace will not overtake us.” With this reading, the words are those of the false prophets, who state that judgment will certainly not come.)

2:7 This verse includes a series of four rhetorical questions, three expecting a negative answer and therefore probably the words of the false prophets. These are countered with a rhetorical question using the first person singular pronoun, referring to God, and this is therefore probably Micah contradicting the previous rhetorical questions with his own, which assumes a positive answer. “Should this be said, O house of Jacob?” is probably a response to Micah’s preaching of judgment. The false prophets asking the question clearly expect the answer to be “No!” The history of Israel included a notorious attempt to curse Jacob, which God turned into a blessing (Numbers 22–24). The second question, “Has the LORD grown impatient?” literally reads in Hebrew, “Has the Spirit of the LORD become short?” and refers to having a “short temper.” The answer is again negative. The last question, “Are these his deeds?” probably refers to the acts of judgment Micah is prophesying and may refer to the Assyrian soldiers outside the walls of Jerusalem at that very moment. Again a negative answer is expected. In short, the false prophets are emphasizing that the Lord’s judgment will not come.

Speaking through Micah, the Lord counters these questions with one of his own: “Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly?” Here God interrupts all of these questions by bringing his people back to the main terms of the covenant, in which righteousness and justice were expected—otherwise, curse would result (cf. Deuteronomy 28). In the Hebrew, the phrase “walks uprightly” was used to contrast those who pleased the Lord with those who were earlier condemned for walking arrogantly instead of uprightly (Mic. 2:3)

2:8 Now Micah lambasts his unfaithful colleagues with a litany of ways in which the wealthy landowners are walking arrogantly, becoming an enemy to their own people, suddenly and unexpectedly robbing people of their garments. It is as if the people have returned from war not expecting to be attacked by their own neighbors.

2:9 Moreover, women are driven from their domiciles, and children, here called “my splendor,” have also been taken away, probably to serve in debt slavery (cf. 2 Kings 4:1–7). All three of these crimes—robbing garments, driving women from their homes, and reducing children to debt slavery—are crimes against the vulnerable. In this case the husband is probably missing because he is serving as an indentured servant; his wife has to leave her home because the land has been expropriated, and thus she is particularly vulnerable—as are her “orphaned” children.

2:10 Micah is now very angry, essentially telling these wealthy landowners and their spiritual sycophants to “Get lost!” i.e., to “Get out of here!” He tells them to get up and leave the land, “for this is no place to rest.” The word “rest” is a rich theological word, with overtones of peace and security; it emphasizes all the blessings of the Promised Land for the people of God (Ex. 33:14; Josh. 21:44; Isa. 28:12). Its verbal counterpart first occurs when God places Adam in the garden of Eden (Gen. 2:15), thus indicating a place where all human needs are to be met, both physically with the abundant fruit of the garden, and also spiritually with the presence of God. Micah later provides a perfect word picture of what “rest” will mean under the Messiah’s rule: “They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken” (Mic. 4:4).

But Judah in Micah’s time is anything but such a place. In fact, it has become unclean, and such uncleanness “destroys with a grievous destruction.” “Uncleanness” is a highly charged religious word indicating that which must never come into contact with the holy. Here the entire land—which was supposed to be a place of holiness—has become defiled by the moral filth of the wealthy and their prophetic puppets. Both groups need to get out to a foreign, unclean land, where they will be better served. In this way, Israel will get the defilement and pollution out of their land.

2:11 Micah now turns to the false prophets and uses the same potentially derogatory word they had used for his preaching at the beginning of the oracle. He imagines a windbag (lit., one who “walks with the wind, and utters lies”), saying, in effect, “I will prophesy of wine and beer.” That person is just the preacher (dripper) for this people. To prophesy only of wine and beer is to bear a message about the life of pleasure and nothing else. “Wine and strong drink” could denote the good life in a positive sense in Israel, as wine was regarded as a divine gift (Ps. 104:15), but it could also become a ruthless master if one was not careful. It was regarded as the bane of kings, since it could cloud judgment (Prov. 31:4–7). Nazirites and priests on duty were forbidden to imbibe (Lev. 10:9; Num. 6:3; Judg. 13:4, 7). Micah’s contemporary Isaiah spoke of endless partying with no concern about the serious issues of life (Isa. 5:11–12). Thus these prophets are prosperity preachers. They say, “Don’t worry about anything. Be happy! Everything will be fine!” They are nothing but liars.