4 In that day shall they take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, `and' say, We are utterly ruined: he changeth the portion of my people: how doth he remove `it' from me! to the rebellious he divideth our fields.
Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and that ladeth himself with pledges!
I will yet bring unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah, him that shall possess thee: the glory of Israel shall come even unto Adullam.
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skilful women, that they may come: and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters. For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we ruined! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings. Yet hear the word of Jehovah, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbor lamentation. For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from without, `and' the young men from the streets.
For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passeth through; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the birds of the heavens and the beasts are fled, they are gone.
The earth shall be utterly emptied, and utterly laid waste; for Jehovah hath spoken this word.
and thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and robbed alway, and there shall be none to save thee.
And he took up his parable, and said, From Aram hath Balak brought me, The king of Moab from the mountains of the East: Come, curse me Jacob, And come, defy Israel.
And they sought to lay hold on him; and they feared the multitude; for they perceived that he spake the parable against them: and they left him, and went away.
I will utterly consume all things from off the face of the ground, saith Jehovah.
And in all vineyards shall be wailing; for I will pass through the midst of thee, saith Jehovah.
Hear ye this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel.
Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
And he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; Hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor:
How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! She is become as a widow, that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces is become tributary! She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; Among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they are become her enemies. Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude; She dwelleth among the nations, she findeth no rest: All her persecutors overtook her within the straits. The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn assembly; All her gates are desolate, her priests do sigh: Her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness. Her adversaries are become the head, her enemies prosper; For Jehovah hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: Her young children are gone into captivity before the adversary.
behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith Jehovah, and `I will send' unto Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots `shall be' as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are ruined.
O Jehovah, why dost thou make us to err from thy ways, and hardenest our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance. Thy holy people possessed `it' but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.
And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: to fulfil the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths: `for' as long as it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.
until Jehovah removed Israel out of his sight, as he spake by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day. And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Avva, and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.
And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son:
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Micah 2
Commentary on Micah 2 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 2
In this chapter we have,
And this is the sum and scope of most of the chapters of this and other prophecies.
Mic 2:1-5
Here is,
Mic 2:6-11
Here are two sins charged upon the people of Israel, and judgments denounced against them for each, such judgments as exactly answer the sin-persecuting God's prophets and oppressing God's poor.
Mic 2:12-13
After threatenings of wrath, the chapter here concludes, as is usual in the prophets, with promises of mercy, which were in part fulfilled when the Jews returned out of Babylon, and had their full accomplishment in the kingdom of the Messiah. Their grievances shall be all redressed.