Micah 2
1 Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.
Terrible things will happen to you who lie awake at night, planning to do wicked things. You get up at dawn, and you do those things, [as soon as] you are able to do them.
2 They covet fields and seize them; they take away houses. They deprive a man of his home, a fellow man of his inheritance.
You want fields [that belong to other people], so you seize them; you also take their houses. You cheat people to get their homes, taking away the property that belongs to their families.
3 Therefore this is what the LORD says: “I am planning against this nation a disaster from which you cannot free your necks. Then you will not walk so proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.
Therefore, this is what Yahweh says: “I will cause you people to experience disasters, and you will not be able to escape [MTY] from them. You will no [longer] walk around proudly, because when those things happen, it will be a time of much trouble for you.
4 In that day they will take up a proverb against you and taunt you with this bitter lamentation: ‘We are utterly ruined! He has changed the portion of my people. How He has removed it from me! He has allotted our fields to traitors.’”
At that time, [your enemies] will make fun of you; they will ridicule you by singing this sad song about you: ‘We are completely ruined; Yahweh is taking our land/fields from us, and he will give it to those who will capture us.’”
5 Therefore, you will have no one in the assembly of the LORD to divide the land by lot.
So [when it is the time for the land to be given back to you] people who belong to Yahweh, there will be no one [MTY] who will be able to (cast lots/throw marked stones) to determine which land belongs to whom.
6 “Do not preach,” they preach. “Do not preach these things; disgrace will not overtake us.”
The people [who heard me say that] replied to me, “Do not prophesy such things! Do not say that [Yahweh] is going to humiliate us [by causing us to experience disasters]!”
7 Should it be said, O house of Jacob, “Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient? Are these the things He does?” Do not My words bring good to him who walks uprightly?
But you people [MTY] of Israel should not [RHQ] talk like that! The Spirit of Yahweh will certainly not [RHQ] be patient [with people who say such things]! People who continually do things that are righteous will certainly [RHQ] like/appreciate what I say.
8 But of late My people have risen up like an enemy: You strip off the splendid robe from unsuspecting passersby like men returning from battle.
[But Yahweh says], “[Recently] my people have been acting toward me like an enemy. When soldiers return from fighting [against their enemies], you [rich people refuse to return the coats of those poor soldiers who have borrowed money from you] [and given you their coats to guarantee that they will pay back the money that they borrowed from you]. [It is as though] you are waiting to forcefully take their coats off their backs!
9 You drive the women of My people from their pleasant homes. You take away My blessing from their children forever.
You have forced women to leave their nice homes, and you have stolen from their children forever the (blessings/good things) that I wanted to give them.
10 Arise and depart, for this is not your place of rest, because its defilement brings destruction— a grievous destruction!
[So] get up and leave [here]! This is not a place where you can rest [and be safe/protected], because you have (defiled it/caused it to be a place that I hate); it will be completely destroyed.
11 If a man of wind were to come and say falsely, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be just the preacher for this people!
[You people want] a prophet who will lie to you, saying ‘I will preach [that you should drink] plenty of wine and [other] alcoholic drinks!’ That is the [kind of] prophet who [would please] you.”
12 I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob; I will collect the remnant of Israel. I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in the midst of its pasture— a noisy throng.
“[But some day], you descendants of Jacob, you Israeli people who have survived, I will bring you back [from (exile/other countries)], I will gather you together like [SIM] [a shepherd gathers his] sheep from the pasture into a pen [DOU]; there will be many of you in your land/country.
13 One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate, and go out by it. Their King will pass through before them, the LORD as their leader.
Your leader will enable them to leave the countries where they have been exiled; he will lead them out of the gates [of their enemies’ cities], [back to your own country]. Your king will lead them; [it is I], Yahweh, who will be their king!”
