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From: Micah 2:1-5

The prophet denounces social injustice

[1] Woe to those who devise wickedness
and work evil upon their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
because it is in the power of their hand.
[2] They covet fields, and seize them;
and houses, and take them away;
they oppress a man and his house,
a man and his inheritance.
[3] Therefore thus says the Lord:
Behold, against this family I am devising evil,
from which you cannot remove your necks;
and you shall not walk haughtily.
for it will be an evil time.
[4] In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you,
and wail with bitter lamentation,
and say, “We are utterly ruined:
he changes the portion of my people;
how he removes it from me!
Among our captors he divides our fields.”
[5] Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot
in the assembly of the Lord.

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Commentary:

2:1-5. This is an oracle beginning with “Woe!”, and it is directed against the
social injustice perpetuated by the well-to-do who take advantage of the poorer
members of society. Micah speaks very clearly in this denunciation. The peo-
ple with power seem to spend all their time coveting, robbing and cheating: they
spend their nights making their plans, and their days carrying them out (vv. 1-2).
The odd thing is that these men seem to be men of faith, for the words that the
prophet puts on their lips (v. 4) are an acknowledgment that the Lord giveth and
the Lord taketh away. Micah’s teachings are practical applications of the fifth
and tenth commandments which prohibit respectively “violence and injustice”
and “coveting the goods of another, as the root of theft, robbery and fraud, which
the seventh commandment forbids. ‘Lust of the eyes’ leads to the violence and
injustice forbidden by the fifth commandment” (Catechism of the Catholic
Church, 2534).

The Lord tells what punishment will apply to such sins — the oppression in ex-
ile (v. 3), and confiscation of property (v. 4). It seems to be a veiled example of
the application of the law of vengeance, though to the Christian reader it sounds
somewhat like our Lord’s warning: “the measure you give will be measure you
get” (Mt 7:2).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.