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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 people 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 he 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 exile (v. 3), and confiscation of property (v. 4). It seems to he 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).