Premeditated evil is worse than evil done on the spur of the moment, because the will to do evil is more involved. In Micah 2:1, 2, the hand represents power ¹ , and when the evildoer treats his power as his god, the penalty is great. The planning that goes into coveting is a similar thing.

In Micah 2:3-5, the family means the church - the state of spiritual life - as it was in both kingdoms, Israel and Judah. The words here tell that both these parts of the church will be devastated, first one and then the other. Thus, in the end, there will be none left in the land of Canaan, and there will be no choosing of inheritance, as was done with Joshua back when the land was first divided amongst the 12 tribes. (See Joshua 13 through 16). To cast a cord is to use a measuring cord to plot out a piece of land.

Micah 2:6, 7. To drop down means to drop knowledge down to one who does not know, that is, to teach. Those who are in evil are not humble enough to be taught. Only those who “walk uprightly” profit from teaching about the Lord and His Word.

Micah 2:8,9. People who are not humble enough to learn truths become enemies to good people. They will try to argue away the truths from someone who uses them to fight temptations. In these verses, the stolen garment means truths ² . The war means temptations. The gentle love of feeling close to the Lord, and the love of innocence ³ , will be attacked by evil people who will try to destroy them by scoffing and denial.

Micah 2:10, 11. The unteachable people of that dying church will perish. They will only accept teachings from a prophet who promises wine and strong drink. In a good sense, wine in the Word represents truth, as when it's used in the holy supper. But, like all natural things, the meaning can sometimes be used in the opposite way, as here, where it means the falsities of evil. ⁴

Micah 2:12, 13. There will still be a few people who remain good, and true. These will be gathered by the Lord as a flock to its fold. From their speaking they can be judged, and then led on to the new church established by Jehovah.

The takeaways for us, reading this text 2600 years later, could be boiled down to these truths:

- Don't premeditate evil.

- We need to be humble enough to learn truths about the Lord.

- If we walk uprightly, we have a chance to receive truth, and practice it, and benefit from what we learn.

- If we remain good and true, the Lord can lead us.

Fußnoten:

6454. 'Which is in the field of Ephron the Hittite' means which however can be made into clear light. This is clear from the meaning of 'the field' as the Church, dealt with in 1971, 3766; and from the representation of 'Ephron the Hittite' as those with whom the ability exists to receive what is true and good, dealt with in 2933, 2940, 2969, thus with whom obscurity of faith can be made into clear light. The situation in all this is that whatever is present in the natural, especially in the exterior natural, is obscure when compared with things in the interior natural, and even more so when compared with things in the rational, 6451, 6453. But that obscurity can be made into clear light in two ways:

(1) If exterior things are made subservient to interior ones and are thereby brought into agreement with them, and

(2)2 If the person can be raised from exterior things to interior ones and so can see exterior things from an interior standpoint. The second way is for those who are in the internal part of the Church, the first for those who are in the external part of it; but neither one way nor the other can be used unless they are being regenerated by the Lord. From all this one may see what is meant when it is said that obscurity can be made into clear light.