Woe to Those Who Oppress
It opens on people who lie awake planning how to seize fields and houses, then do it at dawn because they can. They tell Micah to stop preaching. Our Father says he is planning something for them too, then abruptly promises to gather the remnant like a flock.
2 1Woe to those who plot wickedness and work out evil upon their beds! At the morning light they carry it out, because they have the power to do it. 2They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and carry them off. They oppress a man and his house, a person and his inheritance.
3Therefore this is what our Father says: Look, against this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot pull your necks free; you will not be able to hold your heads high, for it is an evil time. 4In that day they will take up a taunt against you and wail with bitter lamentation, saying, "We are utterly ruined! He trades away the portion of my people; how he strips it from me! To the traitor he parcels out our fields." 5Therefore you will have no one to cast the measuring line by lot in the assembly of our Father. a a v5 Casting the measuring line by lot was how Israel divided land among families; losing this right meant permanent exclusion from the community's inheritance.
The Father Silences False Prophets
6"Do not preach!" they preach. "No one should preach such things; disgrace will not overtake us."
7Should this be said, house of Jacob? Is the Spirit of our Father impatient? Are these his deeds? Do not my words bring good to the one who walks uprightly?
8But lately my children have risen up as an enemy. You strip the rich robe from those who pass by unsuspecting, like men returning from war who wanted no fight. 9You drive the women of my people out of their pleasant homes; from their little children you take away my splendor forever. 10Get up and go, for this is no place of rest; because it is defiled, it brings destruction—a grievous destruction. 11If a man who lives by empty deceit were to lie, "I will preach to you of wine and alcohol," he would be just the preacher for this people!
The Father Gathers His Remnant
12I will surely gather all of you, Jacob; I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel. I will set them as one, like sheep in a pen, like a flock in the midst of their pasture—a place loud with people.
13The one who breaks open the way goes up before them; they break through and pass the gate, going out through it. Their King goes on ahead of them, our Father at their head. b b v13 The one who breaks open the way is Jesus, who goes ahead of his people to open the path home and lead them out of every captivity—their King, with our Father at their head.
