Here the Prophet concludes his discourse respecting God's design to cleanse
MINOR PROPHETS
so that they who had been driven out, now in vain thought of a restitution. 159 But I read this in the present time; for the Prophet introduces here the Jews as uttering this lamentation, --- ``It is now all over with us, and there is no remedy for this evil; for not only are we stripped of all our property and ejected from our country, but what has been taken away by our enemies cannot be restored to us, inasmuch as they have already parted our possessions among themselves, and every one occupies his own portion and his own place, as though it were his own inheritance. We have therefore to do, not only with the Assyrians in general, but also with every individual; for what every one now occupies and possesses he will defend, as his rightful and hereditary possession.''
Some conjecture from this verse, that the discourse belongs rather to the Israelites, who were banished without any hope of return; but no necessity constrains us to explain this of the Israelites; for the Prophet does not declare here what God would do, but what would be the calamity when considered in itself. We have indeed said already in many places, that the Prophets, while threatening, speak only of calamities, desolations, deaths, and destructions, but that they afterwards add promises for consolation. But their teaching is discriminative: when the Prophets intend to terrify hypocrites and perverse men, they set forth the wrath of God only, and leave no hope; but when they would inspire with hope those who are by this means humbled, they draw forth comfort to them even from the goodness of God.
What is here said then may fitly and really be applied to the Jews. It follows ---
Micah 2:5
5. Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the LORD.
5. Itaque non erit tibi projiciens funiculum ad sortem in coetu Jehovae.
Here the Prophet concludes his discourse respecting God's design to cleanse
Judea from its perverse and wicked inhabitants, that it might no longer be the inheritance of one people. For the land, we know, had been given to the posterity of Abraham, on the condition, that it was to be held by them as an heritage: and we also know, that a line was determined by lot whenever the year of Jubilee returned, that every one might regain his own possession. The Prophet now testifies that this advantage would be taken away from the Jews, and that they would hereafter possess the land by no hereditary right; for God, who had given it, would now take it
159Most commentators agree as to the general meaning of this verse, which is clearly stated here: but their versions differ. Newcome, following the Septuagint, renders the verbs in the first and second lines in a passive sense, but Henderson gives them an active meaning, supplying "one" as the nominative case, i.e., the person, who utters the lamentation afterwards mentioned. The two last lines are the most difficult. Marckius has this version, — Quomodo subtraxit mihi! Avertenti agros nostros distribuit! That of Junius and Tremelius is essentially the same, only the verbs are put in the present tense. Newcome's rendering is this, — How hath he withdrawn it form me! To an apostate he hath divided our fields! To call the king of Babylon an apostate, seems incongruous, as it cannot be applied to any one but who has turned away from true religion. The most obvious and literal rendering is that given by Marckius, with the exception of the tense. I offer the following version of the whole verse, with no alteration in the text, except the supplying of a {{וbefore {}אמרwhich is found in several MSS., --- In that day shall be taken up concerning you a proverb, And lament a lamentation will the oppressed, And say will the desolate, --- ``We are destroyed, The portion of my people he changes; How he takes away from me! To the alienator of my fields he divides them! It is a proverb, a common saying, and a lament, that would be uttered, as the Prophet foretells, at the time of the expulsion of the people from the land, when it would be taken possession of by their enemies. --- Ed.