Micah 2:2

"And they covet the fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage."

"Even a man and his heritage ..." The ancient land-laws of the children of Israel are the background of this. Upon their entry into Canaan, God had allocated, by the casting of lots, to each of the tribes of Israel their inheritance; and, in turn, the various families within the various tribes each received its God-given portion. This arrangement was sacred; and upon every golden jubilee, all sales, mortgages, and interim property deals were cancelled; and all of the land reverted to its original possessors, or their heirs. Such an arrangement, whatever may have been considered its shortcomings, prevented the building up of a landed nobility, which in every age and in all countries has resulted in the bitter and heartless oppression of the poor. In demanding a king, the Israelites took the first step in dismantling God's system. The ancient jubilees were no longer honored, as commanded in Leviticus 25:13ff; and the result was the harsh oppression and robbery of the poor, as depicted in these verses. The kings, of course, were opposed to continuing God's system, and they frequently engaged in the exploitation of the poor upon their own behalf, as did Ahab, when he slew Naboth in Samaria and took away his inheritance (1 Kings 21f).

It should be noted that it was a covenant provision of the will of God which was wantonly violated and repudiated by Israel.

"They covet fields, etc ..." This is a violation of the Decalogue in the specific instance of Commandment X, in some ways one of the most significant in the whole Decalogue, because it indicated that, "God regarded sins of thought as well as of action."[3] The apostle Paul seemed to have regarded this as the most difficult commandment in the ancient Law (Romans 7:7). With all respect for God's law at a very low ebb, disastrous conditions soon resulted. McKeating described the situation in those days thus:

"During the monarchy, whatever the theory of the matter, land did in practice pass out of the hands of the small landholders. When peasants fell into serious debt, they often had no option but to sell, and the laws of redemption and jubilee were a dead letter."[4]