Micah 2:8-9

Micah 2:8-9 . Of late my people is risen up as an enemy AGAINST ME is to be here understood, namely, against God; for this is still spoken in the person of God. The sense is more evident in the Hebrew than in our translation, namely, But they who were yesterday (or lately) my people rise up (now, or to-day) as an enemy. Ye pull off the robe with the garment Ye are guilty of grievous oppression and inhumanity: ye are not content with spoiling the poor, and those who are weaker than yourselves, of their cloak, but take their coat also. Taking the robe with the garment, or the cloak and coat also, seems to have been a proverbial expression to signify a high degree of oppression and injury. From them that pass by securely Who, fearing no evil, are going about their private affairs; as men averse from war Who are willing to live peaceably with you, and give you no manner of provocation: even these, you in a violent manner strip of all their substance, even to their wearing apparel. The women of my people have ye cast out, &c. The widows, wives, and daughters of my people have you, by acts of injustice and oppression, turned out of their habitations, which to them were pleasant, and in which they delighted. From their children have ye taken away my glory for ever You have robbed their children, or posterity, of their houses and estates, which were secured to them by the law of God from any sale or alienation beyond the year of jubilee, which was the glory of my bounty to them: yet you have confiscated these their inheritances for ever. Or, as some think, the sense of this clause may be, “When you plunder their houses you take away their children, and sell them to strangers and idolaters; and they are no longer esteemed my children, because they become the worshippers of false gods.”