3 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye go haughtily: for this time is evil.
(Chapter 2—Verse 1 onwards) Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil upon their beds! In the morning light they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. They covet fields, and seize them; houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance. Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I am devising against this family an evil from which you cannot remove your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be an evil time. On that day, this parable shall be taken up against you, and a song shall be sung with sweetness, saying: We have been utterly devastated. The portion of my people has been changed. How shall he withdraw from me, when he shall return, who will divide our regions? For this reason, there will be no one sending out a measuring line to the assembly of the Lord. LXX: They have become those who think about labors and do evil in their beds. And together, on the day of the consummation, they will complete them. For they have not lifted up their hands to God, and they have desired fields, and they have plundered the orphan, and they have oppressed houses, and they have seized a man, and his house, a man and his inheritance. Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I am devising evil against this tribe, from which you will not remove your necks, so that you will not walk upright, for it is a time of disaster. In that day a proverb will be taken up against you, and a lamentation with the singing of mournful songs will be sung: We are utterly ruined; my people's portion is measured out with a measuring line, and there is no one to restore it. Our fields are divided up; therefore there will be no one to set a milestone for you in the inheritance. What we have placed at the end of the chapter according to the Hebrew, in the assembly of the Lord, for which the Seventy translated, in the Church of the Lord; according to the Vulgate edition, the beginning of the following chapter is. And therefore, if the Lord permits, we will discuss it. Woe to you, assembly of the Jews, who both plan evil and carry it out. And you defile the sleeping chambers given for rest with lewdness, and whatever wickedness you engage in during the night, as if it were not permissible to delay, you hastily fulfill it as soon as day breaks, not considering that your hand is strong against the Lord. And in order to teach through Scripture what they were thinking at night and doing during the day, he explains in parts. 'They coveted,' he says, 'the fields and forcefully took them; and the houses, it is understood, they coveted and plundered the ones they coveted. And not only did they malign people and their homes, but they also ravaged their descendants who deserved mercy for their tender age with their voracious mouths. Therefore, because you have done these things and thought them useless, I, the Lord, will plan evil against this family. Not that the evil I plan is actually evil, but because it seems evil to those who suffer when I inflict it. And I will afflict you in such a way that you will not be able to lift up your necks and walk proudly, namely those whom the time of captivity has oppressed.'
Then a parable will be spoken against you, and your miseries will be turned into a song: We have been devastated by depopulation, the portion of my people: My temple, which I alone had more than other nations, will be changed into ruin. How will the Assyrian depart from me, when he returns to distribute my fields by lot for himself? Therefore, O family of Israel, against whom I am devising evil, you will not have a portion in the inheritance of the righteous. But even about the final captivity this can be understood, that everything happened to them because they crucified the Lord: in such a way, however, that the version of the Seventy interpreters is discussed. For the glory of the daughter of Israel was stripped, and shaved over the once most delicate sons, and if anything of hair was born afterward, it was immediately cut off and shaved. Then all their plans turned into labor, and what they conceived, with the mind and soul asleep, brought them troubles: and what they did, as soon as the light of Christ and retribution appeared, was disturbed. For when they had read that Israel had conquered, when Moses raised his hands to the Lord, and that Amalek had been defeated when Moses grew weary and lowered his arms (Exodus XVII), they did not lift their hands to the Lord, but committed all kinds of crimes against the poor and the people of the Lord. They desired fields and plundered the houses of orphans, and they ravaged the man and his wife and their children and their possessions. Therefore the Lord planned evil against that tribe: not against the twelve tribes, but against the tribe corrupted by malice and wickedness, who could not lift up their heads or walk uprightly. Finally, up until the present day, they have been subjects of the Roman Empire, and they are burdened by the yoke of captivity, and they do not lift their necks. However, the following phrase, ἐξαίφνης, which means 'suddenly,' is not found in the Hebrew volumes, yet it can correspond with the present passage in such a way that we may say: Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I am devising evil against this tribe suddenly, from which they cannot lift their necks, and for this reason, they will not be able to lift them, because it is a time of evil. For just as they worked evil against the Lord Jesus, so they will endure the evils of perpetual captivity, and they will come into such great distress that all their songs and psalms will be turned into mourning. And the people will know nothing else to say except for this: we have become wretched in our misery. For the promised land, which had previously been divided by lot among the two and a half tribes beyond the Jordan, with Moses sending the measuring cord and later divided among the remaining tribes by Joshua, has now been divided among the Gentiles under Roman rule. And there is no one to prevent them from ruling over all the nations. Not a single Jew possesses the ancient freedom of their homeland. But if we choose to follow the third exposition, we will see that every thought of ours is labor and sorrow, and our bed is filled with evils, and even the light itself, which seems bright, is mixed with darkness. And whatever we handle at night, we do so in darkness. For which of us can lift holy hands to God without anger and thought? Who does not desire the villas of this age, forgetting the possessions of paradise? You may see others connecting fields with fields and joining boundaries with boundaries, and the small body of a man not being sufficient for the countryside of cities. Therefore the Lord thinks upon us evil things, from which we are unable to lift up our necks, nor to walk upright, because it is a very bad time, according to the words of John saying: The world is placed in the evil one (1 John 5:19). The same thing is signified by that noble soul in the Gospel, the daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound and bowed down, and unless she could be raised up before the coming of the Lord, nor could she look upon her Creator. Then Jesus said: 'Shouldn't this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day?' (Luke 13:16). Therefore, because our glory has been completely diminished and we have extended the shaving or our nakedness (for thus it is found in some codices), those who would lament with Jeremiah and take up a parable against us were sent, saying with the Apostle: 'I will mourn for the many who have sinned and have not repented' (2 Corinthians 12:21). For who would not lament seeing human souls as if they were a diverse collection of furniture possessed by demons and various vices? One demon sends the cord of fornication, another of greed. This one extends the lines of murder, while that one of perjury. The portion of the people of God is divided by a cord. And the fields once holy and like paradise, of which Isaac delighted in the smell, were handed over to the Assyrians and to the Babylonian king. And while foxes have dens and birds have nests, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head (Matt. 8). I have explained, according to the limitations of my small intelligence, the first captivity of the people by the Assyrians and Babylonians, the second by the Romans who crucified the Lord, and the third spiritual captivity in which each one of us fell from paradise with Adam and is held captive in this world. When the Lord comes, he will raise up the fallen and release the imprisoned (Psalm 144). He will also gather the once captive of the devil into his possession, fulfilling the words of the Psalmist: As he ascended on high, he led captivity captive (Psalm 68:18). According to this explanation, the fourth captivity can also be understood as the Church, from which each person departs through sin, and then, through Ezra, who interprets as helper, that is, through the word of God, is brought back to Jerusalem (1 Esdras 7). However, if someone has been meditating on the Law of the Lord day and night, they have had greater zeal, greater intelligence, leisure, and grace, and they may be able to say something more probable about the present chapter. I do not envy, I do not reject, but rather I desire to learn from him what I do not know, and I will gladly profess myself as his student, as long as he teaches and does not detract. For nothing is so easy as to debate about the work and efforts of others when one is idle and asleep.
[AD 420] Jerome on Micah 2:1-5
Then a parable will be spoken against you, and your miseries will be turned into a song: We have been devastated by depopulation, the portion of my people: My temple, which I alone had more than other nations, will be changed into ruin. How will the Assyrian depart from me, when he returns to distribute my fields by lot for himself? Therefore, O family of Israel, against whom I am devising evil, you will not have a portion in the inheritance of the righteous. But even about the final captivity this can be understood, that everything happened to them because they crucified the Lord: in such a way, however, that the version of the Seventy interpreters is discussed. For the glory of the daughter of Israel was stripped, and shaved over the once most delicate sons, and if anything of hair was born afterward, it was immediately cut off and shaved. Then all their plans turned into labor, and what they conceived, with the mind and soul asleep, brought them troubles: and what they did, as soon as the light of Christ and retribution appeared, was disturbed. For when they had read that Israel had conquered, when Moses raised his hands to the Lord, and that Amalek had been defeated when Moses grew weary and lowered his arms (Exodus XVII), they did not lift their hands to the Lord, but committed all kinds of crimes against the poor and the people of the Lord. They desired fields and plundered the houses of orphans, and they ravaged the man and his wife and their children and their possessions. Therefore the Lord planned evil against that tribe: not against the twelve tribes, but against the tribe corrupted by malice and wickedness, who could not lift up their heads or walk uprightly. Finally, up until the present day, they have been subjects of the Roman Empire, and they are burdened by the yoke of captivity, and they do not lift their necks. However, the following phrase, ἐξαίφνης, which means 'suddenly,' is not found in the Hebrew volumes, yet it can correspond with the present passage in such a way that we may say: Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I am devising evil against this tribe suddenly, from which they cannot lift their necks, and for this reason, they will not be able to lift them, because it is a time of evil. For just as they worked evil against the Lord Jesus, so they will endure the evils of perpetual captivity, and they will come into such great distress that all their songs and psalms will be turned into mourning. And the people will know nothing else to say except for this: we have become wretched in our misery. For the promised land, which had previously been divided by lot among the two and a half tribes beyond the Jordan, with Moses sending the measuring cord and later divided among the remaining tribes by Joshua, has now been divided among the Gentiles under Roman rule. And there is no one to prevent them from ruling over all the nations. Not a single Jew possesses the ancient freedom of their homeland. But if we choose to follow the third exposition, we will see that every thought of ours is labor and sorrow, and our bed is filled with evils, and even the light itself, which seems bright, is mixed with darkness. And whatever we handle at night, we do so in darkness. For which of us can lift holy hands to God without anger and thought? Who does not desire the villas of this age, forgetting the possessions of paradise? You may see others connecting fields with fields and joining boundaries with boundaries, and the small body of a man not being sufficient for the countryside of cities. Therefore the Lord thinks upon us evil things, from which we are unable to lift up our necks, nor to walk upright, because it is a very bad time, according to the words of John saying: The world is placed in the evil one (1 John 5:19). The same thing is signified by that noble soul in the Gospel, the daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound and bowed down, and unless she could be raised up before the coming of the Lord, nor could she look upon her Creator. Then Jesus said: 'Shouldn't this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day?' (Luke 13:16). Therefore, because our glory has been completely diminished and we have extended the shaving or our nakedness (for thus it is found in some codices), those who would lament with Jeremiah and take up a parable against us were sent, saying with the Apostle: 'I will mourn for the many who have sinned and have not repented' (2 Corinthians 12:21). For who would not lament seeing human souls as if they were a diverse collection of furniture possessed by demons and various vices? One demon sends the cord of fornication, another of greed. This one extends the lines of murder, while that one of perjury. The portion of the people of God is divided by a cord. And the fields once holy and like paradise, of which Isaac delighted in the smell, were handed over to the Assyrians and to the Babylonian king. And while foxes have dens and birds have nests, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head (Matt. 8). I have explained, according to the limitations of my small intelligence, the first captivity of the people by the Assyrians and Babylonians, the second by the Romans who crucified the Lord, and the third spiritual captivity in which each one of us fell from paradise with Adam and is held captive in this world. When the Lord comes, he will raise up the fallen and release the imprisoned (Psalm 144). He will also gather the once captive of the devil into his possession, fulfilling the words of the Psalmist: As he ascended on high, he led captivity captive (Psalm 68:18). According to this explanation, the fourth captivity can also be understood as the Church, from which each person departs through sin, and then, through Ezra, who interprets as helper, that is, through the word of God, is brought back to Jerusalem (1 Esdras 7). However, if someone has been meditating on the Law of the Lord day and night, they have had greater zeal, greater intelligence, leisure, and grace, and they may be able to say something more probable about the present chapter. I do not envy, I do not reject, but rather I desire to learn from him what I do not know, and I will gladly profess myself as his student, as long as he teaches and does not detract. For nothing is so easy as to debate about the work and efforts of others when one is idle and asleep.