Micah 2:1
Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.
Study Note
Study Note
Micah's first woe oracle targets those who 'devise wickedness and work evil upon their beds' and execute it at dawn — condemning the premeditated acquisition of fields and houses through fraud and oppression. The verse's moral logic closely parallels Isaiah 5:8 and 1 Kings 21 (the story of Naboth's vineyard), indicating a specific crisis of land theft against smallholders in eighth-century Judah. The sin is not merely private: covetous desire translated into systematic action destroys the Jubilee land tenure system that was meant to prevent permanent economic stratification. James 5:1-4 directly echoes this prophetic tradition in condemning wealthy landowners who defraud workers, demonstrating the continuity of prophetic social ethics in the New Testament.
Other Translations
Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.
Woe <FI>to<Fi> those devising iniquity, And working evil on their beds, In the light of the morning they do it, For their hand is--to God.
A curse on the designers of evil, working on their beds! in the morning light they do it, because it is in their power.
Cross References
It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto …
Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing …
And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all …
Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, …
But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he devised against the …
Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.
His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.
He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil.
Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man;
Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked: further not his wicked device; lest they exalt themselves. Selah.