What Does Micah 2:2 Mean in the King James?
And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The coveting in this verse is desire turned into a system of seizure, reaching from another person’s land and home into their inheritance.
THE MEANING
When desire for what belongs to another governs, fields and homes become things to seize, and a person’s household and inheritance are violated along with them. The verse shows the cost spreading beyond property into the place and future a person holds.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that gaining more is harmless when the cost falls on someone else; this verse names that gain as another person’s dispossession.
THE ROOT
חָמְדוּ
ḥāmedû
GROWS FROM
חמד
ḥ-m-d
To desire or take pleasure in; in this verse, to covet.
The same root appears in the command not to covet a neighbor’s house. Micah shows desire crossing into action: the longing for another’s property becomes seizure of it.
ALSO GROWS
ḥemdāh: Desire, desirableness, or something precious.
חֶמְדָּה
The root can describe what is desired as precious, exposing how another person’s valued property becomes the object of coveting.
maḥmād: A desirable or precious thing.
מַחְמָד
This branch makes the link between desire and the coveted object explicit: what is precious to one becomes something another wants to possess.
וְגָזָלוּ
vegāzālû
GROWS FROM
גזל
g-z-l
To rob or seize what belongs to another.
“take them by violence” in this verse is vegāzālû. The verb names the act as robbery, so the verse’s sequence is clear: desire is followed by taking what belongs to someone else. The English phrase “by violence” carries this force, while the Hebrew root directly connects the taking with robbery.
ALSO GROWS
gāzal: To rob or seize.
גָּזַל
This is the root verb behind the verse’s description of taking fields.
gezelāh: Robbery, or something robbed.
גְּזֵלָה
This noun shows the act and its stolen result growing from the same root.
נַחֲלָתוֹ
naḥălātô
GROWS FROM
נחל
n-ḥ-l
To inherit or receive as an inheritance; an inheritance or allotted possession.
“heritage” in this verse is naḥălātô. The verse ends with the person’s inheritance, showing that the taking reaches beyond a house or field to what belongs to that person as an inheritance. The root holds both the act of inheriting and the possession received.
ALSO GROWS
nāḥal: To inherit or possess as an inheritance.
נָחַל
This verb reveals the receiving side of the inheritance named in the verse.
naḥălāh: An inheritance or allotted possession.
נַחֲלָה
This noun is the form used in the verse: the thing taken is a person’s inherited portion.
THE PATTERN
When desire for another’s property governs, it can turn into taking that strips people of their homes, fields, and inheritance.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.THE THREAD
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.The Hebrew word translated “covet” in both verses comes from חמד (ḥ-m-d), desire or coveting. Exodus names the desire; Micah shows it becoming the seizure of a neighbor’s house, fields, and inheritance.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us