What Does Micah 2:8 Mean in the King James?
Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy: ye pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war.
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
When a community strips peaceful passersby, the verse names the community itself as the enemy.
THE MEANING
People who should be kin act as enemies, stripping the covering from those who pass in safety without seeking war. Their violence turns ordinary passage into exposure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that violence only comes from an outside enemy or an open battle: here, the people themselves become the threat to peaceful travelers.
THE ROOT
תַּפְשִׁיטוּן
tapšîṭûn
GROWS FROM
פשט
To strip off; the same verb can also describe spreading out to raid or invade.
“pull off” in this verse is tapšîṭûn. The English can make this sound like a simple act of taking clothing. The Hebrew verb also carries the force of a raid, exposing the violence in stripping a peaceful passerby as though they were spoils.
ALSO GROWS
pāšaṭ: Strip off clothing; also raid or invade.
פָּשַׁט
This is the root verb behind the stripping in Micah and shows how the action can carry the force of plunder.
pāšṭû: They invaded; the form used of the Philistines in 1 Samuel 23:27.
פָּשְׁטוּ
The same root describes an invading force, linking the removal of a garment with the violence of a raid.
בֶּטַח
beṭaḥ
GROWS FROM
בטח
To trust, feel secure, or be confident.
“securely” in this verse is beṭaḥ. The passersby are not merely unarmed; they move with confidence. The root lets us see the breach of trust inside the attack: their sense of safety is met with violence.
ALSO GROWS
bāṭaḥ: Trust or feel secure.
בָּטַח
This verb names the confidence that the travelers carry as they pass by.
mivṭāḥ: Trust, refuge, or security.
מִבְטָח
This noun can name what a person relies on for safety, sharpening the violation in stripping people who pass confidently.
THE PATTERN
When people seize what others depend on for safety or livelihood, Scripture treats the act as injustice.
If thou at all take thy neighbour’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down:The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.THE THREAD
And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stript Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours that was on him;Micah’s “pull off” and Genesis’s “stript” come from פשט (pashat), “to strip off,” a root also used for raiding. In both verses, the removal of a garment makes betrayal by one’s own people visible.
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