2:1,2
Like Amos, Micah highlights a number of economic sins of Israel, their exploitation of the poor. Proper treatment of the poor is an important part of the Law, and something that Israel was repeatedly castigated for by the prophets. Economic sins have persisted throughout history. They can be especially invidious because they become deeply ingrained in the structure of society and it easy to forget that we are doing them. Men lay awake at night thinking about how they could do evil. Did they explicitly plot evil? Maybe some did, maybe others just plotted how they could “make money” not deliberately exploiting people, but having no concern for the effect of their actions. They coveted the fields of others. Naboth’s vineyard is the most notorious example of this.
2:3-5
Men do these things because they can, thinking that no one will see or stop them. But God sees all things, and at some point He brings judgement, and judgement was about to come upon Israel. And the evildoers would not be able to escape from this. They took land away from others, soon Assyria would come and take their land away from them. “No one to determine boundaries by lot”. This was the way land was passed on to sons when the father died. These men who took land by exploitation or extortion would not be able to pass it on to their sons.
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