Violence

“Violence” has been inflated dramatically in recent social and political rhetoric. It can refer to everything from a mugging to a classification system that excludes some marginal group.

But there is some biblical ground for seeing violence even where there’s not blood. Micah condemns the rich men of Jerusalem for their “violence” (6:12), but the specific actions he describes are not physical assaults but cheating in the marketplace (vv. 10-11). The logic behind this is perhaps that possessions are extensions of personality. Cheating in the market is not just a crime against property but a crime against persons, an assault, an act of violence.