"So also I will make you sick, striking you down, desolating you because of your sins.  You will eat, but you will not be satisfied, and your vileness will be in your midst.  You will try to remove for safekeeping, but you will not preserve anything, and what you do preserve I will give to the sword.  You will sow but you will not reap.  You will tread the olive but you will not anoint yourself with oil; and the grapes, but you will not drink wine."

This sounds like horrible news:  God is speaking to a people that will no longer have relief.  They will sow, for nothing.  They will grow olives, but no oil for anointing.  They will have vineyards, but no wine.  There will be no rest for the weary.

Bad news - and if you are reading this out of context from the rest of Micah, you might think of God as a horrible mean dictator-like being.

But if you read these verses in context, you realize to whom God is speaking.  He is threatening those who have abused their power.  Hebrew, Assyrian, anyone.  God will give no rest to those who conquer the widows and orphans.

If God hates those who hate, then who does God love?

He who is like Jehovah uses power to build, instead of break.