1 The word of the LORD that came a to Micah b the Moreshite c—what he saw regarding Samaria and Jerusalem in the days of Jotham, d Ahaz, e and Hezekiah, f kings of Judah.
Coming Judgment on Israel
2 Listen, all you peoples; g
pay attention, earth and everyone in it! h
The Lord GOD will be a witness against you, i
the Lord, from his holy temple. j
3 Look, the LORD is leaving his place k
and coming down to trample
the heights of the earth. l
4 The mountains will melt beneath him,
and the valleys will split apart,
like wax near a fire, m
like water cascading down a mountainside.
5 All this will happen because of Jacob’s rebellion
and the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the rebellion of Jacob?
Isn’t it Samaria? n
And what is the high place of Judah? o
Isn’t it Jerusalem?
6 Therefore, I will make Samaria
a heap of ruins p in the countryside,
a planting area q for a vineyard.
I will roll her stones r into the valley
and expose her foundations. s
7 All her carved images will be smashed t to pieces;
all her wages u will be burned in the fire,
and I will destroy all her idols.
Since she collected the wages of a prostitute, v
they will be used again for a prostitute.
Micah’s Lament
8 Because of this I will lament and wail;
I will walk barefoot and naked. w
I will howl like the jackals x
and mourn like ostriches.
9 For her wound is incurable y
and has reached even Judah; z
it has approached my people’s city gate, a
as far as Jerusalem.
10 Don’t announce it in Gath, b
don’t weep at all.
Roll in the dust in Beth-leaphrah.
11 Depart in shameful nakedness, c
you residents of Shaphir;
the residents of Zaanan d will not come out.
Beth-ezel is lamenting;
its support is taken from you.
12 Though the residents of Maroth
anxiously wait for something good, e
disaster has come from the LORD f
to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Harness the horses to the chariot,
you residents of Lachish. g
This was the beginning of sin for Daughter Zion
because Israel’s acts of rebellion h can be traced to you.
14 Therefore, send farewell gifts i to Moresheth-gath;
the houses of Achzib j are a deception k
to the kings of Israel.
15 I will again bring a conqueror
against you who live in Mareshah. l
The nobility of Israel will come to Adullam. m
16 Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hair n
in sorrow for your precious children;
make yourselves as bald as an eagle,
for they have been taken from you into exile. o
A. God’s judgment of apostasy and social sin in Samaria and Judah (1:1–3:12). 1:1. As with most other prophetic books, the book of Micah begins with an introductory verse that gives the prophet’s name, the time period in which he ministers, and the object of the message that God gives him.
1:2. Micah begins with an invocation, a call to listen to the Lord. The call goes out to the whole earth and all who are in it, but the message is specifically directed toward Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom, and briefly toward Jerusalem, the capital of the southern kingdom (see 1:5). Micah announces that the Lord has a case against Israel. He will witness against Israel by exposing her evil deeds (1:5–7). The concept of the witness is connected to the covenant (Dt 30:18; 31:19, 26; Jos 24:27). The witness was present at the time Israel agreed to obey the law and now comes forward to challenge the nation’s integrity (see further the commentary on 6:1–8).
1:3–4. The naming of the sin of Israel is preceded by the dramatic appearance of the Lord. He comes as a fearful judge, a mighty warrior. God comes from the temple, the earthly symbol of his true, heavenly dwelling place (1:2). He leaves it in order to destroy the high places (1:3; see the CSB footnote), sites of false worship the Israelites built for the worship of other gods.
1:5–7. Micah 1:5 points the finger at the guilty parties. They are none other than Samaria and Jerusalem, the capital cities of the northern and southern kingdoms, respectively. Omri and his son Ahab (1 Kg 16:24), a pair known for their sympathy with the Baal cult in the north, built Samaria. Jerusalem, the city chosen by God for his earthly dwelling place, has time and time again been perverted with the worship of false gods. Even the temple itself has been polluted by the presence of pagan idols.
1:8–9. The second half of chapter 1 (1:8–16) gives the reaction to God’s announcement of judgment. The first to react is the prophet himself, who is plunged into noisy mourning. His mourning will sound like the howl of a jackal and the moan of an ostrich (1:8), animals of the wilderness often mentioned in judgment oracles against cities (Is 13:21; 34:13; Jr 50:39). Micah’s mourning is triggered not by a concern for personal safety but rather by the destruction coming to God’s people and the land he has given them (1:9). The prophet is distressed particularly by the danger that comes so near to Jerusalem. This oracle fits well with the various invasions of Samaria and Judah in the last quarter of the eighth century BC and specifically the incursion of Sennacherib in 701 BC.
1:10–12. The bulk of this section, however, predicts the reaction of a number of cities located in the southern foothills (1:10–15), likely the ones subdued by Sennacherib as he made his way down the coast of Palestine toward Jerusalem. The prophet employs wordplay between the names of the cities and their reactions. The wordplay begins in 1:10 with the use of similar sounds within each Hebrew clause. Although Micah tells Gath, “Don’t weep at all,” he urges those on the Israelite side of the foothills in Beth-leaphrah (“House of Dust”) to express their mourning.
1:13–14. Lachish is a well-known city in the Judean foothills (1:13). The wordplay is based on the similarity between the name Lachish and the Hebrew for “to the team of horses” (larekesh). Lachish is accused of beginning the sin that infected Jerusalem. The reference to chariots may indicate that the sin was an overreliance on military armaments.
1:15–16. Mareshah (1:15) sounds like the word for “conqueror,” but a conqueror will come against this town. The last city named is Adullam, the location of the cave in which David sought refuge as he fled from Saul (2 Sm 23:13).