Micahchapter 1
16 verses · Micah · 750 to 686 BC · The Twelve
This is the word of the LORD that came to Micah the Moreshite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah—what he saw regarding Samaria and Jerusalem:
Introduction
Micah, The Twelve, Micah Overview.
Micah came from Moresheth, a farming town in the low hills of Judah, and he spoke in the years when Assyria was swallowing the small kingdoms of the west. This chapter opens his book with a charge brought against both kingdoms at once. His first hearers lived in the towns he names, and many of them could see those towns from their own fields. Listen for how the prophet mourns over the judgment he announces. Listen also for the town names, since nearly every one is a play on its own sound. Read it as the first of three calls to hear that divide the book.
Context
- Who
- Country people in the towns an invading army would reach first
- What
- The opening oracle of Micah, in which the LORD comes out in judgment on Samaria and the prophet laments as the disaster spreads to the towns of Judah.
- Where
- Judah, with the charge laid against Samaria in the north and Jerusalem in the south, and a lament over the towns of the low hills around Micah's home at Moresheth.
- When
- The reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, about 750 to 686 BC; the oracle against Samaria was most likely given before that city fell in 722 BC.
- Why
- To warn Judah that the sins bringing down Samaria had already reached Jerusalem, and that the same judgment would follow them there.
Historical context
Micah came from Moresheth-gath, a small town in the Shephelah, the belt of low hills and broad valleys between the coastal plain and Judah's central ridge. This was farm country, and it was also the front door: any army coming from the coast had to come through it. Micah was a village man warning villagers, and his contemporary Isaiah was working in the capital.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The opening is a courtroom scene staged on a cosmic scale. God comes out of his place and treads on the high places of the earth, and the mountains melt under him like wax. The witnesses summoned are not people but the earth and everything in it.
Samaria's sentence is described as demolition: her stones poured into the valley and her foundations laid bare. That is what the site looks like when a hilltop capital is thrown down the slope, and Assyria did it in 722 BC after a three-year siege.
The list of towns in the second half is a procession of grim wordplays on real place names, and hearers knew every one. Tell it not in Gath plays on the sound of tell; Beth-le-aphrah, house of dust, is where you roll in dust; Shaphir means pleasant, and its people go by stripped; Lachish is told to harness the chariot to the swift horse. Lachish was the great fortress of the Shephelah, and Assyria's siege of it is carved in relief on the walls of Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh, battering rams up a ramp, defenders impaled, captives filing out. The ramp is still there.
Significance
For hearers in these small towns, the message was that the disaster in the north was not a northern problem. The wound is incurable, Micah says, and it has come to Judah, right up to the gate of Jerusalem.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The prophet grieves rather than gloats. He says he will go stripped and naked and wail like the jackals, the man announcing the judgment is the one mourning loudest.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts records no synagogue reading from this chapter. Probed for this lane, it printed no weekly portion, no Haftarah use for chapter 1 and no festival reading for the book. A congregation following that table does not hear this chapter read aloud on a Sabbath.
The corpus shows where the chapter's opening is met in the study of the Torah instead. On the second verse, the call to the peoples and the earth to listen, it carries Sifrei Devarim 306:15, Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 32:1:2 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 32:1:27. All three are anchored in Deuteronomy 32:1, so a Jewish reader meets this verse beside that one.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY.
He places the prophet first. Micah the Morashtite is "From the city Mareshah." (Rashi on Micah 1:1:1). At the Lord coming forth from His place he reads a change of seat, "From the throne of mercy to the throne of justice." (Rashi on Micah 1:3:1). The high places the Lord treads are read as people, "On the high and haughty hearted." (Rashi on Micah 1:3:2).
The lament over the cities is read verse by verse. The warning not to tell it in Gath is given its reason, "lest the Philistines rejoice about us." (Rashi on Micah 1:10:1). The one dwelling in disobedience is read "For the one dwelling in tranquility and disobeying the word of the prophets hoped for good." (Rashi on Micah 1:12:1). At the fourteenth verse Rashi reads the dynasty that gave Gath as the kingdom of David, citing I Chronicles 18:1. He sets the verse in the days of Ahaz, when Achzib was drawn after Pekah the son of Remaliah (Rashi on Micah 1:14:1). At the fifteenth he names the pairing of the possessor and Mareshah as "another play on words." (Rashi on Micah 1:15:1).
The rest of his notes are glosses on the Hebrew words, with the Aramaic of Jonathan cited beside them. He reads the wax of the fourth verse by its word in the Mishnah (Rashi on Micah 1:4:1). He reads the heap in the field of the sixth by the heap of testimony in Genesis 31:47 (Rashi on Micah 1:6:1).
The corpus carries 5 further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Ibn Ezra on Micah 1:1:1, 1:2:1, 1:5:1 and 1:8:1 and Radak on Micah 1:5:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 39 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 6 in the Talmud and 33 in the Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased. The verse numbers are the Hebrew ones the corpus prints.
On verse 1 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 14:4 and Seder Olam Rabbah 20:1. On verse 2 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 32:1:2, Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 32:1:27 and Sifrei Devarim 306:15. On verse 3 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 37:9, Bereshit Rabbah 68:11, Jerusalem Talmud Taanit 2:1:14 and Midrash Tehillim 119:25. It also holds Midrash Tehillim 93:3.
On verse 5 it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 19:14, Midrash Aggadah, Deuteronomy 3:23:5, Pesikta DeRav Kahana 16:8 and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 18:4. It also holds Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Zuta 1:1. On verse 6 it holds Berakhot 58a:1, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Eiruvin 2:2, Ein Yaakov, Berakhot 9:17 and Ein Yaakov, Eiruvin 2:4. It also holds Eruvin 18b:18. On verse 7 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Avodah Zarah 1:18 and Kohelet Rabbah 1:8:3.
On verse 8 it holds Chullin 64b:5, Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations 4:3:1, Midrash Lekach Tov, Leviticus 11:16:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 537:11. On verse 9 it holds Sifrei Devarim 342:2. On verse 10 it holds Midrash Tehillim 8:6. On verse 13 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Esther 8:10:1 and Pesikta Rabbati 8:1. On verse 14 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:71, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 38:5:2, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 18:1:7 and Sanhedrin 102a:10.
On verse 15 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 64:1, Bereshit Rabbah 85:1, Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 38:1:5 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayeshev 10:1. It also holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 144:1.
One locator in the corpus is anchored on a verse this chapter does not have: Avodah Zarah 17a:2 on Micah 1:17. The chapter has 16 verses in the Berean Standard Bible, so it is named here and left out of the list above.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Micah 1:1:1 to 1:16:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Micah 1:1:1, 1:2:1, 1:5:1 and 1:8:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Micah 1:5:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/micah/1.json, the 39 Talmud and Midrash locators on the verses of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Micah 1 with parashotForChapter, haftarahUsesForChapter and festivalReadingForBook.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The LORD comes down and the mountains melt like wax
Micah the Moreshite: The heading dates Micah to the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah in the eighth century BC, the same reigns Isaiah 1:1 names. "Moreshite" marks him a man of Moresheth-gath, a lowland town he names again at 1:14. The words "regarding Samaria and Jerusalem" set the book's scope.
Micah 1:1
“The word of the Lord that came to Micah the Morasthite,.... So called, either from Mareshah, mentioned Mic 1:15; and was a city in the tribe of Judah, Jos 15:44; as the Targum, Jarchi, Kimchi, and Zacutus (i); or rather from Moresheth, from which Moreshethgath, Mic 1:14; is distinguished; which Jerom (k) says was in his time a small village in the land of Palestine, near Eleutheropolis. Some think these two cities to be one and the same; but they appear to be different from the account of Jerom (l) elsewhere.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Micah 1:1
“But how long Micah followed the course of his vocation we cannot with certainty determine. It is, however, probable that he discharged his office as a Prophet for thirty years: it may be that he exceeded forty years; for he names here three kings, the first of whom, that is Jotham, reigned sixteen years; and he was followed by Ahab, who also reigned as many years.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Micah 1:2-4
Hear, O peoples, all of you: The book opens as a summons to court addressed to the whole earth, with the Lord GOD as witness "from His holy temple". Verses 3 and 4 answer with His coming down to "tread on the high places of the earth". The descent echoes Sinai in Exodus 19:18.
Micah 1:2
“Hear, all ye people - The very commencement of this prophecy supposes preceding exhortations and predictions. Hearken, O earth - ארץ arets, here, should be translated land, the country of the Hebrews being only intended. And let the Lord God be Witness - Let him who has sent me with this message be witness that I have delivered it faithfully; and be a witness against you, if you take not the warning. The Lord from his holy temple - The place where he still remains as your King, and your Judge; and where you profess to pay your devotions.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
comes forth from His dwelling place: The LORD leaves His dwelling place, which the commentators take as heaven, and treads on the high places of the earth. The high places were the hilltop shrines where Israel worshipped idols, and they are the first ground He walks on. Nothing Israel lifted up will stand under His feet.
Micah 1:3
“For, behold, the Lord comth forth - that is, (as we now say,) “is coming forth.” Each day of judgment, and the last also, are ever drawing nigh, noiselessly as the nightfall, but unceasingly. “Out of His Place.” Dionysius: “God is hidden from us, except when He sheweth Himself by His Wisdom or Power of Justice or Grace, as Isaiah saith, ‘Verily, Thou art a God who hidest Thyself’ Isa 45:15.””
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 1:3
“For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place,.... Out of heaven, the place of the house of his Shechinah or Majesty, as the Targum; where his throne is prepared; where he keeps his court, and displays his glory; from whence he removes, not by local motion, since he is everywhere; but by some manifest exertion of his power, either on the behalf of his people, or in taking vengeance on his and their enemies; or on them sinning against him, in which sense it is probably to be understood.”
like wax before the fire: The pictures come from earthquake and fire, the terrors that attend the LORD's coming in judgment, as in Judges 5:5. Mountains and valleys alike give way. Neither the high nor the low can shelter from Him, since both melt like wax and run off like water down a slope.
Micah 1:4
“Imagery from earthquakes and volcanic agency, to describe the terrors which attend Jehovah's coming in judgment (compare Jud 5:5). Neither men of high degree, as the mountains, nor men of low degree, as the valleys, can secure themselves or their land from the judgments of God. as wax-- (Ps 97:5; compare Isa 64:1-3).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 1:4
“And the mountains shall be molten under Him - It has been thought that this is imagery, taken from volcanic eruptions ; but, although there is a very remarkable volcanic district just outside of Gilead, it is not thought to have been active at times so late as these; nor were the people to whom the words were said, familiar with it.”
the transgression of Jacob: It asks what "the transgression of Jacob" is and answers, "Is it not Samaria", asks for "the high place of Judah", "Is it not Jerusalem". The two capitals are named as the source of the nation's guilt, and Judah receives the same question and the same answer as Samaria.
Micah 1:5
“For the transgression of Jacob is all this--All these terrors attending Jehovah's coming are caused by the sins of Jacob or Israel, that is, the whole people. What is the transgression of Jacob?--Taking up the question often in the mouths of the people when reproved, "What is our transgression?" (compare Mal 1:6, 7), He answers, Is it not Samaria?”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 1:5
“What - Or, who is the spring, and cause of that overflowing transgression? Of Jacob - The kingdom of the ten tribes, the head of which was Samaria, where the kings had their residence, where they worshiped idols, and set an example to the rest of the Israelitish kingdom. And what - Or, who is the cause of the high places, and the idolatry there practiced?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Micah 1:6-7
Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of rubble: Samaria's judgment turns a capital back into farmland, "a heap of rubble in the open field". Her idols fall with the city, for "she collected the wages of a prostitute". The wages stand between the carved images and the idols, so the wealth of her worship is meant.
Micah 1:6
“Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard,.... As a field ploughed, and laid in heaps; see Mic 3:12; or as stones gathered out of a field, and out of a vineyard planted, and laid in a heap; so should this city become a heap of stones and rubbish, being utterly demolished; and this being done according to the will of God, and through his instigation of Shalmaneser king of Assyria to it, and by his providence succeeding his army that besieged it, is said to be done by him.”
2 more voices on this verse
Micah 1:6
“Vineyards were cultivated on the sides of hills exposed to the sun. The hill on which Samaria was built by Omri, had been, doubtless, planted with vines originally; now it is to be reduced again to its original state (1Ki 16:24). pour down--dash down the stones of the city into the valley beneath.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Micah 1:6
“As an heap - As a heap of ruins. Of a vineyard - In planting vineyards, they dig up the earth, and cast it up in hillocks; so shall they make this city. Into the valley - The city was built on a high hill, and a deep valley beneath it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
wages of a prostitute: Samaria gave her wealth to her idols as gifts, and the prophet calls it the fee paid to a prostitute. What she gathered by unfaithfulness will be carried off by the conqueror and spent on the idols of another nation. The wages of sin do not stay.
Micah 1:7
“And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces - Its idols in whom she trusts, so far from protecting her, shall themselves go into captivity, broken up for the gold and silver whereof they were made. The wars of the Assyrians being religious wars , the idolatry of Assyria destroyed the idolatry and idols of Israel.”
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 1:7
“GROTIUS explains it, The offerings sent to Israel's temple by the Assyrians, whose idolatry Israel adopted, shall go back to the Assyrians, her teachers in idolatry, as the hire or fee for having taught it. The image of a harlot's hire for the supposed temporal reward of spiritual fornication, is more common in Scripture (Ho 9:1).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Stripped and wailing like the jackals
Micah 1:8-9
Because of this I will lament and wail: Micah steps into his own oracle as a mourner, walking "barefoot and naked". Isaiah walks barefoot and naked as a sign in Isaiah 20:2-4. Verse 9 turns the wound toward home, for "her wound is incurable; it has reached even Judah", as far as the gate of Jerusalem.
Micah 1:8
“I will make a wailing like the dragons - Newcome translates: - I will make a wailing like the foxes, (or jackals), And mourning like the daughters of the ostrich. This beast, the jackal or shiagal, we have often met with in the prophets. Travellers inform us that its howlings by night are most lamentable; and as to the ostrich, it is remarkable for its fearful shrieking and agonizing groanings after night. Dr. Shaw says he has often heard them groan as if they were in the greatest agonies.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 1:8
“Therefore I will wail--The prophet first shows how the coming judgment affects himself, in order that he might affect the minds of his countrymen similarly. stripped--that is, of shoes, or sandals, as the Septuagint translates. Otherwise "naked" would be a tautology. naked--"Naked" means divested of the upper garment (Isa 20:2).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
her wound is incurable: Samaria's wound is her sin and the judgment it has earned, and nothing will now heal it. The same sickness has spread south into Judah. It has reached the gate of Jerusalem, so the fall of the north warns the south that the enemy is already at its door.
Micah 1:9
“Her wound - The wounds of Samaria, her own sins, and God's just displeasure. It is come - The contagion of her sins, and the indignation of God against it, have reached to Judah also, yea, to Jerusalem.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 1:9
“For her - Samaria’s Wound - o, (literally, her wounds, or strokes, (the word is used especially of those inflicted by God, (Lev 26:21; Num 11:33; Deu 28:59, Deu 28:61, etc.) each, one by one,) is incurable The idiom is used of inflictions on the body politic (Nahum 3 ult.; Jer 30:12, Jer 30:15) or the mind , for which there is no remedy. The wounds were very sick, or incurable, not in themselves or on God’s part, but on Israel’s.”
A roll call of doomed towns, each name a wound
Micah 1:10-13
Do not tell it in Gath: A run of lowland towns follows, likely along Sennacherib's route of 701 BC, each name played on in Hebrew for its fate. "Do not tell it in Gath" repeats David's lament over Saul at 2 Samuel 1:20, and Beth-leaphrah must "Roll in the dust". Lachish must harness its chariot horses.
Micah 1:10
Declare ye it not at Gath - Do not let this prediction be known among the Philistines, else they will glory over you. House of Aphrah - Or, Beth-aphrah. This place is mentioned Jos 18:23, as in the tribe of Benjamin. There is a paronomasia, or play on words, here: בבית לעפרה עפר bebeith leaphrah aphar, “Roll thyself in the dust in the house of dust.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
dwellers of Shaphir: Shaphir sounds like the Hebrew word for beautiful, and its people will go into exile naked and ashamed. Zaanan sounds like the word for coming out, yet its people will not come out to help. Each town's own name becomes its sentence.
Micah 1:11
"Zaanan" is the same as Zenan, in Judah (Jos 15:37), meaning the "place of flocks." The form of the name used is made like the Hebrew for "came forth." Though in name seeming to imply that thou dost come forth, thou "camest not forth." Beth-ezel--perhaps Azal (Zec 14:5), near Jerusalem.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 1:11
“Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir,.... A village, according to Eusebius (l), between Eleutheropolis and Ashkelon; perhaps the same with Sephoron; it is mentioned among the cities of Judah, in the Greek version of Jos 15:48. Calmet (m) conjectures the prophet intends the city of Sephoris or Sephora in Galilee.”
pined for good: Maroth means bitterness, and its people waited anxiously for good times that never came. The verse names the source of what came instead. The calamity came down from the LORD, and it reached the very gate of Jerusalem.
Micah 1:12
“This accords with the meaning of Maroth, "bitterness," to which allusion is made in "is grieved." But the antithesis favors English Version, "waited carefully (that is, anxiously) for good, but evil came down." from the Lord--not from chance. unto the gate of Jerusalem--after the other cities of Judah have been taken.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Micah 1:12
“For the inhabitant of Maroth - (bitterness) waited carefully for good She waited carefully for the good which God gives, not for the Good which God is. She looked, longed for, good, as men do; but therewith her longing ended. She longed for it, amid her own evil, which brought God’s judgments upon her. Maroth is mentioned here only in Holy Scripture, and has not been identified. It too was probably selected for its meaning.”
Micah 1:12
“The village of the bitter spring, for that is probably the meaning of this name, Maroth, experienced a bitter disappointment. At the time when the Assyrians invaded the land, the inhabitants expected that deliverance would come to them from some quarter or other. From the context, I judge that they placed some sort of reliance upon the Philistines. They possibly had some hope that the king of Egypt would come up to attack Sennacherib.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3184: “Maroth—or, the Disappointed” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
dweller of Lachish: Lachish was a strong chariot city on Judah's border, and it is told to harness its horses for flight. The prophet calls it the beginning of sin to Zion. The worship Israel had set up in the north entered Judah through Lachish first and spread from there to Jerusalem.
Micah 1:13
“Bind the chariot - To fly from the sword of the enemy. She - Lachish, which being the nearest to idolatrous Israel, took the infection of them, and conveyed it to Jerusalem. The transgressions - Not only the idolatry, but other sins also.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Micah 1:13
“O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast - (steed.) Lachish was always a strong city, as its name probably denoted, (probably “compact.” It was one of the royal cities of the Amorites, and its king one of the five, who went out to battle with Joshua Jos 10:3. It lay in the low country, Shephelah, of Judah Jos 15:33, Jos 15:39, between Adoraim and Azekah 2Ch 11:9, 2Ch 11:7 Roman miles south of Eleutheropolis (Onomasticon), and so, probably, close to the hill-country, although on the plain; partaking perhaps of the advantages of both.”
Micah 1:13
“Note, Those that help to bring sin into a country do but thereby prepare for the throwing of themselves out of it. Those must expect to be first in the punishment who have been ringleaders in sin. The transgressions of Israel were found in thee; when they came to be traced up to their original they were found to take rise very much from that city.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Micah 1:14-15
Therefore, send farewell gifts to Moresheth-gath: Micah names his own town: Moresheth-gath must "send farewell gifts", the parting gift of a place given up. Achzib, a name meaning deceit, "will prove deceptive to the kings of Israel". The glory of Israel will come to Adullam, the cave where David hid in 1 Samuel 22:1.
Micah 1:14
“Give presents to Moresheth-gath - Calmet says that Moresa or Morashti, and Achzib, were cities not far from Gath. It is possible that when Ahaz found himself pressed by Pekah, king of Israel, he might have sent to these places for succor, that by their assistance he might frustrate the hopes of the king of Israel; and this may be the meaning of “The houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.” In these verses there are several instances of the paronomasia. See Mic 1:10, עפר aphar, dust, and עפרה aphrah, the name of the city.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 1:14
“Give presents - The inhabitants of Lachish courted the assistance of the Philistines against the Assyrian. Moresheth-gath - A known city of the Philistines, called Moresheth-gath, to distinguish it from a town of the same name in the tribe of Judah. Achzib - This was also a city of the Philistines.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
dweller of Mareshah: Mareshah sounds like the Hebrew word for possession, so the town of the inheritance will receive a new heir, the Assyrian conqueror. The glory of Israel, its leading men, will flee to Adullam. David once hid in the cave there from Saul.
Micah 1:15
“Other heirs will supplant us in every inheritance but that of heaven. There is a play upon the meaning of Mareshah, "an inheritance": there shall come the new heir of the inheritance. Adullam the glory of Israel--so called as being superior in situation; when it and the neighboring cities fell, Israel's glory was gone.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Micah 1:15
“An heir - The Assyrian, who in the right of conquest shall possess thee. Mareshah - A town of the Philistines. Adullam - Perhaps this city was considerable enough at that time, to be the glory of Israel.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Micah 1:15
“Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah,.... Another city in the tribe of Judah, mentioned with Achzib in Jos 15:44; and by many thought to be the birth place of this prophet; and, if so, his faithfulness may be observed in declaring the whole counsel of God, though against his own fire place; and this must be an aggravation of the sin of the inhabitants of it, that they had such a prophet that arose from them, and they regarded him not.”
Shave yourselves bald: The chapter closes on a mourning rite: "Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hair in mourning for your precious children". To be "as bald as an eagle" points to the vulture's moult, a picture of complete baldness. The exile named is Assyria's deportation of the northern kingdom.
Micah 1:16
“Make thee bald - Cutting off the hair was a sign of great distress, and was practised on the death of near relatives; see Amo 8:10. The desolation should be so great that Israel should feel it to her utmost extent; and the mourning should be like that of a mother for the death of her most delicate children. Enlarge thy baldness as the eagle - Referring to the mounting of this bird, when in casting its feathers and breeding new ones, it is very sickly, and its strength wholly exhausted.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 1:16
“Mourn, O land, for thy darling children. poll--shave off thy hair. enlarge thy baldness--Mourn grievously. The land is compared to a mother weeping for her children. as the eagle--the bald eagle, or the dark-winged vulture. In the moulting season all eagles are comparatively bald (compare Ps 103:5).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
How this psalm is built
The form: A prediction of judgment on Samaria and Judah, which the prophet mourns himself before he calls his hearers to mourn, as Jamieson, Fausset & Brown classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The towns addressed through their own names | From verse 10 to verse 15 nearly every town is addressed through the sound of its name. Beth-leaphrah, the house of dust, is told to roll in the dust. Zaanan sounds like the word for coming out, and its people do not come out. Achzib sounds like the word for deception, and its houses deceive the kings of Israel. Mareshah sounds like the word for possession, and it receives a new heir. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown trace the play on sounds clause by clause, and Matthew Henry notes the allusion to the name at Achzib.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Micah 1:10 to 15. | Micah 1:10, Micah 1:11, Micah 1:14, Micah 1:15 |
| The prophet mourns first | Verse 8 turns from the sentence to the man who speaks it. He will go barefoot and stripped and howl like a jackal. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the order as deliberate: the prophet first shows how the coming judgment affects himself, so that his hearers will be moved the same way.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Micah 1:8. | Micah 1:8, Micah 1:16 |
How this chapter is built
1 more paragraph on the patterns
The chapter has two halves. Verses 2 to 7 are a summons and a sentence. The earth is called to hear, the LORD comes down, the sin is traced to the two capitals and the ruin of Samaria is announced. Verses 8 to 16 are the prophet's lament, as the wound spreads from Samaria into Judah and moves town by town toward Jerusalem. Most of the towns in that list are addressed through the sound of their own names. The chapter is the first of three sections in the book that open with a call to hear, at 1:2, 3:1 and 6:1.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Micah 1:8.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Micah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.