Micah 1:16
in Micah 1Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hair in mourning for your precious children; make yourselves as bald as an eagle, for they will go from you into exile.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Make thee bald, and cut off thy hair for the children of thy delight: enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
KJV
Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
⋯
This verse in Micah 1
Commentary
9 notes on this verse(Verse 16.) Shave and shear the sons of your delights, spread your baldness like an eagle, for captives have been led away from you. LXX: Glory of the daughter of Israel, shave and shear the sons of your delicacy; spread your baldness like an eagle, for captives have been led away from you. This that was spoken by the Seventy, glory of the daughter of Israel, with the daughters adding it, the Hebrews read at the end of the previous chapter.
This site's exposition
Make thee bald
The chapter closes on the ritual of mourning for exile, shaving the head bald for the delicate children who are being taken away, the grief a parent's own. Enlarge thy baldness as the eagle refers to the vulture's molting season, when the bird loses its head feathers entirely, the commentators reading it as the completeness of the coming baldness rather than any majesty in the comparison. The captivity named plainly at the verse's end is Assyria's deportation of the northern kingdom, the judgment announced across the whole chapter now given its historical name.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistHOMILIES ON EZEKIEL, HOMILY 18 (2:6) · Written before 604.
proposed
What happened to her we know was said through the prophet concerning Judea: Enlarge your baldness like the eagle. For the baldness of a man usually occurs only on the head, but the baldness of an eagle occurs over the whole body, because when it has grown very old, its feathers and plumes fall from all its limbs. Therefore she enlarges her baldness like an eagle, because she has lost her feathers, she who has lost her people. The feathers of her wings also fell, with which she was accustomed to fly to prey, because all her powerful men have perished, through whom she seized the things of others.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
4 And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. 5 For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture
Shave what thou canst not tear off. For thy children - For the loss of them, some being slain, others starved, or swept away with pestilence, and the residue carried captive. As the eagle - One species of which is entirely bald.
Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
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.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
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).
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Make thee bald, poll - (literally, shear thee for thy delicate children Some special ways of cutting the hair were forbidden to the Israelites, as being idolatrous customs, such as the rounding the hair in front, cutting it away from the temples , or between the eyes Deu 14:1. All shearing of the hair was not forbidden ; indeed to the Nazarite it was commanded, at the close of his vow. The removal of that chief ornament of the countenance wasa natural expression of grief, which revolts at all personal appearance. It belonged, not to idolatry, but to nature . “Thy delicate children.” The change was the more bitter for those tended and brought up delicately. Moses from the first spoke of special miseries which should fall on the tender and very delicate. “Enlarge thy baldness;” outdo in grief what others do; for the cause of thy grief is more than that of others. The point of comparison in the Eagle might either be the actual baldness of the head, or its moulting. If it were the baldness of the head, the word translated eagle Unless nesher be the golden Eagle there is no Hebrew name for it, whereas it is still a bird of Palestine, and smaller eagles are mentioned in the same verse, Lev 11:13; namely, the ossifrage, פרס, and the black eagle, עזניה, so called from its strength, like the valeria, of which Pliny says, “the melanaetos or valeria, least in size, remarkable for strength, blackish in color.” x. 3. The same lint of unclean birds contains also the vulture, דיה, Deu 14:13, (as it must be, being a gregarious bird, Isa 34:15) in its different species Deu 14:13 the gier-eagle, (that is, Geyer) (vulture) eagle gypaetos, or vultur percnopterus, (Hasselquist, Forskal, Shaw, Bruce in Savigny p. […]
The words behind it
11 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| קָרְחִ֣י | karechi | make bald | H7139 → | |
| וָגֹ֔זִּי | vagozi | and shear | H1494 → | |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| בְּנֵ֖י | benei | [the] children of | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| תַּעֲנוּגָ֑יִךְ | taanugayikh | delights your | H8588 → | |
| הַרְחִ֤בִי | harchivi | make large | H7337 → | |
| קָרְחָתֵךְ֙ | karechatekh | baldness your | H7144 → | |
| כַּנֶּ֔שֶׁר | kanesher | like <the> eagle | H5404 → | |
| כִּ֥י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| גָל֖וּ | galu | they will go into exile | H1540 → | |
| מִמֵּֽךְ׃ ס | mimekh | from you | H4480 → | 1188 times |
קָרְחִ֣יmake bald
karechiH7139 →
וָגֹ֔זִּיand shear
vagoziH1494 →
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
בְּנֵ֖י[the] children of
beneiH1121 →4930 times
תַּעֲנוּגָ֑יִךְdelights your
taanugayikhH8588 →
הַרְחִ֤בִיmake large
harchiviH7337 →
קָרְחָתֵךְ֙baldness your
karechatekhH7144 →
כַּנֶּ֔שֶׁרlike <the> eagle
kanesherH5404 →
כִּ֥יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
גָל֖וּthey will go into exile
galuH1540 →
מִמֵּֽךְ׃ סfrom you
mimekhH4480 →1188 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 16:6“Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, nor will anyone cut himself or shave his head for them.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 47:5
The people of Gaza will shave their heads in mourning; Ashkelon will be silenced. O remnant of their valley, how long will you gash yourself?
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Deuteronomy 14:1
You are sons of the LORD your God; do not cut yourselves or shave your foreheads on behalf of the dead,
- Jeremiah 47:5
Through
Job 1:20Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped,
it leads to
- 1 Peter 5:6
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you.
- 2 Samuel 12:16–20
David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted and went into his house and spent the night lying in sackcloth on the ground.
- Genesis 37:34
Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days.
- 1 Peter 5:6
Through
Amos 8:10I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 48:37
For every head is shaved and every beard is clipped; on every hand is a gash, and around every waist is sackcloth.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 6:26
O daughter of my people, dress yourselves in sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter wailing, as you would for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
- Zechariah 12:10
Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They…
- Jeremiah 48:37
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies2
On this verse
On this chapter
About Micah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL, HOMILY 18 (2:6); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Micah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.