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Micah 1:7

in Micah 1

All her carved images will be smashed to pieces; all her wages will be burned in the fire, and I will destroy all her idols. Since she collected the wages of a prostitute, they will be used again on a prostitute.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her hires shall be burned with fire, and all her idols will I lay desolate; for of the hire of a harlot hath she gathered them, and unto the hire of a harlot shall they return.

KJV

And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.

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This verse in Micah 1

Commentary

8 notes on this verse
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.

This site's exposition

an heap of the field

on Micah 1:6-7

Samaria's judgment is pictured as agricultural reversal, a capital city turned back into an heap of the field and plantings of a vineyard, its stones poured into the valley and its foundations laid bare. The idols fall with the city: graven images beaten to pieces, the hires burned with fire, for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot. The commentators read the harlot's hire as the temple offerings and cult objects funded by pagan tribute, wealth gained in spiritual adultery returning to the same use when Samaria's spoils are carried off to Assyria's own shrines.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Micah · Written before 420.

proposed

(Verse 6 onwards): And I will make Samaria a heap of stones in the field, when a vineyard is planted, and I will pour down her stones into the valley, and will lay bare her foundations. And all her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of a harlot.

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

12 ); these shall be taken from them by him whom (by ascribing them to their dear idols) they had defrauded of the honour due to him. Note, That cannot prosper by which men either are hired to sin or hire others to sin; for the wages of sin will be death.

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A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

proposed

The hires - The rich gifts given for the honour and service of the idols by deceived idolaters. She - The kingdom of Samaria. It - Their wealth, or the rich presents made to their idols.
And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

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).
1 more voice on this verse

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

All the hires thereof shall be burned - Multitudes of women gave the money they gained by their public prostitution at the temples for the support of the priesthood, the ornamenting of the walls, altars, and images. So that these things, and perhaps several of the images themselves, were literally the hire of the harlots: and God threatens here to deliver all into the hands of enemies who should seize on this wealth, and literally spend it in the same way in which it was acquired; so that “to the hire of a harlot these things should return.”

The words behind it

19 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • וְכָל־and all

    vekholH3605 →5413 times

  • פְּסִילֶ֣יהָimages its

    pesileihaH6456 →

  • יֻכַּ֗תּוּthey will be crushed

    yukatuH3807 →

  • וְכָל־and all

    vekholH3605 →5413 times

  • אֶתְנַנֶּ֙יהָ֙hire<s> its

    ʾetnaneihaH868 →11 times

  • יִשָּׂרְפ֣וּthey will be burned

    yisarefuH8313 →

  • בָאֵ֔שׁwith <the> fire

    vaeshH784 →

  • וְכָל־and all

    vekholH3605 →5413 times

  • עֲצַבֶּ֖יהָidols its

    ʾatzabeihaH6091 →

  • אָשִׂ֣יםI will make

    ʾasimH7760 →584 times

  • שְׁמָמָ֑הa waste

    shemamahH8077 →

  • כִּ֠יfor

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • מֵאֶתְנַ֤ןfrom [the] hire of

    meetnanH868 →11 times

  • זוֹנָה֙a prostitute

    zonahH2181 →

  • קִבָּ֔צָהit gathered [them]

    kibatzahH6908 →127 times

  • וְעַד־and to

    vead-H5704 →1261 times

  • אֶתְנַ֥ן[the] hire of

    ʾetnanH868 →11 times

  • זוֹנָ֖הa prostitute

    zonahH2181 →

  • יָשֽׁוּבוּ׃they will return

    yashuvuH7725 →1056 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

18 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Deuteronomy 23:18You must not bring the wages of a prostitute, whether female or male, into the house of the LORD your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the LORD your God.6 works1 Samuel 5:4But when they got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD, with his head and his hands broken off and lying on the threshold. Only the torso remained.6 worksHosea 2:12I will destroy her vines and fig trees, which she thinks are the wages paid by her lovers. So I will make them into a thicket, and the beasts of the field will devour them.4 worksEzekiel 6:6Wherever you live, the cities will be laid waste and the high places will be demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and desecrated, your idols smashed and obliterated, your incense altars cut down, and your works blotted out.4 worksRevelation 18:3All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance of her luxury.”3 worksHosea 8:6For this thing is from Israel—a craftsman made it, and it is not God. It will be broken to pieces, that calf of Samaria.3 works
The other 12 cross-references, with their words ▾
Hosea 10:5–6The people of Samaria will fear for the calf of Beth-aven. Indeed, its people will mourn with its idolatrous priests— those who rejoiced in its glory— for it has been taken from them into exile.3 works2 Chronicles 31:1When all this had ended, the Israelites in attendance went out to the cities of Judah and broke up the sacred pillars, chopped down the Asherah poles, and tore down the high places and altars throughout Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the Israelites returned to their cities, each to his own property.2 worksDeuteronomy 9:21And I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and I cast it into the stream that came down from the mountain.2 worksRevelation 18:9Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her.2 worksJoel 3:3They cast lots for My people; they bartered a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine to drink.2 worksJeremiah 44:17–18Instead, we will do everything we vowed to do: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and offer drink offerings to her, just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and good things, and we saw no disaster.2 works2 Kings 23:14–15He smashed the sacred pillars to pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and covered the sites with human bones.2 worksRevelation 18:12–13cargo of gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls; of fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet; of all kinds of citron wood and every article of ivory, precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble;2 worksLeviticus 26:30I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless remains of your idols; and My soul will despise you.2 works2 Chronicles 34:6–7Josiah did the same in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and in the ruins around them.2 worksHosea 2:5For their mother has played the harlot and has conceived them in disgrace. For she thought, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me bread and water, wool and linen, oil and drink.’2 worksIsaiah 27:9Therefore Jacob’s guilt will be atoned for, and the full fruit of the removal of his sin will be this: When he makes all the altar stones like crushed bits of chalk, no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    Revelation 18:3

    All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance…

    it leads to

    • Revelation 17:2

      The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.”

    • Revelation 14:8

      Then a second angel followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who has made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality.”

    • Revelation 18:9

      Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her.

    • Jeremiah 51:7

      Babylon was a gold cup in the hand of the LORD, making the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad.

    • Revelation 18:23

      The light of a lamp will never shine in you again, and the voices of a bride and bridegroom will never call out in you again. For your merchants were the great ones of…

  • Through

    Deuteronomy 23:18

    You must not bring the wages of a prostitute, whether female or male, into the house of the LORD your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the LORD your God.

    it leads to

    • Philippians 3:2

      Watch out for those dogs, those workers of evil, those mutilators of the flesh!

    • Revelation 22:15

      But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

  • Through

    Hosea 2:12

    I will destroy her vines and fig trees, which she thinks are the wages paid by her lovers. So I will make them into a thicket, and the beasts of the field will devour…

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 5:5

      Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will…

Where this verse is studied

On this page

Studies2

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About Micah

Micah Exhorts the Israelites to Repent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Micah Exhorts the Israelites to Repent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Micah: the study guide →Read Micah 1 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; 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.

Read on in Micah 1 →