English · KJV

Micah 1

Listen to this chapter
0:00 0:00

The Lord Appears for Judgment 1–7

1
The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. ​
2
Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. ​
3
For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. ​
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? ​
6
Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof. ​
7
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.

Micah's Lament and the Spread of Judgment 8–9

8
Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls. ​
9
For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. ​

Judgment Pronounced on the Cities of Judah 10–16

10
Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust. ​
11
Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir, having thy shame naked: the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Bethezel; he shall receive of you his standing.
12
For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came down from the LORD unto the gate of Jerusalem.
13
O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast: she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee. ​
14
Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moreshethgath: the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel. ​
15
Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel.
16
Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Micah 1

Verse 1

Micah the Morasthite — The name Mikah is short for 'Who is like the LORD?', a question the book answers in 7:18, 'Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity'. Moresheth is named in v.14. The word was something he 'saw' (chazah), as Isaiah's in Isa 1:1. Jeremiah recalls that Micah prophesied in Hezekiah's days (Jer 26:18).

Verse 2

let the Lord GOD be witness against you — The summons goes to 'all ye people' and to the earth, as Isaiah's opens with 'Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth' (Isa 1:2). The LORD is himself the witness, 'a swift witness' in Mal 3:5; his 'holy temple' is where his throne is (Ps 11:4). The charge is called his 'controversy' in 6:2: 'the LORD hath a controversy with his people'.

Verse 3

tread upon the high places of the earth — These are the words of Amos 4:13, 'treadeth upon the high places of the earth'; the LORD 'cometh forth out of his place' also in Isa 26:21. The same 'high places of the earth' were given to Israel to ride upon (Deut 32:13), and in v.5 'the high places of Judah' are named as Jerusalem.

Verse 5

is it not Samaria? — The prophet names the capitals as the source of the sin: Samaria for 'Jacob', Jerusalem for 'the high places of Judah'. Amos speaks of 'the sin of Samaria' (Amos 8:14). Hezekiah, in whose days Micah prophesied (v.1), 'removed the high places' (2 Kings 18:4).

Verse 6

an heap of the field — Samaria is to become 'an heap of the field' and 'plantings of a vineyard', her stones poured down 'into the valley'. The figure returns for Zion in 3:12, which Jeremiah quotes (Jer 26:18). Samaria fell to Assyria after three years of siege, 'in the sixth year of Hezekiah' (2 Kings 18:10).

Verse 8

stripped and naked — The prophet makes the lament himself. Isaiah too was told to walk 'naked and barefoot' as a sign (Isa 20:2). The creatures named, tannim ('dragons') and the owls, are those of desolate places: 'I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls' (Job 30:29).

Verse 9

her wound is incurable — Anash, past healing; Jeremiah uses the word of a wound that 'refuseth to be healed' (Jer 15:18) and 'Thy bruise is incurable' (Jer 30:12). The wound passes from Samaria to Judah, 'unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem'. In Hezekiah's fourteenth year Sennacherib took 'all the fenced cities of Judah' (2 Kings 18:13).

Verse 10

in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust — Beth-le-Aphrah means 'house of dust' (aphar): in the house of dust, roll in the dust. 'Declare ye it not at Gath' repeats David's lament, 'Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon' (2 Sam 1:20). Lachish, Achzib and Mareshah are in Joshua's list of the towns 'in the valley' (Josh 15:33–44).

Verse 13

the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion — Lachish, a city Rehoboam fortified (2 Chr 11:9), is singled out: 'the transgressions of Israel were found in thee'. In Hezekiah's reign Assyria's army lay at Lachish: he sent there to the king (2 Kings 18:14), and Rabshakeh was sent from Lachish against Jerusalem (2 Kings 18:17).

Verse 14

the houses of Achzib shall be a lie — Achzib and the word for 'a lie', achzab, are close in sound; the name means deceitful, like a stream that fails in summer (cf. Jer 15:18, 'as a liar, and as waters that fail'). 'Presents' are shilluchim, parting gifts, as of a father to a daughter sent away (1 Kings 9:16). Moresheth-gath is the prophet's own town (v.1).

Verse 16

Make thee bald — Shaving the head is the sign of mourning that the prophets call for: 'in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness' (Isa 22:12); 'Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away' (Jer 7:29). The cause here is the loss of the 'delicate children': 'they are gone into captivity from thee'.