TRV
Translation
King James Version
Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
Complete Jewish Bible
Shave the hair from your head as you mourn for the children who were your delight; make yourselves as bald as vultures, for they have gone from you into exile.
Berean Standard Bible
Shave 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.
American Standard Version
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.
World English Bible Messianic
Shave your heads, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture; for they have gone into captivity from you!
Geneva Bible (1599)
Make thee balde: and shaue thee for thy delicate children: enlarge thy baldenesse as the eagle, for they are gone into captiuity from thee.
Young's Literal Translation
Make bald and shave, for thy delightful sons, Enlarge thy baldness as an eagle, For they have removed from thee!
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In the KJVVerse 22,596 of 31,102
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Commentary on Micah 1 verses 8–16
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.
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.
We have here a long train of mourners attending the funeral of a ruined kingdom.
I. The prophet is himself chief mourner (Mic 1:8, Mic 1:9): I will wail and howl; I will go stripped and naked, as a man distracted with grief. The prophets usually expressed their own grief for the public grievances, partly to mollify the predictions of them, and to make it appear that is was not out of ill-will that they denounced the judgments of God (so far were they from desiring the woeful day that they dreaded it more than any thing), partly to show how very dreadful and mournful the calamities would be, and to stir up in the people a holy fear of them, that by repentance they might turn away the wrath of God. Note, We ought to lament the punishments of sinners as well as the sufferings of saints in this world; the weeping prophet did so (Jer 9:1); so did this prophet. He makes a wailing like the dragons, or rather the jackals, ravenous beasts that in those countries used to meet in the night, and howl, and make hideous noises; he mourns as the owls, the screech-owls, or ostriches, as some read it. Two things the prophet here thus dolefully laments: - 1. That Israel's case is desperate: Her wound is incurable; it is ruin without remedy; man cannot help her; God will not, because she will not by repentance and reformation help herself. There is indeed balm in Gilead and a physician there; but they will not apply to the physician, nor apply the balm to themselves, and therefore the wound is incurable. 2. That Judah likewise is in danger. The cup is going round, and is now put into Judah's hand: The enemy has come to the gate of Jerusalem. Soon after the destruction of Samaria and the ten tribes, the Assyrian army, under Sennacherib, laid siege to Jerusalem, came to the gate, but could not force their way any further; however, it was with great concern and trouble that the prophet foresaw the fright, so dearly did he love the peace of Jerusalem.
II. Several places are here brought in mourning, and are called upon to mourn; but with this proviso, that they should not let the Philistines hear them (Mic 1:10): Declare it not in Gath; this is borrowed from David's lamentation for Saul and Jonathan (Sa2 1:20), Tell it not in Gath, for the uncircumcised will triumph in Israel's tears. Note, One would not, if it could be helped, gratify those that make themselves and their companions merry with the sins or with the sorrows of God's Israel. David was silent, and stifled his griefs, when the wicked were before him, Psa 39:1. But, though it may be prudent not to give way to a noisy sorrow, yet it is duty to admit a silent one when the church of God is in distress. "Roll thyself in the dust" (as great mourners used to do) "and so let the house of Judah and every house in Jerusalem become a house of Aphrah, a house of dust, covered with dust, crumbled into dust." When God makes the house dust it becomes us to humble ourselves under his mighty hand, and to put our mouths in the dust, thus accommodating ourselves to the providences that concern us. Dust we are; God brings us to the dust, that we may know it, and own it. Divers other places are here named that should be sharers in this universal mourning, the names of some of which we do not find elsewhere, whence it is conjectured that they are names put upon them by the prophet, the signification of which might either indicate or aggravate the miseries coming upon them, thereby to awaken this secure and stupid people to a holy fear of divine wrath. We find Sennacherib's invasion thus described, in the prediction of it, by the impressions of terror it should make upon the several cities that fell in his way, Isa 10:28, Isa 10:29, etc. Let us observe the particulars here, 1. The inhabitants of Saphir, which signifies neat and beautiful (thou that dwellest fairly, so the margin reads it), shall pass away into captivity, or be forced to flee, stripped of all their ornaments and having their shame naked. Note, Those who appear ever so fine and delicate know not what contempt they may be exposed to; and the more grievous will the shame be to those who have been inhabitants of Saphir. 2. The inhabitants of Zaanan, which signifies the country of flocks, a populous country, where the people are as numerous and thick as flocks of sheep, shall yet be so taken up with their own calamities, felt or feared, that they shall not come forth in the mourning of Bethezel, which signifies a place near, shall not condole with, nor bring any succour to, their next neighbours in distress; for he shall receive of you his standing; the enemy shall encamp among you, O inhabitants of Zaanan! shall take up a station there, shall find footing among you. Those may well think themselves excused from helping their neighbours who find they have enough to do to help themselves and to hold their own. 3. As for the inhabitants of Maroth (which, some think, is put for Ramoth, others that it signifies the rough places), they waited carefully for good, and were grieved for the want of it, but were disappointed; for evil came from the Lord unto the gate of Jerusalem, when the Assyrian army besieged it, Mic 1:12. The inhabitants of Maroth might well overlook their own particular grievances when they saw the holy city itself in danger, and might well overlook the Assyrian, that was the instrument, when they saw the evil coming from the Lord. 4. Lachish was a city of Judah, which Sennacherib laid siege to, Isa 36:1, Isa 36:2. The inhabitants of that city are called to bind the chariot to the swift beast, to prepare for a speedy flight, as having no other way left to secure themselves and their families; or it is spoken ironically: "You have had your chariots and your swift beasts, but where are they now?" God's quarrel with Lachish is that she is the beginning of sin, probably the sin of idolatry, to the daughter of Zion (Mic 1:13); they had learned it from the ten tribes, their near neighbours, and so infected the two tribes with it. 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. God knows at whose door to lay the blame of the transgressions of Israel, and whom to find guilty. Lachish, having been so much accessory to the sin of Israel, shall certainly be reckoned with: Thou shalt give presents to Moresheth-gath, a city of the Philistines, which perhaps had a dependence upon Gath, that famous Philistine city; thou shalt send to court those of that city to assist thee, but it shall be in vain, for (Mic 1:14) the houses of Achzib (a city which joined to Mareshah, or Moresheth, and is mentioned with it, Jos 15:44) shall be a lie to the kings of Israel; though they depend upon their strength, yet they shall fail them. Here there is an allusion to the name. Achzib signifies a lie, and so it shall prove to those that trust in it. 5. Mareshah, that could not, or would not, help Israel, shall herself be made a prey (Mic 1:15): "I will bring a heir (that is, an enemy) that shall take possession of thy lands, with as much assurance as if he were heir at law to them, and he shall come to Adullam, and to the glory of Israel, that is, to Jerusalem the head city;" or "The glory of Israel shall come to be as Adullam, a poor despicable place;" or, "The king of Assyria, whom Israel had gloried in, shall come to Adullam, in laying the country waste." 6. The whole land of Judah seems to be spoken to (Mic 1:16) and called to weeping and mourning: "Make thee bald, by tearing thy hair and shaving thy head; poll thee for thy delicate children, that had been tenderly and nicely brought up; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle when she casts her feathers and is all over bald; for they have gone into captivity from thee, and are not likely to return; and their captivity will be the more grievous to them because they have been brought up delicately and have not been inured to hardship." Or this is directed particularly to the inhabitants of Mareshah, as Mic 1:15. That was the prophet's own city, and yet he denounces the judgments of God against it; for it shall be an aggravation of its sin that it had such a prophet, and knew not the day of its visitation. Its being thus privileged, since it improved not the privilege, shall not procure favour for it either with God or with his prophet.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 8–16. Public domain.
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JeromeAD 420
Commentary on Micah
(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. But it is necessary for us, as you have desired, to interpret the Scriptures in the way they are read in the Church, and moreover not to neglect the Hebrew truth. It is therefore said to Israel for the time being according to the letter, so that we may understand that either the ten tribes were taken to Samaria or all Israel together; because the people were led captive, and all Judaea was devastated by the Assyrians and Babylonians, let them assume lamentation and weep for their children. And just as an eagle, which is the queen of birds, loses its feathers at a certain time and remains featherless, so too let Israel cast off all its former glory, with which it was once adorned, and lament for the sons subjected to the power of the enemy. And as for the eagle, it is accustomed to lose its feathers at a certain time, and it is written in the Psalter: 'Your youth will be renewed like the eagle’s' (Ps. 103:5). And the comic poet says in The Self-Tormenter: 'Indeed, it is true, as they say, that the eagle grows old' (Terence, Act III, Scene 2). However, if we want to take this same thing in regard to the present time of the Judean destruction, we will see that all the favor that once flourished with God has completely departed from them. For where is the prophet? Where is the teacher of the Law? Where are the defenses of the angels? Where, on the other hand, is the unexpected (or expected) victory against many by a few? Jerusalem has been bald, losing all the hair of its former glory, and its children, who cried out against the Lord, 'Crucify him, crucify him,' have been led into captivity. I read in the Commentaries of someone that this which is said, to shave and tear over the sons of your delights, can be understood about the condition of humanity: as God to Adam, or to heavenly Jerusalem, to direct conversation. O human soul! O city once the mother of the saints, which you were first in paradise, and you enjoyed the delights of various trees, and you had the most beautiful hair: now since you have been cast down from the heights and brought to Babylon, and you have come to a place of captivity, and you have lost your hair, shave and assume the habit of a penitent, and mourn your sons, mourn your offspring, who is led captive from you.
Gregory the DialogistAD 604
HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL, HOMILY 18 (2:6)
That happened which we know to have been foretold of Judea by the prophet: “enlarge your baldness like the eagle.” For baldness befalls man in the head only, but the eagle in its whole body. For when it is very old, its feathers and pinions fall from all its body. She lost her feathers who lost her people. Her pinions too fell out, with which she was accustomed to fly to the prey, for all the mighty men—through which she plundered others—perished.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Micah 1:16 is a poignant prophetic lament, commanding the nation of Judah (personified as a mother) to express extreme grief and humiliation through ritual baldness. This profound sorrow is a direct consequence of God's impending judgment, which will result in the deportation of her "delicate children" into foreign captivity, symbolizing the stripping away of the nation's future, prosperity, and very identity due to its unfaithfulness and idolatry.
CONTEXT
Literary Context: Micah 1:16 serves as the climactic conclusion to the opening chapter of Micah's prophecy, which begins with a dramatic portrayal of God's descent from heaven to execute judgment upon His people, first Samaria (the capital of Israel) and then Judah (the southern kingdom). The preceding verses detail the utter destruction awaiting Samaria due to its idolatry, describing it as becoming a "heap of rubble" and its idols being "smashed" (Micah 1:6-7). The focus then shifts to Judah, with the prophet himself lamenting the spread of this judgment to Jerusalem's gates (Micah 1:9). Verse 16, therefore, is not merely a statement of future events but a prophetic enactment of the deep, personal grief and national humiliation that Judah will experience, mirroring the fate of its northern counterpart and underscoring the severity of divine wrath against sin.
Historical & Cultural Context: Micah prophesied during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah in Judah (c. 735-700 BC), a period marked by significant political instability and spiritual decline. The Assyrian Empire was the dominant world power, having already conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and deported its inhabitants in 722 BC (2 Kings 17:6). Judah, though initially spared, lived under the constant threat of Assyrian invasion. The command to "make thee bald, and poll thee" reflects ancient Near Eastern mourning customs, where shaving the head or tearing out hair was a profound public display of grief, humiliation, and desolation, often associated with death, national disaster, or deep shame (e.g., Jeremiah 7:29). The imagery of the "eagle" (Hebrew: nesher) with its bald head further intensifies this picture of utter stripping away, evoking the stark appearance of a vulture, a bird often associated with desolate places and scavenging.
Key Themes: This verse powerfully contributes to several overarching themes within Micah and the broader prophetic literature. Firstly, it underscores the severity of divine judgment against corporate sin and idolatry, demonstrating that God's covenant faithfulness includes chastisement for disobedience. Secondly, it highlights the consequences of unfaithfulness, showing that turning away from God leads to national devastation and the loss of future generations, as seen in the "delicate children" being led into "captivity." This theme of exile and restoration is central to prophetic messages, where judgment is often a prelude to a future hope of return and renewal. Finally, the verse vividly portrays the theme of profound grief and humiliation, emphasizing the emotional and societal impact of God's judgment, a sorrow so deep it requires a public, ritualistic expression of despair, contrasting sharply with the peace and security promised to those who walk in God's ways, as envisioned in Micah's later prophecies of restoration (Micah 4).
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Micah 1:16 employs several potent literary devices to convey its message of impending judgment and profound sorrow. Personification is central, as the prophet addresses the nation (likely Judah/Jerusalem) as a grieving mother, commanding her to perform ritual acts of mourning. This makes the national tragedy deeply personal and relatable. Hyperbole is evident in the command to "enlarge thy baldness," suggesting an extreme, almost exaggerated, form of lamentation that reflects the overwhelming nature of the coming disaster. The Simile "as the eagle" (or vulture) is a vivid and stark comparison, drawing on the visual image of a bald, desolate bird to emphasize the complete stripping away of beauty, glory, and life from the nation. This imagery also carries connotations of scavenging and death, further intensifying the sense of utter desolation. Finally, the verse functions as a Prophetic Lament, a form of prophetic speech that combines a declaration of judgment with a call to mourn, effectively pre-enacting the sorrow that will accompany the fulfillment of God's word.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Micah 1:16 powerfully articulates the devastating consequences of covenant unfaithfulness, demonstrating that God's justice is not abstract but profoundly impacts the lives and future of His people. The verse highlights the principle that sin, particularly idolatry and social injustice, breaks the covenant relationship and inevitably leads to divine judgment, often manifested in national calamity and exile. This judgment, while severe, is not arbitrary but a just response to persistent rebellion, designed to purify and ultimately restore a remnant. The loss of "delicate children" into captivity underscores the generational impact of sin, emphasizing that the choices of one generation can have dire consequences for the next, stripping away the very future and hope of a people.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Micah 1:16 serves as a sobering reminder of the gravity of sin and its far-reaching consequences, not only for individuals but for entire communities and future generations. It challenges us to consider the profound impact of our collective spiritual state on the well-being of those who come after us. The command to mourn, even before the full realization of the judgment, is a call to deep introspection and repentance. It urges us to recognize that complacency in the face of spiritual decay or societal injustice can lead to devastating loss—loss of innocence, loss of future, and loss of divine favor. This verse compels us to cultivate a profound reverence for God's holiness and His standards, understanding that His justice, though painful, is ultimately aimed at purification and restoration. It is a call to heed prophetic warnings in our own time, to lament over our own spiritual compromises, and to actively pursue righteousness and justice so that future generations may inherit blessing rather than judgment.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why is Judah commanded to "make thee bald" and "poll thee"?
Answer: The command to "make thee bald" and "poll thee" (shave the head) is a powerful and culturally significant act of extreme mourning in the ancient Near East. It was a common practice to express profound grief, humiliation, and despair, often in response to death, national disaster, or deep shame. In Micah 1:16, it symbolizes the utter desolation and stripping away of Judah's glory, prosperity, and future as a consequence of God's judgment, particularly due to the impending loss of her children into captivity. It is a public, visible sign of overwhelming sorrow and a nation brought low.
What is the significance of the comparison "as the eagle"?
Answer: The comparison "as the eagle" (Hebrew: nesher) is significant for its visual impact and symbolic meaning. While nesher can refer to a majestic eagle, it often also denotes a large bird of prey, such as a vulture, which is characterized by a bald or sparsely feathered head. This imagery intensifies the picture of desolation and loss, evoking the stark, bare appearance of such a bird, stripped of its glory and beauty. It underscores the complete and humiliating stripping away of the nation's vitality and population, leaving it barren and exposed, much like a desolate landscape where only scavengers remain. The comparison emphasizes the depth of the nation's humiliation and the extent of its loss.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
While Micah 1:16 vividly portrays the devastating consequences of Israel's unfaithfulness and the judgment of God leading to captivity and desolation, it also implicitly points to the ultimate solution found in Christ. The "delicate children" being led into captivity represent humanity's bondage to sin and death, a universal captivity that no human effort could overcome. The profound grief and humiliation described foreshadow the ultimate lament for a world lost to sin, a world that desperately needed a deliverer. Jesus Christ, however, fulfills this need not by bringing judgment but by bearing it. He is the true "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29), enduring the ultimate stripping away of dignity and life on the cross, becoming "bald" in a spiritual sense through His suffering, so that humanity might be set free from its captivity. His sacrifice breaks the chains of sin and death, offering true liberation and the promise of a future that cannot be taken away. Through His resurrection, He inaugurates a new covenant where those who believe are no longer destined for spiritual captivity but are brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God (Romans 8:21), fulfilling God's redemptive plan to gather His "delicate children" into an eternal kingdom, where there will be no more sorrow or captivity (Revelation 21:4).