Micah, a prophet from Moresheth, prophesied during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, contemporaneous with Isaiah, addressing the sins of Israel and Judah and predicting both their punishment and future restoration. His writings focus on social injustices, idolatry, and moral decay while also providing promises of mercy and the coming of the Messiah. The Book of Micah is structured into sections detailing judgments, hopes for the future, and ongoing warnings, reflecting the turbulent times of the Assyrian threat.

1. MICAH 1 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
I TRODUCTIO
JOSEPH BE SO , "THE BOOK OF MICAH.
ARGUME T.
MICAH, of whose family nothing certain is known, was a Morasthite, or of Moresa,
a village near Eleutheropolis, in the south of Judah. He was cotemporary with
Isaiah, began to prophesy a little after him, and continued in the prophetic office
about fifty years. What we find here in writing seems to be an abstract of what he
preached during that time. He had seen the prophecies of Isaiah, and has introduced
whole passages verbatim into his own. Compare Isaiah 2:2, with Micah 4:1; and
Isaiah 41:15, with Micah 4:13. “The style of Micah,” says Bishop Lowth, “is, for the
most part, close, forcible, pointed, and concise; sometimes approaching the
obscurity of Hosea: in many parts animated and sublime, and in general truly
poetical.” “Like Amos and Hosea;” says Archbishop ewcome, “he reproves and
threatens a corrupt people with great spirit and energy. See Micah 2:1-10; Micah
3:2-4; Micah 6:10-16; Micah 7:2-4. And, like Hosea, he inveighs against the princes
and prophets with the highest indignation. See Micah 3:5-12; Micah 7:3. Some of his
prophecies are distinct and illustrious ones, as Micah 2:12-13; Micah 3:12; Micah
4:1-4; Micah 4:10; Micah 5:2-4; Micah 7:8-10.” In many passages, “we may justly
admire the beauty and elegance of his manner; — his animation; — his strength of
expression; — his pathos; — his sublimity.” The scope of his whole book Isaiah , 1.
To convince Israel and Judah of their sins, and of the judgments of God ready to
break in upon them; 2. To comfort the righteous with promises of mercy and
deliverance, and especially with an assurance of the coming of the Messiah. To be
more particular, In the first chapter of his prophecies he foretels the calamities of
Samaria, which was some time after taken and spoiled by Shalmaneser; and then
prophesies against Judah, denouncing the evils which were accordingly brought
upon it by Sennacherib, in the reign of Hezekiah. In the second chapter he inveighs
against those who devised evil against others, and who coveted and took away by
violence other men’s possessions, &c. In the third chapter he reproves the heads of
Jacob, and the princes of the house of Israel, for their avarice, injustice, and
oppression of the people; and also the false prophets, for their deceiving of the
people; and tells them that they will be the occasion of Jerusalem’s being reduced to
a heap of rubbish. After these terrible denunciations, in chapters fourth and fifth he
speaks of their restoration, and, under the figure of that, of the times of the Messiah.
In the sixth and seventh chapters the sins of the people are reproved, and
threatenings denounced against them; but with promises of better things on their
amendment. This prophet is cited by Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 26:18,) which shows that

2. he prophesied before Jeremiah. “It is related by Epiphanius, and the Greek writers
who copied him, that Micah was thrown from a precipice and killed by Jehoram,
the son of Ahab, whom he erroneously calls king of Judah, but who was really king
of Israel; and whose grandson Jehoram lived at least one hundred and thirty years
before Micah. But these writers seem to have confounded Micah with Micaiah the
son of Imlah, who flourished in Israel, and prophesied evil of Ahab. Micah does not
appear to have suffered martyrdom, as may be collected from Jeremiah 26:18-19,
but probably died in peace in the reign of Hezekiah. St. Jerome says, that his tomb
was at Morasthi, and converted into a church in his time: and Sozomen professed to
have heard, that his body was shown, in a divine vision, to Zebennus, bishop of
Eleutheropolis, in the reign of Theodosius the Great, near a place called Berathsatia,
which probably might be a corruption of Morasti, since Sozomen describes it to
have been at nearly the same distance from Jerusalem that St. Jerome places
Morasthi.” — Gray’s Key.
COMME TARY O THE PROPHECY OF MICAH.
by Dr Peter Pett BA BD (Hons-London) DD
"Micah" is a shortened form for "Micaiah," which means "Who is like YHWH?"
He came from Moresheth, a small town south west of Jerusalem. This was probably
the same as Moresheth-gath (Micah 1:14), in which case it must have been fairly
close to the Philistine town of Gath, of which the exact location is uncertain.
Moresheth-gath was also about six miles north-east of Lachish, the second largest
city in Judah, which was on the Shephelah (lower hills leading down to the Coastal
Plain).
Micah 1:1
‘The word of YHWH that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and
Jerusalem.’
Micah came to the people of Judah with ‘the word (dbr) of YHWH’, a word which
dealt with the situations of both Samaria, the capital city of Israel, and Jerusalem,
the capital city of Judah. The fact that his father’s name is not given, and that he
came from a smallish town, may suggest that he came of common stock. While
Isaiah was influencing the nobility, Micah was appealing to the common people. The
destruction of his own home town by the Assyrians around the time that they
captured Lachish must have been a great blow to him.
He prophesied during the reigns of Jotham (c.740-732 BC), Ahaz (c.732-715 BC),
and Hezekiah (c.715-687/6 BC), kings of Judah. This indicates that he was a late
eighth-century contemporary of Isaiah, who also prophesied around the same time
in Judah (compare Isaiah 1:1). Amos and Hosea were similarly prophesying in the
northern kingdom of Israel (see Amos 1:1; Hosea 1:1). These were initially times of
economic wellbeing following the long and prosperous reign of Uzziah (Azariah),
but with the looming presence of Assyria, danger threatened and eventually arrived,
especially in the first instance for Israel.

3. During the time of Jotham (although not affecting Judah) Assyria, under Tiglath
Pileser III (Pulu), coming from the north over the Euphrates in undreamt of power,
captured some of Israel’s northern lands and incorporated them into the Assyrian
empire, taking many Israelites into exile, and subjecting Israel to heavy tribute.
Israel had meanwhile descended into a state of spiritual decadence and partial
anarchy. Both economic and religious conditions were rapidly deteriorating.
We can understand how this new situation must have affected the thinking of men
of God at the time. Here was an indication of God’s displeasure with His people.
Things had never got quite as bad as this before.
When Israel, along with the Philistines and the countries north of Israel, including
Syria, rebelled against Assyrian rule and withheld tribute, they sought to form an
alliance in order to deal with the threat. This they invited first Jotham (who
conveniently died), and then Ahaz to join. On the new king Ahaz refusing to do so
preparations were made by Syria and Israel to bring him into submission and
replace him as king. At this point Isaiah tried to persuade Ahaz to trust in YHWH
and ignore everyone else, assuring him that the plot would come to nothing (Isaiah
7). Howevr, Ahaz chose rather to submit to the king of Assyria, against the
pleadings of Isaiah, and pay the necessary tribute by using the gold in the Temple in
order to obtain his protection, which was duly forthcoming. Ahaz seemingly had
little interest in Yahwism and appears to have encouraged a resurgence of native
religions. This naturally resulted in less notice being paid to covenant law. Society in
general became more corrupt. Micah was partly inveighing against this.
Israel was only at that point saved from final destruction when Hoshea staged a
coup and made peace with Assyria, paying very heavy tribute, but averting further
disaster. Israel’s one time prosperity was on the point of collapse. But inevitably
rebellion again raised its head, for the tribute was ruinous and national pride was
hurt, and this time Shalmaneser V who had succeeded Tiglath Pileser III, held
nothing back. He first destroyed the Philistines, and then moved against Israel and,
although he died, eventually his son Sargon II captured Samaria. This was in 722
BC. Once this had been accomplished Sargon attacked Syria and besieged
Damascus which was also destroyed. At this time large numbers of Israelites were
deported and settled in countries beyond the Euphrates which were under Assyrian
control. Judah were unaffected because they remained firm in their allegiance
although they would no doubt have Assyrian troops stationed on their soil. They
thus continued to maintain a certain level of prosperity.
But paying tribute also involved accepting Assyrian gods into the Temple so that
they could be given due honour, and Ahaz seems to have actually encouraged this
and also to have allowed idolatry to run wild. He had seemingly little concern for
YHWH (see Isaiah 7) or for His laws. People not only worshipped in the heretical
high places, but also worshipped in every high hill, and under every green tree,
following every pagan practise. Ahaz even sacrificed his son to Moloch (Melech).
The hold of Yahwism was being weakened, even though much of the worship was

4. probably syncretistic. It was not difficult to align Baal (lord) with YHWH, to
YHWH’s detriment.
Meanwhile the covenant law was losing its hold, morals were deteriorating, and the
wealthy were beginning to misuse their situations to the detriment of the poor, while
justice itself was becoming corrupted. The moral state of Judah was thus in
jeopardy. The priests were also becoming corrupted, and prophets were using their
positions in order to prophesy good things in return for the appropriate bribe. So
religious life and standards were also rapidly deteriorating. These were situations
that Micah came to address.
When Hezekiah came to the throne he began a religious reformation. Yahwism once
again came into the ascendancy, while the teaching of Isaiah, supported by Micah,
was raising hopes of the coming of the future Davidic king (the Messiah).
Widespread idolatrous practises were stamped down on, and no doubt the moral
situation improved. Even the more orthodox but heretical high places, which had
been in place since the death of Solomon, were eventually removed, and the Temple
purified. Attempts were also made to encourage those who remained in northern
Israel to join in worshipping YHWH (2 Chronicles 30:1-12). But nothing could be
done for the time being about the Assyrian gods safely ensconced in the Temple. To
have removed them would have been an act of rebellion against Assyria.
So for a while Hezekiah remained submissive to Assyria, but when Assyrian
attention was taken up elsewhere, he appears from Assyrian records to have
considered joining in an alliance which was being fostered by the Philistines, with
encouragement from Egypt. This was in the early years of his reign. Fortunately for
Judah’s sake this did not for some reason come into fruition and they therefore
escaped the wrath of Sargon II which was meted out on Philistia around 811 BC.
But on the death of Sargon II in 705 BC it was only a matter of time before
Hezekiah withheld tribute. In alliance with the Philistines and encouraged by Egypt,
their hope was probably that the new king would be too busy establishing himself to
bother about far flung tributaries, especially in view of the ‘might’ of the new
Egypt. o doubt at this stage the idolatrous images were also removed from the
Temple. But the new king of Assyria, Sennacherib, arrived in order to stamp out the
rebellion and Hezekiah appears eventually to have submitted paying heavy tribute
(2 Kings 18:14-16). The result was that many Judeans would meanwhile have been
taken into exile.
However, under circumstances that we do not know, it may even have been after a
number of years, Sennacherib was dissatisfied with the situation and determined to
deal with Hezekiah once and for all. He slowly subjugated the cities of Judah (‘forty
six cities of Judah I besieged and took’) and that included Lachish, Judah’s second
city. Pictures of the capture of Lachish have been found on Assyrian inscriptions,
and during this period many Judeans would again have been carried off into exile.
It was standard Assyrian practise. But while some Assyrian troops do appear to
have hemmed in Jerusalem something happened which prevented its capture, and

5. Jerusalem was never taken, as in fact Isaiah had promised. It seemed like a miracle.
At this stage an indecisive battle with Egyptian forces, together with what is
described as the remarkable destruction of Assyrian soldiers by the angel of YHWH
(2 Kings 19:35), and urgent news from Assyria (2 Kings 19:7), caused Sennacherib
to return home to Assyria. Hezekiah died before later repercussions could follow.
This is the brief background to the days of Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of
Judah.
The Book of Micah may be seen as dividing up into three main sections:
1) Judgments on Jerusalem and Samaria (chapters 1-3).
2) The Hope That Lies Ahead (chapters 4-5).
3) Continuing Warnings of Judgment and Hope (chapters 6-7).
1
The word of the LORD that came to Micah of
Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and
Hezekiah, kings of Judah--the vision he saw
concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
BAR ES. "The word of the Lord that came to Micah ... which he saw - No
two of the prophets authenticate their prophecy in exactly the same way. They, one and
all, have the same simple statement to make, that this which they say is from God, and
through them. A later hand, had it added the titles, would have formed all upon one
model. The title was an essential part of the prophetic book, as indicating to the people
afterward, that it was not written after the event. It was a witness, not to the prophet
whose name it bears, but to God. The prophet bare witness to God, that what he
delivered came from Him. The event bare witness to the prophet, that he said this truly,
in that he knew what God alone could know - futurity. Micah blends in one the facts, that
he related in words given him by God, what he had seen spread before him in prophetic
vision. His prophecy was, in one, “the word of the Lord which came to him,” and “a sight
which he saw.”
Micah omits all mention of his father. His great predecessor was known as Micaiah
son of Imlah. Micah, a villager, would be known only by the name of his native village.
So Nahum names himself “the Elkoshite;” Jonah is related to be a native “of Gath-
hepher;” Elijah, the Tishbite, a sojourner in the despised Gilead 1Ki_17:1; Elisha, of
Abelmeholah; Jeremiah, of Anathoth; forerunners of Him, and taught by His Spirit who

6. willed to be born at Bethlehem, and, since this, although too little to be counted “among
the thousands of Judah,” was yet a royal city and was to be the birthplace of the Christ,
was known only as Jesus of Nazareth, “the Nazarene.” No prophet speaks of himself, or
is spoken of, as born at Jerusalem, “the holy city.” They speak of themselves with titles of
lowliness, not of greatness.
Micah dates his prophetic office from kings of Judah only, as the only kings of the line
appointed by God. Kings of Israel are mentioned in addition, only by prophets of Israel.
He names Samaria first, because, its iniquity being most nearly full, its punishment was
the nearest.
CLARKE, "The word of the Lord that came to Micah the Morasthite - For
all authentic particulars relative to this prophet, see the introduction.
In the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah - These three kings reigned about
threescore years; and Micah is supposed to have prophesied about forty or fifty years;
but no more of his prophecies have reached posterity than what are contained in this
book, nor is there any evidence that any more was written. His time appears to have
been spent chiefly in preaching and exhorting; and he was directed to write those parts
only that were calculated to profit succeeding generations.
GILL, "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. The Arabic version reads it, Micah the son of Morathi; so Cyril, in his
commentary on this place, mentions it as the sense of some, that Morathi was the father
of the prophet; which can by no means be assented to:
in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah; by which it appears
that he was contemporary with Isaiah, Hoses, and Amos, though they began to prophesy
somewhat sooner than he, even in the days of Uzziah; very probably he conversed with
these prophets, especially Isaiah, with whom he agrees in many things; his style is like
his, and sometimes uses the same phrases: he, being of the tribe of Judah, only mentions
the kings of that nation most known to him; though he prophesied against Israel, and in
the days of Zachariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and Hoshea:
which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem; in the vision of prophecy;
Samaria was the metropolis of the ten tribes of Israel, and is put for them all; as
Jerusalem was of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and is put for them Samaria is
mentioned first, because it was the head of the greatest body of people; and as it was the
first in transgression, it was the first in punishment.
HE RY, "Here is, I. A general account of this prophet and his prophecy, Mic_1:1.
This is prefixed for the satisfaction of all that read and hear the prophecy of this book,
who will give the more credit to it when they know the author and his authority. 1. The
prophecy is the word of the Lord; it is a divine revelation. Note, What is written in the

7. Bible, and what is preached by the ministers of Christ according to what is written there,
must be heard and received, not as the word of dying men, which we may be judges of,
but as the word of the living God, which we must be judged by, for so it is. This word of
the Lord came to the prophet, came plainly, came powerfully, came in a preventing way,
and he saw it, saw the vision in which it was conveyed to him, saw the things themselves
which he foretold, with as much clearness and certainty as if they had been already
accomplished. 2. The prophet is Micah the Morasthite; his name Micah is a contraction
of Micaiah, the name of a prophet some ages before (in Ahab's time, 1Ki_22:8); his
surname, the Morasthite, signifies that he was born, or lived, at Moresheth, which is
mentioned here (Mic_1:14), or Mareshah, which is mentioned Mic_1:15, and Jos_15:44.
The place of his abode is mentioned, that any one might enquire in that place, at that
time, and might find there was, or had been, such a one there, who was generally
reputed to be a prophet. 3. The date of his prophecy is in the reigns of three kings of
Judah - Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Ahaz was one of the worst of Judah's kings, and
Hezekiah one of the best; such variety of times pass over God's ministers, times that
frown and times that smile, to each of which they must study to accommodate
themselves, and to arm themselves against the temptations of both. The promises and
threatenings of this book are interwoven, by which it appears that even in the wicked
reign he preached comfort, and said to the righteous then that it should be well with
them; and that in the pious reign he preached conviction, and said to the wicked then
that it should be ill with them; for, however the times change, the word of the Lord is
still the same. 4. The parties concerned in this prophecy; it is concerning Samaria and
Jerusalem, the head cities of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah, under the influence
of which the kingdoms themselves were. Though the ten tribes have deserted the houses
both of David and Aaron, yet God is pleased to send prophets to them.
JAMISO , "Mic_1:1-16. God’s wrath against Samaria and Judah; The former is to
be overthrown; Such judgments in prospect call for mourning.
K&D 1-4, "The heading in Mic_1:1 has been explained in the introduction. Mic_1:2-4
form the introduction to the prophet's address. Mic_1:2. “Hear, all ye nations: observe,
O earth, and that which fills it: and let the Lord Jehovah be a witness against you, the
Lord out of His holy palace. Mic_1:3. For, behold, Jehovah cometh forth from His
place, and cometh down, and marcheth over the high places of the earth. Mic_1:4. And
the mountains will melt under Him, and the valleys split, like wax before the fire, like
water poured out upon a slope.” The introductory words, “Hear, ye nations all,” are
taken by Micah from his earlier namesake the son of Imlah (1Ki_22:28). As the latter, in
his attack upon the false prophets, called all nations as witnesses to confirm the truth of
his prophecy, so does Micah the Morashite commence his prophetic testimony with the
same appeal, so as to announce his labours at the very outset as a continuation of the
activity of his predecessor who had been so zealous for the Lord. As the son of Imlah had
to contend against the false prophets as seducers of the nation, so has also the
Morashtite (compare Mic_2:6, Mic_2:11; Mic_3:5, Mic_3:11); and as the former had to
announce to both kingdoms the judgment that would come upon them on account of
their sins, so has also the latter; and he does it by frequently referring to the prophecy of
the elder Micah, not only by designating the false prophets as those who walk after the
rūăch and lie, sheqer (Mic_2:11), which recals to mind the rūăch sheqer of the prophets of
Ahab (1Ki_22:22-23), but also in his use of the figures of the horn of iron in Mic_4:13

8. (compare the horns of iron of the false prophet Zedekiah in 1Ki_22:11), and of the
smiting upon the cheek in Mic_5:1 (compare 1Ki_22:14). ‛Ammım kullâm does not mean
all the tribes of Israel; still less does it mean warlike nations. ‛Ammım never has the
second meaning, and the first it has only in the primitive language of the Pentateuch.
But here both these meanings are precluded by the parallel ፎּ‫ל‬ ְ‫וּמ‬ ‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ֶ‫;א‬ for this expression
invariably signifies the whole earth, with that which fills it, except in such a case as Jer_
8:16, where 'erets is restricted to the land of Israel by the preceding hâ'ârets, or Eze_
12:19, where it is so restricted by the suffix 'artsâh. The appeal to the earth and its fulness
is similar to the appeals to the heaven and the earth in Isa_1:2 and Deu_32:1. All
nations, yea the whole earth, and all creatures upon it, are to hear, because the judgment
which the prophet has to announce to Israel affects the whole earth (Mic_1:3, Mic_1:4),
the judgment upon Israel being connected with the judgment upon all nations, or
forming a portion of that judgment. In the second clause of the verse, “the Lord Jehovah
be witness against you,” it is doubtful who is addressed in the expression “against you.”
The words cannot well be addressed to all nations and to the earth, because the Lord
only rises up as a witness against the man who has despised His word and transgressed
His commandments. For being a witness is not equivalent to witnessing or giving
testimony by words, - say, for example, by the admonitory and corrective address of the
prophet which follows, as C. B. Michaelis supposes, - but refers to the practical
testimony given by the Lord in the judgment (Mic_1:3 ff), as in Mal_3:5 and Jer_42:5.
Now, although the Lord is described as the Judge of the world in Mic_1:3 and Mic_1:4,
yet, according to Mic_1:5., He only comes to execute judgment upon Israel.
Consequently we must refer the words “to you” to Israel, or rather to the capitals
Samaria and Jerusalem mentioned in Mic_1:1, just as in Nah_1:8 the suffix simply refers
to the Nineveh mentioned in the heading, to which there has been no further allusion in
Nah_1:2-7. This view is also favoured by the fact that Micah summons all nations to hear
his word, in the same sense as his earlier namesake in 1Ki_22:28. What the prophet
announces in word, the Lord will confirm by deed, - namely, by executing the predicted
judgment, - and indeed “the Lord out of His holy temple,” i.e., the heaven where He is
enthroned (Psa_11:4); for (1Ki_22:3) the Lord will rise up from thence, and striding
over the high places of the earth, i.e., as unbounded Ruler of the world (cf. Amo_4:13
and Deu_32:13), will come down in fire, so that the mountains melt before Him, that is
to say, as Judge of the world. The description of this theophany is founded upon the idea
of a terrible storm and earthquake, as in Psa_18:8. The mountains melt (Jdg_5:4 and
Psa_68:9) with the streams of water, which discharge themselves from heaven (Jdg_
5:4), and the valleys split with the deep channels cut out by the torrents of water. The
similes, “like wax,” etc. (as in Psa_68:3), and “like water,” etc., are intended to express
the complete dissolution of mountains and valleys. The actual facts answering to this
description are the destructive influences exerted upon nature by great national
judgments.
CALVI , "This inscription, in the first place, shows the time in which Micah lived,
and during which God employed his labors. And this deserves to be noticed: for at
this day his sermons would be useless, or at least frigid, except his time were known
to us, and we be thereby enabled to compare what is alike and what is different in
the men of his age, and in those of our own: for when we understand that Micah

9. condemned this or that vice, as we may also learn from the other Prophets and from
sacred history, we are able to apply more easily to ourselves what he then said,
inasmuch as we can view our own life as it were in a mirror. This is the reason why
the Prophets are wont to mention the time in which they executed their office.
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. If then Micah was called at the beginning of
the first reign, he must have prophesied for thirty-two years, the time of the two
kings. Then the reign of Hezekiah followed, which continued to the twenty-ninth
year: and it may be, that the Prophet served God to the death, or even beyond the
death, of Hezekiah. (59) We hence see that the number of his years cannot with
certainty be known; though it be sufficiently evident that he taught not for a few
years, but that he so discharged his office, that for thirty years he was not wearied,
but constantly persevered in executing the command of God.
I have said that he was contemporary with Isaiah: but as Isaiah began his office
under Uzziah, we conclude that he was older. Why then was Micah joined to him?
That the Lord might thus break down the stubbornness of the people. It was indeed
enough that one man was sent by God to bear witness to the truth; but it pleased
God that a testimony should be borne by the mouth of two, and that holy Isaiah
should be assisted by this friend and, as it were, his colleague. And we shall
hereafter find that they adopted the very same words; but there was no emulation
between them, so that one accused the other of theft, when he repeated what had
been said. othing was more gratifying to each of them than to receive a testimony
from his colleague; and what was committed to them by God they declared not only
in the same sense and meaning, but also in the same words, and, as it were, with one
mouth.
Of the expression, that the word was sent to him, we have elsewhere reminded you,
that it ought not to be understood of private teaching, as when the word of God is
addressed to individuals; but the word was given to Micah, that he might be God’s
ambassador to us. It means then that he came furnished with commands, as one
sustaining the person of God himself; for he brought nothing of his own, but what
the Lord commanded him to proclaim. But as I have elsewhere enlarged on this
subject, I now only touch on it briefly.
This vision, he says, was given him against two cities Samaria and Jerusalem (60) It
is certain that the Prophet was specifically sent to the Jews; and Maresah, from
which he arose, as it appears from the inscription, was in the tribe of Judah: for
Morasthite was an appellative, derived from the place Maresah. (61) But it may be
asked, why does he say that visions had been given him against Samaria? We have
said elsewhere, that though Hosea was specifically and in a peculiar manner
destined for the kingdom of Israel, he yet by the way mingled sometimes those
things which referred to the tribe or kingdom of Judah: and such was also the case

10. with our Prophet; he had a regard chiefly to his own kindred, for he knew that he
was appointed for them; but, at the same time, he overlooked not wholly the other
part of the people; for the kingdom of Israel was not so divided from the tribe of
Judah that no connection remained: for God was unwilling that his covenant should
be abolished by their defection from the kingdom of David. We hence see, that
though Micah spent chiefly his labors in behalf of the Jews, he yet did not overlook
or entirely neglect the Israelites.
But the title must be restricted to one part of the book; for threatenings only form
the discourse here. But we shall find that promises, full of joy, are also introduced.
The inscription then does not include all the contents of the book; but as his purpose
was to begin with threatenings, and to terrify the Jews by setting before them the
punishment that was at hand, this inscription was designedly given. There is, at the
same time, no doubt but that the Prophet was ill received by the Jews on this
account; for they deemed it a great indignity, and by no means to be endured, to be
tied up in the same bundle with the Israelites; for Samaria was an abomination to
the kingdom of Judah; and yet the Prophet here makes no difference between
Samaria and Jerusalem. This was then an exasperating sentence: but we see how
boldly the Prophet performs the office committed to him; for he regarded not what
would be agreeable to men, nor endeavored to draw them by smooth things: though
his message was disliked, he yet proclaimed it, for he was so commanded, nor could
he shake off the yoke of his vocation. Let us now proceed —
BE SO , "Micah 1:1. In the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah — Micah is
thought to have prophesied about sixteen years in Jotham’s time, as many under
Ahaz, and fourteen under Hezekiah: in all, forty-six years. And he survived the
captivity of Israel ten years, which he lamented as well as foretold. Which he saw
concerning Samaria and Jerusalem — Concerning both the kingdoms of Israel and
Judah, whereof Samaria and Jerusalem were the capital cities. It is said, Which he
saw, &c., because the prophets having the general name of seers, every kind of
prophecy, in whatever way delivered, seems to have been generally called a vision.
COFFMA , "This and the following chapter (2) which are grouped together in the
sacred text have the record of the word of the Lord through Micah; and, since this
section has a prophecy of the approaching destruction of Samaria, that part of it
must surely have originated in the times of Jotham king of Judah, that doubtless
being the reason for Micah's inclusion of that king in the superscription.
Micah 1:1
"The word of Jehovah that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and
Jerusalem."
The battle of Micah begins with this verse. It is clearly the imprimature of the Holy
Spirit, validating the entire book of Micah as the word of the Lord. Concerning this
author, and other inspired writers of the Old Testament, an apostle of Jesus Christ

11. declared that "Holy men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter
1:21), and that the prophets themselves, far from merely commenting upon current
conditions as they discerned and interpreted them, were delivering the true words of
God to men, "which the Spirit of God that was in them did testify" (1 Peter 1:11).
These comments by the apostle Peter are more valuable in understanding Micah
than a hundred of the current commentaries that proceed to deny every other word
of it as having any authenticity or significance whatever. This verse 1, like all the
rest of the book, is written by Micah; without this verse, nothing is left. Although, to
be sure, there are other examples of "thus saith the Lord" in the prophecy, this
verse identifies (1) the author of its contents, God Himself, (2) the prophet through
whom the message was delivered, and (3) the names of the kings of Judah during
whose reigns the message was delivered "concerning Samaria and Jerusalem." In
this verse, the Holy Bible says that the prophecy is "The word of the Lord." It is
inconceivable that Micah could have delivered this great prophecy without this
validating superscription, in exactly the same manner as that followed by many
other prophets of the sacred scriptures. Micah, therefore, included it; he wrote it; he
made it a part of his book; he testified that the prophecies in it must be dated as
early as the days of Jotham, before the fulfillment of his prophecies.
Ever since the Garden of Eden, however, Satan has loved to contradict what God
says; and the evil one has not hesitated to contradict what God says in this verse. He
says that:
"This superscription is not the prophet's words.[1]; Micah 1:2 was inserted by the
redactor.[2] The second and third lines of Micah 1:5 are not the language of Micah.
[3] "Thus saith the Lord," God's Word still comes to those who hear and obey the
prophetic call.[4] (in other words, Micah had no more insight into God's will than
obedient Christians today!). Micah 1:1 was prefixed to Micah by a compiler (long
after the book was written). etc., etc."[5]
Just as God, of old, spake through men; so does Satan; and therefore we have
accurately ascribed the above words to their true source. It is the old, old lie, "Ye
shall not surely die," as delivered by our Enemy in the Paradise of Eden. This does
not question the honesty or the sincerity of the evil one's spokesmen; but the very
fact of God's Word being contradicted identifies the source of the contradiction by
those who may, or may not, be deceived. We have hit this problem rather firmly
here in the first verse, for it is our intention to waste very little time with it in the
following notes. Before passing, however, it is a joy to recognize that there are many
of the greatest scholars who have not hesitated to honor all of Micah, including this
superscription as indeed the word of Jehovah. "This verse introduces the whole
prophecy as having come from Jehovah."[6] "Micah began prophesying before the
destruction of Samaria (Micah 1:5)."[7] "The threat of the destruction of Samaria
was evidently uttered before 722 B.C."[8] We appreciate this especially from
McKeating, because he went further and gave the reason why "some scholars" have
felt compelled to tamper with this verse. The problem is predictive prophecy which
they do not believe is possible! "They are therefore obliged either to translate the
words differently, or to see the words as a prophecy after the event, inserted at a
later date."[9] The faithful student should, therefore, always remember that

12. contradictions of the sacred prophecies are merely testimonials to the unbelief of
their advocates, and that the most ridiculous and unscientific "reasons" imaginable
are pressed into service to bolster their infidelity. The great giants of Biblical
exegesis throughout the ages were unanimous (in all practical sense) in their
acceptance of the total of this book as inspired of God. Rampant unbelief in the last
century or so is not founded either upon intelligence, or scientific evidence, but
merely upon the subjective speculations and imaginations of men who are
determined, before they ever begin their investigations, not to believe. See more on
this in the introduction. In recent times, many of the ablest scholars such as Deane,
Keil, D. Clark, and many others, firmly hold to convictions that in this prophecy we
are dealing with the Word of God. We may conclude this study of the superscription
with Deane's flat statement: There really is no sufficient reason for doubting the
accuracy of the superscription."
ELLICOTT, "Verse 1
(1) Micah the Morasthite.—Unlike Joel, who identifies himself by his father’s name,
Micah introduces his personality with reference to his native village, Moresheth-
gath, which was situated in the lowland district of Judah. The name—a shortened
form of Micaiah, meaning “Who is like Jehovah”—was not an uncommon one
among the Jews, but it was chiefly famous in times prior to the prophet, through
Micaiah, the son of Imlah, who, about 150 years previously, had withstood Ahab
and his false prophets.
Samaria and Jerusalem.—The younger capital is placed first because it was the first
to fall through the greater sinfulness of the northern kingdom. The chief cities are
mentioned as representatives of the wickedness of the respective nations.
CO STABLE, "Verse 1
I. HEADI G1:1
Prophetic revelation from Yahweh came to Micah concerning Samaria (the
orthern Kingdom) and Jerusalem (the Southern Kingdom). These capital cities, by
synecdoche, represent their respective nations and the people in them. These capital
cities also, by metonymy, suggest the leaders of the nations, which Micah targeted
for special responsibility. Micah "saw" these revelations (rather than "heard"
them) because the Lord revealed them to him in visions and or dreams ( umbers
12:6; cf. Isaiah 1:1; Obadiah 1:1; ahum 1:1). Micah ("Who is like Yahweh?") was
a resident of Moresheth-gath ( Micah 1:14), which was a Judean town in the
Shephelah (foothills) of Judah west and a bit south of Jerusalem. The mention of
Micah"s hometown rather than his father"s name suggests that he had come to
Jerusalem and had become known there as the Micah from Moresheth. [ ote: Allen,
p265] ormally a man who was a longtime resident of a town was described as the
son of so and so rather than as being from a particular place. Micah received and
delivered his prophetic messages during the reigns of three of the kings of his
nation: Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. This dates his ministry between750,686 B.C.
[ ote: See my comments on the writer and date in the Introduction section above.]
Similar full headings (superscriptions) begin the books of Isaiah ,, Hosea ,, Amos ,

13. and Zephaniah.
EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMME TARY
Verses 1-16
MICAH THE MORASTHITE
Micah 1:1-16
SOME time in the reign of Hezekiah, when the kingdom of Judah was still inviolate,
but shivering to the shock of the fall of Samaria, and probably while Sargon the
destroyer was pushing his way past Judah to meet Egypt at Raphia, a Judean
prophet of the name of Micah, standing in sight of the Assyrian march, attacked the
sins of his people and prophesied their speedy overthrow beneath the same flood of
war. If we be correct in our surmise, the exact year was 720-719 B.C. Amos had
been silent thirty years. Hoses hardly fifteen; Isaiah was in the midway of his career.
The title of Micah’s book asserts that he had previously prophesied under Jotham
and Ahaz, and though we have seen it to be possible, it is by no means proved, that
certain passages of the book date from these reigns.
Micah is called the Morasthite. [Micah 1:1, Jeremiah 26:18] For this designation
there appears to be no other meaning than that of a native of Moresheth-Gath, a
village mentioned by himself. [Micah 1:14] It signifies Property or Territory of
Gath, and after the fall of the latter, which from this time no more appears in
history, Moresheth may have been used alone. Compare the analogous cases of
Helkath (portion of-) Galilee, Ataroth, Chesulloth, and Iim.
In our ignorance of Gath’s position, we should be equally at fault about Moresheth,
for the name has vanished, were it not for one or two plausible pieces of evidence.
Belonging to Gath, Moresheth must have lain near the Philistine border: the towns
among which Micah includes it are situated in that region; and Jerome declares that
the name-though the form, Morasthi, in which he cites it is suspicious-was in his
time still extant in a small village to the east of Eleutheropolis or Beit-Jibrin. Jerome
cites Morasthi as distinct from the neighboring Mareshah, which is also quoted by
Micah beside Moresheth-Gath.
Moresheth was, therefore, a place in the Shephelah, or range of low hills which lie
between the hill country of Judah and the Philistine plain. It is the opposite
exposure from the wilderness of Tekoa, some seventeen miles away across the
watershed. As the home of Amos is bare and desert, so the home of Micah is fair and
fertile. The irregular chalk hills are separated by broad glens, in which the soil is
alluvial and red, with room for cornfields on either side of the perennial or almost
perennial streams. The olive groves on the braes are finer than either those of the
plain below or of the Judean tableland above. There is herbage for cattle. Bees
murmur everywhere, larks are singing, and although today you may wander in the
maze of hills for hours without meeting a man or seeing a house, you are never out
of sight of the traces of ancient habitation, and seldom beyond sound of the human

14. voice-shepherds and ploughmen calling to their flocks and to each other across the
glens. There are none of the conditions or of the occasions of a large town. But, like
the south of England, the country is one of villages and homesteads, breeding good
yeomen-men satisfied and in love with their soil, yet borderers with a far outlook
and a keen vigilance and sensibility. The Shephelah is sufficiently detached from the
capital and body of the land to beget in her sons an independence of mind and
feeling, but so much upon the edge of the open world as to endue them at the same
time with that sense of the responsibilities of warfare, which the national statesmen,
aloof and at ease in Zion, could not possibly have shared.
Upon one of the west-most terraces of this Shephelah, nearly a thousand feet above
the sea, lay Moresheth itself. There is a great view across the undulating plain with
its towns and fortresses, Lachish, Eglon, Shaphir, and others, beyond which runs
the coast road, the famous war-path between Asia and Africa. Ashdod and Gaza are
hardly discernible against the glitter of the sea, twenty-two miles away. Behind roll
the round bush-covered hills of the Shephelah, with David’s hold at Adullam, the
field where he fought Goliath, and many another scene of border warfare; while
over them rises the high wall of the Judean plateau, with the defiles breaking
through it to Hebron and Bethlehem.
The valley-mouth near which Moresheth stands has always formed the
southwestern gateway of Judea, the Philistine or Egyptian gate, as it might be called,
with its outpost at Lachish, twelve miles across the plain. Roads converge upon this
valley-mouth from all points of the compass. Beit-Jibrin, which lies in it, is midway
between Jerusalem and Gaza, about twenty-five miles from either, nineteen miles
from Bethlehem, and thirteen from Hebron. Visit the place at any point of the long
history of Palestine, and you find it either full of passengers or a center of campaign.
Asa defeated the Ethiopians here. The Maccabees and John Hyrcanus contested
Mareshah, two miles off, with the Idumeans. Gabinius fortified Mare-shah.
Vespasian and Saladin both deemed the occupation of the valley necessary before
they marched upon Jerusalem. Septimius Severus made Beit-Jibrin the capital of
the Shephelah, and laid out military roads, whose pavements still radiate from it in
all directions. The Onomasticon measures distances in the Shephelah from Beit-
Jibrin. Most of the early pilgrims from Jerusalem by Gaza to Sinai or Egypt passed
through it, and it was a center of Crusading operations, whether against Egypt
during the Latin kingdom or against Jerusalem during the Third Crusade. ot
different was the place in the time of Micah. Micah must have seen pass by his door
the frequent embassies which Isaiah tells us went down to Egypt from Hezekiah’s
court, and seen return those Egyptian subsidies in which a foolish people put their
trust instead of in their God.
In touch, then, with the capital, feeling every throb of its folly and its panic, but
standing on that border which must, as he believed, bear the brunt of the invasion
that its crimes were attracting, Micah lifted up his voice. They were days of great
excitement. The words of Amos and Hosea had been fulfilled upon orthern Israel.
Should Judah escape, whose injustice and impurity were as flagrant as her sister’s?
It were vain to think so. The Assyrians had come up to her northern border. Isaiah

15. was expecting their assault upon Mount Zion. The Lord’s Controversy was not
closed. Micah will summon the whole earth to hear the old indictment and the still
unexhausted sentence.
The prophet speaks:-
"Hear ye, peoples all; Hearken, O Earth, and her fullness! That Jehovah may be
among you to testify, The Lord from His holy temple! For, lo! Jehovah goeth forth
from His place; He descendeth and marcheth on the heights of the earth."
"Molten are the mountains beneath Him, And the valleys gape open, Like wax in
face of the fire Like water poured over a fall."
God speaks:-
"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 Sarnaria? And what is the sin of the
house of Judah? is it not Jerusalem? Therefore do I turn Samaria into a ruin of the
field, And into vineyard terraces; And I pour down her stones to the glen And lay
hare her foundations. All her images are shattered, And all her hires are being
burned in the fire; And all her idols I lay desolate, For from the hire of a harlot they
were gathered, And to a harlot’s hire they return."
The prophet speaks:-
"For this let me mourn, let me wail. Let me go barefoot and stripped (of my robe),
Let me make lamentations like the jackals, And mourning like the daughters of the
desert, For her stroke is desperate; Yea, it hath come unto Judah! It hath smitten
right up to the gate of my people. Up to Jerusalem."
Within the capital itself Isaiah was also recording the extension of the Assyrian
invasion to its walls, but in a different temper. [Isaiah 10:28] He was full of the
exulting assurance that, although at the very gate, the Assyrian could not harm the
city of Jehovah, but must fall when he lifted his impious hand against it. Micah has
no such hope: he is overwhelmed with the thought of Jerusalem’s danger. Provincial
though he be, and full of wrath at the danger into which the politicians of Jerusalem
had dragged the whole country, he profoundly mourns the peril of the capital, "the
gate of my people," as he fondly calls her. Therefore we must not exaggerate the
frequently drawn contrast between Isaiah and himself. To Micah also Jerusalem
was dear, and his subsequent prediction of her overthrow [Micah 3:12] ought to be
read with the accent of this previous mourning for her peril. evertheless his heart
clings most to his own home, and while Isaiah pictures the Assyrian entering Judah
from the north by Migron, Michmash, and ob, Micah anticipates invasion by the
opposite gateway of the land, at the door of his own village. His elegy sweeps across
the landscape so dear to him. This obscure province was even more than Jerusalem
his world, the world of his heart. It gives us a living interest in the man that the fate
of these small villages, many of them vanished, should excite in him more passion

16. than the fortunes of Zion herself. In such passion we can incarnate his spirit. Micah
is no longer a book, or an oration, but flesh and blood upon a home and a
countryside of his own. We see him on his housetop pouring forth his words before
the hills and the far-stretching heathen land. In the name of every village within
sight he reads a symbol of the curse that is coming upon his country, and of the sins
that have earned the curse. So some of the greatest poets have caught their music
from the nameless brooklets of their boyhood’s fields; and many a prophet has
learned to read the tragedy of man and God’s verdict upon sin in his experience of
village life. But there was more than feeling in Micah’s choice of his own country as
the scene of the Assyrian invasion. He had better reasons for his fears than Isaiah,
who imagined the approach of the Assyrian from the north. For it is remarkable
how invaders of Judea, from Sennacherib to Vespasian and from Vespasian to
Saladin and Richard, have shunned the northern access to Jerusalem and
endeavored to reach her by the very gateway at which Micah stood mourning. He
had, too, this greater motive for his fear, that Sargon; as we have seen, was actually
in the neighborhood, marching to the defeat of Judah’s chosen patron, Egypt. Was
it not probable that, when the latter was overthrown, Sargon would turn back upon
Judah by Lachish and Mareshah? If we keep this in mind we shall appreciate, not
only the fond anxiety, but the political foresight that inspires the following passage,
which is to our Western taste so strangely cast in a series of plays upon place-names.
The disappearance of many of these names, and our ignorance of the transactions to
which the verses allude, often render both the text and the meaning very uncertain.
Micah begins with the well-known play upon the name of Garb; the Acco which he
couples with it is either the Phoenician port to the north of Carmel, the modern
Acre, or some Philistine town, unknown to us, but in any case the line forms with
the previous one an intelligible couplet: "Tell it not in Tell-town; Weep not in Weep-
town." The following Beth-le-’Aphrah, "House of Dust," must be taken with them,
for in the phrase "roll thyself" there is a play upon the name Philistine. So, too,
Shaphir, or Beauty, the modern Suafir, lay on the Philistine Region. Sa’anan and
Bethesel and Maroth are unknown; but if Micah, as is probable, begins his list far
away on the western horizon and comes gradually inland, they also are to be sought
for on the maritime plain. Then he draws nearer by Lachish, on the first hills, and
in the leading pass towards Judah, to Moresheth-Gath, Achzib, Mareshah, and
Adullam, which all lie within Israel’s territory and about the prophet’s own home.
We understand the allusion, at least, to Lachish in Micah 1:13. As the last Judean
outpost towards Egypt, and on a main road thither, Lachish would receive the
Egyptian subsidies of horses and chariots, in which the politicians put their trust
instead of in Jehovah. Therefore she "was the beginning of sin to the daughter of
Zion." And if we can trust the text of Micah 1:14, Lachish would pass on the
Egyptian ambassadors to Moresheth-Gath, the next stage of their approach to
Jerusalem. But this is uncertain. With Moresheth-Gath is coupled Ach-zib, a town
at some distance from Jerome’s site for the former, to the neighborhood of which,
Mareshah, we are brought back again in Micah 1:15. Adullam, with which the list
closes, lies some eight or ten miles to the northeast of Mareshah.
The prophet speaks:-

17. "Tell it not in Gath, Weep not in Aeco. In Beth-le-’Aphrah roll thyself in dust. Pass
over, inhabitress of Shaphir, thy shame uncovered! The inhabitress of Sa’anan shall
not march forth The lamentation of Beth-esel taketh from you its standing. The
inhabitress of Maroth trembleth for good, For evil hath come down from Jehovah to
the gate of Jerusalem. Harness the horse to the chariot, inhabitress of Lachish, That
hast been the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion";
"Yea, in thee are found the transgressions of Israel Therefore thou givest to
Moresheth-Gath The houses of Aehzib shall deceive the kings of Israel. Again shall I
bring the Possessor [conqueror] to thee inhabitress of Mareshah; To Adullam shall
come the glory of Israel. Make thee bald, and shave thee for thy darlings; Make
broad thy baldness like the vulture, For they go into banishment from thee."
This was the terrible fate which the Assyrian kept before the peoples with whom he
was at war. Other foes raided, burned, and slew: he carried off whole populations
into exile.
Having thus pictured the doom which threatened his people, Micah turns to declare
the sins for which it has been sent upon them.
PARKER, "Verses 1-16
Sin and Judgment
Micah 1 , Micah 2
Micah was a villager. There are advantages in village life which are not to be found
under metropolitan circumstances. It was no dishonour to be a villager in Bible
times. We read of One of whom it is said, "He shall be called a azarene." Little or
nothing is known about Micah , but his prophecy stands out boldly, written in
letters of fire, and surrounded by a very lurid and suggestive atmosphere. There is a
great deal of gospel in Micah. How is it that flowers always look the lovelier because
they are in unexpected places? When we go into a garden and find flowers we
express no surprise; when we find them growing in rocky and stony and
uncultivated places, we exclaim, we are filled with wonder, and sometimes our
wonder touches the point of delight. We find the gospel of God in Micah; in Micah
we find Bethlehem; in Micah we find the whole requirement of God.
otice that these prophets seldom, if ever, address the poor, the outcast, and the
neglected, as the criminals of society. We have nourished ourselves into the pedantry
of supposing that if a man has a bad coat he has of necessity a bad character. The
Bible never proceeds along these lines. Micah specifies the objects of his prophecy
with great definiteness: "Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the
house of Israel." This is in the tone of Jesus Christ. He did not gather around him
the halt, the lame, the blind, the poor, the neglected, the homeless, and say, You are
the curse of society; you are the criminal classes. I am not aware that any such
incident or observation can be found in the whole narrative of the life of Jesus
Christ upon the earth. But Jesus Christ never let the respectability of his age alone;

18. he never gave it one moment"s rest. He differs from all modern teachers in that he
finds the wickedness of society in its high places. He would almost appear to proceed
upon the doctrine that the poor cannot do wickedly as compared with the
wickedness that can be done by the rich. What stone can a little child throw as
compared with the power of a full-grown man? What wickedness can a little child
do as compared with the deep-laid, subtly-elaborated villainy of a man who has had
much schooling? It is worth while to dwell upon this point, because it strikes at
many a sophism—notably at the sophism which we have often endeavoured to
expose that men are made by circumstances; that if men were wealthy they would
pray; if men had an abundance they would be reverent; if men knew not the pangs
of hunger they would be lost in a holy absorption, they would be lost in the praise of
God. There can be no greater lie. You have done more evil in the world since you
were rich than you ever did when you were poor. When you were poor you
sometimes did almost nobly; since you have become encased in luxury you have
thought it fashionable and seasonable to doubt, and almost polite to sneer.
All the judgments of the Bible are pronounced upon the educated classes. or does
the judgment of God rest upon education only; it proceeds to cover the whole
religiousness of the epoch. It is the religion that is irreligious; it is the wine of piety
that has soured into the vinegar of impiousness. Yet we gather our holy skirts, and
speak about "the criminal classes." They are only criminal in the sense in which we
condemn them, in the degree in which they have been fools enough to be discovered.
Vulgarity has been their ruin; they have come into notoriety, not because of their
sin, but because of their clumsiness: if they had served the devil with greater craft
they might have spoken of others as the criminal classes. If the light that is in thee be
darkness, how great is that darkness! If education has been hired to do bad work,
how much bad work it can do! If religion has been bribed into subservience to the
black banner of the devil, with what loyalty it can serve that captain! This would
give us quite a different estimate of society; this would destroy the whole
respectability of the race. Jesus Christ found the throne occupied by the wrong
people, and all the magistracies of his time distributed into wrong hands; the head
of the house and the prince, the Judges , the king, the magistrate, the ruler—these
were wrong. ever do we find Jesus surrounded by the East-enders of his day,
receiving his condemnation because their poverty is the sign of wickedness.
Education may have ruined society. Intelligence may be turned into an instrument
of mischief. Is education then wrong? The question itself is frivolous, and ought not
to be seriously answered. Is intelligence to be contemned? The same remark applies
to that foolish inquiry. We are speaking of perverted education, misused
intelligence; of education and intelligence without moral enthusiasm, and moral
control, and spiritual purpose, and sanctified motive. Such education can do
infinitely more mischief than can be done by blank ignorance. Education knows
where the keys are; education knows where the grindstone is on which it can whet
its weapons; intelligence means craft, cunning, duplicity, ingenuity in the art of
concealment. Wealth can do greater mischief than poverty. This alters the whole
complexion of missions and evangelistic agencies and Church arrangements; this
reverses the whole picture as seen from the orthodox standpoint. Send your
missionaries to the rich! Send your evangelists to pray at the doors of the wealthy,

19. the pampered, the self-indulgent, and the self-damned! Do not make the poor man"s
poverty a plea for foisting your religion upon him. Lend your tracts to the
magistrates, the Judges , the princes of the land; they need them.
What, then, of the doctrine that men are made by circumstances? Let this be put
down in plain letters, that amongst people who can hardly read and write there are
some of the most upright, faithful, honourable souls that ever lived. Let this be said
with loudest, most penetrating emphasis, that there are people who have no bank
account who would scorn to tell a lie. Has poverty not its own genius, and its own
record of heroism, and its own peculiar nobleness? Who shall speak for the dumb,
and open his mouth for the afflicted, and plead the cause of those who are thought
to be wicked, because they have had no social advantages? Where is there a rich
man that is good? Jesus Christ could find none. He said, "How hardly"—that Isaiah
, with what infinite difficulty—"can a rich man get into the kingdom of heaven." It
is not like him, it is not the kind of thing he can appreciate; he has no tables of
calculation by which he can add up its value; if he get in at all it will be by infinite
squeezing, pressing, straining; he will barely get in because his wealth is an
instrument which turns his soul away from the metaphysic which finds in godliness
all riches, in high thought and pure honour the very element and alphabet of
heaven. Still, let it be said with equal plainness, a man is not good simply because he
is poor. There are villains even in poverty. A man is not excellent simply because he
has not had a good education. We must be just in the whole compass of this thought.
As a man is not necessarily bad because he is educated and intelligent and quick-
minded, and of large and penetrating intellectual sagacity, so a man is not
necessarily all that he ought to be simply on the ground that he has no monetary
resources.
Ponder for a moment the excellence of the religion that dare talk like this. It asks no
favours. It does not want to sit down in the pictured room; it wants to get its foot on
the threshold, and through an open door to deliver its message. You cannot invite
such evangelism to dinner—it never dines. It is in haste—it flies, it thunders, it
smites in the face those who uplift themselves in a blasphemous supremacy; it eats
its food with gladness, and in the fellowship of the good, but it will have nothing to
do with the poisoned wine of bribery. Again we come upon our favourite doctrine
that the Bible ought to be the favourite Book of the poor, the neglected, the outcast;
the Bible ought to be the people"s friend, the people"s charter, the very revelation
of man and to Prayer of Manasseh , the revelation of man to himself, as well as a
revelation of God to man.
Yet the prophet will not have all this evil and shame unduly proclaimed. He is not so
far lost to patriotism and to tribal relations as to wish the evil news to be scattered
broadcast, that the enemy may revel in it. So he says, "Declare ye it not at Gath."
This has become a proverb—"Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of
Askelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the
uncircumcised triumph." Do not foolishly trumpet forth all the evil that your
friends have done. Yet men love to do this. Let a piece of good news be forthcoming,
and it will have to make its own way in the world; it must needs crawl from door to

20. door, and slowly impress itself upon the reluctant ears of those who would gladly
turn away from the music of such messages. Let a scandal arise, and the world will
know it ere one hour goes its little round. And Christians are errand-bearers in this
evil agency. They do it as willingly as the worst men out of hell, only they do it in a
different kind of tone; but they do it with ineffable energy, with sleepless industry,
with patient detail. Give them a gospel, and it dies in the recesses of their own
minds; give them a scandal, and they will not dine until they have told everybody
they meet; and they will swallow their feast quickly, that they may get out into the
highway to tell that the devil has scored another triumph. ot such was the spirit of
this rough villager, yet this sanctified prophet of the Lord. He says, The case is bad;
prince and priest and magistrate and ruler have gone wrong, but tell it not in Gath.
In the days of Micah Gath was nothing, it had lost its Philistinian primacy; still
there was the spirit of the proverb, which means, Tell it not to the enemy, let not the
blasphemer hear of this; magnify excellence, but say nothing about defect A prophet
actuated by such a spirit ought to be believed. Prophets have a variety of
credentials; here is an indirect tribute to the man"s own excellence. He knew all, but
would not tell it to all the world. Do you know one evil thing you have never told,
never whispered, never hinted at? By that sign judge yourselves. Is your heart a
grave in which you bury all bad things; or is it a garden in which you cultivate
them? By that sign, and not by your blatant orthodoxy, judge your relation to the
Cross of Christ. Such was the scathing criticism of the prophet; such is the
judgment of Christ upon his Church and upon his nominal followers. He will not
allow men to be round about him who take any delight in evil things or in the
publication of evil circumstances; he ignores them, he dispenses with their service,
and he thrusts them out into the completest darkness—the only atmosphere they are
fit for. Let them tell their evil to the heedless darkness; let them emit their poison
where no soul can be hurt by its virus. This would alter the Church altogether; this
would take away the Church"s occupation. There are men who acquire a reputation
for themselves by condemning the vice of other people. We must all start again, or
we shall make no progress in this divine life, nor shall we promote the best purpose,
the holiest intent, of the divine kingdom. Search thyself; be cruel to thine own soul;
torture thyself into a higher grade of goodness. The mere persecutor, the hired
blocksman and fireman, may be said to be dead. Blessed be God there remains the
age of self-martyrdom, there remains the crown due to him who smites himself in
the eyes, and bruises himself, that by taking away his worst life he may truly gain
his soul.
In the days of Micah there was a species of evil which is not yet extinct. All the evil
was not done in public. The prophet therefore proceeds: "Woe to them that devise
iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! When the morning is light they practise it,
because it is in the power of their hand." The condemnation is upon deliberate evil.
The evildoers are here in their beds; they are considering at leisure what can be
done next. How can it be best attempted, how can it be elaborated to the greatest
effect? They slumber over it; having nourished their brain into a higher degree of
energy they revert to the subject: How can this policy be best carried out? This is
deliberate sin, rolling it under the tongue as a sweet morsel, reverting to it, recalling
it, asking for another vision of it. The soul, what a dungeon! The mind, what an

21. abyss of darkness! Soliloquy, how silent! There is sudden evil, and that must always
be carefully distinguished from deliberate wickedness. There are bursts of passion,
gusts of vehement will, stress brought to bear without notice upon the citadel of the
soul. "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye who are spiritual restore such
an one in the spirit of meekness. Consider yourselves, lest ye also be tempted."
Distinguish between those who are carried away with a whirlwind, and those who
mount the whirlwind deliberately that they may ride forth in that glowing chariot.
Hear the words of the fiery apostle: "On some have compassion." Micah is not
dealing with this class of men, but with those who have made their bed the
sanctuary of the devil; he is dealing with men who say, We will sleep upon this, we
will turn it over; we will see what can be done; we will polish and be prepared
against the day of assault; we will shut out the world and count our resources; we
will settle the whole thing in the privacy of the chamber, and then when the morning
light comes we will spring up as naturally as if nothing had been done by way of
preparation, and then we will strike with our whole force.
Deliberate sin shall have deliberate judgment. This follows quickly in chapter Micah
2:3 : "Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil."
What, are there two devisers? Read Micah 2:1, "Woe to them that devise iniquity";
Micah 2:3, "Thus saith the Lord... do I devise." That is the ghostly aspect of life.
There is the tremendous danger. The foolish man locks himself up in the darkness of
his own concealment, and lays his plot, and works out with elaborate patience his
whole conspiracy against the kingdom of light and honour, truth and beauty; he
says, one seeth me; I can do this, and none shall be the wiser for my doing it; I will
spring forth in the fulness of my preparation when nobody is aware that I have been
laying this train of powder. A man once talked thus: "Soul, thou hast much goods
laid up for many years: take thine ease, take life quietly, enjoy thyself." And one
said to him, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." That was the
uncalculated element; that was the detestable ghostliness that haunts us. Even when
we are most rationalistic, when we are inebriated with our own philosophy, a
sudden touch makes us white, and a whisper drives the blood thickly upon the
heart. A man shall rise in all his self-consciousness of power and capacity and ability
to do what he pleases, and the wise man shall say to him, Are you aware that you
may drop down dead at any moment, such is the condition of your physical system?
This factor the man had not taken into account. Always remember that whilst we
are devising God also is devising. "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness." And
let this reflection make life completer in its repose: " o weapon that is formed
against thee shall prosper," if so be thy soul be wedded to honour, to duty, to
reverence, and to the Cross of Christ. Though men conspire against thee, and have
the pit already dug, and have examined it carefully by the concealed candle light,
and though they should say, " ow it is in a state of readiness, now let the victim
come,"—whilst they are stepping back to make way for the victim they will fall into
the pit which they have dug for others. The Lord sitteth in the heavens. He watches
all. He brings us into great extremities. He shows us over what a precipice we might
have fallen. Then he says, Go home and pray!

22. ISBET, "THE PROPHET MICAH
‘Micah the Morasthite.’
Micah 1:1
When the ministry of the courtly and cultured Isaiah was about half over, there
appeared in Judah another prophet of a very different type, Micah by name. Isaiah
was the associate of kings, being himself, according to Jewish tradition, of royal
birth; but Micah came from the little country village of Moreshah (Micah 1:1), in
Western Palestine, and in dress, gestures, and expressions, if we may judge from
chap. Micah 1:8, reminds one of the prophet Elijah.
I. Though differing widely in personality, Isaiah and Micah were in close sympathy
and harmony, as is shown by their messages; and it is very likely they often met and
talked and prayed together. They both condemned unsparingly the evils of the
times; both predicted judgment as the result of the nation’s sin; and both
prophesied of Christ’s Advent and of His glorious reign. See how almost identical
are the words of Micah 4:1-3 with the passage found in Isaiah 2:2-4, causing one to
think that one prophet quoted the other. There is a strong resemblance between the
two Books in several respects. The peculiarity of Micah’s prophecy is that it is
concerning both the northern and the southern kingdoms (see chap. Micah 1:1;
Micah 1:5), although the burden of his message seems to be intended for Judah.
II. One thing which distinguishes Micah is the result of his ministry.—There is no
hint of this in his Book, but from Jeremiah’s one reference to him we gather that
Micah was instrumental in the conversion of King Hezekiah. You will recall that
Jeremiah, living about one hundred years after Micah, was arrested in the Temple
one day, by the priests, prophets, and people, for prophesying the destruction of the
Temple and city, and was in danger of being put to death when the princes of Judah
interfered. The disturbance was quelled, and the tide of public sentiment against
Jeremiah was turned by the elders calling attention to the similarity of Micah’s
teaching and its results (see Jeremiah 26:18-19).
We know, from the record in Kings, that this attitude of submission to God on the
part of King Hezekiah brought upon himself and his kingdom such blessing that his
was the most glorious reign of all the kings of Judah since Solomon. So Micah, by
his faithful preaching, served well his sovereign, his country, and his God.
Micah seems to have made a deep impression upon the minds and hearts of the
Jewish people. He is often referred to, and his utterances quoted by Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zephaniah. St. Matthew and St. John also quote him. It is Micah
who pointed out the birthplace of the Messiah, thus enabling the scribes and
Pharisees to direct the wise men to Bethlehem, where they should find the Christ-
child.
III. In style, Micah is rather dramatic, given to the use of imagery and figures of
speech.— otice the picture with which the prophecy opens. It represents God as
rising in indignation at the sins of His people, and coming forth in wrath from His
place on high like a great consuming fire, before which the mountains melt, and the

23. valleys are broken. Samaria is the first to feel the heat of God’s indignation, but the
tide of judgment comes rolling down even to the gate of Jerusalem, and still onward,
until Micah sees in vision one after the other of the towns in the neighbourhood of
his own home-town given over to destruction.
Illustration
‘Micah came from the neighbourhood of Gath, in the Philistine plain, with its
luxuriant vineyards, orchards, and cornfields, its busy towns and its glimpses of the
great sea. He exerted a strong influence over Hezekiah and his times. Though of
humble birth, he came to stand in the front rank of the prophetic band. The 8th
verse tells us that he perambulated the streets and public places of Jerusalem,
mingling his prophetic appeals and warnings with loud wails, like the deep hollow
roar of the ostrich or the piteous howl of the jackal. Such an apparition,
proclaiming day after day the national sins and threatening impending doom,
struck the hearts of king and people with awe. In days long after the elders of the
city recalled him, and ascribed to his preaching the great revival which inaugurated
Hezekiah’s reign.’
PETT, "Verses 1-7
YHWH Declares His Verdict On Samaria and Jerusalem (Micah 1:1-7).
The chapter opens with a declaration of YHWH’s sovereign power as Creator, and
of His interest in the affairs of Judah and Israel, which results in a proclamation of
His judgment on Samaria and Jerusalem..
Micah 1:2-3
‘Hear, you peoples, all of you.
Listen, O earth, and all that is in it.
And let the Lord YHWH be witness against you,
The Lord from his holy temple.’
‘For, behold, YHWH comes forth out of his place,
And will come down, and tread on the high places of the earth.’
Like Isaiah (see Isaiah 1:2), although with a different slant, Micah calls on the whole
earth and its peoples to witness the fact that YHWH is about to act from His holy
Temple in Heaven. He is about to come down and tread on the high places of the
earth. He will present His witness against all peoples, and especially against His own
people of Israel and Judah. Thus He is seen as sovereign over all.
PULPIT, "Micah 1:1

24. The inscription, or heading of the book, conveying the prophet's authority. The
word of the Lord. The expression applies to the whole contents of the book, as in
Hosea 1:1 and Zephaniah 1:1. It is often used for some particular message to a
prophet, as Jeremiah 1:4, Jeremiah 1:11; Jeremiah 2:1; Ezekiel 3:16. Micah the
Morasthite; i.e. Micah of Moresheth-Gath (verse 14), a village in the lowland of
Judaea, near Eleutheropolis, some twenty miles southwest of Jerusalem (see
Introduction, § II.). In the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Thus Micah was a
contemporary of Isaiah, though his ministry did not begin as soon or last as long as
that prophet's (see Isaiah 1:1); he was a little later than Hosea and Amos, who
prophesied under Uzziah, the father of Jotham. Kings of Judah are mentioned
because the prophet's mission was to Judah, as the line of election; but, like Amos,
he prophesied against Samaria also. However divided, the two nations are regarded
as one people. Which he saw. What he saw in vision or by inward illumination he
here relates in words. Thus the prophecies of Isaiah, Obadiah, ahum, etc; are
called "visions." Concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Samaria comes first, as being
ripe for punishment, and the first to feel the avenger. The capitals of the two
kingdoms Israel and Judah stand for the people themselves.
BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, "Verse 1-2
Micah 1:1-2
The Word of the Lord that came to Micah the Morasthite
Divine revelation
I.
It is the word of the lord. What is a word?
1. A mind manifesting power. In his word a true man manifests himself, his thought,
feeling, character. His word is important according to the measure of his faculties,
experiences, attainments. Divine revelation manifests the mind of God, especially the
moral characteristics of that mind--His rectitude, holiness, mercy, etc.
2. A mind influencing power. Man uses his word to influence other minds, to bring
other minds into sympathy with his own. Thus God uses His Word. He uses it to
correct human errors, dispel human ignorance, remove human perversities, and
turn human thought and sympathy into a course harmonious with His own mind.
II. It is made to individual men. It came to Micah, not to his con temporaries. Why
certain men were chosen as the special recipients of God’s Word is a problem whose
solution must be left for eternity.
III. It is for all mankind. God did not speak to any individual man specially that the
communication might be kept to himself, but that he might communicate it to
others. He makes one man the special recipient of truth that he may become the
organ and promoter of it. God’s Word is for the world. (Homilist.)

25. Moresheth
This was a place in the Shepbelah, or range of low hills which lie between the hill
country of Judah and the Philistine plain. It is the opposite exposure from the
wilderness of Tekoa, some seventeen miles away across the watershed. As the home
of Amos is bare and desert, so the home of Micah is fair and fertile. The irregular
chalk hills are separated by broad glens, in which the soil is alluvial and red, with
room for cornfields on either side of the perennial, or almost perennial streams. The
olive groves on the braes are finer than either those of the plain below or of the
Judaean table land above. There is herbage for cattle. Bees murmur everywhere,
larks are singing, and although today you may wander in the maze of hills for hours
without meeting a man, or seeing a house, you are never out of sight of the traces of
human habitation, and seldom beyond the sound of the human voice--shepherds and
ploughmen calling to their flocks and to each other across the glens. There are none
of the conditions, or of the occasions, of a large town. But, like the south of England,
the country is one of villages and homesteads, breeding good yeomen--men satisfied
and in love with their soil, yet borderers with a fair outlook and a keen vigilance
and sensibility. The Shephelah is sufficiently detached from the capital and body of
the land to beget in her sons an independence of mind and feeling, but so much
upon the edge of the open world as to endue them at the same time with that sense of
the responsibilities of warfare, which the national statesmen, aloof and at ease in
Zion, could not possibly have shared. Upon one of the westmost terraces of the
Shephelah, nearly a thousand feet above the sea, lay Moresheth itself. (Geo. Adam
Smith, D. D.)
2
Hear, O peoples, all of you, listen, O earth and all
who are in it, that the Sovereign LORD may
witness against you, the Lord from his holy
temple.
BAR ES. "Hear, all ye people - Literally, “hear, ye peoples, all of them.” Some
140, or 150 years had flowed by, since Micaiah, son of Imlah, had closed his prophecy in
these words. And now they burst out anew. From age to age the word of God holds its

26. course, ever receiving new fulfillments, never dying out, until the end shall come. The
signal fulfillment of the prophecy, to which the former Micalah had called attention in
these words, was an earnest of the fulfillment of this present message of God.
Hearken, O earth, and all that therein is - The “peoples” or “nations” are never
Judah and Israel only: the earth and the fullness thereof is the well-known title of the
whole earth and all its inhabitants. Moses Deu_32:1, Asaph Psa_50:7, Isaiah Isa_1:2,
call heaven and earth as witnesses against God’s people. Jeremiah, Jer_6:19 as Micah
here, summons the nations and the earth. The contest between good and evil, sin and
holiness, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, everwhere, but most chiefly
where God’s Presence is nearest, is “a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men” 1Co_
4:9. The nations are witnesses of God against His own people, so that these should not
say, that it was for want of faithfulness or justice or power Exo_32:12; Num_14:16; Jos_
7:8-9, but in His righteous judgment, that He cast off whom He had chosen. So shall the
Day of Judgment “reveal His righteousness” Rom_2:5. “Hearken, O earth.” The lifeless
earth Psa_114:7; Psa_97:5 trembles “at the Presence of God,” and so reproaches the
dullness of man. By it he summons man to listen with great reverence to the Voice of
God.
And let the Lord God be witness against you - Not in words, but in deeds ye
shall know, that I speak not of myself but God in me, when, what I declare, He shall by
His Presence fulfill. But the nations are appealed to, not merely because the judgments
of God on Israel should be made known to them by the prophets. He had not yet spoken
of Israel or Judah, whereas he had spoken to the nations; “hear, ye peoples.” It seems
then most likely that here too he is speaking to them. Every judgment is an earnest, a
forerunner, a part, of the final judgment and an example of its principles. It is but “the
last great link in the chain,” which unites God’s dealings in time with eternity. God’s
judgments on one imply a judgment on all. His judgments in time imply a Judgment
beyond time. Each sinner feels in his own heart response to God’s visible judgments on
another. Each sinful nation may read its own doom in the sentence on each other nation.
God judges each according to his own measure of light and grace, accepted or refused.
The pagan shall be judged by “the law written in their heart” Rom_2:12-15; the Jew, by
the law of Moses and the light of the prophets; Christians, by the law of Christ. “The
word,” Christ saith, “that I have spoken, the same shall judge him at the last Day” Joh_
12:48. God Himself foretold, that the pagan should know the ground of His judgments
against His people. “All nations shall say, wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this
land? What meaneth the heat of this great anger? Then men shall say, Because they have
forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers which He made with them, when
He brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, ...” Deu_29:24-25. But in that the pagan
knew why God so punished His people, they came so far to know the mind of God; and
God, who at no time “left Himself without witness” Act_14:17, bore fresh “witness” to
them, and, so far us they neglected it, against them. A Jew, wherever he is seen
throughout the world, is a witness to the world of God’s judgments against sin.
Dionysius: “Christ, the faithful Witness, shall witness against those who do ill, for
those who do well.”
The Lord from His holy temple - Either that at Jerusalem, where God shewed and
revealed Himself, or Heaven of which it was the image. As David says, “The Lord is in
His holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven” Psa_11:4; and contrasts His dwelling in
heaven and His coming down upon earth. “He bowed the heavens also and came down”
Psa_18:9; and Isaiah, in like words, “Behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to punish
the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity” Isa_26:21.

27. CLARKE, "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. The temple was yet
standing, for Jerusalem was not taken for many years after this; and these prophecies
were delivered before the captivity of the ten tribes, as Micah appears to have been sent
both to Israel and to Judah. See Mic_1:5-9, Mic_1:12, Mic_1:13.
GILL, "Hear, all ye people,.... Or, "the people, all of them" (m); not all the nations of
the world, but the nations of Israel, so called from their several tribes; though some (n)
think the rest of the inhabitants of the earth are meant: thee are the same words which
are used by Micaiah the prophet in the times of Ahab, long before this time, from whom
they might be borrowed, 1Ki_22:28. The phrase in the Hebrew language, as Aben Ezra
observes, is very wonderful, and serves to strike the minds and excite the attention of
men; it is like the words of a crier, in a court of judicature, calling for silence:
hearken, O earth, and all that therein is; or, "its fulness" (o); the land of Israel and
Judah, the whole land of promise, and all the inhabitants of it; for to them are the
following words directed:
and let the Lord God be witness against you; or, "in you" (p); the Word of the
Lord, as the Targum; let him who is the omniscient God, and knows all hearts, thoughts,
words, and actions, let him bear witness in your consciences, that what I am about to say
is truth, and comes from him; is not my own word, but his; and if you disregard it, and
repent not, let him be a witness against you, and for me, that I have prophesied in his
name; that I have faithfully delivered his message, and warned you of your danger, and
reproved you for your sins, and have kept back nothing I have been charged and
entrusted with: and now, you are summoned into open court, and at the tribunal of the
great God of heaven and earth; let him be a witness against you of the many sins you
have been guilty of, and attend while the indictment is read, the charge exhibited, and
the proof given by
the Lord from his holy temple, from heaven, the habitation of his holiness; whose
voice speaking from thence should be hearkened to; who from thence beholds all the
actions of men, and from whence his wrath is revealed against their sins, and he gives
visible tokens of his displeasure; and especially when he seems to come forth from
thence in some remarkable instances of his power and providence, as follows:
HE RY, "A very solemn introduction to the following prophecy (Mic_1:2), in which,
1. The people are summoned to draw near and give their attendance, as upon a court of

28. judicature: Hear, all you people, Note, Where God has a mouth to speak we must have
an ear to hear; we all must, for we are all concerned in what is delivered. “Hear, you
people” (all of them, so the margin reads it), “all you that are now within hearing, and all
others that hear it at second hand.” It is an unusual construction; but those words with
which Micah begins his prophecy are the very same in the original with those wherewith
Micaiah ended his, 1Ki_22:28. 2. The earth is called upon, with all that therein is, to
hear what the prophet has to say: Hearken, O earth! The earth shall be made to shake
under the stroke and weight of the judgments coming; sooner will the earth hear than
this stupid senseless people; but God will be heard when he pleads. If the church, and
those in it, will not hear, the earth, and those in it, shall, and shame them. 3. God himself
is appealed to, and his omniscience, power, and justice, are vouched in testimony against
this people: “Let the Lord God be witness against you, a witness that you had fair
warning given you, that your prophets did their duty faithfully as watchmen, but you
would not take the warning; let the accomplishment of the prophecy be a witness against
your contempt and disbelief of it, and prove, to your conviction and confusion, that it
was the word of God, and no word of his shall fall to the ground.” Note, God himself will
be a witness, by the judgments of his hand, against those that would not receive his
testimony in the judgments of his mouth. He will be a witness from his holy temple in
heaven, when he comes down to execute judgment (Mic_1:3) against those that turned a
deaf ear to his oracles, wherein he witnessed to them, out of his holy temple at
Jerusalem.
JAMISO , "all that therein is — Hebrew, “whatever fills it.” Micaiah, son of
Imlah, our prophet’s namesake, begins his prophecy similarly, “Hearken, O people,
every one of you.” Micah designedly uses the same preface, implying that his
ministrations are a continuation of his predecessor’s of the same name. Both probably
had before their mind Moses’ similar attestation of heaven and earth in a like case (Deu_
31:28; Deu_32:1; compare Isa_1:2).
God be witness against you — namely, that none of you can say, when the time of
your punishment shall come, that you were not forewarned. The punishment denounced
is stated in Mic_1:3, etc.
from his holy temple — that is, heaven (1Ki_8:30; Psa_11:4; Jon_2:7; compare
Rom_1:18).
CALVI , "The Prophet here rises into an elevated style, being not content with a
simple and calm manner of speaking. We hence may learn, that having previously
tried the disposition of the people, he knew the stubbornness of almost all classes:
for except he was persuaded that the people would be rebellious and obstinate, he
would certainly have used some mildness, or have at least endeavored to lead them
of their own accord rather than to drive them thus violently. There is then no doubt
but that the obstinacy of the people and their wickedness were already fully known
to him, even before he began to address one word to them. But this difficulty did not
prevent him from obeying God’s command. He found it necessary in the meantime
to add vehemence to his teaching; for he saw that he addressed the deaf, yea, stupid
men, who were destitute of every sense of religion, and who had hardened
themselves against God, and had not only fallen away through want of thought, but
had also become immersed in their sins, and were wickedly and abominably
obstinate in them. Since then the Prophet saw this, he makes here a bold beginning,

29. and addresses not only his own nation, for whom he was appointed a Teacher; but
he speaks to the whole world.
For what purpose does he say, Hear, all ye people? (62) It was not certainly his
object to proclaim indiscriminately to all the truth of God for the same end: but he
summons here all nations as witnesses or judges, that the Jews might understand
that their impiety would be made evident to all, except they repented, and that there
was no reason for them to hope that they could conceal their baseness, for God
would expose their hidden crimes as it were on an open stage. We hence see how
emphatical are the words, when the Prophet calls on all nations and would have
them to be witnesses of the judgment which God had resolved to bring on his
people.
He afterwards adds, Let also the earth give ear and its fullness We may take the
earth, by metonymy, for its inhabitants; but as it is added, and its fullness, the
Prophet, I doubt not, meant here to address the very earth itself, though it be
without reason. He means that so dreadful would be the judgment of God, as to
shake created things which are void of sense; and thus he more severely upbraids
the Jews with their stupor, that they heedlessly neglected the word of God, which
yet would shake all the elements by its power.
He then immediately turns his discourse to the Jews: after having erected God’s
tribunal and summoned all the nations, that they might form as it were a circle of a
solemn company, he says, There will be for me the Lord Jehovah against you for a
witness —the Lord from the temple of his holiness. By saying that God would be as
a witness for him, he not only affirms that he was sent by God, but being as it were
inflamed with zeal, he appeals here to God, and desires him to be present, that the
wickedness and obstinacy of the people might not be unpunished; as though he said,
“Let God, whose minister I am, be with me, and punish your impiety; let him prove
that he is the author of this doctrine, which I declare from his mouth and by his
command; let him not suffer you to escape unpunished, if ye do not repent.”
We now then perceive the meaning of the Prophet, when he says that God would be
for him a witness; as though he had said, that there was no room here to trifle; for if
the Jews thought to elude God’s judgment they greatly deceived themselves;
inasmuch as when he has given a command to his servants to treat with his people,
he is at the same time present as a judge, and will not suffer his word to be rejected
without immediately undertaking his own cause.
or is this addition superfluous, The Lord from the temple of his holiness: for we
know how thoughtlessly the Jews were wont to boast that God dwelt in the midst of
them. And this presumption so blinded them that they despised all the Prophets; for
they thought it unlawful that any thing should be said to their disgrace, because
they were the holy people of God, his holy heritage and chosen nation. Inasmuch
then as the Lord had adopted them, they falsely boasted of his favors. Since then the
Prophet knew that the people insolently gloried in those privileges, with which they
had been honored by God, he now declares that God would be the avenger of

30. impiety from his temple; as though he said, Ye boast that God is bound to you, and
that he has so bound up his faith to you as to render his name to you a sport: he
indeed dwells in his temple; but from thence he will manifest himself as an avenger,
as he sees that you are perverse in your wickedness. We hence see that the Prophet
beats down that foolish arrogance, by which the Jews were inflated; yea, he turns
back on their own heads what they were wont boastingly to bring forward. After
having made this introduction, to awaken slumbering men with as much vehemence
as he could, he subjoins —
The word ‫,עמים‬ peoples, may be rendered nations: for, notwithstanding the dissent
of Drusius, what Horsley says seems to be correct, that ‫עם‬ in the plural number
designates the heathen nations, as distinguished from the people of Israel. The verse
literally is this, —
Hear, ye nations, —all of them;
Give ear, thou earth, —even its fullness;
And the Lord Jehovah shall be against you a witness
The Lord from the temple of his holiness.
— Ed.
BE SO , "Verses 2-4
Micah 1:2-4. Hear, all ye people — All ye of Israel and Judah. Hearken, O earth —
Or, O land, [of Israel:] and all that therein is — That is, all its inhabitants. Let the
Lord be witness against you — “I call him to witness, that I have forewarned you of
the judgments that hang over your heads, unless you speedily repent. And he
himself will become a witness against you, and convince you of your sins in such a
manner that you shall not be able to deny the charge.” The Lord from his holy
temple — Heaven, his holy habitation. The Lord cometh forth out of his place —
God is said, in Scripture, to come out of his place, or heaven, when he makes his
judgments or mercies to be remarkably conspicuous, by visible effects on the earth.
And will tread upon the high places of the earth — He will cause places of the
greatest strength to be destroyed, and men of the highest rank to be brought down.
And the mountains shall be molten under him, &c. — An allusion to God’s coming
down upon mount Sinai, when thunder and lightning shook the mountain, and
violent rains, which accompanied this tempest, made the hills look as if they were
melted down. Or the words may be referred to the general judgment, of which all
particular judgments are an earnest, when the heavens and the earth shall be
dissolved at Christ’s appearing.
COFFMA , ""Hear, ye peoples, all of you, O earth, and all that therein is: and let
the Lord Jehovah be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple."
A statement such as this could hardly be expected to follow anything other than the
very type of inspired and God-sent prophecy announced in the preceding verse.

31. "All of you, O earth ..." "The nations, all of them, are summoned .... for Israel's case
is part and parcel of the world's case."[11] otice, in particular, that this verse
continues to affirm that the Lord is the author of the message being delivered; and
that means, of course that the unbelievers have to get rid of this one also. Wolfe said,
"This verse was not written until at least a century and a half after Micah!"[12]
Rather, we should have said, that was spoken through Wolfe! The true author of
such contradictions we have already identified. The thing which disturbs Satan in a
reference like this is the fact that the judgment about to be executed upon Israel and
Judah was a type and paradigm of the great and eternal Judgment that shall
conclude the present age. othing could be more repugnant either to Satan, or to
evil men, than the Biblical doctrine of Eternal Judgment.
"The Lord from his holy temple ..." "The holy temple here is not Jerusalem, but
heaven; it is from there that the judgment emanates."[13] A failure to discern the
highly figurative import of this passage always marks the response of those who are
unspiritual. "The language used (in Micah 1:3-4) is highly figurative, the sublimity
of which must be conceded by all."[14]
"Although directed primarily against Samaria, and ultimately against the southern
capital, the prophet sets his pronouncement against a vast backcloth of world
judgment. Micah's God is no provincial deity but the universal Overlord to whom
all nations must render account."[15]
COKE, ". Let the Lord God be witness, &c.— "I call the Almighty to witness, that I
have forewarned you of the judgments hanging over your heads, and which will
inevitably fall upon you, unless you speedily repent; and the Almighty himself will
become a witness against you, and convince you of your sins, in such a manner, that
you shall not be able to deny the charge." This sublime and elevated beginning
indicates the importance of what he was about to say, and the lively impression
which was made upon him by the sins of Israel, and the misfortunes about to fall
upon them.
ELLICOTT, "(2) Hear, all ye people.—The three-fold repetition of the appeal,
“Hear ye,” seems to mark three divisions in the book: 1. “Hear, all ye people”
(Micah 1:2); 2. “Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob” (Micah 3:1); 3. Hear ye now
what the Lord saith” (Micah 6:1).
From his holy temple—i.e., from heaven; for “the Lord is in His holy temple, the
Lord’s throne is in heaven” (Psalms 11:4).
Micaiah, the son of Imlah, ended his appeal to Ahab and Jehoshaphat with the
words with which Micah opens his prophecy, “Hearken, O people, every one of you”
(1 Kings 22:28).
CO STABLE, "Verse 2
Micah cried, "Hear ye, hear ye!" to the people of the earth, as a clerk summons a

32. courtroom jury to pay attention to the testimony that will follow. Micah presented
his message in the setting of a courtroom trial. This is the rib (lawsuit) oracle form,
examples of which are quite common in the Prophets. Sovereign Yahweh was about
to give His witness against His people ("you," Micah"s audience; cf. Deuteronomy
31:19-21; Deuteronomy 31:26). This appeal assumes that those called on to listen
will agree with the testimony to be given. The Lord would come out of His temple to
give His testimony. The Hebrew word hekal literally means "palace" rather than
"temple." It refers to the location of the throne of judgment. This appears to be a
reference to God"s heavenly temple in view of the following verses (cf. Psalm 11:4;
Isaiah 3:13-14; Habakkuk 2:20).
"What the peoples are supposed to hear serves not to increase their knowledge but
to determine their lives." [ ote: Hans W. Wolff, Micah , p55.]
PULPIT, "Micah 1:2
Hear, all ye people; rather, all ye peoples; Septuagint, λαοί. All nations are
summoned to come and witness the judgment, and to profit by the warning. So
Micaiah, son of Imlah, the bold denouncer of false prophets in the age of Ahah, had
cried, "Hear, ye peoples, all of you" (1 Kings 22:28). So Moses, in his song
(Deuteronomy 32:1), calls on heaven and earth to listen to his words (comp. Isaiah
1:2). These expressions are not mere rhetorical figures; they have a special
application. Whatever happens to Israel has a bearing on the development of the
kingdom of God; the judgments on the chosen people are not only a warning to the
heathen, but bring on the great consummation. All that therein is; literally, the
fulness thereof; Vulgate, plentitudo ejus; Septuagint, πάντες οἱ ἐν αὐτῇ, "all ye that
are therein" (Psalms 24:1). Let the Lord God (the Lord Jehovah) be witness against
you. Let God by his judgments against you, viz. Israel and Judah, confirm my
denunciation (comp. Deuteronomy 29:24). From his holy temple; i.e. from heaven,
as Micah 1:3 shows (1 Kings 8:30; Psalms 11:4; Habakkuk 2:20
3
Look! The LORD is coming from his dwelling
place; he comes down and treads the high places
of the earth.

33. BAR ES. "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.” He
seemeth to be absent, when He doth not visibly work either in the heart within, or in
judgments without; to the ungodly and unbelieving He is absent, “far above out of their
sight” Psa_10:5, when He does not avenge their scoffs, their sins, their irreverence.
Again He seemeth to go forth, when His Power is felt. Dionysius: “Whence it is said,
‘Bow Thy heavens, O Lord, and come down’ Psa_144:5; Isa_64:1; and the Lord saith of
Sodom, ‘I will go down now and see, whether they have done altogether according to the
cry of it, which is come unto Me’ Gen_18:21. Or, the Place of the Infinite God is God
Himself. For the Infinite sustaineth Itself, nor doth anything out of Itself contain It. God
dwelleth also in light unapproachable 1Ti_6:16. When then Almighty God doth not
manifest Himself, He abideth, as it were, in ‘His own Place.’ When He manifests His
Power or Wisdom or Justice by their effects, He is said ‘to go forth out of His Place,’ that
is, out of His hiddenness. Again, since the Nature of God is Goodness, it is proper and
co-natural to Him, to be propitious, have mercy and spare. In this way, the Place of God
is His mercy. When then He passeth from the sweetness of pity to the rigor of equity,
and, on account of our sins, sheweth Himself severe (which is, as it were, alien from
Him) He goeth forth out of His Place.” Jerome: “For He who is gentle and gracious, and
whose Nature it is to have mercy, is constrained, on your account, to take the seeming of
hardness, which is not His.”
He comes invisibly now, in that it is He who punisheth, through whatever power or
will of man He useth; He shews forth His Holiness through the punishment of
unholiness. But the words, which are image-language now, shall be most exactly fulfilled
in the end, when, in the Person of our Lord, He shall come visibly to judge the world.
Jerome, Theoph.: “In the Day of Judgment, Christ ‘shall come down,’ according to that
Nature which He took, ‘from His Place,’ the highest heavens, and shall cast down the
proud things of this world.”
And will come down - Not by change of place, or in Himself, but as felt in the
punishment of sin; and tread upon the high places of the earth; to bring down the pride
of those (see Amo_4:13; Job_9:8) who “being lifted up in their own conceit and lofty,
sinning through pride and proud through sin, were yet created out of earth. For why is
earth and ashes proud?” (Ecclesiasticus 10:9). What seems mightiest and most firm, is
unto God less than is to man the dust under his feet. The high places were also the
special scenes of an unceasing idolatry. “God treadeth in the good and humble, in that
He dwelleth, walketh, feasteth in their hearts 2Co_6:16; Rev_3:20. But He treadeth
upon the proud and the evil, in that He casteth them down, despiseth, condemneth
them.”
CLARKE, "For, behold, the Lord cometh forth - See this clause, Amo_4:13
(note). He represents Jehovah as a mighty conqueror, issuing from his pavilion,
stepping from mountain to mountain, which rush down and fill the valleys before him; a
consuming fire accompanying him, that melts and confounds every hill and dale, and
blends all in universal confusion. God is here represented as doing that himself which
other conquerors do by the multitude of their hosts; levelling the mountains, filling some
of the valleys, and digging for waters in others, and pouring them from hills and dales

34. for the use of the conquering armies, by pipes and aqueducts.
And why is all this mighty movement? Mic_1:5. “For the transgression of Jacob is all
this, and for the sins of the house of Israel.”
GILL, "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. It signifies not
change of place, but of his dispensations; going out of his former customary method into
another; removing, as Jarchi has it, from the throne of mercies to the throne of
judgment; doing not acts of mercy, in which he delights, but exercising judgment, his
strange work. So the Cabalistic writers (q) observe on the passage, that
"it cannot be understood of place properly taken, according to Isa_40:12; for God is the
place of the world, not the world his place; hence our wise men so expound the text, he
cometh forth out of the measure of mercy, and goes into the measure of justice;''
or property of it. Some understand this of his leaving the temple at Jerusalem, and
giving it up into the hands of the Chaldeans; but the former sense is best:
and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth; which are
his footstool; Samaria and Jerusalem, built on mountains, and all other high towers and
fortified places, together with men of high looks and haughty countenances, who exalt
themselves like mountains, and swell with pride: these the Lord can easily subdue and
humble, bring low and tread down like the mire of the street; perhaps there may be an
allusion to the high places where idols were worshipped; and which were the cause of
the Lord's wrath and vengeance, and of his coming forth, in this unusual way, in his
providences.
HE RY, "A terrible prediction of destroying judgments which should come upon
Judah and Israel, which had its accomplishment soon after in Israel, and at length in
Judah; for it is foretold, 1. That God himself will appear against them, Mic_1:3. They
boasted of themselves and their relation to God, as if that would secure them; but,
though God never deceives the faith of the upright, he will disappoint the presumption
of the hypocrites, for, behold, the Lord comes forth out of his place, quits his mercy-seat,
where they thought they had him fast, and prepares his throne for judgment; his glory
departs, for they drive it from them. God's way towards this people had long been a way
of mercy, but now he changes his way, he comes out of his place, and will come down.
He had seemed to retire, as one regardless of what was done, but now he will show
himself, he will rend the heavens, and will come down, not as sometimes, in surprising
mercies, but in surprising judgments, to do things not for them, but against them, which
they looked not for, Isa_64:1; Isa_26:21. 2. That when the Creator appears against them
it shall be in vain for any creature to appear for them. He will tread with contempt and
disdain upon the high places of the earth, upon all the powers that are advanced in
competition with him or in opposition to him; and he will so tread upon them as to tread
them down and level them. High places, set up for the worship of idols or for military
fortifications, shall all be trodden down and trampled into the dust. Do men trust to the

35. height and strength of the mountains and rocks, as if they were sufficient to bear up
their hopes and bear off their fears? They shall be molten under him, melted down as
wax before the fire, Psa_68:2. Do they trust to the fruitfulness of the valleys, and their
products? They shall be cleft, or rent, with those fiery streams that shall come pouring
down from the mountains when they are melted. They shall be ploughed and washed
away as the ground is by the waters that are poured down a steep place. God is said to
cleave the earth with rivers, Hab_3:9. Neither men of high degree, as the mountains,
nor men of low degree, as the valleys, shall be able to secure either themselves or the
land from judgments of God, when they are sent with commission to lay all waste, and,
like a sweeping rain, to leave no food, Pro_28:3. This is applied particularly to the head
city of Israel, which they hoped would be a protection to the kingdom (Mic_1:6.) I will
make Samaria, that is now a rich and populous city, as a heap of the field, as a heap of
dung laid there to be spread, or as a heap of stones gathered together to be carried away,
and as plantings of a vineyard, as hillocks of earth raised to plant vines in. God will
make of that city a heap, of that defenced city a ruin, Isa_25:2. Their altars had been as
heaps in the furrows of the fields (Hos_12:11) and now their houses shall be so, as
ruinous heaps. The stones of the city are poured down into the valley by the fury of the
conqueror, who will thus be revenged on those walls that so long held out against him.
They shall be quite pulled down, so that the very foundations shall be discovered, that
had been covered by the superstructure; and not one stone shall be left upon another.
JAMISO , "tread upon the high places of the earth — He shall destroy the
fortified heights (compare Deu_32:13; Deu_33:29) [Grotius].
CALVI , "The Prophet pursues the same subject; and he dwells especially on this
— that God would be a witness against his people from his sanctuary. He therefore
confirms this, when he says that God would come from his place Some interpreters
do at the same time take this view — that the temple would hereafter be deprived of
God’s presence, and would hence become profane, according to what Ezekiel
declares. For as the Jews imagined that God was connected with them as long as the
temple stood, and this false imagination proved to them an allurement, as it were, to
sin, as on this account they took to themselves greater liberty, — this was the reason
why the Prophet Ezekiel declares that God was no longer in the temple; and the
Lord had shown to him by a vision that he had left his temple, so that he would no
longer dwell there. Some, as I have said, give a similar explanation of this passage;
but this sense does not seem to suit the context. I therefore take another view of this
sentence — that God would go forth from his place. But yet it is doubted what place
the Prophet refers to: for many take it to be heaven, and this seems probable, for
immediately after he adds, Descend shall God, and he will tread on the high places
of the earth This descent seems indeed to point out a higher place: but as the temple,
we know, was situated on a high and elevated spot, on mount Zion, there is nothing
inconsistent in saying that God descended from his temple to chastise the whole of
Judea as it deserved. Then the going forth of God is by no means ambiguous in its
meaning, for he means that God would at length go forth, as it were, in a visible
form. With regard then to the place, I am inclined to refer it to the temple; and this
clause, I have no doubt, has proceeded from the last verse.
But why is going forth here ascribed to God? Because the Jews had abused the

36. forbearance of God in worshipping him with vain ceremonies in the temple; and at
the same time they thought that they had escaped from his hand. As long then as
God spared them, they thought that he was, as it were, bound to them, because he
dwelt among them. Besides, as the legal and shadowy worship prevailed among
them, they imagined that God rested in their temple. But now the Prophet says, “He
will go forth: ye have wished hitherto to confine God to the tabernacle, and ye have
attempted to pacify him with your frivolous puerilities: but ye shall know that his
hand and his power extend much farther: he shall therefore come and show what
that majesty is which has been hitherto a derision to you.” For when hypocrites set
to sale their ceremonies to God, do they not openly trifle with him, as though he
were a child? and do they not thus rob him of his power and authority? Such was
the senselessness of that people. The Prophet therefore does not say without reason
that God would go forth, that he might prove to the Jews that they were deluded by
their own vain imaginations, when they thus took away from God what necessarily
belonged to him, and confined him to a corner in Judea and fixed him there, as
though he rested and dwelt there like a dead idol.
The particle, Behold, is emphatical: for the Prophet intended here to shake off from
the Jews their torpidity, inasmuch as nothing was more difficult to them than to be
persuaded and to believe that punishment was nigh at hand, when they flattered
themselves that God was propitious to them. Hence that they might no longer
cherish this willfulness, he says, Behold, come shall the Lord, forth shall he go from
his place Isaiah has a passage like this in an address to the people, Isaiah 26:0; but
the object of it is different; for Isaiah intended to threaten the enemies of the
Church and heathen nations: but here Micah denounces war on the chosen people,
and shows that God thus dwelt in his temple, that the Jews might perceive that his
hand was opposed to them, as they had so shamefully despised him, and, by their
false imaginations reduced, as it were, to nothing his power.
He shall tread, he says, on the high places of the earth. By the high places of the
earth I do not understand superstitious places, but those well fortified. We know
that fortresses were then fixed, for the most part, on elevated situations. The
Prophet then intimates, that there would be no place into which God’s vengeance
would not penetrate, however well fortified it might be: “ o enclosures,” he says,
“shall hinder God from penetrating into the inmost parts of your fortresses; he shall
tread on the high places of the earth.” At the same time, I doubt not but that he
alludes, by this kind of metaphor, to the chief men, who thought themselves
exempted from the common lot of mankind; for they excelled so much in power,
riches, and authority, that they would not be classed with the common people. The
Prophet then intimates, that those, who were become proud through a notion of
their own superiority would not be exempt from punishment.
COFFMA , "Verse 3
"For behold Jehovah cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread
upon the high places of the earth."
How undiscerning are those who take occasion from this to speculate upon the

37. superstitious ignorance of Micah who supposed that heaven was some kind of
headquarters on the other side of some convenient cloud! It is not the ignorance of
Micah which glories in such observations. Micah in this and the following verses
expressed in language as powerful and beautiful as any ever written the visible
manifestation of the eternal God in the pattern of his deeds and in the execution of
his judgments, doing so anthropomorphically, that is, by comparing his conduct to
that of a man. How else could the manifestation of God to humanity be described?
Man has no other vocabulary with which to undertake such a task.
"And will tread upon the high places of the earth ..." God is greater than man; he is
higher than man; any manifestation of God to his human subjects involves a
"coming down" upon the part of God. one of the apostles or prophets of either the
Old Testament or the ew Testament considered God to be anything other than
spirit. "God is a spirit ... he is not far from any one of us ... in him we live and move
and have our being...where shall I flee from God's presence ... even in the uttermost
parts of the sea, Thou art there ... the darkness and the light are both alike to God ...
etc., etc."
CO STABLE, "Verse 3-4
The Lord was about to intervene in the affairs of His people. He is not only
transcendent above all but immanently involved in the world, one of the most basic
revelations in Old Testament theology. When He came, all the earth would melt,
split, and quake before His awesome power (cf. Judges 5:4-5). Since He could affect
the physical creation so drastically, His people needed to fear Him. Treading on the
high places of the land, where the Israelites worshipped in idolatry (cf. 2 Chronicles
33:17), probably also implies that He would crush pagan worship. [ ote:
McComiskey, p404; John A. Martin, " Micah ," in The Bible Knowledge
Commentary: Old Testament, p1477.]
"If men would tremble before God, instead of before each other, they would have
nothing to fear." [ ote: Waltke, in Obadiah , . . ., p152.]
ISBET, "Verse 3-4
THE LORD’S ADVE T
‘The Lord cometh forth out of His place … and the mountains shall be molten
under Him.’
Micah 1:3-4
God, said the prophet, would come down in judgment. He loved His people too well
to give them over to their sins. God’s one purpose is to set us free from the dominion
of evil, for He knows that we can never be really blessed until our bonds are broken
and our uncleanness removed. How shall we ever be thankful enough that Jesus
Christ has come forth out of His place in the glory to deliver us; and whatever
mountains may oppose Him in His great redemptive work, surely they shall flow
down at His presence!
I. There must be suffering.—The suffering of chastisement. As it was with Israel, so
it must be with us. We must learn that it is an evil and bitter thing to indulge in

38. known sin. The strokes will fall quick and fast, although the rod is held by a
Father’s hand. Where conscience is not quick enough to admonish us, outward
discipline must be called in to supplement her.
II. We must claim the shelter of Christ’s Cross and grave.—Israel knew nought of
these as we know them. But how great our privilege and power to retreat to the cleft
of the rock and hide there whilst storms of temptation sweep past! Satan cannot
reach the soul that is sheltering there. This is being truly ‘dead unto sin.’
III. We must look up for the indwelling energy of the ascended Christ.—The
Ascension means even more than the Resurrection. From the glorious height of His
Ascension, the Lord Jesus comes to indwell us, and to melt down the strong
mountains of our rebellious will, substituting His own.
Illustrations
(1) ‘The sublime imagery of the opening paragraph was probably supplied by the
traditions of the great earthquake which took place in the reign of Uzziah. The
Almighty God is depicted as coming down to judgment, and nature trembles before
His advent. He judges Samaria first, and pronounces the dread sentence of its
approaching overthrow by Assyria.’
(2) ‘Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea. Jeremiah quotes Micah 3:12
(Jeremiah 26:18); and there are several correspondences between his words and
Isaiah. He denounces the idolatries perpetrated in Samaria, so soon to fall, and
Jerusalem. God’s coming to judge his guilty people is attended by earthquake and
storm. Samaria would be made desolate, and all the wealth which Israel boasted of
having received from her idols, as her reward or hire for worshipping them, would
return to them again when she was carried into captivity. The prophet describes his
own anguish, as he sees the approaching calamity, which should involve, not
Samaria only, but Jerusalem.’
PULPIT, "Micah 1:3
Here follows a grand description, in figurative language, of the course of Divine
judgment, and of God's awful majesty and resistless power. Out of his place. It is as
though the sins of Israel had roused him to action. God is hidden except when he
displays his power in judgment and mercy (see note on Zechariah 14:3). Will come
down. An anthropomorphic expression, as Genesis 18:21. The high places. As
though descending from heaven, God first came upon the tops of the mountains (see
note on Amos 4:13; comp. Deuteronomy 32:13). The phrase would imply God's
absolute sovereignty over the universe.
BI, "Verses 3-7
Micah 1:3-7
For, behold, the Lord cometh out of His place
God’s procedure in relation to sin

39. This is a highly figurative and sublime representation of the Almighty in His
retributive work, especially in relation to Samaria and Jerusalem.
He is represented as leaving His holy temple, coming out of His place, and marching
with overwhelming grandeur over the high places of the earth, to deal out
punishment to the wicked. “The description of this theophany,” says Delitzsch, “is
founded upon the idea of a terrible storm and earthquake, as in Psalms 18:8. The
mountains melt ( 5:4, and Psalms 68:9) with the streams of water which discharge
themselves from heaven ( 5:4), and the valleys split with the deep channels cut out
by the torrents of water. The similes ‘like wax,’ etc. (as in Psalms 68:3), and ‘like
water’ are intended to express the complete dissolution of mountains and valleys.
The actual facts answering to this description are the destructive influences exerted
upon nature by great national judgments.” The reference is undoubtedly to the
destruction of the king of Israel by Shalmaneser, and the invasion of Judah by the
armies of Sennacherib and ebuchadnezzar, by the latter of whom the Jews were
carried away captive. The passage is an inexpressibly grand representation of God’s
procedure in relation to sin.
I. As it apears to the eye of man. The Bible is eminently anthropomorphic.
1. God, in dealing out retribution, appears to man in an extraordinary position. “He
cometh forth out of His place.” What is His place? To all intelligent beings, the
settled place of the Almighty is the temple of love, the pavilion of goodness, the
mercy seat. The general beauty, order, and happiness of the universe give all
intelligent creatures this impression of Him. But when confusion and misery fall on
the sinner, the Almighty seems to man to come out of His “place,” to step aside from
His ordinary procedure. Judgment is God’s strange work. He comes out of His place
to execute it.
2. God, in dealing out retribution, appears to man in a terrific aspect. He does not
appear as in the silent march of the stars or the serenity of the sun; but as in
thunderstorms and volcanic eruptions. “The mountains shall be molten under
Him,” etc.
II. As it affects a sinful people. In God’s procedure in relation to sin what disastrous
effects were brought upon Samaria and Jerusalem!
1. God, in His procedure in relation to sin, brings material ruin upon people. Sin
brings on commercial decay, political ruin; it destroys the health of the body, and
brings it ultimately to the dust.
2. God, in His procedure in relation to sin, brings mental anguish upon a people. A
disruption between the soul and the objects of its supreme affections involves the
greatest anguish. The gods of a people, whatever they may be, are these objects, and
these are to be destroyed. Conclusion--Mark well that God has a course of conduct
in relation to sin, or rather, that God, in His beneficent march, must ever appear
terrible to the sinner, and bring ruin on his head. It is the wisdom as well as the duty
of all intelligent creatures to move in thought, sympathy, and purpose, as God

40. moves--move with Him, not against Him. (Homilist.)
God’s way of taking vengeance
The justice of God taking vengeance on enemies is further described from the way
of manifesting thereof, which is slowly but certainly; the Lord forbearing, neither
because He purposes to give, nor because He wants power; as may appear from His
majesty and state, when He appeareth environed with whirlwinds and tempests
raised by His power. Doctrine--
1. The Lord, even toward enemies, is long suffering, and slow in executing of anger,
that their destruction may be seen to be of themselves, that in His holy providence
they may stumble more upon His indulgence, and fill up their measure; and that His
Church’s faith and patience may be tried.
2. When the Lord spareth His enemies, it is not because He is not able to meet with
them, nor ought we to judge from any outward appearance that they are invincible;
for, how unlikely soever the destruction of enemies may be in the eyes of men, yet
the Lord who is “slow to anger” is also “great in power.”
3. As the Lord is able to reach His enemies when He pleaseth, so His forbearing of
them is no evidence that they shall be exempted altogether; but He will undoubtedly
give proof of His power, in dealing with them as their way deserveth.
4. The Lord is able by His power speedily to bring to pass greatest things, and can,
when He pleaseth, overturn, confound, and darken all things which appeared to be
stable, well ordered, and clear.
5. The Lord, manifesting Himself in His great glory, doth but, so to say, obscure
Himself in respect of our infirmity, which cannot comprehend His glory in its
brightness; for so much doth His manifestation of Himself environed with dark
storms or tempests and thick lowering clouds teach.
6. God’s dispensations, even when they are most dreadful and terrible in effects,
may yet be deep and unsearchable, and His purpose and counsel in them hard to
discern; for so much doth His way in whirlwinds, storms, and clouds (which involve
and darken all) teach. (George Hutcheson.)
4
The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys
split apart, like wax before the fire, like water
rushing down a slope.

41. BAR ES. "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. Fire, the real agent at the end of the world, is, meanwhile, the symbol of God’s anger,
as being the most terrible of His instruments of destruction: whence God revealed
Himself as a consuming fire Deu_4:24, and at this same time said by Isaiah; “For
behold, the Lord will come with fire ... to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke
with flames of fire” Isa_66:15.
And the valleys shall be cleft as wax before the fire - It seems natural that the
mountains should be cleft; but the valleys , so low already! This speaks of a yet deeper
dissolution; of lower depths beyond our sight or knowledge, into the very heart of the
earth. Sanch.: “This should they fear, who will to be so low; who, so far from lifting
themselves to heavenly things, pour out their affections on things of earth, meditate on
and love earthly things, and forgetful of the heavenly, choose to fix their eyes on earth.
These the wide gaping of the earth which they loved, shall swallow: to them the cleft
valleys shall open an everlasting sepulchre, and, having received them, shall never part
with them.”
Highest and lowest, first and last, shall perish before Him. The pride of the highest,
kings and princes, priests and judges, shall sink and melt away beneath the weight and
Majesty of His glory; the hardness of the lowest, which would not open itself to Him,
shall be cleft in twain before Him.
As wax before the fire - (See Psa_97:5), melting away before Him by whom they
were not softened, vanishing into nothingness. Metals melt, changing their form only;
wax, so as to cease to be.
As the waters poured down - (As a stream or cataract, so the word means .)
A steep place - Down to the very edge, it is borne along, one strong, smooth,
unbroken current; then, at once, it seems to gather its strength, for one great effort. But
to what end? To fall, with the greater force, headlong, scattered in spray, foam and froth;
dissipated, at times, into vapor, or reeling in giddy eddies, never to return. In Judea,
where the autumn rains set in with great vehemence, the waters must have been often
seen pouring in their little tumultuous brooklets down the mountain side , hastening to
disappear, and disappearing the faster, the more vehemently they rolled along . Both
images exhibit the inward emptiness of sinners, man’s utter helplessness before God.
They need no outward impulse to their destruction. Jerome: “Wax endureth not the
nearness of the fire, and the waters are carried headlong. So all of the ungodly, when the
Lord cometh, shall be dissolved and disappear.” At the end of the world, they shall be
gathered into bundles, and cast away.
GILL, "And the mountains shall be molten under him,.... As Sinai was when he
descended on it, and as all nations will be at the general conflagration; but here the
words are to be taken, not literally, but figuratively, for the kingdoms of Israel and
Judah, and for the kings, and princes, and great men in them, that lifted up their heads
as high, and thought themselves as secure, as mountains; yet when the judgments of
God should fall upon them, their hearts would melt through fear under him; as well as
all their glory and greatness depart from them, and they be no more what they were
before, but levelled with the meanest subject:

42. and the valleys shall be cleft: have chasms made in them by the melting of the
mountains, or by the flow of water from the hills: these may design the lower sort of
people, who shall have their share in this calamity; the inhabitants of the valleys and
country villages; who, though mean and low, shall be lower still, and lose that little
substance, that liberty and those privileges, they had; as valleys may be cleft, and open,
and sink into the lower parts of the earth; so it is signified that these people should be in
a more depressed state and condition:
as wax before the fire; melts, and cannot stand the force of it; so the mountains
should melt at the presence of the Lord; and kingdoms and states, and the greatest and
mightiest of men in them, would not be able to stand before the fierceness of his wrath;
see Psa_68:2;
and as the waters that are poured down a steep place; that run with great
swiftness, force, and rapidity, and there is no stopping them; so should the judgments of
God come down upon the lower sort of people, the inhabitants of the valleys; neither
high nor low would escape the indignation of the Lord, or be able to stand against it, or
stand up under it.
JAMISO , "Imagery from earthquakes and volcanic agency, to describe the terrors
which attend Jehovah’s coming in judgment (compare Jdg_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 — (Psa_97:5; compare Isa_64:1-3). The third clause, “as wax,” etc., answers
to the first in the parallelism, “the mountains shall be molten”; the fourth, “as the
waters,” etc., to the second, “the valleys shall be cleft.” As wax melts by fire, so the
mountains before God, at His approach; and as waters poured down a steep cannot
stand but are diffused abroad, so the valleys shall be cleft before Jehovah.
CALVI , "And he afterwards adds, that this going forth of God would be terrible,
Melt, he says, shall the mountains under him It hence appears, that the Prophet did
not speak in the last verse of the departure of God, as though he was going to
forsake his own temple, but that he, on the contrary, described his going forth from
the temple, that he might ascend his tribunal and execute punishment on the whole
people, and thus, in reality, prove that he would be a judge, because he had been
very daringly despised. Hence he says, Melt shall the mountains under him, the
valleys shall be rent, or cleave, as wax before the fire, as waters rolling into a lower
place (63) The Prophets do not often describe God in a manner so awful; but this
representation is to be referred to the circumstance of this passage, for he sets forth
God here as the judge of the people: it was therefore necessary that he should be
exhibited as furnished and armed with powers that he might stake such vengeance
on the Jews as they deserved. And other similar passages we shall hereafter meet
with, and like to those which we found in Hosea. God then is said to melt the
mountains, and he is said to strike the valleys with such terror that they cleave
under him; in short, he is said so to terrify all elements, that the very mountains,
however stony they may be, melt like wax or like waters which flow, — because he
could not otherwise produce a real impression on a people so obstinate, and who, as
it has been said, so flattered themselves even in their vices.

43. We may further easily learn what application to make of this truth in our day. We
find the Papists boasting of the title Church, and, in a manner, with vain confidence,
binding God to themselves, because they have baptism, though they have
adulterated it with their superstitions; and then, they think that they have Christ,
because they still retain the name of a Church. Had the Lord promised that his
dwelling would be at Rome, we yet see how foolish and frivolous would be such
boasting: for though the temple was at Jerusalem, yet the Lord went forth thence to
punish the sins of the people, yea, even of the chosen people. We further know, that
it is folly to bind God now to one place, for it is his will that his name should be
celebrated without any difference through the whole world. Wheresoever, then, the
voice of the Gospel sounds, God would have us to know that he is present there.
What the Papists then proudly boast of — that Christ is joined to them — will turn
out to their own condemnation; — why so? Because the Lord will prove that he is
the avenger of so impious and shameful a profanation, as they not only
presumptuously lay claim to his name, but also tear it in pieces, and contaminate it
with their sacrilegious abominations.
Again, since God is said to melt the mountains with his presence, let us hence learn
to rouse up all our feelings whenever God comes forth not that we may flee to a
distance from him, but that we may reverently receive his word, so that he may
afterwards appear to us a kind and reconciled Father. For when we become humble,
and the pride and height of our flesh is subdued, he then immediately receives us, as
it were, into his gentle bosom, and gives us an easy access to him, yea, he invites us
to himself with all possible kindness. That the Lord then may thus kindly receive us,
let us learn to fear as soon as he utters his voice: but let not this fear make us to flee
away but only humble us, so that we may render true obedience to the word of the
Lord. It follows —
“As waters poured down a steep place.”
Henderson renders the last word, “a precipice;” and Marckius, declive —”a
declivity.” I would give this version of the whole verse, —
For, behold, Jehovah shall go forth from his place;
Yea, he shall descend and tread on the high places of the land;
And dissolve shall the mountains under him,
And the valleys shall burst forth;
Like the wax before the fire,
Like waters rolling down a declivity.
The verb ‫בקע‬ is applied to express the bursting out of waters from a fountain, of the
young when emerging from the egg, and of light dispelling darkness. It is here in
Hithpael, and only in one other place, Joshua 9:13; where it means the bursting of
wine bottles, made of leather. The word ‫מורד‬ is going down, descent, declivity,
καταβασις, Sept. See Joshua 10:11; Jeremiah 48:5

44. “Do men trust to the height and strength of mountains, as if they were sufficient to
bear up their hopes and bear off their fears? They shall be molten under him. — Do
they trust to the fruitfulness of the valleys and their products? They shall be cleft, or
rent, — and be wasted away as the ground is by the waters that are poured down a
steep place.” — Henry.
COFFMA , "Verse 4
"And the mountains shall be melted under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax
before the fire, as waters that are poured down a steep place."
The geophysical disturbance of the whole earth is repeatedly mentioned in both the
Old Testament and the ew Testament as accompaniments of the final judgment
day. See Revelation 6:14ff, 11:19,16:17-21, etc. The mention of such phenomena
here definitely indicated that the judgment about to be executed against Samaria
and Jerusalem is typical of that ultimate judgment upon all mankind, hence the
propriety of demanding that "all nations" hear it (Micah 1:2). Some commentators
find a reference in these verses to "a great storm"; and it is certain that the "clouds
of heaven" shall be present on that occasion (Matthew 24:30). "The description of
God's advent to judgment is founded on the idea of a terrible storm and great
earthquake, accompanied by volcanic eruptions";[16] but, to be sure, it is
impossible to tell if such a description is literal, metaphorical of even greater terrors,
or both.
ELLICOTT, "(4) The mountains shall be molten.—The manifestations of the
presence of God are taken from the description of the giving of the Law, when “the
hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the
whole earth” (Psalms 97:5). Dean Stanley refers the imagery to the memorable
earthquake mentioned in Amos 1:1 :—“Mountains and valleys are cleft asunder,
and melt as in a furnace; the earth heaving like the rising waters of the ile; the sea
bursting over the land; the ground shaking and sliding as, with a succession of
shocks, its solid framework reels to and fro like a drunkard” (Jewish Church, Lect.
37).
PETT, "Micah 1:4
‘And the mountains will be melted under him,
And the valleys will be cleft,
As wax before the fire,
As waters that are poured down a steep place.’
This picture is expressed in language regularly used by conquering kings of the time
to describe their own inexorable advance and supremacy. The mountains are unable
to prevent His advance, the valleys cannot hinder Him. They will simply melt and

45. divide before His advance. They will melt as wax before the fire. He will advance
like an overflowing current, irresistible and unpreventable as a waterfall over a
precipice.
PULPIT, "Micah 1:4
The description of God's advent to judgment is founded on the idea of a terrible
storm and earthquake, perhaps accompanied with volcanic eruption, though
evidence of such eruptions in the historical period is not forthcoming. The
description recalls the awful revelation at Sinai (Exodus 19:1-25.). Shall be molten;
either by the lightning or the showers of rain that descend from heaven. The
mountains, the type of stability and strength, fall away at the presence of the Judge.
Septuagint, σαλευθήσεται, "shall be shaken;" Vulgate, consumentur ( 5:4, 5:5;
Psalms 18:7, etc.; Psalms 68:8; Psalms 97:4, Psalms 97:5; Amos 9:5). Be cleft;
Septuagint, τακήσονται, "shall melt." The valleys shall be hollowed out into
channels by the force of the water, which falls in torrents. As wax (Psalms 68:2;
Psalms 97:5). This belongs to the first clause, "the mountains," etc. As waters. This
belongs to the second clause. The cloven plains shall melt away as waters disappear
down a precipice. The idea that underlies this description is that the inanimate
creation shares in the effects of the judgment on man, and is used as an instrument
in his punishment.
5
All this is because of Jacob's transgression,
because of the sins of the house of Israel. What is
Jacob's transgression? Is it not Samaria? What is
Judah's high place? Is it not Jerusalem?
BAR ES. "For the transgression of Jacob is all this - Not for any change of
purpose in God; nor, again, as the effect of man’s lust of conquest. None could have any
power against God’s people, unless it had been given him by God. Those mighty
monarchies of old existed but as God’s instruments, especially toward His own people.
God said at this time of Assyria Isa_10:5, Asshur rod of Mine anger, and the staff in his
hand is Mine indignation; and Isa_37:26, Now have I brought it to pass, that thou

46. shouldest be to lay waste defensed cities into ruinous heaps. Each scourge of God
chastised just those nations, which God willed him to chasten; but the especial object for
which each was raised up was his mission against that people, in whom God most
showed His mercies and His judgments Isa_10:6. I will send him against an ungodly
nation and against the people of My wrath will I give him a charge.
Jacob and Israel, in this place, comprise alike the ten tribes and the two. They still
bare the name of their father, who, wrestling with the Angel, became a prince with God,
whom they forgat. The name of Jacob then, as of Christian now, stamped as deserters,
those who did not the deeds of their father. “What, (rather who) is the transgression of
Jacob?” Who is its cause? In whom does it lie? Is it not Samaria? The metropolis must,
in its own nature, be the source of good or evil to the land. It is the heart whose pulses
beat throughout the whole system. As the seat of power, the residence of justice or
injustice, the place of counsel, the concentration of wealth, which all the most influential
of the land visit for their several occasions, its manners penetrate in a degree the utmost
corners of the land. Corrupted, it becomes a focus of corruption. The blood passes
through it, not to be purified, but to be diseased. Samaria, being founded on apostasy,
owing its being to rebellion against God, the home of that policy which set up a rival
system of worship to His forbidden by Him, became a fountain of evil, whence the
stream of ungodliness overflowed the land. It became the impersonation of the people’s
sin, “the heart and the head of the body of sin.”
And what - Literally, who (‫)מי‬ always relates to a personal object, and apparent
exceptions may be reduced to this. So Ae. Kim. Tanch. Pococke.
Are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem? - Jerusalem God had
formed to be a center of unity in holiness; the tribes of the Lord were to go up there to
the testimony of Israel; there was the unceasing worship of God, the morning and
evening sacrifice; the Feasts, the memorials of past miraculous mercies, the
foreshadowings of redemption. But there too Satan placed his throne. Ahaz brought
thither that most hateful idolatry, the burning children to Moloch in the valley of the son
of Hinnom 2Ch_28:3. There 2Ch_28:24, he made him altars in every corner of
Jerusalem. Thence, he extended the idolatry to all Judah 2Ch_28:25. And in every
several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked
to anger the Lord God of his fathers. Hezekiah, in his reformation, with all Israel 2Ch_
31:1, went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces and bowed down the
statues of Asherah, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and
Benjamin, as much as out of Ephraim and Manasseh. Nay, by a perverse interchange,
Ahaz took the Brazen Altar, consecrated to God, for his own divinations, and assigned to
the worship of God the altar copied from the idol-altar at Damascus, whose fashion
pleased his taste 2Ki_16:10-16.
Since God and mammon cannot be served together, Jerusalem was become one great
idol-temple, in which Judah brought its sin into the very face of God and of His worship.
The Holy City had itself become sin, and the fountain of unholiness. The one temple of
God was the single protest against the idolatries which encompased and besieged it; the
incense went up to God, morning and evening, from it; from every head of every street of
the city Eze_16:31; 2Ch_28:24, and (since Ahaz had brought in the worship of Baalim
2Ch_28:2, and the rites of idolatry continued the same,) from the roofs of all their
houses Jer_32:29, went up the incense to Baal; a worship which, denying the Unity,
denied the Being of God.

47. CLARKE, "What is the transgression of Jacob? - Is it not something extremely
grievous? Is it not that of Samaria? Samaria and Jerusalem, the chief cities, are infected
with idolatry. Each has its high places, and its idol worship, in opposition to the worship
of the true God. That there was idolatry practiced by the elders of Israel, even in the
temple of Jehovah, see Eze_8:1, etc. As the royal cities in both kingdoms gave the
example of gross idolatry, no wonder that it spread through the whole land, both of
Israel and Judah.
GILL, "For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the
house of Israel,.... All this evil, all these calamities and judgments, signified by the
above metaphorical phrases, these did not come by chance, nor without, reason; but
were or would be inflicted, according to the righteous judgment of God, upon the people
of Israel and Judah, for their manifold sins and transgressions, especially their idolatry:
and should it be asked,
what is the transgression of Jacob? what notorious crime has he been guilty of? or
what is the iniquity the two tribes are charged with, that is the cause of so much
severity? the answer is,
is it not Samaria? the wickedness of Samaria, the calf of Samaria? as in Hos_7:1; that
is, the worship of the calf of Samaria; is not that idolatry the transgression of Jacob, or
which the ten tribes have given into? it is; and a just reason for all this wrath to come
upon them: or, "who is the transgression of Jacob?" (r) who is the spring and source of
it; the cause, author, and encourager of it? are they not the kings that have reigned in
Samaria from the times of Omri, with their nobles, princes, and great men, who, by their
edicts, influence, and example, have encouraged the worship of the golden calves? they
are the original root and motive of it, and to them it must be ascribed; they caused the
people to sin: or, as the Targum,
"where have they of the house of Jacob sinned? is it not in Samaria?''
verily it is, and from thence, the metropolis of the nation, the sin has spread itself all
over it:
and what are the high places of Judah? or, "who are they?" (s) who have been the
makers of them? who have set them up, and encouraged idolatrous worship at them?
are they not Jerusalem? are they not the king, the princes, and priests, that dwell at
Jerusalem? certainly they are; such as Ahaz, and others, in whose times this prophet
lived; see 2Ki_16:4; or, as the Targum,
"where did they of the house of Judah commit sin? was it not in Jerusalem?''
truly it was, and even in the temple; here Ahaz built an altar like that at Damascus, and
sacrificed on it, and spoiled the temple, and several of the vessels in it, 2Ki_16:10.
HE RY, "A charge of sin upon them, as the procuring cause of these desolating
judgments (Mic_1:5): For the transgression of Jacob is all this. If it be asked, “Why is

48. God so angry, and why are Jacob and Israel thus brought to ruin by his anger?” the
answer is ready: Sin has done all the mischief; sin has laid all waste; all the calamities of
Jacob and Israel are owing to their transgressions; if they had not gone away from God,
he would never have appeared thus against them. Note, External privileges and
professions will not secure a sinful people from the judgments of God. If sin be found in
the house of Israel, if Jacob be guilty of transgression and rebellion, God will not spare
them; no, he will punish them first, for their sins are of all others most provoking to him,
for they are most reproaching. But it is asked, What is the transgression of Jacob? Note,
When we feel the smart of sin it concerns us to enquire what the sin is which we smart
for, that we may particularly war against that which wars against us. And what is it? 1. It
is idolatry; it is the high places; that is the transgression, the great transgression which
reigns in Israel; that is spiritual whoredom, the violation of the marriage-covenant,
which merits a divorce. Even the high places of Judah, though not so bad as the
transgression of Jacob, were yet offensive enough to God, and a remaining blemish upon
some of the good reigns. Howbeit the high places were not taken away. 2. It is the
idolatry of Samaria and Jerusalem, the royal cities of those two kingdoms. These were
the most populous places, and where there were most people there was most
wickedness, and they made one another worse. These were the most pompous places;
there men lived most in wealth and pleasure, and they forgot God. These were the places
that had the greatest influence upon the country, by authority and example; so that from
them idolatry and profaneness went forth throughout all the land, Jer_23:15. Note,
Spiritual distempers are most contagious in persons and places that are most
conspicuous. If the head city of a kingdom, or the chief family in a parish, be vicious and
profane, many will follow their pernicious ways, and write after a bad copy when great
ones set it for them. The vices of leaders and rulers are leading ruling vices, and
therefore shall be surely and sorely punished. Those have a great deal to answer for
indeed that not only sin, but make Israel to sin. Those must expect to be made examples
that have been examples of wickedness. If the transgression of Jacob is Samaria,
therefore shall Samaria become a heap. Let the ringleaders in sin hear this and fear.
JAMISO , "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,
Mal_1:7), He answers, Is it not Samaria? Is not that city (the seat of the calf-worship) the
cause of Jacob’s apostasy (1Ki_14:16; 1Ki_15:26, 1Ki_15:34; 1Ki_16:13, 1Ki_16:19, 1Ki_
16:25, 1Ki_16:30)?
and what are the high places of Judah? — What city is the cause of the idolatries
on the high places of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem (compare 2Ki_18:4)?
K&D, "This judicial interposition on the part of God is occasioned by the sin of Israel.
Mic_1:5. “For the apostasy of Jacob (is) all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel.
Who is Jacob's apostasy? is it not Samaria? And who Judah's high places? is it not
Jerusalem? Mic_1:6. Therefore I make Samaria into a stone-heap of the field, into
plantations of vines; and I pour her stones into the valley, and I will lay bare her
foundations. Mic_1:7. And all her stone images will be beaten to pieces, and all her
lovers' gifts be burned with fire, and all her idols will I make into a waste: for she has

49. gathered them of prostitute's hire, and to prostitute's hire shall they return.” “All this”
refers to the coming of Jehovah to judgment announced in Mic_1:3, Mic_1:4. This takes
place on account of the apostasy and the sins of Israel. ְ‫ב‬ (for) used to denote reward or
wages, as in 2Sa_3:27 compared with 2Sa_3:30. Jacob and Israel in Mic_1:5 are
synonymous, signifying the whole of the covenant nation, as we may see from the fact
that in Mic_1:5 Jacob and not Israel is the epithet applied to the ten tribes in distinction
from Judah. ‫י‬ ִ‫,מ‬ who? - referring to the author. The apostasy of Israel originates with
Samaria; the worship on the high places with Jerusalem. The capitals of the two
kingdoms are the authors of the apostasy, as the centres and sources of the corruption
which has spread from them over the kingdoms. The allusion to the bâmōth of the illegal
worship of the high places, which even the most godly kings were unable to abolish (see
at 1Ki_15:14), shows, moreover, that ‫ע‬ ַ‫שׁ‬ ֶ denotes that religious apostasy from Jehovah
which was formally sanctioned in the kingdom of the ten tribes by the introduction of
the calf-worship. But because this apostasy commenced in the kingdom of the ten tribes,
the punishment would fall upon this kingdom first, and Samaria would be utterly
destroyed. Stone-heaps of the field and vineyard plantations harmonize badly, in Hitzig's
view: he therefore proposes to alter the text. But there is no necessity for this. The point
of comparison is simply that Samaria will be so destroyed, that not a single trace of a city
will be left, and the site thereof will become like a ploughed field or plain. ‫ה‬ ֶ‫ד‬ ָ ַ‫ה‬ is added
to ‫י‬ ִ‫,ע‬ a heap of ruins or stones, to strengthen it. Samaria shall become like a heap, not of
ruins of building stones, but of stones collected from the field. ‫ם‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ֶ‫כ‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫ע‬ ָ ַ‫מ‬ ְ‫,ל‬ i.e., into arable
land upon which you can plant vineyards. The figure answers to the situation of Samaria
upon a hill in a very fruitful region, which was well adapted for planting vineyards (see at
Amo_3:9). The situation of the city helps to explain the casting of its stones into the
valley. Laying bare the foundations denotes destruction to the very foundation (cf. Psa_
137:7). On the destruction of the city all its idols will be annihilated. Pe
sılım, idols, as in
Isa_10:10; not wooden idols, however, to which the expression yukkattū, smitten to
pieces, would not apply, but stone idols, from pâsal (Exo_34:1). By the lovers' gifts
('ethnân, see at Hos_9:1) we are to understand, not “the riches of the city or their
possessions, inasmuch as the idolaters regarded their wealth and prosperity as a reward
from their gods, according to Hos_2:7, Hos_2:14” (Rashi, Hitzig, and others), but the
temple gifts, “gifts suspended in the temples and sacred places in honour of the gods”
(Rosenmüller), by which the temple worship with its apparatus were maintained; so that
by 'ethnân we may understand the entire apparatus of religious worship. For the
parallelism of the clauses requires that the word should be restricted to this. ‫ים‬ ִ ַ‫צ‬ ֲ‫ע‬ are
also idolatrous images. “To make them into a waste,” i.e., not only to divest them of their
ornament, but so utterly to destroy them that the place where they once stood becomes
waste. The next clause, containing the reason, must not be restricted to the ‛ătsabbım, as
Hitzig supposes, but refers to the two clauses of the first hemistich, so that pe
sılım and
‛ătsabbım are to be supplied as objects to qibbâtsâh (she gathered), and to be regarded as
the subject to yâshūbhū (shall return). Samaria gathered together the entire apparatus of
her idolatrous worship from prostitute's gifts (the wages of prostitution), namely,
through gifts presented by the idolaters. The acquisition of all this is described as the

50. gain of prostitute's wages, according to the scriptural view that idolatry was spiritual
whoredom. There is no ground for thinking of literal wages of prostitution, or money
which flowed into the temples from the voluptuous worship of Aphrodite, because
Micah had in his mind not literal (heathenish) idolatry, but simply the transformation of
the Jehovah-worship into idolatry by the worship of Jehovah under the symbols of the
golden calves. These things return back to the wagers of prostitution, i.e., they become
this once more (cf. Gen_3:19) by being carried away by the enemies, who conquer the
city and destroy it, and being applied to their idolatrous worship. On the capture of
cities, the idols and temple treasures were carried away (cf. Isa_46:1-2; Dan_1:3).
CALVI , "The Prophet teaches, in this verse, that God is not angry for nothing;
though when he appears rigid, men expostulate with him, and clamor as though he
were cruel. That men may, therefore, acknowledge that God is a just judge, and that
he never exceeds moderation in punishments, the Prophet here distinctly states that
there was a just cause, why God denounced so dreadful a judgment on his chosen
people, — even because not only a part of the people, but the whole body had,
through their impiety, fallen away; for by the house of Jacob, and by the house of
Israel, he means that impiety had everywhere prevailed, so that no part was
untainted. The meaning then is, — that the contagion of sin had spread through all
Israel, that no portion of the country was free from iniquity, that no corner of the
land could bring an excuse for its defection; the Lord therefore shows that he would
be the judge of them all, and would spare neither small nor great.
We now then understand the Prophet’s object in this verse: As he had before taught
how dreadful would be God’s vengeance against all the ungodly, so now he mentions
their crimes, that they might not complain that they were unjustly treated, or that
God employed too much severity. The Prophet then testifies that the punishment,
then near at hand, would be just.
He now adds, What is the wickedness of Jacob? The Prophet, no doubt, indirectly
reproves here the hypocrisy which ruled dominant among the people. For he asks
not for his own satisfaction or in his own person; but, on the contrary, he relates, by
way of imitation, ( µιµητικῶς, — imitatively) what he knew to be ever on their lips,
“Oh! what sort of thing is this sin? Why! thou assumest here a false principle, —
that we are wicked men, ungodly and perfidious: thou does us a grievous wrong.”
Inasmuch, then, as hypocrites thought themselves pure, having wiped, as it were,
their mouths, whenever they eluded reproofs by their sophistries, the Prophet
borrows a question, as it were, from their own lips, “Of what kind is this
wickedness? Of what sort is that transgression?” As though he said, “I know what
ye are wont to do, when any one of the Prophets severely reproves you; ye instantly
contend with him, and are ready with your objections: but what do you gain? If you
wish to know what your wickedness is, it is Samaria; and where your high places
are, they are at Jerusalem.” It is the same as if he had said, “I do not here contend
with the common people, but I attack the first men: my contest then is with the
princes themselves, who surpass others in dignity, and are, therefore, unwilling to
be touched.”

51. But it sometimes happens that the common people become degenerated, while some
integrity remains among the higher orders: but the Prophet shows that the diseases
among the people belonged to the principal men; and hence he names the two chief
cities, Jerusalem and Samaria, as he had said before, in the first verse, that he
proclaimed predictions against these: and yet it is certain, that the punishment was
to be in common to the whole people. But as they thought that Jerusalem and
Samaria would be safe, though the whole country were destroyed, the Prophet
threatens them by name: for, relying first on their strength, they thought themselves
unassailable; and then, the eyes of nearly all, we know, were dazzled with empty
splendor, powers and dignity: thus the ungodly wholly forget that they are men, and
what they owe to God, when elevated in the world. So great an arrogance could not
be subdued, except by sharp and severe words, such as the Prophet, as we see, here
employs. He then says, that the wickedness of Israel was Samaria; the fountain of all
iniquities was the royal city, which yet ought to have ruled the whole land with
wisdom and justice: but what any more remains, when kings and their counselors
tread under foot all regard for what is just and right, and having cast away every
shame, rise up in rebellion against God and men? When therefore kings thus fall
from their dignity, an awful ruin must follow.
This is the reason why the Prophet says that the wickedness of Israel was Samaria,
that thence arose all iniquities. But we must at the same time bear in mind, that the
Prophet speaks not here of gross crimes; but, on the contrary, he directs his reproof
against ungodly and perverted forms of worship; and this appears more evident
from the second clause, in which he mentions transgressions in connection with the
high places. We hence see, that all sins in general are not here reproved, but their
vicious modes of worship, by which religion had been polluted among the Jews as
well as the Israelites. But it might seem very unjust, that the Prophet should charge
with sin those forms of worship in which the Jews laboriously exercised themselves
with the object of pacifying God. But we see how God regards as nothing whatever
men blend with his worship out of their own heads. And this is our principal contest
at this day with the Papists; we call their perverted and spurious modes of worship
abominations: they think that what is heavenly is to be blended with what is earthly.
We diligently labor, they say, for this end — that God may be worshipped. True;
but, at the same time, ye profane his worship by your inventions; and it is therefore
an abomination. We now then see how foolish and frivolous are those delusions,
when men follow their own wisdom in the duty of worshipping God: for the Prophet
here, in the name of God, fulminates, as it were, from heaven against all
superstitions, and shows that no sin is more detestable, than that preposterous
caprice with which idolaters are inflamed, when they observe such forms of worship
as they have themselves invented.
ow with regard to the high places, we must notice, that there was a great
difference between the Jews and the Israelites at that time as to idolatry. The
Israelites had so fallen, that they were altogether degenerated; nothing could be seen
among them that had an affinity to the true and legitimate worship of God: but the
Jews had retained some form of religion, they had not thus abandoned themselves;

52. but yet they had a mixture of superstitions; such as one would find, were he to
compare the gross Popery of this day with that middle course which those men
invent, who seem to themselves to be very wise, fearing, forsooth, as they do, the
offenses of the world; and hence they form for us a mixture, I know not what, from
the superstitions of the Papacy and from the Reformation, as they call it. Something
like this was the mixture at Jerusalem. We however see, that the Prophet
pronounces the same sentence against the Jews and the Israelites and that is, that
God will allow nothing that proceeds from the inventions of men to be joined to his
word. Since then God allows no such mixtures, the Prophet here says that there was
no less sin on the high places of Judea, than there was in those filthy abominations
which were then dominant among the people of Israel. But the remainder we must
defer until to-morrow.
BE SO , "Micah 1:5. For the transgression of Jacob — That is, of the sons of
Jacob; for the many transgressions committed among them; is all this — All these
many, great, and irresistible judgments of God foretold and executed. What is the
transgression of Jacob — Where is the chief cause of Israel’s sin and apostacy? Is it
not Samaria — Is it not in that city, the chief seat of the kingdom, the residence of
the king and his princes, who have set up the idolatry of the golden calves, and made
it the established religion of the kingdom? What are the high places of Judah, &c.
— Doth not the idolatrous worship, practised in the high places of Judah, receive its
chief encouragement from the city of Jerusalem, even from Ahaz, and the great men
who there join with him in that idolatry?
COFFMA , ""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?"
The reason for the summary judgment about to be executed upon the whole of
Israel, Samaria first, afterwards Judah, lay in their sinful departure from the
knowledge and service of the true God. Other nations likewise were guilty of the
same transgressions; but "the house of Jacob," specifically mentioned here, were
the covenant people, people who had received manifold favors from God and who
had entered into solemn covenant with God to be his people and to honor his name
and obey his commandments. Therein was the guilt of Israel intensified and
aggravated. It has often been said that the Minor Prophets are proof of the prior
covenant relationship between God and Israel. Without that preexisting covenant,
none of these glorious prophecies could have been written. The full existence and
understanding of the Pentateuch and related books is not merely suggested by all
this, it is demonstrated.
"What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria ...?" Samaria here is the
usual name for the northern kingdom, being recognized in this passage as an
integral part of the "house of Jacob," the whole Israel. See extensive references to
the apostasy in the book of Hosea, above. Samaria had repudiated the worship of
Jehovah and had taken up the vile fertility gods of the Canaanite pagans who had
preceded them in the land. Sacred prostitution and many other horrors were the

53. "stock in trade" of that whole system.
"What are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem ...?" This line is
offensive to the strict modern grammarians who, as McKeating said, would have
written it, "What is the sin of the house of Judah? is it not Jerusalem?"[17] See the
introduction for comment on Micah's style. He cared nothing about meeting all the
grammatical niceties regarding "an appropriate antithesis." As a result, his
language is even more forceful. As McKeating said:
"The text as it stands, "What is the hill-shrine of Judah?," suggests that Micah's
objections to Samaria and Jerusalem are mainly objections to the kind of worship
that goes on in them. The much-vaunted sanctuary of the Lord at Jerusalem is no
better than a pagan hill-shrine."[18]
In the view accepted here, that is exactly what Micah said, and what he meant to
say. "Emendations" to improve Micah's rhetoric are absolutely uncalled for. "The
crimes of the ten tribes of Israel are found in Samaria, and the transgressions of
Judah are found in the high places of Jerusalem."[19] Ahaz (1 Kings 16:4ff) had led
the way in the total corruption of the worship of God in Jerusalem. "Hezekiah's
partial reformation had not taken place when Micah uttered the prophecy
here."[20] The great disaster being prophesied will be brought on "by Israel's moral
degeneracy; for both the capital cities, Samaria and Jerusalem, have become centers
of idol-worship."[21]
In connection with this verse, Allen cited the great principle enunciated in the ew
Testament, that, "The time has come for judgment to begin at the household of
God" (1 Peter 4:17). God will judge all the wicked nations of the earth; but, "Who is
to stand trial first? one other than God's own people."[22]
COKE, "Micah 1:5. What is the transgression of Jacob?— Who [makes]
transgression in Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And who the high-places of Judah? Is it
not Jerusalem? But Houbigant prefers the translation of the LXX, and reads the
latter words, What is the sin of Judah? by which means the two clauses aptly
correspond to each other. The transgression, and sin, mean, the cause of sin and
transgression, which Samaria and Jerusalem gave, as the whole nation followed
their ill example.
CO STABLE, "The Lord"s intervention was due to the Israelites" sins and
rebellion against their sovereign lord. Samaria personified the rebellion of the
Israelites, and Jerusalem had become a high place for idolatry rather than for holy
worship. These capital cities had become leaders in wickedness rather than in
holiness.
Micah liked to use "Jacob" as a title for all Israel ( Micah 2:7; Micah 2:12; Micah
3:1; Micah 3:8-9; Micah 4:2; Micah 5:7-8), though he also used it to describe the
orthern Kingdom (here) and the patriarch Jacob ( Micah 7:20). This name recalls
the rebelliousness that marked the patriarch for most of his early life and that had
subsequently marked his descendants. Micah used the name "Israel" to describe

54. both the orthern and the Southern Kingdoms. Several of the prophets referred to
the Southern Kingdom as "Israel," especially after the fall of Samaria in722 B.C,
because that kingdom represented the true Israel under the Davidic kings and the
Aaronic priesthood. They referred to the orthern Kingdom as "Israel" in contrast
to the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
PETT, "Micah 1:5
‘All this is for the transgression of Jacob,
And for the sins of the house of Israel.
And the main reason for His approach in such overwhelming power is because of
the failures and disobedience of His people. It is because of the overstepping of the
mark of Jacob, it is because of the sins of the house of Israel.
PETT, "Micah 1:5
What is the transgression of Jacob?
Is it not Samaria?
And what are the high places (LXX ‘sins’) of Judah?
Are they not Jerusalem?’
But the question may be asked, what is the transgression of Jacob? And the answer
comes back, it is the behaviour and condition of Samaria. It is their idolatry, and
rebellion, and their allowing the syncretistic high places which condemn them,
together with the sinful ways of the aristocrats, judges, priest, and prophets.
And the next question is, ‘what are the high places of Judah?’ The Septuagint alters
the word for high places to sins, and in that case the reply is similar to that in
respect of Samaria.
But the alteration to the text is not necessary. What Micah is meaning is that people
are asking, ‘What then is there in Judah that are the equivalent of such high
places?’ That is of debased and unacceptable places of worship. And his reply is
that Jerusalem itself is the equivalent of those high places. That city, which should
have been the holy city, is itself debased and unacceptable. In respect of religious
matters Judah is far more culpable than Samaria for they have the Temple of
YHWH in their midst which they have debased. For they have altars to Assyria in
their Temple, and other religious symbols which are distorting their worship (e.g.
echushtan). They are thus worse than the high places of Samaria. And they serve
to demonstrate what Jerusalem really is. They reveal the heart of Jerusalem. They
occasion the anger of YHWH, for greater privilege begets greater responsibility.
Jerusalem itself is not right with its God.

55. It was not just that these altars and idols were there it was that they were
encouraged and favoured. This may well have been said before the reforms of
Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:4). But it could equally have been said afterwards because the
altar and images of Assyria were still in the Temple. So it is these sins and failures
that have stirred up the anger of YHWH causing Him to approach His people like a
belligerent conqueror.
It is a reminder to us that God does not treat our sins lightly. We may have our
excuses for things that displease Him, and for our little ‘idols’ ,just as Judah had.
We may even joke about them. But we need to learn that God may not be as
satisfied with them as we are.
PULPIT, "Micah 1:5
The prophet shows the cause of this punishment. Transgression; better, apostasy,
which the people's trangression really was. Jacob. Here the ten tribes and Judah—
the whole of the covenant people. In the latter part of the verse the term includes
only the ten tribes, called often Israel or Ephraim. All this. The manifestation of
God's power and wrath described in Micah 1:3 and Micah 1:4. The house of Israel.
The ten tribes. Is it not Samaria? She is naught but sin. He names the capitals of the
two kingdoms as the source and centre of the idolatry and wickedness which
pervaded the whole country. Samaria was built by Omri, a king who "wrought evil
in the eyes of the Lord, and did worse than all that were before him;" and in it his
son Ahab erected a temple to Baal (1 Kings 16:32), and it became the chief seat of
idolatry in the land. What are the high places? The prophet seems to say that
Jerusalem is no longer the Lord's sanctuary, but a collection of unauthorized or
idolatrous shrines. These were buildings or altars erected in conspicuous spots,
contrary to the enactments of the Mosaic Law (Deuteronomy 12:11-14), and used
more or less for idolatrous worship. With a strange perversity, the Jews mixed the
pure service of Jehovah with the rites of heathen deities. Even the best kings of
Judah were unable wholly to suppress these local sanctuaries (see 2 Kings 12:3; 2
Kings 14:4, etc.). They were found even in Jerusalem itself (Jeremiah 32:35),
especially in the time of Ahaz (2 Kings 16:4). The parallelism of this clause with the
preceding being thought defective ("high places" being not parallel with
"apostasy"), the Septuagint reads, ἡ ἁµαρτία, "the sin," followed by the Syriac and
the Targum. One Hebrew manuscript confirms the reading; but it is probably
unauthorized, and has been ignorantly introduced The prophet defines the sins of
Samaria and Jerusalem. The sin of the former is apostasy; that of the latter,
unauthorized worship. Instead of "what" in both places the Hebrew gives "who,"
implying that there is a personal cause, the two capitals being personified.
Hezekiah's partial reformation had not taken place when this was uttered.

56. 6
"Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of rubble,
a place for planting vineyards. I will pour her
stones into the valley and lay bare her
foundations.
BAR ES. "Therefore - (literally, “And”) I will make Samaria as an heap of the field,
and as plantings of a vineyard Jerome: “The order of the sin was the order or the
punishment.” Samaria’s sins were the earliest, the most obstinate, the most unbroken,
bound up with its being as a state. On it then God’s judgments should first fall. It was a
crown of pride Isa_28:1, resting on the head of the rich valleys, out of which it rose. Its
soil is still rich . “The whole is now cultivated in terraces” , “to the summits” . Probably,
since the sides of hills, open to the sun, were chosen for vineyards, it had been a
vineyard, before Shemer sold it to Omri 1Ki_16:24. What it had been, that it was again to
be. Its inhabitants cast forth, its houses and gorgeous palaces were to become heaps of
stones, gathered out Isa_5:2 to make way for cultivation, or to become the fences of the
vegetation, which should succeed to man.
There is scarce a sadder natural sight than the fragments of human habitation, tokens
of man’s labor or his luxury, amid the rich beauty of nature when man himself is gone.
For they are tracks of sin and punishment, man’s rebellion and God’s judgment, man’s
unworthiness of the good natural gifts of God. A century or two ago, travelers “speak of
the ground (the site of Samaria) as strewed with masses of ruins.” Now these too are
gone. : “The stones of the temples and palaces of Samaria have been carefully removed
from the rich soil, thrown together in heaps, built up in the rude walls of terraces, and
rolled down into the valley below.” : “About midway of the ascent, the hill is surrounded
by a narrow terrace of woodland like a belt. Higher up too are the marks of slighter
terraces, once occupied perhaps by the streets of the ancient city.” Terrace-cultivation
has succeeded to the terraced streets once thronged by the busy, luxurious, sinful,
population.
And I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley - Of which it was the
crest, and which it now proudly surveyed. God Himself would cause it to be poured
down (he uses the word which he had just used of the vehemence of the cataract Mic_
1:4). : “The whole face of this part of the hill suggests the idea that the, buildings of the
ancient city had been thrown down from the brow of the hill. Ascending to the top, we
went round the whole summit, and found marks of the same process everywhere.”
And I will discover the foundations thereof - The desolation is entire; not one
stone left upon another. Yet the very words of threatening contain hope. It was to be not
a heap only, but the plantings of a vineyard. The heaps betoken ruin; the vineyard,

57. fruitfulness cared for by God. Destroyed, as what it was, and turned upside down, as a
vineyard by the share, it should become again what God made it and willed it to be. It
should again become a rich valley, but in outward desolation. Its splendid palaces, its
idol temples, its houses of joy, should be but heaps and ruins, which are cleared away
out of a vineyard, as only choking it. It was built in rebellion and schism, loose and not
held together, like a heap of stones, having no cement of love, rent and torn in itself,
having been torn both from God and His worship. It could be remade only by being
wholly unmade. Then should they who believed be branches grafted in Him who said, “I
am the Vine, ye are the branches” Joh_15:5.
CLARKE, "I will make Samaria - I will bring it to desolation: and, instead of
being a royal city, it shall be a place for vineyards. Newcome observes, that Samaria was
situated on a hill, the right soil for a vineyard.
I will discover the foundations thereof - I will cause its walls and fortifications
to be razed to the ground.
GILL, "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. With this agrees the Vulgate Latin version,
"I will make Samaria as a heap of stones in a field, when a vineyard is planted;''
see Isa_5:2; for the city, being destroyed, cannot be compared to the plants of a vineyard
set in good order, beautiful and thriving; but, as to heaps of stones in a field, so to such
in a vineyard; or to hillocks raised up there for the plants of vines; and if the comparison
is to plants themselves, it must be to withered ones, that are good for nothing. The note
of similitude as is not in the text; and the words may be read without it, "I will make
Samaria an heap of the field, plantings of a vineyard" (t); that is, it shall be ploughed up,
and made a heap of; turned into a field, and vines planted on it; for which its situation
was very proper, being on a hill where vines used to be planted, and so should no more
be inhabited as a city:
and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley; the stones of the
buildings and walls of the city, which, being on a hill, when pulled down, rolled into the
valley; and with as much swiftness and force as waters run down a steep place, as in
Mic_1:4; where the same word is used as here:
and I will discover the foundations thereof; which should be fused up, and left
bare; not one stone should be upon another; so that there should be no traces and
footsteps of the city remaining, and it should be difficult to know the place where it
stood. This is expressive of the total desolation and utter destruction of it: this was not
accomplished by Shalmaneser when he took it; for though he carried captive the
inhabitants thereof, he put others in their room; but this was entirely fulfilled, not by

58. Jonathan Maccabeus, though he is said (u) to besiege it, and level it with the ground; but
by John Hyrcanus; and the account of the destruction of it by him, as given by Josephus
(w), exactly answers to this prophecy, and, to Hos_13:16; where its desolation is also
predicted; he says that Hyrcanus, having besieged it a year, took it; and, not content with
this only, he utterly destroyed it, making brooks to run through it; and by digging it up,
so that it fell into holes and caverns, insomuch that there were no signs nor traces of the
city left. It was indeed afterwards rebuilt by Gabinius the Roman proconsul of Syria, and
restored by Augustus Caesar to Herod, who adorned and fortified it, and called it by the
name of Sebaste, in honour of Augustus (x); though Benjamin of Tudela pretends that
Ahab's palace might be discerned there in his time, or the place known where it was,
which is not likely; excepting this, his account is probable.
"From Luz (he says (y)) is one day's journey to Sebaste, which is Samaria; and still there
may be perceived there the palace of Ahab king of Israel; and it is a fortified city on a
very high hill, and in it are fountains; and is a land of brooks of water, and gardens,
orchards, vineyards, and olive yards;''
but, since his time, it is become more ruinous. Mr. Maundrell, who some years ago was
upon the spot, gives a fuller account of it;
"this great city (he says (z)) is now wholly converted into gardens; and all the tokens that
remain, to testify that there has ever been such a place, are only on the north side, a large
square piazza, encompassed with pillars; and, on the east, some poor remains of a great
church, said to be built by the Empress Helena, over the place where St. John Baptist
was both imprisoned and beheaded.''
So say others (a),
"the remains of Sebaste, or the ancient Samaria, though long ago laid in ruinous heaps,
and a great part of it turned into ploughed land and garden ground, do still retain some
monuments of its ancient grandeur, and of those noble edifices in it, with which King
Herod caused it to be adorned;''
and then mention the large square piazza on the north, and the church on the east. It
was twelve miles from Dothaim, and as many from Merran, and four from Atharoth,
according to Eusebius (b); and was, as Josephus (c) says, a day's journey from
Jerusalem. Sichem, called by the Turks Naplus, is now the metropolis of the country of
Samaria; Samaria, or Sebaste, being utterly destroyed, as says Petrus a Valle (d), a
traveller in those parts.
JAMISO , "Samaria’s punishment is mentioned first, as it was to fall before
Jerusalem.
as an heap of the field — (Mic_3:12). Such a heap of stones and rubbish as is
gathered out of fields, to clear them (Hos_12:11). Palestine is of a soil abounding in
stones, which are gathered out before the vines are planted (Isa_5:2).
as plantings of a vineyard — as a place where vines are planted. 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. A graphic

59. picture of the present appearance of the ruins, which is as though “the buildings of the
ancient city had been thrown down from the brow of the hill” [Scottish Mission of
Inquiry, pp. 293, 294].
discover the foundations — destroy it so utterly as to lay bare its foundations
(Eze_13:14). Samaria was destroyed by Shalmaneser.
CALVI , "Though Micah intended especially to devote his services to the Jews, as
we have said yesterday, he yet, in the first place, passes judgment on Samaria; for it
was his purpose afterwards to speak more fully against Jerusalem and the whole of
Judea. And this state of the case ought to be borne in mind; for the Prophet does not
begin with the Israelites, because he directs his discourse peculiarly to them; but his
purpose was briefly to reprove them, and then to address more especially his own
people, for it was for this purpose that he was called. ow, as he threatens
destruction to Samaria and the whole kingdom of Israel on account of their
corrupted forms of worship, we may hence learn how displeasing to God is
superstition, and that he regards nothing so much as the true worship of his name.
There is no reason here for men to advance this position — that they do not
designedly sin; for God shows how he is to be worshipped by us. Whenever, then,
we deviate in any thing from the rule which he has prescribed, we manifest, in that
particular, our rebellion and obstinacy. Hence the superstitious ever act like fools
with regard to God, for they will not submit to his word, so as to be thereby alone
made wise.
And he says, I will set Samaria as an heap of the field, that is, such shall be the ruins
that they shall differ nothing from the heaps of the fields: for husband men, we
know, when they find stones in their fields, throw them into some corner, that they
may not be in the way of the slough. Like such heaps then, as are seen in the fields,
Samaria would be, according to what God declared. He then says, that the place
would be empty, so that vines would be planted there; and, in the third place, that
its stones would be scattered through the valley; as when one casts stones where
there is a wide plain, they run and roll far and wide; so would be the scattering of
Samaria according to what the Prophet says, it was to be like the rolling of stones in
a wide field. He adds, in the fourth place, I will uncover her foundations, that is, I
will entirely demolish it, so that a stone, as Christ says, may not remain on a stone,
(Matthew 24:2.) We now perceive the import of the words; and we also perceive that
the reason why the Prophet denounces on Samaria so severe a judgment was,
because it had corrupted the legitimate worship of God with its own inventions; for
it had devised, as we well know, many idols, so that the whole authority of the law
had been abolished among the Israelites. It now follows —
BE SO , "Verse 6-7
Micah 1:6-7. Therefore I will make Samaria as a heap — A heap of ruins. And as
plantings of a vineyard — As in planting vineyards men dig the earth, and cast it up
in hillocks, so shall they make this city. The Vulgate reads, I will make Samaria as a
heap of stones in a field, when a vineyard is planted. I will pour down the stones
thereof, &c. — The stones of it shall be tumbled down, from the lofty eminence on
which it is situated, into the valley beneath, and shall leave the foundations thereof

60. naked and bare. All this, and what follows, was fulfilled by Shalmaneser, who made
a conquest of Samaria. And all the graven images thereof — Whether made of gold,
silver, brass, wood, or stone; shall be beaten to pieces — Shall be pulled out of their
chapels, shrines, or repositories, by their conquering enemies, and shall be trampled
upon and broken, either out of contempt, or that the rich materials of which they
are made may be carried away. And all the hires thereof shall be burned with fire
— The rich gifts, given for the honour and service of the idols by the deceived
idolaters, shall be consumed. This seems to be spoken of the gifts sent to their temple
by the Assyrians, whose worship they imitated. For she gathered it of the hire of a
harlot, &c. — She got it by the gifts of idolaters, and it shall return to those idolaters
again.
COFFMA , "Verse 6
"Therefore I will make Samaria as a heap of the field, and as places for planting
vineyards; and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will uncover
the foundations thereof."
The fact of this verse being a prophecy of what God promised that he would do
indicates that the prophecy was written some time prior to 722 B.C., at which time
the most terrible fulfillment of all that was promised here actually occurred. Sargon
I I, completed the seige in the latter part of 722 and the first part of 721 B.C., having
succeeded to the Assyrian throne after Shalmaneser had begun the siege over two
years earlier. Samaria, situated on a great butte, with steep walls on all sides, was
completely subdued, the stones of many of its structures being rolled down the walls
of the butte, "into the valley." The very foundations of it were uncovered.
Unbelievers of any such things as predictive prophecy are greatly troubled by such a
glorious example of it, hence all of the efforts to change either the date or the
wording of the book of Micah. See more on this under Micah 5:2.
CO STABLE, "Israel"s capital, Samaria, stood atop a mountain, but Yahweh said
He would make it a pile of ruins in a field. That Isaiah , He would both destroy and
humiliate it. It would become a rural rather than an urban place, suitable for
planting vineyards. He would topple the stones of its buildings into the valley below
and expose their foundations by destroying their superstructures. The fulfillment
came with the Assyrian overthrow of Samaria in722 B.C. Even today the
foundations of Samaria"s buildings lie exposed.
PETT, "Micah 1:6
‘Therefore I will make Samaria as a heap of the field,
Places for planting vineyards,
And I will pour down its stones into the valley,
And I will uncover its foundations.’

61. The consequence of His displeasure will be that Samaria will be turned into a heap.
The ancients were familiar with what happened to cities that were destroyed and
then deserted. The sand swept over them until all that could be seen of them was a
heap out in the open country (compare Joshua 8:28), on which among other things
vines would be grown. Thus it is an indication that like Jericho in the time of
Joshua, Samaria was to be totally destroyed and deserted.
‘And I will pour down its stones into the valley.’ Most cities were in fact built on the
ruins of past cities, because usually the fact that the city had been there indicated
the presence of a large spring, which was essential to a city’s welfare. Thus they
were built on mounds made up of ruins. We call them Tels. The idea is that some of
the stones which comprised the city walls and houses would be hurled to the bottom
of the mound as the city was in process of being systematically destroyed. Such a
situation was revealed by findings at Jericho. But of course it could be countlessly
repeated at many sites.
‘And I will uncover its foundations.’ So great would be the devastation of the city
that even its foundation would be uncovered. The whole picture is of devastating
judgment. It may be argued that this was not actually fulfilled, for when Samaria
was taken it was not so utterly destroyed, (although destruction on an invasion is
always relative), but this is intended to be a picture of its ‘devotion to God’. The
idea is that it will have been wholly consecrated to God as His to do what He liked
with. In the event He showed mercy.
PULPIT, "Micah 1:6
I will make. This prophecy, therefore, was delivered before the destruction of
Samaria in the fourth year of Hezekiah. As an heap of the field; or, into a heap of
the field, like a heap of stones gathered off a cultivated field (comp. Isaiah 5:2.)
Septuagint, ἰσὀπωροφυλάκιον ἀγροῦ, "the hut of a fruit watcher." As plantings of a
vineyard; into the plantings, etc.; i.e. into mere terraces for vines. Such shall be the
utter ruin of the city, that on its site vines shall be planted. The prophet here uses a
description of complete destruction which is a regular formula in Assyrian
inscriptions, where we read of cities being made into "a rubbish heap and a field."
The expression occurs, e.g; in a monument of Tiglath-Pileser. I will pour down the
stones thereof into the valley. Samaria stood on a hilly platform (1 Kings 16:24),
with a sheer descent on every side, and when it was overthrown its stones were
hurled into the valley surrounding it, as may be seen to this day. "When we looked
down," says Tristram, "at the gaunt columns rising out of the little terraced fields,
and the vines clambering up the sides of the hill once covered by the palaces of
proud Samaria, who could help recalling the prophecy of Micah? ot more literally
have the denunciations on Tyre or on Babylon been accomplished. What though
Sebaste rose, under Herod, to a pitch of greater splendour than even old Samaria,
the effort was in vain, and the curse has been fully accomplished. In the whole range
of prophetic history, I know of no fulfilment more startling to the eyewitness in its
accuracy than this." Will discover; will lay bare (Psalms 137:7; Ezekiel 13:14).

62. 7
All her idols will be broken to pieces; all her
temple gifts will be burned with fire; I will destroy
all her images. Since she gathered her gifts from
the wages of prostitutes, as the wages of
prostitutes they will again be used."
BAR ES. "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.
And all the hires thereof shall be burned with fire - All forsaking of God being
spiritual fornication from Him who made His creatures for Himself, the hires are all
which man would gain by that desertion of his God, employed in man’s contact with his
idols, whether as bribing his idols to give him what are the gifts of God, or as himself
bribed by them. For there is no pure service, save that of the love of God. God alone can
be loved purely, for Himself; offerings to Him alone are the creature’s pure homage to
the Creator, going out of itself, not looking back to itself, not seeking itself, but
stretching forth to Him and seeking Him for Himself. Whatever man gives to or hopes
from his idols, man himself is alike his object in both. The hire then is, alike what he
gives to his idols, the gold whereof he makes his Baal , the offerings which the pagan
used to lay up in their temples, and what, as he thought, he himself received back. For he
gave only earthly things, in order to receive back things of earth. He hired their service to
him, and his earthly gains were his hire. It is a strong mockery in the mouth of God, that
they had these things from their idols. He speaks to them after their thoughts. Yet it is
true that, although God overrules all, man does receive from Satan Mat_4:9, the god of
this world 2Co_4:4, all which he gains amiss. It is the price for which he sells his soul
and profanes himself. Yet herein were the pagan more religious than the Christian
worldling. The pagan did offer an ignorant service to they knew not what. Our idolatry of
mammon, as being less abstract, is more evident self-worship, a more visible ignoring
and so a more open dethroning of God, a worship of a material prosperity, of which we
seem ourselves to be the authors, and to which we habitually immolate the souls of men,
so habitually that we have ceased to be conscious of it.
And all the idols thereof will I lay desolate - Literally, “make a desolation.”

63. They, now thronged by their worshipers, should be deserted; their place and temple, a
waste. He thrice repeats all; all her graven images, all her hires, all her idols; all should
be destroyed. He subjoins a threefold destruction which should overtake them; so that,
while the Assyrian broke and carried off the more precious, or burned what could be
burned, and, what could not be burned, nor was worth transporting, should be left
desolate, all should come to an end. He sets the whole the more vividly before the mind;
exhibiting to us so many separate pictures of the mode of destruction.
For from the hire of a harlot she gathered them, and to the hire of a harlot
they shall return - Jerome: “The wealth and manifold provision which (as she
thought) were gained by fornication with her idols, shall go to another harlot, Nineveh;
so that, as they went a whoring in their own land, they should go to another land of idols
and fornication, the Assyrians.” They Rom_1:23 turned their glory into shame, changing
the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man; and so
it should turn to them into shame. It sprung out of their shame, and should turn to it
again. “Ill got, ill spent.” Evil gain, cursed in its origin, has the curse of God upon it, and
makes its gainer a curse, and ends accursedly. “Make not ill gains,” says even a pagan.
(H. 354. L), “ill gains are equal to losses;” and another , “Unlawful sweetness a most
bitter end awaiteth.”
Probably, the most literal sense is not to be excluded. The degrading idolatrous
custom, related of Babylon and Cyprus , still continued among the Babylonians at the
date of the book of Baruch (Baruch 6:43), and to the Christian era . Augustine speaks of
it as having existed among the Phoenicians, and Theodoret says that it was still
practiced by some in Syria. The existence of the idolatrous custom is presupposed by the
prohibition by Moses Deu_23:18; and, in the time of Hosea self-desecration was an
idolatrous rite in Israel . In the day of Judgment, when the foundation of those who
build their house upon the sand, shall be laid bare, the riches which they gained
unlawfully shall be burned up; all the idols, which they set up instead of God , “the vain
thoughts, and useless fancies, and hurtful forms and images which they picture in their
mind, defiling it, and hindering it from the steadfast contemplation of divine things, will
be punished. They were the hire of the soul which went astray from God, and they who
conceived them will, with them, become the prey again of that infernal host which is
unceasingly turned from God.”
CLARKE, "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.”
GILL, "And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces,.... By the
Assyrian army, for the sake of the gold and silver of which they were, made, or with
which they were adorned, as was usually done by conquerors to the gods of the nations
they conquered; these were the calf of Samaria, and other idols; and not only those in the
city of Samaria, but in all the other cities of Israel which fell into the hands of the
Assyrian monarch; see Isa_10:11;

64. and all the hires thereof shall be burnt with fire; this the Targum also interprets
of idols; such as escaped the plunder of the soldiers should be burnt with fire: Kimchi, by
"hires", understands the beautiful garments, and other ornaments, with which they
adorned their idols, which were gifts unto them; and they committing spiritual adultery
with them, these are compared to the hire of a harlot: or it may design their fine houses,
and the furniture of them, all their substance and riches, which they looked upon as
obtained by entering into alliances with idolatrous nations, and as the hire and reward of
their idolatry; all these should be consumed by fire when the city was taken:
and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate; such as were not broke to pieces, nor
burnt, should be thrown down, and trampled upon, and made no account of, or carried
away with other spoil. The Targum interprets it of the houses or temples of their idols,
which should be demolished. By this and the preceding clause it appears, that, besides
the golden calf, there were other idols worshipped in Samaria. In the times of Ahab was
the image of Baal, with others, for which he built an altar and a temple in Samaria, and a
grove, 1Ki_16:31; and at the time it was taken by Shalmaneser there were idols in it, as
appears from Isa_10:10; and there were still more after a colony of the Babylonians and
others were introduced into it; the names of which were Succothbenoth, Nergal, Ashima,
Nibhaz, Tartak, Adrammelech, and Anammelech. The first of these is thought, by Selden
(e) to be Venus; and the two last, both by him and Braunius (f), to be the same with Mo,
having the signification of a king in them, as that word signifies, and children being
burnt unto them: they are all difficult to be understood. The account the Jews (g) give of
them is, that "Succothbenoth" were images of a hen and chickens; "Nergal", a cock;
"Ashima", a goat without hair; "Nibhaz", or "Nibchan", as sometimes read, a dog; and
"Tartak", an ass; "Adrammelech", a mule, or a peacock; and "Anammelech", a horse, or a
pheasant. And it was not unusual for some of these creatures to be worshipped by the
Heathens, as a cock by the Syrians, and others; a goat by the Mendesians; and the dog
Anubis, perhaps the same with Nibhaz, by the Egyptians (h). And though the inhabitants
of Samaria might be better instructed, after Manasseh and other Jews came to reside
among them in later times, still they retained idolatrous practices; and, even in the times
of our Lord, they were ignorant of the true object of religious worship, Joh_4:22; and
they are charged by the Jewish writers (i) with worshipping the image of a dove on
Mount Gerizim, and also such strange gods, the teraphim, which Jacob hid under the
oak at Sichem; however, let their idols be what they will they worshipped, they are now
utterly destroyed, according to this prophecy;
for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire
of an harlot; as all the riches of Samaria and its inhabitants were gathered together as
the reward of their idolatry, as they imagined, so they should return to idolaters, the
Assyrians; to Nineveh, called the well favoured harlot, Nah_3:4; the metropolis of the
Assyrian empire; and to the house or temple of those that worshipped idols, as the
Targum; with which they should adorn their idols, or use them in idolatrous worship: or
the sense in general is, that as their riches were ill gotten, as the hire of a harlot, and
which never prospers, so theirs should come to nothing; as it came, so it should go:
according to our proverb, "lightly come, lightly go". The allusion seems to be to harlots
prostituting themselves in the temples of idols, which was common among the
Heathens, as at Comana and Corinth, as Strabo (k) relates; and particularly among the
Babylonians and Assyrians, which may be here referred to: for Herodotus (l) says, it was
a law with the Babylonians that every woman of that country should once in her life sit in
the temple of Venus, and lie with a strange man: here women used to sit with a crown

65. upon their heads: nor might they return home until some stranger threw money into
their laps, and took them out of the temple, and lay with them; and he that cast it must
say, I implore the goddess Mylitta for thee; the name by which the Assyrians call Venus;
nor was it lawful to reject the price or the money, be it what it would, for it was
converted to holy uses, and Strabo (m) affirms much the same. So the Phoenician
women used to prostitute themselves in the temples of their idols, and dedicate there the
hire of their bodies to their gods, thinking thereby to appease their deities, and obtain
good things for themselves (n).
HE RY, ". The punishment made to answer the sin, in the particular destruction of
the idols, Mic_1:7. 1. The gods they worshipped shall be destroyed: The graven images
shall be beaten to pieces by the army of the Assyrians, and all the idols shall be laid
desolate. Samaria and her idols were ruined together by Sennacherib (Isa_10:11), and
their gods cast into the fire, for they were no gods (Isa_37:19); and this was the Lord's
doing: I will lay the idols desolate. Note, If the law of God prevail not to make men in
authority destroy idols, God will take the work into his own hands, and will do it himself.
2. The gifts that passed between them and their gods shall be destroyed; for all the hires
thereof shall be burnt with fire, which may be meant either of the presents they made to
their idols for the replenishing of their altars, and the adorning of their statues and
temples (these shall become a prey to the victorious army, which shall rifle not only
private houses, but the houses of their gods), or of the corn, and wine, and oil, which
they called the rewards, or hires, which their idols, their lovers, gave them (Hos_2:12);
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. She gathered it of
the hire of the harlot, and it shall return to the hire of a harlot. They enriched
themselves by their leagues with the idolatrous nations, who gave them advantages, to
court them into the service of their idols, and their idols' temples were enriched with
gifts by those who went a whoring after them. And all this wealth shall become a prey to
the idolatrous nations, and so be the hire of a harlot again, wages to an army of
idolaters, who shall take it as a reward given them by their gods. It shall be a present to
king Jareb, Hos_10:6. What they gave to their idols, and what they thought they got by
them, shall be as the hire of a harlot; the curse of God shall be upon it, and it shall never
prosper, nor do them any good. It is common that what is squeezed out by one lust is
squandered away upon another.
JAMISO , "all the hires — the wealth which Israel boasted of receiving from her
idols as the “rewards” or “hire” for worshipping them (Hos_2:5, Hos_2:12).
idols ... will I ... desolate — that is, give them up to the foe to strip off the silver and
gold with which they are overlaid.
she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of
an harlot — Israel gathered (made for herself) her idols from the gold and silver
received from false gods, as she thought, the “hire” of her worshipping them; and they
shall again become what they had been before, the hire of spiritual harlotry, that is, the
prosperity of the foe, who also being worshippers of idols will ascribe the acquisition to
their idols [Maurer]. 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 (Hos_

66. 9:1).
CALVI , "The Prophet goes on with the same subject, and says, that the ruin of
Samaria was at hand, so that its idols would be broken, and also, that its wealth
would be destroyed which she had gathered by illegitimate means, and which she
thought to be the reward of her idolatry. But God mentions idols here expressly by
his Prophet, in order to confirm what we noticed yesterday — that the cause of
vengeance was, because Samaria had abandoned itself to ungodly forms of worship,
and had departed from the Law. That the Israelites might then understand the
cause for which God would so severely punish them, the Prophet here makes
express mention of their graven images and idols. God is not indeed angry with
stones and wood; but he observes the abuse and the perversion of them, when men
pollute themselves by wickedly worshipping such things. This is the reason why God
says here that the graven images of Samaria would be broken in pieces, and that its
idols would be destroyed.
With regard to the wages, the Prophet no doubt designed to stamp with disgrace all
the wealth of Samaria. ‫,אתנן‬ atanen, is properly a gift or a present. But as he twice
repeats it, and says, that what Samaria possessed was the reward of an harlot, and
then, that it would return to the reward of an harlot, he, in the first place, I have no
doubt, upbraids the Israelites, because they, after the manner of harlots and
strumpets, had heaped together their great riches: and this was done by Jeroboam,
who constructed a new form of worship, in order to secure his own kingdom. The
Israelites then began to flourish; and we also know how wealthy that kingdom
became, and how proud they were on account of their riches. As, then, the Israelites
despised the kingdom of Judah, and thought themselves in every way happy, and as
they ascribed all this, as we have seen in Hosea, to their superstitions, Micah speaks
here according to their view of things, when he says, Idolatry has been gainful to
you, this splendor dazzles your eyes; but your rewards I have already doomed to the
burning: they shall then be burnt, and thus perish. Hosea also, as we have seen,
made use of the same comparison, — that the children of Israel felicitated
themselves in their impiety, like a harlot, who, while she gains many presents from
those who admire her beauty, seems not conscious of her turpitude and baseness:
such were the Israelites. The Prophets therefore does not say, without reason,
Behold, your rewards, by burning, shall perish, or, be consumed with fire. Why so?
Because ye have gathered them, he says, from the reward of an harlot, and all this
shall return to the reward of an harlot.
This last clause ought to be restricted to the gifts or wealth of Samaria; for it cannot
properly be applied to idols or graven images. The import of the whole then is that
God would be the avenger of idolatry with regard to the city of Samaria and the
whole kingdom of Israel. Besides, as the Israelites boasted that their ungodly forms
of worship turned out to their happiness and prosperity, God declares that the
whole of this success would be evanescent, like that of the harlot, who amasses great
wealth, which soon vanishes away: and we see that thus it commonly happens.
Some explain the passage thus, — that the gifts, with which the Israelites adorned

67. their temples, would return to be the reward of an harlot, that is, would he
transferred to Chaldea, and that the Babylonians would, in their turn, adorn with
them their idols. But this view is not suitable to the place; for the Prophet does not
say that what Samaria had gathered would be a prey or a spoil to enemies but that it
would perish by fire. (66) He speaks therefore, proverbially when he says that the
produce, from the reward of an harlot, would return to be the reward of an harlot,
that is, that it would become nothing; for the Lord sets a curse on such riches as
strumpets gain by their baseness, while they prostitute themselves. Since, then, the
whole of such wealth is under the curse of God, it must necessarily soon pass away
like smoke: and this, in my view, is the real meaning of the Prophet. It now follows
—
“It is common,” says Henry, “that what is squeezed out by one lust, is squandered
away by another.” — Ed.
COFFMA , "Verse 7
"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 the hire of a harlot hath
she gathered them, and unto the hire of a harlot shall they return."
This verse pinpointed the great sin of Samaria. Like the old Canaanite pagans
before them in their land, they had turned heart and soul unto the worship of their
vile bull-gods, the baalim, reeking with its corruption and largely supported by its
system of sacred prostitution. The Decalogue carried the injunction that Israel
should "not make unto thee any graven image"; but, instead they had filled the land
with them. Archer's summary of this is as follows:
"The Assyrian troops of Sargon would smash her idols and destroy the dedicated
treasures and votive monuments (the harlot's hires from her false lovers, the
heathen gods) in her temples. All the materialistic gains and advantages (such as the
political alliance with Phoenicia engineered by Jezebel's marriage to Ahab) will be
wiped out, or carried off as spoil by the enemy."[23]
"The accent is firmly on Yahweh as the prime mover behind history."[24]
In Micah 1:6, the prophet had declared that Samaria would become as "a heap in a
field"; and oddly enough, in one of the monuments to the conquest of Samaria
excavated at ineveh, are descriptions of Israel's cities, of which the inscriptions
read, "They were made into a rubbish-heap and a field."[25] Even today, Samaria
"is heaps of stone, not only on the hill-summit but also in the fields below."[26
CO STABLE, "God would smash Samaria"s idols proving them incapable of
defending themselves much less helping others. He would burn the luxurious
ornaments that the people offered as temple gifts in the conflagration that would
accompany Samaria"s overthrow. All the pagan images that the people had made
would perish. The Lord viewed these physical treasures as the earnings of harlot
Israel who had been unfaithful to Him (cf. Hosea). The Israelites had committed

68. adultery with temple prostitutes, but the Assyrians would destroy the gifts that they
had brought into their temples and use them for their own idolatrous worship.
"The reference is probably to the gold and silver plating on the images, melted
down from the dirty money handed over for the use of religious brothels. Invading
soldiers are to tear it off as loot and spend it as currency for further prostitution, as
soldiers will." [ ote: Allen, p274.]
PETT, "Micah 1:7
‘And all her graven images will be beaten to pieces,
And all her hires will be burned with fire,
And all her idols will I lay desolate;
For of the hire of a harlot has she gathered them,
And to the hire of a harlot shall they return.’
ot only the city of Samaria and its Temple but also their contents would be
devastated. The graven images of her gods would be shattered, Her merchandise
burned, her idols lying desolate, unable to help themselves. ote the vivid imagery,
the shattered gods, the helpless idols, proof that they were but men’s vanities.
The word ‘hires’ refers to merchandise in Isaiah 23:18 and included food and
clothing. Here it clearly parallels graven images and idols. Clearly it refers to
something purchased for worship purposes, possibly the garments that decorated
the images and idols. There is a play on the fact that these ‘hires’ have been bought
with the hire of cultic prostitutes. But they will be burned with fire, and thereby
sanctified to God (compare Joshua 6:24).
Some of these graven images and idols were coated or made from silver and gold
gained by cultic prostitution, and now they would return to being a harlot’s fees.
The whole picture is one of derision and contempt. The point may be that the
soldiers will take the gold and silver as trophies, sell them, and use the proceeds on
prostitutes. Such will be the end of these wonderful images and idols.
ote that as yet He does not intend to visit Jerusalem itself with judgment
The Prophet Responds To God’s Words With Grief As He Recognises That YHWH
Is Right And That Even Judah and Jerusalem Are Being Affected.
The situation now moves on to consider the position of Judah and Jerusalem. In a
prophetic acting out of the future Micah walks around dressed like a prisoner,
weeping and mourning because of what is coming on Judah, and will even reach to
the gates of Jerusalem. What is in mind here are the approaching armies of

69. Sennacherib which have defeated an Egyptian army sent against them, have
subjugated Philistia, and are now turning their attention on Judah.
PULPIT, "Micah 1:7
Graven images. The stone idols (Isaiah 10:10). Septuagint, τὰ γλυπτά. The hires
thereof. The word properly means, "the wages of prostitution." Idolatry is viewed
as spiritual fornication, and the offerings made to the idol temples are reckoned to
be harlot gifts. Hosea speaks in the same way (Hosea 2:5, Hosea 2:8, Hosea 2:12;
Hosea 9:1; comp. Isaiah 23:17; Ezekiel 16:31). There may be allusion to the
shameful practices consecrated with the name of religion, the proceeds of which
went to the support of idolatry (see Baruch 6:43; Herod; 1:199; Strabo, 16:1). Idols;
more costly images, made probably of or plated with precious metals. For she
gathered it; rather, them, the images and idols, from the offerings made by
idolaters, spiritual fornicators, hence called the hire of an harlot. They shall return
to the hire of an harlot. The treasures obtained by idolatry shall go to another
idolatrous people, viz. the Assyrians; the dedicated offerings in the temples at
Samaria shall be carried off to ineveh to adorn the temples there (comp. Daniel
1:2; Daniel 5:3; Ezra 1:7). The sentence seems to be a kind of proverbial saying, like
the Latin, Male parta, male dilabuntur. Sehegg compares the German, Wie
gewonnen, so zerronnen, and Unrect Gut that sein Gut. The judgment on Samaria
was executed by the Assyrians. Three times in his short reign of less than six years
did Shalmaneser IV. invade Israel. Shortly after his accession, having reason to
suspect the fidelity of Hoshea, he "came up against him" (2 Kings 17:3), and so
overawed him by the exhibition of his superior power that the King of Israel
submitted without a struggle, "became his servants and gave him presents," or
rendered him tribute. But Hoshea's allegiance was not yet secured. Encouraged by
the enterprise and success of the Ethiopian monarch So, or Shebek, who had
defeated and slain the Egyptian king, and established himself firmly on the throne
of Upper Egypt, Hoshea, in reliance on Egyptian aid, again threw off the yoke of
Assyria, and refused the customary tribute. His punishment was speedy and sharp.
Shalmaneser had no difficulty in making himself master of his person, "shut him up
and bound him in prison." On a fresh act of rebellion, of what nature we are not
informed, Shalmaneser made his third attack. This time he was everywhere resisted,
and ended by laying siege to Samaria itself. Before this city his forces were detained
for more than two years; nor was it till B.C. 722, when apparently his own reign had
come to an end, that Samaria was taken, his successor Sargon claiming the conquest
as appertaining to his first year (Rawlinson, 'Ancient Monarchies,' 2. Hosea 9:1-
17.).
8

70. Because of this I will weep and wail; I will go
about barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal
and moan like an owl.
BAR ES. "Therefore I will - Therefore I would
Wail - (properly, beat, that is, on the breast).
And howl - “Let me alone,” he would say, “that I may vent my sorrow in all ways of
expressing sorrow, beating on the breast and wailing, using all acts and sounds of grief.”
It is as we would say, “Let me mourn on,” a mourning inexhaustible, because the woe too
and the cause of grief was unceasing. The prophet becomes in words, probably in acts
too, an image of his people, doing as they should do hereafter. He mourns, because and
as they would have to mourn, bearing chastisement, bereft of all outward comeliness, an
example also of repentance, since what he did were the chief outward tokens of
mourning.
I will (would) go stripped - despoiled .
And naked - He explains the acts, that they represented no mere voluntary
mourning. Not only would he, representing them, go bared of all garments of beauty, as
we say “half-naked” but despoiled also, the proper term of those plundered and stripped
by an enemy. He speaks of his doing, what we know that Isaiah did, by God’s command,
representing in act what his people should thereafter do. : “Wouldest thou that I should
weep, thou must thyself grieve the first.” Micah doubtless went about, not speaking only
of grief, but grieving, in the habit of one mourning and bereft of all. He prolongs in these
words the voice of wailing, choosing unaccustomed forms of words, to carry on the
sound of grief.
I will make a wailing like the dragons - (jackals).
And mourning as the owls - (ostriches). The cry of both, as heard at night, is very
piteous. Both are doleful creatures, dwelling in desert and lonely places. “The jackals
make a lamentable howling noise, so that travelers unacquainted with them would think
that a company of people, women or children, were howling, one to another.”
“Its howl,” says an Arabic natural historian , “is like the crying of an infant.” “We
heard them,” says another , “through the night, wandering around the villages, with a
continual, prolonged, mournful cry.” The ostrich, forsaking its young Job_39:16, is an
image of bereavement. Jerome: “As the ostrich forgets her eggs and leaves them as
though they were not her’s, to be trampled by the feet of wild beasts, so too shall I go
childless, spoiled and naked.” Its screech is spoken of by travelers as “fearful,
aftrighting.” : “During the lonesome part of the night they often make a doleful and
piteous noise. I have often heard them groan, as if they were in the greatest agonies.”
Dionysius: “I will grieve from the heart over those who perish, mourning for the
hardness of the ungodly, as the Apostle had Rom_9:1 great heaviness and continual
sorrow in his heart for his brethren, the impenitent and unbelieving Jews. Again he

71. saith, “who is weak and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not?” 2Co_11:29.
For by how much the soul is nobler than the body, and by how much eternal damnation
is heavier than any temporal punishment, so much more vehemently should we grieve
and weep for the peril and perpetual damnation of souls, than for bodily sickness or any
temporal evil.”
CLARKE, "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.
GILL, "Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked,.... To his
shut, putting off his upper garment; the rough one, such as the prophets used to wear;
which he did as the greater sign of his mourning: sometimes, in such cases, they rent
their garments; at other times they stripped themselves of them, and walked naked, as
Isaiah did, Isa_20:3; he went about like a madman, one disturbed in his mind, bereft of
his senses, because of the desolation coming upon Israel; and without his clothes, as
such persons often do: so the word rendered "stripped" signifies, as the Jewish
commentators observe. This lamentation, and with these circumstances, the prophet
made in his own person, to show the reality and certainty of their ruin, and to represent
to them the desolate condition they would be in, destitute of all good things, and to them
with it; as well as to express the sympathy of his heart, and thereby to assure them that it
was not out of ill will to them, or a spirit of revenge, that he delivered such a message: or
this he did in the person of all the people, showing what they would do, and that this
would be their case shortly. So the Targum,
"for this they shall wail and howl, and go naked among the spoilers;''
I will make a wailing like the dragons; as in their fight with elephants, at which
time they make a hideous noise (n); and whose hissings have been very terrible to large
bodies of men. Aelianus (o) speaks of a dragon in India, which, when it perceived
Alexander's army near at hand, gave such a prodigious hiss and blast, that it greatly
frightened and disturbed the whole army: and he relates (p) of another, that was in a
valley near Mount Pellenaeus, in the isle of Chios, whose hissing was very terrible to the
inhabitants of that place; and Bochart (q) conjectures that this their hissing is here
referred to; and who observes of the whale, that it has its name from a word in the
Hebrew tongue, which signifies to lament; and which word is here used, and is
frequently used of large fishes, as whales, sea calves, dolphins, &c. which make a great
noise and bellowing, as the sea calf; particularly the balaena, which is one kind of a
whale, and makes such a large and continued noise, as to be heard at the distance of two
miles, as Rondeletius (r) says; and dolphins are said to make a moan and groaning like
human creatures, as Pliny (s) and Solinus (t) report: and Peter Gillius relates, from his
own experience, that lodging one night in a vessel, in which many dolphins were taken,
there were such weeping and mourning, that he could not sleep for them; he thought

72. they deplored their condition with mourning, lamentation, and a large flow of tears, as
men do, and therefore could not help pitying their case; and, while the fisherman was
asleep, took that which was next him, that seemed to mourn most, and cast it into the
sea; but this was of no avail, for the rest increased their mourning more and more, and
seemed plainly to desire the like deliverance; so that all the night he was in the midst of
the most bitter moaning: wherefore Bochart, who quotes these instances, elsewhere (u)
thinks that the prophet compares his mourning with the mourning of these creatures,
rather than with the hissing of dragons. Some (w) think crocodiles are here meant; and
of them it is reported (x), that when they have eaten the body of a creature, which they
do first, and come to the head, they weep over it with tears; hence the proverb of
crocodiles tears, for hypocritical ones; but it cannot well be thought, surely, that the
prophet would compare his mourning to that of such a creature. The learned Pocock
thinks it more reasonable that the "jackals" are meant, called by the Arabians "ebn awi",
rather than dragons; a creature of a size between a fox and a wolf, or a dog and a fox,
which makes a dreadful howling in the night; by which travellers, unacquainted with it,
would think a company of women or children were howling, and goes before the lion as
his provider;
and mourning as the owls; or "daughters of the owl" (y); which is a night bird, and
makes a very frightful noise, especially the screech owl. The Targum interprets it of the
ostrich (z); and it may be meant either of the mourning it makes when its young are
about to be taken away, and it exposes itself to danger on their account, and perishes in
the attempt. Aelianus (a) reports that they are taken by sharp iron spikes fixed about
their nest, when they are returning to their young, after having been in quest of food for
them; and, though they see the shining iron, yet such is their vehement desire after their
young, that they spread their wings like sails, and with great swiftness and noise rush
into the nest, where they are transfixed with the spikes, and die: and not only Vatablus
observes, that these creatures have a very mournful voice; but Bochart (b) has shown,
from the Arabic writers, that they frequently cry and howl; and from John de Laet, who
affirms that those in the parts about Brazil cry so loud as to be heard half a mile; and
indeed they have their name from crying and howling. The Targum renders it by a word
which signifies pleasant; and so Onkelos on Lev_11:16, by an antiphrasis, because its
voice is so very unpleasant. Or, since the words may be rendered, "the daughters of the
ostrich" (c), it may be understood of the mourning of its young, when left by her, when
they make a hideous noise and miserable moan, as some observe (d).
HE RY, "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

73. 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.
JAMISO , "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). “Naked and
barefoot,” the sign of mourning (2Sa_15:30). The prophet’s upper garment was usually
rough and coarse-haired (2Ki_1:8; Zec_13:4).
like the dragons — so Jerome. Rather, “the wild dogs,” jackals or wolves, which wail
like an infant when in distress or alone [Maurer]. (See on Job_30:29).
owls — rather, “ostriches,” which give a shrill and long-drawn, sigh-like cry, especially
at night.
K&D 8-10, "The judgment will not stop at Samaria, however, but spread over Judah.
The prophet depicts this by saying that he will go about mourning as a prisoner, to set
forth the misery that will come upon Judah (Mic_1:8, Mic_1:9); and then, to confirm
this, he announces to a series of cities the fate awaiting them, or rather awaiting the
kingdom, by a continued play upon words founded upon their names (Mic_1:10-15); and
finally he summons Zion to deep mourning (Mic_1:16). Mic_1:8. “Therefore will I
lament and howl, I will go spoiled and naked: I will keep lamentation like the jackals,
and mourning like the ostriches. Mic_1:9. For her stripes are malignant; for it comes to
Judah, reaches to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.” ‫ּאת‬‫ז‬‫ל־‬ ַ‫ע‬ points back to what
precedes, and is then explained in Mic_1:9. The prophet will lament over the destruction
of Samaria, because the judgment which has befallen this city will come upon Judah
also. Micah does not speak in his own name here as a patriot (Hitzig), but in the name of
his nation, with which he identifies himself as being a member thereof. This is
indisputably evident from the expression ‫רוֹם‬ ָ‫ע‬ְ‫ו‬ ‫ל‬ ָ‫יל‬ ֵ‫שׁ‬ ‫ה‬ ָ‫כ‬ ְ‫יל‬ ֵ‫,א‬ which describes the costume
of a prisoner, not that of a mourner. The form ‫אילכה‬ with ‫י‬ appears to have been simply
suggested by ‫ה‬ ָ‫יל‬ ִ‫יל‬ ֵ‫.א‬ ‫ל‬ ָ‫יל‬ ֵ‫שׁ‬ is formed like ‫ד‬ ָ‫יד‬ ֵ‫ה‬ in Isa_16:9-10, and other similar words (see
Olshausen, Gramm. p. 342). The Masoretes have substituted ‫ל‬ ָ‫ּל‬‫שׁ‬, after Job_12:17, but
without the slightest reason. It does not mean “barefooted,” ᅊνυπόδετος (lxx), for which
there was already ‫ף‬ ֵ‫ח‬ָ‫י‬ in the language (2Sa_15:30; Isa_20:2-3; Jer_2:25), but plundered,
spoiled. ‫רוֹם‬ ָ‫,ע‬ naked, i.e., without upper garment (see my comm. on 1Sa_19:24), not

74. merely vestitu solido et decente privatus. Mourners do indeed go barefooted (yâchēph,
see 2Sa_15:30), and in deep mourning in a hairy garment (saq, 2Sa_3:31; Gen_37:34,
etc.), but not plundered and naked. The assertion, however, that a man was called ̀ ârōm
when he had put on a mourning garment (saq, sackcloth) in the place of his upper
garment, derives no support from Isa_20:2, but rather a refutation. For there the
prophet does not go about ‛ârōm ve
yâchēph, i.e., in the dress of a prisoner, to symbolize
the captivity of Egypt, till after he has loosened the hairy garment (saq) from his loins,
i.e., taken it off. And here also the plundering of the prophet and his walking naked are
to be understood in the same way. Micah's intention is not only to exhibit publicly his
mourning fore the approaching calamity of Judah, but also to set forth in a symbolical
form the fate that awaits the Judaeans. And he can only do this by including himself in
the nation, and exhibiting the fate of the nation in his own person. Wailing like jackals
and ostriches is a loud, strong, mournful cry, those animals being distinguished by a
mournful wail; see the comm. on Job_30:29, which passage may possibly have floated
before the prophet's mind. Thus shall Judah wail, because the stroke which falls upon
Samaria is a malignant, i.e., incurable (the suffix attached to ָ‫יה‬ ֶ‫וֹת‬ⅴ ַ‫מ‬ refers to Shōme
rōn,
Samaria, in Mic_1:6 and Mic_1:7. For the singular of the predicate before a subject in
the plural, see Ewald, §295, a, and 317, a). It reaches to Judah, yea, to Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, as the capital, is called the “gate of my people,” because in it par excellence
the people went out and in. That ‫ד‬ ַ‫ע‬ is not exclusive here, but inclusive, embracing the
terminus ad quem, is evident from the parallel “even to Judah;” for if it only reached to
the border of Judah, it would not have been able to come to Jerusalem; and still more
clearly so from the description in Mic_1:10. The fact that Jerusalem is not mentioned till
after Judah is to be interpreted rhetorically, and not geographically. Even the capital,
where the temple of Jehovah stood, would not be spared.
CALVI , "The Prophet here assumes the character of a mourner, that he might
more deeply impress the Israelites; for we have seen that they were almost insensible
in their torpidity. It was therefore necessary that they should be brought to view the
scene itself, that, seeing their destruction before their eyes they might be touched
both with grief and fear. Lamentations of this kind are everywhere to be met with in
the Prophets, and they ought to be carefully noticed; for we hence gather how great
was the torpor of men, inasmuch as it was necessary to awaken them, by this form
of speech, in order to convince them that they had to do with God: they would have
otherwise continued to flatter themselves with delusions. Though indeed the Prophet
here addresses the Israelites, we ought yet to apply this to ourselves; for we are not
much unlike the ancient people: for however God may terrify us with dreadful
threatening, we still remain quiet in our filth. It is therefore needful that we should
be severely treated, for we are almost void of feeling.
But the Prophets sometimes assumed mourning, and sometimes they were touched
with real grief: for when they spoke of aliens and also of the enemies of the Church,
they introduce these lamentations. When a mention is made of Babylon or of Egypt,
they sometimes say, Behold, I will mourn, and my bowels shall be as a timbrel. The
Prophets did not then really grieve; but, as I have said, they transferred to

75. themselves the sorrows of others, and ever with this object, that they might persuade
men that God’s threatenings were not vain, and that God did not trifle with men
when he declared that he was angry with them. But when the discourse was
respecting the Church and the faithful, then the Prophets did not put on grief. The
representation here is then to be taken in such a way as that we may understand
that the Prophet was in real mourning, when he saw that a dreadful ruin was
impending over the whole kingdom of Israel. For though they had perfidiously
departed from the Law, they were yet a part of the holy race, they were the children
of Abraham, whom God had received into favor. The Prophet, therefore, could not
refrain from mourning unfeignedly for them. And the Prophet does here these two
things, — he shows the fraternal love which he entertained for the children of Israel,
as they were his kindred, and a part of the chosen people, — and he also discharges
his own duty; for this lamentation was, as it were, the mirror in which he sets before
them the vengeance of God towards men so extremely torpid. He therefore exhibits
to them this representation, that they might perceive that God was by no means
trifling with men, when he thus denounced punishment on the wicked and such as
were apostates.
Moreover, he speaks not of a common lamentation, but says, I will wail and howl,
and then, I will go spoiled The word ‫,אנושה‬ shulal, some take as meaning one out of
his mind or insane, as though he said, “I shall be now as one not possessed of a
sound mind.” But as this metaphor is rather unnatural, I prefer the sense of being
spoiled; for it was the custom with mourners, as it is well known, to tear and to
throw away their garments from them. I will then go spoiled and naked; and also, I
will make wailing, not like that of men, but like the wailing of dragons: I will
mourn, he says, as the ostriches are wont to do. In short, the Prophet by these forms
of speech intimates, that the coming evil would by no means be of an ordinary kind:
for if he adopted the usual manner of men, he could not have set forth the
dreadfulness of God’s vengeance that was impending.
BE SO , "Verse 8-9
Micah 1:8-9. Therefore I will wail and howl — I will mourn and lament. I will go
stripped and naked — That is, without an upper garment; or with garments rent
and torn. This would fitly denote the naked condition to which the ten tribes were to
be reduced by their enemies. I will make a wailing like dragons — The word
rendered dragons, according to Pocock on the place, may “signify a kind of wild
beast like a dog, between a dog and a fox, or a wolf and a fox, which the Arabians,
from the noise which they make, call Ebn Awi, (filius Eheu,) and our English
travellers jackals; which, abiding in the fields and waste places, make in the night a
lamentable, howling noise:” see Encycl. Brit. And mourning as the owls — Or
rather, ostriches: see note on Job 30:29. “It is affirmed by travellers of good credit,”
says Pocock, “that ostriches make a fearful, screeching, lamentable noise.” Shaw
also observes, that “during the lonesome part of the night, they often make a very
doleful and hideous noise;” and that he had “often heard them groan, as if they
were in the greatest agonies.” For her wound is incurable — The wound of Samaria
and Israel, namely, their own sins and God’s just displeasure: the calamities coming

76. upon them will end in their destruction: nothing can prevent it. It is come even unto
Judah — The contagion of her sins, and the indignation of God against them, have
reached to Judah also, yea, to Jerusalem. This was accordingly fulfilled: for a few
years after the Assyrians had destroyed Samaria, and spoiled all the land of Israel,
their conquering army, led by Sennacherib, entered the kingdom of Judah, and took
all the fenced cities; and a part of it, termed a great host, was sent up to the gates of
Jerusalem, as is related, 2 Kings 18:17.
COFFMA , "Verse 8
"For this will I lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing
like the jackals, and a lamentation like the ostriches."
Many of the prophets of God reinforced their prophetic denunciations by
symbolical behavior in themselves, as when Hosea was married to Gomer. For such
a lament as that pictured here to have had any effect at all, or for it to have been in
any manner appropriate, would require that it be done before the fall of Samaria
came. After it had fallen, there would have been no point whatever in it. o one goes
around wailing about history; it was an approaching disaster that broke the
prophet's heart; and he vainly tried to warn the people.
The character of the lament which Micah began here, as it unfolded, indicated that
Jerusalem and Judah also would be involved in the approaching ruin. "To confirm
this, he announced the destruction of a number of cities in the vicinity of
Jerusalem."[27]
"Stripped and naked ..." probably signifies the removal of all except a loin-cloth. It
would have been a device for getting attention.
"Jackals and ostriches ..." Those who have heard the howl of jackals declare that it
is an especially bloodcurdling scream. The noises made by ostriches were also
calculated to convey a sense of grief and horror.
COKE, "Micah 1:8. I will wail and howl— "I will sympathize with my countrymen
in their calamities; I will dress myself in the habit of mourning, and, like those who
bewail the dead, go without my upper garment; in order to denote the naked
condition to which the ten tribes shall be reduced by their enemies." Instead of
dragons and owls, some read jackalls and ostriches; and a modern traveller assures
us, that he has often heard the ostriches groan, as if they were in the greatest
agonies; which is beautifully alluded to in this passage. See Dr. Shaw's Travels, p.
455.
CO STABLE, "In view of this coming judgment, Micah said he felt compelled to
lament and wail. He would express his sorrow by going barefoot and naked, a
common way of expressing it in his culture (cf. 2 Samuel 15:30; Isaiah 20:2; Isaiah
22:12; Jeremiah 25:34). Jackals and ostriches (or owls) were nocturnal animals that
lived alone and were peculiar for their nocturnal hunting habits and for their
wailing sounds. Micah said he would mimic them.

77. "Unlike some tub-thumping modern preachers of fire and damnation, Micah
preaches judgment out of such love that he weeps for his audience." [ ote: Idem, in
Obadiah , . . ., p154.]
PETT, "Micah 1:8-9
‘For this will I lament and wail;
I will go stripped and naked;
I will make a wailing like the jackals,
And a lamentation like the ostriches.’
For her wounds are incurable;
For it is come even to Judah;
It reaches to the gate of my people,
Even to Jerusalem.’
Micah responds to God’s judgment by declaring his own grief at the situation of
Jerusalem. He intends to throw off his outer garments, and possibly his footwear,
(compare 2 Samuel 15:30; Isaiah 20:2; Isaiah 22:12; Jeremiah 25:34) as an
indication of his grief, and to walk around like a prisoner, wailing like a jackal and
lamenting like an ostrich (or ‘screech owl’). These last were famous for their
howling and sounds like those in mourning (compare Job 30:29).
And the reason for his grief is that he recognises that Samaria’s wounds are
incurable (compare Isaiah 1:5-6), and the future that awaits them, and even more
devastatingly that this situation has even affected Judah. It has reached to the very
gates of Jerusalem.
Whether this was foreboding after he saw what happened to Samaria, or due to the
fact that the enemy (Sennacherib) was actually approaching Jerusalem, is difficult
to say definitely.
PULPIT, "Micah 1:8
I will wail. The prophet marks the destruction of Samaria with these outward signs
of mourning, in order that he might affect the minds of his own countrymen, and
show how he grieved over their sins which should bring like punishment. The word
rendered "wail" means "to beat" the breast. Septuagint, κόψεται: Vulgate,
plangam. Stripped and naked. The former epithet the LXX. translate ἀνυπόδετος,
as if it meant "barefoot;" and they refer the verse to Samaria, not to Micah. The

78. two epithets contain one notion; the prophet assumes the character, not merely of a
mourner, who put off his usual garments, but that of a captive who was stripped to
the skin and carried away naked and despoiled (comp. Isaiah 20:2-4; Isaiah 47:2,
Isaiah 47:8). Dragons; Septuagint, δρακόντων: Hebrew, tannim, "jackals" (Job
30:29; Malachi 1:3), whose mournful howling is well known to all travellers in the
East. Owls; Septuagint, θυγατέρων σειρήνων, "daughters of sirens;" Vulgate,
struthionum. The bird is called in Hebrew bath yaanah, which some explain
"daughter of the desert," or else refer to roots meaning either "to cry out" or "to be
freed." Doubtless the ostrich is meant. Concerning the fearful screech of this bird,
Pusey quotes Shaw, 'Travels,' 2:349, "During the lonesome part of the night they
often make a doleful and piteous noise. I have often heard them groan as if they
were in the greatest agonies."
BI, "Verse 8-9
Micah 1:8-9
For her wound is incurable
Moral incurableness
Samaria and Jerusalem were, in a material and political sense, in a desperate and
hopeless condition.
I. Moral incurableness is a condition into which men may fall.
1. Mental philosophy shows this. Such is the constitution of the human mind, that
the repetition of an act can generate an uncontrollable tendency to repeat it; and the
repetition of a sin deadens altogether that moral sensibility which constitutionally
recoils from the wrong. The mind often makes habit, not only second nature, but the
sovereign of nature.
2. Observation shows this. That man’s circle of acquaintance must be exceedingly
limited who does not know men who become morally incurable. There are incurable
liars, incurable misers, incurable sensualists, and incurable drunkards. o moral
logician, however great his dialectic skill, can forge an argument strong enough to
move them from their old ways, even when urged by the seraphic fervour of the
highest rhetoric.
3. The Bible shows this. “Speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the
wisdom of thy words.” “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the
things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes.” We
often speak of retribution as if it always lay beyond the grave, and the day of grace
as extending through the whole life of man; but such is not the fact. Retribution
begins with many men here.
II. It is a condition for the profoundest lamentation. “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.” Christ wept when He considered the moral incurableness of
the men of Jerusalem. There is no sight more distressing than the sight of a morally
incurable soul. There is no building that I pass that strikes me with greater sadness

79. than the Hospital for “Incurables”; but what are incurable bodies, compared to
morally incurable souls? There are anodynes that may deaden their pains, and
death will relieve them of their torture; but a morally incurable soul is destined to
pass into anguish, intense and more intense as existence runs on, and peradventure
without end. The incurable body may not necessarily be an injury to others; but a
morally incurable soul must be a curse as long as it lives. (Homilist.)
An incurable wound
The late Dr. A.J. Gordon gave the following anecdote in one of the last sermons he
preached: “Dr. Westmoreland, an eminent army surgeon, tells of a soldier who was
shot in the neck, the ball just grazing and wounding the carotid artery. The doctor
knew that his life hung on a hair, and one day as he was dressing the wound the
walls of the artery gave way. Instantly the surgeon pressed his finger upon the
artery, and held the blood in check; and the patient asked, ‘What does this mean?’
‘It means that you are a dead man,’ answered the doctor. ‘How long can I live?’ ‘As
long as I keep my hand on the artery.’ ‘Can I have time to dictate a letter to my wife
and child?’ ‘Yes.’ And so the letter was written for him, full of tender farewell
messages, and when all was finished he calmly closed his eyes and said ‘I am ready,
doctor.’ The purple tide ebbed quickly away and all was over. What a parable is
here of a far more solemn fact. Oh, unsaved one, you are by nature ‘dead through
trespasses and sins’! But God keeps His hand upon your pulse, preserving your life
that you may have an opportunity to repent and be saved.”
9
For her wound is incurable; it has come to Judah.
It [1] has reached the very gate of my people, even
to Jerusalem itself.
BAR ES. "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. The day of grace

80. passes away at last, when man has so steeled himself against grace, as to be morally
dead, having deadened himself to all capacity of repentance.
For it is come unto - (quite up to) Judah; he, (the enemy,) is come (literally, hath
reached, touched,) to (quite up to) the gate of my people, even to (quite up to) Jerusalem
Jerome: “The same sin, yea, the same punishment for sin, which overthrew Samaria,
shall even come unto, quite up to Judah. Then the prophet suddenly changes the gender,
and, as Scripture so often does, speaks of the one agent, the center and impersonation of
the coming evil, as sweeping on over Judah, quite up to the gate of his people, quite up
to Jerusalem. He does not say here, whether Jerusalem would be taken; and so, it seems
likely that he speaks of a calamity short of excision. Of Israel’s wounds only he here says,
that they are incurable; he describes the wasting of even lesser places near or beyond
Jerusalem, the flight of their inhabitants. Of the capital itself he is silent, except that the
enemy reached, touched, struck against it, quite up to it. Probably, then, he is here
describing the first visitation of God, when 2Ki_18:13 Sennacherib came up against all
the fenced cities of Judah and took them, but Jerusalem was spared. God’s judgments
come step by step, leaving time for repentance. The same enemy, although not the same
king, came against Jerusalem who had wasted Samaria. Samaria was probably as strong
as Jerusalem. Hezekiah prayed; God heard, the Assyrian army perished by miracle;
Jerusalem was respited for 124 years.
CLARKE, "Her wound is incurable - Nothing shall prevent their utter ruin, for
they have filled up the measure of their iniquity.
He is come - even to Jerusalem - The desolation and captivity of Israel shall first
take place; that of Judah shall come after.
GILL, "For her wound is incurable,.... Or her "stroke is desperate" (e). The ruin of
Samaria, and the ten tribes, was inevitable; the decree being gone forth, and they
hardened in their sins, and continuing in their impenitence; and their destruction was
irrevocable; they were not to be restored again, nor are they to this day; nor will be till
the time comes that all Israel shall be saved: or "she is grievously sick of her wounds";
just ready to die, upon the brink of ruin, and no hope of saving her; this is the cause and
reason of the above lamentation of the prophet: and what increased his grief and sorrow
the more was,
for it is come unto Judah; the calamity has reached the land of Judah; it stopped not
with Israel or the ten tribes, but spread itself into the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin;
for the Assyrian army, having taken Samaria, and carried Israel captive, in a short time,
about seven or eight years, invaded Judea, and took the fenced cities of Judah in
Hezekiah's time, in which Micah prophesied;
he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem; Sennacherib, king of
Assyria, having taken the fenced cities, came up to the very gates of Jerusalem, and
besieged it, where the courts of judicature were kept, and the people resorted to, to have
justice done them; and Micah, being of the tribe of Judah, calls them his people, and was
the more affected with their distress.

81. JAMISO , "wound ... incurable — Her case, politically and morally, is desperate
(Jer_8:22).
it is come — the wound, or impending calamity (compare Isa_10:28).
he is come ... even to Jerusalem — The evil is no longer limited to Israel. The
prophet foresees Sennacherib coming even “to the gate” of the principal city. The use of
“it” and “he” is appropriately distinct. “It,” the calamity, “came unto” Judah, many of the
inhabitants of which suffered, but did not reach the citizens of Jerusalem, “the gate” of
which the foe (“he”) “came unto,” but did not enter (Isa_36:1;Isa_37:33-37).
CALVI , "He afterwards subjoins, that the wounds vault be grievous; but he
speaks as of what was present, Grievous, he says, are the wounds Grievous means
properly full of grief; others render it desperate or incurable, but it is a meaning
which suits not this place; for ‫,אנושה‬ anushe, means what we express in French by
douloureuse. The wounds, then, are full of grief: for it came, (something is
understood; it may suitably be referred to the enemy, or, what is more approved, to
the slaughter) — It came then, that is, the slaughter, (68) to Judah; it has reached to
the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem itself. He says first, to Judah, speaking of
the land; and then he confines it to the cities; for when the gates are closed up
against enemies, they are forced to stop. But the Prophet says, that the cities would
be no hindrance to the enemies to approach the very gates and even the chief city of
Judah, that is, Jerusalem; and this, we know, was fulfilled. It is the same then as
though he said that the whole kingdom of Israel would be so laid waste, that their
enemies would not he content with victory, but would proceed farther and besiege
the holy city: and this Sennacherib did. For after having subverted the kingdom of
Israel, as though it was not enough to draw the ten tribes into exile, he resolved to
take possession of the kingdom of Judah; and Jerusalem, as Isaiah says, was left as a
tent. We hence see that the threatening of the Prophet Micah were not in vain. It
now follows —
COFFMA , "Verse 9
"For her wounds are incurable; for it is come even unto Judah; it reacheth even to
the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem."
"Her wounds are incurable ..." The reason why Samaria's wound was fatal resided
in the fact of Jerusalem itself having become corrupted. In Jerusalem should have
been the true worship capable of reclaiming the apostate northern kingdom; but the
opposite had occurred. Samaria's sins had been approved and adopted in
Jerusalem, hence the wound could not be healed. The progressive hardening of the
once "chosen people" would continue and could never be averted, except in the
instance of a few and scattered remnant who would patiently look for "the kingdom
of God."
Micah's purpose was twofold. He would lament at the same time the impending
destruction of Samaria and the ultimate fate of Jerusalem which was to occur some
150 years afterward. One may be very sure that such a message as Micah's would
have been despised and mocked by the proud and arrogant inhabitants of both
kingdoms.

82. COKE, "Micah 1:9. For her wound is incurable— "The desolation of the ten tribes
cannot be prevented, because they persist in their impieties; therefore no relief can
be applied: it must terminate in their destruction. At the same time, one aggravating
circumstance attends it, as being the forerunner of those evils which will come upon
Jerusalem, whose gates Sennacherib will attempt to force, in order to make himself
master of that city, and the whole kingdom of Judah." See Calmet.
CO STABLE, "Samaria had a wound from which she could not recover, namely, a
wound of punishment caused by her sin (cf. 1 Kings 20:21). This sin and its
consequence had also infected Judah, even the capital city of Jerusalem (cf. Isaiah
1:5-6). Jerusalem should have been especially holy because of the temple and God"s
presence there, but it was polluted. Punishment reached the gate of Jerusalem in701
B.C. when Sennacherib attacked the city, but the Lord turned back the invader
(cf2Kings18-19).
"The problem with Samaria was that she was toxic; her infection had spread to
Judah." [ ote: Warren W. Wiersbe, " Micah ," in The Bible Exposition
Commentary/Prophets, p391.]
PULPIT, "Micah 1:9
Her wound; her stripes, the punishment inflicted on Samaria. Incurable (comp.
Jeremiah 15:18) The day of grace is past, and Israel has not repented. It is come.
The stripe, the punishment, reaches Judah. To the prophetic eye the Assyrians'
invasion of Judaea seems close at hand, and even the final attack of the Chaldeans
comes within his view. The same sins in the northern and southern capitals lead to
the same fate. He is come. He, the enemy, the agent of the "stripe." The gate of my
people. The gate, the place of meeting, the well guarded post, is put for the city itself
(comp. Genesis 22:17; Deuteronomy 28:52; Obadiah 1:11). Pusey thinks that Micah
refers to something short of total excision, and therefore that the invasion of
Sennacherib alone is meant (2 Kings 18:13). But the fore shortened view of the
prophet may well include the final ruin.
10
Tell it not in Gath [2]; weep not at all. [3] In Beth
Ophrah [4] roll in the dust.

83. BAR ES. "Tell it not in Gath - Gath had probably now ceased to be; at least, to be
of any account . It shows how David’s elegy lived in the hearts of Judah, that his words
are used as a proverb, (just as we do now, in whose ears it is yearly read), when, as with
us, its original application was probably lost. True, Gath, reduced itself, might rejoice the
more maliciously over the sufferings of Judah. But David mentions it as a chief seat of
Philistine strength ; now its strength was gone.
The blaspheming of the enemies of God is the sorest part of His chastisements.
Whence David prays “let not mine enemies exult over me” Psa_25:2; and the sons of
Korah, “With a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me, while they say daily unto
me, where is thy God?” Psa_42:10; and Ethan; “Thou hast made all his enemies to
rejoice. Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servant” Psa_89:42, Psa_89:50 -
wherewith Thine enemies have reproached, O Lord, wherewith they have reproached the
footsteps of Thine anointed. It is hard to part with home, with country, to see all
desolate, which one ever loved. But far, far above all, is it, if, in the disgrace and
desolation, God’s honor seems to be injured. The Jewish people was then God’s only
home on earth. If it could be extinguished, who remained to honor Him? Victories over
them seemed to their pagan neighbors to be victories over Him. He seemed to be
dishonored without, because they had first dishonored Him within. Sore is it to the
Christian, to see God’s cause hindered, His kingdom narrowed, the empire of infidelity
advanced. Sorer in one way, because he knows the price of souls, for whom Jesus died.
But the world is now the Church’s home. “The holy church throughout all the world doth
acknowledge Thee!” Then, it was girt in within a few miles of territory, and sad indeed it
must have been to the prophet, to see this too hemmed in. Tell it not in Gath, to the sons
of those who, of old, defied God.
Weep not at all - (Literally, weeping, weep not). Weeping is the stillest expression of
grief. We speak of “weeping in silence.” Yet this also was too visible a token of grief.
Their weeping would be the joy and laughter of God’s enemies.
In the house of Aphrah - (probably, In Beth-leaphrah) roll thyself in the dust
(Better, as the text, I roll myself in dust). The prophet chose unusual names, such as
would associate themselves with the meanings which he wished to convey, so that thence
forth the name itself might recall the prophecy. As if we were to say, “In Ashe I roll
myself in ashes.” - There was an Aphrah near Jerusalem . It is more likely that Micah
should refer to this, than to the Ophrah in Benjamin Jos_18:23; 1Sa_13:17. He showed
them, in his own person, how they should mourn, retired out of sight and hidden, as it
were, in the dust. Jer. Rup.: “Whatever grief your heart may have, let your face have no
tears; go not forth, but, in the house of dust, sprinkle thyself with the ashes of its ruins.”
All the places thenceforth spoken of were in Judah, whose sorrow and desolation are
repeated in all. It is one varied history of sorrow: The names of her cities, whether in
themselves called from some gifts of God, as Shaphir, (beautiful; we have Fairford,
Fairfield, Fairburn, Fairlight,) or contrariwise from some defect, Maroth, Bitterness
(probably from brackish water) Achzib, lying, (doubtless from a winter-torrent which in
summer failed) suggest, either in contrast or by themselves, some note of evil and woe. It
is Judah’s history in all, given in different traits; her “beauty” turned into shame; herself
free neither to go forth nor to “abide;” looking for good and finding evil; the strong
(Lachish) strong only to flee; like a brook that fails and deceives; her inheritance
(Mareshah) inherited; herself, taking refuge in dens and caves of the earth, yet even

84. there found, and bereft of her glory. Whence, in the end, without naming Judah, the
prophet sums up her sorrows with one call to mourning.
CLARKE, "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: ‫עפר‬ ‫לעפרה‬ ‫בבית‬ bebeith
leaphrah aphar, “Roll thyself in the dust in the house of dust.”
GILL, "Declare ye it not at Gath,.... A city of the Philistines, put for all the rest: the
phrase is borrowed from 2Sa_1:20; where the reason is given, and holds good here as
there; and the sense is, not that the destruction of Israel, or the invasion of Judea, or the
besieging of Jerusalem, could be hid from the Philistines; but that it was a thing
desirable, was it possible, since it would be matter of rejoicing to them, and that would
be an aggravation of the distress of Israel and Judah:
weep ye not at all; that is, before the Philistines, or such like enemies, lest they should
laugh and scoff at you; though they had reason to weep, and did and ought to weep in
secret; yet, as much as in them lay, it would be right to forbear it openly, because of the
insults and reproach of the enemy. The learned Reland (f) suspects that it should be
read, "weep not in Acco": which was another city in Palestine, to the north from the
enemy, as Gath was to the south; and observes, that there is a like play on words (g) in
the words, as in the places after mentioned. Acco is the same with Ptolemais, Act_21:7;
See Gill on Act_21:7. It had this name from Ptolemy Lagus king of Egypt, who enlarged
it, and called it after his own name; but Mr, Maundrell (h) observes,
"now, since it hath been in the possession of the Turks, it has, according to the example
of many other cities in Turkey, cast off its Greek, and recovered some semblance of its
old Hebrew name again, being called Acca, or Acra. As to its situation (he says) it enjoys
all possible advantages, both of sea and land; on its north and east sides it is compassed
with a spacious and fertile plain; on the west it is washed by the Mediterranean sea; and
on the south by a large bay, extending from the city as far as Mount Carmel;''
in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust; as mourners used to do, sit in the
dust, or cover their heads with it, or wallow in it; this is allowed to be done privately, in
houses or in towns distinct from the Philistines, as Aphrah or Ophrah was, which was in
the tribe of Benjamin, Jos_18:23; called here "Aphrah", to make it better agree with
"Aphar", dust, to which the allusion is: and it may be rendered, "in the house of dust roll
thyself in the dust"; having respect to the condition houses would be in at this time,
mere heaps of dust and rubbish, so that they would find enough easily to roll themselves
in. Here is a double reading; the "Keri", or marginal reading, which the Masora directs
to, and we follow, is, "roll thyself": but the "Cetib", or writing, is, "I have rolled myself"
(i); and so are the words of the prophet, who before says he wailed and howled, and went
stripped and naked; here he says, as a further token of his sorrow, that he rolled himself
in dust, and as an example for Israel to do the like. This place was a village in the times
of Jerom (k) and was called Effrem; it was five miles from Bethel to the east.

85. HE RY 10-16, " 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 (2Sa_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

86. 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.
JAMISO , "Declare ye it not at Gath — on the borders of Judea, one of the five
cities of the Philistines, who would exult at the calamity of the Hebrews (2Sa_1:20).
Gratify not those who exult over the falls of the Israel of God.
weep ye not at all — Do not betray your inward sorrow by outward weeping, within
the cognizance of the enemy, lest they should exult at it. Reland translates, “Weep not in
Acco,” that is, Ptolemais, now St. Jean d’Acre, near the foot of Mount Carmel; allotted to
Asher, but never occupied by that tribe (Jdg_1:31); Acco’s inhabitants would, therefore,
like Gath’s, rejoice at Israel’s disaster. Thus the parallelism is best carried out in all the
three clauses of the verse, and there is a similar play on sounds in each, in the Hebrew
Gath, resembling in sound the Hebrew for “declare”; Acco, resembling the Hebrew for
“weep”; and Aphrah, meaning “dust.” While the Hebrews were not to expose their misery
to foreigners, they ought to bewail it in their own cities, for example, Aphrah or Ophrah
(Jos_18:23; 1Sa_13:17), in the tribe of Benjamin. To “roll in the dust” marked deep
sorrow (Jer_6:26; Eze_27:30).
CALVI , "The Prophet seems here to be inconsistent with himself: for he first
describes the calamity that was to be evident to all; but now he commands silence,
lest the report should reach the enemies. But there is here nothing contradictory; for
the evil itself could not be hid, since the whole kingdom of Israel would be desolated,
the cities demolished or burnt, the whole country spoiled and laid waste, and then
the enemies would enter the borders of Judah: and when Jerusalem should have
been nearly taken how could it have been concealed? o, this could not have been.

87. There is no wonder then that the Prophet had referred here to a solemn mourning.
But he now speaks of the feeling of those who were desirous of hiding their own
disgrace, especially from their enemies and aliens: for it is an indignity which
greatly vexes us, when enemies taunt us, and upbraid us in our misfortunes; when
no hope remains, we at least wish to perish in secret, so that no reproach and
disgrace should accompany our death; for dishonor is often harder to be borne, and
wounds us more grievously, than any other evil. The Prophet then means that the
Israelites would not only be miserable, but would also be subject to the reproaches
and taunts of their enemies. We indeed know that the Philistine were inveterate in
their hatred to the people of God; and we know that they ever took occasion to
upbraid them with their evils and calamities.
This then is the meaning of the Prophet, when he says, In Gath declare it not, by
weeping weep not; as though he said, “Though extreme evils shall come upon you,
yet seek to perish in silence; for you will find that your enemies will gape for the
opportunity to cut you with their taunts, when they shall see you thus miserable. He
then forbids the people’s calamities to be told in Gath; for the Philistine usually
desired nothing more than the opportunity to torment the people of God with
reproaches.
It now follows, In the house of Aphrah, in dust roll thyself There is here an
alliteration which cannot be conveyed in Latin: for ‫,עפרה‬ ophre, means dusty, and
‫,עפר‬ opher, is dust. That city attained its name from its situation, because the
country where it was, was full of dust; as if a city were called Lutosa, muddy or full
of clay; and indeed many think that Lutetia (Paris) had hence derived its name. And
he says, Roll thyself in dust, in the house full of dust; as though he had said that the
name would be now most suitable, for the ruin of the city would constrain all
neighboring cities to be in mourning to cast themselves in the dust; So great would
be the extremity of their evils.
But we must ever bear in mind the object of the Prophet: for he here rouses the
Israelites as it were with the sharpest goads, who entertained no just idea of the
dreadfulness of God’s vengeance, but were ever deaf to all threatening. The Prophet
then shows that the execution of this vengeance which he denounced was ready at
hand; and he himself not only mourned, but called others also to mourning. He
speaks of the whole country, as we shall see by what follows. I shall quickly run over
the whole of this chapter; for there is no need of long explanation, as you will find.
BE SO , "Verses 10-12
Micah 1:10-12. Declare ye it not in Gath — Lest the Philistines triumph. The words
seem to be taken out of David s lamentation over Saul and Jonathan, 2 Samuel 1:20,
where see the note. Weep ye not at all — Or, weep ye not with loud weeping, as
Archbishop ewcome renders it. Do not make any loud lamentations, lest the evil
tidings be spread. In the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust — Or, wallow in
the ashes, as was commonly practised in times of great mourning. The word Aphrah
signifies dust; and the prophet, it is likely, puts it here for Ophrah, a town in the
tribe of Benjamin, that the name might better suit their present condition. Pass ye

88. away, thou inhabitant of Saphir — Houbigant says that Eusebius places this city,
the name of which signifies fair, or elegant, in the tribe of Judah, between
Eleutheropolis and Askelon. Some think, however, that Saphir is not a proper name,
and that there was no place so called in Judea; but that the clause ought to be
rendered, Pass away, thou inhabitant of a delightful place, that is, Samaria, which
was very pleasantly situated. The prophet here threatens the inhabitants of that
place that they should go into captivity, in a way very unsuitable to their former
softness and luxury, even stripped by the conquering enemy, and without so much
as a covering to hide their nakedness. The inhabitant of Zaanan — A place in the
tribe of Judah, called Zenan, Joshua 15:37; came not forth in the mourning of Beth-
ezel — “There was no burial of her dead with solemn mourning out of the precincts
of her city, but she was besieged and put to the sword.” — ewcome. Or, the
meaning may be, the inhabitants of Zaanan were so much concerned to provide for
their own safety, that they took no notice of the mournful condition of their near
neighbour Beth-ezel, which seems to have been a place near Jerusalem, termed Azal,
Zechariah 14:5. Grotius, however, supposes Zaanan to denote Zion, and Beth-ezel to
signify Beth-el, called here by another name, importing the house of separation,
because it was the principal seat of idolatrous worship. He shall receive of you his
standing — The standing, or encamping of an army against the city; that is, the
enemy shall encamp among you, shall stand on your ground, so that you will have
no opportunity of coming out to the help of your neighbours. For the inhabitant of
Maroth — A town in Judea, (the same probably that is called Maarath, Joshua
15:59,) waited, &c. — Or rather, as the words may be translated, Although the
inhabitant of Maroth waited for good, yet evil came, &c., unto the gate of Jerusalem
— Such a calamity as stopped not at Maroth, but reached even to Jerusalem. By
Maroth, which signifies bitterness, or trouble, Grotius understands Ramah, or,
expressed as it often is in the plural, Ramoth, a place in the tribe of Benjamin, near
Beth-lehem, and not far from Jerusalem.
COFFMA , "Verse 10
"Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all: at Bethleaphrah have I rolled myself in the
dust."
In this and the next few verses, there is a series of puns, or paronomasias, as the
scholars call them, two of which are here. The word Gath means "Tell-town"; and
the word Bethleaphrah means "Dust-town."[28] A similar thing is true of a number
of other names in the following verses; but the true impact of the meaning is lost in
the translation. A rough approximation of it in this verse is "Tell it not in Tell-
Town, I roll in the dust at Dust-town." Hailey gave a quotation from Farrar in
which, by taking great liberties with the text, he thus rendered the whole passage.
James Moffatt did a very similar thing, thus:
Weep tears at Tear-town (Bochim), Grovel in the dust at Dust-town (Beth-ophra),
Fair stripped, O Fair-town (Saphir)!
Stir-town (Zaanan) dares not stir...

89. To horse and drive away, O Horse-town (Lakhish)...
Israel's kings are ever balked at Balk-ton (Achzib).[29]SIZE>
The differences in some of the names, as evidenced by various renditions are due to
uncertainties in the text. Some scholars affirm that the text (the Masoretic text) of
Micah is corrupt in places. Bruce Vawter said, "Second only to Hosea, the book of
Micah is in an extremely bad state of preservation."[30] However, Wolfe declared
that, "The text of Micah is in a good state of preservation, which indicates it was in
possession of people who gave it good care during the pre-canonical period."[31]
Certainly, there are not enough uncertainties to make very much difference in
understanding the prophecy. The broad message is clear as the sun at noon on a
cloudless day.
SIG IFICA CE OF MICAH 1:8-16
The overwhelming significance of this part of Micah lies in the prophet's behavior,
which would have been an absolute absurdity if his prophetic doom of Samaria and
Jerusalem had already occurred. These verses therefore have the utility of
demonstrating that we are most certainly dealing with a prophecy of terrible events
yet future at the time Micah uttered it. There is no other rational explanation of
Micah's behavior and the entire tone of this lament. o wonder that those who deny
the prophecy can find nothing in the passage. Wolfe declared that, "The passage
carries little religious significance."[32] E. Leslie Carlson observed that the very
sequence of town names in this passage is significant, because, "The listing of the
cities showed the route of the invader. Whereas, the first five cities are north of
Jerusalem, the last five are south or southwest of Jerusalem."[33] This was exactly
the route followed by the Assyrians. There is plenty of significance in this portion of
the Word of God for those willing to perceive it.
COKE, "Micah 1:10. In the house of Aphrah roll, &c.— Roll thyself in dust, in the
very house of Aphrah, or dust. The word ‫עפרה‬ aphrah, has here a double sense; for
it denotes the city of Aphrah, or Aphron, in the tribe of Judah, which Sennacherib
was about to lay waste, for this and what follows respect the kingdom of Judah; and
it explains what immediately precedes in the ninth verse, that the stroke was come
even to the gate of Jerusalem, the neighbouring cities being laid waste by
Sennacherib. See Houbigant.
ELLICOTT, "(10) Declare ye it not at Gath.—The prophet lets his lament flow after
the strain of David’s elegy, “Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of
Askelon.” In this passage the parallelism seems to require the name of a town where
the English Version has “at all.” But the Hebrew word thus represented may, by the
addition of a letter which has dropped out of the text, be rendered “in Accho,” or
Ptolemais, now called Acca. The LXX. translation οἱ ἐν γεθ, µὴ µεγαλύνεσθε οἱ ἐν
ακιµ, µὴ (= οἱ ὲ ν ἀκ ε ὶ µή), accords with this reading. The parallelism is thus
maintained, and the thought is completed: “Mention not the trouble in our enemies’
cities; bewail it in our own.”

90. CO STABLE, "Micah urged the Israelites not to report the Assyrian invasion of
Jerusalem in Gath (cf. 2 Samuel 1:20), not even to indicate a crisis by weeping
publicly. Why Gath? It was an enemy (Philistine) town, and news of Jerusalem"s
siege would encourage Israel"s enemies. Specifically, "Gath" (gat) may have been
chosen because of its similar sound in Hebrew to the verb "tell" (taggidu; cf. 2
Samuel 1:20).
However, in the cities of Israel, like Beth- Leviticus -aphrah (Beth Ophrah, house of
dust), the inhabitants should roll in the dust expressing their distress (cf. Joshua
7:6; Job 16:15; Isaiah 47:1; Jeremiah 25:34).
CO STABLE, "Verses 10-16
2. Micah"s call for the people"s response1:10-16
The prophet used several clever wordplays in this poem to describe the desolation
that God would bring on Judah. He selected towns and villages near his own
hometown in Judah"s Shephelah whose names were similar to the coming
devastations or to other conditions that he described. The known towns encircle
Micah"s hometown of Moresheth-gath.
"Interestingly Sennacherib too used wordplays when recording his conquests."
[ ote: Martin, p1479. See the map in Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible, p339 , for
the probable locations of the places mentioned in this passage.]
James Moffatt"s paraphrase gives the sense of Micah"s wordplays.
"Tell it not in Tellington!
Wail not in Wailing!
Dust Manor will eat dirt,
Dressy Town flee naked.
Safefold will not save,
Wallchester"s walls are down,
A bitter dose drinks Bitterton." Etc. [ ote: The Old Testament, a new translation
by James Moffatt.]
PETT, "Verses 10-16
A Lament For The Cities of Judah (Micah 1:10-16).
These cities lay in the path of Sennacherib as he advanced on Jerusalem after
defeating the Egyptian army, and subjugating Philistia, and they illuminate

91. something of the resulting situation.
We will first present the verses, which are in typical Hebrew poetic form as much
prophecy was, as a whole so as to retain the beauty and sadness of them. And then
we will consider them one by one.
Micah 1:10
‘Tell it not in Gath,
Weep not at all,
At Beth–le–aphrah,
Have I rolled myself in the dust.’
‘Go on your way, O inhabitant of Shaphir,
In nakedness and shame,
The inhabitant of Zaanan is not come forth,
The wailing of Beth–ezel shall take from you its stay.’
‘For the inhabitant of Maroth,
Waits anxiously for good,
Because evil is come down from YHWH,
Unto the gate of Jerusalem.’
‘Bind the chariot to the swift steed,
O inhabitant of Lachish,
She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion,
For the transgressions of Israel were found in you.’
‘Therefore will you give a parting gift,
To Moresheth–gath,
The houses of Achzib will be a deceitful thing,
To the kings of Israel.’

92. ‘I will yet bring to you,
O inhabitant of Mareshah,
Him who will possess you,
The glory of Israel will come even to Adullam.’
‘Make yourself bald, and cut off your hair,
For the children of your pampering,
Enlarge your baldness as the carrion vulture,
For they are gone into captivity from you.’
It will be noted that ten selected cities are noted, indicating the completeness of the
disaster. They are clearly selected on the basis of the meaning of their names. Lists
of ten regularly indicated a total picture (compare Genesis 5; Genesis 11). They are
divided into five and five (note Micah 1:12 and compare Micah 1:9). Five is the
number of covenant, and these are God’s covenant people. But the division may also
indicate different regions.
Micah 1:10
‘Tell it not in Gath,
Weep not at all,
‘Tell it not in Gath.’ Compare 2 Samuel 1:20. The misery of Judah is to be such that
it is not to be told in Gath lest the people of Gath mock them over their situation.
Gath was a Philistine city. So the point is that no one should take news to Gath, or
arrive there as though in mourning. Their misery would be best kept to themselves.
Gath had their own troubles. They also were the subject of the invasion. It may also
include the thought that they would be in such shock that they would be unable to
weep. When reading of the deliverance of Jerusalem itself we often overlook the
awful devastation that has been previously wrought on Judah.
The next cities in line of advance are now described.
Micah 1:10
At Beth–le–aphrah,
Have I rolled myself in the dust.’

93. Beth-le-Aphrah means ‘house of dust’ and there is a deliberate play on words.
Rolling in the dust (‘wallowing in ashes’) was a typical way of expressing grief
(Jeremiah 6:26 Ezekiel 27:30).
Micah 1:11
‘Go on your way, O inhabitant of Shaphir,
In nakedness and shame,
Shaphir means ‘beautiful. But there will be no beauty in the way in which they are
carried off into captivity. Their beautiful city has become a nightmare.
PULPIT, "Micah 1:10
Declare ye it not at Gath. This phrase from David's elegy over Saul (2 Samuel 1:20)
had become a proverbial saying, deprecating the malicious joy of their hostile
neighbours over the misfortunes that befell them. Gath is mentioned as the seat of
the Philistines, the constant and powerful enemy of Judah. (For its situation, see
note on Amos 6:2.) The paronomasias in this passage, which seem to modern ears
artificial and puerile, are paralleled in many writings both Hebrew and classic, and
were natural to a people who looked for mystical meaning in words and names.
Thus Gath is taken to signify "Tell town," and the clause is, "In Tell town tell it
not." Weep ye not at all; Vulgate, lacrymis ne ploretis; i.e. "weep in silence," or
"hide your tears," that the enemy may not know your grief. As in cash of the other
clauses a town is mentioned, some editors would here read, "In Acco ('Weep town')
weep not!"—Acco being the later Ptolemais, the modern St. Jean d'Acre, and taken
here to represent another foreign city which would rejoice at Judah's misfortunes
(see, 1:31). The Septuagint alone of all the versions seems to countenance this
reading, by translating, οἱ ἐνακεὶµ µὴ ἀνοικοδοµεῖτε, "Ye Enakim, do not rebuild,"
which has been resolved into οἱ ἐν ἀκεὶµ, supposed to be an error for οἱ ἐν ἀχί The
objections against this reading may be seen in Keil and Pusey. There is a play on the
words in both these clauses (as in the following five verses), which is not seen in the
English Version, begath al taggidu, and bako al tibeku. Knabenbauer imitates the
paronomasia in Latin, "Cannis ne canite; Anconae ne angamini;" Ewald and
Schegg in German, "In Molln meldet nicht; in Weinsberg. weinet nicht;" Reuss in
French, " 'allez pas le dire a Dijon! 'allez pas pleurer a Ploermel!" In these puns,
as we should call them, the prophet is far, indeed, from jesting. "He sees," says Dr.
Cheyne, "like Isaiah, in Isaiah 10:30, a preordained correspondence between names
and fortunes;" and he wishes to impress this on his countrymen, that the judgment
may not come upon them unwarned. In the house of Aphrah; better, at Beth-le-
Aphrah, i.e. "House of dust;" Vulgate, in domo pulveris. The site of Aphrah is
unknown. Some identify it with Ophrah in Benjamin (Joshua 18:23), four miles
northeast of Bethel; others, with Ophrah in Philistia (1 Chronicles 4:14). Host of the
towns named below lie in the Shephelah. Keil notes that the word is pointed with
pathach here for the sake of the paronomasia. Roll thyself in the dust; sprinkle dust
upon thyself. This was a common sign of mourning. The Hebrew text gives, "I roll

94. myself," or "I have besprinkled myself," the prophet identifying himself with the
people. But as in all the subsequent passages, not what the prophet does, but what
the inhabitants do, is the point impressed, the reading of the Keri is hem to be
preferred. Vulgate, pulvere vos conspergite. The Septuagint has an inexplicable
rendering, κατὰ γέλωτα γῆν καταπάσασθε, "against laughter sprinkle earth," which
Brenton translates, "sprinkle dust in the place of your laughter." With this section
(Isaiah 10:10-15) should be compared Isaiah 10:28-32, which describes the alarm
occasioned by Sennacherib's invasion of Judah from the northeast, as Micah
represents his progress to the southwest.
11
Pass on in nakedness and shame, you who live in
Shaphir. [5] Those who live in Zaanan [6] will not
come out. Beth Ezel is in mourning; its protection
is taken from you.
BAR ES. "Pass ye away - (literally, Pass thou (fem.) away to or for yourselves),
disregarded by God and despised by man) pass the bounds of your land into captivity.
Thou inhabitant of Shaphir, having thy shame naked - better, in nakedness,
and shame. Shaphir (fair) was a village in Judah, between Eleutheropolis and Ashkelon
(Onomasticon). There are still, in the Shephelah, two villages called Sawafir . It, once
fair, should now go forth in the disgrace and dishonor with which captives were led
away.
The inhabitants of Zaanan came not forth - Zaanan (abounding in flocks) was
probably the same as Zenan of Judah, which lay in the Shephelah . It, which formerly
went forth in pastoral gladness with the multitude of its flocks, shall now shrink into
itself for fear.
The mourning of Beth-Ezel - (literally, house of root, firmly rooted) shall take
from you its standings It too cannot help itself, much less be a stay to others. They who
have been accustomed to go forth in fullness, shall not go forth then, and they who
abide, strong though they be, shall not furnish an abiding place. Neither in going out nor
in remaining, shall anything be secure then.

95. CLARKE, "Inhabitant of Saphir - Sapher, Sepphoris, or Sephora, was the
strongest place in Galilee. - Calmet. It was a city in the tribe of Judah, between
Eleutheropolis and Ascalon. - Houbigant.
Zaanan - Another city in the tribe of Judah, Jos_15:13.
Beth-ezel - A place near Jerusalem, Zec_14:5. Some think that Jerusalem itself is
intended by this word.
GILL, "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. Hillerus (n):
takes it to be the same with Parah, mentioned with Ophrah, in Jos_18:23; so called from
its ornament, neatness, beauty, and elegance, as both words signify, to which the
prophet alludes: now everyone of the inhabitants of this place are called upon to prepare
to go into captivity to Babylon; which would certainly be their case, though they dwelled
in fine buildings, neat houses, and streets well paved. In the margin it is, "thou that
dwellest fairly" (o); which some understand of Samaria; others of Judea; and
particularly Jerusalem, beautifully situated, yet should go into captivity:
having thy shame naked; their city dismantled, their houses plundered, and they
stripped of their garments, and the shame of their nakedness discovered; which must be
the more distressing to beautiful persons, that have dressed neatly, and lived in
handsome well built houses, and elegantly furnished, and now all the reverse;
the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Bethezel; or
house of Azel, where the posterity of Azel, of the tribe of Benjamin, dwelt. Hillerus (p)
suspects it to be the same with Mozah, Jos_18:26; so called from Moza, the great
grandfather of Azel, 1Ch_8:37. Capellus takes it to be the same with Azal in Zec_14:5.
This place being taken and plundered by the enemy occasioned great mourning among
the inhabitants: and it seems to have been taken first, before Zaanan; perhaps the same
with Zenan, Jos_15:37; and is here read "Sennan" by Aquila; the inhabitants of which
did not "come forth", in which there is an allusion to its name (q), either to help them in
their distress, or to condole them; they being in fear of the enemy themselves, and in
arms in their own defence, expecting it would be their turn next, and that they should
share the same fate with them. Some think that under the name of Bethezel is meant
Bethel; and of Zaanan, Zion; and that the sense is, that when Bethel, Samaria, and the
ten tribes, were in distress, they of Zion and Judea did not come to give them any relief;
and when they were carried captive did not mourn with them, were not affected with
their case, nor troubled themselves about them;
he shall receive of him his standing: either the enemy, as R. Joseph Kimchi, shall
receive of the inhabitants of Zaanan his standing; that is, he shall make them dearly pay
for stopping him, for making him stand and stay so long before their city before he could
take it; for all his loss of time, men, and money, in besieging it; by demolishing their city,
plundering their houses, and carrying them captive; who remained he put to death by
the sword. Aben Ezra interprets the word "receive" of doctrine or learning, as in Pro_
4:2; and renders it, "he shall learn"; either Bethezel, or rather Zaanan, shall learn, by the
case of Bethezel, and other neighbouring places, what would be his own case, whether he

96. should stand or fall.
JAMISO , "Pass ye away — that is, Thou shall go into captivity.
inhabitant of Saphir — a village amidst the hills of Judah, between Eleutheropolis
and Ascalon, called so, from the Hebrew word for “beauty.” Though thy name be
“beauty,” which heretofore was thy characteristic, thou shalt have thy “shame” made
“naked.” This city shall be dismantled of its walls, which are the garments, as it were, of
cities; its citizens also shall be hurried into captivity, with persons exposed (Isa_47:3;
Eze_16:37; Hos_2:10).
the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth — Its inhabitants did not come forth to
console the people of Beth-ezel in their mourning, because the calamity was universal;
none was exempt from it (compare Jer_6:25). “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. It means a “house on the
side,” or “near.” Though so near, as its name implies, to Zaanan, Beth-ezel received no
succor or sympathy from Zaanan.
he shall receive of you his standing — “he,” that is, the foe; “his standing,” that
is, his sustenance [Piscator]. Or, “he shall be caused a delay by you, Zaanan.” He shall be
brought to a stand for a time in besieging you; hence it is said just before, “Zaanan came
not forth,” that is, shut herself up within her walls to withstand a siege. But it was only
for a time. She, too, fell like Beth-ezel before her [Vatablus]. Maurer construes thus:
“The inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth; the mourning of Beth-ezel takes away from
you her shelter.” Though Beth-ezel be at your side (that is, near), according to her name,
yet as she also mourns under the oppression of the foe, she cannot give you shelter, or be
at your side as a helper (as her name might lead you to expect), if you come forth and be
intercepted by him from returning to Zaanan.
K&D 11-12, "The penetration of the judgment into Judah is now clearly depicted by
an individualizing enumeration of a number of cities which will be smitten by it. Mic_
1:10. “Go not to Gath to declare it; weeping, weep not. At Beth-Leafra (dust-home) I
have strewed dust upon myself. Mic_1:11. Pass thou away, O inhabitress of Shafir
(beautiful city), stripped in shame. The inhabitress of Zaanan (departure) has not
departed; the lamentation of Beth-Haëzel (near-house) takes from you the standing
near it. Mic_1:12. For the inhabitress of Maroth (bitterness) writhes for good; for evil
has come down from Jehovah to the gate of Jerusalem.” The description commences
with words borrowed from David's elegy on the death of Saul and Jonathan (2Sa_1:20),
“Publish it not in Gath,” in which there is a play upon the words in be
gath and taggıdū.
The Philistines are not to hear of the distress of Judah, lest they should rejoice over it.
There is also a play upon words in ‫וּ‬ⅴ ְ‫ב‬ ִ ‫ל־‬ፍ ‫כוֹ‬ ָ . The sentence belongs to what precedes,
and supplies the fuller definition, that they are not to proclaim the calamity in Gath with
weeping, i.e., not to weep over it there.
(Note: On the ground of the Septuagint rendering, καᆳ οᅷ ᅠνακεᆳµ µᆱ ᅊνοικοδοµεሏτε,
most of the modern expositors follow Reland (Palaest. ill. p. 534ff.) in the opinion
that ‫כוֹ‬ ָ is the name of a city, a contraction of ‫וֹ‬ⅴ ַ‫ע‬ ְ , “and weep not at Acco.” There is

97. no force in the objection brought against this by Caspari (Mich. p. 110), namely, that
in that case the inhabitants of both kingdoms must have stood out before the
prophet's mind in hemistich a, which, though not rendered actually impossible by
Mic_1:9, and the expression ‫על־זאת‬ in Mic_1:8, is hardly reconcilable with the fact
that from Mic_1:11 onwards Judah only stands out before his mind, and that in Mic_
1:8-10 the distress of his people, in the stricter sense (i.e., of Judah), is obviously the
pre-eminent object of his mourning. For Acco would not be taken into consideration
as a city of the kingdom of Israel, but as a city inhabited by heathen, since, according
to Jdg_1:31, the Canaanites were not driven out of Acco, and it cannot be shown
from any passage of the Old Testament that this city ever came into the actual
possession of the Israelites. It is evidently a more important objection to the
supposed contraction, that not a single analogous case can be pointed out. The forms
‫ה‬ ָ‫ק‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ִ‫נ‬ for ‫ה‬ ָ‫ע‬ ְ‫ק‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ִ‫נ‬ (Amo_8:8) and ‫ה‬ ָ‫ל‬ ָ for ‫ה‬ ָ‫ל‬ ֲ‫ע‬ ַ (Jos_19:3 and Jos_15:29) are of a
different kind; and the blending of the preposition ‫ב‬ with the noun ‫וֹ‬ⅴ ַ‫,ע‬ by dropping
the ‫,ע‬ so as to form one word, is altogether unparalleled. The Septuagint translation
furnishes no sufficient authority for such an assumption. All that we can infer from
the fact that Eusebius has adopted the reading ᅠναχείµ in his Onom. (ed. Lars. p.
188), observing at the same time that this name occurs in Micah, whilst Aq. and
Symm. have ᅚν κλαυθµራ (in fletu) instead, is that these Greek fathers regarded the
ᅠναχείµ of the lxx as the name of a place; but this does not in the smallest degree
prove the correctness of the lxx rendering. Nor does the position of ‫כוֹ‬ ָ before ‫ל‬ፍ
furnish any tenable ground for maintaining that this word cannot be the inf. abs. of
‫ה‬ ָ‫כ‬ ָ , but must contain the name of a place. The assertion of Hitzig, that “if the word
were regarded as an inf. abs., neither the inf. itself nor ‫ל‬ፍ for ‫ּא‬‫ל‬ would be admissible
in a negative sentence (Jer_22:10),” has no grammatical foundation. It is by no
means a necessary consequence, that because ‫ל‬ፍ cannot be connected with the inf.
abs. (Ewald, §350, a), therefore the inf. abs. could not be written before a finite verb
with ‫אל‬ for the sake of emphasis.)
After this reminiscence of the mourning of David for Saul, which expresses the greatness
of the grief, and is all the more significant, because in the approaching catastrophe
Judah is also to lose its king (cf. Mic_4:9), so that David is to experience the fate of Saul
(Hengstenberg), Micah mentions places in which Judah will mourn, or, at any rate,
experience something very painful. From Mic_1:10 to Mic_1:15 he mentions ten places,
whose names, with a very slight alteration, were adapted for jeux de mots, with which to
depict what would happen to them or take place within them. The number ten (the
stamp of completeness, pointing to the fact that the judgment would be a complete one,
spreading over the whole kingdom) is divided into twice five by the statement, which is
repeated in Mic_1:12, that the calamity would come to the fate of Jerusalem; five places
being mentioned before Jerusalem (Mic_1:10-12), and five after (Mic_1:13-15). This
division makes Hengstenberg's conjecture a very natural one, viz., that the five places
mentioned before Jerusalem are to be sought for to the north of Jerusalem, and the
others to the south or south-west, and that in this way Micah indicates that the
judgment will proceed from the north to the south. On the other hand, Caspari's
opinion, that the prophet simply enumerates certain places in the neighbourhood of
Moresheth, his own home, rests upon no firm foundation.

98. ‫ה‬ ָ‫ר‬ ְ‫פ‬ ַ‫ע‬ ְ‫ל‬ ‫ית‬ ֵ is probably the Ophrah of Benjamin (‫ה‬ ָ‫ר‬ ְ‫פ‬ ָ‫,ע‬ Jos_18:23), which was situated,
according to Eusebius, not far from Bethel (see comm. on Josh. l.c.). It is pointed with
pathach here for the sake of the paronomasia with ‫ר‬ ָ‫פ‬ ָ‫.ע‬ The chethib ‫י‬ ִ ְ‫שׁ‬ ַ ַ ְ‫ת‬ ִ‫ה‬ is the correct
reading, the keri ‫י‬ ִ‫שׁ‬ ָ ַ ְ‫ת‬ ִ‫ה‬ being merely an emendation springing out of a
misunderstanding of the true meaning. ‫שׁ‬ ֵ ַ ְ‫ת‬ ִ‫ה‬ does not mean to revolve, but to bestrew
one's self. Bestrewing with dust or ashes was a sign of deep mourning (Jer_6:26; 2Sa_
13:19). The prophet speaks in the name of the people of what the people will do. The
inhabitants of Shafir are to go stripped into captivity. ‫ר‬ ַ‫ב‬ ָ‫,ע‬ to pass by, here in the sense of
moving forwards. The plural ‫ם‬ ֶ‫כ‬ ָ‫ל‬ is to be accounted for from the fact that yōshebheth is
the population. Shâphır, i.e., beautiful city, is not the same as the Shâmır in Jos_15:48,
for this was situated in the south-west of the mountains of Judah; nor the same as the
Shâmır in the mountains of Ephraim (Jdg_10:1), which did not belong to the kingdom of
Judah; but is a place to the north of Jerusalem, of which nothing further is known. The
statement in the Onomast. s.v. Σαφείρ ᅚν γᇿ ᆆρεινᇿ between Eleutheropolis and Askalon -
is probably intended to apply to the Shâmır of Joshua; but this is evidently erroneous, as
the country between Eleutheropolis and Askalon did not belong to the mountains of
Judah, but to the Shephelah. ‫ת‬ ֶ‫ּשׁ‬‫ב‬‫ה־‬ָ‫י‬ ְ‫ר‬ ֶ‫,ע‬ a combination like ‫ק‬ ֶ‫ד‬ ֶ‫ה־צ‬ָ‫ו‬ְ‫נ‬ ַ‫ע‬ in Psa_45:5,
equivalent to stripping which is shame, shame-nakedness = ignominious stripping. ‫ה‬ָ‫י‬ ְ‫ר‬ ֶ‫ע‬
is an accusative defining the manner in which they would go out. The next two clauses
are difficult to explain. ‫ן‬ָ‫נ‬ ֲ‫א‬ ַ‫,צ‬ a play upon words with ‫ה‬ፎ ְ‫ֽצ‬ָ‫,י‬ is traceable to this verb, so far
as its meaning is concerned. The primary meaning of the name is uncertain; the more
modern commentators combine it with ‫ּאן‬‫צ‬, in the sense of rich in flocks. The situation of
Zaanan is quite unknown. The supposed identity with Zenân see at Jos_15:37) must be
given up, as Zenân was in the plain, and Zaanan was most probably to the north of
Jerusalem. The meaning of the clause can hardly be any other than this, that the
population of Zaanan had not gone out of their city to this war from fear of the enemy,
but, on the contrary, had fallen back behind their walls (Ros., Casp., Hitzig). ‫ל‬ ֶ‫צ‬ ֵ‫א‬ ָ‫ה‬ ‫ית‬ ֵ is
most likely the same as ‫ל‬ ַ‫צ‬ፎ in Zec_14:5, a place in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, to
the east of the Mount of Olives, as Beth is frequently omitted in the names of places (see
Ges. Thes. p. 193). Etsel signifies side, and as an adverb or preposition, “by the side of.”
This meaning comes into consideration there. The thought of the words mispad bēth, etc.,
might be: “The lamentation of Beth-Haezel will take away its standing (the standing by
the side of it, 'etslō) from you (Judaeans), i.e., will not allow you to tarry there as
fugitives (cf. Jer_48:45). The distress into which the enemy staying there has plunged
Beth-Haezel, will make it impossible for you to stop there” (Hitzig, Caspari). But the
next clause, which is connected by ‫י‬ ִⅴ, does not suit this explanation (Mic_1:12). The only
way in which this clause can be made to follow suitably as an explanation is by taking the
words thus: “The lamentation of Beth-Haezel will take its standing (the stopping of the
calamity or judgment) from you, i.e., stop near it, as we should expect from its name; for
(Mic_1:12) Maroth, which stands further off, will feel pain,” etc. With this view, which
Caspari also suggests, Hengstenberg (on Zec_14:5) agrees in the main, except that he

99. refers the suffix in ‫תוֹ‬ ָ ְ‫מ‬ ֶ‫ע‬ to ‫ד‬ ָ ְ‫ס‬ ִ‫,מ‬ and renders the words thus: “The lamentation of Beth-
Haezel will take its stopping away from you, i.e., the calamity will not stop at Beth-
Haezel (at the near house), i.e., stop near it, as we should expect from its name; for
(Mic_1:12) Maroth, which stands further off, will feel pain,” etc. With this view, which
Caspari also suggests, Hengstenberg (on Zec_14:5) agrees in the main, except that he
refers the suffix in ‫תוֹ‬ ָ‫ד‬ ְ‫מ‬ ֶ‫ע‬ to ‫ד‬ ָ ְ‫ס‬ ִ‫,מ‬ and renders the words thus: “The lamentation of Beth-
Haezel will take its stopping away from you, i.e., will not allow you the stopping of the
lamentation.” Grammatically considered, this connection is the more natural one; but
there is this objection, that it cannot be shown that ‫ד‬ ַ‫מ‬ ָ‫ע‬ is used in the sense of the
stopping or ceasing of a lamentation, whereas the supposition that the suffix refers to
the calamity simply by constructio ad sensum has all the less difficulty, inasmuch as the
calamity has already been hinted at in the verb ‫ע‬ַ‫ג‬ָ‫נ‬ in Mic_1:9, and in Mic_1:10 also it
forms the object to be supplied in thought. Maroth (lit., something bitter, bitternesses) is
quite unknown; it is simply evident, from the explanatory clause ‫וגו‬ ‫ד‬ ַ‫ר‬ָ‫י‬ ‫י‬ ִⅴ, that it was
situated in the immediate neighbourhood of Jerusalem. The inhabitants of Maroth
writhe (châlâh, from chūl, to writhe with pain, like a woman in child-birth), because they
are also smitten with the calamity, when it comes down to the gate of Jerusalem. ‫טוֹב‬ ְ‫,ל‬
“on account of the good,” which they have lost, or are about to lose.
CALVI , "The Prophet here addresses the cities which were on the borders of the
kingdom of Israel, and through which the enemy would pass in entering the
kingdom of Judah. He therefore bids the inhabitants of the city Saphir to pass over,
and says, that the city would be ashamed or in a shameful manner naked. The word
‫,שפיר‬ shaphir, means splendid. He then says, “Thou art now beautiful, but the Lord
will discover thy shame, so that thy nakedness shall be a shame to all, and the
greatest disgrace to thyself.” There is a correspondence in the words, though not an
alliteration. Hence the Prophet says, that though the city was called splendid, it
would yet be deformed, so that no one would deign to look on it, at least without
feeling shame. There is the same correspondence in the word Zaanan; for ‫,צעה‬ tsoe,
means to transfer, as ‫,צען‬ tson, is to migrate. Hence the Prophet says, Go forth shall
not the inhabitant of Zaanan for the mourning of Beth-Aezel; that is, he will remain
quiet at home: this he will do contrary to what will be natural; for whence is the
name of the city? even from removing, for it was a place of much traffic. But he will
remain, he says, at home: though he may see his neighbors dragged into exile, he
will not dare to move from his place.
He now adds, Take will the enemy from you his station. The verb ‫,עמד‬ omad, means
to stand; nor is there a doubt but that when the Prophet says, He will take from you
his standing, he speaks of the standing or station of the enemy: but interpreters
however vary here. Some understand, that when the enemy had continued long in
the land, they would not depart before they possessed the supreme power; as though
he said, “Ye will think that your enemy can be wearied out with delay and
tediousness, when not able soon to conquer your cities: this, he says, will not be the
case; for he will resolutely persevere, and his expectation will not disappoint him;

100. for he will receive the reward of his station, that is, of his delay.” But some say, He
will receive his station from you. They explain the verb ‫,לקח‬ lakech, metaphorically,
as meaning to receive instruction from hand to hand; as though the Prophet had
said, Some, that is, your neighbors, will learn their own position from you. What
does this mean? Zaanan will not go forth on account of the mourning of its
neighboring city Aezel: others will afterwards follow this example. How so? For
Zaanan will be, as it were, the teacher to other cities; as it will not dare to show any
sign of grief for its neighbors, being not able to succor them; so also, when it shall be
taken in its turn into exile, that is, its citizens and inhabitants, its neighbors will
remain quiet, as though the condition of the miserable city was no object of their
care. They shall then learn from you their standing; that is, Ye will remain quiet
and still, when your neighbors will be destroyed; the same thing will afterwards
happen to you. But as this bears but little on the main subjects we may take either of
these views. (71) It afterwards follows —
habitress of Saphir, naked and in confusion.
The inhabitants of Zanan went not forth to wailing.
O Beth-Ezel, he shall receive of you the reward ofhis station against you.
By Henderson thus,—
Pass on, thou inhabitant of Shaphir, naked and ashamed;
The inhabitant of Zanan goeth not forth;
The wailing of Beth-Ezel will take away continuance from you.
It seems more consistent to take all the verbs in this and the preceding verse as
imperatives, though they be not in the same person. Those in the second are
evidently so; and I would render such as are in the third person as imperatives too.
That Saphir, Zaanan, etc, as well as those which follow, are not appellatives, but
proper names of places within or on the borders of Judah, is what is allowed by
most, though not by all, especially by some of the ancient commentators, at least
with regard to some of the names. I offer the following version of the tenth and
eleventh verses, —
10. In Gath declare ye it not, in Acco weep not;
In Beth-Ophrah, roll thyself in dust:
hou over, yea, thou, O inhabitant of Saphir,
aked andin shame;
Let not the inhabitant of Zaanan go forth wailing;
Let Beth-Azel take from you its position;
that is, follow your example.
The last word, ‫,עמדתו‬ presents the greatest difficulty. It is found here alone in this
form. It occurs as ‫,עמד‬ a pillar, a station, ‫,עמוד‬ a stand, stage, and as ‫,מעמד‬ a
standing, and also a state, Isaiah 22:19 Buxtorf gives the same meaning to the last
with the one in the text, constitutio , constitution, a fixed order of things. The verb

101. ‫עמד‬ signifies to stand, to stand erect, to remain the same, either in motion or at rest,
to continue. Hence it may rightly signify a position, a standing, that is taken and
maintained.
COFFMA , "Verse 11
"Pass away, O inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame; the inhabitant of
Zaanan is not come forth: the wail of Beth-ezel shall take from you the stay thereof.
For the inhabitant waiteth anxiously for good, because evil is come down unto the
gate of Jerusalem."
The plain import of these verses foretells disaster that shall fall upon the various
places mentioned, all of them lying in the general vicinity of Jerusalem.
"Pass away, O inhabitant of Shaphir ..." Keil understood this as a reference to the
deportation of captives, stating that, "The carrying away of Judah, which is hinted
at in Micah 1:11, is clearly stated in Micah 1:16."[34] He also pointed out that it is
incorrect to limit this to the invasion of the Assyrians, as that carrying away was
accomplished about 150 years after Micah wrote by the Babylonians. They, of
course, followed the same invasion route as the Assyrians had used.
COKE, "Micah 1:11. Pass ye away, &c.— Take care thou that inhabitest Saphir [a
city in the tribe of Judah] to pass away naked and in disgrace. The inhabitants of
Zaanan [another city in the tribe of Judah] shall not go forth to the mourning:
Bethezel shall be taken away from you, while itself shall stand. By Beth-ezel is
meant Jerusalem, to which Ezel was near, as appears from Zechariah 14:5. But
there is a twofold meaning given to the word ‫אצל‬ Ezel, which denotes separation, the
prophet signifying that no aid could be expected from Jerusalem, because Jerusalem
should fear for itself, and because the Syrian army should separate it from the city
of Saphir, which is here addressed. The meaning of the last clause is, that though
Jerusalem itself should stand or continue, yet no assistance should be obtained from
it See Houbigant.
ELLICOTT, "(11) Saphir . . . Zaanan.—The sites of these cities, like that of
Aphrah, are a matter of conjecture. They were probably south-west of Jerusalem,
the prophet following the march of the invading army.
The inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth—i.e., they remained in their city through
fear of the enemy.
In the mourning of Beth-ezel.—Rather, the wailing of Beth-ezel shall take from you
his standing—i.e., no support will be found in the inhabitants of Beth-ezel.
PETT, "Micah 1:11
The inhabitant of Zaanan is not come forth,

102. Zaanan means ‘one who goes out’ (i.e. to face the enemy). But these people do not go
out to face the enemy. This may indicate that they remained in their town, refusing
the call to arms, and surrendered immediately in return for more merciful
treatment. Resistance melted at the sight of the Assyrian armies. There are always
some who will not stand up bravely for what is right.
Micah 1:11
The wailing of Beth–ezel shall take from you its stay.’
Beth-ezel mean ‘house by the side of another.’ The idea is of one who gives mutual
assistance. But Zaanan has surrendered and not come out to battle. So Beth-ezel’s
anticipated friends have failed her, and she herself cannot therefore ‘stand her
ground’ and be a stay to Hezekiah’s attempts at resistance. She cannot help the
daughter of Zion. She can only dissolve into weeping. She is useless.
Alternately it could be rendered, ‘The wailing of Beth-ezel will take its stopping
away from you,’ i.e., will not allow you the stopping of the lamentation.
PULPIT, "Micah 1:11
Pass ye away. Leave your house. Thou inhabitant of Saphir. The Hebrew is
"inhabitress," the population being personified as a virgin. "Saphir" means "Fair
city." It is placed by Eusebius ('Onomast.') between Ascalon and Eleutheropolis: it
is now identified with some ruins named Suafir, five miles southeast of Ashdod.
Having thy shame naked; "in nakedness and shame" (Pusey); Vulgate, confusa
ignominia. The prophet contrasts the shame of their treatment with the meaning of
their city's name," Go, Fair town, into foul dishonour." Septuagint, κατοικοῦσα
καλῶς τὰς πόλεις αὐτῆς, "fairly inhabiting her cities." St. Jerome, in despair of
explaining these Greek renderings, says here, "Multum Hebraicum a LXX.
interpretatione discordat, et tantis tam mea quam illorum translatio difficultatibus
involuta est, ut si quando indiguimus Spiritus Dei (semper autem in exponendis
Scripturis sanctis illius indigemus adventu), nunc vel maxime eum adesse
cupiamus." Zaanan is supposed to be the same as Zenan, mentioned in Joshua
15:37. The meaning of the name is doubtful. It is taken to signify "abounding in
flocks" or "going out." Came not forth; or, is not come forth. The paronomasia
seems to lie rather in sound than sense, and is variously explained, "The inhabitants
of Flock town went not forth with their flocks." "The dwellers of Forthcoming came
not forth," i.e. to flee, or to fight, or to aid their brethren; or did not escape
destruction. Vulgate, on est egressa quae habitat in exitu; Septuagint, οὐκ ἐξῆλε
κατοικοῦσα σενναάρ, "She who dwelt at Sennaar came not forth." In the mourning,
etc. These words are best joined with the following clause, thus: The mourning of
Beth-ezel taketh from you its standing; i.e. refuge or shelter. Beth-ezel is explained,
"House at one's side." " eighbour town;" so the prophet would say, " eighbour
town is no neighbour to you," affords you no help. But various other explanations
are given. e.g. "Lamentation makes its sure abode at Beth-ezel from your calamity."
This may, perhaps, be supported by the rendering of the LXX; λήψεται ἐξ ὑµῶν

103. πληγηνης, "She shall receive of you the stroke of anguish." Dr. Cheyne connects the
whole verse with one idea, "Zaanan would willingly take to flight, but the sound of
the mourning at Beth-ezel (which might mean, "the house, or place, at one's side')
fills them with despair." Taking Beth-ezel to mean "House of root," others would
interpret, on account of the public sorrow, "The 'house of root' affords no firm
home for you." Others, again," The lamentation of 'The near House' will not stop
near it, but pass on to other places." Beth-ezel is probably the Azal of Zechariah
14:5, the beth being dropped, as is often the case. It was in the neighbourhood of
Jerusalem (see note on Zechariah. l.c.).
12
Those who live in Maroth [7] writhe in pain,
waiting for relief, because disaster has come from
the LORD, even to the gate of Jerusalem.
BAR ES. "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. The inhabitant of bitternesses, she, to whom bitternesses, or, it may be,
rebellions, were as the home in which she dwelt, which ever encircled her, in which she
reposed, wherein she spent her life, waited for good! Strange contradiction! yet a
contradiction, which the whole un-Christian world is continually en acting; nay, from
which Christians have often to be awakened, to look for good to themselves, nay, to pray
for temporal good, while living in bitternesses, bitter ways, displeasing to God. The
words are calculated to be a religious proverb. “Living in sin,” as we say, dwelling in
bitternesses, she looked for good! Bitternesses! for it is Jer_2:19 an evil thing and bitter,
that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that My fear is not in thee.
But evil came down from the Lord unto the gate of Jerusalem - It came, like
the sulphur and fire which God rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah, but as yet to the gate
of Jerusalem, not upon itself. : “Evil came down upon them from the Lord, that is, I was
grieved, I chastened, I brought the Assyrian upon them, and from My anger came this
affliction upon them. But it was removed, My Hand prevailing and marvelously rescuing
those who worshiped My Majesty. For the trouble shall come to the gate. But we know
that Rabshakeh, with many horsemen, came to Jerusalem and all-but touched the gates.
But he took it not. For in one night the Assyrian was consumed.” The two for’s are

104. seemingly coordinate, and assign the reasons of the foreannounced evils, Mic_1:3-11 on
man’s part and on God’s part. On man’s part, in that he looked for what could not so
come, good: on God’s part, in that evil, which alone could be looked for, which, amid
man’s evil, could alone be good for man, came from Him. Losing the true Good, man lost
all other good, and dwelling in the bitterness of sin and provocation, he dwelt indeed in
bitterness of trouble.
CLARKE, "The inhabitant of Maroth - There was a city of a similar name in the
tribe of Judah, Jos_15:59.
GILL, "For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good,.... Or, "though
they waited for good" (r); expected to have it, yet the reverse befell them: or "verily
they were grieved for good" (s); for the good things they had lost, or were likely to lose;
and which they had no more hope of, when they saw Jerusalem in distress. Grotius
thinks, by transposition of letters, Ramoth is intended by Maroth, or the many Ramahs
which were in Judah and Benjamin; but Hillerus (t) is of opinion that Jarmuth is meant,
a city of Judah, Jos_15:35; the word Maroth signifies "bitterness"; see Rth_1:20; and,
according to others, "rough places"; and may design the inhabitants of such places that
were in great bitterness and trouble because of the invasion of the enemy, who before
that had promised themselves good things, and lived in the expectation of them:
but evil came down from the Lord unto the gate of Jerusalem; meaning the
Assyrian army under Sennacherib, which came into the land of Judea by the order,
direction, and providence of God, like an overflowing flood; which spread itself over the
land, and reached to the very gates of Jerusalem, which was besieged by it, and
threatened with destruction: or "because evil came down", &c. that is, "because" of that,
the inhabitants of Maroth grieved, or were in pain, as a woman in travail.
JAMISO , "Maroth — possibly the same as Maarath (Jos_15:59). Perhaps a
different town, lying between the previously mentioned towns and the capital, and one of
those plundered by Rab-shakeh on his way to it.
waited carefully for good — that is, for better fortune, but in vain [Calvin].
Gesenius translates, “is grieved for her goods,” “taken away” from her. 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.
CALVI , "The Prophet joins here another city even Maroth, and others also in the
following verses. But in this verse he says, that Maroth would be in sorrow for a lost
good. The verb ‫,חול‬ chul, means to grieve; and it has this sense here; for the
Marothites, that is, the inhabitants of that city, would have to grieve for losing their
property and their former happy condition. But as the verb means also to expect,
some approve of a different exposition, that is, — that the inhabitants of the city

105. Maroth would in vain depend on an empty and fallacious expectation, for they were
doomed to utter destruction. In vain then will the inhabitant of Maroth expect or
entertain hope; for an evil descends from Jehovah to the gate of the city. This view is
very suitable, that is, that its hope will disappoint Maroth, since even the city of
Jerusalem shall not be exempted. For though God had then by a miracle delivered
the chief city, and its siege was raised through the intervention of an angel, when a
dreadful slaughter, as sacred history records, took place; yet the city Maroth was
not then able to escape vengeance. We now see the reason why this circumstance
was added. Some give a harsher explanation, — that the citizens of Maroth were to
be debilitated, or, as it were, demented. As this metaphor is too strained, I embrace
the other, — that the citizens of Maroth would grieve for the loss of good, (72) or
that they would vainly expect or hope, since they were already doomed to utter ruin,
without any hope of deliverance.
But we must notice, that evil was nigh at hand from Jehovah, for he reminds them,
that though the whole country would be desolated by the Assyrians, yet God would
be the chief leader, since he would employ the work of all those who would afflict
the people of Israel. That the Jews then, as well as the Israelites might know, that
they had to do, not with men only, but also with God, the celestial Judge, the
Prophet distinctly expresses that all this would proceed from Jehovah. He
afterwards adds —
COKE, "Verse 12
Micah 1:12. For the inhabitant of Maroth waited, &c.— For she who dwelleth in
Maroth is sick even to death; because evil came down, &c. See 2 Kings 20:1. A
reason is here given why Beth-ezel, or Jerusalem, could not assist Saphir; because
she herself was sick, and about to perish, unless God should deliver her by miracle,
as he did, by destroying the Assyrian army. Jerusalem is called the inhabitant of
Maroth, or of rebellion, by a similar use of words with that in the preceding verse;
Jerusalem is therefore sick unto death, because the Lord hath brought the calamity
even to her gate. See Houbigant. In the next verse the prophet foretels the siege of
the city of Lachish. The first clause should be rendered, O thou inhabitant of
Lachish, the chariot is bound to the horses: thou art the beginning, &c.
PETT, "Micah 1:12
‘For the inhabitant of Maroth,
Waits anxiously for good,
Because evil is come down from YHWH,
Unto the gate of Jerusalem.’
Maroth means ‘bitterness.’ Her inhabitants wait anxiously for good. Perhaps there
were hopes of another Egyptian army. Or perhaps it was just wishful thinking. But

106. all they would enjoy is bitterness. And the reason for this is that YHWH has
deserted Judah because of her disobedience, and is allowing her to suffer right up to
the gates of Jerusalem (compare Micah 1:3, ‘the Lord will come down’ in judgment,
and Micah 1:9).
PULPIT, "Micah 1:12
Maroth; bitterness. Its site is unknown; but it was in the immediate neighbourhood
of Jerusalem. Ewald suggests that it is the same as Maarath (Joshua 15:59), hod.
Beit Ummar, six miles north of Hebron. Waited carefully for good; waited,
expecting succour. But the better translation is, writhed in anguish on account of
good, which they have lost, whether property or liberty. But evil came; for (or,
because) evil is come. Unto the gate of Jerusalem (comp. Micah 1:9). The prophet
refers to the invasion of the Assyrian kings, Sargon or Sennacherib, also mentioned
by Isaiah (Isaiah 22:7), and the haughty message (Isaiah 36:2).
13
You who live in Lachish, [8] harness the team to
the chariot. You were the beginning of sin to the
Daughter of Zion, for the transgressions of Israel
were found in you.
BAR ES. "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. Rehoboam fortified
it. Amaziah fled to it from the conspiracy at Jerusalem 2Ki_14:19, as a place of strength.
It, with Azekah, alone remained, when Nebuchadnezzar had taken the rest, just before
the capture of Jerusalem Jer_34:7. When Sennacherib took all the defensed cities of
Judah, it seems to have been his last and proudest conquest, for from it he sent his
contemptuous message to Hezekiah Isa_36:1-2.
The whole power of the great king seems to have been called forth to take this
stronghold. The Assyrian bas-reliefs, the record of the conquests of Sennacherib, if (as

107. the accompanying inscription is deciphered), they represent the taking of Lachish,
exhibit it as “a city of great extent and importance, defended by double walls with
battlements and towers, and by fortified riggings. In no other sculptures were so many
armed warriors drawn up in array against a besieged city. Against the fortifications had
been thrown up as many as ten banks or mounts compactly built - and seven battering-
rams had already been rolled up against the walls.” Its situation, on the extremity
probably of the plain, fitted it for a depot of cavalry. The swift steeds, to which it was
bidden to bind the chariot, are mentioned as part of the magnificence of Solomon, as
distinct from his ordinary horses (1Ki_4:28, English (1Ki_5:8 in Hebrew)). They were
used by the posts of the king of Persia Est_8:10, Est_8:14.
They were doubtless part of the strength of the kings of Judah, the cavalry in which
their statesmen trusted, instead of God. Now, its swift horses in which it prided itself
should avail but to flee. Probably, it is an ideal picture. Lachish is bidden to bind its
chariots to horses of the utmost speed, which should carry them far away, if their
strength were equal to their swiftness. It had great need; for it was subjected under
Sennacherib to the consequences of Assyrian conquest. If the Assyrian accounts relate to
its capture, impalement and flaying alive were among the tortures of the captive-people;
and awfully did Sennacherib, in his pride, avenge the sins against God whom he
disbelieved.
She is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion - Jerome: “She was at
the gate through which the transgressions of Israel flooded Judah.” How she came first
to apostatise and to be the infectress of Judah, Scripture does not tell us . She scarcely
bordered on Philistia; Jerusalem lay between her and Israel. But the course of sin follows
no geographical lines. It was the greater sin to Lachish that she, locally so far removed
from Israel’s sin, was the first to import into Judah the idolatries of Israel. Scripture
does not say, what seduced Lachish herself, whether the pride of military strength, or
her importance, or commercial intercourse, for her swift steeds; with Egypt, the
common parent of Israel’s and her sin. Scripture does not give the genealogy of her sin,
but stamps her as the heresiarch of Judah. We know the fact from this place only, that
she, apparently so removed from the occasion of sin, became, like the propagators of
heresy, the authoress of evil, the cause of countless loss of souls. Beginning of sin to - ,
what a world of evil lies in the three words!
CLARKE, "Inhabitant of Lachish - This city was in the tribe of Judah, Jos_15:39,
and was taken by Sennacherib when he was coming against Jerusalem, 2Ki_18:13, etc.,
and it is supposed that he wished to reduce this city first, that, possessing it, he might
prevent Hezekiah’s receiving any help from Egypt.
She is the beginning of the sin - This seems to intimate that Lachish was the first
city in Judah which received the idolatrous worship of Israel.
GILL, "O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast,....
Horses, camels, dromedaries, or mules. Some (u) render the word swift horse or horses,
post horses; others dromedaries (w); and some mules (x) the two latter seem more
especially to be meant, either dromedaries, as the word is translated in 1Ki_4:28; which
is a very swift creature: Isidore says (y) the dromedary is one sort of camels, of a lesser
stature, yet swifter, from whence it has its name, and is used to go more than a hundred
miles a day; this is thought to be what the Jews (z) call a flying camel; which the gloss

108. says is a sort of camels that are as swift in running as a bird that flies; they are lighter
made than a camel, and go at a much greater rate; whereas a camel goes at the rate of
thirty miles a day, the dromedary will perform a journey of one hundred and twenty
miles in a day; they make use of them in the Indies for going post, and expresses
frequently perform a journey of eight hundred miles upon them in the space of a week
(a): this may serve the better to illustrate Jer_2:23; and improve the note there: but
whether these were used in chariots I do not find; only Bochart (b) takes notice of a kind
of camel, that has, like the dromedary, two humps on its back, which the Arabians call
"bochet", and put to chariots: or else mules are meant, for by comparing the above text
in 1Ki_4:28 with 2Ch_9:24, it looks as if "mules" were there intended; and so the word
here used is rendered in Est_8:10; and by their being there said to be used for posts to
ride on expresses, it up pears to be a swift creature. Aelianus (c) makes mention of mules
in India of a red colour, very famous for running; and mules were used in the Olympic
games, and many riders of them got the victory; and that these were used in chariots,
there is no doubt to be made of it: Homer (d) speaks of mules drawing a four wheeled
chariot; so Pausanias (e) of mules yoked together, and drawing a chariot, instead of
horses; and the Septuagint version of Isa_66:20; instead of "in litters and on mules",
renders it, "in litters" or carriages "of mules": but, be they one or the other that are here
meant, they were creatures well known, and being swift were used in chariots, to which
they were bound and fastened in order to draw them, and which we call "putting to"; this
the inhabitants of Lachish (f) are bid to do, in order to make their escape, and flee as fast
as they could from the enemy, advancing to besiege them; as they were besieged by the
army of Sennacherib, before he came to Jerusalem, 2Ch_32:1. Or these words may be
spoken in an ironical and sarcastic way, that whereas they had abounded in horses and
chariots, and frequently rode about their streets in them, now let them make use of
them, and get away if they could; and may suggest, that, instead of riding in these, they
should be obliged to walk on foot into captivity. Lachish was a city in the tribe of Judah,
in the times of Jerom (g); it was a village seven miles from Eleutheropolis, as you go to
Daroma or the south;
she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion; lying upon the borders of
the ten tribes, as Lachish did, it was the first of the cities of Judah that gave into the
idolatry of Jeroboam, the worshipping of the calves; and from thence it spread itself to
Zion and Jerusalem; and, being a ringleader in this sin, should be punished for it:
though some think this refers to their conspiracy with the citizens of Jerusalem against
King Amaziah, and the murder of him in this place, now punished for it, 2Ki_14:18;
for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee; not only their idolatry, but
all other sins, with which it abounded; it was a very wicked place, and therefore no
wonder it was given up to destruction. The Targum is,
"for the transgressors of Israel were found in thee.''
JAMISO , "“Bind the chariot to the swift steed,” in order by a hasty flight to escape
the invading foe. Compare Note, see on Isa_36:2, on “Lachish,” at which Sennacherib
fixed his headquarters (2Ki_18:14, 2Ki_18:17; Jer_34:7).
she is the beginning of the sin to ... Zion — Lachish was the first of the cities of
Judah, according to this passage, to introduce the worship of false gods, imitating what
Jeroboam had introduced in Israel. As lying near the border of the north kingdom,
Lachish was first to be infected by its idolatry, which thence spread to Jerusalem.

109. K&D 13-16, "And the judgment will not even stop at Jerusalem, but will spread still
further over the land. This spreading is depicted in Mic_1:13-15 in the same manner as
before. Mic_1:13. “Harness the horse to the chariot, O inhabitress of Lachish! It was the
beginning of sin to the daughter Zion, that the iniquities of Israel were found in her.
Mic_1:14. Therefore wilt thou give dismissal-presents to Moresheth-gath (i.e., the
betrothed of Gath); the houses of Achzib (lying fountain) become a lying brook for
Israel's kings. Mic_1:15. I will still bring thee the heir, O inhabitress of Mareshah
(hereditary city); the nobility of Israel will come to Adullam. Mic_1:16. Make thyself
bald, and shave thyself upon the sons of thy delights: spread out thy baldness like the
eagle; for they have wandered away from thee.” The inhabitants of Lachish, a fortified
city in the Shephelah, to the west of Eleutheropolis, preserved in the ruins of Um Lakis
(see at Jos_10:3), are to harness the horses to the chariot (rekhesh, a runner; see at 1Ki_
5:8 : the word is used as ringing with lâkhısh), namely, to flee as rapidly as possible
before the advancing foe. ‫ם‬ ַ‫ת‬ ָ‫,ר‬ ᅋπ. λεγ. “to bind ... the horse to the chariot,” answering to
the Latin currum jungere equis. Upon this city will the judgment fall with especial
severity, because it has grievously sinned. It was the beginning of sin to the daughter of
Zion, i.e., to the population of Jerusalem; it was the first to grant admission to the
iniquities of Israel, i.e., to the idolatry of the image-worship of the ten tribes (for ‫י‬ ֵ‫ע‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ ִ
‫ל‬ ֵ‫א‬ ָ‫ר‬ ְ‫שׂ‬ִ‫,י‬ see Mic_1:5 and Amo_3:14), which penetrated even to the capital. Nothing more
is known of this, as the historical books contain no account of it. For this reason, namely,
because the sin of Israel found admission into Jerusalem, she (the daughter Zion) will be
obliged to renounce Moresheth-gath. This is the thought of Mic_1:14, the drapery of
which rests upon the resemblance in sound between Moresheth and me
'orâsâh, the
betrothed (Deu_22:23). Shillūchım, dismissal, denotes anything belonging to a man,
which he dismisses or gives up for a time, or for ever. It is applied in Exo_18:2 to the
sending away of wife and children to the father-in-law for a time; and in 1Ki_9:16 to a
dowry, or the present which a father gives to his daughter when she is married and
leaves his house. The meaning “divorce,” i.e., sēpher ke
rıthuth (Deu_24:1, Deu_24:3), has
been arbitrarily forced upon the word. The meaning is not to be determined from
shillēăch in Jer_3:8, as Hitzig supposes, but from 1Ki_9:16, where the same expression
occurs, except that it is construed with ‫,ל‬ which makes no material difference. For ‫ל‬ፍ ‫ן‬ ַ‫ת‬ָ‫נ‬
signifies to give to a person, either to lay upon him or to hand to him; ְ‫ל‬ ‫ן‬ ַ‫ת‬ָ‫,נ‬ to give to
him. The object given by Zion to Moresheth as a parting present is not mentioned, but it
is really the city itself; for the meaning is simply this: Zion will be obliged to relinquish
all further claim to Moresheth, to give it up to the enemy. Mōresheth is not an
appellative, as the old translators suppose, but the proper name of Micah's home; and
Gath is a more precise definition of its situation - “by Gath,” viz., the well-known
Philistian capital, analogous to Bethlehem-Judah in Jdg_17:7-9; Jdg_19:1, or Abel-
maim (Abel by the water) in 2Ch_16:4. According to Jerome (comm. in Mich. Prol.),
Morasthi, qui usque hodie juxta Eleutheropolin, urbem Palaestinae, haud grandis est
viculus (cf. Robinson, Pal. ii. p. 423). The context does not admit of our taking the word
in an appellative sense, “possession of Gath,” since the prophet does not mean to say
that Judah will have to give up to the enemy a place belonging to Gath, but rather that it

110. will have to give up the cities of its own possession. For, as Maurer correctly observes,
“when the enemy is at the gate, men think of defending the kingdom, not of enlarging it.”
But if the addition of the term Gath is not merely intended to define the situation of
Moresheth with greater minuteness, or to distinguish it from other places of the same
name, and if the play upon words in Moresheth was intended to point to a closer relation
to Gath, the thought expressed could only be, that the place situated in the
neighbourhood of Gath had frequently been taken by the Philistines, or claimed as their
property, and not that they were in actual possession of Gath at this time.
The play upon words in the second clause of the verse also points to the loss of places
in Judaea: “the houses of Achzib will become Achzab to the kings of Israel.” ‫ב‬ָ‫ז‬ ְ‫כ‬ፍ, a lie,
for ‫ב‬ָ‫ז‬ ְ‫כ‬ፍ ‫ל‬ ַ‫ח‬ַ‫,נ‬ is a stream which dries up in the hot season, and deceives the expectation of
the traveller that he shall find water (Jer_15:18; cf. Job_6:15.). Achzib, a city in the plain
of Judah, whose name has been preserved in the ruins of Kussabeh, to the south-west of
Beit-Jibrin (see at Jos_15:44). The houses of Achzib are mentioned, because they are,
properly speaking, to be compared to the contents of the river's bed, whereas the ground
on which they stood, with the wall that surrounded them, answered to the river's bed
itself (Hitzig), so that the words do not denote the loss or destruction of the houses so
much as the loss of the city itself. The “kings of Israel” are not the kings of Samaria and
Judah, for Achzib belonged to the kingdom of Judah alone, but the kings of Judah who
followed one another (cf. Jer_19:13); so that the plural is to be understood as relating to
the monarchy of Israel (Judah). Mareshah will also pass into other hands. This is
affirmed in the words, “I will bring the heir to thee again” (‫י‬ ִ‫ב‬ፎ for ‫יא‬ ִ‫ב‬ፎ, as in 1Ki_21:29).
The first heir of Mareshah was the Israelites, who received the city, which had been
previously occupied by the Canaanites, for their possession on the conquest of the land.
The second heir will be the enemy, into whose possession the land is now to pass.
Mareshah, also in the lowland of Judah, has been preserved, so far as the name is
concerned, in the ruins of Marash (see at Jos_15:44, and Tobler, Dritte Wanderung, pp.
129, 142-3). To the north of this was Adullam (see at Jos_12:15), which has not yet been
discovered, but which Tobler (p. 151) erroneously seeks for in Bêt Dûla. Micah mentions
it simply on account of the cave there (1Sa_22:1), as a place of refuge, to which the great
and glorious of Israel would flee (“the glory of Israel,” as in Isa_5:13). The description is
rounded off in Mic_1:16, by returning to the thought that Zion would mourn deeply over
the carrying away of the people, with which it had first set out in Mic_1:8. In ‫י‬ִּ‫ג‬ָ‫ו‬ ‫י‬ ִ‫ח‬ ְ‫ר‬ ָ‫ק‬
Zion is addressed as the mother of the people. ‫ח‬ ַ‫ר‬ ָ‫,ק‬ to shave smooth, and ‫ז‬ַ‫ז‬ָ, to cut off the
hair, are synonyms, which are here combined to strengthen the meaning. The children of
thy delights, in whom thou hast thy pleasure, are the members of the nation. Shaving the
head bald, or shaving a bald place, was a sing of mourning, which had been handed
down as a traditional custom in Israel, in spite of the prohibition in Deu_14:1 (see at
Lev_19:28). The bald place is to be made to spread out like that of a nesher, i.e., not the
true eagle, but the vulture, which was also commonly classed in the eagle family, - either
the bearded vulture, vultur barbatus (see Oedmann, Verm. Samml. i. p. 54ff.), or more
probably the carrion vulture, vultur percnopterus L., common in Egypt, and also in
Palestine, which has the front part of the head completely bald, and only a few hairs at
the back of the head, so that a bald place may very well be attributed to it (see
Hasselquist, Reise, p. 286ff.). The words cannot possibly be understood as referring to
the yearly moulting of the eagle itself.
If we inquire still further as to the fulfilment of the prophecy concerning Judah (Mic_

111. 1:8-16), it cannot be referred, or speaking more correctly, it must not be restricted, to the
Assyrian invasion, as Theod., Cyril, Marck, and others suppose. For the carrying away of
Judah, which is hinted at in Mic_1:11, and clearly expressed in Mic_1:16, was not
effected by the Assyrians, but by the Chaldeans; and that Micah himself did not expect
this judgment from the Assyrians, but from Babel, is perfectly obvious from Mic_4:10,
where he mentions Babel as the place to which Judah was to be carried into exile. At the
same time, we must not exclude the Assyrian oppression altogether; for Sennacherib had
not only already conquered the greater part of Judah, and penetrated to the very gates of
Jerusalem (2Ki_18:13-14, 2Ki_18:19; Isaiah 36:1-38:22), but would have destroyed the
kingdom of Judah, as his predecessor Shalmaneser had destroyed the kingdom of Israel,
if the Lord had not heard the prayer of His servant Hezekiah, and miraculously
destroyed Sennacherib's army before the walls of Jerusalem. Micah prophesies
throughout this chapter, not of certain distinct judgment, but of judgment in general,
without any special allusions to the way in which it would be realized; so that the
proclamation embraces all the judgments that have fallen upon Judah from the Assyrian
invasion down to the Roman catastrophe.
CALVI , "By bidding the citizens of Lachish to tie their chariots to dromedaries he
intimates that it would not be not safe for them to remain in their city, and that
nothing would be better for them than to flee elsewhere and to carry away their
substance. “Think,” he says, “of flight, and of the quickest flight.” The word ‫,רכש‬
recash, which I render dromedary or camel, is of an uncertain meaning among the
Hebrews; some render it swift horses: but we understand the Prophet’s meaning;
for he intimates that there would be no time for flight, except they made great haste,
for the enemies would come upon them quickly.
And he then subjoins that that city had been the beginning of sin to the Jews; for
though he names here the daughter of Zion, he still includes, by taking a part for it
the whole, all the Jews. And why he says that Lachish had been the beginning of sin
to the citizens of Jerusalem, we may collect from the next clauses, In thee, he says,
were found the transgressions of Israel. The citizens of Lachish were then, no doubt,
the first who had embraced the corruptions of Jeroboam, and had thus departed
from the pure worship of God. When, therefore, contagion had entered that city, it
crept, by degrees, into neighboring places, until at length, as we find, the whole
kingdom of Judah had become corrupt: and this is what the Prophet repeats more
fully in other places. It was not then without reason that he denounces desolation
here on the citizens of Lachish; for they had been the authors of sin to their own
kindred. However alienated the ten tribes had become from pure faith and pure
worship, the kingdom of Judah remained still upright, until Lachish opened the
door to ungodly superstitions; and then its superstitions spread through the whole
of Judea. She therefore suffered the punishment which she deserved, when she was
drawn away into distant exile, or, at least, when she could not otherwise escape from
danger, than by fleeing into some fear country, and that very swiftly. She is the
beginning, he says, of sin to the daughter of Zion How so? For in thee — (it is more
emphatical when the Prophet turns his discourse to Lachish itself) — in thee, he
says, were found the transgressions of Israel. It follows —

112. BE SO , "Verses 13-15
Micah 1:13-15. O thou inhabitant of Lachish — This was a strong fortress in the
tribe of Judah: see Joshua 15:39. Bind the chariot to the swift beast — In order to
flee from the approaching enemy. Lachish was one of the first cities that
Sennacherib besieged, when he invaded Judea. She is the beginning of the sin to the
daughter of Zion — She was the first among the cities of Judah which practised
those idolatries which the kings and people of Israel had begun. Therefore shalt
thou give presents to Moresheth-gath — Or, to Moresheth of Gath; that is, to the
Philistines of that country, either to defend thee against the enemy, or to receive thee
under their protection. The houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel —
The word Achzib signifies a lie. There was a town of that name in the tribe of
Judah, mentioned Joshua 15:44. This place, the prophet here foretels, will answer
its name, and disappoint the kings of Israel that depended upon its strength and
assistance: see 2 Chronicles 21:3; and 2 Chronicles 28:19. Israel is sometimes used
for Judah, and so it may probably be taken here. Yet will I bring an heir unto thee,
O inhabitant of Mareshah — This was another town belonging to Judah, mentioned
Joshua 15:44. The name signifies an inheritance; so here, by way of allusion, it is
said, that a new heir or master should come and take possession of it, namely, a
conquering enemy. He shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel — Or, The glory
of Israel shall come to Adullam; the Assyrians, whom Israel once gloried in as their
ally, shall come to Adullam. This was a town in Judah not far from Lachish: see
Joshua 15:35. Some think the meaning of this clause is, that the chief men of Israel
should be forced to hide themselves from their enemies in the cave of Adullam, as
David did when he fled from Saul, 1 Samuel 23.
COFFMA , "Verse 13
"Bind the chariot to the swift steed, O inhabitant of Lachish: she was the beginning
of sin to the daughter of Zion; for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee."
"She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion ..." It is an interesting
question how a border town like Lachish, located some 25 miles southwest of
Jerusalem, was "the beginning" of the sin of the southern kingdom. It occurred like
this: "Lachish was apparently one of the first cities to permit the orthern Israelite
cults to be established in it."[35] The proximity of the town to Jerusalem, its
strength and significance as a fortified outpost, the concentration of the horse
business and its connection with military power, - all of these things possibly
contributed to the mortal infection that was communicated to Jerusalem from
Lachish. The attractiveness of Baal-worship for the Israelites was evidently derived
from its bold and uninhibited licentiousness. The missionaries of it were the
countless sacred prostitutes associated with it.
There is a very interesting thing about Lachish being singled out here as the
"beginning" of Jerusalem's sin. Since Micah had already pointed out that Samaria's
priority in sin would result in her being doomed first, introducing the principle
mentioned under Micah 1:5, Lachish "the beginning" of Zion's sin would also

113. precede Zion in the destruction coming upon her. Jerusalem would fall to Babylon
in 586 B.C.; but Lachish and some forty Other towns in that vicinity of the holy city
would be destroyed by Sennacherib in 701 B.C. He sent out detachments from his
main army to capture and destroy "forty-six walled towns and many villages in
Judah, from whom he took 200,150 people, and much spoil."[36] Sennacherib
himseft took part in the siege of Lachish; and excavations of his palace reliefs depict
him receiving the spoil of Lachish. It was from Lachish that Sennacherib sent the
insulting message to Hezekiah, whom Sennacherib referred to as "shut up like a
caged bird." Providentially, Jerusalem, at that time was spared; but nevertheless
the judgment fell upon the immediate environs. (See 2 Kings 18-19).
ELLICOTT, "(13) Bind the chariot to the swift beast—i.e., make haste to escape
with thy goods. Lachish was the most important of the cities enumerated. It was
fortified by Rehoboam, and was sought as a refuge by Amaziah from the conspiracy
formed against him in Jerusalem. After the capture of the Holy City by
ebuchadnezzar, Lachish alone remained, with Azekah, of the defenced cities of
Judah. It appears, from its position as a border city, to have been the channel for
introducing into the kingdom of Judah the idolatry set up by Jeroboam in Israel.
PETT, "Micah 1:13
‘Bind the chariot to the swift steed,
O inhabitant of Lachish,
She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion,
For the transgressions of Israel were found in you.’
Lachish means ‘horses’. The city was south west of Jerusalem in the Shephelah, and
was the second largest in Judah. It could be expected to hold out against the
Assyrians for an appreciable time. She was clearly a chariot city (being in the
lowlands chariots were usable there). They are now being called on to prove
themselves, or sarcastically to provide a quick means of escape for the nobles. She
has been proud of her self-sufficiency. Let her now demonstrate her worth.
We do not know in what way she had been the beginning of sin to Zion. Being on the
trade routes she may have been receptive to foreign ideas which she had passed on
to Jerusalem. And she is specifically linked with the transgressions of Israel. This is
confirmed by the reference to her having shared in the sins of the northern
kingdom. She too had had her own Temple and a syncretistic religion, and in fact
the remains of a Temple have been found on the site of Lachish. And their turning
away from God and His covenant had in some way affected the daughter of Zion,
Jerusalem and its people.
Lachish does seem to have defended itself bravely. But even mighty Lachish had to
yield eventually, and her defeat was vividly depicted in inscriptions in Assyria

114. celebrating Sennacherib’s triumphs (an important witness to the fact that Jerusalem
was never taken). See 2 Kings 19:8. Assyria departed from Lachish once victory had
been obtained, and moved on to the next victim waiting coweringly behind its walls.
PULPIT, "Micah 1:13
Lachish. A very strong and important city of the Canaanites, hod. Um Lakis, about
fourteen miles northeast of Gaza, which was captured by Sennacherib after a long
siege (2 Kings 18:14; Isaiah 36:2; Isaiah 37:8). In the British Museum there is a bas-
relief, brought from Assyria, representing Sennacherib seated on his throne while
the spoil of the city of Lachish passed before him. Bind the chariot to the swift beast.
Harness your horses to your chariots, that ye may flee and escape destruction. The
phrase is like the Latin, currum jungere equis. The paronomasia here lies in the
sound, "Inhabitant of Lachish, harness your rekkesh" ("runner," "courser").
"Inhabitant of Horse town, harness your horses." Septuagint, ψόφος ἁρµάτων καὶ
ἱππευόντων, "a sound of chariots and horsemen;" Vulgate, tumultus quadrigae
stuporis—renderings which the present Hebrew text does not support. She was the
beginning, etc. How Lachish came to adopt the idolatry of Israel, and how she
infected Judah, we know not. A connection between Jerusalem and Lachish is found
in the ease of Amaziah (2 Kings 14:19), but nothing bearing on religion is
mentioned. The whole clause is translated by Calmer, Keil, etc; thus: "It was the
beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion that the iniquities of Israel were found in
thee" (comp. Micah 6:16; Amos 8:14). The particular transgressions meant may be
the idolatry of Jehoram (2 Chronicles 21:6) and Ahaziah (2 Chronicles 22:3, 2
Chronicles 22:4).
BI, "Verse 13
Micah 1:13
Bind the chariot to the swift beast
Be quick
These words are addressed to the inhabitants of Lachish.
Our subject is promptitude in action.
I. Be quick in your material engagements. The distinction between the secular and
the spiritual is not real but fictitious. A man should be quick in all his legitimate
temporal engagements, whatever they may be. By quickness is not meant the hurry
of confusion, but adroit expertness, skilful promptitude. As Shakespeare said,
“What the wise do quickly, is not done rashly.”
1. The quicker you are the more you will accomplish. An expert man will
accomplish more in an hour than a slow man in a day.
2. The quicker you are, the better for your faculties. The quick movement of the
limb is healthier than the slow; the quick action of the mental faculties is more
invigorating than the slow. As a rule, the quick man is in every way healthier and
happier than the slow.

115. 3. The quicker you are, the more valuable you are in the market of the world. The
skilful man who cultivates the habit of quickness and despatch increases his
commercial value every day.
II. Be quick in your intellectual pursuits. You have an enormous amount of mental
work to do, if you act up to your duty, and discharge your mission in life.
1. The quicker you are, the more you will attain. The more fields of truth you will
traverse, the more fruits you will gather from the tree of knowledge. Some men in
their studies move like elephants, and only traverse a small space. Others, like
eagles, sweep continents in a day. The quick eye will see what escapes the dull eye,
the quick ear will catch voices unheard by the slow of hearing.
2. The quicker you are, the better for your faculties. It is the brisk walker that best
strengthens his limbs, the brisk fighter that wins the greatest victories. It is by quick
action that the steel is polished and that weapons are sharpened. Intellectual
quickness whets the faculties, makes them keen, agile, and apt. “Bind the chariot to
the swift beast.”
III. Be quick in your spiritual affairs.
1. Morally you have a work to do for your own soul. The work is great and urgent.
2. Morally you have a work to do for others. There are souls around you demanding
your most earnest efforts, etc.
Promptitude in action
An officer of high rank in the British Army relates how he won the first step of the
ladder to recognition and promotion, He was then a young sub-lieutenant of
engineers in Ceylon. One morning, while at a quiet game in the amusement room,
unaware that any duty was being neglected, the governor of the island saw him.
“What are you doing here, youngster?” said his chief. “I thought you would have
been at egombo by this time! What to do there, sir? What! Have you not received
your orders? Go to the quartermaster-general at once.” But it was nearly one
o’clock before the young fellow could find that officer. When found, his instructions
were to proceed to egombo, an old fort twenty-three miles north, make a plan of
the barracks there, and note various important details. But the sub-lieutenant was
vexed; for that evening he was obliged to attend a dinner party at the Government
House, and there was not much time to spare. However, he saddled his Arab horse,
that could do almost anything except fly, and covered the twenty-three miles in two
hours. ext, field book and tape line in hand, he made the necessary measurements
and calculations, sketching plans, and writing down facts and figures. Having
drafted an accurate report, he remounted his faithful steed, and was back in
Colombo before the dinner hour. Walking in quietly with the other guests, the
governor saw him, and exclaimed: “You here, sir! What were your orders? Why are
you not attending to them? Be off at once!” “My orders were to go to egombo, sir,”
replied the young officer, repeating the instructions. “Then, what do you mean by
neglecting them?” “I have not,” was the answer. “The report is finished, and will be
laid before you tomorrow morning.” The governor showed his delight by the glow of

116. satisfaction on his face. He detailed the matter to his staff, dwelling on the smart and
accurate obedience manifested, and from that day the young man rose steadily in his
profession. (Sunday companion.)
14
Therefore you will give parting gifts to Moresheth
Gath. The town of Aczib [9] will prove deceptive
to the kings of Israel.
BAR ES. "Therefore shalt thou give - (bridal) presents to Moresheth Gath
Therefore! since Judah had so become a partaker of Israel’s sins, she had broken the
covenant, whereby God had given her the land of the pagan, and she should part with it
to aliens. The bridal presents, literally the dismissals, were the dowry 1Ki_9:16 with
which the father sent away Jdg_12:9 his daughter, to belong to another, her lord or
husband, never more to return. Moresheth, (literally, inheritance,) the inheritance which
God gave her, was to be parted with; she was to be laden with gifts to the enemy. Judah
should part with her, and her own treasure also.
The houses of Achzib shall be a lie - Achzib, so called probably from a winter
brook, achzab, was to become what its name imported, a resource which should fail just
in the time of need, as the winter brooks in the drought of summer. “Wilt Thou be unto
me as a failing brook, waters which are not sure?” Jer_15:18. This Achzib, which is
recounted between Keilah and Mareshah Jos_15:44, was probably one of, the oldest
towns of Palestine being mentioned in the history of the Patriarch Judah. After having
survived about 1,000 years, it should, in time of need, fail. The kings of Israel are here
the kings of Judah. When this prophecy was to be accomplished, the ten tribes would
have ceased to have any political existence, the remnant in their own lanai would have
no head to look to, except the line of David, whose good kings had a care for them. Micah
then, having prophesied the utter destruction of Samaria, speaks in accordance with the
state of things which he foresaw and foretold.
CLARKE, "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

117. 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. Mic_1:11. ‫צאנן‬ tsaanan, the city, and ‫יצאה‬ yatsah, to
go out. Mic_1:13, ‫לכיש‬ lachish, the city, and ‫רכש‬ rechesh, the swift beast. Mic_1:14, ‫אכזיב‬
achzib, the city, and ‫אכזב‬ achzab, a lie. Such paronomasias were reputed ornaments by
the prophets. They occur in Isaiah with great effect. See Isa_5:7.
GILL, "Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moreshethgath,.... Since Lachish
was the cause of leading Judah into idolatry, and was a city so very wicked; therefore it
should be reduced to such distress as to send messengers with presents to the Philistines
at Moreshethgath, a place near to Gath of the Philistines, and may include that and other
cities of theirs, to come and help them against the Assyrians:
the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel; a city of Judah, Jos_
15:44; or of Asher, Jos_19:29; the same with Chezib, Gen_38:5; and called Ecdippa by
Josephus (h), Pliny (i), and Ptolemy (k). The Jewish writers commonly call it Cezib, of
which they (l) say many things about that, and the land unto it, being subject to tithes,
the laws of the seventh year, and the like. Maimonides and Bartenora say (m) it is the
name of a place which divided between the land of Israel, which they possessed who
came out of Babylon, and that land which they enjoyed who came out of Egypt; but the
Jews are not agreed about the situation of it. One of their writers (n) places it to the
northeast of the land of Israel; but another (o) observes, and proves from one that
resided in those parts some time, and diligently inquired into and made his observation
on places, that Cezib, and also Aco and Amana, frequently mentioned with it, were all on
the western sea of the land of Israel, that is, the Mediterranean sea; in which he was
right, without all doubt: the place is now called Zib by contraction, of which Mr.
Maundrell (p) gives this account;
"having travelled about one hour in the plain of Acra, we passed by an old town called
Zib, situate on an ascent close by the seaside; this may probably be the old Achzib,
mentioned Jos_19:29; called afterwards Ecdippa; for St. Jerom (q) places Achzib nine
miles distant from Ptolemais (or Aco), towards Tyre, to which account we found the
situation of Zib exactly agreeing.''
Now the houses or families that dwelt in this place, or the idols' temples there, as some,
and the idolatry exercised therein, should be a lie unto, or disappoint the expectations
of, the kings of Israel; which, according to Kimchi, is put for Judah, who placed
confidence in them, and had dependence on them: there is an elegant play on words
between Achzib and a "lie" (r). The Targum is,
"thou shall send gifts to the heirs of Gath; the houses of Achzib shall be delivered to the
people, because of the sins of the kings of Israel, who worshipped idols in them.''
JAMISO , "shalt thou give presents to Moresheth-gath — that its inhabitants
may send thee help. Maurer explains it, “thou shalt give a writing of renunciation to
Moresheth-gath,” that is, thou shalt renounce all claim to it, being compelled to yield it
up to the foe. “Thou,” that is, Judah. “Israel” in this verse is used for the kingdom of

118. Judah, which was the chief representative of the whole nation of Israel. Moresheth-gath
is so called because it had fallen for a time under the power of the neighboring
Philistines of Gath. It was the native town of Micah (Mic_1:1).
Achzib — meaning “lying.” Achzib, as its name implies, shall prove a “lie to ... Israel,”
that is, shall disappoint Israel’s hopes of succor from her (compare Job_6:15-20; Jer_
15:18). Achzib was in Judah between Keilah and Mareshah (Jos_15:44). Perhaps the
same as Chezib (Gen_38:5).
CALVI , "Here the Prophet alludes to another thing, — that they would attempt to
pacify their enemies with gifts, and would try to redeem themselves and their
neighbors. But the Prophet expressly mentions this, that the event might teach them
that nothing happens without a design; for it ought to work a greater conviction in
blind and obstinate men, when they see that they really find that to be true which
had been long before predicted. This, then, is the reason why the Prophet
enumerates here various particulars; it was, that the hand of God might be more
evident and conspicuous when he would begin, in an especial manner, to fulfill all
the things which he now in words foretells, Thou, he says, wilt send a gift for
Moreseth-gath; that is, for a neighboring city. And he calls it Moreseth-gath, to
distinguish it from another city of the same name. Thou wilt then send gifts for
Moreseth-gath, to the sons of Achzib for a lie ‫,אכזיב‬ aczib, is a word derived from
one which means a lie. There is, therefore, a striking alliteration, when he says,
Thou wilt send gifts to the sons of ‫,אכזיב‬ Aczib, for a lie, ‫,לאכזב‬ laaczeb; that is Thou
wilt send gifts to the sons of a lie, for a lie. The city had obtained its name from its
fallacies or guiles. And he says, for a lie to the kings of Israel; because it profited the
children of Israel nothing to pacify them with gifts or to attempt to draw them to
their side, as they hired the services of one another. So then he says, that they would
be for a lie to the kings of Israel, for they would gain nothing by having many
auxiliaries. Some take the words actively, — that the kings of Israel had first
deceived the citizens of Achzib: but this view is less probable; I am therefore
disposed to adopt the other, — that though the citizens of Lachish tried to conciliate
their neighbors with a great sum of money, especially the people of Achzib, this
would be yet to no purpose; for it would be a lie to the people of Israel: or, it may
be, that the Prophet’s meaning is this, — that the citizens of Achzib had already
wished to bring aid, but in vain to the kings of Israel; for Lachish was one of the
first cities which the Assyrians conquered; but it was within the kingdom of Judah,
or on its borders. It is then probable that the kings of Israel had recourse to the aid
of this people, and were not assisted. ow, as the citizens of Lachish also endeavored
to extricate themselves from the hand of their enemies by such aid, the prophet
derides such a folly, inasmuch as they did not become wise by experience, having
seen with their own eyes, that such an help had been useless and deceptive to the
kings of Israel: they ought then to have tried some other means rather than to
expose themselves to the same deceptions. (73) I cannot finish the chapter to-day.
e thou wilt send presents to Moresheth-gath:
The houses of Achzib will be a lie ( i.e.,false) to the kings of Israel.

119. Henderson, after Cocceius, gives a different meaning to “presents,” ‫;שלוחים‬ and he
renders it “divorce,” and says that it signifies letters of repudiation, and that it is to
be taken here metaphorically for the breaking up of connection. The word only
occurs in two other places, that is, in Exodus 18:2, and in 1 Kings 9:16; and in
neither does it mean what is alleged. — Ed.
COFFMA , "Verse 14
"Therefore shalt thou give a parting gift to Moresheth-gath; the houses of Achzib
shall be a deceitful thing unto the kings of Israel."
Although somewhat ambiguous, the mention of "a parting gift" is ominous, as is
also the mention of the deception to be practiced upon Israel's kings. Achzib was
related to another Hebrew word, Akzab, the two words having much the same
sound.[37] Akzab meant "deceitful"; and from that similarity Micah continued his
strange play upon words. Israel's kings would be deceived at Deceit-Town!
"Moresheth-gath ..." "This was the name of Micah's home town; and it was
associated with Gath in order more precisely to give its location."[38]
COKE, "Micah 1:14. Therefore shalt thou give presents— Therefore shalt thou
send presents against Mareshah to Gath the house of a lie, that thou mayest deceive
the kings of Israel. Lachish and Mareshah were two cities in the tribe of Judah. The
sacred history is silent why Lachish, when it was besieged, should send gifts to Gath.
Perhaps Lachish implored the help of Gath, and promised help to the people of
Gath in return, when delivered from the siege, to assist them in the taking of
Mareshah from the kings of Israel or of Judah. Therefore it is added, to deceive the
kings of Israel. See Houbigant.
ELLICOTT, "(14) Give presents—i.e., thou shalt cease to give to Moresheth-gath
the protection due from a husband to a wife: thou shalt give her a bill of divorce.
The Hebrew word means either the presents sent with a daughter or the dismissal
sent to a wife.
Achzib.—A town on the sea-coast between Accho and Tyre. Its name means false,
deceptive; it is used of a river drying up, and disappointing the traveller. In like
manner Achzib shall fulfil the import of its name, and prove a lie, a broken reed, to
the kings of Israel. (See also Jeremiah 15:18, where the prophet asks God, “Wilt
Thou be altogether unto me as a liar [Heb., Achzab], as waters that fail?”)
PETT, "Micah 1:14
‘Therefore will you give a parting gift,
To Moresheth–gath,
Moresheth-gath was probably the birth place of Micah, Moresheth is similar in
sound to the word which means ‘possession, dowry, gift’. But now the gift would be

120. a parting one, because she was going into captivity. This must have been an
especially bitter blow to Micah.
Micah 1:14
The houses of Achzib will be a deceitful thing,
To the kings of Israel.’
Achzib is very similar to the Hebrew word for ‘lie, deceive’. She will prove a
deceitful thing to the kings of Israel. ote the loose way in which Micah can equate
Judah with the name Israel. The writing prophets never really accepted the division
of Israel into two. They saw them as all God’s people, and would sometimes use the
names interchangeably. ‘The kings of Israel’ might indicate the petty kings of cities
who were organising the resistance.
But Achzib will prove unreliable, a deceitful thing. She will surrender to
Sennacherib and fight her own people. Compare Zaanan above. Judah were divided
as to whether to resist or yield. Why should they suffer to defend a king hidden in
his mountain fastness?
PULPIT, "Micah 1:14
Therefore. Because Judah has adopted the evil practices of Israel. The prophet here
addresses Judah, and continues to do so to the end of the chapter. Shalt thou give
presents to Moreshsth-Gath. The "presents" intended are parting gifts, farewell
presents. The word is used (1 Kings 9:16) for the dowry given to a daughter when
she is married. The meaning, therefore, is that Judah must relinquish all claim to
Moresheth. The paronomasia is explained in two ways. As Moresheth may mean
"possession," the prophet may be understood to say, "Thou shalt give up possession
of Gath's possession." Or the play of words may depend upon the similarity of
sound between Moresheth and Meorasah, "Betrothed" (Deuteronomy 22:29),
"Thou shalt give dismissal (bill of divorcement) to the city once betrothed to thee."
Moresheth-Gath, Micah's birthplace, is placed just south of Beit Jibrin, or
Eleutheropolis, about twenty-five miles from Gaza (see Introduction, § II.). The
addition of Gath to the name of the town is meant to mark its situation in the
immediate neighbourhood of that well known city. So we have Bethlehem-Judah (
17:7), Abel-Maim or Maachah (1 Kings 15:20; 2 Chronicles 16:4). Septuagint, δώσει
ἐξαποστελλοµένους ἕως κληρονοµίας γέο, "He shall cause men to be sent forth even
to the inheritance of Geth;" Vulgate, Dabit emissarios super heredidatem Geth. To
give shilluchim the sense of "messengers" seems to be unprecedented. The houses of
Achzib shall be a lie (achzab), a lying, deceiving brook, which disappoints the hope
of the wayfarer, like "fundus mendax" (Horat; 'Carm.,' 3.1. 30). Septuagint, οἴκους
µαταίους, "vain houses;" Vulgate, domus mendacii. The city shall be yielded to the
enemy and lost to the Judaeans. Achzib (Joshua 15:44), hod. Ain Kezbeh, eight
miles north of Adullam, is probably the same as Chezib (Genesis 38:5), where
Shelah, Judah's son by Tamar, was born. The kings of Israel. "Israel" is here

121. equivalent to Judah, having, according to the prediction of verses 6, 7, lost its
political existence.
15
I will bring a conqueror against you who live in
Mareshah. [10] He who is the glory of Israel will
come to Adullam.
BAR ES. "Yet will I bring an heir - (the heir, him whom God had appointed to be
the heir, Sennacherib) unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah Mareshah, (as the original
form of its name denotes, lay on the summit of a hill. “Its ruins only were still seen,” in
the time of Eusebius and Jerome, “in the second mile from Eleutheropolis”
(Onomasticon). : “Foundations still remain on the south-eastern part of the remarkable
Tell, south of Beth-Jibrin.” Rehoboam fortified it also 2Ch_11:8. Zerah the Aethiopian
had come to (2Ch_14:9 ff) it, probably to besiege it, when Asa met him, and God smote
the AEthiopians before him, in the valley of Zephathah thereat. In the wars of the
Maccabees, it was in the hands of the Edomites . Its capture and that of Adora are
mentioned as the last act of the war, before the Edomites submitted to John Hyrcanus,
and were incorporated in Israel. It was a powerful city , when the Parthians took it. As
Micah writes the name, it looked nearer to the word “inheritance.” Mareshah
(inheritance) shall yet have the heir of God’s appointment, the enemy. It shall not inherit
the land, as promised to the faithful, but shall itself be inherited, its people dispossessed.
While it, (and so also the soul now) held fast to God, they were the heritage of the Lord,
by His gifts and grace; when, of their own free-will, those, once God’s heritage, become
slaves of sin, they passed and still pass, against their will, into the possession of another
master, the Assyrian or Satan.
He (that is, the heir, the enemy) shall come unto Adullam, the glory of
Israel - . that is, he who shall dispossess Mareshah, shall come quite unto Adullam,
where, as in a place of safety, the glory of Israel, all in which she gloried, should be laid
up. Adullum was a very ancient city, being mentioned in the history of the patriarch
Judah Gen_38:1, Gen_38:12, Gen_38:20, a royal city Jos_12:15. It too lay in the
Shephelah Jos_15:35; it was said to be 10 (Eusebius) or 12 (Jerome) miles East of
Eleutheropolis; but for this, there seems to be scarcely place in the Shephelah. It was one
of the 15 cities fortified by Rehoboam 2Ch_11:7; one of the 16 towns, in which (with their

122. dependent villages) Judah settled after the captivity Neh_11:30. It contained the whole
army of Judas Maccabaeus (1 Macc. 12:38).
Like Lachish, it had probably the double advantages of the neighborhood of the hills
and of the plain, seated perhaps at the roots of the hills, since near it doubtless was the
large cave of Adullam named from it. The line of caves, fit for human habitation, which
extended from Eleutheropolis to Petra , began westward of it. : “The valley which runs
up from Eleutheropolis Eastward, is full of large caves; some would hold thousands of
men. They are very extensive, and some of them had evidently been inhabited.” : “The
outer chamber of one cavern was 270 feet long by 126 wide; and behind this were
recesses and galleries, probably leading to other chambers which we could not explore.
The massive roof was supported by misshaped pieces of the native limestone left for that
purpose, and at some places was domed quite through to the surface, admitting both
light and air by the roof.” The name of Adullam suggested the memory of that cave, the
refuge of the Patriarch David, the first of their line of kings, in extreme isolation and
peril of his life. There, the refuge now of the remaining glory of Israel, its wealth, its
trust, its boast - the foe should come. And so there only remained one common dirge for
all.
CLARKE, "Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O - Mareshah - Here is another
instance, ‫הירש‬ haigeresh, to bring an heir, and ‫מרשה‬ mareshah, the city, the name of which
signifies heirship. And so of the above proper names.
Adullam the glory of Israel - This was a fenced city in the south of Judah (see
2Ch_11:7) towards the Dead Sea.
There is much obscurity in the concluding verses of this chapter. They undoubtedly
refer to the captivity of Israel, and to circumstances of distress, etc., which are not
mentioned in any of the historical books, and therefore their reference and meaning can
only be conjectured.
GILL, "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. There is a beautiful allusion in the word
"heir" to Mareshah (s), which signifies an "inheritance"; and here were an "heir" or heirs
for it, as the Targum; not the Persians, as some in Aben Ezra, and in an Agadah
mentioned by Jarchi, who descended from Elam the firstborn of Shem; and so had a
right of inheritance, as those interpreters suppose; but the king of Assyria, who should
invade the land, and seize upon this place among others, and possess it, as if it was his
by right of inheritance, having obtained it by conquest: and this being by the permission
and according to the will of God, he is said to be brought by him to it. Capellus thinks, on
the contrary, that Hezekiah and his posterity are meant:
he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel; another city in the tribe of Judah,
a royal one, Jos_15:35; said by Jerom to be in his time no small village, and to be about
ten miles from Eleutheropolis; called the "glory of Israel", having been a royal city in

123. Joshua's time, Jos_12:15; and a fenced city in the times of Rehoboam, 2Ch_11:7; and
Eusebius says it was a large town; and Jerom says it was not a small one in his time;
though some think Jerusalem is meant, the metropolis of the nation, Israel being put for
Judah, as in Mic_1:14; and to be read, "he that is the enemy and heir shall come to
Adullam, yea, to the glory of Israel" (t); even to Jerusalem, the most glorious city in all
the tribes; though others are of opinion that this is the character of the enemy or heir
that should come thither, called so by way of contradiction, as coming to the reproach
and disgrace of Israel; or, ironically, whom Israel before gloried in, when they had
recourse to him for help. The margin of our Bible reads, "the glory of Israel shall come to
Adullam"; that is, the great men, the princes and heads of the people, shall flee to the
cave of Adullam (u), to hide them from the enemy, where David was hid from Saul; see
1Sa_22:1. Burkius (w), a very late commentator, takes Adullam for an appellative, and
with Hillerus (x) renders it, "the perpetuity of the yoke"; and the whole thus, "at the
perpetuity of the yoke, the glory of Israel shall come"; that is, when all things shall seem
to tend to this, that the yoke once laid on Israel by the Gentiles shall become perpetual,
without any hope of deliverance, then shall come the Deliverer, that is, Jesus, the Glory
of Israel; and, adds he, God forbid we should think of any other subject here; and so he
interprets the "heir" in the preceding clause of the Messiah; and which is a sense far
from being despicable.
JAMISO , "Yet will I bring an heir unto thee — rather, “the heir.” As thou art
now occupied by possessors who expelled the former inhabitants, so will I bring “yet”
again the new possessor, namely, the Assyrian foe. 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. Maurer, as the Margin, translates,
“the glory of Israel” (her chief citizens: answering to “thy delicate children,” Mic_1:16)
“shall come in flight to Adullam.” English Version better preserves the parallelism, “the
heir” in the first clause answering to “he” in the second.
CALVI , "The Prophet here threatens his own birth place, as he had done other
cities; for, as we have stated, he sprung from this city. He does not now spare his
own kindred: for as God is no respecter of persons, so also God’s servants ought, as
with closed eyes, to deal impartially with all, so as not to be turned here and there
either by favor or by hatred, but to follows without any change, whatever the Lord
commands them. We see that Micah was endued with this spirit, for he reproved his
own kindred, as he had hitherto reproved others.
There is a peculiar meaning in the word, Mareshah, for it is derived from ‫,ירש‬ iresh,
and it means possession. The Prophet now says, I will send to thee ‫הורש‬ , euresh, a
possessor; the word is from the same root. (75) ] But he means that the Morasthites
would come into the power of their enemies no less than their neighbors, of whom he
had spoken before. He says, to Adullam This was also a city in the tribe of Judah, as
it is well known. But some would have “enemy” to be here understood and they put
‫,כבוד‬ cabud, in the genitive case: The enemy of the glory of Israel shall come to
Adullam; but this is strained. Others understand the passage thus that the glory of
Israel would come to disgrace; for Adullam, we know, was a cave. Since then it an

124. obscure place, the Prophet here, as they think, declares that the whole glory of Israel
would be covered with dishonor, because the dignity and wealth, in which they
gloried would lose their pristine fixate, so that they would differ nothing from an
ignoble cave. If any approve of this meaning, I will not oppose them. Yet others
think that the Prophet speaks ironically and that the Assyrian is thus called because
the whole glory and dignity of Israel would by him be taken away. But there is no
need of confining this to enemies; we may then take a simpler view, and yet regard
the expression as ironical, — that the glory, that is, the disgrace or the devastation
of Israel, would come to Adullam. But what if we read it, in apposition, He shall
come to Adullam, the glory of Israel? For Adullam was not obscure, as those
interpreters imagine, whom I have mentioned, but it is named among the most
celebrated cities after the return and restoration of the people. When, therefore, the
whole country was laid waste, this city, with a few others, remained, as we read in
the ehemiah 11:0. It might then be, that the Prophet called Adullam the glory of
Israel; for it was situated in a safe place, and the inhabitants thought that they were
fortified by a strong defense, and thus were not open to the violence of enemies. This
meaning also may be probable; but still, as the glory of Israel may be taken
ironically for calamity or reproach if any one approves more of this interpretation,
it may be followed. I am, however, inclined to another, — that the Prophet say, that
the enemy would come to Adullam, which was the glory of Israel, (76) because that
city was as it were in the recesses of Judea, so that an access to it by enemies was
difficult. It may be also that some may think, that the recollection of its ancient
history is here revived; for David concealed himself in its cave, and had it as his
fortress. The place no doubt had, from that time, attained some fame; then this
celebrity, as I have said, may be alluded to, when Adullam is said to be the glory of
Israel. It follows —
Εως Οδαλαµ ἤξει την δοξην Ισραηλ, Symmachus. At the same time, the most
obvious and natural construction of the clause is the following, though its meaning is
obscure; To Adullam shall come the glory of Israel. — Ed.
COFFMA , "Verse 15
"I will yet bring unto thee, O inhabitant of Moreshah, him that shall possess thee:
the glory of Israel shall come even unto Abdullum."
"I will bring unto thee ..." This meant that God would bring the conqueror to
Moresheh, another of the numerous towns which were in this passage objects of
Micah's prophecy.
"The glory of Israel shall come even unto Abdullum ..." Abdullum was a name
associated with the days of the distress of king David, in the times when, "David was
an outlaw in hiding (in the cave of Abdullum) to save his life from king Saul, and
when his army was a ragtag company of malcontents (1 Samuel 22:1f)."[39] Of
course, Israel was fond of glorying in the days of David's greatness and glory; but
here the prophet was saying, "It's back to the cave of Abdullum for Israel's glory!"
"Abdullum was noted for its caves."[40]

125. COKE, "Verse 15
Micah 1:15. Yet will I bring an heir unto thee— Till I shall send unto thee that heir,
who inhabiteth Mareshah; till the glory of Israel shall come even to Adullam: that is
to say, "Till I shall send those citizens of Mareshah, whom thou "wouldst sell to the
people of Gath, to possess thy walls, "after the army of the Assyrians shall be
dispersed, and "after the glory of Israel shall come even to Adullam; "or, shall
extend its boundaries to Adullam;" a city in the southern part of the tribe of Judah
towards the Dead Sea. This interpretation is favoured by what follows; in which it is
foretold, that the inhabitants of Lachish shall be carried into captivity. See
Houbigant. It must be acknowledged that there is great difficulty in the conclusion
of this chapter.
REFLECTIO S.—1st, Micah, or Micaiah, the author of this prophesy, was a
Morasthite, so named from the place of his nativity. He lived under the best and
worst of Judah's princes, and in all times of prosperity or adversity faithfully
declared the word which God gave him concerning Samaria and Jerusalem, the
capitals of the two kingdoms, the judgments which were ready to light upon them
being the great burden of this prophesy.
1. A solemn call is given to pay deep attention to the word about to be delivered.
Hear, all ye people of Judah and Israel; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is; if
the former refuse to listen, the very inanimate earth, trembling before the Lord,
shall condemn their insensibility and hardness of heart: and let the Lord God be
witness against you, if ye disregard or despise these warnings, that I have faithfully
delivered my message, and that your blood is on your own heads; even the Lord
from his holy temple in heaven, whence he beholds the inhabitants of the world, and
sends down thence his judgments on those who are disobedient to his word. ote;
They who turn a deaf ear to the admonitions of God's ministers, shall shortly be
terribly convinced by experience of the threatenings which they would not believe.
2. The desolating judgments of God are foretold, which were ready to overtake
them. The Lord clothed with vengeance descends to destroy them: under his feet
their strongest fortresses are trod into the dust, and the high places of their idols
demolished. Their princes and great men, with all their lofty looks, are brought low,
and the valleys cleft, the lowest of the people sharing in the general calamity; and all
unable to resist his arm, as wax melts before the fire, or to bear up against his
judgments, which as a torrent spread desolation on every side. Samaria, the capital,
shall then be laid in ruins, and be made as the furrows of the field, razed from the
foundations, and scarcely one stone left upon another; which, as Josephus relates,
was fully accomplished by Hircanus. ote; When God arises to judgment, no place
can protect the guilty.
3. The cause of all their miseries is their sin; and if it be asked, What is the
transgression of Jacob? the crime peculiarly provoking; Is it not Samaria? the calf,
and the idolatry there committed? See Hosea 8:5. And what are the high places of

126. Judah? are they not Jerusalem? set up there with most impious effrontery against
God's temple; yea, in the very courts of the sanctuary an altar is reared to idols, 2
Kings 16:10-18. ote; (1.) Sin is at the bottom of all suffering. (2.) Great cities and
persons, whose bad conduct and example spread the contagion of iniquity, shall be
first and deepest in punishment.
4. The demolition of their idols, as well as themselves, is threatened. They shall be
broken in pieces by the Assyrians, and made utterly desolate. Such as were not
worth carrying away for a spoil, shall be stripped of their ornaments, and left as
naked logs; and all the hires thereof shall be burnt with the fire; their palaces and
substance, which they esteemed the gifts of their idols, and the hire of their idolatry:
thus what they gathered of the hire of an harlot, shall return to the hire of an harlot;
be given to their idolatrous enemies, who would regard the spoil as the reward sent
by their gods, and spend it in their service. Or the sense may be, that their wealth,
which was as ill-gotten as the money earned by prostitution, would be, like it, under
the curse of God, and quickly consumed. ote; The wages got by sin will be ever
earned with a curse, and such gain cannot prosper.
2nd, We have,
1. The prophet deeply lamenting the desolations that he beheld approaching;
wailing as a dragon, and mourning as an owl, because the wound is incurable, the
decree being gone forth against Israel, and their impenitence determinately
obstinate; and now the Assyrian army is at the very gate of Jerusalem. ote; The
holy prophets are themselves deeply afflicted at the view of the threatenings which
they are obliged to declare; and, so far from taking a delight in these sad messages
of woe, they weep over sinners, while they warn them.
2. Other cities are called upon to join the prophet's mourning, but withal are
admonished not to declare it at Gath, nor weep so as to let the Philistines see their
grief, who would triumph with malicious pleasure in their calamities. In silent grief
they are commanded to roll themselves in the dust, in the house of Aphrah, the
house of dust, all their cities being reduced to ruinous heaps. The inhabitant of
Saphir, once, as the name imports, fair and beautiful, must now go naked into
captivity, stripped of all their wealth and riches. The inhabitant of Zaanan, once
numerous as a flock, came not forth in the mourning of Beth-ezel, to condole with
her, or to help her, being too much engaged with their own miseries; for he shall
receive of you his standing; the enemy encamping near them, and making them pay
dear for the resistance that their city made against him. The inhabitant of Maroth
waited carefully for good, hoping at last to see some stop put to the ravages of the
Assyrians; but were quite in despair, when the evil came down from the Lord unto
the gate of Jerusalem, and they beheld the enemy preparing to besiege it. Lachish is
now bid to flee, or rather ironically her attempts to do so are derided, she being
doomed with the rest to captivity. She is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of
Zion: lying contiguous to Israel, this city became first infected; and the idolatry
which the inhabitants had learned spread through the land of Judah; and therefore,
as ringleaders in sin, they justly deserve severest judgment, the iniquities of the land

127. lying chiefly at their door. In vain by presents would they court the Philistines of
Moresheth-gath to assist them; though they promised them fair, they would fail
them in the day of trial. The houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel, as
the name Achzib signifies. Mareshah also shall be a prey; God will bring an heir to
her, one who should seize the country, as if it were his by inheritance. He shall come
unto Adullam the glory of Israel; shall seize this fortress on which they trusted; or
even to the glory of Israel, to Jerusalem itself. Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy
delicate children; which seems addressed to the land in general: enlarge thy
baldness as the eagle; shew every expressive sign of woe; for they are gone into
captivity from thee; the prophet speaks of it as already done, because God had
determined it.
ELLICOTT, "(15) Yet will I bring an heir.—Rather, the possessor, one who shall
take it by force—i.e., Sennacherib.
Mareshah was a city in the plain of Judah, near the prophet’s native place,
Moresheth-gath. It was fortified by Rehoboam, and became the scene of Asa’s
victory over the immense host of Zerah the Ethiopian. Dr. Robinson is of opinion
that after its destruction the town of Eleutheropolis was built out of its materials.
Adullam the glory of Israel.—Adullam, in the neighbourhood of Mareshah, was
situated at the base of the hills, and gave its name to the famous cave in which David
took refuge. Joshua mentions a king of Adullam in the list of those conquered by the
Israelites. This, now the last refuge of the glory of Israel, shall be seized by the
invader.
PETT, "Micah 1:15
‘I will yet bring to you,
O inhabitant of Mareshah,
Him who will possess you,
The glory of Israel will come even to Adullam.’
Mareshah is similar to the word meaning ‘possession’. But the possessor is now
about to become the possessed, and her inhabitants will flee with what wealth they
can carry for refuge in the cave of Adullam. This is all that remains of the ‘glory of
Israel’. For this use of the word ‘glory’ as signifying prosperity compare Isaiah
17:1-3.
PULPIT, "Micah 1:15
Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah. "Mareshah" sounds

128. like Morashah, the Hebrew word for "inheritance;" so the play is, "I will bring an
inheritor who shall claim your Heritage town." The "heir" is the Assyrian king,
Sargon, into whose possession the city shall pass. Mareshah (Joshua 15:44; 2
Chronicles 14:9) was near Achzib, one mile southcast of Beit Jibrin, and is now
called Mer'ash. He shall come, etc.; better, the glory of Israel shall come to Adullam;
i.e. the nobility (comp. Isaiah 5:13) of Israel shall fly for refuge to such places as the
cave of Adullam, David's asylum (1 Samuel 22:1, 1 Samuel 22:2). So the Vulgate.
The LXX. has, κληρονοµία ἓως ὀδυλλὰµ ἥξει ἡ δόξα τῆς θυγατρὸς ἰσραήλ "The
inheritance shall come to Odullam, even the glory of the daughter of Israel." But
Rosenmuller, Henderson, Pusey, and others take the sentence as in the Authorized
Version, making "the glory of Israel" in apposition with "Adullam," and
understanding by "he" the heir or enemy. One knows no reason why Aduliam
should be honoured with the above-named title; so the rendering given above is
preferable. There is probably a paronomasia intended, "The glory of the Lord shall
set (ad olam) forever." The city of Adullam, hod. Aid-el-Mah, lay in the valley of
Elah, ten miles northwest of Hebron, halfway between Sochoh and Keilah. It was of
great antiquity, being mentioned as the birthplace of Hirah, the friend of Judah
(Genesis 38:12), and one of the cities fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:7). In
its neighbourhood is the celebrated cave, Mugha et Khureitun, which is pointed out
as the traditional hold of David, and which has been carefully explored by Mr.
Tyrwhitt Drake, of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
16
Shave your heads in mourning for the children in
whom you delight; make yourselves as bald as the
vulture, for they will go from you into exile.
BAR ES. "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

129. 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. 77.) partaking of
the character of both, (‫רהם‬ Lev_11:18; Deu_14:17 together with the falcon (‫דאה‬ Lev_11:14
and hawk, with its subordinate species, (‫למינהו‬ ‫)נץ‬ Lev_11:18; Deu_14:15.), although
mostly used of the Eagle itself, might here comprehend the Vulture . For entire baldness
is so marked a feature in the vulture, whereas the “bald-headed Eagle” was probably not
a bird of Palestine . On the other hand, David, who lived so long among the rocks of
Palestine, and Isaiah seem to have known of effects of moulting upon the Eagle in
producing, (although in a less degree than in other birds,) a temporary diminution of
strength, which have not in modern times been commonly observed.
For David says, “Thou shalt renew, like the eagle, thy youth, which speaks of fresh
strength after temporary weakness” Psa_103:5; and Isaiah, “They that trust in the Lord
shall put forth fresh strength; they shall put forth pinion-feathers like eagles” Isa_40:31,
comparing the fresh strength which should succeed to that which was gone, to the
eagle’s recovering its strong pinion-feathers. Bochart however says unhesitatingly , “At
the beginning of spring, the rapacious birds are subject to shedding of their feathers
which we call moulting.” If this be so, the comparison is yet more vivid, For the baldness
of the vulture belongs to its matured strength, and could only be an external likeness.
The moulting of the eagle involves some degree of weakness, with which he compares
Judah’s mournful and weak condition amid the loss of their children, gone into captivity
.
Thus closes the first general portion of the prophecy. The people had east aside its
own Glory, God; now its sons, its pride and its trust, shall go away from it.
Lap.: “The eagle, laying aside its old feathers and taking new, is a symbol of penitence
and of the penitents who lay aside their former evil habits, and become other and new
men. True, but rare form of penitence!” Gregory the Great thus applies this to the siege
of Rome by the Lombards. : “That happened to her which we know to have been foretold
of Judea by the prophet, enlarge thy 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 her mighty men,
through whom she plundered others, perished. But this which we speak of, the breaking
to pieces of the city of Rome, we know has been done in all the cities of the world. Some
were desolated by pestilence, others devoured by the sword, others racked by famine,
others swallowed by earthquakes. Despise we them with our whole heart, at least, when
brought to nought; at least with the end of the world, let us end our eagerness after the

130. world. Follow we, wherein we can, the deeds of the good.” One whose commentaries
Jerome had read, thus applies this verse to the whole human race. “O soul of man! O
city, once the mother of saints, which wast formerly in Paradise, and didst enjoy the
delights of different trees, and wast adorned most beautifully, now being east down from
thy place aloft, and brought down unto Babylon, and come into a place of captivity, and
having lost thy glory, make thee bald and take the habit of a penitent; and thou who
didst fly aloft like an eagle, mourn thy sons, thy offspring, which from thee is led
captive.”
CLARKE, "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.
They are gone into captivity - This is a prediction of the captivity by Shalmaneser.
Samaria, the chief city, is called on to deplore it, as then fast approaching.
GILL, "Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children,.... Which is
said, either with respect to Mareshah, or to Adullam, or to the whole land, as Kimchi
observes; rather to the latter; and that either to Israel, or to Judah, or both; the
prophecy in general being concerning them both, Mic_1:1; making baldness, whether by
plucking off the hair, or by shaving it, was used in token of mourning, Job_1:20; and so
it is designed to express it here: the inhabitants of the land are called to lamentation and
weeping for their children taken from them, whom they dearly loved, and brought up in
a delicate manner. The Targum is,
"pluck off thy hair, and cast it upon the children of thy delight;''
and Sanctius observes; that it was a custom with the Gentiles to cut off their hair, and
cast it into the graves of their kindred and friends at their interment, to which be thinks
the prophet alludes:
enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; when it moults, and cast off all its feathers, as it
does in old age, and so renews its youth; to which the allusion seems to be in Psa_103:5;
or every year, as birds of prey usually do at the beginning of the spring. The Jewish
writers (y) say this happens to it every ten years; when, finding its feathers heavy and
unfit for flying, it makes a tour to the sun with all its force it can, to get as near it as
possible; and, having heated its plumage excessively, it casts itself into the sea for
cooling, and then its feathers fall off, and new ones succeed; and this it does until it is a
hundred years old; and to its then state of baldness, while it is moulting, is the allusion
here; unless it can be thought any respect is had to that kind of eagle which is called the
bald one. In Virginia (z) there are three sorts of eagles; one is the grey eagle, about the
size of a kite; another the black eagle, resembling those in England; and a third the bald
eagle, so called because the upper part of the neck and head are covered with a sort of
white down: but the former sort of baldness seems to be intended, which is at certain

131. stated times, and not what always is, and is only partial; for it denotes such an universal
baldness to be made, as to take in all the parts of the body where any hair grows; as
expressive of the general devastation that should be made, which would be the cause of
this great mourning:
for they are gone into captivity from thee; that is, the delicate children of Israel
and Judah, and so were as dead unto them, or worse: this was accomplished in Israel or
the ten tribes, partly by Tiglathpileser, and more completely by Shalmaneser, king of
Assyria, 2Ki_15:29; and in Judah or the two tribes, when Sennacherib came and took
their fenced cities; and doubtless some of the inhabitants and their children were carried
captive by him, though not Jerusalem; and therefore cannot be addressed here, as some
do interpret the words, unless the prophecy is to be extended to the destruction of
Jerusalem by the Babylonians.
JAMISO , "Make thee bald, etc. — a token of deep mourning (Ezr_9:3; Job_
1:20). 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 molting season all
eagles are comparatively bald (compare Psa_103:5).
CALVI , "The Prophet at length concludes that nothing remained for the people
but lamentation; for the Lord had resolved to desolate and destroy the whole
country. ow they were wont in mourning, as we have seen in other places, to shave
and even tear off their hair: and some think that the verb ‫,קרחי‬ korechi, implies as
much as though the Prophet said “Pluck, tear, pull off your hair.” When afterwards
he adds ‫,רגזי‬ regizi, they refer it to shavings which is done by a razor. However this
may be, the Prophet here means that the condition of the people would be so
calamitous that nothing would be seen anywhere but mourning.
Make bald, he says, for the children of thy delicacies (77) The Prophet here
indirectly upbraids those perverse men, who after so many warnings had not
repented, with the neglect of God’s forbearance: for whence did those delicacies
proceed, except from the extreme kindness of God in long sparing the Israelites,
notwithstanding their disobedience? The Prophet then shows here that they had
very long abused the patience of God, while they each immersed themselves in their
delicacies. ow, he says, Enlarge thy baldness as the eagle Eagles are wont to cast
off their feathers; and hence he compares here bald men to eagles, as though he
called them, Hairless. As then the eagles are for a certain time without feathers until
they recover them; so also you shall be hairless, even on account of your mourning.
He says, For they have migrated from thee He intimates that the Israelites would
become exiles, that the land might remain desolate.
BE SO , "Micah 1:16. Make thee bald — O Judah and Israel, tear off thy hair;
and poll thee — Shave what thou canst not tear off; for thy delicate children, &c. —
For the loss of them, some being slain, others starved or swept away by pestilence,

132. and the residue carried into captivity. Cutting the hair, or shaving it close, were
expressions of mourning and lamentation anciently used among most nations.
Enlarge thy baldness as the eagle — When she moults her feathers; for they are
gone into captivity, &c. — By these phrases the prophet signifies, that the calamity
would be so great as to deserve the strongest expressions of grief.
COFFMA , "Verse 16
"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."
This chapter has the prophecy "concerning Samaria and Jerusalem" (Micah
1:1,5,9,12); and it is incorrect to view the prophecies as separated in time by any
lengthy period. The judgment of Samaria and Jerusalem was one judgment,
although executed at different times. Samaria fell completely in 722 B.C. to Sargon
of Assyria; the cities and towns in the vicinity of Jerusalem fell to Sennacherib of
Assyria in 701 B.C.; and Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 586 B.C. It was only
upon that latter occasion that the citizens of Jerusalem were carried into captivity,
exactly the same fate that the Assyrians had imposed upon the area towns in 701
B.C. We believe that all of these events were prophesied in this chapter, perhaps as
early as 740 B.C., during the reign of Jotham, long before any of them had occurred.
It is ridiculous, the manner in which the scissors and paste scholars have cut the
chapter up to make all of the prophecies "declarations after the fact." Had that
been true, no one would ever have paid the slightest attention to this book of Micah.
The very preservation of it for more than two and one half millenniums of time
authenticates it as a true prophecy.
"Make thee bald ..." "Artificial baldness was a sign of mourning (Leviticus 19:27;
Deuteronomy 14:1). The eagle (mentioned here) was probably the griffon
vulture."[41]
"They are gone into captivity from thee ..." We are in full agreement with Deane,
that:
"This cannot refer exclusively to the Assyrian invasion ... but must look forward to
the Babylonian deportation in Micah 4:10. The latter calamity alone is parallel to
the destruction of Samaria announced in Micah 1:6-7."[42]
Archer also discerned the necessary application of this prophecy of captivity to the
event of 586 B.C.:
"The exile here foretold is more likely to be the Babylonian (Micah 4:10) than the
Assyrian (which involved only the provinces and not Jerusalem itself). It is possible
that both invasions (701,586 B.C.) are in view."[43]
The whole chapter is a dirge of unappeasable sorrow because the nation had
forsaken him who would have blessed them so richly had they walked in his ways.
May there be in us a different spirit! Otherwise we too must learn in bitterness of
soul the folly of departure from the living God.[44] That this chapter deals with
genuine predictive prophecy, the accurate foretelling of events in advance of their

133. occurrence, is unquestionable. That is the only reason why the book was written, the
only possible reason why it was preserved, and the only excuse whatever for its
being in the Hebrew canon. To suppose otherwise is to suppose that the seventy-five
generations of mankind who preserved it and handed it down to us were simpletons.
ot only are such basic assumptions valid, the details of the prophecy are such that
they could not possibly have been produced after the events: the mingling of events
to be fulfilled in the times of Sargon II (722 B.C.), Sennacherib (701 B.C.), and
ebuchadnezzar (586 B.C.), the fantastic behavior of the prophet himself in the
lament, screaming like a jackal, rolling in the dust, etc. It is simply unbelievable that
any man, much less a prophet of God, would have celebrated a past historical event
in any such manner. Yes, this chapter is one of the greatest prophetic achievements
of all time.
ELLICOTT, "(16) Make thee bald.—Joel appeals to the land of Judah to go into
deep mourning by reason of the loss of her children, slain in war or carried into
captivity. The shaving of the head as a token of grief was common amongst Eastern
nations, and is distinct from the idolatrous custom of cutting the hair in a peculiar
shape denounced by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 9:26, margin), and forbidden by the
Jewish Law (Leviticus 19:27-28).
As the eagle.—The Hebrew name for eagle includes the different kinds of vultures.
Entire baldness is a marked feature of the vulture.
The terms in which Joel speaks of the entire desolation of the cities of Judah must
refer to a more complete calamity than that inflicted by Sennacherib; they rather
suit the period of the Babylonian captivity.
CO STABLE, "Micah called on the Judeans to cut their hair very short as a sign of
sorrow over the departure of their children (perhaps the nobles) into exile. The
eagle appeared to be bald because its head was white.
"This section ( Micah 1:10-16) begins with words that recall David"s lament at the
death of Saul and ends with the name of the cave where David hid from Saul. These
dark moments in David"s life form a gloomy backdrop to the description of the fall
of the towns Micah spoke of. Though he is never directly mentioned, the figure of
David appears hauntingly in the tapestry of destruction-not a David standing tall in
triumph, but a David bowed down by humiliation. It is as if Micah saw in the fall of
each town and the eventual captivity of the two kingdoms the final dissolution of the
Davidic monarchy. Like David, the glory of Israel would come to Adullam." [ ote:
McComiskey, p408.]
PETT, "Micah 1:16
‘Make yourself bald, and cut off your hair,
For the children of your pampering,

134. Enlarge your baldness as the carrion vulture,
For they are gone into captivity from you.’
The whole picture is one of defeat and misery. And so the daughter of Zion, waiting
in her mountain stronghold for when it is her turn, is called on to make herself bald
and cut off her hair, an extreme form of registering despair. And she it to do it for
the sake of her pampered children who are now pampered no more. She is to make
herself bald as an expression of having lost everything. The hair was seen as
indicating life and vitality. But now all life and vitality will have left her because her
children have been taken into captivity.
The picture behind these verses is a depressing one. The cruel soldiers of Assyria
remorselessly advancing, the cities take one by one after bitter but hopeless
resistance, with large numbers put in chains, trudging barefoot and only half
clothed in long weary lines, mile after mile, urged on by the whips of their captors,
with people dying by the wayside, others seeking to assist their aged relatives lest
they too be left to die, and with little to look forward to. These were the exiles of
Judah long before the destruction of Jerusalem. Eventually, however, those who
survived would be resettled in other lands so that they could labour and pay taxes,
and form a community, or would be lost among the nations.
And all this has been brought on them because they had forgotten God’s covenant
and had turned to idolatry and sin. Something of that sin will now be described in
the following verses.
PULPIT, "Micah 1:16
§ 5. The prophet calls upon Zion to mourn for her captivity. Make thee bald. The
Hebrew word implies "to make the back of the head bald." Micah addressee Zion as
the mother of the children who are to be led into captivity. Shaving the head in sign
of mourning seems to have been retained as a traditionary custom in spite of the
prohibition of the Law against certain forms which the practice assumed (see Le
19:27; Deuteronomy 14:1; and for the actual custom, comp. Isaiah 3:24; Jeremiah
7:29; and the note on Amos 8:10). Poll thee. Cut off thy hair, nearly synonymous
with the word in the former clause. Thy delicate children; literally, the children of
thy delights; i.e. the children who are a joy and comfort to thee, the citizens of thy
kingdom (comp. Micah 2:9). As the eagle (nesher). The vulture is meant, either
Vultur percnopterus, common in Egypt and Palestine, which is bald on the front of
the head and neck, or more probably Vultur fulvus, the griffon vulture, whose
whole head and neck are destitute of true feathers (see 'Bible Educator,' 2:247). Into
captivity. This cannot refer exclusively to the Assyrian invasion, wherein very few
captives were taken, but must look forward to the Babylonian deportation in Micah
4:10. The latter calamity alone is parallel to the destruction of Samaria announced
in Micah 4:6, Micah 4:7 of this chapter.