Micah 1

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.

2 Hear, you peoples, all of you, listen, earth and all who live in it, that the Sovereign LORD may bear witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

Judgment Against Samaria and Jerusalem

3 Look! The LORD is coming from his dwelling place; he comes down and treads on the heights of the earth.

4 The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.

5 All this is because of Jacob’s transgression, because of the sins of the people of Israel. What is Jacob’s transgression? Is it not Samaria? What is Judah’s high place? Is it not Jerusalem?

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.

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.”

Weeping and Mourning

8 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.

9 For Samaria’s plague is incurable; it has spread to Judah. It has reached the very gate of my people, even to Jerusalem itself.

10 Tell it not in Gath^[a] ; weep not at all. In Beth Ophrah^[b]roll in the dust.

11 Pass by naked and in shame, you who live in Shaphir.^[c]Those who live in Zaanan^[d]will not come out. Beth Ezel is in mourning; it no longer protects you.

12 Those who live in Maroth^[e] writhe in pain, waiting for relief, because disaster has come from the LORD, even to the gate of Jerusalem.

13 You who live in Lachish, harness fast horses to the chariot. You are where the sin of Daughter Zion began, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

14 Therefore you will give parting gifts to Moresheth Gath. The town of Akzib^[f] will prove deceptive to the kings of Israel.

15 I will bring a conqueror against you who live in Mareshah.^[g]The nobles of Israel will flee to Adullam.

16 Shave your head in mourning for the children in whom you delight; make yourself as bald as the vulture, for they will go from you into exile.

Micah 1 Commentary

Chapter 1

Micah was raised up to support Isaiah, and to confirm his predictions, while he invited to repentance, both by threatened judgments and promised mercies. A very remarkable passage, Mic 5 contains a summary of prophecies concerning the Messiah.

The wrath of God against Israel. (1-7) Also against Jerusalem and other cities, Their precautions vain. (8-16)

Verses 1-7 The earth is called upon, with all that are therein, to hear the prophet. God's holy temple will not protect false professors. Neither men of high degree, as the mountains, nor men of low degree, as the valleys, can secure themselves or the land from the judgments of God. If sin be found in God's people he will not spare them; and their sins are most provoking to him, for they are most reproaching. When we feel the smart of sin, it behoves us to seek what is the sin we smart for. Persons and places most exalted, are most exposed to spiritual diseases. The vices of leaders and rulers shall be surely and sorely punished. The punishment answers the sin. What they gave to idols, never shall prosper, nor do them any good. What is got by one lust, is wasted on another.

Verses 8-16 The prophet laments that Israel's case is desperate; but declare it not in Gath. Gratify not those that make merry with the sins or with the sorrows of God's Israel. Roll thyself in the dust, as mourners used to do; let every house in Jerusalem become a house of Aphrah, "a house of dust." When God makes the house dust it becomes us to humble ourselves to the dust under his mighty hand. Many places should share this mourning. The names have meanings which pointed out the miseries coming upon them; thereby to awaken the people to a holy fear of Divine wrath. All refuges but Christ, must be refuges of lies to those who trust in them; other heirs will succeed to every inheritance but that of heaven; and all glory will be turned into shame, except that honour which cometh from God only. Sinners may now disregard their neighbours' sufferings, yet their turn to be punished will some come.

Cross References

• 1. ver 14; Jeremiah 26:18
• 2. S 1 Chronicles 3:12
• 3. S 1 Chronicles 3:13
• 4. S 1 Chronicles 3:13
• 5. Hosea 1:1
• 6. Isaiah 1:1
• 7. S Deuteronomy 32:1
• 8. Psalms 50:7
• 9. S Jeremiah 6:19
• 10. S Genesis 31:50; S Deuteronomy 4:26; S Isaiah 1:2
• 11. S Psalms 11:4
• 12. S Isaiah 18:4
• 13. S Isaiah 64:1
• 14. S Amos 4:13
• 15. S Psalms 46:2,6
• 16. S Job 9:5
• 17. S Numbers 16:31; Nahum 1:5
• 18. Amos 8:14
• 19. S Deuteronomy 20:6
• 20. S Amos 5:11
• 21. Ezekiel 13:14
• 22. S Ezekiel 6:6
• 23. S Exodus 32:20
• 24. S Deuteronomy 9:21
• 25. Deuteronomy 23:17-18
• 26. S Isaiah 15:3
• 27. S Isaiah 20:2
• 28. Jeremiah 46:11
• 29. S Jeremiah 10:19
• 30. S 2 Kings 18:13
• 31. Isaiah 3:26
• 32. Ezekiel 23:29
• 33. Jeremiah 14:19
• 34. Jeremiah 40:2
• 35. S Joshua 10:3
• 36. S Psalms 9:14
• 37. 2 Kings 16:8
• 38. S ver 1
• 39. S Joshua 15:44
• 40. Jeremiah 15:18
• 41. Joshua 15:44
• 42. S Joshua 12:15
• 43. S Leviticus 13:40; S Job 1:20
• 44. S Deuteronomy 4:27; S Amos 5:27

Footnotes

• [a]. "Gath" sounds like the Hebrew for "tell."
• [b]. "Beth Ophrah" means "house of dust."
• [c]. "Shaphir" means "pleasant."
• [d]. "Zaanan" sounds like the Hebrew for "come out."
• [e]. "Maroth" sounds like the Hebrew for "bitter."
• [f]. "Akzib" means "deception."
• [g]. "Mareshah" sounds like the Hebrew for "conqueror."

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO MICAH

This book is called, in the Hebrew copies, "Sepher Micah", the Book of Micah; in the Vulgate Latin version "the Prophecy of Micah"; and in the Syriac version "the Prophecy of the Prophet Micah". This prophet is not the same with Micaiah the son of Imiah, who lived in the times of Ahab and Jehoshaphat, 1Ki 22:8; for, as Aben Ezra observes, there were many generations between them, at least many reigns of kings, as Jehoram, Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah, and Uzziah, all which made up a hundred and thirty years; their names indeed seem to be the same, since he that is called Micaiah, 1Ki 22:8; is called Micah, 2Ch 18:14; and this our prophet is named Micaiah in Jer 26:18; which is with some of the same signification with Michael. So Abarbinel interprets, it, "who [is] as God"; see Mic 7:18; which Hillerus {a} confutes, and renders it, "the contrition, attrition, attenuation, and depauperation, of the Lord"; deriving it from Kwm, which signifies to be depressed, humbled, weakened, and impoverished, as others do; which name, some think, was given him by his parents, because of their low estate, their meanness and poverty; but of them we have no account: however, this is much more probable than the reason Cornelius a Lapide gives of his name, that he was so called because he prophesied of Christ, who was poor, and that he should be born in a poor country village. As for his country, and the place of his birth, and the time in which he lived, they may be gathered from Mic 1:1; by which it will appear that he was not of the tribe of Ephraim, as Pseudo-Epiphanius {b} says but of the tribe of Judah; whose kings' reigns in which he prophesies are only made mention of; though his prophecies concerned both Israel and Judah, and he reproves both for their sins, and foretells their various captivities; and, for the comfort of God's people, says many things concerning the Messiah, his incarnation the place of his birth, which no prophet so clearly points at as he, the execution of his offices, prophetic, priestly, and kingly; the blessings of grace that came by him, pardon of sin, atonement and the happiness and glory of his church in the latter day. The authority of this book is confirmed both by the elders of Judah in the times of Jeremiah, who quote a passage out of it; Mic 3:12; which they improve in favour of that prophet, Jer 26:17-19; and by the chief priests and Scribes in the time of Herod, who refer that prince to a prophecy in this book for the place of the Messiah's birth, Mic 5:2; see Mt 2:4-6. He is thought to have prophesied thirty or forty years, Bishop Usher {c} places him in the year of the world 3291 A.M., and 713 B.C.; but, according to Mr. Whiston {d}, he prophesied 750 B.C., and so Mr. Bedford {e}, and three after the building of the city of Rome; and he foretells the captivity of the ten tribes thirty years, and the coming of Sennacherib forty years, before they came to pass; but when and where he died, and was buried, no certain proof can be given. Pseudo-Epiphanius, confounding him with Micaiah in Ahab's time, says {f} he was killed by his son Joram, who cast him down from a precipice, and was buried at Morathi, his native place, near the burying ground of Enakeim, and his grave was well known to that day. And, according to Jerom {g}, the grave of this our prophet was at Morasthi, and in his time turned into a church or temple. Sozomen {h} reports, that, in the times of Theodosius the elder, the body of Micah was found by Zebennus bishop of Eleutheropolis at Berathsalia, a mile and a quarter from the city, near which was the grave of Micah, called by the common people the faithful monument, and in their country language Nephsameemana.

{a} Onomast. Sacr. p. 14, 466, 494, 542. {b} De Prophet. Vit. & Inter. c. 13. {c} Annales Vet. Test. A. M. 3291. {d} Chronological Tables, cent. 8. {e} Scripture Chronology, p. 662. {f} De Prophet. Vit. & Inter. c. 13. {g} Epitaph. Paulae, tom. 1. operum, fol. 60. A. B. {h} Histor. Eccles. l. 7. c. 29.

\\INTRODUCTION TO MICAH 1\\

This chapter treats of the judgments of God on Israel and Judah for their idolatry. It begins with the title of the whole book in which is given an account of the prophet, the time of his prophesying, and of the persons against whom he prophesied, Mic 1:1; next a preface to this chapter, requiring attention to what was about to be delivered, urged from the consideration of the awful appearance of God, which is represented as very grand and terrible, Mic 1:2-4; the cause of all which wrath that appeared in him was the transgression of Jacob; particularly their idolatry, as appears by the special mention of their idols and graven images in the account of their destruction, Mic 1:5-7; which destruction is exaggerated by the prophet's lamentation for it, Mic 1:8,9; and by the mourning of the inhabitants of the several places that should be involved in it, which are particularly mentioned, Mic 1:10-16.