Micah 1:4

4 The mountains will melt under him and the valleys will burst open, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.

Micah 1:4 Meaning and Commentary

Micah 1:4

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: 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 ( Psalms 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.

Micah 1:4 In-Context

2 Hear, all you peoples; give heed, O earth and its fullness. And let the Lord Yahweh be against you as a witness, the Lord from {his holy temple}.

3 For behold, Yahweh is coming out from his place, and he will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.

4 The mountains will melt under him and the valleys will burst open, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.

5 All this [is] for the rebellion of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What [is] the rebellion of Jacob? [Is it] not Samaria? And what [are] the high places of Judah? [Are they] not Jerusalem?

6 So I will make Samaria as a heap of rubble in the field, a place for planting a vineyard. And I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations.