Micah 1

1 The word of the Lord, which was made to Micah (the) Morasthite, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah; which word he saw on Samaria and Jerusalem (which vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem).

2 Hear ye, all peoples, and the earth perceive, and the plenty thereof, and be the Lord God to you into a witness, the Lord from his holy temple. (Hear ye, all the peoples, or all the nations, and the earth, and its plenty, understand, that the Lord God shall be a witness against you, yea, the Lord in his holy Temple.)

3 For lo! the Lord shall go out of his place, and shall come down, and shall tread on high things of earth. (For lo! the Lord shall go out of his place, and shall come down, and shall tread upon the high places of the earth.)

4 And mountains shall be wasted under him, and valleys shall be cut, as wax from the face of fire, and as waters that run down into a pit. (And the mountains shall be destroyed under him, and the valleys shall be cut open, like wax in the fire, and like the water that runneth down into a pit.)

5 In the great trespass of Jacob is all this thing, and in the sins of the house of Israel. Which is the great trespass of Jacob? whether not Samaria? and which be the high things of Judah? whether not Jerusalem? (All of this is because of the great trespass of Jacob, and the sins of the house of Israel. What is the great trespass of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what is the high place, or the hill shrine, of Judah? is it not Jerusalem?)

6 And I shall put Samaria as an heap of stones in the field, when a vineyard is planted; and I shall draw away the stones thereof into a valley, and I shall show the foundaments thereof. (And I shall make Samaria into a heap of stones in a field, where a vineyard can be planted; and I shall put all its stones into a valley, and I shall lay bare its foundations.)

7 And all graven images thereof shall be beaten together, and all hires thereof shall be burnt in fire; and I shall put all the idols thereof into perdition; for of the hires of an whore those be gathered, and to hire of an whore those shall turn again. (And all its carved idols shall be altogether broken, and all its images, or all its figures, shall be burned in the fire; and so I shall put all its idols into perdition; for they be bought with the wages of a whore, and they shall return to the wages of a whore.)

8 On this thing I shall wail and yell, I shall go spoiled and naked; I shall make wailing as of dragons, and mourning as of ostriches. (On this thing I shall wail and yell, I shall go robbed of my clothes and naked; I shall wail like the jackals, and mourn like the owls.)

9 For wound thereof is despaired; for it came till to Judah, it touched the gate of my people, till to Jerusalem. (For its wound is incurable; for it came unto Judah, and it touched the gate of my people, yea, it came unto Jerusalem.)

10 In Gath do not ye tell (it), by tears weep ye not; in the house of dust with dust (al)together sprinkle you. (Do not ye tell it out in Gath, weep ye not with tears; in Beth-aphrah sprinkle yourselves all over with dust.)

11 And ye (of) a fair dwelling, pass to you, which is confounded with evil fame; it is not gone out, which dwelleth in the going out; a nigh house shall take of you wailing, which stood to itself. (And ye of Shaphir, go ye away, shamed with evil fame, or with ill repute; they who live in Zaanan be afraid to go out; they of Beth-ezel shall wail, and there shall be no refuge there.)

12 For it is made sick [in]to good, which dwelleth in bitternesses. For evil came down from the Lord into the gate of Jerusalem, (They who live in Maroth wait anxiously for something good; for evil came down from the Lord unto the very gate of Jerusalem.)

13 the noise of [a] four-horsed cart, of dread to the people dwelling at Lachish (Bind the horses to the chariots, ye people living in Lachish). It is the beginning of (the) sin of the daughter of Zion, for the great trespasses of Israel be found in thee.

14 Therefore he shall give warriors on the heritage of Gath, on the houses of leasing into deceit to (the) kings of Israel. (And so he shall send warriors against Moreshethgath; the town of Achzib shall give no help to the kings of Israel.)

15 Yet I shall bring an heir to thee, that dwellest in Mareshah; the glory of Israel shall come till to (the cave in) Adullam. (And yet I shall bring an heir to thee, who livest in Mareshah; the glory, or the leaders, of Israel shall go and hide in the cave at Adullam.)

16 Be thou made bald, and be thou clipped on the sons of thy delights; alarge thy baldness as an eagle, for they be led (away) captive from thee. (Be thou made bald, yea, shave thyselves, for the children that thou lovest; make thy baldness like that of a vulture, for they be led away captive from thee.)

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.

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.