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Micah 1 - Peake Arthur S. and Grieve A. J. - Peake's Comment

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Micah 1

1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

The House of Israel

2 Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

3 For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.

4 And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.

5 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?

6 Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof.

7 And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.

8 Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.

9 For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

The House of Judah

10 Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust.

11 Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir, having thy shame naked: the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Beth-ezel; he shall receive of you his standing.

12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came down from the LORD unto the gate of Jerusalem.

13 O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast: she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee.

14 Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moresheth-gath: the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.

15 Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel.

16 Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.

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Micah 1

Mic 1:1 . The (editorial) superscription to the prophecy (Mica 1–3) of Micah of Moresheth-Gath (Mic 1:14 ) assigns it to the period 73:9 –693, but, as stated in the Introduction, the date is probably a little before 70:1 . The subject, “Samaria and Jerusalem”, is correctly given, though the chief concern of the prophet is Jerusalem and Judah.



Mic 1:2-9 . The Judgment of Israel.—The nations of the earth are summoned to take warning from the Divine judgment to be executed on Israel. Yahweh comes forth from heaven (His “holy temple”; cf. Hab 2:20 , Isa 63:15 , Psalms 11:4 ), and down (cf. Exo 19:11 ) upon the heights (Amo 4:13 ), His presence being revealed as by earthquake shock (cf. Isa 24:19 ) and volcanic eruption (Mic 1:2-4 ). The moral rebellion of the northern kingdom is concentrated in its capital, Samaria, and that of the southern in Jerusalem. Samaria shall be utterly destroyed, its site becoming a place for vine-growing, its foundations bared, its idols broken and burned (Mic 1:5-7 ). Because of this judgment, the prophet goes mourning, barefoot and cloakless (2Sa 15:30 , Isa 20:2 ) and loudly lamenting (Job 30:29 ), because the irretrievable disaster to Samaria extends to his own land, to Jerusalem, the “gate” (i.e. the centre of the life) of Judah (Mic 1:8 f.; see Introduction for historical occasion)

Mic 1:5 . Read “sin”, both for “sins”, and for “high places”, with VSS.

Mic 1:7 may be interpolated, since it breaks the connexion.—the hire of an harlot seems to be figuratively used of religious infidelity to Yahweh, as in Hos 2:12 ; it denotes the produce of the land regarded as the gift of the Baalim; the idols, etc. derived from such wealth are called hires, and their material will pass to the service of other heathen deities in the hands of the conquerors. Some, however, refer to the actual prostitution of Deu 23:18 .



Mic 1:10-16 . The Dirge on Israel’s Downfall.—This is a difficult and corrupt passage, playing on the names of towns and villages which are chosen for their assonances or their ominous suggestions, in a way impossible to translate; cf. mg. for Aphrah and Achzib. See G. A. Smith’s map for Shaphir, Mareshah, Lachish and Adullam, other sites being unknown. “Tell not our sorrows to the Philistines (cf. 2Sa 1:20 ; Gath was probably near to Ekron) or to the Phœnicians” (reading, after LXX, “in Accho”, i.e. Ptolemais, for “at all”) The towns of the Shephelah are then variously pictured in their sorrows during the progress of the invader (cf. Isa 10:28-32 ); their inhabitants wallow on the ground, are led into captivity, shut up, have their city razed (Beth-ezel; text obscure) anxiously await news, prepare to flee in chariots, surrender (Zion must give up her daughter, Moresheth-Gath, with a “parting-gift” i.e. a marriage-dowry; cf. 1Ki 9:16 ), become like a brook that fails (Achzab, Jer 15:18 ), pass into possession of the foe, shelter fugitive leaders (the “glory of Israel” in the cave of Adullam; cf. 1Sa 22:1 f.). Let Zion then go mourning for her lost daughter-towns, with shaven head (Amo 8:10 , Deu 14:1 ; the neck and head of the griffon-vulture, Mic 1:16 mg., are featherless). Much in this dirge is uncertain or unknown, e.g. the reference to Lachish (Mic 1:13 ), as the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, to explain which both idolatry and political dependence on Egypt have been suggested.




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Rights in the Authorized (King James) Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Published by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.
Cambridge Univ. Press & BFBS
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