Micah 1
Berean Standard Bible · Compare translations · 750 BC – 700 BC · Divided kingdom · Judah alone · Tap a verse to copy, share or highlight ·
16 verses · 420 words · ~2 min read · ~3 min listen
Judgment to Come
1This is the word of the Lord that came to Micah the Moreshite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah—what he saw regarding Samaria and Jerusalem:
2Hear, O peoples, all of you;
listen, O earth, and everyone in it!
May the Lord God bear witness against you,
the Lord from His holy temple.
3For behold, the Lord comes forth
from His dwelling place;
He will come down and tread
on the high places of the earth.
4The mountains will melt beneath Him,
and the valleys will split apart,
like wax before the fire,
like water rushing down a slope.
5All this is for the transgression of Jacob
and the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the transgression of Jacob?
Is it not Samaria?
And what is the high place of Judah?
Is it not Jerusalem?
6Therefore I will make Samaria
a heap of rubble in the open field,
a planting area for a vineyard.
I will pour her stones into the valley
and expose her foundations.
7All her carved images will be smashed to pieces;
all her wages will be burned in the fire,
and I will destroy all her idols.
Since she collected the wages of a prostitute,
they will be used again on a prostitute.
Weeping and Mourning
8Because of this I will lament and wail;
I will walk barefoot and naked.
I will howl like a jackal
and mourn like an ostrich.
9For her wound is incurable;
it has reached even Judah;
it has approached the gate of my people,
as far as Jerusalem itself.
10Do not tell it in Gath; do not weep at all.
Roll in the dust in Beth-leaphrah.
11Depart in shameful nakedness,
O dwellers of Shaphir.
The dwellers of Zaanan
will not come out.
Beth-ezel is in mourning;
its support is taken from you.
12For the dwellers of Maroth pined for good,
but calamity came down from the Lord,
even to the gate of Jerusalem.
13Harness your chariot horses,
O dweller of Lachish.
You were the beginning of sin to the Daughter of Zion,
for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.
14Therefore, send farewell gifts to Moresheth-gath;
the houses of Achzib will prove deceptive
to the kings of Israel.
15I will again bring a conqueror against you,
O dweller of Mareshah.
16Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hair
in mourning for your precious children;
make yourselves as bald as an eagle,
for they will go from you into exile.
Footnotes (13)
- a v8 Or a serpent or a dragon
- b v8 Literally like daughters of an ostrich or like daughters of an owl
- c v10 Gath sounds like the Hebrew for tell.
- d v10 Beth-Leaphrah means house of dust.
- e v11 Shaphir means pleasant.
- f v11 Zaanan sounds like the Hebrew for come out.
- g v11 Beth-ezel means adjoining house.
- h v12 Maroth sounds like the Hebrew for bitter.
- i v13 Lachish sounds like the Hebrew term for team of horses.
- j v14 Or give dowry
- k v14 Moresheth sounds like the Hebrew for gift or dowry.
- l v14 Achzib means deception.
- m v15 Mareshah sounds like the Hebrew for conqueror.
Study notes on this chapter · 1
Prophecy & fulfillmentWidely held reading
Samaria made a heap in the field
Micah and Hosea say that Samaria will be made a heap of rubble, and its people taken into exile. Assyria besieged Samaria for three years and took it in 722/721 BC, deporting many of its people (2 Kings 17).
When: Micah c. 735–700 BC; Hosea c. 750–722 BC; Samaria fell 722/721 BC.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.