1 This is the word of Yahweh which came to Micah of
More sheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
These are his visions concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
Against Samaria and Jerusalem
2 Hear all you peoples, let the earth listen and all who are in it. For
Yahweh is witnessing against you from his holy temple.
3 Yahweh has come forth from his place, he comes down and treads upon the
heights of the earth.
4 Beneath him mountains collapse and valleys melt like wax before the fire,
as torrents pouring down the hillside.
5 All this for the crime of Jacob, for the sin of the nation of Judah. What
is the crime of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? What is the sin of the nation of
Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?
6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the open country, a place
for planting vineyards. I will scatter her stones down into the valley and
lay her foundations bare.
7 All her carved images will be dashed to pieces and her filthy idols burnt
by fire. I will make a waste heap of all her idols for they were made with
harlot��s wages, and to harlot��s wages they will return.
8 For this reason I lament and wail, go barefoot and naked. I shall howl
like a jackal and wail like an ostrich.
9 For her wound cannot be healed; rather it has come to Judah. It has
reached the capital of my people, Jerusalem.
10 Exult not in Gath; break down and weep in Acco. In Beth-leaphra roll in
the dust.
11 Sound the bugle, O people of Shaphir and do not let the dwellers in
Zaanan come forth. Mourn greatly, Beth Ezel: your treas ures are taken away.
12 Surely they trembled, the people in Maroth, when calamity came down from
Yahweh to the gates of Jerusalem.
13 Hitch the horses to the chariot, citizens of Lachish. In you the
rebellions of Israel were found and because of you Zion began to sin.
14 Therefore you must give a redress to Moresheth-Gath. The houses of Achzib
have become deceitful to the kings of Israel.
15 Again I will bring the conqueror to you, people of Maresha, and the elite
of Israel will leave forever.
16 Shave your hair for your delightful children. Make yourself bald as an
eagle for they have been deported far from you.
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Comments Micah, Chapter 1
• 1.2 Yahweh is about to leave the Temple where he is present; so hidden
that everyone has forgotten him.
1:5: The first sin of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah is found in their
capitals. They are the cities that have ruined the country; those who thrive
by exploiting peasants live in the cities and it is there that the riches of
the land are transformed into palaces for a few.
We need only look at the capital cities of some countries to verify what
Micah was saying: the wealth of a country is spent on things as unproductive
as the idols and prostitution of Micah��s time.
In 1:8: barefoot and naked, other than the sackcloth, which was the only
clothing of captives (see Is 20).
In 1:10: Micah predicts a new invasion and he describes it by playing on the
names of various stages on the way.