Micah 1

General context

The opening verse names the book as the word of the Lord that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. The speaker summons all people and the earth to hear, with the Lord as witness from his holy temple. The Lord comes out of his place and treads the high places; mountains melt like wax and valleys split. The cause is the transgression of Jacob and the sins of the house of Israel, which the speaker identifies as Samaria and Jerusalem. Samaria is to become a heap of the field, its stones poured into the valley, its graven images beaten to pieces and its hires burned, because she gathered them of the hire of an harlot. The speaker then wails and goes stripped and naked, since the wound is incurable and has come to the gate of Jerusalem. A run of town names follows, each with a word of grief or shame: Gath, Aphrah, Saphir, Zaanan, Beth-ezel, Maroth, Lachish, Moresheth-gath, Achzib, Mareshah and Adullam. Lachish is called the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion. The chapter ends with a call to shave the head in mourning for delicate children gone into captivity.

Cited passages: Micah 1:1, Micah 1:2, Micah 1:3, Micah 1:4, Micah 1:5, Micah 1:6, Micah 1:7, Micah 1:8, Micah 1:9, Micah 1:10, Micah 1:11, Micah 1:12, Micah 1:13, Micah 1:14, Micah 1:15, Micah 1:16

Micah 1 (KJV)

This page shows the King James Version. In the app, reading opens in the Berean Standard Bible unless you have chosen another translation. The reader includes five translations: the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), the King James Version (KJV), the World English Bible (WEB), the Bible in Basic English (BBE), and the American Standard Version (ASV). Search covers three of them: Berean Standard, King James, and World English. Basic English and American Standard readers search the King James words.

Historical context

The heading is printed as verse text: "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." That is all the book gives about the man: his town-name and the three kings of Judah. No father is named, and no event within those reigns is dated. Jeremiah 26:18 later quotes him by the same title, "Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah," and cites the line about Zion plowed like a field that appears in Micah 3:12. The chapter addresses both kingdoms: Samaria is named as the transgression of Jacob and Jerusalem as the high places of Judah. The town list in verses 10 to 15 is not explained; the text gives no locations and does not say what each town did. Who speaks "I will wail and howl" is not labeled; the first person passes between the Lord ("I will make Samaria as an heap") and a mourner without a marker. The captivity of verse 16 is stated, not narrated, and no captor is named in this chapter.

Cited passages: Micah 1:1, Jeremiah 26:18, Micah 3:12, Micah 1:5, Micah 1:6, Micah 1:8, Micah 1:10, Micah 1:14, Micah 1:16

Literary context

The chapter opens as a courtroom and a theophany at once: all peoples are told to hear, the Lord is witness, and then he comes down so that mountains melt. Two questions and answers in verse 5 pin the charge to two capitals. The sentence on Samaria uses building images in reverse, stones poured down and foundations uncovered, then the image of a harlot's hire gathered and returned. The mourning of verse 8 turns the speaker's own body into the sign, stripped, naked, howling like dragons and owls. The town list moves the wound from Samaria toward Jerusalem's gate and works by reversal: Saphir's inhabitant passes away in shame, Maroth waits for good but evil comes, Lachish must harness the chariot. The chapter closes on the same mourning note it began, now aimed at children gone into captivity. Chapter 2 follows with woe on those who devise iniquity on their beds.

Cited passages: Micah 1:2, Micah 1:4, Micah 1:5, Micah 1:6, Micah 1:7, Micah 1:8, Micah 1:9, Micah 1:11, Micah 1:12, Micah 1:13, Micah 1:16, Micah 2:1

Key moments

1. The word to Micah (Micah 1:1). The heading names Micah the Morasthite, three kings of Judah, and Samaria and Jerusalem as the subject.
2. The Lord comes down (Micah 1:3). The Lord leaves his place to tread the high places, and the mountains melt.
3. Samaria and Jerusalem named (Micah 1:5). Two questions identify the transgression of Jacob as Samaria and the high places of Judah as Jerusalem.
4. Samaria a heap (Micah 1:6). The Lord says he will pour Samaria's stones into the valley and uncover its foundations.
5. Stripped and wailing (Micah 1:8). The speaker goes stripped and naked, wailing because the wound is incurable.
6. The towns in turn (Micah 1:10). A sequence of towns beginning with Gath receives words of grief and shame.
7. Children into captivity (Micah 1:16). The chapter ends with a call to shave the head for children gone into captivity.

For reflection

The speaker says the wound is incurable and has reached the gate of Jerusalem, yet the chapter is addressed to all people and the earth. What does it change to hear a judgment on two named cities as something the whole earth is called to witness?

People in this chapter

• Jacob
• Judah
• Hezekiah
• Micah

Also indexed here:

• Ahaz
• Jotham