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1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
Hear, you peoples, all of you;
pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,
and let the Lord GOD be a witness against you,
the Lord from his holy temple.
For behold, the LORD is coming out of his place,
and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.
And the mountains will melt under him,
and the valleys will split open,
like wax before the fire,
like waters poured down a steep place.
All this is for the transgression of Jacob
and for 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?
Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country,
a place for planting vineyards,
and I will pour down her stones into the valley
and uncover her foundations.
All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
all her wages shall be burned with fire,
and all her idols I will lay waste,
for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them,
and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.
For this I will lament and wail;
I will go stripped and naked;
I will make lamentation like the jackals,
and mourning like the ostriches.
For her wound is incurable,
and it has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people,
to Jerusalem.
Tell it not in Gath;
weep not at all;
in Beth-le-aphrah
roll yourselves in the dust.
Pass on your way,
inhabitants of Shaphir,
in nakedness and shame;
the inhabitants of Zaanan
do not come out;
the lamentation of Beth-ezel
shall take away from you its standing place.
For the inhabitants of Maroth
wait anxiously for good,
because disaster has come down from the LORD
to the gate of Jerusalem.
Harness the steeds to the chariots,
inhabitants of Lachish;
it was the beginning of sin
to the daughter of Zion,
for in you were found
the transgressions of Israel.
Therefore you shall give parting gifts
to Moresheth-gath;
the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing
to the kings of Israel.
I will again bring a conqueror to you,
inhabitants of Mareshah;
the glory of Israel
shall come to Adullam.
Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair,
for the children of your delight;
make yourselves as bald as the eagle,
for they shall go from you into exile.
(ESV)
Micah was a prophet during a very critical time for both Israel and Judah. He mostly served the nation of Judah and his ministry spanned over the kings of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. The Assyrian invasions would take place first on Israel but eventually would make their way to Judah. A lot of Micah’s predictions center around warning Judah of a national disaster that is looming.
The leaders of Jerusalem were confident that they would not be overtaken because of the presence and protection of their holy temple. Micah would be the one called upon by God to confront this arrogant attitude and align their allegiance back to the Lord. This destruction that Micah warned of would be delayed by God until 586 BC when finally the Babylonians would level the city. This delay can only be attributed to God’s mercy.
Sometimes we skim over passages without realizing the detail and meaning behind the words. Using creative wordplays, Micah would warn to cities of Judah that destruction was coming.
You people of Shaphir, go into exile, naked and ashamed. Those who live in Zaanan do not dare to come out of their city. When you hear the people of Bethezel mourn, you will know that there is no refuge there.
Micah 1:11 GNB
Shaphir means “beautiful” which is why Micah predicts the city will be naked. Instead of beauty, the people would experience shame. Zaanan means “to go forth” but no one would dare venture out of their city once it was destroyed. Bethezel means “neighbor’s house” but as Micah predicts, there will be no refuge there.
The people of Maroth anxiously wait for relief, because the LORD has brought disaster close to Jerusalem.
Micah 1:12 GNB
Jerusalem is a name that suggests “peace” but Micah predicts just the opposite. There would be nothing but disaster. Why was God so furious? His judgment stems from the rampant idol worship that tore the people’s hearts away from Him. Even the capital cities of Jerusalem and Samaria had embraced such wicked idolatry.
The reminder for us is that God is a jealous God. He is jealous for us because He loves us. Who could possibly know more about what we actually need than the One who created us and called us by name before we were even born? The Lord is righteous and full of truth but His mercy extends to those who embrace repentance.
