MICAH 1 VERSES 10 to 16
Tell it not in Gath[a];
weep
not at all.
In Beth Ophrah[b]
roll
in the dust.
11 Pass by naked and in shame,
you
who live in Shaphir.[c]
Those who live in Zaanan[d]
will
not come out.
Beth Ezel is in mourning;
it
no longer protects you.
12 Those who live in Maroth[e] writhe
in pain,
waiting
for relief,
because disaster has come
from the Lord,
even
to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 You who live in Lachish,
harness
fast horses to the chariot.
You are where the sin of
Daughter Zion began,
for
the transgressions of Israel were found in you.
14 Therefore you will give parting gifts
to
Moresheth Gath.
The town of Akzib[f] will
prove deceptive
to
the kings of Israel.
15 I will bring a conqueror against you
who
live in Mareshah.[g]
The nobles of Israel
will
flee to Adullam.
16 Shave your head in mourning
for
the children in whom you delight;
make yourself as bald as the
vulture,
for
they will go from you into exile.
MICAH by Dale Ralph Davis
Micah
doesn’t simply say he will lament – he writes out his lamentation with all its
word-plays and choppy grammar. Micah
isn’t trying to be witty; he is uttering despair - and this may help to explain
the difficulties and conundrums in the text.
The
towns Micah mentions are in the Shephelah, the low-lying foothills to the west
of the hill country of Judah, an area about 27 miles long and 10 miles
wide. The disasters the prophet foresees
need not be the result of Sennaherib’’s ravages in about 701 BC, but could well
have occurred while Ahaz ruled Judah (735 – 715 BC) when Syria, Israel, Edom
and Philistia pummelled Judah from all sides (2 Chronicles 28).
Verse
10
Tell it not in
Gath[a];
weep
not at all.
In Beth Ophrah[b]
roll
in the dust.
Gath was one of
the premier towns of Philistia. Scholars
still debate the exact site; perhaps Tell es-Safi gets the most votes – about
25 miles south-south-east of Joppa and the same distance (as the crow flies)
west-south-west of Jerusalem. Micah uses
a verb (nagad, to tell) whose ‘g’ sound might play off of that in ‘Gath’;
hence, ‘Don’t gab about it in Gath.’
Micah is, I think adapting a line from David’s lament over Saul and
Jonathan in 2 Samuel 1 verse 20. The shame
of Israel’s defeat was so grievous that David, as it were, didn’t want their
enemies the Philistines to hear of it, either from Israelites or, perhaps more
likely, from ecstatic, returning Philistine warriors. It’s as though David says, “There has been
utter disaster – let there be a media blackout.”
Micah’s next line
reads literally, ‘Weeping, do not weep’.
The repetition of the verb root intensifies the prohibition – ie, ‘Don’t
go weeping at all.’ Perhaps the idea is
that if his people gave vent to their grief, others will realise that disaster
has befallen them. They should not do
anything to publish their disgrace or to give the world a clue about the
devastation of their land.
Though word of
the catastrophe that has befallen Israel and/or Judah should be kept from
enemies, this does not mean that those who will suffer cannot express their
distress in the own locality. So the
prophet tells anyone in Beth-le-aphrah (House of Dust, Dust-town – site
unknown) to ‘roll yourself in dust’ (apar, a word-play on the town name). This was probably a mourning rite, expressing
anguish over the crushing defeat an enemy would inflict.
Verse 11
11 Pass
by naked and in shame,
you
who live in Shaphir.[c]
Those who live in Zaanan[d]
will
not come out.
Beth Ezel is in mourning;
it
no longer protects you.
Here Micah ties
us in grammatical and geographical knots!
Geographically, he mentions 3 towns in this verse, and we don’t know the
exact location of any of them (except that they were, apparently, in the
Shephelah). Grammatically, he begins
with a feminine singular verb, ‘Pass by’ which agrees with the feminine
singular ‘resident’ and immediately inserts a masculine plural pronoun, “for
yourselves’. It is, I suppose, as though
Micah addresses the town’s population as a single representative, and yet has
in view the whole lot of them at the same time.
In any case, this sort of thing is not that rare. (One tends to get used to it when reading
Micah!)
Shaphir
comes from a root meaning ‘to be beautiful’ – hence we could dub it
‘Beautyburg’. The catch comes in the
contrast; Micah tells the resident of Beautyburg to leave town in ‘shameful
nakedness’. The inhabitants may have
lived in Beautyburg, but they will leave town in the opposite condition –
stripped, as they are carted off as captives of war.
The
place name Zaanan contains 2 letters of the verb ‘to go’ or ‘march forth’. I have tried to pick up the word-play in ‘the
residents of Marchville do not march forth’.
That is, they stay inside the town walls, afraid to venture out and
fight the invading enemy.
The
last 2 lines of this verse are terribly difficult. ‘Lamentation in Beth-ha-ezel’ may be an
exclamation. The lamentation is because
the place is no more. Beth-ha-ezel could
mean ‘house of taking away’ but one can’t be sure. The last line literally reads, ‘He will take
away from you its (or ‘his’) standing place.’
This may mean that the town has no place of defence, no position from
which the inhabitants can make a stand against the invaders. That would certainly be the case if the
population was decimated, as the ‘lamentation’ implies.
Verse
12
12 Those
who live in Maroth[e] writhe
in pain,
waiting
for relief,
because disaster has come
from the Lord,
even
to the gate of Jerusalem.
Maroth is
associated with bitterness – hence ‘Bitterton’.
Bitterton’s people long for ‘good’ – for help, welfare,
deliverance. However ‘disaster has come
down from Yahweh to the gate of Jerusalem.’
If Jerusalem itself is ready to crumble, there will surely be no help or
relief for the likes of Bitterton.
“Jerusalem’ comes like a thud at the end of verses 10 – 12, for if
Jerusalem goes under the whole show is over, the game is up for everyone. What hope can these outlying communities have
if the premier city is herself under assault?
Verse 13
13 You
who live in Lachish,
harness
fast horses to the chariot.
You are where the sin of
Daughter Zion began,
for
the transgressions of Israel were found in you.
We can find
Lachish on the map. It is Tel ed-Duweir,
29 miles west-south-west of Jerusalem.
Lachish guarded important access routes into the interior of the
land. It was heavily fortified – during
the divided kingdom it had double defensive walls, the upper one 19 feet (under
6 metres) thick, the lower 13 (4 metres).
When Sennacherib finally took Lachish in around 701 BC, he took up 70
linear feet (over 21 metres) of his palace wall to depict his conquest. (What else could he do? He had failed to
conquer Jerusalem.)
There is a
sound-play between ‘horses’ (rekesh) and ‘Lachish’. The Lachishites, however are not hitching
chariots to horses in order to fight but to flee. They should get out of town before the enemy
assaults them. Sadly, the prophet accuses Lachish of being infectious – she had
apparently embraced the ‘rebellions of Israel’, the twisted, syncretistic
worship of the northern kingdom and then became a conduit that transmitted this
corrupt worship into the life of the southern kingdom. I take ‘Israel’ here as referring to the
northern kingdom.
Verse 14
14 Therefore
you will give parting gifts
to
Moresheth Gath.
The town of Akzib[f] will
prove deceptive
to
the kings of Israel.
Moresheth-Gath
seems to be the full name of Micah’s home town, located 6 miles north-east of
Lachish. The verb form, ‘you will give’
(or ‘you must give’) is a feminine singular.
Some think it refers to ‘Daughter Zion’, ie, Jerusalem in verse 13. However it could just as well refer to
Lachish. Since the people of Lachish
want to make a quick getaway to avoid their attackers, they certainly cannot
expect their satellite towns like Moresheth-gath to stick with them; they might
just as well dismiss them and allow them to do their best on their own.
The word for
‘parting gifts’ is used 2 other times in the OT. The first is in Exodus 18 verse 2, where it
seems to mean ‘dismissal’ ie Moses sends his wife back to her father’s house
while the furore in Egypt is heating up.
The second is in 1 Kings 9 verse 16, where Pharaoh gave Gezer, which he
had conquered, to his daughter as a wedding gift when she became Solomon’s
wife. In any case, Lachish must release
Moresheth-gath, either to be on her own or to be given over to another (in this
case, not to a husband, but to an invader).
In the second
part of verse 14 Micah plays on the town name Achzib (from kazab, to lie;
hence, ‘Deceitville’) – it has proven ‘akza (deceptive, disappointing) and this
to ‘the kings of Israel.’ This last
phrase really has the commentators scratching their heads. Many hold that which Micah says ‘Israel’ he
really means ‘Judah’ since they assume that Micah’s lament is primarily
connected to Sennacherib’s devastation of Judah in 701 BC, some years after the
northern kingdom had ceased to exist.
But if Micah’s lament takes in both Samaria and Jerusalem (see 1: 1, 5 –
6), it might well encompass all that is going to take place from, say 735 BC
onwards, and might therefore include Assyria’s strangulation of Israel, as well
as the pummelling of Judah to within an inch of its life by Israel and
Syria. If so – and obviously this is a
conjecture – Judah could have been forced to cede territory to Israel,
including Moresheth-gath and Achzib; but the prophet may be saying that such
‘victories are empty, nothing Israel’s kings can hang their hats on, because
the big Assyrian nation-smasher is going to chew up Israel and spit her out.
Verse 15
15 I
will bring a conqueror against you
who
live in Mareshah.[g]
The nobles of Israel
will
flee to Adullam.
The first person
verb, ‘I will ... bring’ assumes that Yahweh is speaking. The threat is against Mareshah, Tell
Sandakhanna, about 4 miles east-north-east of Lachish and 2 miles south of
Moresheth-gath. There is a word or sound-play between the root for ‘conqueror’
(yaras) and the town name Mareshah; hence the translation, ‘I will bring the
conqueror to you, resident of Conquest.’ Mareshah will go the way of all her
sister towns; a victor will conquer Victory.
The ‘glory of
Israel’ in the second line could refer to Yahweh coming to inflict judgment or
to the king, or people who are ‘upper-class’ citizens (cf Isaiah 5 verse 13,
where ‘glory’ = ‘men of rank’) coming to seek refuge – probably the
latter. Adullam was east-north-east of
Moresheth-gath and 12 to 13 miles west-south-west of Bethlehem. In his outlaw days David used a cave near
Adullam as a hideout for himself and his ragtag outfit (cf 1 Samuel 22 verses 1
and 2). Micah may see an ironic twist
here; as David once had to run for his life to Adullam, now Israel’s
high-ranking citizens become refugees, fleeing to David’s place because their
country is going down the drain.
‘Israel’ may well mean the northern kingdom here.
Verse 16
16 Shave your
head in mourning
for
the children in whom you delight;
make yourself as bald as the
vulture,
for
they will go from you into exile.
Finally, Micah probably
calls on Mother Jerusalem (the imperatives are feminine singulars) to mourn
over the tragedy of her children (the population throughout Judah). Israel was forbidden to practise pagan
mourning rites that involved ritualized shaving of the head (Deuteronomy 14
verse 1); however, as here, some shaving of the head was allowable, or even
ordered, as an appropriate sign of anguish and mourning (Isaiah 22 verse 12; Jeremiah
7 verse 29; Ezekiel 7 verse 18; cf Amos 8 verse 10). In fact, Jerusalem was to shear her own head
over her beloved children, leaving it as bald as the griffon-vulture’ appears
to be – its head is covered with short, creamy down which looks bare from a
distance.
Her anguish is
because her children ‘have gone ... into exile’ from her. Micah, in his prophetic vision, sees these
deportations as having already taken place.
The reference to ‘exile’ need not point to the Babylonian exile (s), for
the Assyrians were in the habit of carting off populations and relocating them.
APPLICATION
The word – and
sound-plays show that, from a human standpoint, he gave careful thought to how
he would express the ravaging that was coming on Judah. And yet he didn’t ‘clean it up’ – ie he didn’t
polish up the diction and correct all the grammatical anomalies that litter his
lament. So Micah leaves it in the rough
draft, so that we can sense his own anguish and se what a savage disaster
Yahweh’s judgement is going to inflict.
‘Here in chapter 1 verses 10 to 16 we seem to have the raw product,
straight from the soul of the prophet, who could not restrain the torrent of
words (or sounds) – an almost incoherent speech forced from his lips by the
Spirit of God.’
Micah said he
would lament and wail and this is it. He
wants Jerusalem to respond in a frenzy of anguish which might lead to
repentance. At the same time, recording
his own torment fulfils part of this prophetic vocation of grieving over
Yahweh’s judgement falling on Yahweh’s people (cf Amos 7 verses 1 – 6, Jeremiah
14 verse 7 to 9, 19 - 22, Ezekiel 9
verses 8, 11 and 13).
The prophet
should be a model for us. Far too often
divine judgement is a doctrine we affirm rather than a reality we abhor. We have far too little of the prophet’s agony. He wailed over a people who had the
scriptures and their promises, who had know the works and deliverances of God
and who were turning their back on it all.
THE
ENDURING WORD BIBLE COMMENTARY
a. Tell
it not in Gath: The city of Gath belonged to the
Philistines, and it hurt Micah to think that the Philistines would rejoice at
the pain of God’s people.
b. In
Beth Aphrah roll yourself in the dust: Continuing to the end of the
chapter, Micah uses puns and plays on words to talk about the judgment coming
upon the cities of Judah. These towns were clustered in the Shephelah –
the lowlands between the coastal region and the mountains of Judah.
i.
Though Micah used puns, this wasn’t about clever word games – it went back to
the ancient idea that a name wasn’t just your name but that it described
your character and your destiny, sometimes
prophetically. In showing how the name of these cities was in some way a
prophecy of their destiny, Micah showed how our character becomes our future.
c. Beth
Aphrah: To Micah, Aphrah sounded like the Hebrew word
for dust, so he told the citizens of Beth Aphrah to
roll in the dust in anticipation of coming judgment.
d. Shaphir:
The name of this town sounded like the word for beautiful. It
wouldn’t be beautiful for long, and Micah warned the citizens of Shaphir to
prepare for judgment.
e. Zaanan:
The name of this town sounded like the Hebrew word for exit or go
out. When the enemy’s siege armies would come, the Jewish people would
not exit at all – they would be shut up in the city until they
fell.
f. Beth
Ezel: The name of this town means the nearby city. When the
army of judgment comes, it won’t be near and helpful to any other city.
g. Maroth:
The name of this town means bitterness, and when the army of
judgment comes, the citizens of Maroth will know plenty of
bitterness.
h. Lachish:
The name of this town sounded like the Hebrew word for to the horses. Lachish was
an important fortress city, and its people should go to the horses to
fight, but ironically, they would go to the horses [Lachish]
to flee the army of judgment.
i. Moresheth:
The name of this place – Micah’s hometown – sounded like the Hebrew word
for betrothed. Here he spoke of giving the city wedding gifts as
she passed from the rule of one “husband” (Judah) to another (the invading
army).
j. Aczib:
The name of this town sounds like the Hebrew word for deceitful or disappointing.
This city would fall so quickly it would be a deception and a disappointment
for Israel.
k. Mareshah:
The name of this town is related to the Hebrew word for possessor or heir.
The invading army would soon possess this city.
l. Adullam:
This was the place of refuge for David when he fled from King Saul. It would
again be a place of refuge for the high and mighty among Israel, when they
would be forced to hide out in Adullam.
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