Micah 1:1-7 God’s Judgment Is Coming!

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 7 July 2024. Omitting greyed-out text should bring verbal delivery under 45 minutes.

v. 1 Introduction

v. 2 The Call To Pay Attention

v. 3 The Coming of the LORD

v. 4 Firey Judgment Prophecied

v. 5 What Triggered God’s Judgment

v. 6 A Specific Judgment Against Samaria

v.7 The Intended Result of Judgment: To End Idol-worship In Israel

Conclusion


Micah 1
:1-7 Side-by side comparison of versionsA

DouayB (Vulgate)

LXXC

BrentonD (Vaticanus)

KJVE

NAW

Masoretic HebrewF

1 The word of the Lord, that came to Micheas, the Moras­thite, in the days of Joathan, Achaz, [and] Ezechias, kings of Juda: which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

1 [Κα] ἐγένετο λόγος κυρίουG πρὸς Μιχαιαν τὸν τοῦH Μωρασθι ἐν ἡμέραις Ιωαθαμ [καὶI] Αχαζ [καὶ] Εζεκιου βασιλέων Ιουδα, [ὑπὲρ] ὧν εἶδεν περὶ Σαμ­αρείας καὶ περὶ Ιερου­σαλημ.

1 [And] the word of the Lord came to Michae­as the [son] of Moras­thi, in the days of Jo­atham, [and] Achaz, [and] Ezek­ias, kings of Juda, [con­cerning] what he saw regard­ing Samaria and Jerusalem.

1 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.

1 The word of Yahweh which was to Micah the Moreshite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Sa­maria and Jerusalem:

(א) דְּבַר יְהוָה אֲשֶׁר הָיָה אֶל מִיכָה הַמֹּרַשְׁתִּי בִּימֵי יוֹתָם אָחָז יְחִזְקִיָּה מַלְכֵי יְהוּדָה אֲשֶׁר חָזָה עַל שֹׁמְרוֹן וִירוּשָׁלָ͏ִם.

2 Hear, all ye peopleX: [and] let the earth give ear, and all that isJ therein: and let the Lord God be a witness to you, the Lord from his holy temple.

2 Ἀκού­σατε, λαοί, λόγους, [καὶ] προσεχέτω ἡ γῆ καὶ πάντεςK οἱ ἐν αὐτῇ, καὶ ἔσται κύριος XL ἐν ὑμῖν εἰς μαρτύριον, κύριος ἐξ οἴκου ἁγίου αὐτοῦ·

2 Hear these words, ye people; [and] let the earth give heed, and all that are in it: and the Lord God shall be among you for a testi­mony, the Lord out of his holy habitation.

2 Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

2 Listen, all you peoples, {and} be attentive, O earth and [all] that fills it, for Yahweh the Master will become a witness among y’all from the temple of His holiness.

(ב) שִׁמְעוּ עַמִּים כֻּלָּםM Nהַקְשִׁיבִי אֶרֶץ וּמְלֹאָהּ Oוִיהִי אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה Pבָּכֶם לְעֵד אֲדֹנָי מֵהֵיכַלQ קָדְשׁוֹ.

3 For behold the Lord will come forth out of his place: and he will come down, and will tread upon the high places of the earth.

3 διότι ἰδοὺ κύριος ἐκ­πορεύεται ἐκ τοῦ τόπου αὐτοῦ καὶ καταβή­σεται καὶ ἐπιβήσεται ἐπὶ τὰ ὕψη τῆς γῆς,

3 For, behold, the Lord comes forth out of his place, and will come down, and will go upon the high places of the earth.

3 For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.

3 Look, Yahweh is indeed going forth from His place, and He will come down and step on the high places of the earth.

(ג) כִּי הִנֵּהR יְהוָה יֹצֵא מִמְּקוֹמוֹ וְיָרַד וְדָרַךְS עַל בָּמוֹתֵיT Uאָרֶץ.

4 And the mountains shall be melted under him: and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as waters that run down a steep place.

4 καὶ σαλευ­Vθήσεται τὰ ὄρη ὑπο­κάτωθεν αὐτοῦ, καὶ αἱ κοιλάδες τακW­σονται ὡς κηρὸς πὸ προσ­ώπου πυρὸς καὶ ὡς ὕδωρ κατα­φερ­όμενον ἐν καταβάσει.

4 And the mountains shall be shaken under him, and the val­leys shall melt like wax before the fire, and as water rush­ing down a declivity.

4 And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the val­leys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.

4 Then the mountains will melt beneath Him, and the valleys will burst open like wax from flames of fire, like water being poured through a precipice.

(ד) וְנָמַסּוּ הֶהָרִיםX תַּחְתָּיו וְהָעֲמָקִים יִתְבַּקָּעוּY כַּדּוֹנַג מִפְּנֵי הָאֵשׁ כְּמַיִם מֻגָּרִים בְּמוֹרָד.

5 For the wickedness of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the wickedness of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Juda? are they not Jerusalem?

5 διὰ ἀσέβειαν Ιακωβ πάντα ταῦτα καὶ διὰ ἁμαρ­τίαν οἴκου Ισραηλ. τίς ἡ ἀσέβεια τοῦ ΙακωβZ; οὐ Σαμάρ­εAAια; καὶ τίς ἡ ἁμαρτίαAB [οἴκου] Ιουδα; οὐχὶ Ιερουσα­λημ;

5 All these calamities are for the transgres­sion of Jacob, and for the sin of the house of Israel. What is the transgres­sion of Jacob? is it not Samar­ia? and what is the sin [of the house] of Juda? is it not Jerus­alem?

5 For the transgres­sion of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?

5 All this is due to the transgression of Jacob and due to the sins of the house of Israel. Where is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samar­ia? And where are the high places of Judah? Is it not Jeru­salem?

(ה) בְּפֶשַׁע יַעֲקֹבAC כָּל זֹאת וּבְחַטֹּאות בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵלAD מִיAE פֶשַׁע יַעֲקֹב הֲלוֹא שֹׁמְרוֹן וּמִי בָּמוֹתAF יְהוּדָה הֲלוֹא יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם.

6 And I will make Samaria as a heap [of stones] in the field when a vineyard is planted: and I will bring down the stones thereof into the valley, and will lay her founda­tions bare.

6 καὶ θήσομαι Σαμάρειαν εἰς ὀπωρο­φυλάκιονAG γροῦ καὶ εἰς φυτείαν ἀμπελῶνος καὶ κατα­σπάσω εἰς χάος AHτοὺς λίθους αὐτῆς καὶ τὰ θεμέλια αὐτῆς ἀπο­καλύψω·

6 Therefore I will make Samaria as a store-house [of the fruits] of the field, and as a planting of a vineyard: and I will utterly demolish her stones, and I will expose her foundations.

6 Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the founda­tions thereof.

6 Therefore I will make Samaria into a pile in the field – into a place for planting a vineyard, and I will have her building-stones poured out into the ravine, and her foundations laid bare.

(ו) וְשַׂמְתִּי שֹׁמְרוֹן לְעִיAI הַשָּׂדֶה לְמַטָּעֵיAJ כָרֶם וְהִגַּרְתִּיAK לַגַּי אֲבָנֶיהָAL וִיסֹדֶיהָ אֲגַלֶּהAM.

7 And all her graven things shall be cut in pieces, and all her wages shall be burnt with fire, and I will bring to destruction all her idols: for they were gathered together of the hire of a harlot, and unto the hire of a harlot they shall return.

7 καὶ πάντα τὰ γλυπτὰ αὐτῆς κατακόψ­ουσιν καὶ πάντα τὰ μισθώματα αὐτῆς ἐμ­πρήσουσιν ἐν πυρί, καὶ πάντα τὰ εἴδωλα αὐτῆς θήσομαι εἰς ἀφανισμόν· διότι ἐκ μισθωμά­των πορ­νείας συν­ήγαγεν καὶ κAN μισθω­μάτων πορ­νείας συν­έστρεψ­εν.

7 And they shall cut in pieces all the graven images, and all that she has hired they shall burn with fire, and I will utterly destroy all her idols: because she has gath­ered of the hires of fornication, and of the hires of fornication has she amassedAO [wealth].

7 And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay deso­late: for she gathered it of the hire of an har­lot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.

7 And all her idols will be smashed and all her income will be burned in the fire, and I will put all her images in the trash, because out of the income of a prostitute she took collections – yes they turned even the income of a prostitute.

(ז) וְכָל פְּסִילֶיהָAP יֻכַּתּוּAQ וְכָל אֶתְנַנֶּיהָAR יִשָּׂרְפוּ בָאֵשׁ וְכָל עֲצַבֶּיהָ אָשִׂים שְׁמָמָה כִּי מֵאֶתְנַן זוֹנָה קִבָּצָהAS וְעַד אֶתְנַן זוֹנָה יָשׁוּבוּAT.



1Why would God send two or three prophets at once? He Himself said in Deuteronomy 19:15 “One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.” (Cf. Mat. 18:16, 2 Cor. 13:1) So God abides by His own law to send Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah as witnesses concerning the sin of Israel.

2He also noted that in chapter 5 verse 4, Micah depicts Assyria as controlling Babylon, which was true in the 8th century BC, but would not have been true in the 6th century period of the exile when Babylon controlled Assyria.

3The fact that Micah identifies himself by his hometown instead of by his father’s name suggests that his ministry may have been conducted primarily away from his hometown and away from folks who would have known his father. (Waltke) This would fit with the fact that in his later years, the Assyrians conquered his hometown, forcing the Jewish inhabitants to flee to Jerusalem, and it would also fit with his messages aimed at Jerusalem.

4https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-israel/home-of-the-prophet-micah/ identifies it with Azekah.

5Also 6 miles northeast of Moresheth is Adullam (where some 300 years ago David had hidden himself from Saul).

6Waltke suggested a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of 53. He is also the source of the 20-sermon estimate.

7Of course, with an omnipresent God, any description of Him moving has to be understood in a qualified way. Commentator John Gill explained well that, “It signifies not change of place, but of his dispensations; going out of his former customary method into another; ‘removing... from the throne of mercies to the throne of judgment’ [as Rabbi Jarchi put it]; doing not acts of mercy, in which he delights, but exercising judgment, [what Isaiah called] ‘his strange work.’”

8“The whyche daye and tyme of the Lordes comming seemeth here to be chieflye and pryncypallye descrybed, thoughe the destruccyon of the Iewes be therewyth insumate, for thus dothe Christe hym selfe cople bothe together .xxiiii. of Mathew and Dauid in the .xvii. Psalme doothe adioyne the daye of hys perticuler deliueraunce to thys daye of the Lordes cōminge…” ~Anthony Gilby, 1551 AD
“But the words, which are image-language now, shall be most exactly fulfilled in the end, when, in the Person of our Lord, He shall come visibly to judge the world…” ~Pusey, 1880 AD

9See https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-israel/high-places-altars-and-the-bamah/

102 Peter 3:12 “anticipating and hastening the coming of the Day of God, on account of which the heavens will be disintegrated by burning and the elements be melted away by being heated” (NAW)

11The parallelism of “mountains” and “valleys” is a merismus including all places everywhere. (Waltke) No one is going to escape God’s justice.

12Originally “Samaria of London.”

13“External privileges and professions will not secure a sinful people from the judgments of God. If sin be found in the house of Israel, if Jacob be guilty of transgression and rebellion, God will not spare them; no, he will punish them first, for their sins are of all others most provoking to him, for they are most reproaching.” ~M. Henry, 1714 AD

14These (and perhaps other kings of Judah) also commissioned a whole network of “idolatrous priests... to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem... who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.” (2 Kings 23:5, NKJV) cf. Jeremiah 32:31-35, & 26:18 which chronicle the continued idolatry of Judah a century after Micah.

15For instance, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2253695/How-idolatry-continued-Kingdom-Judah-Israeli-dig-uncovers-temple-icons-dating-Old-Testament-era.html

16cf. Deut 28

17Isaiah 8:4 “for, before the boy knows how to cry out, 'My father,' or 'My mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away to the presence of the king of Assyria.” (NAW)
Hosea 13:16 “Samaria is held guilty, For she has rebelled against her God. They shall fall by the sword, Their infants shall be dashed in pieces, And their women with child ripped open.” (NKJV)

18The mention of planting vineyards, nevertheless, ties in with God’s mercy, because there are only four other places in the Old Testament where this word for planting shows up, and in each one (esp. in Isa. 60:2, 16, 21), God promises the reconstruction Jews under Nehemiah and Ezra that this fallow ground in Palestine will be the place where He sovereignly re-plants the nation of Israel in preparation for the coming of the Messiah! “It could be remade only by being wholly unmade.” ~Pusey, 1880 AD

19Waltke also wrote, “Blinded by their own cupidity, the false prophets saw no connection between Israel’s sin and rampaging Assyrign army, but the true prophet saw the holy Sovereign, marching above the Assyrign juggernaut…”

20“...in the twelfth year he [King Josiah] began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images. They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars which were above them he cut down; and the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images he broke in pieces, and made dust of them and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And so he did in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali and all around, with axes. When he had broken down the altars and the wooden images, had beaten the carved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.” (NKJV)

21Hosea 10:5-6 “The inhabitants of Samaria fear Because of the calf of Beth Aven... The idol also shall be carried to Assyria As a present for King Jareb.” (NKJV)

22Viz. Gill’s commentary: “[H]arlots prostituting themselves in the temples of idols... was common among the Heathens, as at Comana and Corinth, as Strabo relates; and particularly among the Babylonians and Assyrians, which may be here referred to: for Herodotus says, it was a law with the Babylonians that every woman of that country should once in her life sit in the temple of Venus, and lie with a strange man: here women used to sit with a crown upon their heads: nor might they return home until some stranger threw money into their laps, and took them out of the temple, and lay with them... nor was it lawful to reject the price or the money, be it what it would, for it was converted to holy uses, and Strabo affirms much the same. So the Phoenician women used to prostitute themselves in the temples of their idols, and dedicate there the hire of their bodies to their gods, thinking thereby to appease their deities, and obtain good things for themselves.”

23Dr. Bruce Waltke, in his 2007 commentary on Micah also interpreted this literally. “The idols in view here were constructed from silver and gold paid to cult prostitutes. This debauchery and debasing of mankind enriched the temples with splendid images… The conquering Assyrian army, parading under the symbols of the Assyrian pantheon, would use the precious metals of gold and silver that formerly overlaid Samaria’s rich idols (cf. Isa 40:19–20) to pay the Assyrian cult prostitutes, providing revenue for their cultic centers, and so… they will again be used as wages for prostitutes... The repetition of ʾetnan zônâ (wages for prostitutes) denotes poetic justice; as Israel had secured its money to support sacred courtesans by exploiting others, so the Assyrians would support theirs by robbing Israel.”

AMy original chart includes the following copyrighted English versions: NASB, NIV, ESV, Bauscher’s version of the Peshitta, and Cathcart’s version of the Targums, but I remove these columns from my public, non-copyrighted edition of this chart so as not to infringe on their copyrights. NAW is my translation. When a translation adds words not in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done so by the use of italics or greyed-out text, I put the added words in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is different from all the other translations, I underline it. When a version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far from the grammar form of the original text, I use strikeout. And when a version omits a word which is in the original text, I insert an X. I also place an X at the end of a word if the original word is plural but the English translation is singular. I occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between the various editions and versions when there are more than two different translations of a given word. The only known Dead Sea Scrolls containing Micah 1 are 4Q82 (containing parts of verses 7-15 and dated between 30-1 BC), the Nahal Hever Greek scroll (containing vs. 1-7 and dated around 25BC), and the Wadi Muraba’at Scroll (containing verses 1-16 and dated around 135 AD). Where the DSS are legible and in agreement with the MT, the MT is colored purple. Where the DSS support the LXX/Vulgate/Peshitta with omissions or text not in the MT, I have highlighted with yellow the LXX and its translation into English, and where I have accepted that into my NAW translation, I have marked it with {pointed brackets}.

BDouay Old Testament first published by the English College at Douay, A.D. 1609, Revised and Diligently Compared with the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner, Published in 1582, 1609, 1752. As published on E-Sword in 2016.

C“Septuagint” Greek Old Testament, edited by Alfred Rahlfs. Originally published in 1935. As published in 2016 on E-Sword. Where the Nahal Hever Greek Dead Sea Scroll agrees with this text, I have colored the text purple.

DEnglish translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton, 1851, “based upon the text of the Vaticanus” but not identical to the Vaticanus. As published electronically by E-Sword in 2016.

E1769 King James Version of the Holy Bible; public domain. As published electronically by E-Sword in 2019.

FFrom the Wiki Hebrew Bible https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%9B%D7%94_%D7%90/%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%AA.
DSS text comes from https://downloads.thewaytoyahuweh.com. Both were accessed in 2024.

GThe 1st century BC Greek manuscript, Nahal Hever, spells “LORD” with the paleo-Hebrew letters for YHWH, everywhere the divine name occurs in the manuscript, but the rest of the manuscript is spelled with normal Greek letters.

HThe definite article is omitted in the Nahal Hever manuscript. Also, the final vowel of the next word is lengthened with a dipthong: μωρασθει. The latter is an inconsequential result of different ways of transliterating words from one language to be pronounced in another language, but the former is significant. Waltke pointed out that the genitive definite article is the Greek formula for introducing the name of a person’s father, which is not an accurate way to translate this verse, and that the Coptic, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions made the same mistake.

IAlthough the Nahal Hever manuscript is unreadable at this spot, there is not enough room between legible words to include the two και’s found in the LXX.

JThis is a paraphrastic translation. The Vulgate actually matches the MT with “and its fullness.”

KNahal Hever instead has the synonymous phrase πληρωμα αυτης “their fullness.”

LNahal Hever supports Rahlfs, omitting the YHWH found in the MT, but the Vulgate appears to support the MT with both “Lord” and “God.”

MKeil (and also Fausset) suggested that since these opening words were the same as those of Micaiah son of Imrah in 1 Kings 28:22, that Micah here must be quoting Micaiah. He also suggested that the whole earth is summoned to hear “because the judgment which the prophet has to announce to Israel affects the whole earth… being connected with the judgment upon all nations, or forming a portion of that judgment.” (Hailey agreed, noting that we should “learn a lesson” from “the judgment of the Lord against the people of His wrath.” This makes more sense than the supposition of Calvin and others that they are being summoned as witnesses against Israel.) Henry explains the 3rd person pronoun (Lit. “all of them”) as “all you that are now within hearing, and all others that hear it at second hand.” The “to y’all” later in the verse, Keil refers to Jerusalem and Samaria, not the nations. Gill (following Abarbanel) suggested that the first half of the verse was also addressed only to the Israelites, but the plural “peoples” and “the earth and what fills it” is rather against that notion (Pusey, Waltke “communities outside of Israel are in view,” etc.).

NDSS add -ו (“and”), confirming the readings of the LXX, Peshitta, and Vulgate.

OLXX, and Targum omit the “and” here, but it’s in two DSS. BHS claims that the DSS rearranged the words to read “Yhwh Adonai,” but it is not so in any of the three known DSS. Similarly, Cathcart translated the Targum “the Memra of the Lord” although this is not actually the reading of the Targum (which actually follows the MT). LXX omits YHWH and so do a couple of Hebrew manuscripts.
Three verbs in v.2 strongly expressing motion (“go forth,” “come down,” and “tread/travel”) follow this verb, to describe God’s next action which will make Him a witness concerning what is going on with the people associated with His name and reputation. “Going forth” is the verb used in Hebrew to describe a king or army general leaving his home base to go out to war, so the preposition “from” in “from His holy temple” is not describing Him sitting in his heavenly temple and issuing orders “from it,” but rather “going out from” it.
Calvin took the opposite view that God was leaving the temple in Jerusalem and going up to the judgment seat and calling all the nations to be witnesses, but the clear motion in the Hebrew text is down to earth, and it is Himself, not the nations, that He intends to be a witness (also contra Fausset and Henry and others which postulated Micah as the witness, because he is warning them of God’s impending punishment).
The Messianic overtones of this emphatic motion should be considered. Micah prophecied of this happening in the future, and it is exactly what Jesus did – exited the glory of heaven to walk on earth and bear witness among us to the truth (John 18:37, cf. 7:7, 8:18).

PPeshitta and Targum use the same beth preposition, consistent with the LXX εν and the Latin in, which indicates a historic interpretation of “with” rather than “against.” The next verse describing the LORD coming down to be on earth could support the idea of testifying “with” them. However, the beth preposition is the normal Hebrew idiom for testifying “against” someone in court (Exod. 20:16; Num. 5:13; Deut. 4:26; 5:20; 31:26; 1 Sam. 12:3, 5, etc.). cf. Gill: “let him bear witness in your [consciences].”

QCalvin (following Abarbanel) considered this to be the earthly temple in Jerusalem (in the sense of Psalm 5:8); but most commentators (e.g. Ibn Ezra, Kimchi, Keil, Fausset, Gill, Hailey “The ‘holy temple’ is not Jerusalem, but heaven…,” Waltke, etc.) considered it to be His heavenly dwelling (in the sense of Psalm 11:4). Matthew Henry tried to conflate the two: “He will be a witness from his holy temple in heaven, when he comes down to execute judgment Mic. 1:3 against those that turned a deaf ear to his oracles, wherein he witnessed to them, out of his holy temple at Jerusalem” (but the latter statement goes beyond what Micah actually said).

Rhinnēh (look!) may either emphasize ‘the immediacy, the here-and-now-ness,’ of the situation or function ‘to introduce a fact upon which a following statement … is based’ … The former nuance is preferred because it commonly occurs with participles...” ~Waltke, quoting someone else, but the endnotes in the electronic edition of his commentary are messed up, so it is impossible to tell who.

SWaltke notes how the 4/4 meter of the Hebrew in the Masoretic Text “presents YHWH’s stately march from heaven to the …. earth,” but also notes that this verb “conveys the notion of possessing key terrain.” (Waltke is also quoting someone else here, but the endnote problem with his electronic edition makes it impossible to tell who.)

TQere = בָּמֳתֵי – this is just a difference of spelling with no difference in meaning. These “high places” were hilltops where altars were traditionally placed to worship gods. In the Pentateuch this word was also used to describe the places where kings tended to build their fortified cities, so it could indicate God checking out the capitol cities and the political leaders (which was the position of Rashi, Metsudath David, Calvin, Grotius, and Fausset), but in the Biblical history of this particular time (2 Ki. 15-18 & 2 Chron 27-29) “high places” is only used to describe the places of worship, so certainly God was coming to personally witness the places where they worshiped idols (Hailey, Pusey, Waltke). God personally sees what we worship and He also sees what corrupt people in the highest echelons of power are doing behind closed doors, and He is going to hold all accountable.

UDSS, Peshitta, and LXX all make this noun definite: “the” earth.

VNahal Hever is unreadable at this point, but the spacing and legible letters would support the word τακησονται “run” used by Aquila and Symmachus in their 2nd century Greek translations, which is closer to the meaning of the Hebrew, instead of the LXX “quake.”

WOnly the middle of this word is legible in Nahal Hever, but there is a gamma instead of a kappa here, so perhaps it contained a synonym like ραγησονται.

XThe “melting” of “mountains” is also mentioned in Psalm 97:5 and Isaiah 34:3, and both refer to a coming of the Lord in judgment in the sight of all nations. The “cracking” of “valleys” is not mentioned anywhere else in the Hebrew O.T. The only other mention of the “pouring out” of “water” is 2 Samuel 14:14 as a metaphor for men dying. The LXX word for “melt” is found in the Greek text of 2 Peter 3:12, but the rest of these metaphors are not in the NT.

YOwen (Calvin’s editor) noted that the only other place this verb occurs in the Hithpael is Josh. 9:13, referring to wineskins bursting.

ZNahal Hever omits the definite articles before “ungodliness” and before “of Jacob” but this doesn’t change the meaning because the proper noun “Jacob “is definite.

AAThe letter in Nahal Hever is omicron instead of epsilon, but this is just a spelling variant of a foreign proper name.

ABLXX reads “sin” with the Peshitta and Targum, but Symmachus translated it ‘υψηλα “high places” with the Vulgate and English versions.

AC “transgression of Jacob” cf. Gen. 31:36; Isa. 58:1; Mic. 3:8

AD“House of Israel” could refer to all Israel (1 Sam. 7:2-3) or just to northern Kingdom (1 Ki. 12:21). Owen thought it could refer to the tribe of Judah based on 2 Chron. 28:19, and Waltke agreed based on his interest on it being a merisums together with “Jacob” for both kingdoms. (But I think it unlikely. It could just as well be a parallel which means the same thing as Jacob.) One contemporary passage mentions “sin” together with “house” and “Israel” - 2 Kings 13:6. (Cf. NT references on God’s bringing salvation to the house of Israel: Matt. 10:6; 15:24; Acts 2:36; 7:42; Heb. 8:8, 10.) On their “transgression” and “sin” cf. Isa. 58:1; Mic. 3:8.

AECalvin and Fausset suggested that this was a blameshifting question from the apostate people themselves (As in, “What did we do? We didn’t do anything wrong!”), but that seems too much of a stretch. Most commentaries suggested this was an elliptical expression for “What is the source of…?” (Gilby saying this explicitly, although his comment about “Who” being masculine does not seem to be accurate.) However, translating the interrogative as “where” (as the Targums did‎ אֵיכָא / היכא) makes the most sense since the answer is “Samaria/Jerusalem.”

AFTargum, Peshitta, and LXX render “sin,” whereas English versions follow the Vulgate with “high places.” Nahal Hever is illegible at this point, but its spacing suggests “high places” instead of the LXX’s “sin of the house.”
About 100 years before Micah, King Jehoram “...made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit harlotry, and led Judah astray.” (2 Chron. 21:11), and then in Micah’s time, King “...Ahaz... cut in pieces the articles of the house of God, shut up the doors of the house of the LORD, and made for himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem. And in every single city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and provoked to anger the LORD God of his fathers. (2 Chron 28:24-25) These and perhaps other kings of Judah has also commissioned a whole network of “idolatrous priests... to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem... who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.” (2 Kings 23:5, NKJV)

AGcf. Aquila: σωραυς (heap/pile) and Symmachus: βουνους (hill).

AHNahal Hever reads (with the MT, Vulgate, Targum, and English versions) “the valley” - την φαραγγα.

AIThis word only occurs 4 other places in the HOT: Job 30:24; Ps. 79:1; Jer. 26:18; and Mic. 3:12 (where it is predicated of Jerusalem in addition to Samaria).

AJThis word ties together with the promise of future replanting from the Lord in the only other places it occurs in the HOT: Isa. 60:21; 61:3; and Ezek. 17:7; 31:4; 34:29.

AKThe Hiphil stems of this verb “I will cause to pour out” and the following “I will cause to be bare/exposed” match the indirectness of the previous verb “I will make/position/put into a pile.” The destruction of the city of Samaria would not be a direct act of God (like the fiery destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was); instead it would be an indirect act of God, “caused” by Him, but by the direct agency of the Assyrian army under Shalmaneser V (and others like Nebuchadnezzar and John Hyrcanus).

ALCities were typically built on hills with walls made of stones held together with mortar, so “the stones being poured down into a valley” is the result of an army razing the city and rolling its stones down the hill.

AMCf. Ezek. 13:14.

ANNahal Hever reads εως “until” (agreeing with the MT and all the other versions) instead of the LXX “out of.”

AOThe LXX is actually closer to the MT with “she will turn together,” but it should have been plural (“they will turn together”) instead of singular.

APKeil noted that the verb “smitten to pieces” would apply better to stone idols (Ex. 34:1) than to wooden ones. Wood, metal, and stone statues were in use at the time.

AQJosiah did this in 2 Chronicles 34:7.

ARThis word only occurs in four other passages: Deut. 23:19; Isa. 23:17-18; Ezek. 16:31-41; and Hos. 9:1. Commentators seem to fall into two camps, considering it either “The hires were her wealth which she considered to have been given her by the baalim which she worshiped… the people had sold themselves as prostitutes to the baalim for the hire of material blessings” (Hailey, cf. Fausset, Grotius) or the hires were “gifts presented by the idolaters. The acquisition of all this is described as the gain of prostitute's wages, according to the scriptural view that idolatry was spiritual whoredom... Micah had in his mind ... the worship of Jehovah under the symbols of the golden calves.” (Keil, cf. Kimchi, Gill, Cohen) Pusey went both ways. Waltke took an exceptional third view that it was literal temple prostitution monies, and I am inclined to agree with him in light of the scriptural and historical evidence of that practice. The Aramaic Targums also seem to support this literal view.

ASVulgate, Syriac, and Targums read “they were gathered” instead of “she gathered,” but it doesn’t change the meaning.

ATCommentators agree (Gilby, Hailey, Keil, Henry, Gill, Pusey, Cohen, Waltke, etc.) that this meant that foreign nations who sacked Israel would take the treasures out of Jehovah’s places of worship and display them in the temples of their pagan gods, perpetuating the cycle of spiritual idolatry (Hosea 10:6).

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