8 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.
9 For her wound is incurable,
and it has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people,
to Jerusalem.
10 Tell it not in Gath;
weep not at all;
in Beth-le-aphrah
roll yourselves in the dust.
11 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.
12 For the inhabitants of Maroth
wait anxiously for good,
because disaster has come down from the Lord
to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 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.
14 Therefore you shall give parting gifts
to Moresheth-gath;
the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing
to the kings of Israel.
15 I will again bring a conqueror to you,
inhabitants of Mareshah;
the glory of Israel
shall come to Adullam.
16 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. – Micah 1:8-16 ESV
Micah has a message from God Almighty that contains information regarding His chosen people, the descendants of Abraham. But Micah calls on all the people of the earth to hear what God has to say about the fate of the nation of Israel. Like a judge in a courtroom, God is going to deliver His indictment against the accused, and He wants everyone to hear the vindication of His actions.
He is judging His people for their sins. These are not the actions of some capricious deity who is arbitrarily meting out judgment upon innocent people. They stand before Him as guilty.
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? – Micah 1:5 ESV
Here, Micah uses two different designations for the people of God because he is writing during the period of the divided kingdom. Originally, Israel had been one nation with a single capital, Jerusalem, where the king of Israel reigned over a unified kingdom. But during the reign of Solomon, the son of David, things had taken a decidedly dark turn. This young man, who had ascended to his father’s throne, had begun his reign by building a house for the Lord. He had spent seven years and a vast sum of money constructing this elaborate and ornate structure designed to serve as God’s temple.
The inner sanctuary he prepared in the innermost part of the house, to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord. The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high, and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid an altar of cedar. And Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold, and he drew chains of gold across, in front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold. And he overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. Also the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold. – 1 Kings 6:19-22 ESV
Upon completion of the temple, Solomon went on to build himself a palace, spending 15 years and an exorbitant amount of money in the process. And sadly, 1 Kings 7:8 reveals that he also built a temple for one of his many wives.
His own house where he was to dwell, in the other court back of the hall, was of like workmanship. Solomon also made a house like this hall for Pharaoh's daughter whom he had taken in marriage.
We know that Solomon went on to have 700 wives and 300 concubines. This was in direct violation of God’s law.
The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will turn his heart away from the LORD. And he must not accumulate large amounts of wealth in silver and gold for himself. – Deuteronomy 17:7 NLT
And it is clear that Solomon ignored God’s prohibition against excessive wealth.
So King Solomon became richer and wiser than any other king on earth. People from every nation came to consult him and to hear the wisdom God had given him. Year after year everyone who visited brought him gifts of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.
Solomon built up a huge force of chariots and horses. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses. He stationed some of them in the chariot cities and some near him in Jerusalem. The king made silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as stone. And valuable cedar timber was as common as the sycamore-fig trees that grow in the foothills of Judah. Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from Cilicia… – 1 Kings 10:23-28 NLT
Solomon was obsessed with all the trappings of success that come with royal sovereignty. He enjoyed being the king and he used his great wealth and power to satisfy his every whim. According to his own testimony, Solomon spared no expense in meeting his every perceived need.
I also tried to find meaning by building huge homes for myself and by planting beautiful vineyards. I made gardens and parks, filling them with all kinds of fruit trees. I built reservoirs to collect the water to irrigate my many flourishing groves. I bought slaves, both men and women, and others were born into my household. I also owned large herds and flocks, more than any of the kings who had lived in Jerusalem before me. I collected great sums of silver and gold, the treasure of many kings and provinces. I hired wonderful singers, both men and women, and had many beautiful concubines. I had everything a man could desire!
So I became greater than all who had lived in Jerusalem before me, and my wisdom never failed me. Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. – Ecclesiastes 2:4-10 NLT
But Solomon’s greatest sin was his unfaithfulness to God. He allowed his uncontrolled desires to lead him away from the worship of the one true God. His physical passions ended up having spiritual ramifications.
Now King Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides Pharaoh’s daughter, he married women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from among the Hittites. The LORD had clearly instructed the people of Israel, “You must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods.” Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway. He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the LORD. – 1 Kings 11:1-3 NLT
And, as a result of Solomon’s idolatry, God chose to split his kingdom in half. He raised up Jeroboam and made him king over the ten tribes located in the northern half of the kingdom. And God left no doubts as to the cause of the split.
For Solomon has abandoned me and worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians; Chemosh, the god of Moab; and Molech, the god of the Ammonites. He has not followed my ways and done what is pleasing in my sight. He has not obeyed my decrees and regulations as David his father did. – 1 Kings 11:33 NLT
Upon Solomon’s death, the nation of Israel found itself divided in two. Ten tribes formed the northern kingdom of Israel with their capital located in Samaria. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin formed the southern kingdom of Judah with its capital in Jerusalem. And over the years, these two kingdoms would find themselves ruled by a litany of different kings who, over time, led the people of God further and further away from Him. What Solomon had begun, they accelerated and exacerbated. And by the time Micah records the contents of his book, the overall spiritual outlook for the two kingdoms had grown decidedly dark.
And Micah describes his emotional state when considering the sad reality of the circumstances surrounding him.
Therefore, I will mourn and lament.
I will walk around barefoot and naked.
I will howl like a jackal
and moan like an owl.
For my people’s wound
is too deep to heal.
It has reached into Judah,
even to the gates of Jerusalem. – Micah 1:8-9 NLT
In these verses, Micah mentions a number of different cities, including Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. The sins of the ten northern tribes had infected the southern kingdom of Judah. The cancer of spiritual infidelity had spread all the way to the gates of Jerusalem. And in Micah’s lifetime, he would see the northern kingdom attacked and destroyed by the Assyrians. God would bring judgment against His people for their unrepentant rebellion against Him. And those same Assyrians would threaten the southern kingdom of Judah.
Micah weaves in the names of cities located in Judah, not far from his hometown of Moresheth. He warns the citizens of Beth-leaphrah, Shaphir, Zaanan, Beth-ezel, and Maroth to consider their fate. They will soon suffer the same fate as the cities in the northern kingdom. They are not immune from God’s judgment. They stand just as guilty before God and are doomed to endure the same tragic outcome.
They “anxiously wait for relief, but only bitterness awaits them as the Lord’s judgment reaches even to the gates of Jerusalem” (Micah 1:123 NLT). City after city will fall under the righteous wrath of God. These two kingdoms, which had once formed the dynastic legacy of King David, were now relegated to positions of powerlessness and helplessness in the face of their enemies. They could run, but they could not hide. They could try to wish it all away, but their sins had caught up with them. And Micah gives them a piece of advice that comes across as too little, too late.
Oh, people of Judah, shave your heads in sorrow,
for the children you love will be snatched away.
Make yourselves as bald as a vulture,
for your little ones will be exiled to distant lands. – Micah 1:16 NLT
They should have mourned over their sins generations ago. This problem was not a new one. Their sins were not an aberration or a recent development. The sins of the northern kingdom had grown progressively worse until God was ready to bring judgment against them in the form of the Assyrians. And the infectious nature of their sin had spread to the southern kingdom, leaving the tribes of Judah and Benjamin equally culpable and fully responsible for God’s judgment against them.
English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson
