Therefore will I make Samaria as a heap of the field, as plantings of a vineyard; and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will lay bare the foundations thereof.
Samaria was the capital of the kingdom of Israel, and God here sentences the city to become farmland. Two questions follow: why start with His own people's city, and did it really happen?
Samaria was a new city, not an old holy site. A king of Israel bought the hill and built his capital on it. One writer reads that account and points straight at us.
Omri had another place in mind, so he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer. There he built a city and called it Samaria. This is like the energy of many people today in the professing Christian world. They think up a believable center of gathering that is not Christ. It may be baptism, or a pentecostal, presbyterian or catholic name — any label that suits their purpose. But if Christ is not our Center, we will face dangers of the worst kind. This is even more so if we are proud of a party name.
What man raises on a hill of his own choosing, God can pour into the valley.
The verse opens with a "therefore." The reason lies in what the two capital cities had become.
It is useless for Israel to build themselves up in the idea that they will escape. That cannot happen where Jehovah is the judge. "All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel." Sin is always evil, but never so humiliating as in the people of God… Samaria was the chief seat of Israel, as Jerusalem was of Judah, where the house of David reigned. Yet both were high places of iniquity against Jehovah — Samaria completely, and Jerusalem more and more.
The city and its images fall in one act. One writer traces the ruin back to its root.
The sin of Israel was Samaria; it started there and consisted of idol worship. The sins of Judah were the high places in Jerusalem. This announced judgment would destroy Samaria completely. All her graven images would be broken to pieces.
Another writer states the cause plainly:
Samaria's sin and her graven images are the cause of the terrible blow. This is the just judgment of God. And the waves of this flood reach even to Judah.
God named the outcome. Assyria carried it out.
The king of Israel was now a prisoner. Then "the king of Assyria overran the whole land, and went up against Samaria, and besieged it three years." But Shalmaneser did not take the city himself. We read, "And at the end of three years they took it." By then Sargon had succeeded Shalmaneser, or at least led the army during a short gap in the reign. The fate of this rebellious city was terrible. It matched the word of Micah, who prophesied "concerning Samaria and Jerusalem."
One writer takes two of Micah's predictions and looks for them on the ground.
In the prophecies of this book, Jerusalem the religious and Samaria the proud, the capitals of Judea and Israel, receive special judgment. These predictions have come true to the very letter. Zion was to be "plowed as a field" (Micah 3:12), and Samaria made "a heap in the open country" (Micah 1:6). Turnus Rufus verified the first: under imperial orders he drove the Roman plow over Zion after its destruction in AD 70. Dr. Keith, M'Cheyne and others witnessed the second, and saw the stones of Samaria gathered in heaps.
Yet the fallen stones are not the whole story. The events of Micah's own day serve a second purpose:
Notice here that the events of the prophet's own day have the same moral character as the final judgment of the last days. So they introduce the great action of that judgment. They also served as a warning to the people of that time.
- Built — a king bought the hill and built Samaria for his own strength. Any center that is not Christ leaves people exposed.
- Blamed — the "therefore" rests on the transgression of Jacob. Sin is always evil, but never so humiliating as in the people of God.
- Broken — the idols fell with the city; the walls and the images came down together.
- Besieged — Assyria was the tool. Three years at the gates, and the city fell just as Micah said.
- Beyond — the stones lay in heaps, just as the word said. That same judgment points to the greater day still ahead.
And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her harlot-gifts shall be burned with fire, and all her idols will I make a desolation; for of the hire of a harlot hath she gathered [them], and to a harlot's hire shall they return.
Micah names why Samaria falls: her wealth and her worship were tied together, and both go into the fire. Her idols were bought with a prostitute's fee, and God says that fee is where they will end up again.
This ruin is not blind bad luck. It has a cause, and it does not stop at Samaria's border.
The sin of Samaria and her carved images are the cause of this terrible punishment, according to the just judgment of God. And the waves of this flood reach even as far as Judah.
Being God's own people gave Israel no cover.
It is useless, then, for Israel to build themselves up in the belief that they will get away with it. That cannot happen where Jehovah is the judge. "All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel." Sin is always evil, but never so humiliating as in the people of God. Samaria and Jerusalem were both high places of sin against Jehovah — Samaria completely, and Jerusalem more and more.
Each kingdom's sin had an address.
The sin of Israel was Samaria; it started there and consisted of idol worship. The sins of Judah were the high places in Jerusalem. This announced judgment would destroy Samaria completely. All her carved images would be smashed to pieces, and the earnings of her prostitution burned with fire.
Why a prostitute's fee, and not simply theft or rebellion? Israel already stood in a marriage bond.
Adultery, or idolatry — "with their idols they have committed adultery" (Ezekiel 23:37) — is the special sin charged against Israel of old, because Israel was the married wife of Jehovah (Jeremiah 3:14; Isaiah 54:1). For this she was divorced. But in the purpose and grace of Jehovah, Israel will be restored to her former blessed relationship, one she will never lose again as long as the sun and moon last.
Hosea describes the same trade, and names what it cost Israel.
Hosea 9 sets out the joyless doom of Israel for their shameless desertion of their God. They had taken their grain as a prostitute's fee from their false gods. All such outward mercies would fail, and they would no longer live in the land of Jehovah.
The verse ends where the money started. Nothing gained that way stays.
"As the partridge sits on eggs and does not hatch them, so is he who gets riches, but not by right. It will leave him in the middle of his days, and at his end he will be a fool." What is gained wrongly flies away. Things last only in God, even the things He gives.
This kind of idolatry once began inside a single family. Its modern form is easy to miss.
She joined Jehovah's name to her idols, a worse thing than mere idolatry, and her conscience was silent. She set up a form of worship of her own, with which her guilty son fully identified himself. The so-called worship of the religious world today differs less from this than it first appears. People mix the Lord's name with many things the natural heart wants. About all of them Scripture says: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (1 John 5:21). Art, music, gold, silver and costly objects decorate what people call divine worship, and man makes room for what the world admires and chases after: wealth, influence and worldly wisdom.
- Cause. Samaria's ruin was not blind disaster. Her sin and her carved images brought God's just judgment, and the flood reached Judah too.
- Location. Israel's sin started in Samaria as idol worship; Judah's stood in the high places of Jerusalem. Sin is always evil, but never so humiliating as in the people of God.
- Character. Israel was the married wife of Jehovah, so going after idols was adultery. She took her grain as a prostitute's fee from her false gods.
- Outcome. What is gained wrongly flies away. Things last only in God, even the things He gives.
- Warning. The worst idolatry is not open paganism. It is the Lord's name mixed with what the heart already wants — so "keep yourselves from idols."
For this will I lament, and I will howl; I will go stripped and naked I will make a wailing like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches.
Micah has just described Samaria left as a heap of ruins. Now the man who announced that blow is the one crying over it — stripped, howling in public, mourning the judgment he was sent to declare.
The lament follows a verdict. Israel hoped to escape punishment, but the two cities at the head of the nation were the seats of its guilt.
It is useless for Israel to build themselves up with the idea that they will escape punishment. This cannot happen where the LORD is the judge. "For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel." Sin is always evil, but never so humiliating as in the people of God. Samaria was the chief city of Israel, and Jerusalem the chief city of Judah, where the house of David reigned. Yet both were high places of wickedness against the LORD — Samaria completely, and Jerusalem more and more.
Idolatry is the root of the ruin, and the judgment it brings will not stop at Israel's border.
The wickedness of Samaria and her carved images are the cause of this terrible scourge, according to the just judgment of God. The waves of this flood reach even to Judah.
Micah does not deliver the news at a distance. He weeps for Samaria and for his own people in Judah, and one writer sees this as the mark of anyone who believes God's word.
Here is the lamentation of Micah as directed by the Spirit of God, not only over the fate of Samaria, but over Judah as well. He weeps for both Samaria and Judah. "I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches." It shows how completely these men of God entered into the revelations God gave them. It stirred their souls deeply. This must be the result of faith in the prophetic word with all His people at all times.
What does going "naked" mean here? One writer gathers how the Bible uses the word elsewhere:
"Naked" is often used to express the absence, not of all covering, but of the usual outer clothing, in one form or another. (See also 1 Samuel 19:24; 2 Samuel 6:20; Amos 2:16; John 21:7.)
Some translations call the second creature an owl, others an ostrich. Its Hebrew name and its habits explain which bird Micah had in view.
A related Hebrew word (preceded by bath, meaning the female), bath yaanah, "daughter of howling," is translated "owl" eight times. Leviticus 11:16; Deuteronomy 14:15; Job 30:29; Isaiah 13:21; Isaiah 34:13; Isaiah 43:20; Jeremiah 50:39; Micah 1:8. It is classed among the unclean birds. It lives in waste places and has a wailing cry — habits that fit the ostrich. Some passages may seem to point to the owl, but the ostrich is doubtless meant in all of them.
So Micah's mourning takes on the sound of ruined, empty places.
The verse before the lament is about Samaria; the verse after it names Jerusalem. The mourning sits at the hinge, because the blow that starts in Samaria does not stop there.
The special subject of this prophecy is the action of the Assyrian, and its consequence, concerning Samaria. But then, in verse 9, it comes to Judah and reaches to Jerusalem, and this is taken up as the judgment of the whole nation.
The invasion in Micah's own lifetime also pictures something later. It warns the people in front of him and previews a final judgment.
Notice here that the events of the prophet's own day have the same moral character as the final judgment of the last days. So they are used to introduce the great action of that judgment. They also served as a warning to the people of that time.
- Cause. The wailing answers a verdict already given. Samaria's idols brought the scourge, and sin is never so humiliating as in the people of God.
- Cost. Micah does not report the ruin from a distance. He enters fully into it, and that is what faith in God's word should always produce.
- Costume. Going "stripped" means losing the usual outer clothing. It is a mourner's public sign, not literal nakedness.
- Cry. He borrows the voice of jackals and of the "daughter of howling." These creatures wail in waste places, so his grief sounds like the emptied land.
- Compass. The grief widens from Samaria to Judah, and reaches Jerusalem. It becomes the judgment of the whole nation in the last days, with the near invasion as the warning.
For her wounds are incurable; for it is come even unto Judah, it reacheth unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.
Micah's opening prophecy watches judgment fall on Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom. Then it sees the same judgment spread south into Judah, right up to Jerusalem's gate. Two hard questions follow. Why is the wound called incurable? And who has come to the gate?
The judgment did not stay where the sin began. One writer names the cause of the disaster and then follows how far it travelled.
Samaria's sin and her carved images are the cause of this terrible punishment, and it falls by the just judgment of God. The waves of this flood reach even to Judah.
One Hebrew word lies behind "incurable" here and behind "desperately wicked" in Jeremiah. One writer traces how translators handled it.
In the King James Version, the word here translated "desperately wicked" is rendered "desperate" in Isaiah 17:11 and "woeful" in Jeremiah 17:16. Everywhere else it is translated "incurable," as in Job 34:6, Jeremiah 15:18, and Micah 1:9. Clearly "desperately wicked" represents the Hebrew participle well when the word is applied to moral evil and not physical evil.
The wound is the wound of God's own people, and that is what makes it so serious. The same writer looks at the two capital cities and at how far each had gone.
Sin is always evil, but never so humiliating as in the people of God. "What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?" Samaria was the chief seat of Israel, as Jerusalem was of Judah, where the house of David reigned; yet both had become high places of sin against Jehovah — Samaria completely, and Jerusalem more and more.
What reaches the gate is not only a disaster, and the gate is the gate of Micah's own people. Older English translations read "he is come to the gate of my people" — a person is meant. The verse also sits inside a lament. One writer holds both together: the prophet's grief, and the name of the army on the march.
Here is the lamentation of Micah as directed by the Spirit of God, not only over the fate of Samaria, but over Judah as well. He weeps for both Samaria and Judah… It shows how these men of God took the messages God gave them fully to heart. It stirred them deeply. Faith in the prophetic word must do the same in all His people at all times. In verse nine the prophet speaks of one who comes to carry out the threatened judgment… This enemy is the Assyrian, whom Micah sees advancing and who came up before the gates of Jerusalem… God used the Assyrian to end the kingdom of Israel. Sennacherib came against Jerusalem, but it was Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, who carried Israel away into captivity.
Another writer reads those kings as only the starting point of a prophecy that reaches much further:
Shalmaneser and Sennacherib are certainly in view here. But when we look at the prophecy in its full extent, they are only its occasion. The Assyrian comes up to the gates of Jerusalem.
The same writer explains why one prophecy can point at two events at once.
Notice here that the events of the prophet's own day have the same moral character as the final judgment of the last days. So they serve to introduce that great judgment, and they also warn the people living at that time.
An incurable wound raises the question of blame. One writer sets this verse beside Jeremiah's words and beside Jesus weeping over Jerusalem.
This is the cry of a broken heart clearing God of blame. According to Jeremiah, Jerusalem has only herself to blame for her captivity and exile. Her sin has been her ruin. And so with the lamentation of Jesus over her. She had killed the prophets and stoned the messengers of God, and after all, she "would not." Her wound is incurable, but she herself has done it.
- Spread. Samaria's sin and her carved images started a flood whose waves reached Judah. Sin does not stay where it starts.
- Incurable. The word for the wound is the same word for desperate wickedness. The sickness is moral, and the city gave it to herself.
- Closest to home. Sin is always evil. It is never so humiliating as it is in the people of God.
- At the gate. The one who comes to carry out the sentence is the Assyrian, advancing while the prophet weeps for his people.
- Beyond. Shalmaneser and Sennacherib are only the occasion. The near invasion warns Micah's own generation and points on to the judgment of the last days.