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Micah 1:5-7

King James Version (KJV)

“In our prayers we talk to God, in our Bible study God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.”
— D.L. Moody

Scripture focus

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? 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. 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.

Micah 1:5-7 — KJV

Commentary

Commentary on Micah 1:5

Theological / Devotional

The transgression. Verses 5-7 describe the punishment to come upon the northern kingdom, Israel, for its sins.

Jacob. The name here stands for the ten tribes that made up “the house of Israel,” as is evident from the next sentence.

Samaria. As the capitals of Israel and Judah respectively, Samaria and Jerusalem had become the centers of idolatry and iniquity. Samaria had been built by wicked Omri; and his son, Ahab, who followed in his steps, erected in it a temple to Baal (see 1 Kings 16:23-33). For a description of Samaria see on 1 Kings 16:24.

High places. The Septuagint here reads, “What is the sin of the house of Judah?” This reading provides a better parallelism with the preceding line, “What is the transgression of Jacob?” If “high places” is to be retained, there is an obvious reference to the heathen shrines and sanctuaries erected upon eminences where the inhabitants of Judah practiced their idolatry (see 1 Kings 14:22-24; 15:9-15; 22:43; etc.). Hezekiah was the first of Judah’s kings to thoroughly rid the land of these centers of idolatry (see on 2 Kings 18:4). Evidently Micah’s present prophecy preceded this reformation.

By SdaBc