Faith Formation: Micah - Justice, Kindness, humility

Tell it not in Gath; weep not at all;

in Beth-leaphrah roll yourselves in dust. Pass on your way, inhabitants of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame;

the inhabitants of Zaanan do not come forth;

Beth-ezel is wailing and shall remove its support from you.

For the inhabitants of Maroth wait anxiously for good,

yet disaster has come down from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem.

Harness the steeds of the chariots, inhabitants of Lachish;

it was the beginning of sin to daughter Zion,

for in you were found the transgressions of Israel.

Therefore you shall give parting gifts to Moresheth-gath;

the houses of Achzib shall be a deception to the kings of Israel.

It will again bring a conqueror upon you, inhabitants of Mareshah;

the glory of Israel shall come to Adullam.

Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair for your pampered children;

make yourself as bald as the eagle, for they have gone from you into exile.

Micah 1:10-16

Ancient texts were not always well preserved or simple to decipher. Words were lost or their meanings became unknown. Copies deteriorated and needed to be reconstructed as best as scholars were able. How the sayings and poetry associated with the prophet were gathered and why they were arranged in the way they were is lost to us. Even the specific situation or setting of the prophets words was never reported in a systematic manner. So we conjecture and guess and do the best we can as we wonder what these things mean. On the other hand Micah was a master of language, and the poetry of this section is alive with word plays and biting puns.

The invasion of Israel and Judah by the Assyrian king Sennacherib during the time of King Hezekiah fits the lament over the cities named by Micah. The cities were built as a defensive network to protect the approaches to Jerusalem from the coastal plains. Sennacherib dealt with them before laying siege to Jerusalem. Reports of the devastation of Assyrian warfare against Israel describe the terror the towns of Micah's people experienced. Sargon II (722 BCE): "I besieged and took Samaria, led away as booty 27,290 inhabitants thereof, together with chariotry. ... The terror-inspired glamor of Ashur my lord overwhelmed them. At the very mention of my name their hearts pounded in fright; their arms lost their vigor." Sennacherib (701 BCE): "As for Hezekiah of Judah, I besieged forty-six of his strong fortified cities. I drove out as booty 200,150 persons, young and old, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, cattle and flocks beyond counting. Himself I shut up as a prisoner in his royal city Jerusalem as a bird in a cage. ... The brilliant terror of my lordship overwhelmed Hezekiah." (Micah the Prophet, Hans Walter Wolff). Before Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem felt threatened, the little towns of the plains were shattered and the people killed, exiled, and enslaved. The small towns, agricultural, trading villages, usually quiet, found themselves on the front lines between kingdoms, the one attacking them (Assyria) and the one which they defended and was supposed to come to their aid (Jerusalem). Micah may have gone to Jerusalem to accuse the king and leaders in their security of neglect and lay before them his lament in the most biting terms.

Micah quoted David (Jerusalem's great king and general) who lamented the death of Saul and Jonathan. "Your glory, O Israel, lies slain upon your high places! How the mighty have fallen! Tell it not in Gath..." 2 Samuel 1:19-20 The national disaster Saul's death, Israel's first king, compared to the national disaster happening to the devastated cities Micah lamented. When devastation happens people may be reluctant to talk about it. We turn away so as not to be completely affected by the pain. Maybe that was Micah's response. "Tell it not in Gath (his hometown); weep not at all." Or perhaps Micah was so distraught at the failure of Jerusalem to come to the aid of the villages that he has not tears left to cry. Word play bites its way through the rest of the poem. Beth-lephrah (house of dust), roll yourself in dust (the ashes of mourning). Shaphir sounds like "Shofar," the rams horn blow as a siren, in this instant warning people to flee, with nothing, but sorrow and shame. Zaanan sounds like "come out," but the inhabitants do not come out because they have been slaughtered. Beth-ezel (house of ?support?, meaning is unclear), has no support or leg to stand on. Maroth means bitter, like Naomi changed her name to Mara because of her bitterness at losing her husband and sons in the book of Ruth. It waits "anxiously for good" rescue that never comes from the gates of Jerusalem. Lachish (team of horses pulling war chariots) harness its steeds to no avail, hoping in power rather than the LORD, or maybe so that some who have access to the Ferrari's of the ancient world may escape the fate of those who have no way out. "Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses, but our pride is in the name of the LORD our God." Psalm 20:7 "Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help." Psalm 146:3 Moresheth-Gath, Micah remembered his home a second time, sounds like "possession," but it had no parting possessions to give. Achzib sounds like "failing brook," a deception, supposed to be a stronghold, but not strong at all. It goes on with the next two as well. Mareshah will have no "heirs" because it has been conquered, and Adullam. King David, the glory of Israel, fled to Adullam to hide in a cave while escaping Saul, but there would be no hiding place in Adullam any more.

The poem ends with imagery of deepest mourning, funeral mourning, or the loss of everything. Shaving one's head was a sign of such mourning, proclaiming to all the depth of loss. Calling these cities "pampered children" may be ironic and bitter, since no one who they protected was able to come to their aid. Perhaps Micah bitterly spoke to the leadership and King in Jerusalem about how these supposedly significant villages were now gone with none to lament their passing except Micah, while Jerusalem shrugged it off hoping that such calamity might not come to their gates.

Do Justice, Love Kindness, walk humbly with God.

Pastor Tim Bauer