Micah 1:5-7
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
5 All this is for the crime of Jacob,
for the sins of the house of Israel.[a]
What is the crime of Jacob? Is it not Samaria?
And what is the sin of the house of Judah?
Is it not Jerusalem?
6 So I will make Samaria a ruin in the field,
a place to plant vineyards;
I will throw its stones into the valley,
and lay bare its foundations.[b]
7 All its carved figures shall be broken to pieces,(A)
all its wages shall be burned in the fire,
and all its idols I will destroy.
As the wages of a prostitute[c] it gathered them,
and to the wages of a prostitute they shall return.
Footnotes
- 1:5 Although the summons (1:2) had been addressed to all people, the Lord speaks against Israel and Judah, identifying their crimes with the respective capital cities of Samaria and Jerusalem. Only Samaria, however, is scheduled for destruction in the announcement of punishment (vv. 6–7).
- 1:6 The punishment of Samaria will be a military disaster such as the one that actually came at the hands of the Assyrian army in 722/721 B.C.
- 1:7 The wages of a prostitute: as often in the prophets, prostitution is a metaphor for idolatry (Hos 1–3; 4:14). They shall return: i.e., Samaria’s idols shall come to nothing just as the wages of a prostitute are counted as nothing.
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