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All her carved idols will be smashed to pieces;
all her metal cult statues will be destroyed by fire.[a]
I will make a waste heap[b] of all her images.
Since[c] she gathered the metal[d] as a prostitute collects her wages,
the idols will become a prostitute’s wages again.”[e]
For this reason I[f] will mourn and wail;
I will walk around barefoot[g] and without my outer garments.[h]
I will howl[i] like a wild dog,[j]
and screech[k] like an owl.[l]
For Samaria’s[m] disease[n] is incurable.
It has infected[o] Judah;
it has spread to[p] the leadership[q] of my people
and even to Jerusalem!

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Footnotes

  1. Micah 1:7 tn Heb “and all her prostitute’s wages will be burned with fire.”sn The precious metal used by Samaria’s pagan worship centers to make idols is compared to a prostitute’s wages because Samaria had been unfaithful to the Lord and prostituted herself to pagan gods such as Baal.
  2. Micah 1:7 tn Heb “I will make desolate” (so NASB).
  3. Micah 1:7 tn Or “for” (KJV, NASB, NRSV).
  4. Micah 1:7 tn No object is specified in the Hebrew text; the words “the metal” are supplied from the context.
  5. Micah 1:7 tn Heb “for from a prostitute’s wages she gathered, and to a prostitute’s wages they will return.” When the metal was first collected it was comparable to the coins a prostitute would receive for her services. The metal was then formed into idols, but now the Lord’s fiery judgment would reduce the metal images to their original condition.
  6. Micah 1:8 tn The prophet is probably the speaker here.
  7. Micah 1:8 tn Or “stripped.” The precise meaning of this Hebrew word is unclear. It may refer to walking barefoot (see 2 Sam 15:30) or to partially stripping oneself (see Job 12:17-19).
  8. Micah 1:8 tn Heb “naked.” This probably does not refer to complete nudity, but to stripping off one’s outer garments as an outward sign of the destitution felt by the mourner.
  9. Micah 1:8 tn Heb “I will make lamentation.”
  10. Micah 1:8 tn Or “a jackal”; CEV “howling wolves.”
  11. Micah 1:8 tn Heb “[make] a mourning.”
  12. Micah 1:8 tn Or perhaps “ostrich” (cf. ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT).
  13. Micah 1:9 tn Heb “her.”
  14. Micah 1:9 tc The MT reads the plural “wounds/plagues”; the singular is read by the LXX, Syriac, and Vg.
  15. Micah 1:9 tn Heb “come to.”
  16. Micah 1:9 tn Or “reached.”
  17. Micah 1:9 tn Heb “the gate.” Kings and civic leaders typically conducted important business at the city gate (see 1 Kgs 22:10 for an example), and the term is understood here to refer by metonymy to the leadership who would be present at the gate.

All her idols(A) will be broken to pieces;(B)
    all her temple gifts will be burned with fire;
    I will destroy all her images.(C)
Since she gathered her gifts from the wages of prostitutes,(D)
    as the wages of prostitutes they will again be used.”

Weeping and Mourning

Because of this I will weep(E) and wail;
    I will go about barefoot(F) and naked.
I will howl like a jackal
    and moan like an owl.
For Samaria’s plague(G) is incurable;(H)
    it has spread to Judah.(I)
It has reached the very gate(J) of my people,
    even to Jerusalem itself.

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