1:2-2:13 First series of prophecies: God gathers the elect remnant into Jerusalem

1:2-16 God punishes Samaria and Judah
Two oracles of doom, against Samaria (2-7) and Judah (8-16), have been joined here. Note Because of this in v 8—the fall of the former points to the fall of the latter. The wages of sin is death, and the reward of righteousness is life (Rom. 6:23; Gal. 6:7-10).


1:2-7 God descends from heaven and earth to level Samaria. 

2 Hear, you peoples, all of you; [1]
pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,
and let the Lord God be a witness against you,
the Lord from his holy temple.
3 For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place,
and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.
4 And the mountains will melt under him,
and the valleys will split open,
like wax before the fire,
like waters poured down a steep place.
5 All this is for the transgression of Jacob
and for the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the transgression of Jacob?
Is it not Samaria?
And what is the high place of Judah?
Is it not Jerusalem?
6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country,
a place for planting vineyards,
and I will pour down her stones into the valley
and uncover her foundations.
7 All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
all her wages shall be burned with fire,
and all her idols I will lay waste,
for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them,
and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.

The oracle consists of four parts: an address to the nations to hear God’s testimony against them (2); the Lord descends from his heavenly palace (3) to [p. 823] convulse the earth (4); Samaria and Judah are accused of breaking God’s covenant (5); and God sentences Samaria to annihilation (6-7).
    2 Micah delivered this oracle against Samaria and Jerusalem before 722 BC, when Samaria fell. He summons the peoples of the land, all of them to a trial as defendants (the Lord witnesses against you).
    3-4 Micah sees behind the Assyrian troops the coming of the LORD from his heavenly dwelling–place. Under the heat of his glowing wrath and his heavy tread the land’s enduring mountains melt and flow like hot wax. Israel’s mountains were critical for the defence of the land. Whoever controlled those heights controlled the land. Its fertile valleys give way and split apart like water rushing down a slope of a mountain ravine. The punishing descent of God (4) is linked with the levelling of Samaria (6-7) by the same Hebrew word translated rushing down in v 4 and pour in v 6, and by fire (4, 7).
5 This visitation is because of Jacob’s (i.e. the northern kingdom’s) transgression and the sins of the house of Israel (i.e. the southern kingdom). The southern kingdom is called ‘the house of Israel’ because Jerusalem, not Samaria, embodied the nation. The leaders in the two capitals of Samaria and Jerusalem are principally responsible for this breach of covenant.
    6-7 Therefore shows that the sentence, handed down by God himself, fits the accusation. He will make Samaria a heap of rubble; he will pour her magnificently hewn stones down the slopes of the capital’s acropolis (see v 4). Her idols on which she trusted will in fact bring her destruction. The silver and gold of these images, collected from the wages of [temple] prostitutes, will again be used by the Assyrian conquerors to hire temple prostitutes in their capital, Nineveh. This deplorable behaviour of depraved people demands the purifying fire of God.
   
1:8-16 Micah laments Judah’s exile.

8 For this I will lament and wail;
I will go stripped and naked;
I will make lamentation like the jackals,
and mourning like the ostriches.
9 For her wound is incurable,
and it has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people,
to Jerusalem.

10 Tell it not in Gath;
weep not at all;
in Beth-le-aphrah
roll yourselves in the dust.
11 Pass on your way,
inhabitants of Shaphir,
in nakedness and shame;
the inhabitants of Zaanan
do not come out;
the lamentation of Beth-ezel
shall take away from you its standing place.
12 For the inhabitants of Maroth
wait anxiously for good,
because disaster has come down from the Lord
to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Harness the steeds to the chariots,
inhabitants of Lachish;
it was the beginning of sin
to the daughter of Zion,
for in you were found
the transgressions of Israel.
14 Therefore you shall give parting gifts [2]
to Moresheth-gath;
the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing
to the kings of Israel.
15 I will again bring a conqueror to you,
inhabitants of Mareshah;
the glory of Israel
shall come to Adullam.
16 Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair,
for the children of your delight;
make yourselves as bald as the eagle,
for they shall go from you into exile.

8-9 Because of this links the judgment of Samaria with that of Judah; both have sinned (5), and so both must be punished. Micah introduces his judgment oracle against Judah by sorrowfully dramatizing exiles who weep and wail and go... barefoot and naked into captivity (cf. Is. 20:2-4). Behind the incurable wound afflicted by the Assyrians, Micah again sees the hand of God. It [or He] has reached the very gate of... Jerusalem, but the capital itself is spared.
    10-15 Micah predicts the fall of Judah’s towns by a word play on their names which become an omen of their destruction. All the identifiable towns lie within a 14 km (9 mile) radius of Micah’s hometown and were visible from there, but many of them cannot be identified today. Micah makes elaborate use of puns on each of the names mentioned. The meaning of each is explained in the NIV mg. For instance, Beth Ophrah (10), which means ‘house of dust’, is summoned to roll in the dust, symbolizing its abject and humiliating defeat (cf. Gn. 3:14; Ps. 44:25; Je. 6:26; Ezk. 27:30). The puns and literary symmetry of the chapter correspond to God’s moral order for all time. Within that order sin brings punishment, just as surely as neglect leads to loss. A nation that lives for pleasure will die through venereal diseases and drugs, and a nation that worships money will find itself bankrupt.