Micah 1:10-14
Living Bible
10 Woe to the city of Gath. Weep, men of Bakah. In Beth-leaphrah roll in the dust in your anguish and shame. 11 There go the people of Shaphir,[a] led away as slaves—stripped, naked and ashamed. The people of Zaanan dare not show themselves outside their walls. The foundations of Beth-ezel are swept away—the very ground on which it stood. 12 The people of Maroth vainly hope for better days, but only bitterness awaits them as the Lord stands poised against Jerusalem.
13 Quick! Use your swiftest chariots and flee, O people of Lachish, for you were the first of the cities of Judah to follow Israel in her sin of idol worship. Then all the cities of the south began to follow your example.
14 Write off Moresheth[b] of Gath; there is no hope of saving her. The town of Achzib has deceived the kings of Israel, for she promised help she cannot give.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Micah 1:11 There go the people of Shaphir. In the Hebrew there is frequent wordplay in vv. 10-14. Micah bitterly declaims each town, demonstrating by the use of puns their failures. Shaphir sounds like the Hebrew word for “beauty,” here contrasted with their shame; Zaanan sounds like the verb meaning “to go forth,” here contrasted with the fear of its inhabitants to venture outside; Beth-ezel sounds like a word for “foundation,” which had been taken away from them.
- Micah 1:14 Moresheth, Micah’s hometown (1:1).
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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