Micah 1:7-9
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
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[a] it gathered them,
and to the wages of a prostitute they shall return.
8 [b]For this I will lament and wail,
go barefoot and naked;
I will utter lamentation like the jackals,
mourning like the ostriches,(B)
9 For her wound is incurable;
it has come even to Judah.
It has reached to the gate of my people,
even to Jerusalem.
Footnotes
- 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.
- 1:8–16 The prophet laments and wails, singing a funeral song or dirge over the city of Jerusalem. Finally (1:16) he calls upon the people of Jerusalem to join in the mourning.
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