Micah 1:10-16

The Dirge on Israel's Downfall. This is a difficult and corrupt passage, playing on the names of towns and villages which are chosen for their assonances or their ominous suggestions, in a way impossible to translate; cf. mg. for Aphrah and Achzib. See G. A. Smith's map for Shaphir, Mareshah, Lachish and Adullam, other sites being unknown. Tell not our sorrows to the Philistines (cf. 2 Samuel 1:20; Gath was probably near to Ekron) or to the Phœ nicians (reading, after LXX, in Accho, i.e. Ptolemais, for at all) The towns of the Shephelah are then variously pictured in their sorrows during the progress of the invader (cf. Isaiah 10:28); their inhabitants wallow on the ground, are led into captivity, shut up, have their city razed (Beth-ezel; text obscure) anxiously await news, prepare to flee in chariots, surrender (Zion must give up her daughter, Moresheth-Gath, with a parting-gift i.e. a marriage-dowry; cf. 1 Kings 9:16), become like a brook that fails (Achzab, Jeremiah 15:18), pass into possession of the foe, shelter fugitive leaders (the glory of Israel in the cave of Adullam; cf. 1 Samuel 22:1 f.). Let Zion then go mourning for her lost daughter-towns, with shaven head (Amos 8:10; Deuteronomy 14:1; the neck and head of the griffon-vulture, Micah 1:16 mg., are featherless). Much in this dirge is uncertain or unknown, e.g. the reference to Lachish (Micah 1:13), as the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, to explain which both idolatry and political dependence on Egypt have been suggested.