Micah 1:11

Shaphir is the name of a city. Shaphir means ‘beautiful’. Shaphir was a beautiful city. But its people will soon be prisoners. The *Assyrians will take its people away to another country. They will make its people walk through the streets. Then those people from Shaphir will be naked and so they will be ashamed. Everyone will see their naked bodies. Their shame will be great. Their enemies will not care about them. But God sympathises. Jesus Christ, God’s Son, suffered the same shame.

Zaanan means ‘go forward’. But the people in the town called Zaanan will not go forward. They will not go to help their neighbours in the battle. Instead, they will hide behind their walls. Bethezel means ‘house where they take away’. Its people will ‘take away’ their help. It means that they will not protect Judah any longer.

v12 People that live in Maroth become weak. They are waiting for good news to come. But trouble has come down from the *LORD. It has come even to the gate of Jerusalem city.