Micah 1:10-16

2. Micah’s call for the people’s response 1:10-16

The prophet used several clever wordplays in this poem to describe the desolation that God would bring on Judah. He selected towns and villages near his own hometown in Judah’s Shephelah whose names were similar to the coming devastations or to other conditions that he described. The known towns encircle Micah’s hometown of Moresheth-gath.

"Interestingly Sennacherib too used wordplays when recording his conquests." [Note: Martin, p. 1479. See the map in Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible, p. 339, for the probable locations of the places mentioned in this passage.]

James Moffatt’s paraphrase gives the sense of Micah’s wordplays.

"Tell it not in Tellington!

Wail not in Wailing!

Dust Manor will eat dirt,

Dressy Town flee naked.

Safefold will not save,

Wallchester’s walls are down,

A bitter dose drinks Bitterton." Etc. [Note: The Old Testament, a new translation by James Moffatt.]