Micah 1:9

Micah 1:9 points to the impending ruin of Judah as one of the reasons for the grief and consternation of the prophet. He knows that, if Samaria falls, the enemy will sooner or later attack the south. This fear was seen to be justified when in 702-701 the army of Sennacherib advanced to the very gates of Jerusalem (Isaiah 36:37; compare Isaiah 1:7).

Wound More accurately, stripes; the devastation wrought by the enemy.

Incurable Nothing can cure the effects of the judgment, or prevent the spread of the disaster; it will steadily spread until the very heart, Jerusalem, becomes affected. Not even the presence of Jehovah in the temple can save the city.

It is not possible to reproduce in English the plays upon words so evident in the original of 10-15; sometimes it is difficult to apprehend the allusion of the prophet, and in more than one place the correctness of the present Hebrew text is not beyond question. The word plays are not due to the playful mood of the prophet. “He could not possibly jest about the fate of his friends. No, he is in sober earnest, and sees a preordained correspondence between names and fortunes.” Some consider the artistic character of the passage sufficient reason for denying the verses to Micah.

The apostrophes to the cities remind one of Isaiah 10:28 ff. It is possible that Micah, like Isaiah, intends to describe the route taken by the enemy toward the capital, though in view of the uncertainty with regard to some of the cities this cannot be proved. If this is the prophet’s purpose, Micah, unlike Isaiah, expects the advance to come from the west, the territory of the Philistines; and this is the direction followed by Sennacherib in 702-701.