Mic 1:16 | KingComments | STEP | Micah returns to his mourning, which he started in in connection with the deportation of the people, which he described in the verses that follow. Here, he no longer addresses a particular city, but makes a general appeal to the whole land. It can be about the deportation by the Assyrians ( ) as well as about the deportation to Babel ( ). By talking about “the children of your delight”, Zion ( ) is addressed as the mother of her people. The members of the people are the children of her delight. They are the children about whom she has rejoiced so much as a mother. Now that her children are gone into exile, her joy over them turns into great sorrow. Micah calls to express that sorrow. He wants them to make themselves bald and cut their hair as a sign of mourning ( ; ; ). Bald and cut off the hair are two words for the same act, they are synonyms. By using both expressions the thought of mourning is strengthened. This amplified thought is reinforced by connecting the baldness spot to the eagle or the vulture. An external characteristic of the vulture is that it is bald on the head and in the neck. With the mention of the eagle or the vulture the aspect of judgment is emphasized even more ( ).

‏ Micah 1:16

Signs of Mourning Because of Exile

Micah returns to his mourning, which he started in Mic 1:8 in connection with the deportation of the people, which he described in the verses that follow. Here, he no longer addresses a particular city, but makes a general appeal to the whole land. It can be about the deportation by the Assyrians (2Kgs 18:13-19) as well as about the deportation to Babel (Mic 4:10).

By talking about “the children of your delight”, Zion (Mic 1:13) is addressed as the mother of her people. The members of the people are the children of her delight. They are the children about whom she has rejoiced so much as a mother. Now that her children are gone into exile, her joy over them turns into great sorrow.

Micah calls to express that sorrow. He wants them to make themselves bald and cut their hair as a sign of mourning (Job 1:20; Eze 27:31; Amos 8:10). Bald and cut off the hair are two words for the same act, they are synonyms. By using both expressions the thought of mourning is strengthened. This amplified thought is reinforced by connecting the baldness spot to the eagle or the vulture. An external characteristic of the vulture is that it is bald on the head and in the neck. With the mention of the eagle or the vulture the aspect of judgment is emphasized even more (Mt 24:28).