Mic 1:6 | TNotes | STEP | Summary for Mic 1:6-7: 1:6-7 a heap of ruins: The Lord threatened to devastate his treasured cities. Assyria virtually annihilated Samaria in 724–722 BC in a horrendous three-year siege. • Samaria, like most cities, was built on a hill. Here, the stones of her walls crash into the valley below as they are violently dismantled. Ancient armies would systematically shatter city walls down to their foundation stones. • Samaria and Jerusalem were filled with carved images and sacred treasures put there by worshipers or taken as war booty. • Prostitution pictures Israel’s persistent spiritual and physical waywardness. This metaphor was regularly used by the Israelite prophets to express Israel’s abandonment of the Lord, her true husband, in order to obtain the blessings promised by the pagan gods. In addition, the worship of those gods often in fact involved sexual activity. • Elsewhere refers to the exile of Samaria into Assyria and its various provinces and conquered vassal states (722 BC ). The same outcome was forecast for Jerusalem (3:12 ; Jer 26:18 ).

cJer 26:18►

‏ Micah 1:6

Summary for Mic 1:6-7: 1:6-7 ^a a heap of ruins: The Lord threatened to devastate his treasured cities. Assyria virtually annihilated Samaria in 724–722 BC in a horrendous three-year siege.

• Samaria, like most cities, was built on a hill. Here, the stones of her walls crash into the valley below as they are violently dismantled. Ancient armies would systematically shatter city walls down to their foundation stones.

• Samaria and Jerusalem were filled with carved images and sacred treasures put there by worshipers or taken as war booty.

• Prostitution pictures Israel’s persistent spiritual and physical waywardness. This metaphor was regularly used by the Israelite prophets to express Israel’s abandonment of the Lord, her true husband, in order to obtain the blessings promised by the pagan gods. In addition, the worship of those gods often in fact involved sexual activity.

• Elsewhere refers to the exile of Samaria into Assyria and its various provinces and conquered vassal states (722 BC). The same outcome was forecast for Jerusalem (3:12 ^b; Jer 26:18 ^c).