Mic 1:2-7 | TNotes | STEP | Summary for Mic 1:2-2:13: 1:2–2:13 This message of judgment introduces some of the major concerns of Micah’s prophecies and asserts God’s determination to judge his people and put them into exile (1:16 ; 2:4-5 ), but it concludes with the Lord’s assurance that he will rescue a remnant from exile (2:12-13 ). Summary for Mic 1:2-7: 1:2-7 This oracle concerns Samaria prior to 722 BC , when Samaria was destroyed and its people were deported. The Sovereign Lord was coming to judge his people. 1:2 Attention! translates the same word that introduces the Shema (“Listen!”) in Deut 6:4 . • The holy Temple is the Lord’s heavenly abode, not the corrupt Temple in Jerusalem (Mic 1:2-3 ).

Summary for Mic 1:2-2:13: 1:2–2:13 ^a This message of judgment introduces some of the major concerns of Micah’s prophecies and asserts God’s determination to judge his people and put them into exile (1:16 ^b; 2:4-5 ^c), but it concludes with the Lord’s assurance that he will rescue a remnant from exile (2:12-13 ^d).
Summary for Mic 1:2-7: 1:2-7 ^e This oracle concerns Samaria prior to 722 BC, when Samaria was destroyed and its people were deported. The Sovereign Lord was coming to judge his people. 1:2 ^f Attention! translates the same word that introduces the Shema (“Listen!”) in Deut 6:4 ^g.

• The holy Temple is the Lord’s heavenly abode, not the corrupt Temple in Jerusalem (Mic 1:2-3 ^h).
1:3 ⁱ Tramples the heights implies a theophany, an appearance of the God who is behind the historical convulsions about to afflict Samaria (cp. Deut 33:29 ^j; Ps 108:13 ^k; Amos 4:13 ^l). God is sovereign over nations and nature. The Canaanite god Baal was also thought to be active in this manner—descriptions of God like this one emphasize that the Lord, not Baal, is truly sovereign.
1:4 ^m The strong and apparently immovable mountains will melt at the Lord’s presence (see Ps 97:5 ⁿ). Nothing can stand against him.
1:5 ^o Rebellion is parallel to sins; these two key words describe Israel’s failure in the Old Testament.

• Who? ... Where? The capital cities of God’s people should have been holy places, but they were sources of corruption instead. Samaria, capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, was built by Omri (885–874 BC) as a political, military, and economic crossroads of the ancient Near East (1 Kgs 16:24 ^p). Omri was an evil king, and so his city was evil (cp. Mic 6:16 ^q, 1 Kgs 16:25 ^r).

• Jerusalem: The prophet would not allow the people of Judah to be smug about the northern kingdom’s imminent destruction. Judah’s beautiful Temple was no different from a Canaanite center of idolatry (literally high place).
Summary for Mic 1:6-7: 1:6-7 ^s 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 ^t; Jer 26:18 ^u).