the play upon the meaning of their names, the futility of one town calling on

another for help against this overflowing scourge.

Gath means 'weep -town'; Aphrah, 'dust -house'; Saphir, 'beauty -town';

Zaanan, 'aside -town'; Beth -ezel, 'neighbour -town'; Maroth, 'bitter -town';

Lachish, 'horse -town'; Achzib, 'falsehood -town'; and Mareshah, 'possession

-town'.  The prophet sees in all these names a foreshadowing of their

dreadful emergency.  He cries, 'Weep -town, weep not; Dust -house, roll

thyself in the dust; Beauty -town, go into captivity with beauty shamed;

Aside -town, respond not to the mournful appeal of Neighbour -town; for he,

i.e. Sennacherib, will feed his army on you.  Bitter -town shall bitterly

grieve for her good, but evil, i.e. calamity, shall only reach the gate of

Jerusalem.  Horse -town bound the chariot to the swift steed (for flight).

She, i.e. Lachish, introduced Samaria's idolatry to Zion, therefore should

she give up possessions at Moresheth to the foe.  Falsehood -town should

prove false as an helper, and the Assyrian should become the possessor of

Possession -town.  The "glory" of Israel, i.e. the nobility, should flee for

safety to the cave of Adullam' (The Student's Commentary).

It is well -nigh impossible for us today, lacking the personal

knowledge of these towns and the details of the Assyrian invasion, to be at

all sure that we have interpreted this strange pronouncement aright; the

explanation quoted from The Student's Commentary, taken together with the

notes supplied by The Companion Bible, will give a general idea of Micah's

In Hosea 12:10 the Lord said, 'I have multiplied visions, and used

similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets'.  Again in Hosea 6:5 we read,

'Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words

of My mouth', and over and over again He speaks of 'rising up early' in

sending the prophets, as though the Lord would call our attention to the

pains He had taken to attract attention to His words of warning.  Amos, as we

discovered, had his own distinctive approach, here Micah has another.

The first section of Micah ends with the words that are found also in

the prophecy of Jeremiah:

'Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah,

and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord of

hosts; Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become

heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest'

(Jer. 26:18).

The next section, Micah chapters 4 and

5, opens with words that are

similar* to those given in Isaiah 2:2 -4 and

Zechariah 3:10 (Mic. 4:1 -4).

There is no reason why Micah should not open

his prophetic foreview of the

glories of the day of restoration with a few

verses taken from his fellow

prophet Isaiah, or that Zechariah some years

later should not quote a verse

from Micah.  When we read chapter 5, we come

to a prophecy which borrows from

none, and is blessedly unique:

*

See Last Days8 for a consideration of the differences between the two

'But thou, Beth -lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the

thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is