CHAPTER 1 Dec. 4 
Against Samaria and Jerusalem 
The word of Yahweh that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 2Hear, you peoples, all of you. Listen, O earth, and all that is therein: and let the Lord Yahweh be witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple. 3For behold, Yahweh comes forth out of His place, and will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. 4The mountains melt under him, and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like waters that are poured down a steep place. 5All this is because of the disobedience of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the disobedience of Jacob? Isn’t it Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Aren’t they Jerusalem? 6Therefore I will make Samaria like a rubble heap of the field, like places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down its stones into the valley, and I will uncover its foundations. 7All her idols will be beaten to pieces, and all her temple gifts will be burned with fire, and all her images will be destroyed; for as the hire of a prostitute has she obtained them, and to the hire of a prostitute shall they return. 
Lamentation and Wailing 
 8For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will howl like the jackals, and moan like the daughters of owls. 9For her wounds are incurable; and it has come even to Judah. It reaches to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. 10Don’t tell it in Gath. Don’t weep at all. At Beth Ophrah I have rolled myself in the dust. 11Pass on, inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame. The inhabitant of Zaanan won’t come out. When you hear the wailing of Beth Ezel, you will know there is no protection there. 12For the inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously hoping for good, but evil has come down from Yahweh to the gate of Jerusalem. 13Harness the chariot to the swift steed, inhabitant of Lachish. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; For the transgressions of Israel were found in you. 14Therefore you will give a parting gift to Moresheth Gath. The houses of Achzib will be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel. 15I will yet hand you over to your enemy, inhabitant of Mareshah. The leader who is the glory of Israel will come to hide in the Adullam cave. 16Shave your heads, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture; for they have gone into captivity from you!

Commentary

1:8 Micah didn’t just mindlessly transmit God’s word to God’s people. He perceived the truth of the words he was repeating, and believed absolutely that they would come true; and so he wept and rolled himself in the dust (:10). This may have been from grief, but it may also be that he thought that his repentance and prayer could avert the judgment upon God’s people which he was prophesying. 
1:10 Rolling naked in the dust… this was the extent of Micah's passion for the repentance of his audience. Our preaching isn’t to be an emotionless publicity campaign for our denomination or local church, but a passionate appeal for real response. Indifference, lack of passion, is the besetting tragedy of our age. When did you last really shed tears? When were you moved, really wrenched in your gut, by the suffering of others, by the sin of this world, your own sin, your part in humanity’s tragic rejection of God…  when did you last feel for God in His pain, as He sees His beloved children and creation walk away from Him day after day, second after second? When did you last feel ecstatic joy, deep sadness… in this post-modern world of surface level emotion? It’s in all this that the words of the prophets and their personal nature as people challenge us- and their spirit is to be the spirit of our testimony to Jesus in this world (Rev. 19:10.
1:12 Evil has come down- Evil in the sense of calamity and disaster comes from God (Is. 45:5-7); it’s not true that there is a personal Satan figure who brings evil, and God brings only good. Both good and evil ultimately come from God; He is in control of our lives, and has total power in the cosmos.