Micah 1:6 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Micah 1:6
Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof.
to put (used in a great variety of applications · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 1st person common singular
Samaria
שֹׁמְר֛וֹןsho.me.Ron
H8111
Shomeron · proper noun, a place name
heap
לְעִ֥יle.'I
H5856
a ruin (as if overturned) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
field
הַשָּׂדֶ֖הha.sa.Deh
H7704
a field (as flat) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
plantings
לְמַטָּ֣עֵיle.ma.Ta.'ei
H4302
something planted · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
vineyard
כָ֑רֶםKha.rem
H3754
a garden or vineyard · noun, common masculine singular absolute
down
וְהִגַּרְתִּ֤יve.hi.gar.Ti
H5064
to flow · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 1st person common singular
stones
אֲבָנֶ֔יהָ'a.va.Nei.ha
H68
a stone · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
valley
לַגַּי֙la.Gai
H1516
a gorge (from its lofty sides · preposition with the article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
discover
אֲגַלֶּֽה'a.ga.Leh
H1540
to denude (especially in a disgraceful sense) · verb, piel imperfect, 1st person common singular
foundations
וִיסֹדֶ֖יהָvi.so.Dei.ha
H3247
a foundation (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Ezekiel 13:14 So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered morter, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof sh…
Micah 3:12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places…
2 Kings 19:25 Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou should…
Lamentations 4:1 How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.
Isaiah 25:2 For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
Isaiah 25:12 And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.
Jeremiah 9:11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.
Jeremiah 51:25 Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Micah 1:1-7
Here is, I. A general account of this prophet and his prophecy, Mic 1:1. This is prefixed for the satisfaction of all that read and hear the prophecy of this book, who will give the more credit to it when they know the author and his authority. 1. The prophecy is the word of the Lord; it is a divine revelation. Note, What is written in the Bible, and what is preached by the ministers of Christ according to what is written there, must be heard and received, not as the word of dying men, which we may be judges of, but as the word of the living God, which we must be judged by, for so it is. This word of the Lord came to the prophet, came plainly, came powerfully, came in a preventing way, and h…
Samaria's punishment is mentioned first, as it was to fall before Jerusalem.
as an heap of the field-- (Mic 3:12). Such a heap of stones and rubbish as is gathered out of fields, to clear them (Hos 12:11). Palestine is of a soil abounding in stones, which are gathered out before the vines are planted (Isa 5:2).
as plantings of a vineyard--as a place where vines are planted. Vineyards were cultivated on the sides of hills exposed to the sun. The hill on which Samaria was built by Omri, had been, doubtless, planted with vines originally; now it is to be reduced again to its original state (Kg1 16:24).
pour down--dash down the stones of the city into the valley beneath. A graphic picture…
I will make Samaria - I will bring it to desolation: and, instead of being a royal city, it shall be a place for vineyards. Newcome observes, that Samaria was situated on a hill, the right soil for a vineyard.
I will discover the foundations thereof - I will cause its walls and fortifications to be razed to the ground.
John Gill on Micah 1:6
Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard,.... As a field ploughed, and laid in heaps; see Micah 3:12; or as stones gathered out of a field, and out of a vineyard planted, and laid in a heap; so should this city become a heap of stones and rubbish, being utterly demolished; and this being done according to the will of God, and through his instigation of Shalmaneser king of Assyria to it, and by his providence succeeding his army that besieged it, is said to be done by him. With this agrees the Vulgate Latin version,
"I will make Samaria as a heap of stones in a field, when a vineyard is planted;''
see Isaiah 5:2; for the city, being destroyed, ca…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 6 onwards): And I will make Samaria a heap of stones in the field, when a vineyard is planted, and I will pour down her stones into the valley, and will lay bare her foundations. And all her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of a harlot. Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls. For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. LXX: And I will make Samaria a caretaker of fruits in the field, and a plantation of vineyards; and I will uncover its foundations and reveal all of its carved images, and all of its wages will be burned with fire, and all of its idols I will put to destruction, because it gathered them from the wages of prostitution, and destroyed them with the wages of prostitution. Because of this, it will lament and mourn, it will go barefoot and naked, it will make a lamentation like the dragons, and a mourning like the daughters of Sirens, because its wound has obtained, because it has come to Judah and has touched the gate of my people, even Jerusalem. According to the order of sins, there is an order of punishments. Samaria was the first to sin, and they made idols and worshiped calves instead of the Lord: therefore, let it perish first. I will destroy it when the Assyrians come, and I will make it like a heap of stones when a vineyard is planted, so that it is turned into mounds. And I will remove its stones into the valley. It was indeed situated in the mountains, where Sebaste is now, and it is where the bones of the holy John the Baptist are buried. And I will reveal its foundations. Such will be the ruin and the destruction of the city, that not only the walls and buildings will collapse, but even the foundations will be exposed to the very last stone. And all its sculptures and treasures, which were gathered by various kings, will be brought down and burned by fire, and reduced to nothingness. For the riches and abundant possessions, which were presumed to be the result of idolatry, will be taken to another harlot, that is, to Nineveh. Just as they committed fornication with the idols they made in their own land, so…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Samaria — A watch-mountain or a watch-tower. In the heart of the mountains of Israel, a few miles north-west of Shechem, stands the “hill of Shomeron,” a solitary mountain, a great “mamelon.” It is an oblong…
Samaria, Ancient · Predictions respecting its destruction — Predictions respecting its destruction
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Micah 1:6
6. Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof.
6. Et ponam Samariam (hoc est, ideo; enim hic sumitur pro illativa particula; ponam igitur Samariam) in acervum agri, in plantationes vinae; et devolvam in vallem lapides ejus, et fundamenta ejus retegam.
Though Micah intended especially to devote his services to the Jews, as we have said yesterday, he yet, in the first place, passes judgment on Samaria; for it was his purpose afterwards to speak more fully against Jerusalem and the whole of Judea. And this state of the case ought to be bo…
This judicial interposition on the part of God is occasioned by the sin of Israel. Mic 1:5. "For the apostasy of Jacob (is) all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. Who is Jacob's apostasy? is it not Samaria? And who Judah's high places? is it not Jerusalem? Mic 1:6. Therefore I make Samaria into a stone-heap of the field, into plantations of vines; and I pour her stones into the valley, and I will lay bare her foundations. Mic 1:7. And all her stone images will be beaten to pieces, and all her lovers' gifts be burned with fire, and all her idols will I make into a waste: for she has gathered them of prostitute's hire, and to prostitute's hire shall they return." "All this" refers…
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 t…
into a heap in the field Heb. לְעִי הַשָּׂדֶה. Jonathan renders: לִדְגוֹרִין דְּחַקְלָא, an expression of heaps. Cf. (Gen. 31:47) “יְגַר שַׂהֲדוּתָא, the heap of the testimony.”
and I will cast its stones down into the valley Heb. וְהִגַּרְתִּי, and I will drag, similar to (verse 4) “poured down (מֻגָּרִים) a steep place.”
