CHAPTER 1
1. The Word of YHWH that came to Mikhah the Morashthite in the days of Yotham, Akhaz, [and] Hizqiyahu, kings of Yehudah, which he beheld [in an ecstatic state] concerning Shomron and Yerushalayim:
Morashthite: Mikha’s hometown of Moresheth was a “possession” of the city of Gath, the giant Golyath’s hometown, near the Philistine coast, though by this time the Philistines had ceased to be a threat to Israel except through their pagan influence, which is precisely what is addressed here. It was one of the defense cities along the Sh’felah (piedmont) which would communicate to one another via light signals. Shomron and Yerushalayim: the capitals of the two kingdoms of Israel. The time parameters within which he prophesied were 742 – 687 B.C.E.
2. “Listen, all [you] peoples! Pay attention, O earth and all that fills it! And let YHWH serve as a witness against you—Adonai, from His set-apart temple--
3. “because indeed YHWH is coming out from His place, and will come down and trample over the cultic platforms of the Land,
Or, simply, will tread on the earth’s ridges, but the term has a specialized meaning of hilltop sites of pagan worship.
4. “and the mountains will melt away beneath Him, and the valleys will burst themselves open like wax [does] from the presence of fire, like waters poured down [a steep] slope.
5. “All of this [comes] against the rebellion of Yaaqov, and against the sins of the House of Israel. What is Yaaqov’s trespass? Isn’t it Shomron? And what are the cultic platforms of Yehudah? Aren’t they [in] Yerushalayim?
They were treating YHWH’s holy place just like any pagan worship site.
6. “So I will make Shomron like a heap of ruins [in] the field for the plantings of a vineyard—that is, I will cause all her building-stones to be spilled down into the valley, and lay her foundations bare.
Shomron was the last bastion of the Northern Kingdom to fall in 722 B.C.E.
7. “And all her carved images will be beaten into pieces [until they are crushed fine], and all [that she was] paid for her hire will be burned with fire, and I will cause all her vexing images to be devastated, because she collected them from the hire-price of a prostitute, and they will revert back to being the hire-price of a prostitute.
YHWH always considers it whoredom when Israel worships other elohim. She was making herself rich with the gifts from these other lovers. These were the result of friendship with pagan peoples who taught her their ways. But though worship of wood and stone seems ridiculous today, we are just as guilty of many not-so-blatant idolatries. Any time we give importance to things He has not prescribed for us as a people, we are bordering on it. And certainly if we compromise obedience to Him in order to ensure security as the world measures it, we are investing in relationships outside our marriage to YHWH. This makes Him just as angry. Revert back: Though the Northern Kingdom received mercy through Y’shua, the majority again went back to paganism because it was not completely taught out of the redeemed. Morality was emphasized at the expense of the particular relationship with YHWH that excludes all these other trappings that were allowed back in especially after Constantine Christianized the Roman Empire. “Prostitute” is a code name for Babylon and her daughters (Rev. 17:5), the system that changed headquarters many times thereafter. It has a particular application to the established religious institution that links itself with Gentile governments for its own advantage.
8. “On account of this I will lament and howl; I will walk around stripped and naked. I will produce a wailing like the sea-serpents and a mourning like the owl,
Sea-serpents: or possibly, jackals. Both they and the owl are often symbolic of desert demons.
9. “because her wounds are beyond cure, since it has come as far as Yehudah. It has reached the gate of My people—all the way to Yerushalayim
All the towns spoken against below are now in Yehudah’s territory, for when the Northern Kingdom was taken captive by Sennakheriv of Assyria, he made many attacks on Yehudah as well, and almost conquered Yerushalayim. King Hizqiyahu’s sincere prayers turned them away at last. (2 Kings 18-19) But the influence of paganism, for which the North had been taken captive, was infiltrating Yehudah nonetheless.
10. “Don’t let it be made known in Gath; don’t do any lamenting at all. In the house belonging to Afrah, roll yourself in the dust!
Gath: the city of which Moresheth was a suburb. (v. 14) It and the house belong to Afrah were apparently the heart of where the paganism Israel had adopted was coming from. If the fact of YHWH’s wrath on Yehudah were to become known to them, it would be like what Moshe was afraid of in Ex. 32:12; the pagans might consider their idols more merciful than YHWH. Dust: Heb., afar, a word play on the name of the city of Afrah.
11. “Cross over to them, O inhabitant of Shafir, naked, in shame. The inhabitant of Tza’anan did not come out [for the] mourning for the household of Etzel. It will take its standing-space from you,
Again, “come out” (y’tza’ah) is a pun on the name of Tza’anan. Etzel: means “bringing together” or “joining”.
12. “because the inhabitant of Maroth was anxious for prosperity, since misery had come down from YHWH to the gate of Yerushalayim.
Maroth means “bitternesses”, a parallel with the idea of misery here.
13. “Attach the chariot to the swift steeds, O inhabitant of Lakhish! She is the beginning of sin for the daughter of Tzion, because in you were found the trespasses of Israel.
Israel: that is, the Northern Kingdom as contrasted with Yehudah. Though Lakhish was the strongest of the strongholds between the coastland and the Sh’felah that guarded Yerushalayim from attack, it too had to fall because though it had kept armies out, it had let sin slip through toward its primary goal, Yerushalayim. A pagan temple from the time of the Jewish occupancy has indeed been uncovered in Lakhish.
14. “So give sending-away gifts to Moresheth of Gath. The houses of Akhziv will prove to be a disappointing deception for the kings of Israel.
Moresheth: Mikhah’s own hometown. This must have been the saddest part of his prophecy for him personally. Akhziv: a town in the foothills of western Judea. There is another play on words here, because the Hebrew word for deception here is akhzav.
15. “I will yet bring you one who [will] dispossess, O inhabitant of Mar’shah; the honor of Israel will come to Adullam.
Today Mar’shah is only a ruin. It stands in an area with many caves where pigeons were raised for Temple offerings. Adullam: site of a cave where David hid (1 Shmuel 22-23) in the lowlands of Yehudah; its name means “justice of the people”.
16. “Make yourself bald and shear [yourself] over the sons in whom you delight. Widen your baldness like the vulture, because they have gone away from you into captivity.”
The vulture lacks head-feathers so it can poke its head inside carcasses without retaining as much contamination as other birds would. Make yourself bald: a common practice when mourning, though not endorsed by YHWH. It symbolizes removing the guards at our doorways—which is exactly what Yehudah had done by allowing idolatry in. Sons in whom you delight: children of one’s husband (2:9) rather than of harlotry.
CHAPTER 2
1. Woe to those who devise mischief, and who commit wrongdoing [while] on their beds! At the morning light they carry it out, because [they] have it in the power of their hands.
I.e., they invent their schemes all night, and as soon as they can they go out to do the evil they imagined “just because they can”.
2. They also desire fields, and take them by force, or houses, and take them, so they exploit a strong man and his household—that is, a man along with his inherited property.
Since this is addressed to the Northern Kingdom, this is probably a specific allusion to Akh’av and Yizavel (Jezebel) some 140 years earlier, especially since Akh’av specifically lay on his bed (v. 1) when he could not get his way in regard to Navoth’s vineyard, which he coveted. (1 Kings 21:4)
3. So this is what YHWH says: “Watch me! I am devising a calamity against this family from which you cannot remove your neck nor walk proudly, because this is an evil time.
This family: that of the kingly line of Israel, though it was not all a single dynasty like David’s in the South. Remove your neck: as from a yoke.
4. In that day they will take up a proverbial saying about you, and wail with a wailing wail: “We have been utterly ruined! He has started to exchange my people’s assigned share [of property]. How he has begun taking it away from me! He will redistribute our fields to the one enticing [us] away!”
He: again, the king, but in conjunction with false religious leaders as well. Exchange… assigned share: in direct contrast with Prov. 22:8, which tells us not to remove the ancient land-markers that our ancestors set up to delineate property boundaries and preclude unnecessary disputes. Again, notice the allusions to Akh’av and Navoth. Redistribute: as Shmu’el warned he would before Israel ever had a king. (1 Shmu’el 8) Enticing: with the connotation of moving toward paganism.
5. So you will have no one among YHWH’s congregation [left] to cast lots for a measured-off parcel [of land].
6. “Do not let it drop!” They will let it drop! He will not let it drop for these; He will not take [the] insults back.
Drop: apparently an idiom for prophesying, i.e., letting words drip down gently and pleasantly. (See v. 11.) So YHWH reverses the idiom and uses it in a different sense, saying He will not let the matter drop (if they do not repent). Today He is offering our heritage back to us, since the day of His wrath on the Northern Kingdom is over. No one is forcibly preventing us from doing so, though when enough of us stop supporting the Christmas economy, reduce the Saturday work force dramatically, etc., they will undoubtedly try to reclaim the things they once stole and which we have rightfully taken back. We must begin to prepare now to guard it when they try. YHWH was angry because these thieves who had by now all but finished plundering the Northern Kingdom were now knocking at the gates of Yerushalayim.
7. “Is it said, O House of Yaaqov, ‘YHWH’s Spirit is cut short, if these are His doings’? Won’t My words be pleasing with the uprightness of walking?
8. “And yesterday My people were aroused to hostility; you strip off a magnificent robe from the front of an outer garment from those who pass by trustingly—who are returning from battle!
Y’shua may have been alluding to this verse in Matithyahu 5:40, since His mission was to restore the Northern Kingdom (Mat. 15:24), which at this point was robbing Yehudah of its heritage. This gives us insight into Yehudah’s resistance to Y’shua. As we return to our heritage and begin reclaiming things that only they have fought to preserve, they are understandably threatened, and we must be careful not to leave the Messiah behind as we show them that we are indeed no longer pagans, but this heritage is rightfully ours as well—if we will use it properly this time.
9. “The women of My people you have driven away from the house of her luxury; you have taken My splendor from their nursing babies forever!
Splendor: honor or adornment.
10. “Get up and go, because this is not the resting place, on account of the defilement, it will bind you with a sickening cord.
Cord: i.e., it seems enticing, but will keep us tied down when YHWH’s cloud is moving on. Yerushalayim is the place where righteousness is at home (Yirmeyahu 31:23; 2 Kefa 3:13); Rome is not, and it must not be substituted for it.
11. “If only a man who walks [in] empty air and deceitfulness were telling a lie [when he said], ‘I will drip [prophecies] for you for wine and intoxicating liquor.’ But he will become one who lets this people drop!
Intoxicating: The Marxists were correct in many cases that religion is the opiate of the masses. If kept delirious with exciting new winds of doctrine, they will not think rationally about what YHWH really requires (as found in the Torah that they steer us away from), and thus see through the ruse of those who are taking advantage of them in order to stay in power. The pursuit of personal security at any cost also leads us to trade away many civil liberties for the promise of greater protection.
12. “I will certainly gather you in, Yaaqov—all of you. I will certainly collect the remnant of Israel; I will put them together [in unity] like sheep in a fold. Like a flock in the middle of its pasture, they will be in an uproar because of humanity.
The last sentence could read, figuratively, “Like an ordered rank in the midst of its speaking, they will stir with great noise because of a man (Heb., Adam).” And both translations apply, for after being gathered in and around Sela (Petra, see Yeshayahu 16), which, like a sheepfold, has only one narrow entrance and could hold a million people. The Hebrew word for sheepfold is botzrah, and there is actually a city and a region not far north of Petra (east of the Yarden River) named Botzrah. Daniel 11:41 tells us that this region will escape the control of the “Prince who is to come” (the counterfeit Messiah), so it is only logical that this is the place YHWH will gather and keep His people safe while He pours out His indignation on the rest of the nations. (Yeshayahu/Isa. 26:20)
13. The one who makes a breach has come up before them; they have broken out and passed through the gate and have exited by it, and their King will pass through in front of them, with YHWH at their head!”
The one who makes a breach: like a “sapper”, who in ancient battles would undermine a city wall, often at the expense of his life, so the besieging army could enter. Y’shua was alluding to this verse in the often-mistranslated Matt. 11:12 when He said that since the days of Yochanan the Immerser, forceful men had been exerting pressure on the Kingdom. Yochanan indeed sacrificed his life to keep speaking the truth, and thus provided an opening for Messiah to gather His sheep. Jewish Sabbath liturgy (based on Ruth 4:12) also speaks of awaiting the “man who is the descendant of Peretz” (based on the same root word as “the one who makes a breach”). This is the King, Y’shua, for Peretz was David’s ancestor. He is the Shepherd, not a hireling. (Yochanan 10) The precise wording in Mat. 11:12 could read, “Since the days of Yochanan the Immerser until now, the Kingdom of heaven is being breached, and the strong one snatches away to claim it eagerly for himself”. While haSatan has tried to do so (Yoch. 10:12), the rightful King also promises to snatch us out (1 Thes. 4:17; compare Rev. 12:5) of the above-mentioned systems that enslave his people for their own purposes. This snatching will probably bring us to the gathering point described in v. 12, and from there (Yeshayahu 63:1) he will lead us back to reclaim his rightful throne in Yerushalayim. (Z’kharyah 14)
CHAPTER 3
1. Then I said, “Listen now, [you] heads of Yaaqov and rulers of the House of Israel! Is it not for you to be skillful in deciding cases?
Be skillful: literally, know intimately—how to give reward where it is due, and punishment where it is due. The term here for rulers actually means “those able to cut off”. But they realized that, then as now, their constituency would turn toward more popular pagan religions or political leaders if they were not afraid to render the right verdict, and were more concerned with numbers than with their responsibility to the truth.
2. “[You] who hate what is right and love what is evil, tearing their skin off them and what [flesh] is left from off their bones,
3. “who devour what is left of My people and strip their skin from off them, break apart their bones, and spread them out in pieces like those in the pot, and like meat inside a caldron!
I.e., they were as greedy as could be, searching out any way to get into people’s pockets. And in doing so they removed the covering that bound the people together as one unit. These may sound like “psychic hotlines”, but we must not overlook the application to preachers who use pressure tactics to get people to give them more than they are able, so that their ministry instead evolves into a way to earn as much as possible:
4. “Just then they will cry out to YHWH, but He will not answer them. He will even cause His face to be concealed from them at that moment, just as they have caused injury by their practices.
Just when their “customers” arrive and have paid for their “word from YHWH”, He will close off their ability to have visions and not let a single word through to them.
5. “This is what YHWH says concerning the prophets who lead My people astray, who bite with their teeth while proclaiming peace, and whoever does not donate to their mouths, they single out for war against him--
Proclaiming peace: Like many in the Church today, they say everything is fine and no one needs to worry about YHWH’s judgment, though the leaders and the people have committed blatant sins. Bite: also an idiom for charging interest. Single out for war: Anyone who dares to expose them and withhold support for those they know are charlatans (even if in a legitimate position of authority), they blacklist by labeling them fanatics, cultists, or other reputation-ruining epithets.
6. “that there will be night for you, [yet] without [any ecstatic] vision, and darkness for you, [yet] without [any] divination—that is, the sun will set on the prophets and the day will be darkened over them.
7. “Then the seers will be ashamed, and the diviners [blush from] embarrassment; all of them will cover their mustache, because there is no response from Elohim.
Cover their mustache: a symbol of shame, as when a leper is to do when he calls out, “Unclean! Unclean!” as he walks near others. By having “vision block” just when the people need a word from YHWH, they lose face.
8. “I, on the other hand, am full of power with the spirit of YHWH, both of judgment and valor, to
make known to Yaaqov [how] he has rebelled and to Israel [how] it has missed the target.
Here is an example of true humility: knowing who he is and Who has called him, and sticking to his message, even when everyone else is saying just the opposite. (v. 5) A prophet’s task is not to speak peace when to rule righteously means to condemn. At this time what the nation needed most was to be challenged about its sins and given instruction in what to do about them, not to be comforted with a false sense of security.
9. “Now hear this, [you] heads of Yaaqov and rulers of the House of Israel, who abhor justice and twist everything that is straight,
10. “who build up Tzion with blood[shed], and Yerushalayim with deviation [from what is right]!
11. “Her heads render a verdict for a bribe, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets divine for silver, yet they lean on YHWH [for support], to say, ‘Isn’t YHWH close among us? Evil will not come over us!’
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12. “Therefore, on account of you, Tzion shall be plowed like a field, and Yerushalayim shall become heaps of rubble, and the Mount of the House will be given over to pagan worship-sites like those found in the forest.”
In 1977 Arthur Custance wrote that the part of Yerushalayim that had once been David's stronghold was still gently sloping farmland.) This leveling was begun when the Maccabees, wanting to be sure that the cumulatively-raised level of the City of David did not encroach on the defensibility of the Temple Mount, worked night and day for three years between 141 and 135 B.C.E. to remove the ancient Citadel of David, lowering the City of David until it stood below the level of the Temple! (Josephus, Antiquities xiii., 7:7) After the destructions by Titus and the emperor Hadrian, the latter built a new wall for the city with which he replaced Yerushalayim, so that this original portion was now outside the city; time completed the process of eroding away the ruins. Since 1977 it has again become inhabited, but with shanties built by local Arabs, and is a dangerous area for unarmed Jews and archaeologists. This original Tzion should not be confused with the western mount in the city that is now called Mt. Tzion; that was misnamed due to an error in identification of David's tomb. Pagan worship-sites: Hadrian allowed the reconstruction of the Temple early in his rule, in order to win the favor of the Jews. But before it was very far along, when they still refused to go along with his agenda of making the city cosmopolitan, and rebelled under Bar Kochba (132-135 C.E.), he razed the entire city and built a pagan temple to Jupiter on the Temple Mount; the Muslim shrines now atop the Mount were probably built directly on the foundations of this pagan complex that resembles the temple in Baalbek, Lebanon, built by Hadrian’s same architect. Their dimensions and shapes are the same, and there are indeed trees throughout the Temple complex, contrary to the command given in Deut. 16:21 in light of the common pagan practice of having groves of trees near worship-sites.
CHAPTER 4
1. But at the last of the days it will turn out that the Mountain of the House of YHWH will become [securely] established at the head of the mountains, and it will be lifted up more than all the [other] hills, and peoples will flow [up] onto it.
They will disobey the laws of gravity, flowing upward! Why are hills mentioned, if he just said higher than the mountains? Wouldn’t it thereby already be higher than the hills? By Y’shua’s day, if someone said “hills”, one would think of the rule of Rome, and one of the seven hills it was built on is the Vatican, so this confirms that the Temple in Yerushalayim will take precedence over it as well, despite its all-pervasive influence now. There may be literal topographical changes as well, possibly precipitated by the same forces that bring about the earthquake of Z’kharyah 14:4. Compare Yeshayahu 40:4.
2. And many nations will proceed [toward it] and say, “Come, let’s go up to the Mountain of YHWH, and to the House of the Elohim of Yaaqov! And He will instruct us from His ways, and we will walk in His paths!” For instruction will emanate from Tzion, and the word of YHWH from Yerushalayim.
Nations: or, gentiles. Emanate from Tzion: even now, the Hebrew calendar is set by when the new moon is sighted in Yerushalayim or its environs. Yaaqov: His descendants will be the ones to actually spread the instruction that emanates from Tzion, as the light to the nations that we were always meant to be.
3. And He will judge between many peoples, and bring correction to vast nations up to a [great] distance, and they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning tools. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, nor will they study war [tactics] any longer.
Bring correction: or, convince. He will “reset their clocks”. They: the other nations. It does not say Israel too will be disarmed, though none will hurt or destroy on YHWH’s holy mountain. (Yeshayahu 11:9) But even today we see nations offering to give up their strategic arms for the sake of being able to trade with superpowers or the United Nations. And in Scripture we see the Philistines limiting Israel’s ability to fight. Now the tables will turn, and all power will be in the Israeli arsenal, and no threat will be left:
4. But each man will sit under his [own] vine and under his [own] fig tree, and nothing will make them quake [from fear], because the mouth of YHWH [Commander] of Armies has spoken!
His own: He will not be tending them for someone else, but will have his own supply. The vine and fig tree both require peacetime to produce fruit, for they must be carefully tended, and their pruning takes time. Y’shua alluded to this verse in Yochanan 1:48-50. By saying He had seen Nathan’el “under the fig tree”, it told Nathan’el that He would be there when this time of peace comes, and that He would be the Messiah who would sit on the throne in that Kingdom.
5. For though all nations may walk, each in the name of its elohim, we will walk in the Name of YHWH our Elohim to eternity and beyond!
6. “In that Day,” declares YHWH, “I will gather in her who limps and collect together her who was thrust out and her to whom I have caused injury,
Limps: an allusion back to Yaaqov’s injury (Gen. 32:31), and thus a promise that Yaaqov will be restored; compare Tz’fanyah 3:19. I have caused injury: in keeping with the curses He promised would come on a disobedient Israel to chastise us. (Deut. 28:20; 30:19) Her who was thrust out: the Northern Kingdom.
7. “and I will make it so that those who are lame are [only a small] vestige [of how many they were], and her who was taken away yonder [I will make] into a tight [-knit] nation, and YHWH will reign over them on Mount Tzion from now until eternity.”
8. As for you, Tower of the Flock, mound [of the stronghold] of the daughter of Tzion, unto you it will arrive, and the first rulership has come—the sovereignty that belongs to the daughter of Yerushalayim.
Daughter: an idiom for a suburb or one of the hills that surrounds the city. Chapter 5 specifies which suburb of Yerushalayim the Messiah would arrive at the first time, and this verse gives the precise location. The Tower of the Flock is a site on the Yerushalayim-ward side of Beyth-Lechem, and the Mishnah cites this tower as the outermost boundary of a circle encompassing Yerushalayim within which all the lambs to be sacrificed by the priests had to be born. Thus it becomes clear why the angels first announced His birth to the particular shepherds there. (Luke 2:8-9) They were the ones raising the holiest of lambs, and thus were the first to know that the fulfillment of the picture they were living out for their whole lives was soon to be fulfilled!
9. Now why are you starting to give a shout of alarm? Isn’t there a king among you? Has your consultant vanished? Because pangs of anguish have seized you like a woman giving birth.
The theme of birth bears out that this is speaking of the Messiah’s birthplace. But it also bespeaks the birthpangs of the New Man (Eph. 2:15) of which the Messiah is but the Head, and which will bring both parts of Israel back together as one. When He was born, Rome was bringing much repression of this sort. In YHWH’s way of doing things, times get worst right before the best times come.
10. Writhe in pain and draw up, O daughter of Tzion, like a woman giving birth, because now you will go out from the village and dwell in the field, then you will come all the way to Bavel. There you will [begin to] be delivered [by being snatched out]. There YHWH will redeem you from the palm of your enemies’ hand.
The Tower of the Flock is indeed outside the village of Beyth-Lechem proper, where Miryam found no place to give birth, but this also suggests the dwelling in booths at Sukkoth, for Y’shua was born in a “stable”, the same word in Hebrew as the term for these booths. (Gen. 33:17)
11. Now, too, many nations are assembled against you, who say, “Let her be profaned, and let our eye look on Tzion!”
Look on: as on a woman who has been disrobed for the purpose of violation. The nations of the world want Yerushalayim to become as unholy as they are, so she will be just like one of them.
12. But they do not know the things YHWH is devising, nor can they discern His purpose, because He has collected them like a sheaf to the threshing-floor.
I.e., YHWH has lured them with the bait of Yerushalayim to be all brought together into one place so He can destroy them all in one easy step. (Z’kharyah 14; Ps. 92:7) For them it will be the opposite of birth pangs.
13. Rise up and tread down, O daughter of Tzion! For I will make your horn iron and your [divided] hoofs brass, and you will pulverize many peoples, and I will consecrate their gain to YHWH, and their wealth to the Master of the whole earth.
Horn of iron, hoofs of brass: idioms for ironclad, unquestionable authority. Pulverize: like Nevukhadnetzar’s statue (Dan. 2:34-35); disband them as nations, probably resettling them according to the seventy ethnicities listed in Genesis 10. (Compare Numbers 29:13ff, where 70 bulls—one for each of the nations—are to be slaughtered at Sukkoth, the feast that most fully represents the Kingdom.) Consecrate: take as into one’s harem. Vassal states will send their main products to Yerushalayim (Rev. 21:26), paying homage to Y’shua as the ruling power.
14. Let yourselves be gathered into a crowd, O daughter of a raiding band; a siege-entrenchment has been established against us! With a rod they will strike Israel’s law-giver on the cheek.
In context of the next verse, this is speaking of Y’shua, who ironically spoke about our response to being struck on the cheek. (Mat. 5:39; compare Yeshayahu 50:6) But only a teacher has this prerogative; to strike one who gives the laws has it all backwards.
CHAPTER 5
1. But [as for] you, Beyth Lechem, Efrathah, [though you] are insignificant among the thousands of Yehudah, out of you shall come forth to Me the one who will become governor in Israel, and his origins have been from antiquity—from the days of eternity.
Efrathah: the fruitful [part]. Even today, there are orchards around the Tower of the Flock (4:8), where Y’shua was born. The prayer welcoming the Sabbath (a picture of the Kingdom that complements that of the feast of Sukkoth) ties its the resurrection of the righteous to the "hour of the Beyth-Lechemite's birth". (L'cha Dodi) This has always been taken to refer to the Messiah. (Mat. 2:5-6; Yochanan 7:42) Origins: or, comings forth. Y’shua “went forth” many times prior to His birth as a man. Every time Scripture says “the Word of YHWH came to” someone or the “Messenger of YHWH” in angelic form appears to someone, it was He, and always with the same task: preparing YHWH’s people to become his bride. Thousands: or, companies of troops under the same leader.
2. Therefore, He will yield them up until the time the one giving birth has brought forth, then the remainder of His brothers will turn back to the descendants of Israel.
Has brought forth: not the first coming of Y’shua, because he was a male child “born” before his mother went into labor. (Yeshayahu 66:7) The Hebrew word for “first” is rooted in the word “head”, since the head is normally birthed first. Y’shua is called our Head, but there is more to the Body. Tzion is said to give birth to other children who are equated with a nation (66:8). This parallels Rev. 12, in which Y’shua is taken into the heavens and Israel is taken into a protected place in the wilderness. Compare Galatians 4:19, which describes Messiah’s being “formed in us” as a birthing process. We are being made into that unified body which is still in the birth canal, seemingly stuck (Yeshayahu 37:3). His brothers: Yehudah (his physical brothers) will welcome the Northern Kingdom back into their identity as Israel, thus putting away “Judaism”, the exclusive emphasis on being Yehudah rather than one of more parts of a united Israel.
3. Then He will stand and lead to pasture in the [prevailing] strength of YHWH, in the [triumphant] majesty of the Name of YHWH His Elohim, and now they will settle down, because He will grow more powerful, to the ends of the earth.
Then: until the two “brothers” (see Luke 15:11-32) are gathered back together, He cannot lead us back to our Land in this triumph. (Compare 2:12-13.)
4. And this will be the completion: when the Assyrian comes into our land and marches in[to] our fortresses, then we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight anointed persons.
Assyrian: the army that originally deported the Northern Kingdom into exile. It was headed for Yerushalayim as well, and had already defeated major bastions of Yehudah. But there is undoubtedly a latter-day fulfillment, since the power base of Assyria, according to Daniel’s prophecies, was passed down through Babylon, Persia, and Greece to Rome, and from there was carried on through the Church. And “the Assyrian” seems to be a reference to one particular person—also called an “eighth”--who is known by many other names throughout the Scriptures as a counterfeit Messiah:
5. Then they will graze the land of Ashur with the sword, along with the land of Nimrod and its entryways, and He will deliver us [by snatching us away] from Ashur when he comes into our land and marches within our border.
Ashur (the Assyrian or the ancestor of all Assyrians)… Nimrod: the ancient ruler of Bavel and essentially the founder of paganism. But he also established bases in Byblos, Lebanon and in Egypt, and the Third Reich again tried to raise it up again; the concept of the New World Order is alive again and this is undoubtedly the incarnation of that same spirit that will at the end of the age press in on Israel and try to subsume it as other world empires have tried to do, but never with complete success. Revelation 17:11 may even describe his return as a resurrection of this very man, who was mummified and therefore DNA would be available to bring him—whom many cultures have long mourned—back, reviving their hopes of actually succeeding. (Alexander Lawrence) But these verses tell what the outcome will be.
6. Then what is left of Yaaqov will come to be in the [innermost] middle of many peoples like dew from with YHWH—like the heavy showers on the green plants, which does not wait for man or delay for the sons of Adam.
Deut. 32:1-2 likens dew and heavy rain to YHWH’s speech and His teaching. His words will indeed be imposed on the world with a rod of iron (an unbending standard, Psalm 2/Rev. 2:27). But this is also describing how Israel herself will no longer be in a position to have to cater to anyone else’s agenda:
7. And what is left of Yaaqov will come to be among the Gentiles (in the midst of many peoples) like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep [and goats], which, if he passes through, both tramples and tears in pieces, and there is none that brings deliverance.
8. Your hand will be raised high above your oppressors, and all your enemies will be cut off.
Oppressors: literally, those who put you in a tight spot (which can often be to our advantage by giving us no choice but to do the right thing), versus enemies, who by definition are hostile to us. The first time each of these words “oppressor” and “enemy” is used in Scripture (Gen. 14:20; 22:17), it is in connection with Israel being blessed nonetheless, and that is exactly the outcome YHWH brought about when Balaq (6:5 below) made himself Israel’s enemy, though Israel never intended to be a threat to them. A high hand also indicates an advantageous position.
9. “And what will come about in that day,” declares YHWH, “[is that] I will cause your horses to be cut off from your innermost midst, and I will cause your chariots to be destroyed.
In order to “seek first the Kingdom” (Mat. 6:31-33), we cannot trust in natural defenses (Psalm 20:7; Yeshayahu 31:1). And lest you think “ horses and chariots” is an outdated description, the word for “chariots” here is merkavah, the very name of Israel’s modern tanks. Security is also one of the Gentiles’ agendas, and insofar as Israel has sold itself to this foreign elohim, it will have to suffer the destruction of what it has built with these “foreign building materials”:
10. “And I will cause all the cities of your land to be cut off, and tear down your fortifications.
11. “And I will have witchcrafts cut off from your hand, and there will be no sorceries for you again.
12. “I will also cause your carved images—your upright monuments-- to be cut off from your midst, and you will never again bow down to the workmanship of your own hands.
Upright monuments: the Hebrew word for the “standing stones” that evolved into steeples after Christianity took over the pagan worship-sites of the Roman Empire that followed this earlier pattern. They were phallic symbols that marked temples where prostitution for the sake of fertility was rife, and they were later moved from the front entrances to the roofs for added visibility.
13. “I will root out the asherah poles from your midst, and cause your cities to be annihilated.
Asherah poles: “groves” of tree-like phallic symbols common to ancient near eastern pagan worship. Cities: or possibly, enemies or oppressors.
14. “I will execute vengeance on the Gentiles with anger and rage such as they have never heard of.”
CHAPTER 6
1. Listen now to what YHWH is saying: “Get up, and bring a case to the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice:
Mountains: specifically, Mt. Grizim and Mt. Eval, the mountains of blessing and cursing at Sh’khem, very close to Shomron, the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, against whom YHWH was calling them to witness, since the blessings and curses of the Torah covenant were read there under Y’hoshua for all of Israel to hear and acknowledge.
2. “‘O mountains and enduring foundations of the earth, hear the complaint YHWH is lodging, because YHWH has a dispute with His people, and will argue with Israel:
Argue: reason with the intent of chiding and correcting.
3. “‘“My people, what have I done to you? And how have I offended you? [Bring forward a witness to] testify against Me,
Offended: brought cause for grievance, or wearied.
4. “‘“since I [was the one who] brought you up from the land of Egypt and from the house of slaves I redeemed you from the house of slaves, and was sending Moshe, Aharon, and Miryam ahead of you.
5. “‘“My people, please remember what Balaq, king of Moav, plotted, and what Bilaam, son of Beor, answered him—from the acacias to Gilgal—for the sake of the knowledge of the justice of YHWH.”’”
This is the evidence that YHWH brought Israel blessing when others tried to curse them. He would not allow it. (Num. 23-25) As when the people complained to Moshe and he fell on his face, the prophet wants the people to stop bringing their gripes to the one who brings the message and realize that it is YHWH Himself they are claiming is in the wrong. Can they really stand up to Him?
6. With what should I prepare to meet YHWH [when] I bow down to the [high and] lofty Elohim? Should I meet Him with ascending [offerings], with yearling calves?
7. Will YHWH be pleased with thousands of rams? With tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Should I give my firstborn son [in payment for] my trespass? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
YHWH would rather have none of these if it meant His people had no need for reconciliation with Him since they had obeyed Him from the start:
8. “He has informed you, O human being, what is right. And what does YHWH expect from you except to carry out right legal rulings, and love mercy, and to walk humbly with your Elohim?”
Rulings: Though we tend to shrink back from judging, He simply calls us to do so in the right way. Judging rightly is exactly what Israel’s rulers were not doing at this time. Walk: This hearkens back to what YHWH had told Avraham--“Walk before Me and be perfect.” (Gen. 17:1) Humbly: modestly, conservatively, respectfully, knowing one’s place—not the word for being pressed down low; it emphasizes not flaunting one’s strengths, though still using them. This verse provides a simple summary of the whole Torah.
9. The voice of YHWH has begun calling out to the city, and the [one of] solid substance will perceive your name; obey the rod and the One who has appointed it:
Solid substance: with the connotation of therefore being wise and successful. Rod: to set the standard of measurement. (See Lev. 19:35.)
10. “Are there still treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked while the abhorrent eyfah-measure is [so] scanty?
Abhorrent: to YHWH, because it is smaller than it should be, yet passed off as being a true eyfah. That is how the rich garnered all these “treasures”. The equivalent today is the “loading of the scales” in any sense—through double standards, preference for the rich, or even undue consideration for the poor. (Lev. 19:15) If the measurements are wrong in any direction, we are guilty:
11. “Will I consider the guilty weighing scales—[laden] with [their] bags of misleading weights—to be pure?
Pure: or clear; i.e., guiltless. Will He just overlook these blatant injustices?
12. “[The city] whose rich are full of violence, and her inhabitants have told a lie, while their tongue is slack in their mouth!
Slack: not careful about details, and thus deceitful and treacherous. In the context of rendering verdicts, this could even include things like trying to come to a quick decision “because it is lunchtime”, when there are more considerations to be heard.
13. “So I, too, have made you sick by striking you, by stunning you, on account of your sins.
14. “You will eat but not be satisfied, and there will be a sinking, empty feeling within you, and you will carry away but not bring [it] to safety, and what you do [manage to] secure I will turn over to the sword.
15. “You will sow, but not harvest. You will tread olives, but not pour the oil, and [you will tread out] the wine [press], but not drink the wine.
16. “For one keeps for himself the customs of Omri and all the acts of the household of Ahav, and you are starting to walk in their counsels, in order for Me to let you become an appalling wasteland and her inhabitants become an object of whistling, and you will endure the taunts of My people.”
The customs of Omri: Hoshea 5:11 gives us a clearer picture: “Efrayim [the Northern Kingdom] is oppressed and broken in judgment because he willing walked in human precepts.” Omri and Ahav both set up idols and did what was not pleasing to YHWH, and thought it did not matter. They set up new laws to serve self, or disregarded the fact that Torah defined someone else’s inherited property, because it was conveniently located for the king’s purpose. Ahav also really let his pagan wife Isabel (Jezebel) rule rather than himself judging.
CHAPTER 7
1. Alas for me! Because I am like the collection of summer-fruits and like the gleanings of the [gathered-in] vintage; there is not a cluster to eat. My soul craves the first-ripe figs!
The first-ripe fruit is only to be eaten by the priests. (Ex. 23:19; 34:26) They are not being brought, so YHWH is “hungry”. He is having to eat the leftovers that the birds have already picked over, when He is due the first and best. The word for “firstfruits” also means “firstborn”, and because of the people’s attitude, there will no longer even be priests to serve before YHWH in the Northern Kingdom’s stead for many centuries. But we still do the same thing today any time we do not give YHWH His due. Do we give Him only the leftovers of our time, energy, skills, and resources—after we have finished pleasing ourselves and others around us—if there is anything left?
2. The pious [man] has vanished from the Land, and the upright among men are no [longer there]. They all lie in wait to shed blood; each one hunts his own brother with a net!
3. Both hands are upon the evil, to do it well. The prince and the judge [both] ask for compensation. The great [man] threatens mischief; it is his desire, and they weave it together!
Both hands: symbolic of using even our better inclinations for evil purposes—such as those who claim to be collecting assistance for the needy, but use a large percentage of the income to enrich themselves.
4. The best of them is like a brier—more upright than a thorn-hedge! The day of those who keep watch for you: your visiting-for-punishment is coming; now their confusion will come about!
5. Don’t trust [your] fellow, and don’t put confidence in an intimate friend; guard the opening of your mouth from her who lies down in your bosom,
6. because the son treats the father with contempt; a daughter rises up against a mother, a daughter-in-law against her husband’s mother. A man’s enemies are the men of his own household!
Y’shua warned that the same would hold true for His followers. (Mat. 10:21-22)
7. But as for me, I will watch YHWH closely; I will wait expectantly for the Elohim who will deliver me. My Elohim will hear me.
8. Don’t gloat over me, O my enemy, because [though] I have fallen, I will get up [again]; even if I sit in darkness, YHWH is a light for me!
9. I will bear the wrath of YHWH, because I have sinned against Him, until [the time] that He argues my case and carries out a just legal ruling for me. He will bring me out into the light; I will see [how] He was righteous.
Mikhah is confident in the fact that though YHWH cannot be blamed for punishing Israel, He has also promised that in the end His people will come through the ordeal strong, mature, and righteous.
10. Then she who is hostile toward me will see and shame will overwhelm her—the one who says to me, “Where is YHWH your Elohim?” My eyes will gaze on her; now she will come to serve as something to be trampled on like the mud of the streets.
She who is hostile: “Where is your Elohim?” is a question first asked in so many words by haSatan (which means “the adversary”) in the garden. Compare Yeshayahu 14:16. It is also Israel’s Gentile enemies who ask this tauntingly. (e.g., Psalm 42; 79:10; 115:2)
11. The day your walls are to be built—[on] that day the decree will be sent far [and wide]--
12. the [same] day he comes to you all the way from Ashur and the besieged cities, and from the siege-entrenchment all the way to the river, and sea from sea, and mountain of the mountain.
We are now seeing wall-builders being called from the places to which Assyria exiled us to become set-apart in sheepfolds, shepherded with YHWH’s unchanging standard, and to feed on the ancient ways. (v. 14) So this decree has already gone forth.
13. And the Land will become desolate on account of its inhabitants, due to the fruit of their practices.
14. Pasture Your people with the rod—the flock of Your inherited possession, who dwell in isolation [in the] forest within Karmel. Let them graze [in] Bashan and Gil’ad, as in days of antiquity!
We know we have proven to have very poor self-discipline, so the logical response is to ask YHWH to correct us so that we can be pleasing to Him. We tend to avoid this, but this is the only way we will get back to the way things once were and are meant to be. Bashan and Gil’ad: the best pastureland in Israel.
15. “As [in] the days of your coming out from the land of Egypt, I will let him see things beyond his power to comprehend!”
16. Gentiles will see and be put to shame from all their mighty deeds. They will put their hand over their mouth; their ears will deafened.
17. They will lick up dust like a snake; like crawling things of the earth, they will be shaken from their closed-in places. They will [turn their] reverence toward YHWH; our Elohim, they will stand in awe because of You.
18. Who is a mighty one like You, forgiving crookedness and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His inherited possession? He will not hold onto His anger forever, because He is inclined to prefer mercy.
This section is read during the special season of repentance leading up to Yom haKippurim.
19. He will come back [to] show us compassion; he will bring our perversions into subservience, and you will throw all their sins into the depths of the sea.
20. You will bestow faithfulness on Yaaqov, You will bestow faithfulness on Yaaqov, mercy to Avraham, which You swore to our ancestors since ancient times.
WRITINGS OF THE PROPHET
Mikhah
INTRODUCTION: Dating from 742 B.C.E., just 20 years prior to the Northern Kingdom’s final deportation, Mikhah prophesies from the Southern Kingdom of Yehudah in the face of the North’s impending dispersion, during the reign of its second-last king. Short for Mikhayah (1 Kings 22; 2 Chron. 18), his name means “Who is like YHWH?” Though undoubtedly considered a fool in his own days, his words were remembered after his death (Yirmeyahu 26:18), and the fact that some of them had already proven true and that they agreed with what Yirmeyahu was saying is what saved Yirmeyahu’s life and earned him better treatment from the wise rulers of his day. (Josephus, Antiquities, 10:6:2) He addresses the corruption, injustice, and most of all, the unfaithfulness to YHWH that lay behind it all.
