Mining the Minors: Micah (3)

A pun is a figure of speech in which similar words or different senses of the same word are associated. In English the intent is usually humorous, though effects vary. My father would drop the occasional pun in his thirties and forties, but abandoned that sort of humor as he aged, recognizing that it didn’t play as well in Canada as in his native England. (We also had a friend who punned so frequently it became excruciating; you never wanted to give him an excuse to get started.)

The Hebrew prophets used a similar device. I noted several occasions in Hosea’s prophecy where he engages in a bit of wordplay. Micah does this even more than Hosea. You can usually tell because the translation comes across a bit awkward in English, and leaves the reader wondering, “What’s that supposed to be about?” However, it should be evident the prophets were not looking for laughs. Rather, they carefully selected proper names with meanings or sound similarities that made their statements more memorable to their audience.

The point, after all, was to communicate effectively. God had something important to say.

Micah 1:10-16 — A Prophetic Pun-fest

“Tell it not in Gath; weep not at all; in Beth-le-aphrah roll yourselves in the dust. Pass on your way, inhabitants of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame; the inhabitants of Zaanan do not come out; the lamentation of Beth-ezel shall take away from you its standing place. For the inhabitants of Maroth wait anxiously for good, because disaster has come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem. Harness the steeds to the chariots, inhabitants of Lachish; it was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, for in you were found the transgressions of Israel. Therefore you shall give parting gifts to Moresheth-gath; the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel. I will again bring a conqueror to you, inhabitants of Mareshah; the glory of Israel shall come to Adullam. Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair, for the children of your delight; make yourselves as bald as the eagle, for they shall go from you into exile.”

Lost in Translation?

Sure enough, this whole section reads awkwardly in English. If you compare translation with translation, the interpretations are all over the place. There is a fair bit of uncertainty about the nuances, as you might expect when a text is more than two and a half thousand years old, and where the words in question are proper names, most of which only appear in scripture once or twice.

The reason is that the first six verses contain a series of at least ten plays on words technically called paronomasia. To me most are just plain old puns. Others are inversions. Still others are just plain obscure, but you can still see there is some intended meaning there which we are not fully grasping in English.

Figures of Speech in Verses 10-15

The following table breaks down the figures of speech in the passage:

Place	Meaning	Statement
Gath	Sounds like the Hebrew for “tell”	“Tell it not in Gath”
Aphrah	Dust	“In Beth-le-aphrah roll yourselves in the dust”
Shaphir	Pleasantness	“Pass on your way, inhabitants of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame” (the opposite of pleasantness)
Zaanan	Sheep pasture	“The inhabitants of Zaanan do not come out” (are not led forth like sheep)
Beth-ezel	House firmly supported	“The lamentation of Beth-ezel shall take away from you its standing place” (support)
Maroth	Bitterness	“The inhabitants of Maroth wait anxiously for good, because disaster has come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem” (bitterness / disaster)
Lachish	Invincible	“You shall give parting gifts to Moresheth-gath” (not invincible after all, since you are going into exile)
Achzib	Deceit	“The houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel”
Mareshah	Crest of a hill	“I will again bring a conqueror to you, inhabitants of Mareshah” (perhaps there is a connection between “crest” and “conquer” that is not immediately apparent)
Adullam	Justice of the people	“The glory of Israel shall come to Adullam” (this one I just find mysterious)

Tell It Not in Gath

Each of the nine towns that follow Gath on the list are thought to have been within the borders of Judah (Gath itself was disputed territory for much of its history), but in some cases there is fair bit of guesswork as to their exact locations. As far as we can tell, the prophet starts from the southwest near Philistia and moves inland. One scholar at least has argued that the order of the city names tracks the exact route of the abortive Assyrian invasion of Judah during Hezekiah’s reign, but this is difficult to prove given the size of some of the towns and the inexactness of our current understanding of Israel’s geography during this historical era. It is possible the Philistines possessed Gath at the time Micah prophesied, as he says, “Tell it not in Gath.”

The command to “Tell it not in Gath” first appears back in 1 Samuel in David’s lamentation over Saul and Jonathan: “Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised exult.” Why give the enemies of God’s people occasion to celebrate the judgment of their erring neighbors? Perhaps it had become a saying by Micah’s time. At very least, there is some history there. Regrettably, in this case Israel’s fortunes would not shortly be restored by a king after God’s own heart. There would indeed be a miraculous deliverance from the Assyrian armies during the days of Hezekiah, but the people of Judah would ultimately experience years of Babylonian captivity before any kind of restoration to their homes.

A Messianic Reference?

The statements made about each town are probably less important in their small details than in their cumulative effect, which is to confirm that disaster would not just come down from the Lord to the gates of Jerusalem, but that the entire land would have cause to mourn as its people were taken away, city after city. All would be conquered by the invaders.

The lines “I will again bring a conqueror to you, inhabitants of Mareshah; the glory of Israel shall come to Adullam” appear to stand out from the other statements as possibly being Messianic, and referring to a future appearance of Christ. However, many translators feel the “glory of Israel” refers to its nobility at the time of the Assyrian invasion, and that the implication is that the rich and powerful in Judah would have to flee to the caves of Adullam as David once did when on the run from Saul. Regrettably, this more pedestrian interpretation seems more in harmony with the rest of the statements in the chapter, though it robs us of a neat little “Easter egg”.

Absurdity and Contradiction

Micah finishes with this: “Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair, for the children of your delight; make yourselves as bald as the eagle, for they shall go from you into exile.” This is particularly interesting and odd because Micah is commanding Israelites to do something the law forbids (“They shall not make any baldness on their heads”). Upon consideration, though, Micah’s counsel is quite appropriate. Having given themselves over to worshiping and serving the gods of other nations, carping at Israel for adopting the accompanying pagan mourning rituals would be a bit like straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. It would be as absurd as the conduct of the Jewish religious leaders who refused to enter the governor’s headquarters so that they could remain ceremonially clean and eat the Passover, when they were in the process of trying to murder the very Son of God.

Rejecting the word of God reliably ends in absurdity, self-contradiction and public humiliation. That should not come as a surprise. As Isaiah put it, “If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.”

Or, as we might say today, it’s because their brains have stopped working as their Designer intended.