Introduction: Sefer Micha
Today we begin Sefer Micha in Trei Asar (the Twelve Minor Prophets). Micha was a prophet during the reigns of the kings of Yehudah: Yosam, Achaz, and Chizkiyahu, and his prophecy addresses the two centers: Shomron and Yerushalayim. Already in the opening verses, we encounter a sobering description of Hashem going forth from His place in judgment, the melting of mountains and the splitting of valleys, immediately followed by the reason for it all: the transgression of Yaakov and the sins of the House of Israel. We will proceed verse by verse, with the commentaries of the Radak, the Metzudos, and especially the Malbim.
Verse 1: Who Was Micha and When Did He Prophesy?
דְּבַר־יְהֹוָה אֲשֶׁר הָיָה אֶל־מִיכָה הַמֹּרַשְׁתִּי בִּימֵי יוֹתָם אָחָז יְחִזְקִיָּה מַלְכֵי יְהוּדָה אֲשֶׁר־חָזָה עַל־שֹׁמְרוֹן וִירוּשָׁלָ͏ִם׃ - The word of Hashem that came to Micha the Morashtite in the days of Yosam, Achaz, and Yechizkiyah, kings of Yehudah, which he envisioned concerning Shomron and Yerushalayim.
The Radak notes: this is not the first place where we encounter this prophet; we also find him mentioned in the Book of Yirmiyahu. Micha the Morashtite was a prophet during the days of Chizkiyahu, king of Yehudah, and he was called "the Morashtite" after his hometown of Maresha, as Targum Yonasan translates: "from Maresha" - a city in the Judean hills. His era: the days of Yosam, Achaz, and Yechizkiyahu, kings of Yehudah.
There is a noteworthy detail here: the prophet does not mention during the reigns of which kings of Israel he prophesied. The kingdom had already split back in the days of Rechavam and Yerovam, and from then on both kingdoms ran concurrently. Usually, when Scripture introduces a prophet, it enumerates the kings of both Yehudah and Israel, as we find with Hoshea and Amos. Here, only the kings of Yehudah are mentioned.
The Radak explains: although he did not explicitly mention them, by stating "which he envisioned concerning Shomron and Yerushalayim," it is as if he had mentioned them. In other words, once he mentioned Shomron, about which he prophesied, it is considered as though he also mentioned the kings of Shomron, and he saw no need to detail them individually.
The Metzudas David offers a different reason: he did not anchor the prophecy to the reigns of the kings of Israel as Hoshea and Amos did, because Micha was from the land of Yehudah and did not prophesy in the lands of the kings of Israel - meaning he did not prophesy in Shomron, but rather in Yehudah. Hoshea and Amos, by contrast, also prophesied in Shomron, and therefore their words were dated by the kings of Shomron as well.
In this context, we should note who the prophets were during that era: Yeshayahu, Hoshea, Amos, and Oded. All of them prophesied roughly during the period of Yosam son of Uziyahu and Achaz son of Yosam.
Verse 2: Hear, You Peoples - Hearing Versus Listening
שִׁמְעוּ עַמִּים כֻּלָּם הַקְשִׁיבִי אֶרֶץ וּמְלֹאָהּ וִיהִי אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה בָּכֶם לְעֵד אֲדֹנָי מֵהֵיכַל קׇדְשׁוֹ׃ - Hear, all you peoples; listen, earth and its fullness, and let the Lord Hashem be a witness against you, the Lord from His holy Sanctuary.
"Hear, all you peoples" - do not mistakenly think the prophet is addressing the nations of the world here. He is referring to the tribes of Israel. This is how the Malbim explains it: he calls the tribes of Israel "peoples" (amim), just as we find with Michayehu ben Yimlah, who said "Hear, all you peoples" referring to the tribes. "Listen, earth and its fullness" - the land as a whole, because from there the calamity would spread throughout the entire land.
The Malbim adds a fundamental principle that he already explained in Hoshea: wherever Scripture addresses two different entities, it uses the term of shemi'ah (hearing) for one and hakshevah (attentive listening) for the other. To the more important entity one says "hear" (shema), and to the less important "listen" (hakshev); furthermore, hakshevah denotes listening from afar, whereas shemi'ah is from up close. Therefore, "Hear, all you peoples" refers to those who are close, the Ten Tribes, while "listen, earth and its fullness" refers to those further away.
"And let the Lord God be a witness against you" - the Malbim explains that ed (witness) here is in the sense of warning (hasra'ah): I warn you, I admonish you. This is the difference between ed and oneh: "You shall not testify against your fellow as a false witness (ed shaker)" - oneh always denotes one who delivers testimony, but ed is also used in the sense of forewarning, as in "I call to witness against you today" (ha'idoti vakhem hayom), where the intention is not bearing testimony in court, but giving a warning of impending calamity.
"The Lord from His holy Temple" - Hashem warns you while He is still in His holy Abode, before He goes forth to judge the earth. For once He has already gone out to judge the earth, it will be too late. Now He warns: Hear, all you peoples.
Pasuk 3: Hashem Goes Forth from His Place - Punishment Through Direct Providence
כִּי־הִנֵּה יְהֹוָה יֹצֵא מִמְּקוֹמוֹ וְיָרַד וְדָרַךְ עַל־בָּמֳתֵי אָרֶץ׃ - For behold, Hashem comes forth out of His place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.
The Radak explains: "Behold, Hashem comes forth out of His place" is a metaphor for the decree that goes forth from before Him, as though Hashem leaves His place in Heaven, descends, and treads upon the high places of the earth, just as we find in the Song of David, "He bowed the heavens and came down." This is an allegory for the future destruction, which will soon be depicted in stark terms of melting mountains and splitting valleys.
The Malbim notes the precision of the phrase "Hashem comes forth out of His place": this expression teaches that the punishment here is through direct, divine providence (hashgachah). Sometimes punishment occurs without direct providence - which does not mean that it occurs against Hashem's will, Heaven forbid, for nothing can happen without His will - but rather that Hashem abandons man to the natural course of events, and as a result he suffers harm. Here, however, this is not the case: the Holy One, Blessed is He, Himself brings the retribution upon them with direct providence, not striking through an intermediary, as it is said, "At about midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt."
"And will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth" - initially He will, as it were, tread upon the elevated places, which correspond to the mountains, since a bamah is a high place.
Pasuk 4: The Mountains Shall Melt - Parallel Hemistichs
וְנָמַסּוּ הֶהָרִים תַּחְתָּיו וְהָעֲמָקִים יִתְבַּקָּעוּ כַּדּוֹנַג מִפְּנֵי הָאֵשׁ כְּמַיִם מֻגָּרִים בְּמוֹרָד׃ - And the mountains shall melt under Him, and the valleys shall split, like wax before fire, like water poured down a steep place.
The Metzudat David explains this metaphorically: "the mountains" are the prominent figures and nobles, who will be brought low. "And the valleys shall split" - this refers to the common folk, who are like a valley, lower in stature. Just as wax melts before fire, so they will melt away; and like poured water - water that rushes down a slope and scatters in all directions - so will Israel be scattered across the lands of their exile.
The Malbim explains that here the clauses of the verse are parallel in an interwoven structure. We have already noted this biblical rule several times: the verse consists of four parts, but they are to be read in pairs - the continuation of the first clause is the third, and the continuation of the second is the fourth. Here it should be read: "The mountains shall melt under Him like wax before fire," and "the valleys shall split like water poured down a steep place." The mountains will melt like wax that easily dissolves before heat, and the valleys will be cleaved like rushing water that tears open a gorge on its downward course.
The meaning of these words is that what was once solid and strong turns to liquid, depicting the devastation of the land. The earth represents strength and power - "we will stand strong against the enemy" - yet everything will melt away. When Hashem goes forth, you will become utterly powerless, and everything will return to being like water, hinting at the state of the world at the dawn of Creation: "and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the water," when everything was unformed and void (tohu vavohu). This is poetic imagery, as in "mountains melted before Hashem" and "the earth shook and trembled," expressing the magnitude of the destruction when Hashem goes forth to exact retribution from the wicked.
Pasuk 5: The Transgression of Yaakov and the Sins of the House of Yisrael
בְּפֶשַׁע יַעֲקֹב כׇּל־זֹאת וּבְחַטֹּאות בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל מִי־פֶשַׁע יַעֲקֹב הֲלוֹא שֹׁמְרוֹן וּמִי בָּמוֹת יְהוּדָה הֲלוֹא יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם׃ - For the transgression of Yaakov is all this, and for the sins of the House of Yisrael. Who is the transgression of Yaakov? Is it not Shomron? And what are the high places of Yehudah? Are they not Yerushalayim?
The Malbim establishes two key principles here. First, there is a difference between pesha (transgression) and chatat (sin). A pesha is an iniquity committed out of rebellion and defiance, whereas a chatat is an act done inadvertently. Second, there is a distinction between "Yisrael" and "Yaakov." The name Yisrael denotes nobility and greatness, whereas the name Yaakov denotes the heel (akev), grasping at the heel. When the prophet uses only one of these names, he addresses the collective nation, indicating either their elevated standing or their lowliness. However, when he mentions both names together, Yaakov and Yisrael, it is a sign that he is speaking to two distinct groups within the Jewish people.
And who are these two groups? The Ten Tribes - that is, Shomron - as opposed to Yehudah and Binyamin. Yehudah and Binyamin were relatively righteous compared to the Ten Tribes. Among the Ten Tribes, there was never a single righteous king - all their monarchs were wicked, starting with Yarovam, who, though initially righteous, ended up wicked, down to their very last king. In Yehudah, by contrast, there were also righteous kings, and they sinned far less. That is why the Ten Tribes have not returned to this day, whereas all the exiles and all those present here stem from Yehudah and Binyamin, the two tribes whose wickedness was far less severe.
In light of this, the verse becomes clear: "For the transgression of Yaakov is all this" - Yaakov refers to the Ten Tribes, Shomron, and their deeds are categorized as pesha, rebellion: idol worship, worshiping fetishes and sun-images. "And for the sins of the House of Yisrael" - these are Yehudah and Binyamin, whose misdeeds are called sins (chata'im) rather than rebellion, since they did not act out of outright revolt, but out of desire or inadvertence, such as offering sacrifices on the high places (bamot). Although this was indeed a sin, it was not rebellion, for the offerings on the high places were essentially dedicated to Heaven.
"Who is the transgression of Yaakov? Is it not Shomron?" - who caused this transgression? The royal seat in Shomron. Shomron was not the entire land of Israel, but the capital city of the monarchy, where Achav resided, and it was the kings who incited the people to rebel against Hashem. "And what are the high places of Yehudah? Are they not Yerushalayim?" - who caused Yehudah to have high places? The kingdom of Yehudah in Yerushalayim, which did not abolish the high places until the days of Chizkiyahu. Thus, the sin is placed upon the neck of Yerushalayim, while the transgression - the deliberate sins of Yisrael - rests upon the neck of Shomron.
Pasuk 6: And I Will Make Shomron a Heap of the Field
וְשַׂמְתִּי שֹׁמְרוֹן לְעִי הַשָּׂדֶה לְמַטָּעֵי כָרֶם וְהִגַּרְתִּי לַגַּי אֲבָנֶיהָ וִיסֹדֶיהָ אֲגַלֶּה׃ - And I will make Shomron like a ruin of the field, planting places for a vineyard; and I will pour down her stones into the valley, and I will uncover her foundations.
Here the destruction of Shomron is depicted, and a question arises: In the Book of Melachim, it is explained that the king of Assyria captured the land and settled people there whom he brought from Kutha, Avva, and Sepharvaim, while exiling its original inhabitants. If Shomron became "a heap of the field" and "planting places for a vineyard," an area unfit for human settlement and suitable only for planting vineyards, how could people settle there?
The Radak resolves this: Notice that it does not say, "and he settled them in Shomron," but rather, "in the cities of Shomron." There is the capital city itself, Shomron, which was the seat of royalty, and there are the regional cities of Shomron. The outlying cities of Shomron were not destroyed, but regarding the royal capital, named Shomron, it is said: "And I will make Shomron like a ruin of the field." The gentile nations settled in the inhabited regions - the cities of Shomron - whereas the verse here speaks of the city of Shomron itself, which could no longer be inhabited, as the king of Assyria razed it, tore down its walls, and destroyed every building in it, exactly as Micha prophesied.
"And I will pour down her stones into the valley" - although this is phrased in the first person ("I"), it means through My messengers, through the king of Assyria, who would carry this out according to My will, for I would stir his spirit to come and do so. As Scripture states: "And the God of Yisrael stirred up the spirit of Pul, king of Assyria." We see that Hashem stirred his spirit, and therefore "and I will make" and "and I will pour down" do not mean by Him directly, but through His agents.
"As a heap of the field" - into heaps of rubble, for a destroyed building turns into heaps, as in "And Babylon shall become heaps." "Plantings of a vineyard" - Shomron is a mountain, and vineyards are generally planted on mountains because of the favorable air and sunlight. That is to say: the place will no longer be fit for habitation, but only for planting vineyards and nothing more. "And I will pour down its stones into the valley" - Shomron sits upon a mountain, and when its stones are demolished, they will roll down the slope into the valley, to the lowlands. Rashi explains "ve-higarti" (I will pour down) as an expression of dragging or cascading, like "poured down a steep place," like waters flowing downward from above.
The Malbim explains that "Therefore I will make" refers back to what was said earlier, "and let the Lord God be a witness against you": Hashem is warning them and saying, know that this is how Shomron is destined to be destroyed - it would therefore be wise for you to repent right now.
Pasuk 7: Graven Images, Idols, and the Harlot's Hire
וְכׇל־פְּסִילֶיהָ יֻכַּתּוּ וְכׇל־אֶתְנַנֶּיהָ יִשָּׂרְפוּ בָאֵשׁ וְכׇל־עֲצַבֶּיהָ אָשִׂים שְׁמָמָה כִּי מֵאֶתְנַן זוֹנָה קִבָּצָה וְעַד־אֶתְנַן זוֹנָה יָשׁוּבוּ׃ - All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her hires shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay desolate; for she gathered them from the hire of a harlot, and to the hire of a harlot they shall return.
The Malbim explains: The carved images (pesilim) were made of wood or stone, and people would bring them an etnan (hire). We are familiar with the term etnan from the hire of a harlot, but idolatry is also described countless times in Scripture in terms of harlotry. Those who came to worship the idol would give it an etnan, meaning a gift, an offering, and food, in order to gain its favor. The idolatrous priests would eat this, and it was their livelihood; the priest served as the medium, the link between the giver and the idol, supposedly ensuring that the idol would fulfill the worshiper's desire.
And what are the "atzabim" (idols)? The Malbim explains that beneath the wooden and stone carved images, there were figures subordinate to them who followed their will and received their commands, like a king and his ministers. The pesel is the king, and the atzabim are the ministers, a second rank beneath the statues. Therefore: "All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces" - the carved images will be shattered and utterly destroyed, and then automatically "and all her idols I will lay desolate," for if there is no king, what need is there for ministers? The Malbim adds that the atzabim are a type of idol worship that began at a later period; you will not find the term atzabim anywhere in the Torah, because their practice originated later in the land of Canaan and among the Philistines. The pesel is, as it were, the one who commands and decrees, while the atzabim are its officials who carry out its commands and fulfill its word.
"And all her hires shall be burned with fire" - everything that was brought to the carved image as a hire; and notice: the etnan was given to the pesel and not to the atzabim, since tribute is given to the king. All those gifts, precious items, and valuables will be burned with fire.
"For she gathered them from the hire of a harlot, and to the hire of a harlot they shall return" - Shomron amassed all its wealth from the hire of a harlot. That is, they thought: From where does our success come, from where does our prosperity originate? From the money we dedicate to idolatry, as it is written in Hoshea: "For she said: 'These are my hires that my lovers have given me.'" "And to the hire of a harlot they shall return" - the king of Ashur will take this, and it is as if his own idol gives him this spoil as hire: "Here, take the spoil of Shomron." You, the inhabitant of Shomron, are certain that all your wealth comes from there - another idol will come and grant this wealth to its own king, the king of Ashur.
From here onward, the prophet comes and says: My heart does not ache over the destruction of Shomron, for the people of Shomron were utterly wicked; look at what carved images and what idols they made. But in the next verse he says, "For this I will wail and howl" - over whom is there truly cause to weep? Over the destruction of Yerushalayim. Yet before we continue, let us examine a Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah that relates to our pasuk.
The Gemara: Rabbi Eliezer Arrested for Heresy
The Rabbis taught: When Rabbi Eliezer was arrested for minut (heresy). According to Rashi and the Ra'avad, this means that the Romans - the heretics - seized him and wished to force him to worship idols, but he refused, so they brought him to the tribunal (gardom) to be sentenced to death. The Dikdukei Soferim, however, explains differently: this took place at the beginning of the spread of Christianity in Eretz Yisrael, and the Romans feared it, seeing it as a force stripping them of their hegemony and power and transferring it to another. After all, they ultimately put that man to death because they viewed him as a rebel against the empire and an instigator of revolts. For that reason, the Romans persecuted the early Christians and suspected Rabbi Eliezer of belonging to them - for in those days, that man's disciples, as well as he himself, looked like rabbis, people who came from the Beit Midrash and spoke words of Torah, thereby attracting and misleading others. According to this, "arrested for minut" means he was suspected of being associated with the sectarians. In the Gemara, "minim" often refers to the early Christians.
That hegemon (governor), the judge trying him, said to him: "Should an elder such as you engage in these idle matters?" According to Rashi and the Ra'avad, he was challenging him about words of Torah, whereas according to the Dikdukei Soferim, he was challenging him for associating with the sectarians. Rabbi Eliezer said to him: "The Judge is trustworthy to me" - meaning, I accept the judgment of Heaven; whatever Hashem decrees, I accept. That hegemon thought Rabbi Eliezer was referring to him, and he began to feel flattered: "Look, he says I am trustworthy to him and my ruling is accepted." Yet Rabbi Eliezer was speaking only toward his Father in Heaven, accepting the divine judgment upon himself. The hegemon said to him: "Since you have trusted me, dimus - you are acquitted." Rashi explains that the governor took an oath in the name of the idol present there and dismissed him from trial, and thus Rabbi Eliezer was saved from death.
When he returned to his home, he was in great grief and deep mourning. His disciples entered to console him, but he refused to accept comfort. For he began to scrutinize his deeds: What happened? What did I do that such a decree was issued against me, that I was sentenced to death and saved only at the last moment? What iniquity is in me? We would have thought: What merit do I have, since I was ultimately saved! But with him, it was precisely the opposite: What sins do I have that I was arrested in the first place?
Rabbi Akiva said to him: "Rebbi, will you permit me to say one thing from what you taught me?" He said to him: "Speak." He said to him: "Rebbi, perhaps some matter of heresy came into your hands? Perhaps you once had contact with words of heresy, and because of this - according to Rashi - the heretics seized you, or according to Dikdukei Soferim - because of this you were suspected of heresy, that there was some trace of it in you." And according to Dikdukei Soferim this is wonderfully understandable: when a person falls under suspicion, there is no smoke without fire; he was suspected because there was some minute trace in him, as the Gemara says, that perhaps he even contemplated committing a sin - unless it is a case of a person who has enemies.
Rabbi Eliezer said to him: "Once I was walking in the upper market of Tzippori, and I encountered a certain man, and Yaakov of Kfar Sekhanya was his name, one of the disciples of that man. That wicked one said to me: 'It is written in your Torah, "You shall not bring the hire of a harlot into the House of Hashem" - what is the ruling regarding making from it a privy for the Kohen Gadol?' Notice this: a disciple of Yeshu, yet he has a halachic inquiry! It is forbidden to bring the hire of a harlot into the House of Hashem - but what if they wish to build from it a privy for the Kohen Gadol? For seven days before Yom Kippur, they would sequester the Kohen Gadol to the Chamber of Palhedrin in the Beit HaMikdash, and there they prepared all his needs and arrangements, including a privy, for he stays there seven days and does not leave at all, and he cannot restrain himself. And I did not say anything to him."
"That wicked one said to me: 'Thus did he teach me' - who taught him? That man - '"For from the hire of a harlot she gathered them, and unto the hire of a harlot they shall return."' This is our verse, which is why we brought the story here. From a place of filth they came, to a place of filth they shall go. From where did it come? From the hire of a harlot. Where shall it go? To a place of filth, to the privy. Said Rabbi Eliezer: 'And the matter pleased me, and through this I was arrested for heresy, for I transgressed that which is written: "Keep your way far from her" - this is heresy; "and do not come near the door of her house" - this is the ruling authority.' 'In the Torah' does not mean the Pentateuch itself, but in the Writings (Mishlei). In other words: I should have fled from him. When Yaakov the Christian came to me, I should have fled and not listened to Torah thoughts from him, let alone enjoyed them! He told me something and it pleased me - and for this I was punished. And some expound the opposite: 'Keep your way far from her' - this is heresy and the ruling authority; 'and do not come near the door of her house' - this is a harlot. Rav Chisda said: Four cubits.
And the Gemara asks: What do the Sages expound in the verse "From the hire of a harlot"? That is, what do the Sages derive from the verse, unlike the exposition of Yaakov the Christian? As Rav Chisda taught, for Rav Chisda said: Every harlot who is hired ultimately hires others, as it is said, "And in that you give hire, and no hire is given to you, thus you are the reverse." That is, a harlot who is paid to hire her services will eventually reach a state where she is despised by all and like an unwanted vessel, and no one will want to hire her; and since she has become accustomed to promiscuity and finds no one to hire her, she will go and hire others and pay them money. And this is "for from the hire of a harlot she gathered them" - the wealth she gathered through the hire of a harlot, "and unto the hire of a harlot they shall return" - now she will have to pay those people. And as the prophet says in Yechezkel 16: "And in that you give hire" - after you grew accustomed to being given, "and no hire is given to you" - and later you became despised in their eyes and they do not give to you, "thus you are the reverse" - that you give to them. Thus it emerges that this wealth ultimately returns to those who gave it.
In summary:
Micah the Morashtite, a prophet from the Judean hills in the days of Yotam, Achaz, and Chizkiyahu, opens with a solemn warning: Hashem testifies and warns His people from His holy Temple before He goes forth in judgment. The description of His coming out from His place teaches that the retribution comes by divine providence and not by natural happenstance, and the mountains melting like wax and the valleys splitting open like water poured down a slope portray a devastation in which all solidity turns to liquid. The reason is twofold: the transgression of Yaakov - the rebellion of the Ten Tribes in idol worship, the guilt of which lies upon the kingdom of Shomron; and the sins of the house of Yisrael - the high places of Yehudah, a sin born of inadvertence and desire, the guilt of which lies upon Yerushalayim, which did not abolish the high places until Chizkiyahu. Shomron will be made into a heap of the field and plantings of a vineyard, its carved images will be beaten down, all its harlot's hires will be burned, and its idols made desolate, for from the hire of a harlot she gathered them, and unto the hire of a harlot they shall return - all the wealth accumulated from idol worship will return to its defilement. And from the Gemara in Avodah Zarah we learned a profound moral lesson: Rabbi Eliezer was arrested for heresy because he enjoyed a single exposition of a heretic, and our Sages taught us that one must distance oneself completely from heresy, and scrutinize one's deeds even when one is saved at the very last moment.