Micah 1 · Verse 16

Micah 1:16

Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
Micah 1:16, King James Version

Micah 1:16 in other translations

BSBShave yourselves bald and cut off your hair in mourning for your precious children; make yourselves as bald as an eagle, for they will go from you into exile.
WEBShave your heads, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture, for they have gone into captivity from you!
ASVMake thee bald, and cut off thy hair for the children of thy delight: enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
YLTMake bald and shave, for thy delightful sons, Enlarge thy baldness as an eagle, For they have removed from thee!
DARBYMake thee bald, and poll thee for the children of thy delights; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle, for they are gone into captivity from thee.
BBELet your head be uncovered and your hair cut off in sorrow for the children of your delight: let the hair be pulled from your head like an eagle's; for they have been taken away from you as prisoners.
WebsterMake thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.

What does Micah 1:16 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
16. Make thee bald, &c.--a token of deep mourning (Ezr 9:3; Job 1:20). Mourn, O land, for thy darling children. poll--shave off thy hair. enlarge thy baldness--Mourn grievously. The land is compared to a mother weeping for her children. as the eagle--the bald eagle, or the dark-winged vulture. In the moulting season all eagles are comparatively bald (compare Psa 103:5).

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 16 Make thee bald - Cutting off the hair was a sign of great distress, and was practised on the death of near relatives; see Amo 8:10. The desolation should be so great that Israel should feel it to her utmost extent; and the mourning should be like that of a mother for the death of her most delicate children. Enlarge thy baldness as the eagle - Referring to the mounting of this bird, when in casting its feathers and breeding new ones, it is very sickly, and its strength wholly exhausted. They are gone into captivity - This is a prediction of the captivity by Shalmaneser. Samaria, the chief city, is called on to deplore it, as then fast approaching.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Micah 1:8-16

The prophet laments that Israel's case is desperate; but declare it not in Gath. Gratify not those that make merry with the sins or with the sorrows of God's Israel. Roll thyself in the dust, as mourners used to do; let every house in Jerusalem become a house of Aphrah, "a house of dust." When God makes the house dust it becomes us to humble ourselves to the dust under his mighty hand. Many places should share this…

Read the full comment on Micah 1:8-16 →

Micah 1:16 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

קָרְחִ֣יka.re.Chimake baldH7139
וָגֹ֔זִּיva.Go.ziand shearH1494
עַל\־'al-onH5921
בְּנֵ֖יbe.Nei[the] children ofH1121
תַּעֲנוּגָ֑יִךְta.'a.nu.Ga.yikhdelights yourH8588
הַרְחִ֤בִיhar.Chi.vimake largeH7337
קָרְחָתֵךְ֙ka.re.cha.teKhbaldness yourH7144
כַּנֶּ֔שֶׁרka.Ne.sherlike <the> eagleH5404
כִּ֥יkiforH3588
גָל֖וּga.Luthey will go into exileH1540
מִמֵּֽךְ\׃\ \סmi.Mekhfrom youH4480

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Micah 1:16

  • Isaiah 22:12

    And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:

  • Job 1:20

    Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,

  • Jeremiah 7:29

    Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

  • Amos 8:10

    And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

  • Jeremiah 16:6

    Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:

  • Deuteronomy 28:56-57

    The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.

  • Isaiah 39:6-7

    Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.

  • Lamentations 4:5-8

    They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills. For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her. Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire: Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

  • Isaiah 3:16-26

    Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, …

  • Deuteronomy 28:41

    Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.

  • 2 Kings 17:6

    In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

  • Jeremiah 6:26

    O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
bald.
Job 1:20; Isa 15:2; 22:12; Jer 6:26; 7:29; 16:6; Am 8:10
thy delicate.
De 28:56,57; Isa 3:16-26; La 4:5-8
for.
De 28:41; 2Ki 17:6; Isa 39:6,7

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Micah 1:15

    Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel.

  • Micah 1:16

    Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.

Read all of Micah 1

Micah 1:16 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Mésate y trasquílate por los hijos de tus delicias: ensancha tu calva como águila; porque fueron trasportados de ti.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Rends-toi chauve et coupe tes cheveux pour les fils de tes délices; élargis ta tonsure, comme le vautour; car ils sont allés en captivité loin de toi.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Mache dich kahl und schere dich um der Kinder deiner Wonne willen, mache deine Glatze breit wie die des Geiers; denn sie sind von dir hinweggeführt.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Decalvare, et tondere super filios deliciarum tuarum; dilata calvitium tuum sicut aquila, quoniam captivi ducti sunt ex te.