Micah 1:10

Declare ye [it] not at Gath,.... A city of the Philistines, put for all the rest: the phrase is borrowed from 2 Samuel 1:20; where the reason is given, and holds good here as there; and the sense is,

Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust.

Declare ye it not at Gath; do what you can to keep your griefs to yourselves, let them not be public, that the Philistines, your bitter enemies, should know how sad it is with you and rejoice at it. Gath was a principal city of the Philistines, and though this only is mentioned the rest are understood: such phrase you have . Weep ye not at all; you that are of Israel or Judah, make no public weeping, that your cries and tears should inform your enemies in Palestine how deplorable your state is, let not your griefs be their joys. In the house of Aphrah: we render it as a proper name of some city or town; though of no great note, yet we meet with one, , in the tribe of Benjamin; a second we find in Manasseh’ s lot, and was the place where Gideon’ s father dwelt, : these towns were somewhat remote from the Philistines, and there the prophet does direct then, to weep with the greatest expressions of it, and to keep it private from the Philistines. Others account the word to be a common name denoting dust, and so give the sense, in the house of dust roll thyself in dust. Roll thyself, or, I have rolled myself, viz. in compassion to the miserable Israelites, or as a pattern to which they shall conform; so the word as written, but as by direction of the Masorets it is read, and as there it is rendered, roll thyself, it directs and foretells; it foretells what they shall do at last, and directs what they should do at present. They shall be brought to sit, nay, to wallow in the dust, and in foresight of this it would become them to sit in the dust now.

Micah 1:10 Declare ye [it] not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust.Ver. 10. Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all] sc. in their sight and hearing (though at home weep your fill, Micah 1:8), lest the daughters of those uncircumcised triumph, 2 Samuel 1:20; lest out of your tragedies they compose comedies, and ye become their music, while they revel in your ruins and make themselves merry in your misery. In the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust] An elegant word play in the original; q.d. dust thyself in the house of dust. Aphrah had its name from its dustiness; as Paris is called Lutetia a lute, from its dustiness, and as Hiram called the twenty cities of Galilee given him by Solomon, Cabul, that is, dirty, or displeasing, 1 Kings 9:13. Fitly was this city called Aphrah, or dusty, saith the prophet; for it shall be reduced to dust, and the inhabitants occasioned to roll themselves in the dust, in token of extreme sorrow. See Lamentations 2:10. Some think Apbrah is put for Ephraim; others better understand it for a particular city; either that in the tribe of Manasseh, Gideon’ s city, Judges 6:11, or that other in the tribe of Benjamin, Joshua 18:23, not far from Jerusalem.

(10) Declare ye it not at Gath.—The prophet lets his lament flow after the strain of David’s elegy, “Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon.” In this passage the parallelism seems to require the name of a town where the English Version has “at all.” But the Hebrew word thus represented may, by the addition of a letter which has dropped out of the text, be rendered “in Accho,” or Ptolemais, now called Acca. The LXX. translation οἱἐνΓεθ, μὴμεγαλύνεσθεοἱἐνΑκιμ, μὴ (=οἱὲνἈΚεὶμή), accords with this reading. The parallelism is thus maintained, and the thought is completed: “Mention not the trouble in our enemies’ cities; bewail it in our own.”

Verse 10. Declare ye it not at Gath] Do not let this prediction be known among the Philistines, else they will glory over you. House of Aphrah] Or, Beth-aphrah. This place is mentioned Joshua 18:23, as in the tribe of Benjamin. There is a paronomasia, or play on words, here: בבית לעפרה עפר bebeith leaphrah aphar, "Roll thyself in the dust in the house of dust."

10. Declare ye it not …] ‘May we at least be spared the sight of the malicious joy of our envious neighbours!’ Here begins a series of paronomasias, which however are far from indicating a playful mood in the prophet. Most of them refer to Judζan towns in the prophet’s own neighbourhood. He could not possibly jest about the fate of his friends! No; he is in sober earnest, and sees (like Isaiah in Isaiah 10:30) a pre-ordained correspondence between names and fortunes (comp. the familiar phrase ‘his name shall be called’ = ‘he shall be’). It is not always easy to catch his allusions, nor to reproduce them when caught. Some idea of the general effect is given by M. Reuss in the following imitation, ‘N’allez pas le dire ΰ Dijon! N’allez pas pleurer ΰ Pl�rmel! Pars, Paris! Chartres, attθle ton char!’ at Gath] Alluding to 2 Samuel 1:20. The substance of the power of Gath had passed away (Amos 6:2). Like Ashdod (see Amos 1:8), it seems not to have recovered from the severe blow inflicted by Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:6). But its name was still a symbol of bitter hostility. weep ye not at all] Or, in Acco weep ye not (another reading). According to Judges 1:31, the Canaanites were not driven out of Acco. Thus Acco (the later Ptolemais) would be the representative of the Canaanites or Ph�nicians of the north. The choice of the town would be dictated (as the Hebrew suggests) by the love of paronomasia. The Sept. has οἱἘνακείμ; but we should probably read οἱἐνἈκή (μ came from the following μή; and η and ει are often confounded). in the house of Aphrah] Rather, in Beth-le-aphrah (i.e. House of dust). There was a town of the tribe of Benjamin called Ophrah, Joshua 18:23. Most, if not all, however, of the other eight towns appear to lie in the Shephιlah, i.e. the ‘low country’ between Joppa and Gaza; probably therefore the Benjamite Ophrah is not here intended. It may be asked, Why does the prophet single out the Shephιlah? Isaiah, in a strictly parallel passage (Isaiah 10:28-32), mentions an altogether different region as suffering from the invasion? The answer is, that the prophet has the feelings (if we may say so) of a provincial. The ‘low country’ was even less able than Aiath, Migron, Michmash, &c., to oppose the rapid movements of the Assyrians. roll thyself in] Rather, besprinkle thyself with. So Tamar, as a sign of mourning, ‘put ashes upon her head,’ 2 Samuel 13:19. But the reading of the Hebrew text is preferable to that of the margin and of A. V., viz. ‘I have besprinkled myself with.’

Tell it not in Gath - Gath had probably now ceased to be; at least, to be of any account .

10. The prophet fears the malicious joy of the heathen neighbors, which would be an insult to Jehovah. Hence he pleads with the people not to permit the news to become known in the surrounding territory.