Micahs Lament With Place-Name Puns Over the Doomed Shephelah Towns

Micah 1:10-16 stages one of the most striking literary tours de force in the prophetic books — a sustained lament over the coming Assyrian devastation of the Shephelah, weaving puns out of the very names of Judah's doomed lowland towns. "Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust... Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir... the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Beth-ezel... For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came down from the Lord unto the gate of Jerusalem." Each verse plays on the meaning of the town's name to underscore the prophet's message that judgment is sweeping westward across the lowlands.

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