Bible Strands
Micah 1:14
Therefore, send farewell gifts to Moresheth-gath; the houses of Achzib will prove deceptive to the kings of Israel.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Micah addresses Judah and its allied towns during a period of impending military invasion, specifically targeting settlements that facilitated Israel’s rebellion.
The words — The text highlights שִׁלּוּחִים (shi.lu.Chim), meaning parting gifts, and אַכְזִיב ('akh.Ziv), the name of a town whose function will prove deceptive to Israel’s kings.
The thread — The act of sending tribute parallels 2 Kings 16:8, where Ahaz sends palace treasures to a foreign power, while Achzib and Mareshah are recorded as Judahite cities in Joshua 15:44, and the collapse of human security aligns with the warning in Psalms 118:8 against trusting in man.
Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to acknowledge that political alliances and fortified places provide no real protection, demanding a shift from reliance on human strategy to acceptance of impending judgment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moresheth–gath: the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.
Cross-references
- Joshua 15:44 Keilah, Achzib, and Mareshah—nine cities, along with their villages.
- 2 Kings 16:8 Ahaz also took the silver and gold found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king’s palace, and he sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria.
- Psalms 118:8 It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.
- 2 Samuel 8:2 David also defeated the Moabites, made them lie down on the ground, and measured them off with a cord. He measured off with two lengths those to be put to death, and with one length those to be spared. So the Moabites became subject to David and brought him tribute.
- 2 Kings 18:14 So Hezekiah king of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand from me.” And the king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
- 2 Chronicles 16:1 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Judah.
- Psalms 62:9 Lowborn men are but a vapor; the exalted are but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.
- Psalms 146:3 Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save.
- Isaiah 30:6 This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people of no profit to them.
- Jeremiah 15:18 Why is my pain unending, and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You have indeed become like a mirage to me—water that is not there.