Bible Strands
Micah 1:4
The mountains will melt beneath Him, and the valleys will split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Micah addresses the northern and southern kingdoms during a period of entrenched idolatry, describing Yahweh’s descent from His heavenly dwelling to confront the land’s high places. The words — The Hebrew verbs וְ/נָמַ֤סּוּ (ve./na.Ma.su, “they will melt”) and יִתְבַּקָּ֑עוּ (yit.ba.Ka.'u, “they will be cleft”) describe the literal dissolution and splitting of the terrain before divine movement. The thread — This portrayal of terrain yielding at divine presence runs through Nahum 1:5, Psalms 97:5, and Judges 5:4–5, where mountains quake, hills dissolve, and the earth trembles. Why it lands — The passage requires readers to acknowledge that no geographic or political barrier can halt divine judgment, demanding immediate reckoning with the stated transgressions of Jacob and Israel.
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
And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.
Cross-references
- Nahum 1:5 The mountains quake before Him, and the hills melt away; the earth trembles at His presence—the world and all its dwellers.
- Psalms 97:5 The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth.
- Judges 5:4 O LORD, when You went out from Seir, when You marched from the land of Edom, the earth trembled, the heavens poured out rain, and the clouds poured down water.
- Isaiah 64:1 If only You would rend the heavens and come down, so that mountains would quake at Your presence,
- Amos 9:5 The Lord GOD of Hosts, He who touches the earth and it melts, and all its dwellers mourn—all the land rises like the Nile, then sinks like the river of Egypt—
- Habakkuk 3:6 He stood and measured the earth; He looked and startled the nations; the ancient mountains crumbled; the perpetual hills collapsed. His ways are everlasting.
- Habakkuk 3:10 The mountains saw You and quaked; torrents of water swept by. The deep roared with its voice and lifted its hands on high.
- Psalms 68:2 As smoke is blown away, You will drive them out; as wax melts before the fire, the wicked will perish in the presence of God.
- Zechariah 14:4 On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half the mountain moving to the north and half to the south.
- Revelation 20:11 Then I saw a great white throne and the One seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from His presence, and no place was found for them.