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Read the Bible

New King James Version

Micah 1:16

Make yourself bald and cut off your hair, Because of your precious children; Enlarge your baldness like an eagle, For they shall go from you into captivity.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Baldness;   Eagle;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Eagle, the;   Head;  

Dictionaries:

- Easton Bible Dictionary - Baldness;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Eagle;   Micah;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Micah, Book of;   Poll;   Sheepshearers;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Eagle;   Micah;   Micah, Book of;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Baldness;   Eagle,;   Poll, to;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Eagle;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Baldness;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Baldness;   Cuttings in the Flesh;   Delicate;   Eagle;   Poll;   Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Baldness;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Birds;   Eagle;   Hair;   Vulture;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hairin sorrow for your precious children;make yourselves as bald as an eagle,for they have been taken from you into exile.
Hebrew Names Version
Shave your heads, And cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the rakham; For they have gone into captivity from you!
King James Version (1611)
Make thee bald, and polle thee for thy delicate children, enlarge thy baldnesse as the Eagle, for they are gone into captiuitie from thee.
King James Version
Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
English Standard Version
Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair, for the children of your delight; make yourselves as bald as the eagle, for they shall go from you into exile.
New American Standard Bible
Shave yourself bald, yes, cut off your hair, Because of the children of your delight; Extend your baldness like the eagle, For they will go from you into exile.
New Century Version
Cut off your hair to show you are sad for the children you love. Make yourself bald like the eagle, because your children will be taken away to a foreign land.
Amplified Bible
Make yourself bald [in mourning]—shave off your hair For the children of your delight; Remain as bald as the eagle, For your children will be taken from you into exile.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Make thee balde: and shaue thee for thy delicate children: enlarge thy baldenesse as the eagle, for they are gone into captiuity from thee.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Make yourself bald and cut off your hair, Because of the children of your delight; Extend your baldness like the eagle, For they will go from you into exile.
Legacy Standard Bible
Make yourself bald and cut off your hair,Because of the children of your delight;Extend your baldness like the eagle,For they will go from you into exile.
Berean Standard Bible
Shave 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.
Contemporary English Version
Judah, shave your head as bald as a buzzard and start mourning. Your precious children will be dragged off to a foreign country.
Complete Jewish Bible
Shave the hair from your head as you mourn for the children who were your delight; make yourselves as bald as vultures, for they have gone from you into exile.
Darby Translation
Make 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.
Easy-to-Read Version
So cut off your hair, make yourself bald, because you will cry for the children you love. Make yourself bald like an eagle and show your sadness, because your children will be taken away from you.
George Lamsa Translation
Make yourself bald, pull out your hair, for your delicate children; enlarge your baldness as the eagle; for they are carried into captivity from you.
Good News Translation
People of Judah, cut off your hair in mourning for the children you love. Make yourselves as bald as vultures, because your children will be taken away from you into exile.
Lexham English Bible
Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair for the children of your pleasure. Expand your baldness as the eagle, for they will go into exile away from you.
Literal Translation
Make yourself bald, and cut off your hair for the sons of your delight. Make your baldness increase like the eagle, for they go into exile from you.
American Standard Version
Make 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.
Bible in Basic English
Let 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.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Make thee bald, and poll thee for the children of thy delight; enlarge thy baldness as the vulture; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Make thee baulde, and shaue thee because of thy tender children: make thee cleane baulde as an Egle, for they shalbe caried away captiue from thee.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Shave thine hair, and make thyself bald for thy delicate children; increase thy widowhood as an eagle; for thy people are gone into captivity from thee.
English Revised Version
Make thee bald, and poll thee for the children of thy delight: enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
World English Bible
Shave 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!
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Be thou maad ballid, and be thou clippid on the sones of thi delices; alarge thi ballidnesse as an egle, for thei ben lad caitif fro thee.
Update Bible Version
Make yourself bald, and cut off your hair for the sons of your delight: enlarge your baldness as the eagle; for they have gone into captivity from you.
Webster's Bible Translation
Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
New English Translation
Shave your heads bald as you mourn for the children you love; shave your foreheads as bald as an eagle, for they are taken from you into exile.
New Living Translation
Oh, people of Judah, shave your heads in sorrow, for the children you love will be snatched away. Make yourselves as bald as a vulture, for your little ones will be exiled to distant lands.
New Life Bible
Cut off all your hair in sorrow for the children you love. Let no hair be on your head like the eagle, for your children will be taken away from you.
New Revised Standard
Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair for your pampered children; make yourselves as bald as the eagle, for they have gone from you into exile.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Make thee bald, and cut off thy hair, for the children of thy pleasures, - enlarge thy baldness, like a vulture, for they are exiled from thee.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Make thee bald, and be polled for thy delicate children: enlarge thy baldness as the eagle: for they are carried into captivity from thee.
Revised Standard Version
Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair, for the children of your delight; make yourselves as bald as the eagle, for they shall go from you into exile.
Young's Literal Translation
Make bald and shave, for thy delightful sons, Enlarge thy baldness as an eagle, For they have removed from thee!
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Make the balde, and shaue the, because of thy tender children: Make the cleane balde as an Aegle, for they shalbe caried awaye captyue from the.

Contextual Overview

8 Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the jackals And a mourning like the ostriches, 9 For her wounds are incurable. For it has come to Judah; It has come to the gate of My people-- To Jerusalem. 10 Tell it not in Gath,Weep not at all;In Beth Aphrah [fn] Roll yourself in the dust. 11 Pass by in naked shame, you inhabitant of Shaphir;The inhabitant of Zaanan [fn] does not go out.Beth Ezel mourns;Its place to stand is taken away from you. 12 For the inhabitant of Maroth pined [fn] for good,But disaster came down from the LordTo the gate of Jerusalem. 13 O inhabitant of Lachish, Harness the chariot to the swift steeds (She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion), For the transgressions of Israel were found in you. 14 Therefore you shall give presents to Moresheth Gath; [fn] The houses of Achzib [fn] shall be a lie to the kings of Israel. 15 I will yet bring an heir to you, O inhabitant of Mareshah; [fn] The glory of Israel shall come to Adullam. 16 Make yourself bald and cut off your hair, Because of your precious children; Enlarge your baldness like an eagle, For they shall go from you into captivity.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

bald: Job 1:20, Isaiah 15:2, Isaiah 22:12, Jeremiah 6:26, Jeremiah 7:29, Jeremiah 16:6, Amos 8:10

thy delicate: Deuteronomy 28:56, Deuteronomy 28:57, Isaiah 3:16-26, Lamentations 4:5-8

for: Deuteronomy 28:41, 2 Kings 17:6, Isaiah 39:6, Isaiah 39:7

Reciprocal: Leviticus 10:6 - Uncover Leviticus 21:5 - not make baldness Ezra 9:3 - off Isaiah 3:24 - baldness Jeremiah 47:5 - Baldness Jeremiah 48:37 - every head Ezekiel 27:31 - they shall make

Cross-References

Genesis 1:7
Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.
Genesis 1:8
And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.
Genesis 1:9
Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so.
Genesis 1:12
And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:14
Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;
Deuteronomy 4:19
And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage.
Job 31:26
If I have observed the sun [fn] when it shines,Or the moon moving in brightness,
Job 38:7
When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Psalms 8:3
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
Psalms 19:6
Its rising is from one end of heaven, And its circuit to the other end; And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children,.... Which is said, either with respect to Mareshah, or to Adullam, or to the whole land, as Kimchi observes; rather to the latter; and that either to Israel, or to Judah, or both; the prophecy in general being concerning them both, Micah 1:1; making baldness, whether by plucking off the hair, or by shaving it, was used in token of mourning, Job 1:20; and so it is designed to express it here: the inhabitants of the land are called to lamentation and weeping for their children taken from them, whom they dearly loved, and brought up in a delicate manner. The Targum is,

"pluck off thy hair, and cast it upon the children of thy delight;''

and Sanctius observes; that it was a custom with the Gentiles to cut off their hair, and cast it into the graves of their kindred and friends at their interment, to which be thinks the prophet alludes:

enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; when it moults, and cast off all its feathers, as it does in old age, and so renews its youth; to which the allusion seems to be in Psalms 103:5; or every year, as birds of prey usually do at the beginning of the spring. The Jewish writers y say this happens to it every ten years; when, finding its feathers heavy and unfit for flying, it makes a tour to the sun with all its force it can, to get as near it as possible; and, having heated its plumage excessively, it casts itself into the sea for cooling, and then its feathers fall off, and new ones succeed; and this it does until it is a hundred years old; and to its then state of baldness, while it is moulting, is the allusion here; unless it can be thought any respect is had to that kind of eagle which is called the bald one. In Virginia z there are three sorts of eagles; one is the grey eagle, about the size of a kite; another the black eagle, resembling those in England; and a third the bald eagle, so called because the upper part of the neck and head are covered with a sort of white down: but the former sort of baldness seems to be intended, which is at certain stated times, and not what always is, and is only partial; for it denotes such an universal baldness to be made, as to take in all the parts of the body where any hair grows; as expressive of the general devastation that should be made, which would be the cause of this great mourning:

for they are gone into captivity from thee; that is, the delicate children of Israel and Judah, and so were as dead unto them, or worse: this was accomplished in Israel or the ten tribes, partly by Tiglathpileser, and more completely by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria,

2 Kings 15:29; and in Judah or the two tribes, when Sennacherib came and took their fenced cities; and doubtless some of the inhabitants and their children were carried captive by him, though not Jerusalem; and therefore cannot be addressed here, as some do interpret the words, unless the prophecy is to be extended to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.

y Saadiah Gaon apud Kimchi & Ben Melech in Psal. ciii. 5. & lsa. xl. 31. z See Harris's Voyages and Travels, vol. 2. p. 229. Lowthorp's Philosoph. Transact. abridged, vol. 3. p. 589.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Make thee bald, poll - (literally, shear thee for thy delicate children Some special ways of cutting the hair were forbidden to the Israelites, as being idolatrous customs, such as the rounding the hair in front, cutting it away from the temples , or between the eyes Deuteronomy 14:1. All shearing of the hair was not forbidden ; indeed to the Nazarite it was commanded, at the close of his vow. The removal of that chief ornament of the countenance wasa natural expression of grief, which revolts at all personal appearance. It belonged, not to idolatry, but to nature . “Thy delicate children.” The change was the more bitter for those tended and brought up delicately. Moses from the first spoke of special miseries which should fall on the tender and very delicate. “Enlarge thy baldness;” outdo in grief what others do; for the cause of thy grief is more than that of others. The point of comparison in the Eagle might either be the actual baldness of the head, or its moulting. If it were the baldness of the head, the word translated eagle Unless nesher be the golden Eagle there is no Hebrew name for it, whereas it is still a bird of Palestine, and smaller eagles are mentioned in the same verse, Leviticus 11:13; namely, the ossifrage, פרס, and the black eagle, עזניה, so called from its strength, like the valeria, of which Pliny says, “the melanaetos or valeria, least in size, remarkable for strength, blackish in color.” x. 3. The same lint of unclean birds contains also the vulture, דיה, Deuteronomy 14:13, (as it must be, being a gregarious bird, Isaiah 34:15) in its different species Deuteronomy 14:13 the gier-eagle, (that is, Geyer) (vulture) eagle gypaetos, or vultur percnopterus, (Hasselquist, Forskal, Shaw, Bruce in Savigny p. 77.) partaking of the character of both, (רהם Leviticus 11:18; Deuteronomy 14:17 together with the falcon (דאה Leviticus 11:14 and hawk, with its subordinate species, (למינהו נץ) Leviticus 11:18; Deuteronomy 14:15.), although mostly used of the Eagle itself, might here comprehend the Vulture . For entire baldness is so marked a feature in the vulture, whereas the “bald-headed Eagle” was probably not a bird of Palestine . On the other hand, David, who lived so long among the rocks of Palestine, and Isaiah seem to have known of effects of moulting upon the Eagle in producing, (although in a less degree than in other birds,) a temporary diminution of strength, which have not in modern times been commonly observed.

For David says, “Thou shalt renew, like the eagle, thy youth, which speaks of fresh strength after temporary weakness” Psalms 103:5; and Isaiah, “They that trust in the Lord shall put forth fresh strength; they shall put forth pinion-feathers like eagles” Isaiah 40:31, comparing the fresh strength which should succeed to that which was gone, to the eagle’s recovering its strong pinion-feathers. Bochart however says unhesitatingly , “At the beginning of spring, the rapacious birds are subject to shedding of their feathers which we call moulting.” If this be so, the comparison is yet more vivid, For the baldness of the vulture belongs to its matured strength, and could only be an external likeness. The moulting of the eagle involves some degree of weakness, with which he compares Judah’s mournful and weak condition amid the loss of their children, gone into captivity .

Thus closes the first general portion of the prophecy. The people had east aside its own Glory, God; now its sons, its pride and its trust, shall go away from it.

Lap.: “The eagle, laying aside its old feathers and taking new, is a symbol of penitence and of the penitents who lay aside their former evil habits, and become other and new men. True, but rare form of penitence!” Gregory the Great thus applies this to the siege of Rome by the Lombards. : “That happened to her which we know to have been foretold of Judea by the prophet, enlarge thy baldness like the eagle. For baldness befalls man in the head only, but the eagle in its whole body; for, when it is very old, its feathers and pinions fall from all its body. She lost her feathers, who lost her people. Her pinions too fell out, with which she was accustomed to fly to the prey; for all her mighty men, through whom she plundered others, perished. But this which we speak of, the breaking to pieces of the city of Rome, we know has been done in all the cities of the world. Some were desolated by pestilence, others devoured by the sword, others racked by famine, others swallowed by earthquakes. Despise we them with our whole heart, at least, when brought to nought; at least with the end of the world, let us end our eagerness after the world. Follow we, wherein we can, the deeds of the good.” One whose commentaries Jerome had read, thus applies this verse to the whole human race. “O soul of man! O city, once the mother of saints, which wast formerly in Paradise, and didst enjoy the delights of different trees, and wast adorned most beautifully, now being east down from thy place aloft, and brought down unto Babylon, and come into a place of captivity, and having lost thy glory, make thee bald and take the habit of a penitent; and thou who didst fly aloft like an eagle, mourn thy sons, thy offspring, which from thee is led captive.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Micah 1:16. Make thee baldCutting off the hair was a sign of great distress, and was practised on the death of near relatives; see Amos 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.


 
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