Miquéas 1:8

Almeida Revista e Corrigida

Por isso, lamentarei, e uivarei, e andarei despojado e nu; farei lamentao como de drages e pranto como de avestruzes.

Parallel Translations

A Biblia Sagrada
Por isso lamentarei, e gemerei, andarei despojado e nu; farei lamentao como de chacais, e pranto como de avestruzes.

Almeida Revista e Atualizada
Por isso, lamento e uivo; ando despojado e nu; fao lamentaes como de chacais e pranto como de avestruzes.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I will wail: Isaiah 16:9, Isaiah 21:3, Isaiah 22:4, Jeremiah 4:19, Jeremiah 9:1, Jeremiah 9:10, Jeremiah 9:19, Jeremiah 48:36-39

I will go: Isaiah 20:2-4

a wailing: Job 30:29, Psalms 102:6

owls: Heb. daughters of the owl

Reciprocal: 1 Samuel 19:24 - stripped Esther 4:1 - and cried Isaiah 32:11 - strip Jeremiah 6:26 - gird Jeremiah 46:22 - voice Ezekiel 21:12 - howl Ezekiel 27:31 - they shall weep Ezekiel 32:18 - wail Amos 5:16 - Wailing Micah 1:11 - thou inhabitant of Saphir

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked,.... To his shut, putting off his upper garment; the rough one, such as the prophets used to wear; which he did as the greater sign of his mourning: sometimes, in such cases, they rent their garments; at other times they stripped themselves of them, and walked naked, as Isaiah did, Isaiah 20:3; he went about like a madman, one disturbed in his mind, bereft of his senses, because of the desolation coming upon Israel; and without his clothes, as such persons often do: so the word rendered "stripped" signifies, as the Jewish commentators observe. This lamentation, and with these circumstances, the prophet made in his own person, to show the reality and certainty of their ruin, and to represent to them the desolate condition they would be in, destitute of all good things, and to them with it; as well as to express the sympathy of his heart, and thereby to assure them that it was not out of ill will to them, or a spirit of revenge, that he delivered such a message: or this he did in the person of all the people, showing what they would do, and that this would be their case shortly. So the Targum,

"for this they shall wail and howl, and go naked among the spoilers;''

I will make a wailing like the dragons; as in their fight with elephants, at which time they make a hideous noise n; and whose hissings have been very terrible to large bodies of men. Aelianus o speaks of a dragon in India, which, when it perceived Alexander's army near at hand, gave such a prodigious hiss and blast, that it greatly frightened and disturbed the whole army: and he relates p of another, that was in a valley near Mount Pellenaeus, in the isle of Chios, whose hissing was very terrible to the inhabitants of that place; and Bochart q conjectures that this their hissing is here referred to; and who observes of the whale, that it has its name from a word in the Hebrew tongue, which signifies to lament; and which word is here used, and is frequently used of large fishes, as whales, sea calves, dolphins, c. which make a great noise and bellowing, as the sea calf particularly the balaena, which is one kind of a whale, and makes such a large and continued noise, as to be heard at the distance of two miles, as Rondeletius r says; and dolphins are said to make a moan and groaning like human creatures, as Pliny s and Solinus t report: and Peter Gillius relates, from his own experience, that lodging one night in a vessel, in which many dolphins were taken, there were such weeping and mourning, that he could not sleep for them; he thought they deplored their condition with mourning, lamentation, and a large flow of tears, as men do, and therefore could not help pitying their case; and, while the fisherman was asleep, took that which was next him, that seemed to mourn most, and cast it into the sea; but this was of no avail, for the rest increased their mourning more and more, and seemed plainly to desire the like deliverance; so that all the night he was in the midst of the most bitter moaning: wherefore Bochart, who quotes these instances, elsewhere u thinks that the prophet compares his mourning with the mourning of these creatures, rather than with the hissing of dragons. Some w think crocodiles are here meant; and of them it is reported x, that when they have eaten the body of a creature, which they do first, and come to the head, they weep over it with tears; hence the proverb of crocodiles tears, for hypocritical ones; but it cannot well be thought, surely, that the prophet would compare his mourning to that of such a creature. The learned Pocock thinks it more reasonable that the "jackals" are meant, called by the Arabians "ebn awi", rather than dragons; a creature of a size between a fox and a wolf, or a dog and a fox, which makes a dreadful howling in the night; by which travellers, unacquainted with it, would think a company of women or children were howling, and goes before the lion as his provider;

and mourning as the owls; or "daughters of the owl" y; which is a night bird, and makes a very frightful noise, especially the screech owl. The Targum interprets it of the ostrich z; and it may be meant either of the mourning it makes when its young are about to be taken away, and it exposes itself to danger on their account, and perishes in the attempt. Aelianus a reports that they are taken by sharp iron spikes fixed about their nest, when they are returning to their young, after having been in quest of food for them; and, though they see the shining iron, yet such is their vehement desire after their young, that they spread their wings like sails, and with great swiftness and noise rush into the nest, where they are transfixed with the spikes, and die: and not only Vatablus observes, that these creatures have a very mournful voice; but Bochart b has shown, from the Arabic writers, that they frequently cry and howl; and from John de Laet, who affirms that those in the parts about Brazil cry so loud as to be heard half a mile; and indeed they have their name from crying and howling. The Targum renders it by a word which signifies pleasant; and so Onkelos on

Leviticus 11:16, by an antiphrasis, because its voice is so very unpleasant. Or, since the words may be rendered, "the daughters of the ostrich" c, it may be understood of the mourning of its young, when left by her, when they make a hideous noise and miserable moan, as some observe d.

n Aelian. de Animal. l. 6. c. 22. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 11. o Ib. l. 15. c. 21. p Ib. l. 16. c. 39. q Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 3. c. 14. col. 437. r Apud Bochart. ib. par. 1. l. 1. c. 7. col. 47. s Nat. Hist. l. 9. c. 9. t Polyhistor. c. 22. u Ut supra, (Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 3. c. 14.) col. 48. w Ludolphus apud Burkium in loc. x Vid. Frantzii Hist. Animal. Sacr. par. 1. c. 26. sect. 2. y כבנות יענה "ut filiae ululae", Piscator, Burkius; "instar filiarum. ululae", Cocceius. So Montanus. z So the Vulgate Latin, Munster, Pagninus, Drusius, Bochartus, and others. a De Animal. l. 14. c. 7. b Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 2. c. 14. col. c. 228. c "Filiarum struthionis", Pagninus; "juvenes struthiones", Tigurine version. d Vid. Frantz. Hist. Animal. Sacr. par. 2. c. 2. p. 339, 342.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Therefore I will - Therefore I would

Wail - (properly, beat, that is, on the breast).

And howl - “Let me alone,” he would say, “that I may vent my sorrow in all ways of expressing sorrow, beating on the breast and wailing, using all acts and sounds of grief.” It is as we would say, “Let me mourn on,” a mourning inexhaustible, because the woe too and the cause of grief was unceasing. The prophet becomes in words, probably in acts too, an image of his people, doing as they should do hereafter. He mourns, because and as they would have to mourn, bearing chastisement, bereft of all outward comeliness, an example also of repentance, since what he did were the chief outward tokens of mourning.

I will (would) go stripped - despoiled .

And naked - He explains the acts, that they represented no mere voluntary mourning. Not only would he, representing them, go bared of all garments of beauty, as we say “half-naked” but despoiled also, the proper term of those plundered and stripped by an enemy. He speaks of his doing, what we know that Isaiah did, by God’s command, representing in act what his people should thereafter do. : “Wouldest thou that I should weep, thou must thyself grieve the first.” Micah doubtless went about, not speaking only of grief, but grieving, in the habit of one mourning and bereft of all. He prolongs in these words the voice of wailing, choosing unaccustomed forms of words, to carry on the sound of grief.

I will make a wailing like the dragons - (jackals).

And mourning as the owls - (ostriches). The cry of both, as heard at night, is very piteous. Both are doleful creatures, dwelling in desert and lonely places. “The jackals make a lamentable howling noise, so that travelers unacquainted with them would think that a company of people, women or children, were howling, one to another.”

“Its howl,” says an Arabic natural historian , “is like the crying of an infant.” “We heard them,” says another , “through the night, wandering around the villages, with a continual, prolonged, mournful cry.” The ostrich, forsaking its young Job 39:16, is an image of bereavement. Jerome: “As the ostrich forgets her eggs and leaves them as though they were not her’s, to be trampled by the feet of wild beasts, so too shall I go childless, spoiled and naked.” Its screech is spoken of by travelers as “fearful, aftrighting.” : “During the lonesome part of the night they often make a doleful and piteous noise. I have often heard them groan, as if they were in the greatest agonies.”

Dionysius: “I will grieve from the heart over those who perish, mourning for the hardness of the ungodly, as the Apostle had Romans 9:1 great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart for his brethren, the impenitent and unbelieving Jews. Again he saith, “who is weak and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not?” 2 Corinthians 11:29. For by how much the soul is nobler than the body, and by how much eternal damnation is heavier than any temporal punishment, so much more vehemently should we grieve and weep for the peril and perpetual damnation of souls, than for bodily sickness or any temporal evil.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 8. I will make a wailing like the dragons — Newcome translates: -

I will make a wailing like the foxes, (or jackals,)

And mourning like the daughters of the ostrich. This beast, the jackal or shiagal, we have often met with in the prophets. Travellers inform us that its howlings by night are most lamentable; and as to the ostrich, it is remarkable for its fearful shrieking and agonizing groanings after night. Dr. Shaw says he has often heard them groan as if they were in the greatest agonies.