Micah 1:6

1:6 “I will turn Samaria ¹  into a heap of ruins in an open field –

vineyards will be planted there! ² 

I will tumble ³  the rubble of her stone walls ⁴  down into the valley,

and tear down her fortifications to their foundations. ⁵ 

Psalms 79:1

Psalm 79 ⁶ 

A psalm of Asaph.

79:1 O God, foreigners ⁷  have invaded your chosen land; ⁸ 

they have polluted your holy temple

and turned Jerusalem ⁹  into a heap of ruins.

Psalms 107:34

107:34 and a fruitful land into a barren place, ¹⁰ 

because of the sin of its inhabitants.

Jeremiah 26:18

26:18 “Micah from Moresheth ¹¹  prophesied during the time Hezekiah was king of Judah. ¹²  He told all the people of Judah,

‘The Lord who rules over all ¹³  says,

“Zion ¹⁴  will become a plowed field.

Jerusalem ¹⁵  will become a pile of rubble.

The temple mount will become a mere wooded ridge.”’ ¹⁶ 

Matthew 24:2

24:2 And he said to them, ¹⁷  “Do you see all these things? I tell you the truth, ¹⁸  not one stone will be left on another. ¹⁹  All will be torn down!” ²⁰ 

Acts 6:13-14

6:13 They brought forward false witnesses who said, “This man does not stop saying things against this holy place ²¹  and the law. ²²  6:14 For we have heard him saying that Jesus the Nazarene will destroy this place and change the customs ²³  that Moses handed down to us.”

¹ map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.

² tn Heb “into a planting place for vineyards.”

³ tn Heb “pour” (so NASB, NIV); KJV, NRSV “pour down”; NAB “throw down”; NLT “roll.”

⁴ tn Heb “her stones.” The term stones is a metonymy for the city walls whose foundations were constructed of stone masonry.

⁵ tn Heb “I will uncover her foundations.” The term “foundations” refers to the lower courses of the stones of the city’s outer fortification walls.

⁶ sn Psalm 79. The author laments how the invading nations have destroyed the temple and city of Jerusalem. He asks God to forgive his people and to pour out his vengeance on those who have mistreated them.

⁷ tn Or “nations.”

⁸ tn Heb “have come into your inheritance.”

⁹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁰ tn Heb “a salty land.”

¹¹ sn Micah from Moresheth was a contemporary of Isaiah (compare Mic 1:1 with Isa 1:1) from the country town of Moresheth in the hill country southwest of Jerusalem. The prophecy referred to is found in Mic 3:12. This is the only time in the OT where an OT prophet is quoted verbatim and identified.

¹² sn Hezekiah was co-regent with his father Ahaz from 729-715 b.c. and sole ruler from 715-686 b.c. His father was a wicked king who was responsible for the incursions of the Assyrians (2 Kgs 16; 2 Chr 28). Hezekiah was a godly king, noted for his religious reforms and for his faith in the Lord in the face of the Assyrian threat (2 Kgs 18–19; 2 Chr 32:1-23). The deliverance of Jerusalem in response to his prayers of faith (2 Kgs 19:14-19, 29-36) was undoubtedly well-known to the people of Jerusalem and Judah and may have been one of the prime reasons for their misplaced trust in the inviolability of Zion/Jerusalem (see Ps 46, 76) though the people of Micah’s day already believed it too (Mic 3:11).

¹³ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

¹⁴ sn Zion was first of all the citadel that David captured (2 Sam 5:6-10), then the city of David and the enclosed temple area, then the whole city of Jerusalem. It is often in poetic parallelism with Jerusalem as it is here (see, e.g., Ps 76:2; Amos 1:2).

¹⁵ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁶ sn There is irony involved in this statement. The text reads literally “high places of a forest/thicket.” The “high places” were the illicit places of worship that Jerusalem was supposed to replace. Because of their sin, Jerusalem would be like one of the pagan places of worship with no place left sacrosanct. It would even be overgrown with trees and bushes. So much for its inviolability!

¹⁷ tn Grk “answering, he said to them.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (ajpokriqei") is redundant in English and has not been translated.

¹⁸ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

¹⁹ sn With the statement not one stone will be left on another Jesus predicted the total destruction of the temple, something that did occur in a.d. 70.

²⁰ tn Grk “not one stone will be left here on another which will not be thrown down.”

²¹ sn This holy place is a reference to the temple.

²² sn The law refers to the law of Moses. It elaborates the nature of the blasphemy in v. 11. To speak against God’s law in Torah was to blaspheme God (Deut 28:15-19). On the Jewish view of false witnesses, see Exod 19:16-18; 20:16; m. Sanhedrin 3.6; 5.1-5. Stephen’s speech in Acts 7 may indicate why the temple was mentioned.

²³ tn Or “practices.”