Micah 1:16

"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."

This chapter has the prophecy "concerning Samaria and Jerusalem" (Micah 1:1,5,9,12); and it is incorrect to view the prophecies as separated in time by any lengthy period. The judgment of Samaria and Jerusalem was one judgment, although executed at different times. Samaria fell completely in 722 B.C. to Sargon of Assyria; the cities and towns in the vicinity of Jerusalem fell to Sennacherib of Assyria in 701 B.C.; and Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 586 B.C. It was only upon that latter occasion that the citizens of Jerusalem were carried into captivity, exactly the same fate that the Assyrians had imposed upon the area towns in 701 B.C. We believe that all of these events were prophesied in this chapter, perhaps as early as 740 B.C., during the reign of Jotham, long before any of them had occurred. It is ridiculous, the manner in which the scissors and paste scholars have cut the chapter up to make all of the prophecies "declarations after the fact." Had that been true, no one would ever have paid the slightest attention to this book of Micah. The very preservation of it for more than two and one half millenniums of time authenticates it as a true prophecy.

"Make thee bald ..." "Artificial baldness was a sign of mourning (Leviticus 19:27; Deuteronomy 14:1). The eagle (mentioned here) was probably the griffon vulture."[41]

"They are gone into captivity from thee ..." We are in full agreement with Deane, that:

"This cannot refer exclusively to the Assyrian invasion ... but must look forward to the Babylonian deportation in Micah 4:10. The latter calamity alone is parallel to the destruction of Samaria announced in Micah 1:6-7."[42]

Archer also discerned the necessary application of this prophecy of captivity to the event of 586 B.C.:

"The exile here foretold is more likely to be the Babylonian (Micah 4:10) than the Assyrian (which involved only the provinces and not Jerusalem itself). It is possible that both invasions (701,586 B.C.) are in view."[43]

The whole chapter is a dirge of unappeasable sorrow because the nation had forsaken him who would have blessed them so richly had they walked in his ways. May there be in us a different spirit! Otherwise we too must learn in bitterness of soul the folly of departure from the living God.[44] That this chapter deals with genuine predictive prophecy, the accurate foretelling of events in advance of their occurrence, is unquestionable. That is the only reason why the book was written, the only possible reason why it was preserved, and the only excuse whatever for its being in the Hebrew canon. To suppose otherwise is to suppose that the seventy-five generations of mankind who preserved it and handed it down to us were simpletons. Not only are such basic assumptions valid, the details of the prophecy are such that they could not possibly have been produced after the events: the mingling of events to be fulfilled in the times of Sargon II (722 B.C.), Sennacherib (701 B.C.), and Nebuchadnezzar (586 B.C.), the fantastic behavior of the prophet himself in the lament, screaming like a jackal, rolling in the dust, etc. It is simply unbelievable that any man, much less a prophet of God, would have celebrated a past historical event in any such manner. Yes, this chapter is one of the greatest prophetic achievements of all time.