This verse and the next state in some detail the punishment the Lord is to bring for the sins of his people. They use the first person, and therefore Good News Translation introduces verse 6 with So the LORD says, to make clear the identity of the speaker. So means “Because of all these sins.”

We might expect that the punishment would be described for both Samaria and Jerusalem, but in fact only Samaria is dealt with. Historically, Samaria was destroyed by the Assyrians under their king Sargon II in 722 B.C. during the adult life of Micah. This event put an end to the political existence of the northern kingdom and served as a dramatic warning of what could happen to Judah also. Perhaps the fall of Samaria was just about to happen at the time when this prophecy was first spoken, and this could explain why Micah talks mainly about Samaria in these verses.

Instead of being a prosperous and well-populated city, Samaria will become just a pile of ruins in the open country. I will make Samaria a pile of ruins means that “I will destroy Samaria and she will become a pile of ruins.” The way God will do this is by sending enemies to destroy the city, so in some languages it may be necessary to be even more specific and say “I will send enemies to destroy Samaria” or “I will cause Samaria to be destroyed.”

The pile of ruins refers to the rubble of stone and wood left when the buildings and walls of the city are knocked down and probably burned. As long as this idea is given in the translation, there is no need for a word meaning “ruins.”

Samaria was the largest city in the northern kingdom, with many people living in and around it. But these ruins will be in the open country, which means “in a place where no one lives,” or at least where there may only be a farmhouse or two. The idea is that the city will be so completely destroyed that it will no longer be used as a place to live in.

This rocky and desolated area would be suitable as a place for planting grapevines, but not for any kind of agriculture that required a deeper or more fertile soil. However, if it is difficult to translate grapevines, it will be enough to say “a place for planting things.” since the main point is to show that it is no longer a place where people live. This clause in Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version connects to the “I will make Samaria” of the first line. In many languages it will have to be a separate sentence, possibly “Samaria will become a place for planting grapevines.”

It is the Lord who says I will pour, and in languages where this is possible, it may be most effective to suggest that the Lord is doing it himself. The more literal idea, however, is that this will happen as a result of the destruction that the Lord is sending by means of the enemies. In some languages it may not be possible to use pour in connection with something like rubble, and a translation like Jerusalem Bible may sound better: “I will set her stones rolling into the valley.”

Samaria was built on a hill rising about 100 meters (300 feet) above the adjacent plain. The city will not merely be demolished, but its rubble will be poured down into the valley, making its stones harder to recover for any future rebuilding. In this way even the city’s foundations will be uncovered, marking its total destruction.

Rubble is the broken stones left when the city is destroyed.

The foundations of the city refer to the stone or bare earth that the city was built upon. The idea here is that the destruction will be so complete that even these will be uncovered.

As a matter of historical fact, the destruction of Samaria in 722 B.C. was not as severe as Micah pictures it here. Nevertheless, it did mark the end of political independence for the kingdom of Israel, and the description here is an appropriate metaphor for the political fate of the country.

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. et al. A Handbook on Micah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1978, 1982, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .