What Does Micah 1:13 Mean in the King James?
O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast: she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse names Lachish as the beginning of Zion’s missing while locating Israel’s rebellions in her.
THE MEANING
Lachish is named as the beginning of the missing that reaches daughter Zion, and Israel’s rebellions are found there. The verse holds a missed mark and a breakaway together, making the rupture specific rather than abstract. The chariot is readied for speed while the source of that rupture is named; movement does not erase what has been found.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a breach is inconsequential when it begins in one place: the verse names Lachish as its beginning for Zion and says Israel’s rebellions are found there.
THE ROOT
חַטָּאת
chatat
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
To miss or miss the mark.
The word translated as sin carries the sense of missing, so the verse names a deviation rather than leaving wrongdoing as an abstract category. Lachish is called its beginning for Zion, giving that missing a place and a direction.
ALSO GROWS
chata: To miss; to sin.
חָטָא
This verb shares the seed of the verse’s word for sin and makes the sense of missing visible.
chet: A missing or offense.
חֵטְא
This related noun keeps the image of a mark missed, adding depth to what is found in Lachish.
פִּשְׁעֵי
pish’ei
GROWS FROM
פשע
p-sh-ʿ
To rebel or break away.
“transgressions” in this verse is pish’ei. The verse pairs missing with rebellion: the first word suggests a mark missed, while this word names a breakaway. English can flatten both into wrongdoing, but the Hebrew keeps their distinct shapes together.
ALSO GROWS
pasha: To rebel or break away.
פָּשַׁע
The verb exposes the active rupture contained in the transgressions found in Lachish.
pesha: Rebellion; a breaking away.
פֶּשַׁע
This related noun shows that the verse names more than an error: it also names a breach.
רֵאשִׁית
reshit
GROWS FROM
ראש
r-ʾ-sh
Head or top; by extension, first or beginning.
The word for beginning carries the image of a head or leading point. Lachish is therefore named as the first point of the missing directed toward Zion, not merely as a place mentioned along the way.
ALSO GROWS
rosh: Head or top.
רֹאשׁ
This branch reveals the head-image beneath the verse’s word for beginning.
rishon: First or foremost.
רִאשׁוֹן
This branch makes clear how the root can express both firstness and a leading position.
THE PATTERN
A breach named at one point can become the leading edge by which a wider community’s fracture is exposed.
But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.THE THREAD
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.Micah’s חַטָּאת (chatat, missing) and Psalm’s חָטָאתִי (chata’ti, I have sinned) come from the same Hebrew root, חטא. Micah locates the missing in a city; Psalm gives it a first-person voice, bringing the shared root from communal exposure into personal naming.
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