What Does Micah 1:16 Mean in the King James?
Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from 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 Hebrew word for exile belongs to a root that also means uncover, so the loss is pictured as removal that leaves grief exposed.
THE MEANING
When what you cherish is gone from you, the loss is not abstract: grief marks the visible self. The eagle’s shedding image makes sorrow bodily, while “they are gone from thee” keeps the separation painfully direct.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that grief must stay contained or presentable: it commands the baldness to grow, giving the visible sign room to match the loss.
THE ROOT
גָּלוּ
galu
GROWS FROM
גלה
The root spans uncovering or revealing and being removed into exile.
“gone into captivity” in this verse is galu. English “captivity” can sound like a condition of confinement alone, while the Hebrew root also carries the sense of uncovering. The children’s removal leaves their absence exposed in the grief of the one left behind.
ALSO GROWS
galah: uncover, reveal
גָּלָה
This branch gives exile an echo of exposure: what is taken away is also made painfully visible by its absence.
golah: exiles; a group carried away
גּוֹלָה
The related noun names those removed from home, connecting the verse’s loss to the people who are gone.
higlah: send or carry into exile
הִגְלָה
This causative form shows the root can describe the act of removing someone into exile.
תַּעֲנוּגַיִךְ
ta'anugayikh
GROWS FROM
ענג
Take delight; be soft or luxurious.
“delicate” in this verse is ta'anugayikh. The Hebrew phrase is literally “children of your delights,” naming them through the joy they bring. The lament holds their preciousness beside their absence, without softening the loss.
ALSO GROWS
oneg: delight, pleasure
עֹנֶג
This noun makes clear that the children are described in relation to what is deeply cherished.
me'unag: pampered, luxurious, delicate
מְעֻנָּג
This related form helps explain the KJV’s “delicate” while preserving the root’s association with pleasure and luxury.
הִקָּרְחִי
hiqqorḥi
GROWS FROM
קרח
Become bald; leave bare.
“poll” in this verse is hiqqorḥi. Micah uses this root for the act of shaving and again for the baldness that is to be enlarged. Grief takes a visible form that can spread across the body, rather than remaining an unseen feeling.
ALSO GROWS
qereach: a bald person
קֵרֵחַ
This names the person who bears the bare surface the verse commands.
qorchah: baldness, a bald patch
קָרְחָה
This is the noun used for the baldness Micah says to enlarge.
THE PATTERN
Loss of the beloved enters the body and voice, making grief visible rather than abstract.
Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.THE THREAD
And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:Isaiah uses the same Hebrew noun קָרְחָה (qorchah), “baldness,” as Micah. The shared root shows baldness as a visible form of mourning, so Micah’s grief is written onto the body.
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