“Don’t tell it in Gath. Don’t weep at all. At Beth OphrahBeth Ophrah means literally “House of Dust.” I have rolled myself in the dust.”
— WEB
Micah 1:10
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Translations sourced from the public-domain WEB, KJV, and ASV. See all sources.
“Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust.”
— KJV
“Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all: at Beth-le-aphrah have I rolled myself in the dust.”
— ASV
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Commentary
Declare ye it not at Gath--on the borders of Judea, one of the five cities of the Philistines, who would exult at the calamity of the Hebrews (Sa2 1:20). Gratify not those who exult over the falls of the Israel of God. weep ye not at all--Do not betray your inward sorrow by outward weeping, within the cognizance of the enemy, lest they should exult at it. RELAND translates, "Weep not in Acco," that is, Ptolemais, now St. Jean d'Acre, near the foot of Mount Carmel; allotted to Asher, but never occupied by that tribe (Jdg 1:31); Acco's inhabitants would, therefore, like Gath's, rejoice at Israel's disaster. Thus the parallelism is best carried out in all the three clauses of the verse, and there is a similar play on sounds in each, in the Hebrew Gath, resembling in sound the Hebrew for "declare"; Acco, resembling the Hebrew for "weep"; and Aphrah, meaning "dust." While the Hebrews were not to expose their misery to foreigners, they ought to bewail it in their own cities, for example, Aphrah or Ophrah (Jos 18:23; Sa1 13:17), in the tribe of Benjamin. To "roll in the dust" marked deep sorrow (Jer 6:26; Eze 27:30).
— Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary (public domain)
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