John Calvin Commentary Micah 1:13

"Bind the chariot to the swift steed, O inhabitant of Lachish: she was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee." — Micah 1:13 (ASV)

By instructing the citizens of Lachish to tie their chariots to dromedaries, he implies that it would not be safe for them to remain in their city, and that nothing would be better for them than to flee to another place and take their possessions with them. “Think,” he says, “of flight, and of the quickest flight.” The word רכש (recash), which I translate as dromedary or camel, has an uncertain meaning among the Hebrews; some translate it as swift horses. But we understand the Prophet’s meaning, for he implies that there would be no time for flight unless they made great haste, because the enemies would come upon them quickly.

And he then adds that this city had been the beginning of sin for the Jews; for though he names here the daughter of Zion, he still includes all the Jews by using a part to represent the whole. We can understand why he says that Lachish had been the beginning of sin for the citizens of Jerusalem from the following clauses: In thee, he says, were found the transgressions of Israel. The citizens of Lachish were then, undoubtedly, the first to embrace the corruptions of Jeroboam and had thus departed from the pure worship of God.

Therefore, when this contagion had entered that city, it gradually crept into neighboring places, until finally, as we find, the whole kingdom of Judah had become corrupt. This is what the Prophet repeats more fully in other places. It was not without reason, then, that he denounces desolation here on the citizens of Lachish, for they had been the originators of sin for their own kindred.

However alienated the ten tribes had become from pure faith and worship, the kingdom of Judah still remained upright until Lachish opened the door to ungodly superstitions; then its superstitions spread throughout all of Judea. She therefore suffered the punishment she deserved when she was drawn away into distant exile or, at least, when she could not otherwise escape danger than by fleeing in fear to some other country, and that very swiftly. She is the beginning, he says, of sin to the daughter of Zion. How so? For in thee—it is more emphatic when the Prophet turns his discourse to Lachish itself—in thee, he says, were found the transgressions of Israel.