John Calvin Commentary Micah 1:16

"Make thee bald, and cut off thy hair for the children of thy delight: enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee." — Micah 1:16 (ASV)

The Prophet finally concludes that nothing remained for the people but lamentation, for the Lord had resolved to desolate and destroy the whole country. Now, they were accustomed in mourning, as we have seen in other places, to shave and even tear off their hair. Some think that the verb קרחי, korechi, implies that the Prophet said, “Pluck, tear, pull off your hair.” When he later adds רגזי, regizi, they refer it to shavings done by a razor. Be that as it may, the Prophet here means that the condition of the people would be so calamitous that nothing would be seen anywhere but mourning.

Make bald, he says, for the children of thy delicacies. The Prophet here indirectly upbraids those perverse men, who after so many warnings had not repented, for their neglect of God’s forbearance. For from where did those delicacies proceed, except from the extreme kindness of God in long sparing the Israelites, despite their disobedience? The Prophet then shows here that they had very long abused the patience of God, while they each immersed themselves in their delicacies.

Now, he says, Enlarge thy baldness as the eagle. Eagles are accustomed to shed their feathers; and therefore he here compares bald men to eagles, as if he called them, Hairless. Just as eagles are for a certain time without feathers until they recover them, so also you shall be hairless, on account of your mourning. He says, For they have migrated from thee. He intimates that the Israelites would become exiles, so that the land might remain desolate.