Declare ye [it] not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust.
Ver. 10. Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all] sc. in their sight and hearing (though at home weep your fill, Mic 1:8), lest the daughters of those uncircumcised triumph, 2 Samuel 1:20; lest out of your tragedies they compose comedies, and ye become their music, while they revel in your ruins and make themselves merry in your misery.
In the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust] An elegant word play in the original; q.d. dust thyself in the house of dust. Aphrah had its name from its dustiness; as Paris is called Lutetia a lute, from its dustiness, and as Hiram called the twenty cities of Galilee given him by Solomon, Cabul, that is, dirty, or displeasing, 1 Kings 9:13. Fitly was this city called Aphrah, or dusty, saith the prophet; for it shall be reduced to dust, and the inhabitants occasioned to roll themselves in the dust, in token of extreme sorrow. See Lamentations 2:10. Some think Apbrah is put for Ephraim; others better understand it for a particular city; either that in the tribe of Manasseh, Gideon's city, Judges 6:11, or that other in the tribe of Benjamin, Joshua 18:23, not far from Jerusalem.