PROPHET IN THE DAYS OF JOTHAM, AHAZ AND HEZEKIAH, KINGS OF JUDAH · TWO KINGDOMS

Micah. His word that Zion would be ploughed was quoted by the elders in Jeremiah's defence, in the days of Jehoiakim.

SCRIPTURE CALLS

Prophet

ERA

Two kingdoms 930–586 BC

IN THE DAYS OF

Jotham · Ahaz · Hezekiah

BOOK

Micah

HOW THE WORD CAME

“The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite ... which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.”

THE CALL

How the word came

  • “The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite ... which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.” Micah 1:1
  • Against prophets who cry “Peace” for food, he says, “But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD”. Micah 3:5–8
  • He spoke “to all the people of Judah”, as the elders remembered. Jeremiah 26:18

BEFORE THE KINGS

Before three kings

KING OF JUDAH

Jotham

KING OF JUDAH

Ahaz

KING OF JUDAH

Hezekiah

“Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death?”

Jeremiah 26:19 (KJV) →

THE MESSAGE

The word in its main themes

Samaria and Jerusalem judged

“Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps”

Micah 3:12 (KJV) →

The powerful who devour the poor

“They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity”

Micah 3:10 (KJV) →

False prophets

“Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace”

Micah 3:5 (KJV) →

The mountain of the LORD

“nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more”

Micah 4:3 (KJV) →

A ruler from Bethlehem

“But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel”

Micah 5:2 (KJV) →

What the LORD requires

“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”

Micah 6:8 (KJV) →

Who is a God like thee

“Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity”

Micah 7:18 (KJV) →

THE WORD TO …

To whom the word was spoken

TO SAMARIA

“Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard”

Micah 1:6 (KJV) →

TO LACHISH

“O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast”

Micah 1:13 (KJV) →

TO THE HEADS OF JACOB AND PRINCES OF ISRAEL

“Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?”

Micah 3:1 (KJV) →

TO JERUSALEM

“Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field”

Micah 3:12 (KJV) →

TO BETHLEHEM EPHRATAH

“But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah”

Micah 5:2 (KJV) →

SIGNS

The word acted out

SIGN-ACT

Stripped and naked

WHAT CAME OF THE WORD

As Scripture reports it

THE WORD

SCRIPTURE REPORTS

THE BOOK

The book of Micah

  • 1 Samaria and Judah judged; a remnant gathered Micah 1:1–2:13
  • 2 Against the rulers and the prophets; Zion ploughed Micah 3:1–12
  • 3 The mountain of the LORD; the ruler from Bethlehem Micah 4:1–5:15
  • 4 The LORD's controversy; who is a God like thee Micah 6:1–7:20

WHERE THE NEW TESTAMENT QUOTES IT · 2

Each band joins a chapter of Micah to the New Testament book quoting it (one book).

COMPANIONS AND OPPONENTS

Who stood with him, and against him

Certain of the elders of the land

In Jeremiah's day

HOW THE STORY ENDS

Scripture says, tradition says

SCRIPTURE SAYS

  • Scripture does not record Micah's death. In the reign of Jehoiakim his words were still quoted in Jerusalem. Jeremiah 26:1 Jeremiah 26:17–19

TRADITION SAYS

  • Pseudo-Epiphanius makes Micah an Ephraimite and says that “for his inauspicious prophecy” he was killed by order of Ahab, thrown from a precipice, and buried at Morathi. The Jewish Encyclopedia says he is confounding Micah with Micaiah son of Imlah, who prophesied to Ahab; Micah's own heading names Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. Micah 1:1 1 Kings 22:8–28 [20] Who says so: The pseudo-Epiphanian Lives of the Prophets, as reported in the Jewish Encyclopedia (1904), date of the Lives not given in the source read

OPEN QUESTIONS

Where readers have differed

Isaiah took it from Micah

J. D. Michaelis, Gesenius and others, as listed by J. A. Alexander (1846); Alexander himself leans this way

Alexander: the passage's close tie to its context in Micah “somewhat favours the conclusion that Isaiah took the text or theme of his prediction from the younger though contemporary prophet”.[2]

Micah took it from Isaiah

Vitringa, Lowth and others, as listed by Alexander (1846)

Alexander lists this as one of five views held in his day.[2]

Both took it from an older oracle

Koppe, Rosenmüller, De Wette and others, as listed by Alexander (1846); G. A. Smith (1896) keeps it open

Alexander himself thinks the small differences may be “best explained” by both prophets using “a traditional prediction current among the people” or receiving it directly from the Holy Spirit. G. A. Smith thinks Micah has the more original form.[2][6]

Added later to one or both books

B. Stade, H. Hackmann and T. K. Cheyne, as reported by G. A. Smith (1896)

Smith reports the view that the oracle was inserted by later editors in both Micah and Isaiah. He himself finds it “improbable that the same post-exilic insertion should find its way into two separate books”.[6]

IN SCRIPTURE

Every passage

CHAPTERS · 9

Micah 1 Micah 2 Micah 3 Micah 4 Micah 5 Micah 6 Micah 7 Jeremiah 26 Matthew 2

PASSAGES · 3

Micah 1:1–7:20 Jeremiah 26:17–19 Matthew 2:5–6

WHAT SCRIPTURE DOES NOT SAY

  • Micah's father is not named, and Scripture does not say how he died.
  • Micah 1:1 calls him “the Morasthite”; Scripture does not say more about his town.
  • Scripture records no meeting between Micah and Isaiah, though both spoke in Hezekiah's days.

SOURCES

Where this page comes from

  • S. R. Driver, An Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament (1891), pp. 203, 214–215 (Isaiah 36–39), 219–223 (Isaiah 40–66), 219 and 229 note 4 (the Servant), 282–283 (Hosea's heading), 287–292 (Joel).
  • J. A. Alexander, The Earlier Prophecies of Isaiah (1846), p. 23 (Isaiah 2:2–4 and Micah 4:1–3); pp. 114, 116, 121 (Isaiah 7:14); pp. 161, 166 (Isaiah 9:6); pp. 588–589 (Isaiah 36–39).
  • J. A. Alexander, The Later Prophecies of Isaiah (1847), Introduction, p. xix.
  • G. A. Smith, The Book of Isaiah, vol. I (The Expositor's Bible) (1888), pp. 115–117, 133–135, 140–141 (Immanuel and the Prince of the Four Names).
  • G. A. Smith, The Book of Isaiah, vol. II (The Expositor's Bible) (1890), ch. I, “The Date of Isaiah xl.–lxvi.”, pp. 3–13.
  • G. A. Smith, The Book of the Twelve Prophets, vol. I (The Expositor's Bible) (1896), pp. 236–239 (Hosea's marriage); pp. 365–366 (Micah 4:1–5).
  • G. A. Smith, The Book of the Twelve Prophets, vol. II (The Expositor's Bible) (1898), Preface; pp. 375–377, 439–440 (the date of Joel).
  • E. B. Pusey, The Minor Prophets, with a Commentary (1860), Introduction to the Prophet Joel.
  • C. F. Keil, tr. J. Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Minor Prophets, vol. I (1868), introduction, and on Hosea 1:2–3 (read on Bible Hub).
  • B. Duhm, Das Buch Jesaia, 2nd edition (first edition 1892) (1902), Einleitung (Tritojesaia, chapters 56–66).
  • G. L. Robinson, “Isaiah”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. III (1915), §5, p. 1496 (his martyrdom); §9, pp. 1504–1508 (the critical problem; Ecclesiasticus and “the Holy One of Israel”).
  • R. H. Charles (tr.), The Ascension of Isaiah (1900), Introduction pp. xi–xii, xliv–xlvi; text 5:1–14, p. 40.
  • Justin Martyr, tr. M. Dods and G. Reith, Dialogue with Trypho (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1) (1885), chs. 43, 67, 77, 84, 120.
  • Tertullian, tr. S. Thelwall, Scorpiace (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3) (1885), ch. 8.
  • Origen, tr. F. Crombie, Letter to Africanus (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4) (1885), §9.
  • Origen, tr. F. Crombie, Against Celsus, book 1 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4) (1885), 1.55.
  • E. G. Hirsch, T. K. Cheyne, I. Singer and I. Broydé, “Isaiah”, Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 6 (1904), pp. 635–636.
  • K. Budde, K. Kohler and L. Ginzberg, “Amos”, Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 1 (1901), pp. 530–533.
  • E. G. Hirsch and V. Ryssel, “Hosea, the Prophet”, Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 6 (1904), p. 473.
  • I. Singer, M. Seligsohn, S. Schechter and E. G. Hirsch, “Micah”, Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 8 (1904), pp. 533–534.
  • D. D. Luckenbill, The Annals of Sennacherib (Oriental Institute Publications 2) (1924), pp. 32–34 (Oriental Institute Prism, col. III).

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