Micah

Name, Authorship, and Historical Context

The book of Micah gives us little information about the prophet himself, for whom the book is named. According to 1.1, Micah prophesied in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah whose reigns spanned 759–687 bce. Possible allusions to the fall of Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, in 722 (1.6), and to the campaign of Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, in 701 (1.10–16), place the prophet in the final quarter of the eighth century. As such he was a younger contemporary of Isaiah of Jerusalem. Like Hosea, Amos, and especially Isaiah, Micah lived in a tumultuous era, the events of which are recounted in 2 Kings 16–20.

Location in Canon

The prophet Micah was among the earliest of the Minor Prophets. In the organization of the Book of the Twelve in the Masoretic Text (MT), Micah follows Jonah, an arrangement apparently based on chronology since, according to 2 Kings 14.25, Jonah also lived in the eighth century. Micah is loosely connected to the following book of Nahum by catchwords; compare the final section of Micah (7.18–19) with the initial unit of Nahum (1.1–3).

Structure and Contents

The book may be divided into three sections: chs 1–3; 4–5; 6–7. Some scholars think that chs 1–3 form the oldest core of the book; it is characterized by the judgmental tone for which Micah was most famous (Jer 26.18). Chs 1–3 consist mainly of oracles of judgment; chs 4–5 of oracles of hope. The final section, chs 6–7, begins with judgment and moves to hope. This alternation between judgment and hope may conform to some pattern in Micah's preaching or it may be an organizing device of later editors. The book of Micah may also have material from subsequent periods (e.g., 4.10 speaks of the Babylonian exile; 7.11 seems to reflect the postexilic period). Further evidence of editorial activity is the close correspondence between Micah 4.1–5 and Isaiah 2.2–5.

Interpretation

Micah offered a theological interpretation of the dizzying events near the end of the eighth century: the fall of Samaria, the expansion of Jerusalem fueled by emigrants from the north, and the international situation made unstable by an aggressive superpower, Assyria. Micah, from a small town southwest of Jerusalem, Moreshethgath, had a populist message. He expressed disdain for the corruptions and pretensions of Jerusalem and its leaders. He recalled the traditions of early Israel (3.9–10; 6.3–5), and condemned religious practice unaccompanied by ethical performance (6.6–8).

While Amos and Hosea condemned the high places, provincial shrines where the proper worship of the Lord was diluted by illicit elements, Micah called Jerusalem itself a high place (1.5) and announced its destruction, for which he was long remembered; a century after Micah, in a rare direct quotation of one prophet by another, Jeremiah (26.18) quotes Micah (3.12). At the same time, Micah never lost faith in the future. The middle section of the book, chs 4–5, contains images of a restored and glorious Zion to which the nations make pilgrimage, and of an ideal king (5.2–5).

It is instructive to see how Micah's rural background shaped his populist vision of the ideal king, or “messiah.” Isaiah, Micah's contemporary, used the birth of a royal child (Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, was probably intended) in the Judahite capital of Jerusalem as a symbol of hope (Isa 7.10–14). Micah affirmed the Davidic lineage of the ideal king by tracing his roots to Bethlehem (5.2), David's home village (1 Sam 17:12), but also reminded his audience that their greatest king once did and will again emerge from “one of the little clans of Judah” (5.2).

Gregory Mobley

¹ The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

²Hear, you peoples, all of you;

  listen, O earth, and all that is in it;

and let the Lord God be a witness against you,

  the Lord from his holy temple.

³For lo, the Lord is coming out of his place,

  and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.

⁴Then the mountains will melt under him

  and the valleys will burst open,

like wax near the fire,

  like waters poured down a steep place.

⁵All this is for the transgression of Jacob

  and for the sins of the house of Israel.

What is the transgression of Jacob?

  Is it not Samaria?

And what is the high place^a of Judah?

  Is it not Jerusalem?

⁶Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country,

  a place for planting vineyards.

I will pour down her stones into the valley,

  and uncover her foundations.

⁷All her images shall be beaten to pieces,

  all her wages shall be burned with fire,

and all her idols I will lay waste;

  for as the wages of a prostitute she gathered them,

and as the wages of a prostitute they shall again be used.

⁸For this I will lament and wail;

  I will go barefoot and naked;

I will make lamentation like the jackals,

  and mourning like the ostriches.

⁹For her wound^b is incurable.

  It has come to Judah;

it has reached to the gate of my people,

  to Jerusalem.

¹⁰Tell it not in Gath,

  weep not at all;

in Beth-leaphrah

  roll yourselves in the dust.

¹¹Pass on your way,

  inhabitants of Shaphir,

  in nakedness and shame;

the inhabitants of Zaanan

  do not come forth;

Beth-ezel is wailing

  and shall remove its support from you.

¹²For the inhabitants of Maroth

  wait anxiously for good,

yet disaster has come down from the Lord

  to the gate of Jerusalem.

¹³Harness the steeds to the chariots,

  inhabitants of Lachish;

it was the beginning of sin

  to daughter Zion,

for in you were found

  the transgressions of Israel.

¹⁴Therefore you shall give parting gifts

  to Moresheth-gath;

the houses of Achzib shall be a deception

  to the kings of Israel.

¹⁵I will again bring a conqueror upon you,

  inhabitants of Mareshah;

the glory of Israel

  shall come to Adullam.

¹⁶Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair

  for your pampered children;

make yourselves as bald as the eagle,

  for they have gone from you into exile.

2

Alas for those who devise wickedness

  and evil deeds^a on their beds!

When the morning dawns, they perform it,

  because it is in their power.

²They covet fields, and seize them;

  houses, and take them away;

they oppress householder and house,

  people and their inheritance.

³Therefore thus says the Lord:

Now, I am devising against this family an evil

  from which you cannot remove your necks;

and you shall not walk haughtily,

  for it will be an evil time.

⁴On that day they shall take up a taunt song against you,

  and wail with bitter lamentation,

and say, “We are utterly ruined;

  the Lord^b alters the inheritance of my people;

how he removes it from me!

  Among our captors^c he parcels out our fields.”

⁵Therefore you will have no one to cast the line by lot

  in the assembly of the Lord.

⁶“Do not preach”—thus they preach—

  “one should not preach of such things;

  disgrace will not overtake us.”

⁷Should this be said, O house of Jacob?

  Is the Lord's patience exhausted?

  Are these his doings?

Do not my words do good

  to one who walks uprightly?

⁸But you rise up against my people^d as an enemy;

  you strip the robe from the peaceful,^a

from those who pass by trustingly

  with no thought of war.

⁹The women of my people you drive out

  from their pleasant houses;

from their young children you take away

  my glory forever.

¹⁰Arise and go;

  for this is no place to rest,

because of uncleanness that destroys

  with a grievous destruction.^b

¹¹If someone were to go about uttering empty falsehoods,

  saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”

  such a one would be the preacher for this people!

¹²I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob,

  I will gather the survivors of Israel;

I will set them together

  like sheep in a fold,

like a flock in its pasture;

  it will resound with people.

¹³The one who breaks out will go up before them;

  they will break through and pass the gate,

going out by it.

  Their king will pass on before them,

the Lord at their head.

³ And I said:

Listen, you heads of Jacob

  and rulers of the house of Israel!

Should you not know justice?—

²you who hate the good and love the evil,

  who tear the skin off my people,^c

  and the flesh off their bones;

³who eat the flesh of my people,

  flay their skin off them,

break their bones in pieces,

  and chop them up like meat^d in a kettle,

  like flesh in a caldron.

⁴Then they will cry to the Lord,

  but he will not answer them;

he will hide his face from them at that time,

  because they have acted wickedly.

⁵Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets

  who lead my people astray,

who cry “Peace”

  when they have something to eat,

but declare war against those

  who put nothing into their mouths.

⁶Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,

  and darkness to you, without revelation.

The sun shall go down upon the prophets,

  and the day shall be black over them;

⁷the seers shall be disgraced,

  and the diviners put to shame;

they shall all cover their lips,

  for there is no answer from God.

⁸But as for me, I am filled with power,

  with the spirit of the Lord,

  and with justice and might,

to declare to Jacob his transgression

  and to Israel his sin.

⁹Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob

  and chiefs of the house of Israel,

who abhor justice

  and pervert all equity,

¹⁰who build Zion with blood

  and Jerusalem with wrong!

¹¹Its rulers give judgment for a bribe,

  its priests teach for a price,

  its prophets give oracles for money;

yet they lean upon the Lord and say,

  “Surely the Lord is with us!

  No harm shall come upon us.”

¹²Therefore because of you

  Zion shall be plowed as a field;

Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,

  and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

4

In days to come

  the mountain of the Lord's house

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

  and shall be raised up above the hills.

Peoples shall stream to it,

  ²and many nations shall come and say:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

  to the house of the God of Jacob;

that he may teach us his ways

  and that we may walk in his paths.”

For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,

  and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

³He shall judge between many peoples,

  and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;

they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

  and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

  neither shall they learn war any more;

⁴but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,

  and no one shall make them afraid;

for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

⁵For all the peoples walk,

  each in the name of its god,

but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God

  forever and ever.

⁶In that day, says the Lord,

  I will assemble the lame

and gather those who have been driven away,

  and those whom I have afflicted.

⁷The lame I will make the remnant,

  and those who were cast off, a strong nation;

and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion

  now and forevermore.

⁸And you, O tower of the flock,

  hill of daughter Zion,

to you it shall come,

  the former dominion shall come,

  the sovereignty of daughter Jerusalem.

⁹Now why do you cry aloud?

  Is there no king in you?

Has your counselor perished,

  that pangs have seized you like a woman in labor?

¹⁰Writhe and groan,^a O daughter Zion,

  like a woman in labor;

for now you shall go forth from the city

  and camp in the open country;

  you shall go to Babylon.

There you shall be rescued,

  there the Lord will redeem you

  from the hands of your enemies.

¹¹Now many nations

  are assembled against you,

saying, “Let her be profaned,

  and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.”

¹²But they do not know

  the thoughts of the Lord;

they do not understand his plan,

  that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.

¹³Arise and thresh,

  O daughter Zion,

for I will make your horn iron

  and your hoofs bronze;

you shall beat in pieces many peoples,

  and shall^b devote their gain to the Lord,

  their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.

5

^c Now you are walled around with a wall;^d

  siege is laid against us;

with a rod they strike the ruler of Israel

  upon the cheek.

^2eBut you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,

  who are one of the little clans of Judah,

from you shall come forth for me

  one who is to rule in Israel,

whose origin is from of old,

  from ancient days.

³Therefore he shall give them up until the time

  when she who is in labor has brought forth;

then the rest of his kindred shall return

  to the people of Israel.

⁴And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,

  in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great

  to the ends of the earth;

⁵and he shall be the one of peace.

  If the Assyrians come into our land

  and tread upon our soil,^a

we will raise against them seven shepherds

  and eight installed as rulers.

⁶They shall rule the land of Assyria with the sword,

  and the land of Nimrod with the drawn sword;^b

they^c shall rescue us from the Assyrians

  if they come into our land

  or tread within our border.

⁷Then the remnant of Jacob,

  surrounded by many peoples,

shall be like dew from the Lord,

  like showers on the grass,

which do not depend upon people

  or wait for any mortal.

⁸And among the nations the remnant of Jacob,

  surrounded by many peoples,

shall be like a lion among the animals of the forest,

  like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,

which, when it goes through, treads down

  and tears in pieces, with no one to deliver.

⁹Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries,

  and all your enemies shall be cut off.

¹⁰In that day, says the Lord,

  I will cut off your horses from among you

  and will destroy your chariots;

¹¹and I will cut off the cities of your land

  and throw down all your strongholds;

¹²and I will cut off sorceries from your hand,

  and you shall have no more soothsayers;

¹³and I will cut off your images

  and your pillars from among you,

  and you shall bow down no more

to the work of your hands;

¹⁴and I will uproot your sacred poles^d from among you

  and destroy your towns.

¹⁵And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance

  on the nations that did not obey.

⁶ Hear what the Lord says:

  Rise, plead your case before the mountains,

  and let the hills hear your voice.

²Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord,

  and you enduring foundations of the earth;

for the Lord has a controversy with his people,

  and he will contend with Israel.

³“O my people, what have I done to you?

  In what have I wearied you? Answer me!

⁴For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,

  and redeemed you from the house of slavery;

and I sent before you Moses,

  Aaron, and Miriam.

⁵O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised,

  what Balaam son of Beor answered him,

and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,

  that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.”

⁶“With what shall I come before the Lord,

  and bow myself before God on high?

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,

  with calves a year old?

⁷Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,

  with ten thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,

  the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

⁸He has told you, O mortal, what is good;

  and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

  and to walk humbly with your God?

⁹The voice of the Lord cries to the city

  (it is sound wisdom to fear your name):

Hear, O tribe and assembly of the city!^a

  ¹⁰Can I forget^b the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,

  and the scant measure that is accursed?

¹¹Can I tolerate wicked scales

  and a bag of dishonest weights?

¹²Your^a wealthy are full of violence;

  your^b inhabitants speak lies,

  with tongues of deceit in their mouths.

¹³Therefore I have begun^c to strike you down,

  making you desolate because of your sins.

¹⁴You shall eat, but not be satisfied,

  and there shall be a gnawing hunger within you;

you shall put away, but not save,

  and what you save, I will hand over to the sword.

¹⁵You shall sow, but not reap;

  you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;

  you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.

¹⁶For you have kept the statutes of Omri^d

  and all the works of the house of Ahab,

  and you have followed their counsels.

Therefore I will make you a desolation,

    and your^e inhabitants an object of hissing;

  so you shall bear the scorn of my people.

7

Woe is me! For I have become like one who,

  after the summer fruit has been gathered,

  after the vintage has been gleaned,

finds no cluster to eat;

  there is no first-ripe fig for which I hunger.

²The faithful have disappeared from the land,

  and there is no one left who is upright;

they all lie in wait for blood,

  and they hunt each other with nets.

³Their hands are skilled to do evil;

  the official and the judge ask for a bribe,

and the powerful dictate what they desire;

  thus they pervert justice.^f

⁴The best of them is like a brier,

  the most upright of them a thorn hedge.

The day of their^g sentinels, of their^g punishment, has come;

  now their confusion is at hand.

⁵Put no trust in a friend,

  have no confidence in a loved one;

guard the doors of your mouth

  from her who lies in your embrace;

⁶for the son treats the father with contempt,

  the daughter rises up against her mother,

the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

  your enemies are members of your own household.

⁷But as for me, I will look to the Lord,

  I will wait for the God of my salvation;

  my God will hear me.

⁸Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy;

  when I fall, I shall rise;

when I sit in darkness,

  the Lord will be a light to me.

⁹I must bear the indignation of the Lord,

  because I have sinned against him,

until he takes my side

  and executes judgment for me.

He will bring me out to the light;

  I shall see his vindication.

¹⁰Then my enemy will see,

  and shame will cover her who said to me,

  “Where is the Lord your God?”

My eyes will see her downfall;^a

  now she will be trodden down

  like the mire of the streets.

¹¹A day for the building of your walls!

  In that day the boundary shall be far extended.

¹²In that day they will come to you

  from Assyria to^b Egypt,

and from Egypt to the River,

  from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.

¹³But the earth will be desolate

  because of its inhabitants,

  for the fruit of their doings.

¹⁴Shepherd your people with your staff,

  the flock that belongs to you,

which lives alone in a forest

  in the midst of a garden land;

let them feed in Bashan and Gilead

  as in the days of old.

¹⁵As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,

  show us^c marvelous things.

¹⁶The nations shall see and be ashamed

  of all their might;

they shall lay their hands on their mouths;

  their ears shall be deaf;

¹⁷they shall lick dust like a snake,

  like the crawling things of the earth;

they shall come trembling out of their fortresses;

  they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God,

  and they shall stand in fear of you.

¹⁸Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity

  and passing over the transgression

  of the remnant of your^d possession?

He does not retain his anger forever,

  because he delights in showing clemency.

¹⁹He will again have compassion upon us;

  he will tread our iniquities under foot.

You will cast all our^e sins

  into the depths of the sea.

²⁰You will show faithfulness to Jacob

  and unswerving loyalty to Abraham,

as you have sworn to our ancestors

  from the days of old.

1.1: Superscription. Among the Minor Prophets, this superscription is closest in form to those for Hosea (1.1), Amos (1.1), and Zephaniah (1.1). Micah is a short form of the name Micaiah (1 Kings 22), which means, “Who is like Yahweh?” Moresheth, a small town in southwest Judah (cf. 1.14), probably Tell el-Judeideh, 23 mi (37 km) southwest of Jerusalem. Jotham reigned from ca. 759 to 743 bce; Ahaz from 743/735 to 727/715; Hezekiah from 727/715 to 698/687 (the data are inconsistent for the reigns of Ahaz and Hezekiah). Which he saw, Judean prophecy often had a visionary quality (e.g., Isa 1.1; Ezek 1.1.; Am 1.1; Ob 1; Nah 1.1; Hab 1.1).

1.2–3.12: Speeches condemning Judean society and its leaders. This collection of speeches begins with an indictment of Samaria, capital of the Northern Kingdom, and ends with an indictment of Jerusalem, capital of the Southern Kingdom. This first major section of Micah is dominated by judgment speeches.

1.2–7: The coming of the Lord. In grand style, the Lord descends from heaven to punish Samaria. This oracle is probably to be dated before 722 bce, when Samaria fell to the Assyrians. 2: Hear, you peoples, 1 Kings 22.28. Listen, O earth, Isa 1:2. Lord God, Heb “Adonai YHWH.” His holy temple, his heavenly abode; see Ps 11.4; Hab 2:20. 3–4: Judg 5.4; Pss 68.8; 97.1–5; Isa 26.21. 3: High places, in general, hills and mountains (cf. Am 4.13), here perhaps with the specific connotation of illicit rural shrines. 5: Jacob, poetic synonym for Israel; cf. Gen 32.28. High place usually designates an open-air shrine but seems to refer here to the Solomonic Temple. The linked condemnation of Samaria and Jerusalem is also found in Am 6.1. 7: This destruction of images is consistent with Deuteronomic law (Deut 7.25; 12.3). The phrase wages of a prostitute recalls the imagery of Hos 2.2–13; cf. Deut 23.18; Ezek 16.31.

1.8–16: A lament for Samaria, and Jerusalem too. 8: Barefoot … naked, conventional mourning behavior (2 Sam 15.30; Ezek 24.17,23), employed for effect by Micah's contemporary Isaiah (Isa 20.2). Jackals and ostriches, associated with desolation because they frequented ruins and produced eerie howls or cries; see also Job 30.29; Isa 34.13.

1.10–16: These towns in southwestern Judah lay along the path of the Assyrian king Sennacherib's campaign in 701 bce (2 Kings 18–19; Isa 36–37), although the specific locations of several are unknown. There is a pun in virtually every verse of this section, lost in translation. To capture the wordplay in English one might translate v. 12: “the inhabitants of Bitterness wait … for something sweet.” 10: Gath, one of the five Philistine cities on the coast; 2 Sam 1.20b. 13: Sennacherib's siege of Lachish, an important city 28 mi (45 km) southwest of Jerusalem, is depicted in Assyrian records. 14: Moresheth-gath, see 1.1n. 15: Mareshah, later known as Marisa, is modern Tell Sandahanna, 3 mi (5 km) northeast of Lachish. 16: Make yourselves bald, an extreme form of mourning behavior (e.g., Isa 15.2; Jer 7.29; 16.6; Am 8.10). Pampered children (better, “children of your delight”) is not pejorative. It depicts the grief of parents bereft of exiled children. The eagle, more exactly, the griffon vulture.

2.1–5: The Lord will punish the land barons. 1–2: Ps 36.4; Isa 5.8–12; 32.7. Micah condemns the injustice and inhumanity of creditors who, through manipulation of credit and courts, foreclose on family farms. 2: Covet, Ex 20:17. 3: The evil will be like a yoke on their necks. 4: Taunt song, cf. Num 21.27–30; Isa 23.15–16; Hab 2.6. 5: Cast the line by lot, on a piece of land, thus acquiring title to it (Josh 18.6–10; Ps 16.6). For another prophetic vision of a future redistribution of the land, see Ezek 48.

2.6–11: The prophet responds to criticism. Micah, like other prophets (Isa 30.10; Jer 5.31; Am 2.12), realizes his uncompromising message is not one his audience wants to hear. 8: Strip the robe, cf. Am 2:8.

2.12–13: A shift to an oracle of encouragement. Against the background of exile, whether in 722 or 587 bce, this oracle counters despair with images of the Lord as shepherd (v. 12) and victorious king (v. 13); cf. Isa 40.10–11. 13: The one who breaks out (i.e., the Lord); see Ex 19.22; 2 Sam 5.20; 6.8.

3.1–4: The Lord will punish the judicial leaders. Corrupt judges are described as cannibals; Ezekiel also used this image (Ezek 11.5–12; 24.1–14). 1: Listen, lit., “Hear,” as in 1.1; 3.9; 6.1; 6.9b, a common introduction to Micah's oracles. 2: For comparison, Isa 5.20; for contrast, Am 5.15. 4: Futile cry to the Lord (i.e., prayer), cf. Isa 1.15.

3.5–8: The Lord will punish the religious leaders. Micah's rival prophets are crowd pleasers (see also 2.11), inspired on commission (v. 5; cf. v. 11); by contrast, see Micah's source of inspiration in v. 8. 6: A time without vision, 1 Sam 3.1. 7: Seers, see 1 Sam 9.9. Diviners, see Deut 13.1. Cover their lips, a sign of mourning (Lev 13.45; Ezek 24.17,22). 8: Filled … with the spirit, Isa 11.2; 61.1–3; Ezek 2.2.

3.9–12: Summary: Its leadership corrupt, Jerusalem is doomed. The first section ends with Micah's bold assertion that Jerusalem and the Temple itself shall be destroyed because of the corruption of its leaders. 10: Who build Zion, following the collapse of the Northern Kingdom, Jerusalem expanded as it absorbed refugees; Hab 2.12. 11–12: Prophecy is inseparable from context: Here, hopes in Zion's inviolability are dashed; contrast Ps 46, where they are confirmed. Heap of ruins, Jerusalem's fate shall be similar to that of Samaria (1.6). This parallel reveals a key strategy of the preexilic Judean prophets: The fall of Samaria served as an example to Judah. 12: This prophecy was quoted at the trial of Jeremiah (Jer 26.18). Mountain of the house, see 4.1.

4.1–5.15: Speeches promising divine restoration and exaltation of the people Israel and the city Jerusalem. A series of poems depicts an ideal age (“that day”) when God reigns, Israel triumphs, and the nations are judged. Some scholars date this section to the exilic or postexilic period (see 4.10n.). Alternately, possible allusions to the Babylonian exile (e.g., 4.6,10) could stem from editors who recast Micah's oracles for a later audience.

4.1–8: The ideal age is depicted in three poems, the first of which (vv. 1–4) is nearly identical to Isaiah 2.2–4. 1–2: There is a universal pilgrimage to Mount Zion, to which cosmic significance is ascribed here as the mountain of the Lord's house. 1: Highest of the mountains, claims for Mount Zion's height (Ps 48.3; Ezek 40.2) were symbolic, not topographic. 2: Instruction, Heb “torah.” 3–4: A classic articulation of the Israelite prophetic ideal: peace and a social equality rooted in family ownership of land. 3: Swords into plowshares (or “plowpoints,” a stick with a small metal point), i.e., the transition from war to peace, as the militia citizens convert to farmers. For the opposite movement, see Joel 3.10. 4: Zech 3.10; 1 Kings 4.25; 2 Kings 18.31 = Isa 36.16. 5: Like its similarly worded parallel in Isa 2.5, this verse may have been read antiphonally, as an “Amen” to the visionary speech of 4.1–4 (= Isa 2.2–4). 6–7: Cf. Zeph 3.19–20. 8: Tower of the flock, an old epithet for Jerusalem (see “tower of Eder” in Gen 35.21; “Eder” means “flock”). Daughter Zion, a metaphorical term for Jerusalem; cf. 2 Kings 19.21; Lam 1.6. Cities were frequently represented as female in the ancient Near East.

4.9–10: The Lord will rescue the exiles. This speech, which describes the exiles’ march to Babylon and promises their redemption, addresses the situation of the sixth century bce, not the eighth. Like a woman in labor, Isa 13.8; 26.17; Jer 4.31.

4.11–13: Israel will crush its enemies. The Lord has planned a stunning reversal. At the very place outside Jerusalem where hostile nations assemble, the city gate (also the site of threshing floors), Israel shall trample them like an ox's hooves smash husks of grain; cf. Isa 41.14–16. Assembled against you; cf. Pss 1.2; 48.4; Ezek 38.7–9. 13: For Israel as bovine, see Hos 10.11. Devote their gain, Deut 20.16; Josh 6.18–19.

5.1: Strike … the cheek, a gesture of insult; see 1 Kings 22.24; Job 16.10; Ps 3.7; Lam 3.30.

5.2–5a: A messianic poem. A new David shall arise, not from Jerusalem but from Bethlehem, David's place of birth, to rule in this ideal age. The New Testament interprets this poem as referring to the birth of Jesus (Mt 2.6; cf. Jn 7.40–43). 2: Bethlehem, located 6 mi (10 km) south of Jerusalem; Gen 35.19; Ruth 4.11; 1 Sam 17.12. Ephrathah, the name of a Judahite clan and region; the latter includes the village of Bethlehem. The prophet Amos (9.11) also uses the phrase of old in reference to David. 3: Isaiah of Jerusalem, a contemporary of Micah, also described the birth of an ideal king (7.14; 9.6). She who is in labor, either the actual mother of the future ruler or perhaps symbolically Zion (see 4.10). 4: His flock, cf. 2.12–13.

5.5b–6: Assyria will be defeated. In the new age, Israel will not lack for leaders (contrast chs 2–3). 5: Seven … eight, a sufficient number (see Am 1.3n). 6: Land of Nimrod, Assyria; Gen 10.8–11 identifies Nimrod as a legendary warrior and king of Assyria.

5.7–9: Israel gains the upper hand. 7: Dew, Israel's continued existence, like the dew each morning, is guaranteed by God; cf. 2 Sam 17.12.

5.10–15: But before reconstruction, demolition. The repetition of first-person verbs at the beginning of each line (I will cut off, four times; I will uproot; I will execute vengeance) sets the tone. 10: Cut off your horses … and … chariots, Israel must rely on the Lord, not military force (Pss 20.17; 33.13–17; Zech 9.10). 11: Jer 5.17; Hos 10.12–14. 12: The precise forms these means of divination took are unknown; for the biblical prohibition, see Deut 18.10–11. 13–14: Pillars and sacred poles, Canaanite ritual objects, banned for Israel (Ex 34.13). According to 2 Kings 18.4, King Hezekiah did cut off and uproot these sites of illicit worship.

6.1–7.20: A prophetic sampler moves from legal indictment of Israel's guilt to liturgical affirmation of God's mercy. The final section of Micah consists of four units, of different genres, which extend the themes of the first section (1.2–3.12).

6.1–8: A divine lawsuit for violation of covenant. There are frequent shifts of speakers here, from the Lord (v. 1) to the prophet (v. 2) and back to the Lord (vv. 3–5), to a spokesperson for the community (vv. 6–7) and back to the prophet (v. 8), who delivers the punchline, the epitome of the entire Israelite prophetic tradition. 1–2: The audience, in the style of ancient treaty witnesses, is the heavenly court whose members (mountains, hills, foundations of the earth) are not deified as in Israel's neighboring religions but personified for dramatic effect; cf. Isa 1.2; Deut 32.1. Controversy, lawsuit. 4–5: A summary of what the Lord had done for Israel, bringing it out of Egypt to the Promised Land, under the leadership of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Cf. Ex 20.2; Hos 12.13. 4: Note the prominence of Miriam (Ex 15.20–21). 5: Balak, Balaam, Num 22–24. 5: From Shittim (Josh 3.1) to Gilgal (Josh 4.19) refers to the crossing of the Jordan. 6–7: For similar attitudes toward animal sacrifices, see Isa 1.11; Pss 50.13; 51.16–17. 6: Cf. Pss 15.1; 24.3. Burnt offerings were sacrifices wholly dedicated to God with no share for participants in the ritual. Calves a year old, Lev 9:3. 7: My firstborn, though human sacrifice was occasionally practiced in the Iron Age, the exaggerated terms elsewhere (“thousands of rams,” “ten thousands of rivers of oil”) suggest that Micah is being rhetorical. 8: In this single sentence the prophet sums up a century of brilliant prophecy; see Am 5.21–24; Hos 6.6; Isa 1.11–17. Kindness, Heb “ḥesed,” covenant loyalty. Walk humbly means “live ever mindful of,” “in communion with”; cf. Gen 5:24.

6.9–16: Jerusalem, the corrupt city, is cursed. Jerusalem, as wicked as Samaria (see v. 16), must be destroyed. This speech can be read as a separate oracle or as the judicial sentence following the indictment in 6.1–8. 10: Treasures of wickedness, that is, wealth gained through wrongdoing. 11: Wicked scales, Lev 19:36; Deut 25:13–15; cf. Am 8.5; Ezek 45:10. 14–16: For other “futility curses” in which actions fail to produce normal and expected results, see Deut 28.30–31,38–46. 16: Omri, Ahab, rulers of the Northern Kingdom in the ninth century bce; see 1 Kings 16.25–34. Object of hissing, Zeph 2.15.

7.1–7: A lament for a desperate society. 1: Gleaned, Lev 19.9–10; 23.22; Deut 24.19–21; Ruth 2–3. The first-ripe fig was the most delicious. 2: Abraham (Gen 18.23–33), Jeremiah (Jer 5.1), and Ezekiel (Ezek 22.30) also searched for an honest person. 3: The perversion of justice by officials is frequently condemned by the prophets; cf. Hos 7.3; Amos 5.12; Zeph 3.1–5. 5: Cf. Jer 9.4. 6: Son treats the father with contempt, daughter… against mother, cf. Matt 10:35–36; Lk 12:53; contrast with Mal 4.6.

7.8–20: A final liturgy. This final unit contains shifts in content, if not speakers, and may have been designed for worship. It begins with lament (vv. 8–10), followed by an oracle of encouragement (vv. 11–13) and prayer (vv. 14–17), before closing with hopeful affirmation of God's great mercy. 8–10: The prophet speaks as Israel. 9: Jer 10.19. 10: Shame will cover her, Ob 10. Mire of the streets, Isa 10.6. 11–13: The references to the (re)building of your walls (Neh 2.17) and the restoration of former boundaries (Isa 54.2–3) suggest that this oracle was probably written in the early postexilic period. 12: Cf. 4.1–2; Isa 19.23–25. The River, the Euphrates. 14: Shepherd, see 2.12–13. Bashan and Gilead in northern Transjordan were known for their fertility. 18–19: Cf. Ex 34.6–7; Ps 103.8–10; contrast Nah 1.2–3. 18: The sentence Who is a God like you is reminiscent of the prophet's name (1.1n.). 20: Gen 12.1–3; 17.6–8.

^a Heb what are the high places

^b Gk Syr Vg: Heb wounds

^a Cn: Heb work evil

^b Heb he

^c Cn: Heb the rebellious

^d Cn: Heb But yesterday my people rose

^a Cn: Heb from before a garment

^b Meaning of Heb uncertain

^c Heb from them

^d Gk: Heb as

^a Meaning of Heb uncertain

^b Gk Syr Tg: Heb and I will

^c Ch 4.14 in Heb

^d Cn Compare Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain

^e Ch 5.1 in Heb

^a Gk: Heb in our palaces

^b Cn: Heb in its entrances

^c Heb he

^d Heb Asherim

^a Cn Compare Gk: Heb tribe, and who has appointed it yet?

^b Cn: Meaning of Heb uncertain

^a Heb Whose

^b Heb whose

^c Gk Syr Vg: Heb have made sick

^d Gk Syr Vg Tg: Heb the statutes of Omri are kept

^e Heb its

^f Cn: Heb they weave it

^g Heb your

^a Heb lacks downfall

^b One Ms: MT Assyria and cities of

^c Cn: Heb I will show him

^d Heb his

^e Gk Syr Vg Tg: Heb their