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delivers this judgment through
the foreign, Assyrian oppressor.
In Micah’s prophecy, God promises
to turn Samaria into rubble: “I will
pour her stones into the valley and
lay bare her foundations” (1:6). This
reference to the brutal destruction
of the Northern Kingdom shows
what could also happen to Judah:
society itself is broken, so judgment
will come from an outside source.
The sins of Judah are myriad:
they include idolatry; the rich
dispossessing the poor of land and
houses; cheating by merchants
and traders; judges who take
bribes; and thuggery. Religious
leaders are as venal as the rest,
with priests teaching “for a price”
and so-called prophets telling
fortunes for money.Other prophetsTHE PROPHET MICAH
Battle scenes depicted on a relief in
King Sennacherib’s palace in Nineveh,
in present-day northern Iraq, show the
conquest of the Judean city of Lachish
by the Assyrian Army in 701 bce.in Judah try to silence Micah,
convinced that his message of
doom is exaggerated. They ask,
“Is not the Lord among us?” (3:11)
and give bland, empty assurances
that no disaster would befall the
nation. Micah, however, is adamant.
Through its sins, the nation is
treating God as an enemy. Judah
could not expect Him to continue
to give His protection.Repentance and mercy
By Micah’s final chapter, Judah
is depicted as a dystopia: a
society in which “the powerful
dictate what they desire” (7:3).
People cannot trust their neighbors
or friends, even spouses have to be
careful what they say to each other,
and family members turn on each
other and become enemies.
Yet judgment alternates with
mercy, or the possibility of it,
arrived at through repentance.
God asks His people to explain
themselves: “What have I donevulnerable have no redress. Crying
out in God’s name, the prophet
compares his nation’s rulers to
cannibals “who eat my people’s
flesh, strip off their skin, and break
their bones in pieces” (3:3).Nation of sin
God’s feelings toward the sinful
people of Judah are expressed in an
alarming vision at the start of the
Book of Micah, in which, enraged,
He comes “from his dwelling-place”
treading the “heights of the earth”;
this causes mountains to melt and
valleys to split asunder (1:3).
Micah warns that the Israelites’
sins have mounted to the point
where God can no longer ignore
them. Divine judgment has
become necessary, and GodI am filled with power,
with the Spirit of the
Lord, and with justice
and might, to declare to
Jacob his transgression,
to Israel his sin.
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to you? How have I burdened you?”
(6:3). He reminds them how He
brought them out of Egypt and
into the Promised Land.
The people do not know how to
respond. Should they come before
the Lord with extravagant ritual
sacrifices: burnt offerings, calves a
year old, thousands of rams, whole
rivers of olive oil? They even go as
far as to suggest child sacrifice
as a means of regaining God’s
favor. Nothing could be farther
from God’s mind, however. “He hasshowed you, O man, what is good,”
Micah announces. The answer
is simple: to “act justly and to love
mercy and to walk humbly with
your God” (Micah 6:8). Sincere
internal repentance reaches God,
not empty external displays.Scholarly interpretation
The Book of Micah is not confined
to the words of the prophet alone.
For the ancient Israelites, prophecy
was for all time. The words of a
prophet would be reflected upon,
edited, reinterpreted, and added to
over generations in the light of time
and unfolding circumstances. Key
later events that affected the text of
Micah were the fall of Jerusalem to
the Babylonians in 587–586 bce, the
Jews’ subsequent exile in Babylon,
and their return from exile 50 years
after the fall of the capital. It is thus
impossible to fully disentangle
Micah’s original prophecies from
later editing and additions.
Generally, however, it seems
that the messages of doom are
Micah’s. Many, but not all, of the
messages of hope were added later.
The experience of divine mercy in
the return from exile did not detract
from the prophet’s original sternWISDOM AND PROPHETS
message, but provided it with
a setting. Judgment leading to a
change of heart and repentance
came to be seen as evidence of
God’s love for His people. The final
verses of Micah, almost certainly a
later addition, show this: “You will
again have compassion on us; you
will tread our sins underfoot and
hurl all our iniquities into the ...
sea. You will be faithful to Jacob,
and show love to Abraham, as you
pledged on oath to our ancestors
in days long ago” (7:19–20). ■The Bethlehem
prophecyMicah prophesies that the Messiah
will be born in Bethlehem. But
after Jesus’s birth, wise men, or
magi, arrive in Jerusalem from
the east asking for “the one who
has been born king of the Jews.”
They have seen his star and come
to worship him. Puzzled, Jewish
priests and scholars inform them
that, according to prophecy,
Israel’s expected savior will
be born in Bethlehem.
The magi head to Bethlehem,
where they find the baby Jesus
and his parents. While it may have
been elaborated after Micah’s
time (during the Babylonian exileor later), the prophecy was
part of a growing expectation
among the Jews that a new
ruler would emerge to restore
the nation’s greatness. In the
Micah prophecy, he would be
a true shepherd under whom
Israel would live peacefully.
Bethlehem was significant.
It was King David’s birthplace,
suggesting a new ruler from the
same royal line, and it was small
and rural. For Micah and the
tradition he represented, that
was important. Like David, the
new ruler would be from the
fringes, not the center of society.Who is a God like you,
who pardons sin and
forgives the transgression
of the remnant of his
inheritance? You do not
stay angry for ever but
delight to show mercy.
Micah 7:18Your rich people are violent;
your inhabitants are
liars and their tongues
speak deceitfully.
Therefore, I have begun
to destroy you, to ruin
you because of your sins.
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