The Word of YHWH to Micah

This is YHWH’s message that came to Micah of Moresheth during the time of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem (Micah 1:1).

Amos of Tekoa had already completed his commission to prophesy to Israel; Hosea ben Beeri was persevering to the same end. YHWH had called Isaiah ben Amoz to prophesy to Judah and would speak often directly to its kings. Around this same time, the Word of YHWH would come to Micah of Moresheth.

The Book of Micah can be found among the twelve “minor” prophets in the Hebrew Bible; he is sixth in English Bibles, but third in the Greek Septuagint, befitting his historical placement. We are not told anything of Micah’s family or origin. His name, “Micah” (possibly originally spelled “Micaiah,” as in the written text of Jeremiah 26:18) means “who is like God?,” which is best understood as a way of praising God more than asking some kind of question about Him. Otherwise, all we are told about him is his home, “Moresheth,” which seems to be the same place which he identified as Moresheth-Gath, between Lachish and Achzib in the Judean Shephelah, or southern hill region (Micah 1:1, 1:14). Moresheth has been tentatively identified with modern Tell ej-Judeideh/Tell Goded, not far from where the hill country of Judah met the coastal plains dominated by the Philistines. Moresheth was associated with Gath as either a previous possession of Gath overtaken by David in 1 Chronicles 18:1 or as still under the influence of Gath even in the days of Micah. Tekoa, home of Amos, was about seventeen miles to the east; and yet both of these prophets lived at the southern periphery of Judah but were called to prophesy to the people (cf. Amos 1:1). As Amos was an outsider in Bethel, so Micah would have been an outsider in Jerusalem.

The Word of YHWH came to Micah of Moresheth during the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah kings of Judah, and the messages concerned Samaria and Jerusalem (Micah 1:1). Altogether, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah reigned over Judah from approximately 740 until 687 BCE. None of Micah’s prophecies were presented with specific dates or circumstances. Micah 1:2-9 represents the only message concerning Samaria, which we presume dates sometime before 721 BCE; Micah 1:10-16 sounds suspiciously like the invasion path of Sennacherib king of Assyria from the coastal plain eventually leading to Jerusalem in 701 BCE, but could have been prophesied at any point before then. From Jeremiah 26:18 we learn Micah’s message in Micah 3:12 was prophesied “in the days of Hezekiah”; therefore, likely all of Micah 3:1-12 at least can be dated to some time during the reign of Hezekiah, ca. 727-687 BCE.

The Word of YHWH came to Micah of Moresheth during truly transformative times for Israel and Judah, and generally not for the better. Granted, when the Word of YHWH would have first come to Micah in the days of Jotham king of Judah (ca. 750-732 BCE), the signs of some upcoming changes had started to appear. To the south, the generally weak and fractious Libyan pharaohs of Egypt’s Twenty-Second and Twenty-Third Dynasties began to be attacked, and defeated, by the kings of Kush who would begin ruling as Egypt’s Twenty-Fifth Dynasty. At almost the exact same time, Tiglath-pileser III took over the throne of Assyria after a series of weak kings had ruled for the previous forty years. Nevertheless, on the whole, everything continued on in the days of Jotham king of Judah like they had for his ancestors since Rehoboam two hundred years earlier. If anything, things remained quite well for Israel and Judah. Despite dynastic transitions, Israel maintained its territorial integrity at this time, and the Arameans in Damascus were more allies than opponents. Jotham was able to reassert hegemony over the Ammonites according to 2 Chronicles 27:5, even though he would suffer the attacks of the combined forces of Israel and Aram toward the end of his days (2 Kings 15:37). Yet this kind of alliance and attack had gone on for the better part of two hundred years; Assyria had waxed and waned in its ability to assert its power beyond its immediate borders throughout this time as well; Egypt had not been a major player on the international scene in general for four hundred years, and had not attacked much outside its borders in about two hundred years.

In these early days, therefore, the Judahites would have had as much ability to conceive and imagine of the apocalyptic disaster which Micah of Moresheth would prophesy as the Israelites to their north did regarding the messages from Amos and Hosea. Everything was continuing as it always had. Why should they expect anything to be that terribly different than what had come before?

Judah would soon experience disaster: Jotham died, and Ahaz his son and all Judah would suffer greatly because of the continuing conflict with the Arameans and Israelites we now deem the Syro-Ephraimite War (ca. 735-732). According to 2 Chronicles 28:1-15, Ahaz would suffer a terrible defeat and lose a vast number of soldiers against Aram and Israel; the Edomites and Philistines were encouraged to make incursions against Judah as a result (2 Chronicles 28:17-18). The Kings and Chronicles authors all condemn Ahaz as less than faithful to YHWH, following in the ways of the kings of Israel, and serving the gods of the nations, and understood these misfortunes as the result of these behaviors (e.g. 2 Chronicles 28:19).

In the midst of all these difficulties, the Arameans and Israelites began to besiege Jerusalem, but could not overtake it (Isaiah 7:1). This was the point at which Ahaz would make the decision very much against Isaiah’s prophetic message and warning and which would prove influential, and disastrous, for Aram, Israel, and his own kingdom: he sent a large gift to Tiglath-pileser III king of Assyria and submitted to him as a vassal (2 Kings 16:1-8, 2 Chronicles 28:16; cf. Isaiah 7:1-25).

Ahaz’s gambit may have seemed successful at the beginning: Tiglath-pileser III had not really needed the encouragement to turn his gaze to the southwest, and by 732 BCE Tiglath-pileser had fully conquered all of the Aramean kingdom based in Damascus, eliminating it as a going concern, and conquered most of the Kingdom of Israel save for a rump state in Ephraim surrounding Samaria, and began exiling its residents (2 Kings 15:29, 16:9). Hoshea ben Elah, left as king over Ephraim, would plan to rebel against the Assyrians under Shalmaneser V; the latter and Sargon II would besiege Samaria and take the city in 721 BCE, eliminating the Kingdom of Israel as a going concern (2 Kings 17:1-6).

Throughout all of this, the Kingdom of Judah would persevere as a vassal of Assyria. Yet Hezekiah ben Ahaz, king of Judah, for all the good he did in restoring the Temple and dedication to serving YHWH, rebelled against the Assyrians and withheld tribute. In response, in 701 BCE, Sennacherib king of Assyria laid waste to Judah. Major cities like Lachish and Azekah were besieged, captured, and destroyed; Micah’s own hometown of Moresheth was likely not spared. Jerusalem was besieged and was only preserved by the miraculous intervention of YHWH (2 Kings 18:13-19:37, Isaiah 36:1-37:38). The Kingdom of Judah would persevere, but only by returning to Assyrian vassalage for another seventy-five years, and would probably have taken that long, if not longer, to begin to recover from the devastation they endured (cf. Isaiah 1:1-10).

This was the world in which the Word of YHWH came to Micah of Moresheth regarding Samaria and Jerusalem. He prophesied regarding the devastation, suffering, and disaster. Perhaps the Israelites and Judahites would have maintained little framework or imagination to hear and understand his words at the beginning; by the end, the horror would have been all too manifest and obvious.

Explicit testimony was preserved regarding the esteem with which at least some later Judahites held Micah of Moresheth. In 608 BCE, when the officials and the mob wanted to have Jeremiah executed for prophesying against the Temple and the people, some of the elders of Judah resisted them, appealing to Micah of Moresheth: Micah had denounced Zion and Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah did not have him killed but repented and YHWH relented for a time (Jeremiah 26:1, 16-19; cf. Micah 3:12). Thus, over a century after Micah had prophesied, his messages were still remembered, his standing as a prophet had been legitimated, and Judahites were expected to remember them and how everything had turned out.

Micah of Moresheth therefore lived and prophesied during tumultuous, epoch-changing times. The Kingdom of Judah might have endured, but the neighborhood was irrevocably changed in his lifetime. Much of the Word of YHWH through Micah found its fulfillment in the Assyrian devastation of Israel and Judah in 722 and 701 BCE; some of it would find its fulfillment when Babylon would destroy Judah in 586; and some of what Micah would prophesy would find its fulfillment in Jesus the Christ and the Kingdom He would inaugurate. May we come to a better understanding of the Word of YHWH through Micah of Moresheth, entrust ourselves to God, and pursue life and truth in Him!

Ethan R. Longhenry