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Book of Micah

The Book of Micah is the sixth of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible.[1][a] Ostensibly, it records the sayings of Micah, whose name is Mikayahu (Hebrew: מִיכָיָ֫הוּ), meaning "Who is like Yahweh?",[3] an 8th-century BCE prophet from the village of Moresheth in Judah (Hebrew name from the opening verse: מיכה המרשתי).[4]

The book has three major divisions, chapters 1–2, 3–5 and 6–7, each introduced by the word "Hear", with a pattern of alternating announcements of doom and expressions of hope within each division.[5] Micah reproaches unjust leaders, defends the rights of the poor against the rich and powerful;[6] while looking forward to a world at peace centered on Zion under the leadership of a new Davidic monarch.[7]

While the book is relatively short, it includes lament (1:8–16; 7:8–10), theophany (1.3–4), a hymnic prayer of petition and confidence (7:14–20),[8] and the "covenant lawsuit" (6:1–8), a distinct genre in which Yahweh (God) sues Israel for breach of contract of the Mosaic covenant.[9]

Setting

Assyrian warriors armed with slings from the palace of Sennacherib, 7th century BCE

The opening verse identifies the prophet as "Micah of Moresheth" (a town in southern Judah), and states that he lived during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah,[10] roughly 750–700 BCE.[11]

This corresponds to the period when, after a long period of peace, Israel, Judah, and the other nations of the region came under increasing pressure from the aggressive and rapidly expanding Neo-Assyrian empire. Between 734 and 727 Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria conducted almost annual campaigns in the Levant, reducing the Kingdom of Israel, the Kingdom of Judah and the Philistine cities to vassalage, receiving tribute from Ammon, Moab and Edom, and absorbing Damascus (the Kingdom of Aram) into the Empire.[12] On Tiglath-Pileser's death Israel rebelled, resulting in an Assyrian counter-attack and the destruction of the capital,[broken anchor] Samaria, in 721 after a three-year siege.[11] Micah 1:2–7 draws on this event: Samaria, says the prophet, has been destroyed by God because of its crimes of idolatry, oppression of the poor, and misuse of power.[11] The Assyrian attacks on Israel (the northern kingdom) led to an influx of refugees into Judah, which would have increased social stresses, while at the same time the authorities in Jerusalem had to invest huge amounts in tribute and defense.[13]

When the Assyrians attacked Judah in 701 they did so via the Philistine coast and the Shephelah, the border region which included Micah's village of Moresheth, as well as Lachish, Judah's second largest city. This in turn forms the background to verses 1:8–16, in which Micah warns the towns of the coming disaster (Lachish is singled out for special mention, accused of the corrupt practices of both Samaria and Jerusalem). In verses 2:1–5 he denounces the appropriation of land and houses, which might simply be the greed of the wealthy and powerful, or possibly the result of the militarizing of the area in preparation for the Assyrian attack.[14]

Composition

Some, but not all, scholars accept that only chapters 1–3 contain material from the late 8th-century BCE prophet Micah.[11] According to scholars, the latest material comes from the post-Exilic period after the Temple was rebuilt in 515 BCE, so that the early 5th century BCE seems to be the period when the book was completed.[15] The first stage was the collection and arrangement of some spoken sayings of the historical Micah (the material in chapters 1–3), in which the prophet attacks those who build estates through oppression and depicts the Assyrian invasion of Judah as Yahweh's punishment on the kingdom's corrupt rulers, including a prophecy that the Temple will be destroyed.[16]

The prophecy was not fulfilled in Micah's time, but a hundred years later when Judah was facing a similar crisis with the Neo-Babylonian Empire, Micah's prophecies were reworked and expanded to reflect the new situation.[17] Still later, after Jerusalem fell to the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the book was revised and expanded further to reflect the circumstances of the late exilic and post-exilic community.[18]

Surviving early manuscripts

The oldest surviving manuscripts were made hundreds of years after the period or periods of authorship. The earliest surviving Masoretic Text versions include the Codex Cairensis (895), the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets (916), and Codex Leningradensis (1008).[19] Since 1947, the current text of the Aleppo Codex is missing Micah 1:1 to 5:1.[20]

Fragments containing parts of this book in the original Biblical Hebrew were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, including 4Q82 (25 BCE);[21][22][23] and Wadi Murabba'at Minor Prophets (75–100 CE).[22][24]

There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (4th century), Codex Alexandrinus (5th century) and Codex Marchalianus (6th century).[25] The Book of Micah is missing in the extant Codex Sinaiticus.[26] Some fragments containing parts of this book in Greek were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, that is, Naḥal Ḥever 8Ḥev1 (late 1st century BCE).[22][27]

Content

Impalement of Judeans by Assyrian soldiers (Neo-Assyrian relief)

Structure

At the broadest level, Micah can be divided into three roughly equal parts:[13]

James Limburg sees the word "Hear" in Micah 1:2, 3:1 and 6:1 as the marker for three separate sections, noting that Amos 3:1, 4:1, 5:1 and 8:4 mark similar divisions within the Book of Amos, another of the minor prophets.[5]

Within this broad three-part structure are a series of alternating oracles of judgment and promises of restoration:[29]

Verse numbering

There is a difference in verse numbering between English Bibles and Hebrew texts, with Micah 4:14 in Hebrew texts being Micah 5:1 in English Bibles, and the Hebrew 5:1 etc. being numbered 5:2 etc. in English Bibles.[30] This article generally follows the common numbering in Christian English Bible versions.

Subsections

Israeli stamp marking World Refugee Year (1960), quoting Micah 4:4: "But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid." (KJV)
Demonstrator at a George Floyd protest in Columbus, Ohio quoting Micah 6:8

Themes

In this Bible from about 1270, an initial V introduces the Old Testament book of Micah. The scene inside the letter illustrates the following text: "The word of the Lord that came to Micah the Morasthite..." The illuminator added details not mentioned in the text to his representation of the scene, showing the prophet Micah in bed while an angel, its hand raised in a gesture of speech, delivers the "word of the Lord" represented by a scroll.

Micah addresses the future of Judah/Israel after the Babylonian exile. Like Isaiah, the book has a vision of the punishment of Israel and creation of a "remnant", followed by world peace centered on Zion under the leadership of a new Davidic monarch; the people should do justice, turn to Yahweh, and await the end of their punishment. However, whereas Isaiah sees Jacob/Israel joining "the nations" under Yahweh's rule, Micah looks forward to Israel ruling over the nations. Insofar as Micah appears to draw on and rework parts of Isaiah, it seems designed at least partly to provide a counterpoint to that book.[7]

Quotations in the New Testament

In the New Testament, the Book of Matthew quotes from the Book of Micah in relation to Jesus being born in Bethlehem:

And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judæa: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.

— Matthew 2:5–6

But thou, Bethlehem 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; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

— Micah 5:2

Jesus' words in Matthew 10:36 reflect Micah's warning that families will be divided:

A man’s enemies will be those of his own household.

— Matthew 10:36

For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house.

— Micah 7:6

Although the wording is different, Jerome comments that "we should always take note when a passage is cited out of the Old Testament, whether the sense only, or the very words are given".[47]

John's Gospel has a possible allusion to the identification of the mysterious "him" that God causes to see marvels or marvelous things:

For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.

— John 5:20

According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things.

— Micah 7:15

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The Masoretic Text has a marginal note at Micah 3:12 stating that this verse is the middle verse of "the book", i.e. the book of the twelve minor prophets.[2]

References

  1. ^ Ben Zvi (2000), p. 4
  2. ^ Shepherd, Michael (2018). A Commentary on the Book of the Twelve: The Minor Prophets. Kregel Exegetical Library. Kregel Academic. p. 23. ISBN 978-0825444593. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  3. ^ Mays (1976), p. 1
  4. ^ Limburg (1988), p. 160
  5. ^ a b Limburg (1988), p. 159
  6. ^ King (1988), pp. 27–28
  7. ^ a b Sweeney (2000), pp. 341–42
  8. ^ Coogan (2009), p. 284
  9. ^ Coogan (2009), p. 265
  10. ^ Micah 1:1
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Rogerson (2003), p. 703
  12. ^ King (1988), pp. 31–33
  13. ^ a b King (1988), p. 27
  14. ^ a b c d e Rogerson (2003), p. 704
  15. ^ Mays (1976), p. 21
  16. ^ Mays (1976), p. 23
  17. ^ Mays (1976), pp. 24–25
  18. ^ Mays (1976), p. 30
  19. ^ Würthwein 1995, pp. 35–37.
  20. ^ P. W. Skehan (2003), "BIBLE (TEXTS)", New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 2 (2nd ed.), Gale, pp. 355–362
  21. ^ Ulrich 2010, p. 615.
  22. ^ a b c Dead sea scrolls - Micah
  23. ^ Fitzmyer 2008, p. 39.
  24. ^ Fitzmyer 2008, pp. 140–141.
  25. ^ Würthwein 1995, pp. 73–74.
  26. ^ Shepherd, Michael (2018). A Commentary on the Book of the Twelve: The Minor Prophets. Kregel Exegetical Library. Kregel Academic. p. 13. ISBN 978-0825444593.
  27. ^ Fitzmyer 2008, p. 127.
  28. ^ a b Cheyne, T. K. (1882), Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges on Micah 4, accessed on 7 September 2024
  29. ^ Coogan (2009)
  30. ^ Footnote a at Micah 5:1 in the New English Translation (NET Bible), accessed on 4 September 2024
  31. ^ Ben Zvi (2000), p. 13
  32. ^ Sweeney (2000), p. 343
  33. ^ Taylor, John, "The Message of Micah", The Biblical World, vol. 25, no. 3, 1905, p. 201 footnote 1 and p. 202. JSTOR website Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  34. ^ Rogerson (2003), pp. 704–05
  35. ^ a b c Williamson, H. G. M., 32. Micah, in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001), The Oxford Bible Commentary
  36. ^ a b c Rogerson (2003), p. 705
  37. ^ Rogerson (2003), pp. 705–06
  38. ^ Micah 4:9: English Standard Version
  39. ^ For example, the New Revised Standard Version at Micah 5:5
  40. ^ Sweeney (2000), p. 387
  41. ^ Sweeney (2000), p. 395
  42. ^ King (2006), pp. 1246–47
  43. ^ a b c d Rogerson (2003), p. 707
  44. ^ Jerusalem Bible (1966), footnote h at Micah 7:7
  45. ^ Kapelrud, Arvid S., “Eschatology in the Book of Micah”, Vetus Testamentum, vol. 11, no. 4, 1961, pp. 403–404. JSTOR website Retrieved 15 Mar. 2023.
  46. ^ Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Footnote f at Micah 7:18 in the New American Bible Revised Edition, accessed on 13 September 2024
  47. ^ Thomas Aquinas, ed. (1874). "Catena aurea: commentary on the four Gospels, collected out of the works of the Fathers: Volume 1, St. Matthew, Oxford: Parker".

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

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