Micah

A Commentary

James L. Mays

• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9780664232337
• eBook ISBN: 9781611645118
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

This much-needed commentary provides an authoritative guide to a better understanding of the often-neglected book of Micah. It gives insight into the individual sayings of Micah, to the way they were understood and used as they were gathered into the growing collection, and to their role in the final form of the document. "I am convinced, " says Dr. Mays, that Micah "is not just a collection of prophetic sayings, but is the outcome of a history of prophetic proclamations and is itself, in its final form, prophecy."

The Old Testament Library provides fresh and authoritative treatments of important aspects of Old Testament study through commentaries and general surveys. The contributors are scholars of international standing.

II

COMMENTARY

1. THE TITLE: 1.1

1 The word of YHWH which came to Micah the Moreshite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

The title informs the reader that the book which it introduces contains YHWH’s word, by whom the word was spoken, when, and whom it concerned. The title is composed of three elements which appear in various arrangements in the titles of other prophetic books: (a) ‘the word of YHWH which came to …’ (Hosea; Joel, Zephaniah, Malachi, see also Jeremiah, Jonah, Haggai, Zechariah), (b) ‘in the days of …’ (Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, Zephaniah, see Jer. 1.2f.), (c) ‘concerning …’ (Isa. 1.1; 2.1; Amos). The common presence of these elements in superscriptions shows that they belong to the genre of the book, not the prophets’ words, and are contributions of those who preserved and transmitted the collections.^a

The first element indicates what the tradents regarded as the most important fact about the collection. The primary title is ‘the word of YHWH’; all else in the verse is subordinate to that identification. is God’s word which the book contains and provides. The formula, the word of YHWH came to …’ appears first in narratives about prophets from the time of the early monarchy which must have been cultivated and passed on by prophetic groups (I Sam. 15.10; II Sam. 7.4; 24.11; I Kings 12.22; 13.20; 17.2, 8; etc.). Though it was not used by the earlier canonical prophets in their sayings, it reappears in titles like this one.^b The formula is the expression of a specific theology of the word. The word occurs as event; it comes, happens. It transcends the existence and experience of its spokesman, and has an independent self-contained reality and a power to actualize itself. Yet it is not a generality or a supra-historical entity. It takes form through a particular individual at specific times and for a special purpose. The title claims that the entire book is the result of the event of the word of YHWH.

The man to whom the word came was Micah (mīkāh); he is spoken of elsewhere only in Jer. 26.18 (where the k^etīb is mīkāyāh). Both times he is identified by the epithet ‘the Moreshite’; he was known by the town from which he came. The town Moreshah is likely the Moresheth of Gath mentioned in 1.14, some twenty-five miles south-west of Jerusalem (see the comment on 1.14, and the Introduction, pp. 15f.).

It is possible that element (a) was set at the beginning of the earliest collection of Micah’s sayings as a double signature to identify the tradition as both YHWH’s word and Micah’s words. The other two elements stem from the circles of the late seventh century into whose hands the collection came. The list of the kings of Judah during whose reigns Micah is said to have prophesied is identical with the list used to date Hosea and Isaiah (where Uzziah is added because of Isa. 6.1). This dating allows a maximum span of some forty-six years for Micah’s career. He is also said to have prophesied concerning Samaria as well as Jerusalem. This rather long period and the limiting designation of the subject of his prophecy do not correspond to the character of the sayings which can be attributed to Micah with any degree of certainty. The one oracle against Samaria in the book (1.6f.) appears to have been composed and set in its place as part of the first major redaction of the Micah tradition toward the end of the seventh century when his prophecy was being applied to the circumstances leading up to the fall of Jerusalem. Both the dating and the description of the subject of his prophecy are features of the ‘Samaria-Jerusalem programme’ conceived by the tradents to portray YHWH’s judgment on Israel and Judah as one unified action of God (see the introduction to 1.2–16 below). The dating creates an amply long context for the Samaria oracle before 722 BC ‘Concerning Samaria and Jerusalem’ corresponds to the first and last oracles of judgment in the present arrangement of chs. 1–3 (1.6f.; 3.9–12).

2. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR THE CAPITAL CITIES: 1.2–16

In its final form, 1.2–16 is a complex of sayings designed to introduce chs. 1–5 of the book of Micah. The complex as a whole has a purpose within the larger literary context which can be obscured if it is interpreted only by an examination of its components. The section should be read both as a resultant unity as well as a collection of smaller units. (On the plan of the book as a whole and the role of 1.2–16, see the Introduction, pp. 2ff.)

The section unfolds in four movements discernible by style and content: v. 2, a summons to all the peoples of earth to hear YHWH’s witness against them; vv. 3–5, the proclamation of the coming of YHWH in cataclysmic majesty to deal with the sin of Jacob-Israel which lies in the cities of Samaria and Jerusalem; vv. 6–8, the announcement of Samaria’s destruction; vv. 9–16, a lament describing a disaster which moves across Judah, engulfing many of its towns and reaching to the gate of Jerusalem. The thematic continuity of vv. 3–16 is apparent. YHWH comes to punish Samaria and Jerusalem; the punishment of Samaria is described; punishing disaster stands at the gate of Jerusalem. The imminent threatening but uncompleted work of YHWH on Jerusalem opens on the next two chapters; the completed punishment is described in 3.9–12. So vv. 3–16 composes the first and organizing movement of an arrangement which reaches its first climax at the end of ch. 3. It reflects the Samaria-Jerusalem conception of Micah’s prophecy expressed in the title (1.1). Verse 2, on the other hand, points forward to chs. 4–5. The summons is addressed to all the peoples of earth to hear a witness against them. It is in chs. 4–5 that a concern with peoples and nations reappears. There they furnish the context in which YHWH establishes his reign on earth through the salvation of Jerusalem and rescue of his people. So the function of v. 2 is to set the entire course of YHWH’s way with Jerusalem in a universal setting as a message to all the peoples of earth.

Beyond this overall pattern and purpose, 1.2–16 is held together by a number of integrating links. Verse 3 is connected to v. 2 by the conjunction ‘for’, making YHWH’s coming the occasion for the summons to all peoples. ‘All this’ in v. 4 is resumed by ‘for this’ in v. 8, relating vv. 8–16 back to v. 5 across the intervening Samaria saying. Verse 12b echoes a theme of the theophany from v. 3 and applies it to Jerusalem. Verse 13b employs the crime/sin vocabulary of v. 5a. The most important of unifying features is the shift which occurs in the names in v. 5. ‘Jacob’ is understood to mean the country of which Samaria is the capital. ‘House of Israel’ is changed to ‘Judah’ of which Jerusalem is capital. This transition in v. 5 is the seam which organizes and holds the chapter together.

The pattern of relations between ch. 1 and the rest of the book suggests by itself that this opening complex is the achievement of those who arranged and redacted the book. But conclusions about the literary analysis of the materials and the origin of its components have varied, with differences about the number and limits of the sayings included, their origin and historical setting, and redaction.^a The text is divided for comment into the sections suggested by the present arrangement. At one point this division conflicts with a widely held conclusion that v. 9 is the end of one saying and v. 10 is the beginning of another. But the clear intention of v. 5 is to anticipate sayings which deal with both Samaria and Judah-Jerusalem, and there can be little doubt that vv. 8f. broach the latter theme.

The formation of ch. 1 is a work of theological synthesis of considerable magnitude. It takes prophecies which deal with two separate crucial events in the history of Israel and Judah and makes them part of one continuous drama whose inner meaning is revealed in the introductory proclamation of a theophany. The fall of Samaria to the Assyrians in 722/21 BC and Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah in 701 BC are merged into one panorama of judgment which takes place in the course of YHWH’s intervention because of their sin. That panorama furnishes the setting in which the sayings in ch. 2 and 3 are to be heard and reaches its climax in the prophecy of Jerusalem’s destruction (3.9–12). Verse 2 presents the entire drama as a witness of the Lord, YHWH, against the nations, for it manifests to them the power by which he will fulfil in their midst the unfinished work of establishing his reign (ch. 4–5). The redaction turns individual prophecies dealing with particular acts of YHWH into a larger prophecy in another key which speaks of the whole strategy of the God who comes.

3. LET THE WORLD HEAR THE WITNESS OF THE LORD: 1.2

2 Hear, O peoples, every one;

listen, O earth, and all who are in it;

that Lord^a YHWH may be a witness against you,

the Lord from his holy palace.

At the very beginning of the book all the peoples of earth are summoned to hear YHWH witness against them from his holy palace. This opening cry sets the scene and creates the context in which the following prophecy is to be understood. Like the summons which introduces the second part of the book (6.1f.), this call convenes a judicial process. 6.1f. announces YHWH’s case against his people, but here it is the whole population of the earth that is drawn into judgment. YHWH sits as King of the earth in his holy palace to hold court, and the affairs he adjudicates concern everyone. He bears the title ‘Lord’ (’^adōnāy), the one who is superior and to whom everyone else is servant. ‘Earth, and all who are in it’, a favourite phrase of hymnic language (Deut. 33.16; Isa. 34.1; Pss. 24.1; 50.12; 89.12), is used in praise of YHWH as creator and owner of the earth. He officiates in ‘his holy palace’ (hēkāl qādōš), the royal residence sanctified by his presence. In Ps. 11.4 the phrase designates the heavenly palace where YHWH sits in judgment over men on earth. Elsewhere it is used of the Jerusalem temple, usually as the centre toward which Israel’s prayer and devotion is directed (Pss. 5.8; 65.5; 138.2; Jonah 2.5, 8; cf. Ps. 79.11). The latter is its reference here (cf. 4.1–4). YHWH’s role as witness shows that the convocation is judicial in character. Where YHWH is ‘witness against’, he acts both as giver of evidence and accuser (Jer. 29.33; Mai. 3.5; cf. also Ps. 50.7; I Sam. 12.5). That the Lord of all the earth is also Judge goes without saying.

Verse 2 was inserted between the title and the following theophany announcement by the redactor whose concern with people and nations as a feature of Israel’s future under YHWH is so evident in chs. 4–5. Nothing more is heard of the universal audience addressed here until the eschatological sayings of chs. 4–5 in which ‘peoples/nations’ are a recurrent theme (4.1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13; 5.7f., 15; also in 7.16 and 6.16 as emended). A summons of two parallel cola calling upon an audience to hear a saying, announcement, or discourse is common in prophetic, didactic, and liturgical literature. But a summons to all peoples based on the way YHWH’s reign will affect them is not present in prophetic literature before Jer. 31.10 and Isa. 34.1 (cf. Ps. 49.1). As noted above, much of the vocabulary of vd. 2 is psalmic, pointing to a liturgical setting and function for its composition. The composer thinks of the entire sequence of sayings in chs. 1–5 as YHWH’s witness against the peoples of earth. There it is revealed how YHWH judges his own people and will restore them in a process of judging the nations—all as the manifestation of his rule as Lord of the earth. 4....

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• I. Introduction
• II. Commentary