Micah: justice, mercy, humility
Micah, a country prophet of Judah in Isaiah's day, rebukes the sins of Samaria and Jerusalem, and promises a ruler from Bethlehem and a God who casts our sins into the depths of the sea.
About the book
Micah's name means ‘Who is like the LORD?’, and the book closes on that very question: "Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity" (Micah 7:18). He came from Moresheth (Micah 1:14), a small town in the lowlands south-west of Jerusalem, and the word of the LORD came to him "in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah" (Micah 1:1), about 735–700 BC. He was a contemporary of Isaiah in Jerusalem. The map under the Jesus tab places the book in the divided monarchy (930–586 BC). Micah foretold that Samaria would become "a heap of rubble" (Micah 1:6); the northern kingdom fell to Assyria in 722.
His words were remembered a century later. When Jeremiah faced death for saying the temple would fall, elders recalled that "Micah the Moreshite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah" (Jeremiah 26:18) and that the king, far from killing him, sought the LORD. Jews and Christians have received the book as the word that came to Micah. Many scholars agree for chapters 1–3, while assigning parts of the hopeful words in chapters 4–5 and 7 to the exile or after: the promise, "You will go to Babylon; there you will be rescued" (Micah 4:10), sounds to them like a later time. Others answer that Isaiah too foretold exile to Babylon in Hezekiah's day (Isaiah 39:6), and that the prophets always joined judgement and hope.
How it unfolds
Micah falls into three cycles, each opening with ‘Hear’ (Micah 1:2, 3:1, 6:1) and moving from judgement to hope.
| Chapters | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | Judgement on Samaria and Jerusalem; those who seize fields; the remnant gathered |
| 3–5 | Corrupt leaders and Zion ploughed; Zion in the last days; the ruler from Bethlehem |
| 6–7 | The LORD's case against his people; what he requires; the God who pardons |
Key passages
Micah condemns the powerful who "covet fields and seize them" (Micah 2:2), and leaders, priests and prophets who work for money and still say, "Is not the LORD among us?" (Micah 3:11). So Zion will be ploughed like a field. But beyond the judgement lies the promise of the last days:
And many nations will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.” … Then they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Micah 4:2-3
Isaiah 2:2-4 has nearly the same words. The people ask what they must bring to God: thousands of rams? their firstborn (Micah 6:6-7)? The prophet answers:
He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8
The mercy here is chesed, the steadfast covenant love that Hosea spoke of. The book ends in praise:
Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance — who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion? He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea.
Micah 7:18-19
The English pastor Matthew Henry comments: "He casts their sins into the sea; not near the shore-side, where they may appear again, but into the depth of the sea, never to rise again" Matthew Henry.
The book and Christ
When the Magi came looking for the one born king of the Jews, Herod asked where the Christ was to be born, and the chief priests and scribes answered from Micah, "In Bethlehem in Judea" (Matthew 2:5):
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel— One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity.
Micah 5:2
From David's little town comes David's son (John 7:42). Matthew adds that this ruler "will be the shepherd of My people Israel" (Matthew 2:6), and Micah says that "He will stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of the LORD" (Micah 5:4). Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd" (John 10:11). Some interpreters take ‘of old’ as the ancient roots of David's line, but the church has long seen in this ruler "whose origins are of old" the eternal Son. John Wesley, the eighteenth-century leader of the Methodist revival, comments on his going forth: "Whose generation, as he is the Son of God, equal with his father, is eternal" Wesley.
The God who casts all our sins into the sea forgives us through Christ, who died for our sins. In him God has promised, "I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more" (Hebrews 8:12).
Reading it
Seven chapters make one or two sittings: chapters 1–5 one day and 6–7 the next. Mark where each cycle opens with ‘Hear’, and watch what hope follows each word of judgement. Read alongside it Isaiah 2, from the same years, and Jeremiah 26, where Micah is remembered. Next comes Nahum.
Practice
- Practice 1 of 6
When did Micah prophesy?
- Practice 2 of 6
How is Micah remembered in Jeremiah 26:18?
- Practice 3 of 6
In Micah 6:8, what does the LORD require?
- Practice 4 of 6
In Matthew 2, where did the chief priests and scribes say, from Micah 5:2, that the Christ would be born?
- Practice 5 of 6
What does Micah 7:19 say God does with our sins?
- Practice 6 of 6
What is true of the authorship and date of Micah?
Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.
Related topics
Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds and classic commentary. Each book's author and date are given as the church has received them, and scholars who see them otherwise are presented fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.