2. The son of Mephibosheth, or Meribbaal (son of Jonathan and grandson of king Saul), and the father of several sons (1 Chron. viii, 84, 35 ; ix, 40, 41). B.C. post 1037. In 2 Sam. ix, 12, he is called Micha.
3. The first in rank of the priests of the Kohathite family of Uzziel, under the sacerdotal arrangement bv David (1 Chron. xxiii, 20). B.C. 1014. He'had a son named Shamir, and a brother Isshiah (1 Chron. xxiv, 24, 25; Auth. Vers. " Michah").
4. The son of Shimei and father of Reaia, of the de- scendants of Eeuben (1 Chron. v, 5). B.C. ante 782.
5. A prophet, apparently of the kingdom of Judah, and contemporary with Isaiah (Mic. i, 1). B.C. cir. 750. He is styled "the Morasthite," as being a native of Moresheth of Gath (i, 14, 15), so called to distinguish it from another town of the same name in the tribe of Judah (Josh, xv, 44; 2 Chron. xiv, 9, 10). Micah is thus likewise distinguished from a former prophet of the same name, called also Micaiah, mentioned in 1 Kings xxii, 8. The above place of Micah's birth " Jerome and Eusebius call Morasthi, and identify with a small village called Eleutheropolis, to the east, where formerly the prophet's tomb was shown, but which in the days of Jerome had been succeeded by a church {Epit. Pau- Ice, c. 6). As little is known of the circumstances of Micah's life as of many of the other prophets. Pseudo- Epiphanius {0pp. ii, 245) makes him, contrary to all probability, of the tribe of Ephraim ; and besides con- founding him with Micaiah the son of Imlah, who lived
MICAH
214
MICAII
more than a contiirv before, he betrays additional igno- I ranee in describing Ahab as liing of Judah. For re- I buiiing this monarcli's son and successor Jehoram for 1 his impieties, Mieah, according to the same autliority, was thrown from a precipice, and buried at IMorathi in his own country, hard by the cemetery of Enakim (^'EvaKtifi, a place which apparently exists only in the Sept.of Mic.i, 10), where his sepulchre was still to be seen. The Chronkon Puschule (p. 148 c) tells the same tale. Another ecclesiastical tradition relates that the remains of Habakkulc and Mieah were revealed in a vision to Zebcnnus, bishop of Eleutheropolis, in the reign of The- odosius the (ireat, near a i)lacc called Berathsatia, which is apparently a corruption of ]\I(irastlii (Sozomen, //. E. vii, 29 ; Nicephorus, //. E. xii. -\X). i In [.rophet's tomb was called by the inhabitants XijiJisdim < mima, which Sozomen renders nviif^ia Trioroi'" (Smith).
MICAH, Hook ok, the sixth of the minor prophets in the usual arrangement, but the third in the Sept. (after Hosea and Amos). In the following account of it we use, in part, the articles in Kitto's and Smith's Dictionaries.
I. The Name.— This, which the prophet bears in com- mon with the other persons above and below, is found with considerable variation in the Heb. and A. V. The full form is !in^2"ip, Mikayu'hu, "who is like Jeho- vah,"' which is found in 2 Chron. xiii, 2 ; xvii, 7. This is abbreviated to in^S'^T?, Mild'yihu, in Judg. xvii, 1, 4; still further to ^n^3:3, Mikd'yShu (.Jer. xxxvi, 11), rr^D"^^, Mikdydh' (1 Ivings xxii, 13) ; and finally to nsiri, Mikdh', or X2"'r), Mikd' (2 Sam. ix, 12).
II. Date. — The period during which Mieah exercised the prophetical olKce is stated, in the superscription to his prophecies, to have extended over the reigns of Jo- tham, Ahaz, and Ilezekiah, kings of Judah, giving thus a maximum limit of 59 years (B.C. 756-697), from the accession of Jotham to the death of Ilezekiah, and a minimum limit of 16 years (B.C. 742-726), from the death of Jotham to the accession of Ilezekiah. In either case he would be contemporary with Ilosea and Amos during part of their ministry' in Israel, and with Isaiah in Judah. According to rabbinical tradition, he transmitted to the proi)hets Joel, Nalunn, and llubak- kuk, and to Seraiah the priest the mysteries of the Kabbala, which he had received from Isaiah (K. David Ganz, Tsemach David), anil by Syncellus {Chronogr. p. 199 c) he is enumerated in the reign of Jotham as con- temporary with Ilosea, Joel, Isaiah, and Uded. The date of the book itself may be fixed at about B.C. 725. His prediction with impunity of the desolation of Jeru- salem (iii, 12) is expressly alluded to in Jeremiah (xxvi, 18, where the text has n^S'^p, jMicaiah), as having been uttered during the reign of Ilezekiah. The allu- sions to idolatry (vii, 13) and to Babylon (iv, 10) have induced Berthold (Ei/Jrlt/mt/. § til ) to rotVr the i>roph- ecy of ]Micah to the lime uf ilic captixily; hut Do AVette truly observes that this sup|icisiii(in is unnecessary-, as idolatry existed under Ilezekiah (2 Kings xxiii). and Babylon equally belonged to the kingdom of Assyria. Hartmann's attempt to regard the passage respecting Babylon as an interpolation (see Micha mu iibersetzt), De "Wette regards as even still more venturesome; nor had this writer the slightest authority for supposing that some only of the projihecies are iMicah's, and that the work was comjnled during the exile. The time as- signed to the prophecies by the only direct evidence which we possess agrees so well with their contents that it may fairly be accepted as correct.