its infliction; he repents of the sins which have occasioned this punishment, looks patiently to God, and puts his sole trnst in him, and, in answer to his prayers, is rewarded by the promise of deliverance. The book concludes with a triumphal song, celebrating the victory which God will achieve, and praising the mercy and faithfulness which he always has shown to his. people (eh. vi., vii.). Such is a general sketch of the contents of this book. We may note, besides, that in it are contained many special predictions ; viz. the destruction of Samaria by Shalmaneser and his successor Sargon ( eh. i. 6> 7); the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib (eh. i. 9-16); the overthrow of Jerusalem and the temple (eh. iii. 12; vii. 13); the deportation. to Babylon (eh. iv. 10); the .return from exile; the peace and happiness- under a theocratic government, and the spiritual supremacy of Israel (eh. iv. 1-8, 13; vii. l l, 14-17); the Ruler born at Bethlehem, of the family of David ( eh. iv. 8; v. 2) ; and, as it seems, the destruction of Nineveh and Babylon (eh. v. 5, 6; vii. 8, 10). To Isaiah and Micah belong the- two clearest and most unmistakable prophecies of the Messiah. Isaiah describes his birth of the Virgin ; Micah pointed out the place of his- birth so plainly that when the Wise Men came inquiring where the King of the Jews was born, the answer was given to Herod without hesitation,. "In Bethlehem of Jndma; for thus it is written by the prophet" (Matt. ii. 5). Further, Micah declares that the time of Messiah shall be one of profound peace (eh. iv. 1-7), using the same words as Isaiah (ii. 2, etc.). He intimates that the glory of Messiah shall be won by suffering (eh. iv. 8-13) ; he speaks of his work and his power ( eh. v. 1-3); and be- depicts the kingdom of Messiah in its exterior and interior organization (eh. v. 4, 8, etc.).
§ II. AUTHOR•. The name Micah (MLxafus: Mnxatas, Sin.; Michaeas or Micha, Vulgate), a shortened form of Michaia (Jer. xxvi. 18), and in its original shape Michajahu, is not uncommon in the Old Testament (Judg. xvii. 1; 2 Chron. xiii. 2; xvii. 7; Jer. xxxvi, 11, etc.); but none of the other persons so called are of much note in the sacred story save Micaiah the son of Imla.h, who- prophesied so boldly in the days of Ahab (1 Kings xxii.). It is probably to distinguish him from this last.named personage that the minor prophet is termed " Micah the Morasthite," i.e. a native of Moresheth-Gath. The LXX., indeed, in eh. i. 1, treat the appellation as a patronymic, TOY Tov MwpautJE{ (MwpatJE{, Alex.); but in Jer. xxxiii. 18 (xxvi. 18, Hebrew) they give MLxa{as o MwpatJfr11s: and there is no doubt that the latter rendering is correct. Moresheth, elsewhere (Josh. xv. 44; 2 Chron. xi. 8), as some say, called Mareshah, was noticed by St. Jerome as a small village near Eleutheropolis. It is now known as Mer' ash, a. village on a tel a.bout a mile south-east of Beit-Jibrin, which Dr. Thomson (' Land and the Book,' pp~ 210, 214, etc.), after Robinson, identifies with Eleutheropolis, and considers INTRODUCTION TO
with great plausibility, to be the site of the more ancient Gath. 11 Micah refers to Moresheth as though it was a. suburb of Gath (eh. i. 10, 14). B;y coupling the two names together, he wrote Moresheth-Gath, probably in order to fix the place of the less-known suburb by the name of the main city." The name Micah signifies, " Who is like Jehovah? 11 We are reminded by it of the challenge in Moses' song (Exod. xv. 11), u Who is like unto thee, 0 Lord, among the gods P who is like thee P II and it is doubtless with reference to his own name that the prophet introduces the announce- ment of God's great mercy with the words, "Who is a. God like unto thee?" (eh. rii. 18). The name of Micah's father is not given, so that he was probably of mean origin, most likely a peasant, 11,9 Amos; and no events of his life are recorded. Whatever can be known about him must be gathered from his own writings; and this is very little. He was a. Judrean, and prophesied at Jerusalem. This latter fact we infer not only from the mention of the kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, under whom he is said to have exercised his ministry, but from the circumstance that he condemns chiefly the corruptions of the city, and makes Zion the central point of his prophecies, as it was the main seat of the evils against which he contended. lie suffered great opposition at the hands of the false prophets (eh. ii. 6), who were now beginning to exert that disastrous Lnfinence which culminated in the time of Jeremiah. Disobedience to God's enactments had always been common, but organized hostility to God's prophets had not hitherto been the normal state of things. Micah was destined to exercise his powers under obloquy and contradiction. He ~eems, however, to ha-re gone to the grave in peace, before the fall of Samaria, in the early part of Hezekiah's reign. Bis birthplace was, accord- .ng to Jerome (Ep. 86, 'Ad Eustoch.'), also the place of his burial, on the ;ite of which, in Christian times, a. church was built. Sozomen (' Hist. 8:ccles.,' vii. 28) relates that his remains and those of Habakkuk were lis::mvered, in the reign of Theodosius, at a. place called Berathsatia. :probably the same as Morasthi), ten stadia from Cila, his tomb being :ailed by the ignorant natives, in their own dialect, Nephsameemana, which 1e interprets p.V7Jp.a. "ll'UTTov, " monnmentum fidele." §ill.DATE. The superscription of our book states that Micah prophesied II in the day& ,f Jotham, .A.haz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah." Modern critics see -eason to doubt whether this title, as well as the similar ones in Hosea. and :saiah (which, however, contain the name of Uzziah), are genuine. They leem them to be later additions introduced by an unknown editor. In the iresent case the superscription is confirmed by the contents of the book, rotham came to the throne in B.c. 757; Hezekiah died in 697; and thus lhe greatest limit attributed to his ministry would be sixty years; while the Lnterval from the last year of Jotham to the first of Hezekiah, B.O. 742-726, •llows a period of sixteen years as the minimum duration of his prophetical THE BOOK OF MICAH.