When was Micah written?

Some rationalist commentators for objects of their own are disposed to regard Micah as a very late prophet; but there need be no scruple in rejecting their theories. The prophet himself says it was "in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah." There is not a tittle of evidence against the genuineness of these words, which assert that he was an early prophet. But rationalists have always at hand a summary reason for any conclusion to which their will impels them: another writer, or even so many more as each difficulty can be conceived to call for! For who at bottom is so credulous as the rationalist? It could easily be shown that the wonders which their system obliges them to receive are in their way less reasonable and worthy than the testimony to which faith bows implicitly: but then they are wonders of imposture and bad faith. Men can believe anything that lowers the credit of a prophecy, pretending withal that they honour the writer and in no way question his good faith or holiness. What a singular notion theirs must be of truth and holiness! If a writer assuming to be a man of God pretended to prophesy at a time when he was not born, and gave out as prophecy that which was only written after the fact, is he not a cheat and his writing an imposture?

Micah lived and worked under the kings Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah around 750 - 700 BC. He therefore was a contemporary of Isaiah, Hosea and Amos. During this time the Assyrians attacked the northern kingdom, which was defeated in 722 BC and was brought into Assyrian captivity (see Micah 1 and 5:5ff). In the land itself Micah was troubled with problems such as formal worship without true fear of God, idolatry and oppression of the people by the leadership.

Verse 1. This introduction tells us two things. In the first place, we learn that this book contains the word of the Lord that came to Micah, the Morasthite; in the second place, we are told when Micah exercised his office. As stated in the introduction, he was contemporary with Isaiah, probably for about twenty-nine years. Criticism has attacked the authorship of this book also. Since criticism began, with Ewald, to question the unity of this little book, it has raged with increasing violence, until Professor Cheyne, improving on Robertson Smith in the Encyclopedia Britannica, concludes: "In no part of chapters 4-7 can we venture to detect the hand of Micah." There is no need to answer such statements. The unity of the book of Micah is fully demonstrated by the message it contains. If chapters 4-7 were not written by Micah, will the critics give us light on who the author is?

When the prophet Jeremiah was in danger of being put to death for his faithful testimony, certain of the elders rose up and said, "Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, King of Judah; and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest" (Jer. 26:18). This is the testimony of the book of Jeremiah to Micah, who prophesied under the reign of Hezekiah, as well as Jotham and Ahaz. The first verse of the book of Micah gives us this information. While Jonah was a Galilean, Micah was a Judean. He came from Moresheth-Gath, which distinguishes him from another prophet of the same name, Micah the son of Imlah. (See 1 Kings 22:8; Micaiah is the same as Micah.) The name Micah means "who is like the LORD?"

Obadiah seems to have his date the least defined by internal marks. What has been employed to prove a late date is invalid, from forgetting that the prophetic vision presents things future as already seen. For present time with a prophet is when a prophecy is accomplished, not when it is given. I believe he was early, not late. Obadiah naturally brings in Jonah, who may have been placed exceptionally as already referred to. Jonah is usually set earlier, but there is a good deal tending to show that his visit to Nineveh was under the reign of Pul (=Vul-lush or Iva-lush of the Assyrian monuments), which would reduce the date by more than a half a century, and place Jonah regularly in the order of time among the prophetic books. Then he has such a very peculiar place of witness that it would not at all have suited this glorious constellation of twelve stars if he had been put at their beginning; it would have seemed to give prominence to what was by the way, so to speak. Hence it appears to me that Jonah is ranged, if not chronologically, at least with moral beauty, exactly in the proper place. Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah; but the less yields to the greater. And so they are classed in the Bible. Nahum, with Nineveh as the object of judgment, naturally precedes Habakkuk, who looks at the Chaldee; and Zephaniah is the last of those lesser lights before the captivity of Babylon.

MICAH prophesied during the period of Isaiah. He treats of the invasion of the Assyrian and his threats in order to present in a special manner the judgment of Judea, but at the same time Jehovah's blessing in Christ.

MICAH prophesied during the period of Isaiah. He treats of the invasion of the Assyrian and his threats, in order to present in a special manner the judgment of Judea, but at the same time Jehovah's blessing in Christ.

3rd. Those which speak of the entire fall of Israel, and of the destiny that already threatened Judah, such as Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, Micah. They announced a penal judgment on the people, while unfolding with more or less extent the dealings of God in grace at the end. With the exception of Amos, who prophesied in the reign of Uzziah, earlier than the other three, they belong to the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (this last king forming an epoch in these prophecies, the Assyrian having overthrown the kingdom of Israel during the reign of Hezekiah, and threatened Jerusalem).

Like Isaiah and Hosea, Micah prophesied in the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, that is at the time the kings of Assyria were invading the land of Israel. Micah has not very much to say regarding the Assyrian, but he brings in Messiah as the One who shall deal with him. In chapter 5 the rejection of the Judge of Israel is clearly foretold (verse 1), as is also the place of His birth (verse 2), a Scripture well known to the chief priests and scribes when the Lord came into the world (Matt. 2:4–6). The grace and glory of the Lord in the time of His kingdom is brought out in verse 4, where He is seen standing and feeding His people “in the strength of the Lord,” and when He shall “be great unto the ends of the earth.”

There are three kings of Judah whose reigns have been linked together by the Holy Ghost in three of the Prophets. Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah delivered their prophetic burden "in the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah." There is, I feel, a marked moral connection between the three reigns — a connection for which we might naturally be led to look from the fact just stated.