Who wrote the book of Micah? Who was the author of Micah?

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?"

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?

MICAH.

NEXT comes a still more brilliant seer: the word of Jehovah that came to Micah the Morasthite, a contemporary of Isaiah, concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. It is composed of three chief divisions, ushered in by a call to listen, "Hear, ye peoples, all of you; hearken, O earth, and all that is therein" (Micah 1:2); "And I said, Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel" (Micah 3:1); and "Hear ye now what Jehovah saith," etc. (Micah 6:1). Can the least discerning of believers fail to apprehend its distinctive character?

The prophet Micah's name is probably an abbreviation of Micaiah (= who is like Jehovah?). Micah came from Moresheth Gath, around 20 miles southwest of Jerusalem near to the border to the Philistines.

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.

Micah (who is like unto the Lord?). This prophet was contemporary with Isaiah, Hosea, and Amos: see the first verse of each of the books of these prophets. Micah is termed "the Morasthite" from Moresheth-Gath, a small town in southern Judea, not far from Jerusalem. There is not in this book such a range of subjects or comprehensiveness of treatment as in Isaiah, yet Micah in some respects resembles his great contemporary. Both specially regard Israel's political foe and external enemy in the future Jewish crisis, namely, "the Assyrian" or "king of the north;" and both predict millennial blessedness in the same eloquent terms (Isa. 2:2-4; Micah 4:1-3).

The Morasthite, the prophet. Jer. 26:18; Micah 1:1.

Designation of Micah the prophet. Jer. 26:18; Micah 1:1. The name signifies 'a man of Moresheth.'

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?

"Then said the princes and all the people to the priests and to the prophets; This man is not worthy to die; for he has spoken to us in the name of Jehovah our God. Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spake to all the assembly of the people, saying, Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus says Jehovah 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" (verses 16-18). What happened to Micah? Did they treat him as a traitor? Was Micah judged to die? Not so.