Commentary on Micah

1.1 :

Title. Micah's home is the small village of Moresheth, southwest of Jerusalem in the southern kingdom of Judah, but his speeches are directed to Samaria and Jerusalem, capital cities of the north and the south.

1.2–9 :

Judgment on Samaria and Jerusalem. Micah's opening speech focuses on his primary audience: the ruling elite in the capitals of Israel and Judah.

3–4 :

Divine appearances so powerful that they throw nature into disarray are common at the beginning of prophetic books (Am 1.2; Nah 1.3–5 ).

5 :

Samaria and Jerusalem are viewed as the centers of corruption in their respective kingdoms.

6–7 :

The end of Samaria, forecast here, occurred during Micah's career in 721 BCE when the Assyrians conquered Israel.

9 :

A threat to Jerusalem, but not its end, is described.

1.10–16 :

A lament ^* over the invasion of Judah. This speech may have been composed in response to the invasion in 701 BCE of the Assyrian King Sennacherib, who conquered Lachish (v. 13 ) together with other cities and towns in the Judean foothills in the vicinity of Micah's own village Moresheth-gath (v. 14 ; see sidebar above). Among the towns Micah lists as bearing the brunt of the Assyrian attack, Beth-ezel (v. 11 ), Lachish (v. 13 ), Moresheth-gath and Achzib (v. 14 ), and Mareshah and Adullam (v. 15 ) have all been identified with sites in the Judean foothills (see map on p. 1200 ), and the other places mentioned were likely situated in this vicinity as well.