Micah: A Commentary

By James L. Mays

This much-needed commentary provides an authoritative guide to a better understanding of the often-neglected book of Micah. It gives insight into the individual sayings of Micah, to the way they were understood and used as they were gathered into the growing collection, and to their role in the final form of the document. "I am convinced," says Dr. Mays, that Micah "is not just a collection of prophetic sayings, but is the outcome of a history of prophetic proclamations and is itself, in its final form, prophecy."

The Old Testament Library provides fresh and authoritative treatments of important aspects of Old Testament study through commentaries and general surveys. The contributors are scholars of international standing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Release date: Feb 1, 2007
• ISBN: 9781611645118

James L. Mays

James Luther Mays is Cyrus M. McCormick Professor Emeritus of Hebrew and Old Testament Interpretation at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond,Virginia. He was the general editor of the best-selling Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teacing and Preaching series, and is author of many books, including Psalms in the Interpretation series and The Lord Reigns: A TheologicalHandbook to the Psalms.

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JAMES LUTHER MAYS

MICAH

THE OLD TESTAMENT LIBRARY

General Editors

PETER ACKROYD, University of London

JAMES BARR, Oxford University

BERNHARD W. ANDERSON, Princeton Theological Seminary

JAMES L. MAYS, Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia

Advisory Editor

JOHN BRIGHT, Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia

JAMES LUTHER MAYS

MICAH

A Commentary

THE WESTMINSTER PRESS

PHILADELPHIA

Because she made the years of its writing such good years this book is dedicated to Mary Will Mays

© 1976 James Luther Mays

Published by The Westminster Press®

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

5  6  7  8  9

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Mays, James Luther.

Micah : a commentary.

(The Old Testament library)

Bibliography: p.

1. Bible. O.T. Micah—Commentaries.

I. Bible. O.T. Micah. English. 1976. II. Title. III. Series.

BS1615.3.M39    224′.93′07    76–2599

ISBN 0-664-23233-7

CONTENTS

Preface

Abbreviations

I.  Introduction

1.  The form of the book

Part One: 1.2–5.15

Part Two: 6.1–7.20

2.  Micah the Moreshite

The sayings of Micah

The man

The mission of Micah

3.  The formation of the book of Micah

Part One: chapters 1–5

Part Two: chapters 6–7

Bibliography

II.  Commentary

1.  The title: 1.1

2.  Capital punishment for the capital cities: 1.2–16

3.  Let the world hear the witness of the Lord: 1.2

4.  The coming of the Lord: 1.3–5

5.  The punishment of Samaria: 1.6f.

6.  A wail over the wound of the Lord: 1.8–16

7.  The plan of men and the plan of God: 2.1–5

8.  Don’t preach such things: 2.6–11

9.  The Lord will lead the remnant away: 2.12f.

10.  Cannibals in the court: 3.1–4

11.  Those who sell the word shall lose it: 3.5–8

12.  The terrible word: 3.9–12

13.  ‘A city set on a hill’: 4.1–5

14.  The crippled shall become strong: 4.6f.

15.  Dominion shall be restored to Jerusalem: 4.8

16.  The loss of the city is the way to redemption: 4.9f.

17.  The threatened city will triumph: 4.11–13

18.  The present and future kings: 5.1–4 (MT 4.14–5.3)

19.  Peace with Assyria: 5.5f. (MT vv. 4f.).

20.  The remnant among the peoples: 5.7–9 (MT vv. 6–8)

21.  The divine purge: 5.10–15 (MT vv. 9–14)

22.  God’s salvation is his justification: 6.1–5

23.  It’s you, not something, God wants: 6.6–8

24.  Guilt and punishment under the covenant: 6.9–16

25.  The loneliness of the faithful: 7.1–6

26.  The literary analysis of 7.7–20

27.  The decision to wait: 7.7

28.  The exodus from darkness to light: 7.8–10

29.  The day of restoration: 7.11–13

30.  Let the history of salvation resume: 7.14–17

31.  God’s victory over sin: 7.18–20

PREFACE

THE BOOK OF Micah has not received the attention it deserves is publications in English. That may be partly because of the challenge it presents to the interpreter. In some parts of the book the text is in bad condition. There is not much homogeneity in the style and content. It reflects a variety of circumstances and was formed over a rather long period for such a short book. In many respects it is a miniature of the book of Isaiah, but without sufficiently large blocks of material to provide the same amount of data to bring to bear on particular problems. In this commentary I hope some justice has been done to all dimensions of the book. It has been my intention to provide the user with a guide to the individual sayings, to the way they were understood and used as they were gathered into large complexes and integrated into the growing collection, and to their role in the final form of the document. I am convinced that the book is not just a collection of prophetic sayings, but is the outcome of a history of prophetic proclamation and is itself in its final form prophecy. The material can and ought to be heard as prophecy in the various settings which belong to the history of its formation.

The translation of the text in the commentary is part of the comment, and not offered as an alternative to the several good translations of the Old Testament published in recent years. It undertakes to display those features of the Hebrew text which are pertinent to the comment, rather than literary polish. Biblical chapter and verse numbers follow the English Bible to avoid complicated citations; the reader is reminded at the beginning of each unit where the verse numbering of the Massoretic Text differs. Names cited in parentheses within the comment are those of commentators or authors of major works listed in the Bibliography or previously cited in footnotes on the particular passage. The Bibliography is, of course, only a selection. Other items relevant to particular problems are listed within the commentary.

Among those whose interest and encouragement have helped in the preparation of the commentary, some must be named. My colleagues, John Bright and Patrick D. Miller, Jr., have never failed to respond to requests for their judgment and advice. The hospitality and assistance of Walther Zimmerli during a recent sabbatical in Göttingen is remembered with gratitude. Hannah Clark, ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church and secretary of the Biblical Department, gave her enthusiasm and competence during the early stage of work on the manuscript. Before it was completed she died suddenly and left those of us who had worked with her a sense of loss that will not diminish. Arlene Jones helped greatly at the end.

ABBREVIATIONS

I

INTRODUCTION

MICAH (mīkāh 1.1, or mīkāyāh Jer. 26.18) is the short form of the Hebrew name that means ‘Who is like YHWH?’ (mīkāyāhū or mīkāyehū). The name is in fact an exclamation of praise, an expression of adoration and wonder at the incomparable God of Israel. The name belonged to a man from the village of Moresheth in Judah who was called by God to be his spokesman. His mission gave the originating impulse to the formation of the prophetic book which bears his name.

The name is appropriate for a book whose range reflects the greatness of God. It is difficult to imagine a document which could offer in seven chapters a more comprehensive testimony to YHWH. Diametrically opposed aspects of the activity of God and his revelation finds expression in the sayings collected and arranged in the book. In the sayings YHWH speaks and is described as God of Israel and of the nations, Judge and Saviour, majestic in wrath and astonishing in compassion, worker of justice and promiser of forgiveness. He scatters his people and collects them as his flock; he destroys Zion and ‘resurrects’ her; he threatens the nations with humiliation and offers them peace.

There is a corresponding richness in the style and genre of language in the book. It contains announcements of judgment, oracles of salvation, controversy sayings, a lawsuit speech, instruction, laments, prayer, a proclamation of YHWH’s appearance, a hymn. The historical setting of the sayings extends from the second half of the eighth century BC to the end of the sixth. In its variety and historical scope the book of Micah is a miniature of the book of Isaiah to which it is related in so many ways.

This variety and historical scope sets the task for a commentary on the book of Micah. A commentary must undertake first of all to identify the individual sayings collected in the book and to determine their original historical setting so that each can be heard in its own right. It must attempt to trace and follow the stages in which the sayings were collected and seek to discern the way they are to be understood as the word of YHWH in the new and broader context in which they were set. Was the process of collecting and arranging more or less arbitrary and based only on a concern with the past and its tradition, or did it grow out of a perception of the meaning and coherence of larger groupings as a testimony to YHWH? A commentary must also seek to do justice to the present form of the book as the final stage in the shaping of a prophetic witness to YHWH. What is its coherence? Is there a prophetic intention which pervades the whole and makes the book itself an instance of prophecy as well as a hermeneutical context in which its parts are to be heard? The last question involves more than simply a consideration of the final stage of redaction. It asks whether the book itself can be read with a measure of continuity and unity as prophecy in a larger sense, heard as ‘the word of YHWH’ in a fashion that does justice to the title.

In the following discussion, the last question is dealt with first in hope that an awareness of the content, arrangement, and integrating features of the book will provide a point of vantage for dealing with the mission of Micah as the book’s origin and then with an attempt to discern the history of its formation. The comment on single passages will point to the way the sayings are related to their literary context as part of the whole and to their place in process of forming the book.

1. THE FORM OF THE BOOK

Like the other prophetic books Micah is a collection of brief literary units. These units with their own structure, style, and theme have for the most part been maintained in the collection in their distinctiveness. It is generally possible to recognize these units for individual study and to ask about their original historical setting. This analytical approach is essential to any grasp of the material of which the book is composed. Dealt with in this fashion the units lose their context in the book and are understood in relation to a reconstructed historical situation.

When the book is studied carefully with an interest, not in what makes it come apart, but in what holds it together, then a variety of integrating features begin to appear.a Catchwords and repeated motifs connect units which lie in sequence in the arrangement, and sometimes those which lie in different parts of the book. Units are sometimes arranged according to similar style and subject. Passages are placed in sequence so that their contrasting or complementary messages may be heard in relation to each other. Introductory rubrics are repeated to link units into larger complexes. Transitions lead from one unit into the next. These features are identified and discussed in the comment on particular passages.

Beyond these features there is an arrangement of the material which employs them in a movement of proclamation that flows through the entire book. The structure of this arrangement does not, of course, have the clarity and coherence of an original composition where the movement of thought creates the material. But there does seem to be a discernible pattern in the material which is the result of an accumulative and sustained intention to say something which incorporates all the smaller parts into a larger message.

The book is composed of two major parts, 1.2–5.15 and 6.1–7.20. Each part opens with an introductory summons to hear which identifies its audience (1.2 and 6.1a). Each is arranged so as to unfold a revelation of YHWH’s way in the world. The first part is addressed to a universal audience of all peoples. It combines YHWH’s judgment of Samaria and Jerusalem (1.3–3.12) and his redemption of Zion and Israel (4.1–5.9) into a witness to the nations that YHWH’s coming kingdom faces them with a choice between submission (4.1–4) and punishment (5.10–15). The second is addressed to Israel. It portrays an Israel that lives under the inescapable judgment of God (6.1–7.6) and yet stands before the promise of the salvation of God (7.8–17), an Israel who must and may expect that salvation (7.7) only through the forgiveness of God (7.18–20). Each section is rounded off by a passage which concludes its movement, the first with the threat of YHWH’s vengeance on the disobedient nations (5.15) and the second with a hymn to the compassion of God. Within each section there is evidence in the arrangement and shaping of the material that a persistent intention has been at work to bring the individual units under the control of broader kerygmatic purposes.

Part One: 1.2–5.15

On first inspection the arrangement of ch. 1–5 seems to be based on the familiar principle of alternating blocks of oracles of judgment and prophecies of salvation with a resulting arrangement of 1–3 and 4–5. There are two passages which will not yield to this analysis. The first is the apparent promise of salvation to the remnant of Israel in 2.12f. The other is the announcement of YHWH’s punishment in 5.10–15. Further, the analysis does not take account of die many inner relationships within the two blocks and the significance of the content of one for the other.

The summons to all the peoples to hear YHWH’s witness (1.2) and the warning of his vengeance for those who do not hear (respond appropriately, 5.15) signal the kerygmatic focus. The section is concerned with universal history, with the nations and their power as the context in which YHWH’s reign will be established.

The pivot of movement, the point at which a breathtaking shift occurs with the chapters, clearly lies between 3.9–12 and 4.1–5. The announcement that Jerusalem will be totally destroyed and disappear is followed by the proclamation that Jerusalem will be the capital of YHWH’s reign to which the nations shall repair. The sayings in 1–3 lay the foundations for the lead up to 3.12, and those in 4–5 support and expound 4.1–5.

1.3–3.12 unfolds a message of YHWH’s judgment on Israel. The proclamation of the advent of YHWH (1.3f) sounds the overture for the sequence. The reason for his wrathful intervention is the rebellion of Israel (1.5a). Verse 5b distributes this guilt to the cities of Samaria and Jerusalem, the capitals of the northern and southern kingdoms. This identification of the guilty is the clue to a basic way in which the rest of the section is arranged. It corresponds to the ‘Samaria and Jerusalem’ of the title (1.1) and states the formula for the programme of God’s punishment which is then developed. In Chs. 1–3 there are only two sayings which speak specifically of God’s action against these cities. The announcement of Samaria’s destruction (1.6f) is set immediately after the introductory proclamation. The memorable saying on the end of Jerusalem is heard at the conclusion (3.9–12). Similar descriptive motifs in each make one echo the other. Between the two which represent the onset and climax of the terrible work for which YHWH appears, the material is arranged to move from beginning to culmination and portray the execution of the Samaria Jerusalem programme. The rest of ch. 1 (vv. 8–16) voices a throbbing lament which narrates the movement of a divinely sent disaster across the land of Judah to the very gates of Jerusalem (vv. 9, 12) and breaks off with a call to mourn the population going into exile (v. 16). But the announcement of the fall of Jerusalem itself is reserved to make room for the exposition of the rebellion of Jacob which is punished by the loss of the land (ch. 2) and the end of Jerusalem (ch. 3).

The material collected in ch. 2 turns around the theme of Israel and its land. Avarice for possession of the land as property is the crime which draws judgment (vv. 1f., 8f.). Loss of the land will be the appropriate punishment (vv. 4f.). A call is heard to depart from the land because it no longer serves the purpose for which God gave it (v. 10), a second summons to exile (cf. 1.16). The land which lies around the centre of Jerusalem is in focus. It is the sphere where Israel lives under the reign of YHWH, and rebellion against that reign defiles it. The corresponding punishment is its loss. The apparent salvation oracle in 2.12f. is in fact a disclosure that the exile is the work of YHWH (see the comment). He himself gathers Israel like a flock in a fold, breaks down the gate, and leads them away. It brings to a climax the references to exile already heard (1.16; 2.3, 10) by the assertion that Israel’s removal from the land is no alien event, but a manifestation of YHWH’s sovereignty. The saying has a clear counterpart in 4.6f. which tells how YHWH reverses 2.12f. by gathering the remnant, making them a great nation, and ruling over them in Mount Zion. The whole drama of exile and return, judgment and salvation is a revelation of YHWH’s kingship.

Chapter 3 shifts the focus to Jerusalem and its leaders. Three rather similar sayings move toward the climax in v. 12. All are addressed to leaders who exploit their status and vocation for ends inimical to the reign of YHWH (vv. 3, 5, 9). All three announce the same punishment on these leaders; there will be no answer from YHWH when they cry out in need (vv. 4, 7) and events will disclose that their hope in him is empty (v. 11). Together the three sayings distinguish between the use of power in the government of Jerusalem and the reign of YHWH. The spirit-endowed prophet word alone represents the reign of YHWH and it reveals the reason for YHWH’s coming (cf. v. 8 and 1.5). This claim prepares the way for and authenticates the incredible sentence upon Jerusalem. That city under these leaders will cease to exist (v. 12). There will be no connection between it and any city of God in the future.

With the announcement of the destruction of Jerusalem, the first phase of the Samaria-Jerusalem drama is complete, and the purpose of YHWH’s appearance in wrath has been fulfilled. This arrangement of the sayings transposes an entire era of history into a unified drama of judgment, the whole an expression of the theophany. Samaria is destroyed because of idolatry, and drops from sight, to be heard of no more in the book. The land of Judah is ravaged and its population exiled because the land is defiled by injustice. Jerusalem falls because of the treachery of the leaders. The whole is the first element of YHWH’s witness to the nations. The humiliation of Israel in the midst of history is proclaimed to all nations as a testimony to the reign of YHWH whose rule brooks no idolatry and overlooks no rebellion.

4.1–5.15 is the second element of the witness of YHWH which the nations are summoned to hear (1.2), a summons rephrased as warning in the last line (5.15). At its very beginning it points to ‘the latter days which shall be’, so its message concerns the future now being created by YHWH’s work (4.1). Three recurrent motifs identify the structural concerns: many peoples/nations (4.1–3, 5, 11, 13; 5.15), Zion (4.2, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13), and remnant (4.7; 5.7, 8). The sequence sketches a drama of the way in which YHWH will establish the capital of his reign in Zion, reclaim and transform the scattered remnant into an invulnerable manifestation of his power, and so create the theopolitical reality by which the nations will find peace or punishment. As a sequel to 1.3–3.12 this section shows that the fall of the capital cities, Samaria and Jerusalem, serves the establishment of YHWH’s capital in Zion, that the end of Jerusalem is not the end of the reign of YHWH, that the judgment of Israel is the work of YHWH on the way to the manifestation of his kingship among the nations.

The section opens and closes with paired prophecies which raise alternative visions of the nations under the coming reign of YHWH. 4.1–5 promises a Zion which has become the centre of the world because it is the place from which YHWH reigns. Where he reigns by the instruction of his word, nations end their rebellion and peace takes over. 5.10–15 announces the purge of YHWH, how he will cut off the tools and buildings of war and destroy every idol as the vengeance of his kingly anger against civil and cultic rebellion. That is his way with the nations who do not listen to this word which goes out from Zion, from the holy temple of the Lord (cf. 1.2 and 4.2).

The body of the section contains two complexes (4.8–5.4; 5.5–9) identifiable by particular motifs, stylistic devices, and subjects. 4.6f. serves as a unifying prelude to both because it states in anticipation the theme of each. Verses 6–7a promise that YHWH will rescue the exiled remnant and transform them into a strong nation. The second complex develops that theme with a series of sayings about the future Israel that shall live unthreatened and invulnerable in the midst of the nations. Verse 7b promises the unending reign of YHWH from Mount Zion over this Israel of the future. The first complex develops that theme with three prophecies of the way in which YHWH will turn the crises of the present into a new dominion from Zion over its population. So 4.6f. is an oracle which announces in nuce what the body of the section unfolds. It may also furnish a transition from 4.1–5, which without mentioning Israel speaks of YHWH’s glorious reign from Zion, to the body which reveals the central role the population of Zion and the exiled remnant of the nation will play in YHWH’s new kingdom. Seen from this vantage, it may also be a clue to a correspondence between the two complexes of salvation prophecy