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About this book: Micah

Micah was a country prophet who spoke to the leaders of Jerusalem and Samaria and did not flatter them. He names the sins of the powerful: seizing land from families, bending the courts, bribing priests and prophets, and building cities on bloodshed. Judgment is coming, he says, and no wealth will shield anyone from it. Yet the book keeps turning toward hope. In the last days the nations will stream to the Lord's house to learn his ways and beat their weapons into tools for farming. A ruler will come from small Bethlehem, a shepherd whose greatness reaches the ends of the earth, and the New Testament sees Jesus in that promise. Micah also gives one of Scripture's best-loved summaries of what God wants: to act justly, love faithfulness and walk humbly with him. The book closes with a confession of trust and a wonder-filled question about a God who pardons sin, throws it into the sea and keeps his old promises to Abraham and Jacob. Readers return to Micah for its mix of hard truth and stubborn hope.

Author
The prophet Micah of Moresheth, a village in the hills of Judah.
Date
Eighth century BC, in the days of kings Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah; some scholars think later editors shaped the final form.
Audience
The people and rulers of Judah and Israel, especially those who held land, wealth and judgment seats.

Themes

Justice for the powerlessJudgment on corrupt leadersThe ruler born in BethlehemHumble faithfulnessGod's pardon and promises

Outline

  1. 1:1–1:16The Lord comes against Samaria and Judah
  2. 2:1–3:12Greedy landowners and false leaders
  3. 4:1–5:15Peace in the last days and the ruler from Bethlehem
  4. 6:1–6:8The Lord's case and what he asks
  5. 6:9–7:6A broken society mourned
  6. 7:7–7:20Waiting in hope on a pardoning God

Key verses

Micah 4:1-3 →Micah 5:2 →Micah 6:8 →Micah 7:18-19 →
About this chapterMicah, from the small town of Moresheth, hears the Lord summon the whole earth as witness: he comes down from his temple and the mountains melt beneath him. The cause is the rebellion of Jacob and the sins of Israel, centered in Samaria and Jerusalem, whose idols will be smashed. Micah mourns, walking barefoot and naked and wailing like a jackal, because the wound is incurable and has reached Judah. He goes through a series of towns with wordplays on their names, each facing disaster. The chapter ends by telling the people to shave their heads in grief, for their children go into exile.

Micah, from the small town of Moresheth, hears the Lord summon the whole earth as witness: he comes down from his temple and the mountains melt beneath him. The cause is the rebellion of Jacob and the sins of Israel, centered in Samaria and Jerusalem, whose idols will be smashed. Micah mourns, walking barefoot and naked and wailing like a jackal, because the wound is incurable and has reached Judah. He goes through a series of towns with wordplays on their names, each facing disaster. The chapter ends by telling the people to shave their heads in grief, for their children go into exile.

Themes

  • The Lord comes in judgment
  • Idolatry punished
  • A prophet's grief

Key verses

Audio Bible · Micah 1

Listen while you go about your day.

Micah 1

Berean Standard Bible16 verses · 2 min read

1This is the word of the LORD that came to Micah the Moreshite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah—what he saw regarding Samaria and Jerusalem: 2Hear, O peoples, all of you; listen, O earth, and everyone in it! May the Lord GOD bear witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple. 3For behold, the LORD comes forth from His dwelling place; He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. 4The mountains will melt beneath Him, and the valleys will split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope. 5All this is for the transgression of Jacob and the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? 6Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of rubble in the open field, a planting area for a vineyard. I will pour her stones into the valley and expose her foundations. 7All her carved images will be smashed to pieces; all her wages will be burned in the fire, and I will destroy all her idols. Since she collected the wages of a prostitute, they will be used again on a prostitute. 8Because of this I will lament and wail; I will walk barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and mourn like an ostrich. 9For her wound is incurable; it has reached even Judah; it has approached the gate of my people, as far as Jerusalem itself. 10Do not tell it in Gath; do not weep at all. Roll in the dust in Beth-leaphrah. 11Depart in shameful nakedness, O dwellers of Shaphir. The dwellers of Zaanan will not come out. Beth-ezel is in mourning; its support is taken from you. 12For the dwellers of Maroth pined for good, but calamity came down from the LORD, even to the gate of Jerusalem. 13Harness your chariot horses, O dweller of Lachish. You were the beginning of sin to the Daughter of Zion, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you. 14Therefore, send farewell gifts to Moresheth-gath; the houses of Achzib will prove deceptive to the kings of Israel. 15I will again bring a conqueror against you, O dweller of Mareshah. The glory of Israel will come to Adullam. 16Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hair in mourning for your precious children; make yourselves as bald as an eagle, for they will go from you into exile.
Verses in Micah 1
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Chapters of Micah

All books
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