Micah

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Joel, Obadiah, Micah, by Dan Epp-Tiessen (Believers Church Bible Commentary)

Micah

Introduction

Relevance

The book of Micah thunders God’s outrage at Israel’s heartless leaders who oppress the poor and vulnerable (2:1-2, 8-11; 3:1-3, 9-12; 6:10-17; 7:2-4). Micah demands justice, kindness, and commitment to the common good (3:1; 6:8, 10-11). Micah condemns the worship of other gods (1:7; 6:16), calling people to walk humbly with the one true God (6:8). Because of Israel’s unfaithfulness, God will inflict a devastating judgment in the form of military defeat and utter destruction (1:5-16; 2:3-4; 3:12; 6:13-16). Despite all this, Micah displays a profound hope that is rooted in God’s gracious character and commitment to ancient covenant promises (7:18-20). The future deliverance that Micah envisions will feature a messianic king (5:2-5), defeat of Israel’s enemies (4:11-13; 5:5-9; 7:8-10, 16-17), restoration of Jerusalem and the nation (4:1-13; 5:5-9; 7:8-12), and even worldwide peace and justice (4:1-4).

Like many of the Bible’s prophetic books, Micah is survival literature. These books were compiled during turbulent centuries to help the faith community navigate the crushing trauma created by generations of foreign conquest and domination, especially the Babylonian destruction of Judah (Stulman and Kim: 9–23; see “Historical Context” below).

Micah describes the catastrophe, a pastoral act that gives voice to the community’s pain, disorientation, and anger. Micah names the cause of the disaster, asserting that worship of other gods and especially the wealthy elite’s oppression of the poor resulted in God’s judgment. The Assyrian and Babylonian invasions did not signal God’s weakness but represented divine punishment. To modern ears, this explanation might sound like an oversimplification of the complex forces that shape history and as unhealthy blaming of a victimized people. While there are problems with Micah’s perspective, the explanation helped a traumatized people hold on to their tattered faith. If defeat signaled God’s weakness rather than God’s powerful sovereignty, then why not abandon faith in Israel’s God and worship the gods of the conquerors?

Micah’s theology of self-blame also provided a sense of agency, which is important for surviving trauma. If the enemy’s military might was the main cause of disaster, then there was little a conquered people could do. If unfaithfulness was the root cause, then Israel could repent and perhaps God would be gracious and reverse the community’s fortunes. In the face of empires determined to disempower conquered peoples and claim superiority for their own gods, self-blame/taking personal responsibility was an act of empowering agency and rejecting foreign gods in favor of Israel’s God as the shaper of human history (Stulman and Kim: 15).

As survival literature, Micah functions as a warning and call to repentance. The book’s heading portrays this warning as originally addressed to the audience of the historical Micah (1:1). However, by the time the book was completed it was far too late for that original audience to repent and avert disaster. In its finished form the book invites later readers to enter the literary world it creates to hear the words of Micah challenging them afresh. Despite Israel’s past unfaithfulness and all the nasty consequences, faithfulness to God and commitment to justice and compassion always remain possible.

Another important way that Micah helps readers survive disaster is by providing hope. Despite the devastating judgment that the book highlights, it enthusiastically asserts that God is gracious and will ultimately restore Israel. Micah engages in an act of defiance by imagining “a future for defeated and captive people who live in a world in which violence and death are more tangible than coherence and meaning” (Stulman and Kim: 1).

Historical Context

According to the heading (1:1), Micah prophesied during the reigns of the Judean kings Jotham (750–735 BCE), Ahaz (735–716 BCE), and Hezekiah (716–687 BCE). While Micah never mentions these kings again, this reference links the book to the era of the Assyrian Empire’s expansion, which began approximately in 740. Assyria easily took over the northern kingdom of Israel, but several years later Israel revolted. In retaliation Assyria destroyed the northern kingdom as a political entity, conquering and demolishing the capital city of Samaria in 722 (see 1:6-7). Judah initially accepted Assyrian domination under King Ahaz but revolted under Hezekiah. In 701 Assyria overran Judah and destroyed many towns and cities, with the exception of Jerusalem, a situation probably reflected in 1:8-16. Judah remained an Assyrian vassal until approximately 610, and a few years later became subject to Babylon, the next great empire in the region. After initially accepting Babylonian domination, Judah revolted, bringing upon itself the wrath of King Nebuchadnezzar’s army, which utterly destroyed Judah and Jerusalem in 586 BCE. The Babylonian Empire was then succeeded by the Persian Empire, which lasted from 538 to 333 BCE. The Persians allowed Jewish exiles to return to Palestine and permitted the rebuilding of Jerusalem and its temple. The post-exilic Jewish community was small, vulnerable, and deeply traumatized by the losses it had suffered.

While the book’s heading links Micah to the Assyrian era, the book also refers to the Babylonian defeat and exile (5:10). It foretells the destruction of Jerusalem (3:12), assumes it has happened, and prophesies the rebuilding of the city and nation (7:8-12). Micah preserves material that probably originated in the Assyrian era but also material from centuries later, after the Babylonian destruction of Judah when the faith community was struggling to reestablish itself during the era of Persian domination.

For Judah’s peasants, foreign invasion meant loss of life, destruction of towns and villages, sexual assault, terror, looting, and loss of food supplies. The Babylonian destruction of Judah in 586 BCE was particularly traumatic. Many of Judah’s towns and cities were leveled, including Jerusalem and its temple. The last Davidic king was humiliated and exiled to Babylon, as were other members of the religious, political, and economic elite.

While some knowledge of the historical background is helpful for interpreting Micah, the book provides minimal information about this content. It mentions no Assyrian or Babylonian emperors, never refers to Judah’s political strategizing, and provides no specific historical context for any individual prophecy. The message of Micah has largely been dehistoricized. Breaking the connection between the original prophetic word, along with its original audience and context, was probably part of the editors’ strategy to shape the message so that it could more effectively address future generations (Epp-Tiessen: 141–42).

Micah the Prophet

“Micah” is the short form of a Hebrew name meaning “Who is like Yahweh?” the personal name of Israel’s God, usually rendered as “LORD ” in translation. Thus the name “Micah” exclaims adoration and wonder at Israel’s incomparable God (Mays: 1). The book provides no information about Micah’s background, family life, or prophetic ministry beyond the simple fact that he was from the village of Moresheth (1:1). Prophetic books typically focus on the prophet’s message not his life.

Some commentators seek to bring the hidden Micah to life by scouring the book for information about his origins, the social conditions he addressed, and the challenges of his ministry (see, e.g., Dempster: 4–15). Such reconstructions may be engaging and fairly accurate, but they move in the opposite direction of the book itself, which invites interpreters to focus on the message rather than the person who may stand behind it.

Yet attempts to describe the historical Micah respond to a feature of the book that merits at least some attention: the powerful persona or character who stands behind the speeches. “Thus says the LORD ” (2:3), thunders Micah, claiming to speak authoritatively for God. The book blurs the distinction between his human words and the words of God by claiming that the entire book represents God’s word (1:1). Micah can speak so authoritatively because he is filled with God’s Spirit (3:8). This authorization empowers him to condemn Judah’s leaders for oppressing the poor (2:1-11; 3:1-12; 6:10-17; 7:2-4). Micah is passionate about justice for the vulnerable as well as about loyalty to God (1:7; 6:8). Despite his conviction that judgment is on the way, Micah remains hopeful that God’s grace will prevail and ultimately restore Israel. Micah’s powerful persona lends weight to the message of the book and invites readers to heed it.

Composition and Structure

While the occasional commentator claims that the entire book originates from the historical Micah (Waltke: 8–13), most believe it has a long, complex, compositional history. The process probably began with prophecies of the historical Micah during the Assyrian threat. As history progressed, editors updated Micah’s testimony with messages relevant to later circumstances.

Scholars concerned to distinguish the words of the historical Micah from later supplements generally find the former in 1:2–3:12 and perhaps also 6:1-16, based on the assumption that Micah was primarily a prophet of judgment. Most commentators believe that the bulk of material in 4:1–7:20 was added to the emerging Micah collection long after the original prophet’s ministry. Multiple complex theories seek to outline the process by which the book came into being (Wagenaar: 3–45, 317–26; Cuffey: 6–43). The lack of agreement among scholars suggests that there may be too little evidence to accurately describe the compositional history.

Questions of authorship and composition need not be a major concern. The church and the synagogue regard the book of Micah in its current form as authoritative, regardless of how it came into being. In whatever way the editorial process unfolded, it seems to have been motivated by the conviction that God had spoken through Micah in powerful ways, and so the message associated with him had to be preserved and supplemented so it could address the faith community in an ongoing way.

There are many proposals regarding the structure of Micah (Jacobs: 14–40; Cuffey: 129–76). A strong case can be made for dividing the book into three sections, each of which announce judgment followed by deliverance. Each section begins with the identical summons to “Listen!” (1:2; 3:1; 6:1 AT), indicating the beginning of a new “speech.” All three “hope” sections feature the motif of shepherding God’s people (2:12; 5:4; 7:14) and mention the remnant who will survive disaster and experience renewal (2:12; 4:6-7; 5:7-8; 7:18). This structure has a significant impact on the message of the book. Israel stands simultaneously under God’s judgment, which will not tolerate injustice and oppression, and under God’s grace that promises to overcome disastrous unfaithfulness and grant deliverance (Childs: 437). Thus, Micah “calls interpreters to discern which of these two accents the community of faith most needs to hear in any given hour of history, and what it means to embrace both the demanding and reassuring aspects of God’s character” (Epp-Tiessen: 137).

Outline of Micah

(from Epp-Tiessen: 289–90)

Heading 1:1

Cycle 1: God’s Judgment Followed by a Hint of Deliverance 1:2–2:13

God’s Judgment on Idolatry and Oppression 1:2–2:11

The Lord Will Gather the Scattered Sheep 2:12-13

Cycle 2: God Punishes and Restores Israel 3:1–5:15

Judgment on Unjust Leaders and Prophets 3:1-12

Images of God’s Deliverance 4:1–5:15

Cycle 3: From Alienation to Reconciliation 6:1–7:20

Alienation Leads to God’s Judgment Again 6:1–7:7

Confessing God’s Grace and Deliverance 7:8-20

Summary and Comment

Heading (1:1)

The heading portrays Micah as God’s authoritative spokesperson and claims authority for the book by describing it as “the word of the LORD .” Micah is introduced as being from Moresheth, a village in the lowland hill country some twenty-three miles southwest of Jerusalem. Commentators frequently suggest that Micah’s rural background helps explain his sensitivity to the exploitation of rural peasants. Such speculation is probably correct, but the book is not interested in providing any explanation for Micah’s message other than that he speaks for God.

The heading dates Micah’s ministry to the reigns of Judean kings Jotham (750–735 BCE), Ahaz (735–716 BCE), and Hezekiah (716–687 BCE), indicating a long ministry of somewhere between twenty and fifty-five years during the crucial period of the Assyrian threat. The mention of these kings encourages reading the entire book in relation to the Judah’s situation in the eighth century. However, the rest of the book contains no references to specific historical persons or events. The heading suggests that some general knowledge of the historical context is valuable for interpreting the book, but readers need not attempt to link individual passages to specific historical events.

Cycle 1: God’s Judgment Followed by a Hint of Deliverance (1:2–2:13)

God’s Judgment on Idolatry and Oppression (1:2–2:11)

Micah portrays God as cosmic king, emerging from his heavenly temple to descend in terrifying and earth-shattering splendor because of the sins of Israel and Judah (1:3-5). God promises to utterly destroy Samaria, capital of the northern nation of Israel, alongside its religious objects (1:6-7). In a brief interlude, Micah personally laments the sad condition and fate of Samaria and the fact that this condition and fate have also reached Jerusalem (1:8-9).

Although 1:1 indicates that Micah’s message concerns both Samaria and Jerusalem, after 1:9 the focus shifts entirely to Jerusalem and Judah. Samaria’s destruction represents God’s first step in punishing all Israel (Nogalski: 532). The destruction of one part of God’s people by the Assyrians becomes a paradigm for the later destruction of another part by the Babylonians.

Micah addresses a series of Judean villages and towns who will be crushed by an invading army that will steamroll one community after the other until it reaches Jerusalem (1:10-16). Clever wordplays based on the sound or meaning of place names connect these locations to their fate. Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase in The Message captures how the puns function.

In Dustville,

roll in the dust.

In Alarmtown,

the alarm is sounded.

The citizens of Exitburgh

will never get out alive. (1:10b-11a)

Given the historical context of Micah’s ministry, the text must envision the devastating Assyrian invasion, although the enemy and time frame go unnamed. This vagueness allowed later readers to see the passage as also foretelling Babylon’s invasion. Since God is the real cause of the disaster (1:12, 15), readers should worry more about God than about any human enemy.

After announcing the approaching catastrophe, Micah denounces the offenders responsible (Smith-Christopher: 81). Micah accuses members of Judah’s economic and political elite of lying awake at night plotting how at dawn they can rob peasant farmers of their land and homes (2:1-2). After announcing judgment on these oppressors (2:3-5), Micah is confronted by anonymous opponents who seek to silence him, because surely God is gracious (2:6-7). Micah is not deterred but launches another broadside against the oppressors (2:8-10). He concludes with biting satire, accusing his opponents of wanting feel-good preaching that intoxicates versus his own prophecy that confronts people with their true moral condition (2:11).

The Lord Will Gather the Scattered Sheep (2:12-13)

While the Hebrew of 2:12-13 is difficult and confusing, a problem often obscured in translation, the gist of the passage is that God promises to act like both a good shepherd and king, gathering, leading, and protecting the scattered Israelite flock. This flock is called “the remnant” (2:12a NIV; “survivors” in the NRSV). Prophetic literature often calls the post-destruction community “the remnant,” highlighting its losses but also highlighting that a core survives whom God will restore (Epp-Tiessen: 302–3).

The content and position of 2:12-13 indicate that the completed book of Micah regards the destruction foretold by 1:2–2:11 as an accomplished fact. The remnant is scattered and in need of deliverance. The lack of historical specificity would have allowed those who survived the Babylonian destruction to hear the passage as a promise of their restoration by the Good Shepherd.

Cycle 2: God Will Punish and Restore Israel (3:1–5:15)

Judgment on Unjust Leaders and Prophets (3:1-12)

Micah asks Judah’s leaders, “Should you not embrace justice . . . ?” (3:1 NIV). Micah, along with most of the Bible, assumes that God is a God of justice and therefore requires justice from Israel, especially its leaders (Epp-Tiessen: 199–200, 301–2). In gory detail Micah accuses Judah’s leaders of butchering, cooking, and eating their subjects (3:2-3). Micah describes the economic and social practices that benefit the elite at the expense of the poor as being cannabalistic. The harsh rhetoric seeks to shock people into recognizing the ugly consequences of practices that many people of Micah’s day considered acceptable. Micah challenges readers to unmask the often-unrecognized cannibalistic practices within their own context that disadvantage the poor. The leaders Micah condemns may be cruel, but they are also pious, crying out to God (3:4). Their profound evil means that God will refuse to answer. No amount of piety can compensate for lack of just and righteous living.

After targeting political and judicial leaders who devour the people, Micah turns to prophets who sell them out (3:5-7; Nogalski: 547). These false prophets legitimate the actions of Judah’s elite class, to which they most likely also belong. As God’s spokespersons, the role of prophets is to guide the community toward faithfulness, but Micah accuses them of leading the people astray because they are motivated by self-interest. With biting satire, Micah accuses the prophets of announcing well-being to the person who gives them something to eat, but disaster against the person who places nothing into their mouths (3:5). Persons who can afford to pay get a positive message while persons unable to pay are needlessly threatened. Since such prophets do not take their direction from God, God will disgrace them by withholding all revelation (3:6-7; Alfaro: 36).

Micah sharply distinguishes himself from these prophets, claiming to be filled with God’s Spirit and a passion for justice that empower him to confront Israel with its wrongdoing (3:8). Because unfaithfulness leads to catastrophic judgment, only Micah’s harsh honesty can save the community. False prophets pose a threat because their failure to diagnose the community’s sin encourages a dangerous complacency (Epp-Tiessen: 201–2).

After targeting false prophets, Micah condemns the entire leadership establishment—political leaders, priests, and prophets—for corruption and for using their office to enrich themselves (3:11). Collectively, their deeds “build Zion with blood” (3:10 NRSV). “The blood of the poor is converted into money and buildings. Where others see beautiful palaces, comfortable homes, and monumental structures, the prophet sees the human price tag . . . .” (Alfaro: 38). Micah’s evocative image of building Zion with blood challenges us to ask if our cities, infrastructure, and dwellings are built with justice or with blood.

Israel’s unjust leaders are deeply pious, declaring their faith that God will protect them from disaster (3:11b). They hold to the Zion theology promoted by Jerusalem’s establishment, which asserted that God would defend Zion/Jerusalem because it was God’s special city (Epp-Tiessen: 315–16). In contrast, Micah announces a destruction so thorough that Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble and the land return to farmland and brush (3:12).

Images of God’s Deliverance (4:1–5:15)

Micah 4–5 contains promises of deliverance that respond to the prophecy of Zion’s destruction in 3:12 (Wolff 1981: 15). By juxtaposing announcements of Jerusalem’s destruction and restoration, editors sought to provide hope to the community who had experienced the devastation foretold by Micah 1–3 (Mason: 53). While the material implies that Judah and Jerusalem are in difficult circumstances, there is no additional information about when or to whom the promises were first given.

The “swords into plowshares” vision (4:1-5) is one of the best-known passages in Micah, although the version in Isaiah 2:2-5 is referenced more often. Restored Zion will become a magnetic beacon, attracting the peoples of the world who now recognize Zion as the source of God’s teachings that they are eager to learn (4:2). Zion will become God’s base for enacting justice among the nations and settling the kinds of international disputes that commonly lead to war. God will grant security and cure the warmongering disposition of the nations, allowing them to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks—an image of diverting precious resources from military purposes to agricultural tools that nurture life (4:3). This new international peace will allow peasant farmers to sit under their own vines and fig trees, an image for security and a modest, egalitarian prosperity (4:4; Epp-Tiessen: 210-11).

After this glorious vision, 4:5 injects a note of sober realism. The nations are still committed to their own gods and the lifestyles that flow from such allegiance (Mays: 99). In contrast, Micah pledges that his faith community “will walk in the name of the LORD our God” (4:5b NRSV), implicitly promising that Israel will already be shaped by God’s dream for the world (Achtemeier: 329–30).

The first vision of Zion’s restoration focusses on the impact of God’s intervention on the nations. Passages that follow highlight the benefits of Zion’s restoration for Israel. In 4:6-8 God promises to gather the lame, the banished, and those whom God has afflicted, who probably represent the exiles and other persons who experienced Jerusalem’s destruction. God will transform this remnant into a strong nation and rule over them in Zion forever, implying that they will never again be conquered.

In 4:9-10 God (or Micah) questions Zion, who is in distress like a woman in labor. Zion has lost her king and political leadership and is facing exile to Babylon. But God promises to rescue exiled Zion from her enemies. Although 1:1 locates the prophet Micah in the Assyrian era, the current passage extends his ministry to the Babylonian period.

Micah 4:11-13 portrays an attack against Zion by unwitting enemy nations. By following their lust for power, they play into God’s strategy to annihilate them. God gathers the nations like sheaves to the threshing floor and then orders and empowers Zion to thresh/crush them (4:12-13).

It is not clear how to reconcile the different impact that God’s restoration of Zion will have on the nations (Epp-Tiessen: 217–18). Both 4:1-5 and 4:11-13 depict Zion as a magnet attracting the nations, but in the latter the outcome is their doom, whereas in the former God transforms the nations so that they experience peace and prosperity. Perhaps the best approach is to avoid harmonizing in favor of accepting the two texts as contrasting scenarios. Christians will have to decide if their theological and ethical imagination will be formed by the image of God’s people empowered to thresh the nations or by the image of God transforming the nations so that they beat their swords into plowshares.

In 5:1-4 Zion is besieged by enemies, and its king is helpless to defend himself and his people. God promises to raise up a powerful new ruler from David’s hometown, the small village of Bethlehem just south of Jerusalem. Although Micah never calls this king the “Messiah,” later tradition moved in that direction because the Messiah was envisioned as God’s new Davidic king who would liberate and defend Israel (see Matt 2:4-6; Epp-Tiessen: 226–29). The need for a new king seems to assume the Babylonian destruction of Judah, which ended the Davidic monarchy (Wolff 1990: 144). Empowered by God, the mighty Davidic king will shepherd his people, ensuring their peace and security.

The appearance of the new king inspires the community to express confidence in the defeat of “Assyria” (5:5-6). Because Assyria was a powerful enemy for over a century, it came to symbolize later conquering empires (Ezra 6:22; Isa 27:12-13; 52:4; Zech 10:10-11; Wolff 1990: 147). In the current passage Assyria symbolizes any enemy that Israel will be able to defeat in the age of its new king. The theme of conquering enemies continues in the next unit (5:7-9), with a description of how the fragile remnant will become a ferocious, unstoppable lion among the nations, ravaging and scattering them just like a real lion can mangle individual sheep and scatter the flock.

The interpretation of 5:10-15 depends on whether the repeated “you” and “your” in the passage designates Israel or foreign nations. Most likely the “you” is Israel because the false objects of trust that God “will cut off” are objects and practices for which the Old Testament condemns Israel. Similar condemnations are not directed against the nations because they do not have a relationship with Israel’s God (Epp-Tiessen: 224–25). God will cut off two major sources of security: Israel’s military infrastructure (5:10-11) and various religious practices often associated with worship of other gods (5:12-14). Their removal represents a painful purging that undermines Israel’s attempt to seek its own security. It also clears the ground for trust in God, in preparation for entering the good future foretold in Micah 4–5 (Andersen and Freedman: 489).

Cycle 3: From Alienation to Reconciliation (6:1–7:20)

Alienation Leads to God’s Judgment Again (6:1–7:7)

For the third time Micah launches into judgment upon Israel. God initiates a mock court case against the people (6:1-2), in exasperation summarizing his saving deeds during the exodus, wilderness wandering, and entry into Canaan (6:3-5). In response, an anonymous person seems to recognize that Israel’s relationship with God needs mending and asks what the appropriate response should be. The potential sacrifices the speaker contemplates grow to impossibly exaggerated numbers and value, reaching a climax with the possibility of sacrificing a firstborn son (6:6-7). Sacrifice was an essential feature of Israelite worship, deemed necessary to maintain a healthy relationship to God (Exod 23:15; 34:20; Lev 1–7).

The exaggerated questions set the scene for announcing that God’s top priority is for people,

to do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God. (6:8)

Instead of external objects a worshiper might offer, God desires the worshiper’s life (Mays 137). With its sharp focus on justice and kindness toward neighbor, alongside commitment to God, it is fitting that this verse is frequently cited as a summary of the faithful life. It is strikingly similar to Jesus’s assertion that the two greatest commandments are love of God and love of neighbor (Mark 12:28-34).

God’s denunciation of immoral practices used by the wealthy and powerful to exploit the poor and vulnerable (6:10-12) indicates that the actions of Israel’s leaders have fallen disastrously short of the justice, kindness, and walking with God called for here. As punishment, God will send horrible devastation (6:13-16).

Micah then utters a poignant lament over the sad state of his people, focusing on their moral chaos (7:1-6). He laments the disappearance of righteous persons, brutality toward neighbors, corruption among leaders, and the breakdown of intimate relationships. However, grief over his people’s immorality does not leave Micah in despair. Rather it leads him to turn to God and to express confidence in God’s saving ways (7:7), a fitting transition to the final section of the book where the chastened community embraces a similar faith.

Confessing God’s Grace and Deliverance (7:8–20)

Micah’s final salvation section differs from the previous two. It consists mostly of the community’s expression of confidence in God’s deliverance, rather than specific promises of deliverance. Also, for the first time the community confesses its sin and accepts God’s judgment (7:9a). In this final section the community embraces the core elements of the book: judgment and deliverance. It demonstrates an inspiring newfound faith that signals healing in its fractured relationship with God and models how the ongoing faith community should appropriate the book. In 7:8-10 the community warns enemies not to rejoice over its destruction. It acknowledges that it must accept God’s judgment, but it also confidently asserts that it will experience God’s restoration and see the humiliation of its enemies. In response, Micah announces a special day of God’s deliverance on which the city will be rebuilt, Judah’s boundaries extended, the exiles returned, and the nations punished for their evil deeds (7:11-13).

Micah, or the community, then utters a prayer asking God to protect and care for his flock (7:14). God responds by promising to perform signs like those that accompanied the exodus (7:15 NIV and CEB vs. NRSV). The community immediately expresses confidence that the nations will witness God’s exodus-like deliverance of Israel and be humiliated into submission (7:16-17).

The defeat and humiliation of enemy nations is a central feature of Micah’s vision of deliverance (4:11-13; 5:5-6, 7-9, 15; 7:10, 13, 16-17). Such passages recognize that Israel’s well-being may require the defeat of oppressive nations, especially given Judah’s experience at the hands of Assyria and Babylon. A contemporary Christian response, however, is a different matter (see Conclusion below).

Micah closes with the people who once stood under God’s judgment, voicing their crescendo of praise to the God who is incomparable when it comes to grace, compassion, willingness to pardon Israel’s sin, and faithfulness to the promises of blessing made to Israel’s ancestors (7:18-20). “With this kind of God there is hope for Israel’s future!” (Fretheim: 221).

Conclusion and the Anabaptist Tradition

Church leaders in the second and third centuries frequently cited the “swords into plowshares” passage (4:1-5; Lohfink: 184; see Epp-Tiessen: 229–30). They believed that God’s good future as envisioned by Micah and other prophetic promises of deliverance had already broken into human history through the ministry of Jesus (Lohfink: 194). He was the magnetic mountain through whom God was offering salvation and knowledge of God to the nations. The peace that Micah envisioned emanated from the church, which saw itself as an alternative community embracing Jesus’s call to nonviolent discipleship, which fulfilled the promise of swords beaten into plowshares (Lohfink: 191, 194–95).

After Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, however, Micah’s vision gradually ceased to play a significant role in the church’s ethical imagination. Constantine’s supporter, the theologian Eusebius, claimed that the Roman Empire created the universal peace that Micah foretold, a rather stunning argument given the conquest and slaughter enacted by the Roman armies. Because of the empire’s supposedly peaceful rule, the nations could renounce war and beat their swords into plowshares (Lohfink: 197–98). Since God’s peace did not come through nonviolence but through imperial rule, Eusebius absolved the church from living out the vision of beating swords into plowshares.

In contrast, early Anabaptist leaders saw a direct link between their nonviolence and the swords-into-plowshares vision they believed was being fulfilled in Christ. Menno Simons declared that because Christ’s kingdom is a kingdom of peace, “in His church they beat their swords into plowshares and sit under their fig tree and vine, and no more raise up their hands unto warfare” (1031). An introductory confession of faith in the Martyrs Mirror describes how Jesus encourages his followers “to put the sword into the sheath, or, as the prophets have predicted, to beat the swords into ploughshares” (van Braght: 42). While in prison awaiting execution, Hendrick Alewijns encouraged nonviolent discipleship among fellow believers by writing, “For, understand, the prophecy is fulfilled which said with reference to this time, that such people have beaten their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles” (van Braght: 754). Because Anabaptist leaders believed that the ministry of Jesus actualized the swords into plowshares vision, they were convinced that it must also energize and shape the lifestyle of his followers (Epp-Tiessen: 231–32).

In addition, early Anabaptists identified with the oppressed persons whose well-being Micah championed. They applied Micah’s condemnation of unjust rulers and corrupt religious leaders to the political and religious leaders of the sixteenth century. They quoted excerpts from Micah 3 to describe how corrupt state and church leaders enriched themselves while oppressing the poor, all the while claiming God’s approval and protection. They also embraced Micah’s summary of the faithful life: doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God (6:8; Epp-Tiessen: 173–74; 202–3; 242).

As noted above, the defeat and humiliation of enemy nations is a central feature of Micah’s vision of deliverance (4:11-13; 5:5-6, 7-9, 15; 7:10, 13, 16-17). Such passages assume that a nation’s well-being may require the defeat of oppressive enemy nations. Whatever may have been the case in ancient times, Christians today should for multiple reasons resist believing that the salvation of God’s people requires the destruction of their human enemies (Epp-Tiessen: 233–34; 304–8). According to the New Testament, God is at work through Jesus Christ, not to destroy our enemies but to reconcile the divided factions of the human community to each other and to God (Eph 2:11-22). For further discussion, see “Joel” and “Obadiah” in the Anabaptist Dictionary of the Bible and the essays “Salvation and the Destruction of Enemies” and “Strategies for Interpreting Problematic Texts” cited below.

Recommended Essays in the Commentary

God’s Judgment
Remnant
Salvation and the Destruction of Enemies
Strategies for Interpreting Problematic Texts
Zion Tradition

Bibliography

• Achtemeier, Elizabeth. Minor Prophets I. New International Biblical Commentary. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996.
• Alfaro, Juan I. Justice and Loyalty: A Commentary on the Book of Micah. International Theological Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989.
• Andersen, Francis I., and David Noel Freedman. Micah: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Anchor Bible 24E. New York: Doubleday, 2000.
• Cuffey, Kenneth H. The Literary Coherence of the Book of Micah: Remnant, Restoration, and Promise. Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 611. New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015.
• Dempster, Stephen, G. Micah. Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2017.
• Epp-Tiessen, Daniel. Joel, Obadiah, Micah. Believers Church Bible Commentary. Harrisonburg, VA: Herald, 2022.
• Fretheim, Terence E. Reading Hosea–Micah: A Literary and Theological Commentary. Macon, GA: Smyth and Helwys, 2013.
• Jacobs, Mignon R. The Conceptual Coherence of the Book of Micah. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series. Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic, 2001.
• Lohfink, Gerhard. “‘Schwerter zu Pflugscharen’: Die Rezeption von Jes 2, 1–5 par Mi 4, 1–5 in der Alten Kirche und im Neuen Testament.” Theologische Quartalschrift 166, no. 3 (1986):184–209.
• Mason, Rex. Micah, Nahum, Obadiah. Old Testament Guides. Sheffield, UK: JSOT Press, 1991.
• Mays, James Luther. Micah. Old Testament Library. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1976.
• Menno Simons. The Complete Writings of Menno Simons, c. 1496–1541. Translated by Leonard Verduin. Edited by John C. Wenger. Scottdale, PA: Herald, 1956.
• Nogalski, James D. The Book of the Twelve: Micah–Malachi. Smyth and Helwys Bible Commentary. Macon, GA: Smyth and Helwys, 2011.
• Peterson, Eugene H. The Message: The Bible in Contemporary English. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2002.
• Smith-Christopher, Daniel L. Micah: A Commentary. Old Testament Library. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2015.
• Stulman, Louis, and Hyun Chul Paul Kim. You Are My People: An Introduction to Prophetic Literature. Nashville: Abingdon, 2010.
• Van Braght, Thieleman J. The Bloody Theater: Or, Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians. 5th ed. Translated by Joseph F. Sohm. Scottdale, PA: Herald, 1950.
• Wagenaar, Jan A. Judgement and Salvation: The Composition and Redaction of Micah 2–5. Supplements to Vetus Testamentum 85. Leiden: Brill, 2001.
• Waltke, Bruce K. A Commentary on Micah. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007.
• Wolff, Hans Walter. Micah the Prophet. Translated by Ralph D. Gehrke. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1981.
• ______. Micah: A Commentary. Translated by Gary Stansell. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1990.

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—Daniel Epp-Tiessen