Micah the Morasthite was a prophet who spoke to Judah in the days of three kings. His words were blunt. He told the leaders of Jerusalem that because of their corruption, Zion would be plowed like a field.
Long after Micah, in the days of King Jehoiakim, those words came back. A crowd in the house of the LORD wanted the prophet Jeremiah dead, and it was Micah’s prophecy that elders of the land quoted to defend him. Micah also gave two of the best-known lines in the Old Testament: the town where a ruler would be born, and a short answer to what God wants from people.
The Story of Micah
The book opens, The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. He called on everyone to listen: Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is. He named the problem in both capitals – the transgression of Jacob was in Samaria, and the high places of Judah were in Jerusalem.
Micah spoke directly to the rulers. Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, he said, Is it not for you to know judgment? Instead they hate the good, and love the evil. He named their sins: The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money. They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity, and still they said, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us. Micah answered with the hardest word of all: Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.
Micah also spoke of a ruler to come, from a small town: But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Centuries later, when King Herod demanded where Christ should be born, the chief priests and scribes answered, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.
In chapter 6 the LORD brought his case against his people. O my people, what have I done unto thee? he asked, reminding them that he brought thee up out of the land of Egypt and sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. The passage asks what offering would be enough: burnt offerings, thousands of rams, ten thousands of rivers of oil, even a firstborn. Micah’s answer was simple: He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Micah’s warning about Zion was remembered long after him. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, Jeremiah stood in the court of the LORD’s house and warned that the LORD would make this house like Shiloh. When he finished, the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die. The princes of Judah came up from the king’s house and sat in the entry of the new gate, and the priests and prophets told them, This man is worthy to die.
Jeremiah answered that the LORD had sent him, and called them to amend your ways and your doings. Then the princes and all the people said, This man is not worthy to die: for he hath spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God. Certain of the elders of the land rose up and reminded the assembly, Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Zion shall be plowed like a field. Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? did he not fear the LORD, and besought the LORD, and the LORD repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? In the end the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that he was not given into the hand of the people to put him to death.
Key Verses
“The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah” Micah 1:1
“Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps” Micah 3:12
“Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah” Jeremiah 26:18
“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel” Micah 5:2
“What doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God” Micah 6:8
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV), a public-domain translation.
What the Story of Micah Teaches Us
God holds leaders to account. Micah did not soften his words for the heads of Jacob, the priests or the prophets. They judged for reward and taught for hire, and they still claimed, Is not the LORD among us? Micah showed that saying the right religious words does not protect people who build up Zion with blood.
God’s word keeps working long after it is spoken. Micah warned that Zion would be plowed like a field, and King Hezekiah did not kill him; he feared the LORD and besought the LORD. Generations later, elders of the land remembered how Hezekiah had answered Micah, and that memory helped keep Jeremiah from being put to death. Micah’s prophecy about Bethlehem Ephratah was also still being read when Herod asked where Christ should be born.
God tells people plainly what he wants. When the question was whether thousands of rams or rivers of oil would please him, Micah answered that God had already shown them: to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. It is not a long list of rituals but a way of living before God every day.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Micah in the Bible?
Micah was a prophet called Micah the Morasthite who received the word of the LORD in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, concerning Samaria and Jerusalem (Micah 1:1).
How did the elders use Micah’s prophecy to defend Jeremiah?
When the priests and prophets said Jeremiah was worthy to die, certain elders of the land reminded the people that Micah the Morasthite had prophesied Zion shall be plowed like a field, and King Hezekiah did not put him to death but feared the LORD (Jeremiah 26:17-19).
What does Micah 6:8 say?
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:8).
Where did Micah say the ruler would be born?
Micah 5:2 names Bethlehem Ephratah: out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel. The chief priests and scribes quoted this prophecy when Herod asked where Christ should be born (Matthew 2:4-6).
What did Micah prophesy about Jerusalem?
He said, Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, because its rulers judged for reward and its priests taught for hire (Micah 3:11-12).