Saints
“Micah the Morasthite”
One of the Twelve Minor Prophets · Contemporary of Isaiah
A prophet of the small town of Moresheth in the Judean lowlands, who prophesied under Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, in the years the northern kingdom fell to Assyria. He named Bethlehem as the birthplace of the Ruler whose goings forth have been from of old, seven hundred years before the Magi were sent there on the strength of it.
His life
Micah was from Moresheth-Gath, a country town in the Judean lowlands rather than the capital, and the difference shows in his book: his anger is at what the landowners and the courts of Jerusalem were doing to the smallholders of places like his own, at judges who ruled for a bribe, priests who taught for hire, and prophets who prophesied for money.
He prophesied in the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah of Judah, the same decades as Isaiah at Jerusalem and Hosea in the north, and he saw Samaria fall to Assyria and Sennacherib's army come up into Judah.
Two passages of his are among the best known in the prophets. The first is the word about Bethlehem Ephratha, little among the thousands of Judah, out of which shall come forth the One who is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting: the verse the chief priests quoted to Herod when the Magi asked where the King was to be born. The second is the answer to the question of what the Lord requires, which is to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.
The Book of Micah is in this app in full in the Brenton Septuagint. The Church commemorates him on the fourteenth of August, and he is not to be confused with the earlier Micah son of Imlah, who confronted Ahab and is commemorated on the fifth of January.
Holy The Prophet Micah, pray to God for us.