Today we meet another not-so-minor prophet, the sixth on our list of twelve.
Micah left his mark on generations of prophets and gave us some memorable sound bites, still helpful as we try to respond to the tragedies of war and the cruelty of injustice with resilience, honesty and at least a bit of hope. He is a prophet of the people. Today, 136 days into this vicious conflict that continues to claim lives and snuff out hope - we welcome yet another prophetic voice to guide us as walks his talk with the people - moaning with us as we moan, helping us resist hopelessness.
Micah of Morasha, born in the plains of Judea, became an active and articulate prophet in Judah, speaking up in the courts of Jerusalem, approximately between 737 to 696 BCE. He was an eyewitness to the war between Israel and Judah in 734 BCE, experienced the destruction of Israel by Assyria in 722 BCE, and likely lived through the devastation brought by Sennacherib's invasion of Judah in 701 BCE.
דְּבַר־יְהֹוָ֣ה ׀ אֲשֶׁ֣ר הָיָ֗ה אֶל־מִיכָה֙ הַמֹּ֣רַשְׁתִּ֔י בִּימֵ֥י יוֹתָ֛ם אָחָ֥ז יְחִזְקִיָּ֖ה מַלְכֵ֣י יְהוּדָ֑ה אֲשֶׁר־חָזָ֥ה עַל־שֹׁמְר֖וֹן וִירֽוּשָׁלָֽ͏ִם׃
The word of YHWH that came to Micah the Morashtite, who prophesied concerning Samaria and Jerusalem in the reigns of Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah.
Micah 1:1
Those were critical decades in the decline of both the northern kingdom and eventually the southern kingdom as well. Micah mourns the dissolution of society, predicts the dire outcomes - and offers a vision for the better days that will eventually come as well. Micah was a villager, an outsider to Jerusalem’s power structures and society, unlike his contemporary Isaiah who was of royal stock and also spoke up in Jerusalem at the same time. The relationship between them is interesting, as they will quote each other, with slightly political positions and poetic styles.
One of the more compelling aspects of Micah’s words is that they convey his sense of deep solidarity with the people he is talking to, taking on their sorrow and their pain, there with them together through the tough times, through all the sorrow. Only once he gains their trust as one of theirs in pain - he can begin to also offer protest and rebuke.
He begins his book with a vision of the day of judgment - when YHWH will descend again, the mountains melting as wax, to demand justice from Samaria. All will be demolished - its foundations laid bare. It is unclear whether he is talking about what had already happened to Samaria in 722 BCE as Assyria finally took over - or imagining a future calamity. But either way it is his wailing and howling that echoes through the people’s ears and pierce the hearts:
עַל־זֹאת֙ אֶסְפְּדָ֣ה וְאֵילִ֔ילָה אֵילְכָ֥ה שׁוֹלָ֖ל וְעָר֑וֹם אֶעֱשֶׂ֤ה מִסְפֵּד֙ כַּתַּנִּ֔ים וְאֵ֖בֶל כִּבְנ֥וֹת יַעֲנָֽה׃
Because of this I will lament and wail;
I will go stripped and naked!
I will lament as sadly as the jackals,
As mournfully as the owls.
Micah 1:8
A prophet who joins his traumatized people, lamenting as beasts in the wild, may also gain their trust.
Yaakov Beasley explores this idea:
“Decreeing the destruction of the northern kingdom, Micah shares with us his reaction to the Divine judgment – he will wail and cry, approach insanity, and walk around in a state of undress. While some may not be comfortable with the image of a prophet going naked, we imagine Micah himself walking alongside the chained and fettered rows of captives, crying with them, wishing to share their burdens and their sufferings, as they leave behind the land of Israel.
..In the Bible the act of going into exile was equivalent to death.”
Micah’s howls and gestures of grief will transform into a searing rebuke of corruption and greed - the reasons for the tears and the cause of the collapse of their civilization. Only the owls will be heard when the city is empty of its people.
The Hebrew word for ‘owls’, incidentally, is ‘B’not Ya’ana’, not a usual term, and sometimes translated as ‘ostriches’.
Scholars have scratched their heads at this one - were there ostriches in that part of the world in the 8th century BCE? And did they moan?
We’ll go with owls, although the ostriches remind us what happens when we put our heads in the sand for too long.
And when we do - it is time for the prophets to help us grieve, face facts, find paths ahead, survive, thrive, grow.
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