Mica (mi"kuh; Heb., "who is like Yah [God]?"), a shortened form of Micaiah.

1 The son ol Mephibosheth (Meribbaal) and Saul's greatgrandson by Jonathan (2 Sam. 9:12); he is also called Micah (1 Chron. 8:34-35). 2 A Levite, the son of Zichri and father of Mattaniah, a postexilic inhabitant of Jerusalem (1 Chron. 9:15; Neh. 11:22); he is probably the same Levite who is elsewhere called the son of Zabdiel and father of Mattaniah (1 Chron. 11:17). He may also be the same Levite called Micaiah and the son of Zaccur and father of Mattaniah (Neh. 12:35). It is possible that these represent three different persons. 3 A Levite who signed the covenant to keep the law (Neh. 10:11); possibly the same as 2 above. See also Micah; Micaiah. D.R.B. Micah (mi'*kuh), a shortened form of the name Micaiah (Heb., "who is like Yahweh?"). Etymologically the name is an expression of praise to the God who is incomparable. The name is given to several different individuals in the Hebrew Bible: 1 The prophet Micah of Moresheth, a town some twenty-five miles southwest of Jerusalem, to whom the book of Micah is attributed. In addition to the information in Mic. 1:1, Jer. 26:18 reports that Micah came to Jerusalem in the time of Hezekiah, that is, during the last decade or so of the eighth century B.C., and announced the destruction of the city (cf. Mic. 3:12). His

exact dates are unknown, but he would have been a contemporary of Isaiah of Jerusalem. 2 A man in the hill country of Ephraim, a central but mainly passive figure in the story of the migration of the tribe of Dan (Judg. 17-18). His mother consecrated eleven hundred pieces of silver "to the Lord" (Judg. 17:3) to make a graven image and a molten image, a strange act in light of the OT prohibitions against images and idols. He established a shrine, made an ephod and teraphim, and set up one of his sons as priest. When a Levite from Bethlehem ("of the family of Judah," Judg. 17:7) appeared, Micah hired him as priest at the shrine. When the tribe of Dan, seeking a place to live, sent spies into the hill country of Ephraim, they stayed with Micah, asking the Levite to consult the Lord concerning their journey. Hearing his good report, they completed their exploration to the north and returned to lead the Danites to their new territory. When the five spies, along with six hundred armed Danites, returned through the hill country of Ephraim they stole Micah's "graven image, the ephod, the molten image" (Judg. 18:17) and took the Levite with them to their new territory in the north. The story is thus basically a negative account of how the shrine in Dan was established. 3 According to the genealogy in 1 Chron. 5:5, one of the descendants of Reuben. 4 The son of Meribbaal who was the son of Jonathan (1 Chron. 8:34-35; 9:40), the same as Mica the son of Mephibosheth in 2 Sam. 9:12. 5 A Levite in the time of David, one of the sons of Uzziel (1 Chron. 23:20; 24:24-25). 6 The father of Abdon in the time of Joaiah (2 Chron. 34:20), named Michiah in 2 Kings 22:12. See also Micah, The Book of. G.M.T. Micah, the Book of, one of the books of the twelve Minor Prophets in the Bible. The title comes from the name of the prophet to whom the book is attributed (Mic. 1:1). The book is a collection of prophetic addresses. In terms of both form and content the book has two major sections, each organized themat-ically to move from prophecies of punishment to prophecies of salvation. The first section, 1:2-5:15, contains prophecies of punishment against the capital cities of Samaria in the OUTLINE OF CONTENTS The Book of Micah I. Superscription (1:1) II. First collection of speeches (1:2-5:15) A. Prophecies of punishment (1:2-3:12) B. Prophecies of salvation (4:1-5:15) III. Second collection of speeches (6:1-7:20) A. Prophecies of punishment (6:1-7:6) B. Prophecies of salvation (7:7-20)

North and Jerusalem in the South in chaps. 1-3, followed in chaps. 4-5 by prophecies of salvation that see Mount Zion in Jerusalem as the center of the coming reign of peace. The second section, chaps. 67, has announcements of judgment in 6:1-7:6 and of salvation in 7:7-20. This part of the book begins with the Lord's trial proceedings against Israel (6:1-5) and focuses on the ruptured relationship between God and God's people. The concluding speeches of the book (7:8-20) announce reconciliation and renewal. The prophet Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah of Jerusalem, the prophet behind most of Isaiah 1-39. The book's superscription (1:1) dates Micah in the reign of three kings of Judah: Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. The solitary external reference to Micah, in Jer. 26:18, reports that the prophet came to Jerusalem in the reign of Hezekiah. Other allusions within the book are consistent with a date in the time of Hezekiah, that is, the last decades of the eighth century B.C. Micah went from his home in the small town of Moresheth, about twenty-five miles southwest of Jerusalem, to speak the word of the Lord in Judah's capital city. There has been considerable disagreement about how much of this book stems from the original prophet, but it is highly unlikely that all the addresses it contains were first delivered by Micah in the eighth century. Some commentators argue that Micah was exclusively a prophet of doom and that therefore all hopeful expressions come from a later time. How, these scholars argue, could the prophet who expected Zion to become a ruin (3:9-12) also promise that it would one day be the highest of the mountains of the earth (4:1-4)? A simple resolution of the question of authorship in terms of citing the prophet as negative and designating all positive expressions as secondary leaves too many questions unanswered. It is by no means certain that Micah himself had no positive vision for the future. Nevertheless, there is clear and strong evidence that the style, content, and historical perspective of some of the speeches reflect not the period of the Assyrian threat in the eighth century but the Babylonian exile in the sixth century B.C., and later. The style of 7:1-7 in particular is quite different from the first chapters of the book, and these prophecies of punishment very likely stem from centuries later than the time of Micah. Mic. 7:8-10 assumes that Judah has been destroyed by the Babylonians, and 7:11-13 has in view the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem after the return from Exile during the Persian period in the late sixth or early fifth century B.C. Moreover, 7:14-20 seems to take for granted the existence of the Second Temple in the postexilic period. To summarize the message of the prophet Micah himself would require determining precisely what parts of the book originated with him. It is unlikely, for example, that the mag-

nificent prophecy of peace and justice in 4:1-5 originated with Micah, since a virtually identical vision appears also in Isa. 2:2-5. This parallel underscores the fact that Isaiah and Micah share common traditions concerning the importance of Jerusalem as the center of God's rule. It is not difficult, however, to recognize the sense of the book of Micah. Although it is the product of centuries of tradition, its message can be outlined in a relatively consistent fashion: because of their sins, and particularly those of people in powerful places, God is about to punish God's people by means of military defeat and exile. Later those people will be brought back to their land, and God will establish perpetual peace. Such a summary of the message as a whole should not be allowed to obscure the distinctiveness and importance of individual passages in the book, such as 6:6-8, in which the will of God for human beings is specified as doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God. See also Prophet. Bibliography Hillers, Delbert R. Micah. Hermeneia. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984. Mays, James L. Micah. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1976. Wolff, Hans Walter. Micah the Prophet. Translated by R. D. Gehrke. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1981. G.M.T. Micaiah (mi-kay'yuh). 1 King Abijah's mother (2 Chron. 13:2), elsewhere called Maacah. 2 The son of Imlah, a prophet at Ahab's court (1 Kings 22). Ahab and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, wanted to liberate Ramoth-gilead from the Aramaeans. Before going to war they consulted some four hundred prophets, all of whom assured them that God would grant victory. When Micaiah was summoned, however, he reported a vision of the Israelites wandering about the hills like sheep without a shepherd. He described a meeting of the divine council at which God had commissioned "a lying spirit in the mouth of all [the] prophets" (v. 22) to "entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall of Ramoth-gilead" (v. 20). Ahab ordered Micaiah cast into prison and proceeded with his plan for war. Although he took the precaution of disguising himself before going into battle, he was fatally wounded when "a certain man drew his bow at a venture" (v. 34), and the Israelites left the battlefield in disarray, as Micaiah had predicted. 3 One of the princes sent by Jehoshaphat to instruct the cities of Judah in religious matters (2 Chron. 17:7). 4 The father of Achbor, a member of Josiah's delegation to Huldah the prophetess (2 Kings 22:12). 5 The son of Gemariah and grandson of Shaphan, both friends of Jeremiah. When Micaiah heard Baruch read the scroll of Jeremiah's oracles, he reported it to his father and other court officials (Jer. 36:11-13), and they arranged to have it

read to King Jehoiakim. 6 The forebear of cer tain postexilic priests (Neh. 12:35), elsewhere called Mica (Neh. 11:17, 22). 7 A priest in the time of Nehemiah (Neh. 12:41). P.K.M.