suggesting occasionally a reconsideration of some question, or a fuller treatment of difficult passages, and the like.

Beyond this he has not attempted to interfere, feeling it better that each Commentary should have its own individual character, and being convinced. that freshness and variety of treatment are more than a compensation for any lack of uniformity in the Series.

DEANERY, PETERBOROUGII.

CONTENTS.

I. INTRODUCTION.

The Arrangement of the Book

Style and Subject

Social, Religious, and Political state of Judah.
Chronology

II. TEXT AND NOTES

*

INDEX...

PAGES

9

JO

10--13

13

14

17-61

63

The Text adopted in this Edition is that of Dr Scrivener's Cambridge Paragraph Bible. A few variations from the ordinary Text, chiefly in the spelling of certain words, and in the use of italics, will be noticed. For the principles adopted by Dr Scrivener as regards the printing of the Text see his Introduction to the Paragraph Bible, published by the Cambridge University Press.

INTRODUCTION.

MICAH, also written Micaiah (Jer. xxvi. 18 K'thibh), was perhaps the youngest of that remarkable group of prophets who fill up the period from Uzziah to Hezekiah. He is called 'the Morasthite,' i. 1 (i. e. a native of Moresheth, a small town in the maritime plain near Gath1, i. 14), to distinguish him from the Micaiah who lived in the reign of Ahab (1 Kings xxii.). His family would seem not to have been very important; otherwise his father's name would have been stated—-as, for instance, Isaiah is described as "Isaiah, the son of Amoz." According to the heading, he prophesied "in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah” (i. 1), i. e. between 759 and 679 B. C. There is a difficulty, however, in accepting this date. We read in Jer. xxvi. 17, 18,

"Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spake to all the assembly of Israel, saying, Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, ... "

It is true, the passage quoted by the elders is Mic. iii. 12; so that there still might be a prophecy older than Hezekiah, if internal evidence suggested this. But internal evidence does not favour this view. Hezekiah was evidently already king when the prophecy against Samaria in chap. i. was written;

1 The place was still known in the time of St Jerome, who says (Prol. ad explanandum Michæam); "Michæam de Morasthi qui usque hodie juxta Eleutheropolin (five Roman miles north of Gath) haud grandis est viculus."

and the argument used by some, 'the prophecy in Mic. iv. 1-3 is evidently more original than the form assumed by the same passage in Isai. ii. 2—4, therefore, since Isai. ii. was written probably under Ahaz, Mic. iv. cannot be later than the reign of Ahaz,' will not hold good, 1. because chap. iv. I is attached to chap. iii. 12, which was written (as Jeremiah shews) in the reign of Hezekiah, and 2. because chap. iv. 1-4 is not in the style of Micah, and was probably inserted here by Micah or another from some (perhaps older) prophet. It is better therefore to accept the statement of Jer. l. c. in its most literal sense, that "Micah prophesied in the days of Hezekiah." This at any rate applies to chaps. i.—iii., though it is perfectly possible that some parts of the later chapters (especially chaps. vi. vii.) may belong to a subsequent period. As to the heading, it has no binding authority; there is a similar inaccuracy in the heading of the prophecies of Isaiah. Here, as in the case of the headings of the Psalms, we are driven to assume that it was inserted by the scribes during the Babylonian Exile.

THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE BOOK. Micah was not a literary artist, and we have no right to expect a careful and logical distribution of the contents. It is plausible to divide the book into three parts (viz. 1. chaps. i. ii.; 2. chaps. iii. iv. v.; 3. chaps. vi. vii.), each part beginning with 'Hear ye,' and each closing with a promise. And yet this division cannot have been originally intended. The abrupt transitions with which the book abounds prove that the Book of Micah, like most of the other prophetic writings, was mainly founded on discourses, or notes of discourses, composed on various occasions. With this reserve, however, we may accept another threefold division in preference to that above mentioned, viz. 1. chaps. i.—iii.; 2. chaps. iv. v.; 3. chaps. vi. vii. Threatening, or at least a gloomy view of things, predominates in the first and third; promise in the second.

STYLE AND SUBJECT. The prophecies of Micah are addressed to all Israel, but refer more particularly to Judah. He