Jeff Ragan’s Reviews > The Book of Micah > Status Update

"Mountaintops appear as the entry point for deities to come & go between the heavens & the earth. They represent the place where a deity dwelled...a world beyond the earth where the lives of the gods unfolded, though they also intersect with human reality...the divine palace was...so far up the mountain that one could not see it from the ground, & in this sense it resided in the heavens" (62-3).

"Two sets of warnings ensue after the lament, one warns villages in the Shephelah that they will be destroyed when Jerusalem is punished (1:10-12) and the othrr treats the recent destruction of Lachish as an ominous warning of the destruction to come (1:13-16)...the passage evokes the events of Sennacherib's campaign in 701 BCE wherein he destroyed Lachish and laid siege to Jerusalem" (48).

"Old Testament prophets speaking under the authority of Yahweh take on the powerful, confronting kings, princes, priests, government officials, and foreign occupiers. Ordinary people would not dare to speak as blatantly as the Old Testament prophets do" (41).

"Just like the prophetic messages Yahweh commissioned to Judah and Israel, however, Yahweh's mercy at one point in time does not preclude judgment will not be inflicted at a later point. Prophetic messages of doom carry an implicit call to change, and prophetic messages of salvation were contingent upon remaining in Yahweh's good graces" (34).

"The destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BCE dramatically changed life in Jerusalem and Judah. The Babylonian conquest irreparably altered the physical and political landscape of the city. The Babylonians devastated the temple, the royal place, and the city walls. The dynasty of Davidic kings who had ruled Judah from Jerusalem ceased to exist after more than four hundred years in power" (9).

"Micah 1-3 critiques the nation for abandoning Yahweh (1:5-9) and for the injustice perpetrated by the wealthy over others" (3).