Relationship between Micah and Isaiah

 

 

Part One:

Some striking similarities

by

 

Damien F. Mackey

 

 

‘Because of this I will weep and wail; I will go about barefoot and naked.
I will howl like a jackal and moan like an owl.
For Samaria’s plague is incurable; it has spread to Judah’.

 

Micah 1:8-9

 

“In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it— at that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, ‘Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet’. And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot”.

 

Isaiah 20:1-2

 

 

This is not the only instance of the prophets Micah and Isaiah saying/doing the same thing.

Consider the following extraordinary case of almost word-for-word parallelism:

 

Micah 4:1-3	Isaiah 2:2-4
In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills. Peoples shall stream to it, and many nations shall come and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths’. For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more ….	In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths’. For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

 

We know that these two prophets were contemporaries, both living at least during the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah. Cf. Jeremiah 26:18: “Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah. He told all the people of Judah, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets”’,” and Isaiah 1:1: “The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah”.

And we can extend that contemporaneity even further, to include King Jotham (Micah 1:1): “The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah—the vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem”.

But commentators - struck by such similarities between the two prophets as those noted above - are nevertheless divided about who may have borrowed from whom.

Philip J. King, for instance, writing on “Micah” for The Jerome Biblical Commentary (1968), believed that it was Isaiah who had influenced Micah (17:7, p. 284): “... the influence [upon Micah] of Isaiah, also Hosea and Amos, is evident”. {This may seem to be a logical conclusion considering that, whilst Isaiah informs us in 1:1 that he had been prophesying as far back as the reign of King Uzziah Judah, Micah (qua Micah) can claim to have gone back only as far as the reign of Uzziah’ son, Jotham}.

James-Michael Smith, however, in his “Micah 4 and Isaiah 2: Who Borrowed from Who??”, is far less decisive (http://jmsmith.org/downloads/Micah-4-and-Isaiah-2-Who-Borrowed-from-Who.pdf):

 

Because of their almost identical nature however, these two prophecies also raise controversy regarding authorship and inspiration. Are Micah 4:1-5 and Isaiah 2:1-5 two different prophecies given to two different prophets on two separate occasions? Or are they two remnants of one original anonymous saying, which was adapted into the books named after these prophets hundreds of years later? Or perhaps Micah was the original author and Isaiah borrowed from him—or vice versa.

[End of quote]

 

What I think is certain - on the basis of the undeniable similarities referred to above - is that there must have been a very close relationship between these two contemporary prophets, Micah and Isaiah.

And, in Part Two, I hope to be more specific about the nature of this perceived relationship.

Part Two:

Simeonites in northern Israel

 

“Nor ... is the most important geographical detail in the book [of Judith], namely

the reference to a Jewish (Simeonite) settlement on the border of the valley of

Dothan, a fabrication. For a combination of various sources (Meg. Ta’an, for 25

Marheshvan (chap. 8); Jos., Ant. 13:275f., 379f; Wars 1:93f.; and also apparently I

Macc. 5:23) shows that at the time of the return in the region of Samaria, in the

neighbourhood of what was known as “the cities of Nebhrakta,” there was a

Jewish-Simeonite settlement ...”.

 

J. Bruns, “Judith, Book of” (NCE 8, 2003).

 

Introduction

 

In Part One we discovered that the contemporaneity of the two prophets under consideration, Micah and Isaiah, extended at least from King Jotham of Judah until King Hezekiah of Judah. Although Isaiah can claim to go back even further, to the time of Jotham’s father, King Uzziah, this may not be all that chronologically significant, given that the leprous Uzziah had required his son, Jotham, to co-rule with him.

According e.g. to http://www.vtaide.com/gleanings/Kings-of-Israel/biography_Jotham.html

 

King Jotham ascended to become Judah's eleventh ruler while his father, King Uzziah, still lived, this unusual arrangement being necessary because of Uzziah's medical retirement. Jotham apparently reigned for 13 years while his father lived, then three more years after his death.

 

Micah may actually be able to ‘trump’ Isaiah here if I am right in identifying the former with Amos, whose career as a prophet extended back even to Jeroboam II. See my:

 

Merging Prophet Amos with Micah. Part One: Geography

 

https://www.academia.edu/27256851/Merging_Prophet_Amos_with_Micah._Part_One_Geography

and:

 

Merging Prophet Amos with Micah. Part Two: Chronology

 

https://www.academia.edu/27351552/Merging_Prophet_Amos_with_Micah._Part_Two_Chronology

 

This, Amos = Micah, is an identification that I had already advanced in my university thesis:

 

A Revised History of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah

and its Background

 

AMAIC_Final_Thesis_2009.pdf

 

(Volume Two, pp. 87-102: EXCURSUS: LIFE AND TIMES OF HEZEKIAH’S CONTEMPORARY, ISAIAH), though there I had somewhat over-done my use of alter egos.

But one extension of Amos = Micah that I had employed there - namely, that the prophet Micah was also the same person as the Simeonite “Micah” of “Bethulia” in the Book of Judith, coupled with this Micah’s son, “Uzziah”, being Isaiah himself - I am still inclined to retain.

 

Isaiah and his

Prophet father

 

Taking, now, some still relevant (as I see it) parts of my Excursus on Isaiah:

 

Relevant to my efforts to merge KCI [Kings, Chronicles, Isaiah] with BOJ [Book of Judith] is the need now to test whether Isaiah finds his appropriate match in the Simeonite Uzziah, chief magistrate of Bethulia, who – in the context of my reconstruction – must have been a great man in Hezekiah’s kingdom. We saw recently, in Chapter 3 (on p. 67), that Uzziah was entitled both ‘the prince of Judah’ and ‘the prince of the people of Israel’. Now such an identification, of Isaiah with Uzziah, would necessitate that Uzziah’s father, Micah, be the same as Isaiah’s father, Amos (or Amoz). This is interesting. Whilst the names Amos and Micah do not immediately appear to share any similarity whatsoever, scholars find an incredible similarity though between whom they consider to be these ‘two’ prophets. Thus King:1356

 

Not only did Micah live in the vicinity of Amos’ home, Tekoa, but he was like Amos in many respects. He was so much influenced by the spirit of Amos that he has been called “Amos redivivus”. Both [sic] rustic prophets attacked in a direct and forceful way the socio-economic abuses of their day.

 

Micah’s origins we do know. He hailed from the town of ‘Moresheth’ (Micah 1:1) - thought to be Moresheth-Gath, a border town of southern Judah. It is in this location, Moresheth-Gath, I suggest, that we discover the place of origin of Isaiah and his father.

 

Comment: For a clearer view of this, see my “Merging Prophet Amos with Micah. Part One: Geography” (above).

 

Amos began his prophetic ministry in the latter days of … Jeroboam II of Israel (c. 785-743 BC, conventional dates …). ….

 

Comment: For a clearer view of this, see my “Merging Prophet Amos with Micah. Part Two: Chronology” (above).

 

Amos was called to leave Judah and testify in the north against the injustices of Samaria. (Cf. Micah 1:2-7). Most interestingly, Amos was to be found preaching in the northern Bethel, which I have identified with Bethulia of BOJ (refer back to pp. 71-72 of this volume). Not unexpectedly, Amos’ presence there at the time of Jeroboam II was not appreciated by the Bethelite priesthood, who regarded him as a conspirator from the southern kingdom (Amos 7:10). Being the man that he was, though, Amos would unlikely have been frightened away by Jeroboam’s priest, Amaziah, when he had urged Amos (vv.12-13): ‘O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is the temple of the kingdom’. Still, Amos may not have settled permanently in the north at this time, but may have waited until the fall of Jeroboam II and his régime in Israel and the onset of the long interregnum there.

Presumably Amos had chosen Bethel/Bethulia in which to settle because there, more than likely, he had Simeonite ancestors. Judith’s husband Manasseh would later be buried near Bethulia “with his ancestors” (Judith 8:3). This town would thus have been one of those locations in which the migrant Simeonites of king Asa of Judah’s reign (more than a century earlier) had chosen to settle; perhaps re-naming the place Bethul [Bethel] after a Simeonite town of that name in south western Judah (Joshua 19:4).

….

If these connections are valid, then Isaiah must therefore have accompanied his father to the north …. He would continue prophesying right down to the time of king Hezekiah ….

…. Whilst this Simeonite family was not descended from the prophetic line, as Amos himself would testify to the priest of Bethel (7:14), it was certainly a ‘family’ from the point of view of its striking the same prophetic chord. Commentators have recognised a similar strain in the writings of Amos, Micah, Hosea and Isaiah, whilst having no idea of what was - at least, as far as I see it - their proper (father-to-son) relationship. Thus King has written, in regard to the prophet Micah:1362 “... the influence [upon Micah] of Isaiah, also Hosea and Amos, is evident”. But it was rather Micah, as Amos, I suggest, who was doing the ‘influencing’; he upon his son Isaiah ….

Micah and Isaiah were, as I said, a father-and-son prophetic combination.