Writer: Micah

1. What kind of man was Micah?

THINK of a man of maturity, one who has spent many years in faithful service to Jehovah. Think of a bold man, one who could tell the rulers of his nation, “You haters of what is good and lovers of badness, . . . you the ones who have also eaten the organism of my people, and have stripped their very skin from off them.” Think of a humble man, one giving all credit for his powerful utterances to Jehovah, by whose spirit he spoke. Would you not enjoy the acquaintance of a man like that? What a wealth of information and sound counsel he could impart! The prophet Micah was such a man. We still have access to his choice counsel in the book that bears his name.​—Mic. 3:2, 3, 8.

Micah was a rural prophet from the village of Moresheth in the fertile Shephelah, southwest of Jerusalem. His familiarity with rural life is shown in the kind of illustrations he used to drive home the points of his declarations.​—2:12; 4:12, 13; 6:15; 7:1, 4, 14.

3. In what significant times did Micah serve, and why did Jehovah commission him as prophet?

³ Micah lived in dangerous and significant times. Fast-moving events were foreboding doom for the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Moral corruption and idolatry had gone to seed in Israel, and this brought the nation destruction from Assyria, evidently during Micah’s own lifetime. Judah swung from doing right in the reign of Jotham to duplicating Israel’s wickedness in Ahaz’ rebellious reign and then to a recovery during the reign of Hezekiah. Jehovah raised up Micah to warn His people strongly of what He was bringing upon them.