Micah
c. 757–c. 696 BCE · Ancient Israel
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
The lineage through Micah
Inspired(1)
who Micah shaped
- Bunyan reached for Micah at his most desperate moments — Christian throws Micah 7:8, "when I fall I shall arise," straight into Apollyon's face mid-combat
- Micah 7's trembling, hiding sinners surface again at Bunyan's Last Judgment, marked in the 1678 margins as a scriptural anchor for the terror of that scene
Famous Quotes
“And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”
“But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.”
“Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.”
About Micah
Prophet from the Judean countryside, contemporary of Isaiah. His prophecy of a ruler from Bethlehem and his summary of what God requires — justice, mercy, and humility — became touchstones of biblical ethics.