Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

• David's flight from Jerusalem 15:13-37
  The people of Israel had formerly given the kingdom to David as a gift (5:1-3), but now they took that gift from him (v. 13).237David knew that Absalom was popular with the people. Evidently he fled Jerusalem to save his own ...
• C. The oracle against Moab ch. 48
  This oracle is similar to the one in Isaiah 15 and 16.555Other oracles against Moab appear in Ezekiel 25:8-11, Amos 2:1-3, and Zephaniah 2:9, but this is the longest one. It is very difficult to say when Jeremiah gave this or...
• The sign of the death of Ezekiel's wife 24:15-24
  24:15-16 The Lord told Ezekiel that He was about to take the life of his beloved wife. The English word "blow"(v. 16) implies a sudden, unexpected death. The Hebrew word, magephoh, does not demand a sudden death, but it somet...
• Title and Writer
  The title, as usual in the prophetical books of the Old Testament, comes from the name of the traditional writer.The name "Micah"is a shortened form of "Micaiah,"which means "Who is like Yahweh?"The prophet's hometown was Mor...
• Date and Place of Composition
  Micah prophesied during the reigns of the Judean kings Jotham (750-732 B.C.), Ahaz (732-715 B.C.), and Hezekiah (715-686 B.C.; 1:1). This made him a late eighth-century contemporary of Isaiah, who also ministered in the South...
• Outline
  I. Heading 1:1II. The first oracle: Israel's impending judgment and future restoration 1:2-2:13A. The judgment coming on Israel 1:2-7B. Lamentation over the coming judgment 1:8-161. Micah's personal response 1:8-92. Micah's c...
• I. Heading 1:1
  Prophetic revelation from Yahweh came to Micah concerning Samaria (the Northern Kingdom) and Jerusalem (the Southern Kingdom). These capital cities represent their respective nations and the people in them. These capital citi...
• A. The judgment coming on Israel 1:2-7
  This opening pericope sets the tone and forms the backdrop for the rest of the book. All people were to hear God's indictment against His people (v. 2). Punishment was coming (vv. 3-4) that would be both reasonable (v. 5) and...
• 1. Micah's personal response 1:8-9
  1:8 In view of this coming judgment, Micah said he felt compelled to lament and wail. He would express his sorrow by going barefoot and naked, a common way of expressing it in his culture (cf. 2 Sam. 15:30; Isa. 20:2; 22:12; ...
• 2. Micah's call for the people's response 1:10-16
  The prophet used several clever wordplays in this poem to describe the desolation that God would bring on Judah. He selected towns and villages near his own hometown in Judah's Shephelah whose names were similar to the coming...
• C. The sins of Judah 2:1-11
  Micah identified the sins of the people of Judah, all of which violated the Mosaic Covenant. In view of these transgressions, divine punishment was just.In chapter 1 the sins of the people of both Northern and Southern Kingdo...
• 3. The indictment of Israel's leaders 3:9-12
  3:9 Micah proceeded to carry out his ministry (cf. v. 8). He called on all Israel's leaders to pay attention to what he had to say to them, they who despised (lit. utterly abhorred) justice and perverted right ways (cf. Isa. ...
• D. Micah's lament over his decadent society 7:1-7
  This section is an individual lament similar to many of the psalms (cf. 1:8-16).7:1 Micah bewailed his own disappointment with Israel's situation. He compared himself to Israel's fruit pickers and grape gatherers who felt gre...
• D. Judgment on Jerusalem 3:1-7
  Having announced that divine judgment would come on the nations around Judah (2:4-15), the prophet returned to the subject of Yahweh's judgment on the Chosen People (cf. 1:4-2:3), but this time he focused more particularly on...
• The final deliverance of Israel and the return of Messiah 14:1-8
  14:1 The Lord announced through His prophet that a day was coming, for His benefit primarily, when the nations that had plundered Israel victoriously would divide their spoil among themselves in Jerusalem. This would be the L...