The elders identify Micah’s
audience as “all the people of Judah,” the same group that listened to Jeremiah
and then arrested and tried him in Jer 26. Mic 3:12, however, ends a unit, vv
9-12, addressed to “you rulers of the house of Jacob, and chiefs of the house
of Israel” (two groups not mentioned in Jer 26). The rest of the oracle indicts
judges, priests, and prophets (v 11). Like the audience of Jer 7:1-15, Micah’s
addressees believe that God will go on protecting them in spite of their
corruption. The elders cite the introductory messenger formula, ‘Thus says the
LORD of Hosts,” which is quite common in the book of Jeremiah but does not
occur in the quoted verse from Micah or elsewhere in that book. It takes the
place of the connecting clause, ‘Therefore, because of you,” at the beginning
of Mic 3:12. The messenger formula makes the point that Micah, like Jeremiah,
prophesied in the name of the LORD.
Just as Jeremiah’s accusers cite
only the threat portion of his oracle, so the elders quote only the threat from
Mic 3:9-12. The quotation of the final three cola of the verse is precise.
(Slight differences in spelling are discussed above under Notes,) The
elders do not indicate in what form they know the Micah tradition, oral or
written. (Clements, 156, thinks they had it in writing.) Their interpretation
is a canonical one, however. It exemplifies how setting a prophetic word within
the OT’s account of Israel’s history can enable it to address a later
generation.
2 Kgs 19:1 reports King
Hezekiah’s repentant actions. The Assyrians had con- quered all the other
fortified cities of Judah, and the Rabshakeh had delivered a threatening and
disheartening speech about Jerusalem (2 Kgs 18). Hezekiah’s acts of mourning and
repentance (19:1) were in response to that speech. The elders’ speech in Jer
26 maintains that Micah’s preaching had prompted the king’s reaction, even
though Mic 3:9-12 is unconditional in form. Such prayers of repentance are
invited by the canonical shape of the book of Micah, in which oracles of doom
alternate with promises of salvation and which concludes with a liturgy of
personal repentance and prayer for forgiveness (Childs, Introduction,
437). In 1 Kgs 19:15-19 Hezekiah prays for deliverance from the Assyrians,
after which the prophet Isaiah brings the divine word of salvation. By the end
of the chapter the Assyrian army has withdrawn. This preservation of Jerusalem
at the end of the eighth century was a matter of wonder and gratitude. The
elders in Jer 26 contribute to the growing interpretation of this series of
events by relating them to the ministry of Micah. (Gerald L. Keown, Pamela J. Scalise, and Thomas G. Smothers, Jeremiah
26-52 [Word Biblical Commentary 27; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1995], 28,
emphasis in bold added)
