Another absentee is Micah, who
issued a categoric prediction of doom on Jerusalem, along the lines of the
“back to nature” theme often heard in Isaiah: “Because of you, Zion will be a
ploughed field, Jerusalem will be a heap of ruins, and the temple mount will
become wooded heights” (Mic 3:12). About a century later, Jeremiah’s life was
saved by a timely citing of this prediction, no longer understood as an
unconditional announcement of disaster, which it clearly was, but as a call to
repentance addressed to Hezekiah, one which he accepted and acted on (Jer
26:16–19). The trial narrative in Jeremiah 26, in which the citing of this
prediction played a major role, is the continuation of the temple sermon in
7:1–8:3, the Deuteronomistic character of which is unmistakable. As the trial
unfolds, we recognize the same hand at work in such expressions as “emend your
ways and your deeds” and “obey the voice of Yahveh your God.” The death penalty
for what was considered Jeremiah’s false prophesying is also in keeping with
Deuteronomistic guidelines about prophecy (Jer 26:8–9, 11; Deut 18:20). This
would therefore be a case of an unconditional prophecy of doom reinterpreted as
conditional, not unlike Jonah’s announcement of doom on Nineveh, which
underwent a similar transformation. The incident also throws another sliver
of light on what is emerging as an alternative account of Hezekiah’s reign.
Micah’s prediction of the destruction of Hezekiah’s Jerusalem follows
immediately after condemnation of a corrupt ruling class which, while
professing confidence in the protection of Yahveh, “build Zion with blood and
Jerusalem with wrongdoing” (Mic 3:9–11). This must be the ruling class
surrounding Hezekiah, one of the Historian’s great heroes. (Joseph
Blenkinsopp, Opening the Sealed Book:
Interpretations of the Book of Isaiah in Late Antiquity [Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Eerdmans, 2006], 40, emphasis in bold added)
