The prophet Micah lived around 700BC, was a contemporary of Isaiah, and prophesied during the reigns of kings Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. He lived near Jerusalem in Judah.
I've just read his short book from my beautiful pink-bound and tabbed New Living Translation version which I love using. I have also studied the first 8 paragraphs of Thomas Leishman's article about Micah titled "Micah: the peasant seer" from the September 1969 edition of The Christian Science Journal. It was part of the brilliant series The Continuity of the Bible which was later printed as a series of books. (Some Christian Science Reading Rooms may have copies of these books for interested readers.)
Leishman speaks of Micah as comparing the downfall of Samaria to a contagion - a downward spiral created by rampant idolatry.
Micah also warns against the coming destruction of Jerusalem, and, with tongue in cheek, he identifies various places with their mental animus. Leishman quotes from Moffatt's Bible, and readers will surely enjoy his translation:
"Weep tears at Teartown ... grovel in the dust at Dustown ... fare forth stripped, O Fairtown ...! Stirtown ... dare not stir" (Micah 1: 10 - 11).
It bears wondering if we today are alert to the mental atmosphere surrounding us. The Discoverer of Christian Science, uses the phrase "mental atmosphere" in her writings, e.g.
Let no clouds of sin gather and fall in mist and showers from thine own mental atmosphere. (Miscellaneous Writings 1883--1896, p. 355: 26-28 Let)
and
... the reformer continues his lightning, thunder, and sunshine till the mental atmosphere is clear. (Message to The Mother Church for 1900, p. 9: 14-16)
But Micah's message was not all thunder and lightning, as we shall see as we read on.
Julie Swannell
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