Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
(sweet odor).
•A son of Ishmael. (Genesis 25:13; 1 Chronicles 1:29)
•A son of Simeon. (1 Chronicles 4:25)
Mibzar
(fortress), one of the “dukes” of Edom. (Genesis 36:42; 1 Chronicles 1:53)
Micah
(who is like God?), the same name as Micaiah. [Micaiah]
•An Israelite whose familiar story is preserved in the 17th and 18th chapters of Judges. Micah is
evidently a devout believers in Jehovah, and yet so completely ignorant is he of the law of Jehovah
that the mode which he adopts of honoring him is to make a molten and graven image, teraphim
or images of domestic gods, and to set up an unauthorized priesthood, first in his own family,
(Judges 17:5) and then in the person of a Levite not of the priestly line. ver. (Judges 17:12) A body
of 600 Danites break in upon and steal his idols from him.
•The sixth in order of the minor prophets. He is called the Morasthite, that is, a native of Moresheth,
a small village near Eleutheropolis to the east, where formerly the prophet’s tomb was shown,
though in the days of Jerome it had been succeeded by a church. Micah exercised the prophetical
office during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, giving thus a maximum
limit of 59 years, B.C. 756-697, from the accession of Jotham to the death of Hezekiah, and a
minimum limit of 16 years, B.C. 742-726, from the death of Jotham to the accession of Hezekiah.
He was contemporary with Hosea and Amos during the part of their ministry in Israel, and with
Isaiah in Judah.
•A descendant of Joel the Reubenite. (1 Chronicles 5:5)
•The son of Meribbaal or Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan. (1 Chronicles 8:34,35; 9:40,41)
•A Kohathite levite, the eldest son of Uzziel the brother of Amram. (1 Chronicles 23:30)
•The father of Abdon, a man of high station in the reign of Josiah. (2 Chronicles 34:20)
Micah, The Book Of
Three sections of this work represent three natural divisions of the prophecy—1, 2; 3-5;
6,7—each commencing with rebukes and threatening and closing with a promise. The first section
opens with a magnificent description of the coming of Jehovah to judgment for the sins and idolatries
of Israel and Judah, ch. 1:2-4, and the sentence pronounced upon Samaria, vs. 5-9, by the Judge
himself. The sentence of captivity is passed upon them. (Micah 2:10) but is followed instantly by
a promise of restoration and triumphant return. ch. (Micah 2:12,13) The second section is addressed
especially to the princes and heads of the people: their avarice and rapacity are rebuked in strong
terms; but the threatening is again succeeded by a promise of restoration. In the last section, chs.
6,7, Jehovah, by a bold poetical figure, is represented as holding a controversy with his people,
pleading with them in justification of his conduct toward them and the reasonableness of his
requirements. The whole concludes with a triumphal song of joy at the great deliverance, like that
from Egypt, which jehovah will achieve, and a full acknowledgment of his mercy and faithfulness
of his promises. vs. 16-20. The last verse is reproduced in the song of Zacharias. (Luke 1:72,73)
Micah’s prophecies are distinct and clear. He it is who says that the Ruler shall spring from
Bethlehem. ch. (Luke 5:2) His style has been compared with that of Hosea and Isaiah. His diction
is vigorous and forcible, sometimes obscure from the abruptness of its transitions, but varied and
rich.
Micaiah
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William Smith