fice, accompanied by an increased bestowal of grace, must be
carefully distinguished from the ordinary ones which were common to him
with all the other prophets. But if the prophecy of Isaiah was uttered
as early as under Jotham (which has lately been most satisfactorily
proved by _Caspari_ in his _Beitraege zur Einl. in das Buch Jesaias_, S.
234 ff.), that of Micah also must have existed at that time, and must
have been in the mouths of the people. And since its composition is
assigned to the reign of Hezekiah, it follows that the prophet
delivered anew, under the reign of this king, the revelations which he
had already received at an earlier period.

It will not be possible to infer with certainty from vers. 6, 7, as
_Caspari_ does, that the book was committed to writing before the
destruction of Samaria, and hence, before the sixth year of Hezekiah.
Since the book gives the sum and substance of what was prophesied
under three kings, all that is implied in vers. 6, 7, is, that the
destruction of Samaria was foretold by Micah; but the prophecy itself
may have been committed to writing even after the fulfilment had
taken place. But, on the other hand, according to the analogy of Is.
xxxix., and xiii. and xiv., we are led by iv. 9, 10, to the time of
Sennacherib's invasion of Judea, in which the prophetic spirit of
Isaiah likewise most richly displayed itself, and in which he was
privileged with a glance into the far distant future.

The exordium in chap. i. and ii., and the close in vi. and vii., are
distinguished by the generality of the threatening and promise which
prevails in them. They have this in common with the first five chapters
of Isaiah, and thus certainly afford us pre-eminently an image of the
prophetic ministry of Micah, in the time previous to the Assyrian
invasion; whilst the main [Pg 423] body (especially from iv. 8)
represents to us particularly the character of the prophecy during the
Assyrian period.

We shall now attempt to give a survey of the contents of Micah's
prophecy.

Upon Samaria and Jerusalem--the kingdom of the ten tribes, and Judah--a
judgment by foreign enemies is to come. Total destruction, and the
carrying away of the inhabitants, will be the issue of this judgment,
and, as regards Judah more particularly, the total overthrow of the
dominion of the Davidic dynasty.

Samaria is first visited by this judgment. This is indicated by the
fact that it is first mentioned in the inscrip