Exegesis Paper

BACKGROUND

On the grounds of the United Nations headquarters in New York City is an impressive statue crafted by Russian Sculpture Evgeniy Vuchetich ( "File: Swords-Plowshare.jpg." Wikipedia). The sculpture, donated by the Soviet Union in 1959, depicts a man with a huge mallet raised in his right hand. His left hand holds a sword, which the man is beating into a ploughshare. The book of Micah (4:3), is quoted underneath with, "Let Us Beat Swords into Ploughshares" ("File:Swords-Plowshares.jpg." Wikipedia). This statue was inspired by the Book of Micah to represent the human wish to end all wars by converting the weapons of death and destruction into peaceful and productive tools that are more beneficial to mankind. This isn't the only time in history were someone has referenced the book of Micah; people have been quoting him for many generations for he envisioned peace and restoration. Speeches presented by President Ronald Reagan, antiwar songs and popular radio hits such as Michael Jackson's "Heal the World" all echo the words of the transformation from swords to ploughshares ("Swords to Ploughshare." Wikipedia). Even, the Broadway musical Les Miserables finishes in their finale with the strong impressions of Micah: "They will live again in freedom, in the garden of the Lord. They will walk behind the ploughshare; they will put away the sword. The chain will be broken and all men will have their reward" ("Swords to Ploughshares." Wikipedia). With Micah's display of "unusual directness" and "versatility", he kept his "listeners guessing, smiling and intrigued as he enticed them" - giving his words a timeless voice and still being quoted today ( Bergant, D. & K. Robert, eds., 510).

For as much as Micah was quoted, he was still only one of the Minor Prophets. "Minor" means that these prophets wrote shorter prophecies than the greater prophets. Unfortunately, there is "very little that can be deduced from the book of Micah about the man who stands behind it. There is no account of a "call", and at 3:5-8 he even seems to deny to himself the title of prophet" (Barton & Muddiman, 595). Through details of the book of Micah, The Oxford Bible Commentary has gathered that "he spoke on behalf of his fellow landowners and elders of a typical country town against the excessive burdens which the centralized militarizing policy of the Jerusalem establishment was imposing upon the people" (Barton & Muddiman, 595).

Micah's prophecies were fueled emotionally by the hardships of his village, Moresheth. The city was considered a dependent of the Philistine city of Gath, which originally belonged to the Philistine Pentapolis of Gath, Gaza, Ashkeelon, Ekron and Ashdod (Bergant, D. & K. Robert, eds., 510). The Collegeville Bible Commentary explains that "Their land has been violated in order that the Jerusalem government might build defenses in such outposts as Moreseth overlooking the Mediterranean plains and then embark upon reckless military adventures" (Bergant, D. & K. Robert, eds., 510). Throughout the book of Micah, he refers to "the fields owned by the villagers (2:2, 4-5), and the threshing floors on the hillside (4:12); but most of his attention is focused on the "greedy plans and rapacious actions of people who come from the larger Jerusalem and who, in the comfort of their rented homes at Moresheth, convet and cheat (6:11) and take possession of whatever they desire (2:1-2;6:9-11)" (Bergant, D. & K. Roberts, eds, 510).

According to The Oxford Bible Commentary, Micah's message "fits most comfortably in the first part of the reign of Hezekiah, when intensive preparations for rebellion against Assyrian domination were undertaken (Barton & Muddiman, 595). It also seems that Micah could have spoken against " the northern kingdom (1:6), whose capital Samaria fell some twenty years previously", suggesting that Micah's words "come from a relatively brief period at the very end of the eight century B.C.E." (Barton & Muddiman, 595). When reviewing the book and its formation we can gather that the style and content of the work comes from periods long after Micah's day, suggesting that Micah was not the only author (Barton & Muddiman, 595). An explanation for this could be that at the time of the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians his words were once again remembered and founded to have fulfillment. The Oxford Bible Commentary argues that "such a living word of the Lord, however could not be exhausted by a single event, and so new material which looked beyond the judgment (not instead of it) came to be added" (Barton & Muddiman, 595). Although the book of Micah has been re-edited on several occasions, these later additions have been said to have positively contributed and taken on the timeless "word of the Lord", which is the books true title (Barton & Muddiman, 595).

ANALYSIS OF THE PASSAGE

The passage that I researched for my exegesis paper in the Book of Micah is Chapter 4: 1-5. According to the Collegeville Bible Commentary the material in chapters 4-5 were gathered from a reservoir or treasury of prophetic material, some from the prophet Micah, some attracted to the Micah texts by association of words or themes" ( Bergant, D. & K. Robert, eds., 515). Some of the material, "has come independently into each book from a common original which was developed in Isaianic circle, giving some of Micah's passages Isaianic characteristics (Barton &Muddiman, 597). The Oxford Bible commentary goes on to explain that although "the material is of diverse origin and date", it has been "welded together to show how the vision for a new order (4:1-5) will be realized through the rule of God (4: 6-7)" (Bergant, D. & K. Robert, eds., 597).

The passage begins with verse 1: "In days to come the mount of the Lord's house shall be established higher than the mountains; it shall rise above the hills, and people shall stream to it". The text reading "in days to come", can be interpreted in meaning when the messiah comes or the messianic age ( Barton & Muddiman, 516). The mount of the Lord's house is higher than the mountains because of the Lord's importance. After enemies destroyed Jerusalem it was left in ruins and rubbish; but Micah saw into the future and prophesized a great change.

Verse 2 states, " Many nations shall come, and say, "come let us climb the mount of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may