The word of the Lord that came to Micah the Morasthite,.... So called, either from Mareshah, mentioned Micah 1:15; and was a city in the tribe of Judah, Joshua 15:44; as the Targum, Jarchi, Kimchi, and Zacutus i; or rather from Moresheth, from which Moreshethgath, Micah 1:14; is distinguished; which Jerom k says was in his time a small village in the land of Palestine, near Eleutheropolis. Some think these two cities to be one and the same; but they appear to be different from the account of Jerom l elsewhere. The Arabic version reads it, Micah the son of Morathi; so Cyril, in his commentary on this place, mentions it as the sense of some, that Morathi was the father of the prophet; which can by no means be assented to:
in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah; by which it appears that he was contemporary with Isaiah, Hoses, and Amos, though they began to prophesy somewhat sooner than he, even in the days of Uzziah; very probably he conversed with these prophets, especially Isaiah, with whom he agrees in many things; his style is like his, and sometimes uses the same phrases: he, being of the tribe of Judah, only mentions the kings of that nation most known to him; though he prophesied against Israel, and in the days of Zachariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and Hoshea:
which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem; in the vision of prophecy; Samaria was the metropolis of the ten tribes of Israel, and is put for them all; as Jerusalem was of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and is put for them Samaria is mentioned first, because it was the head of the greatest body of people; and as it was the first in transgression, it was the first in punishment.
i Juchashin, fol. 12. 1. k Prolog. in Mic. l Epitaph. Paulae, ut supra. (tom. 1. operum, fol. 60. A. B.)