Micah 1:1

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 F9 Juchashin, fol. 12. 1. ; or rather from Moresheth, from which Moreshethgath, Micah 1:14 ; is distinguished; which Jerom F11 Prolog. in Mic. 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 F12 Epitaph. Paulae, ut supra. (tom. 1. operum, fol. 60. A. B.) 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.