The prophet Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah. He lived in a small village named Moresheth, not far from the city of Gath, which was destroyed by the Assyrians when they invaded Judah. Living in this village, Micah came into daily contact with the people who suffered most from the system of land tenure against which Isaiah protested. When Micah began his ministry, the northern kingdom still existed, and Micah's earliest messages were addressed to the people of Israel, as well as to those living in Judah. Micah lived among the poor people and sympathized with them because of their hard lot. In many respects, his work was similar to that of the prophet Amos, especially regarding what he said about social and economic conditions. Although little if anything is new in his criticism of the ruling classes, the manner in which he spoke caused his name to be remembered and honored among the prophets and teachers of later generations.
No writer in the entire Old Testament was ever more indignant than Micah over the ways in which the rich and powerful use every opportunity to exploit the poor and the weak. In deep earnestness he cries out, "Woe to those who plan iniquity [wickedness], to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning's light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it." He bitterly denounces the wealthy landowners because they "covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud a man of his house, a fellowman of his inheritance." He characterizes the way in which the poor and the unfortunate are treated as no better than that which is accorded to animals. Using the most forceful language, he denounces leaders who "tear the skin from my people . . . and break their bones in pieces; who chop them up like meat for the pan."
