Micah Meaning in the Bible

Micah is a shortened form of the Hebrew Mikhayahu (מִיכָיָהוּ), 'who is like Yahweh?' — the same construction as Michael, 'who is like God?' It is a rhetorical question with an assumed answer of 'no one,' and the prophet ends his book by punning on his own name: 'Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity...?' (Micah 7:18). The whole prophecy is bracketed by its author's name.

Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the eighth century BC, a contemporary of Isaiah, and spoke to a rural constituency being crushed by urban landowners. His indictments are specific and economic: men who 'covet fields, and take them by violence' (2:2), judges who 'judge for reward' and prophets who 'divine for money' (3:11). This is why Micah reads more sharply than most prophetic books — the grievances are concrete.

Two verses from Micah are among the most quoted in the Bible. Micah 5:2 names Bethlehem Ephratah as the birthplace of the ruler 'whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting' — the verse the chief priests quoted to Herod in Matthew 2:5–6. And Micah 6:8 gives the Old Testament's most compact summary of ethics: 'to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.'

In modern use Micah is solidly unisex in the US, more strongly male in the UK, and has held a top-200 US position for two decades. It is one of the rare biblical names that sounds contemporary without any spelling adjustment — a large part of its staying power.