The Divided Kingdom
- When
- c. 735–700 BC
- Written by
- Micah of Moresheth
- Chapters
- 7
The big idea
Micah condemns corrupt leaders and empty religion; foretells a ruler from Bethlehem, and sums up what God asks: do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God.
Themes
- Justice and integrity
- Humility
- The God who pardons
- The ruler from Bethlehem
Memory verse
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Key passages
- 3Against the leaders
- 4:1–5Swords into ploughshares
- 5:2Bethlehem Ephrathah
- 6:8What the LORD requires
- 7:18–20Who is a God like You?
Links to other Scripture
- Matthew 2:5–6The scribes answer Herod
- Isaiah 2:2–4The mountain of the Lord
- Matthew 23:23Judgment, mercy and faith
- Hebrews 8:12Their sins I will remember no more
Read the text
Choose a chapter to read it here in the King James Version. Verses with a dotted underline have notes from Bible scholars. Tap one to open them.
Notes from
Chapters
King James text and the commentaries of Henry, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Gill, Clarke, Calvin, and Keil and Delitzsch are in the public domain. Tyndale Open Study Notes are used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license, from tyndaleopenresources.com. Texts were reformatted for this site.
Journal prompts
Keep a journal or notebook for your study. Write your answers there, in your own words.
- Where do you see Christ in this book?
- “What doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Which of the three is hardest for you this week?
- Micah says a ruler will come out of Bethlehem, small among the clans. What small or overlooked place might God be working in your life?
- “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity?” Write down something you need to be pardoned for and say it to him.
- In one sentence, this book is about…