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; or rather from Moresheth, from which Moreshethgath, ( Micah 1:14 ) ; is distinguished; which Jerom F11 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 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.