Editing Book of Micah (section)

==Composition==
{{Further|Babylonian captivity}}

The formation of the Book of Micah is a topic of scholarly debate. The 2021 Oxford Handbook of the Minor Prophets summarizes:

“There is a consensus that the book has a long history of formation with the [[Persian period|Persian]] (or even [[Hellenistic period|Hellenistic]]) period as its last stage. However, it is contested whether it was formed in these days or only finalized after a longer history of tradition.”<ref>{{cite book |last=Kessler |first=Rainer |chapter=Micah |editor=Michael A. S. |title=The Oxford Handbook of the Minor Prophets |pages=461–471 |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=February 10, 2021 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190673208.013.35 |isbn=978-0-19-067320-8 |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190673208.013.35 |access-date=January 5, 2025}}</ref>

Some, but not all, scholars accept that only chapters 1–3 contain material from the late 8th-century BCE prophet Micah.<ref name="Rogerson 2003, p. 703" /> According to scholars, the latest material comes from the [[Second Temple period|post-Exilic period]] after the [[Second Temple|Temple]] was rebuilt in 515&nbsp;BCE, so that the early 5th century BCE seems to be the period when the book was completed.<ref>Mays (1976), p. 21</ref> The first stage was the collection and arrangement of some spoken sayings of the historical Micah (the material in chapters 1–3), in which the prophet attacks those who build estates through oppression and depicts the Assyrian invasion of Judah as Yahweh's punishment on the kingdom's corrupt rulers, including a prophecy that the Temple will be destroyed.<ref>Mays (1976), p. 23</ref>

The prophecy was not fulfilled in Micah's time, but a hundred years later when Judah was facing a similar crisis with the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]], Micah's prophecies were reworked and expanded to reflect the new situation.<ref>Mays (1976), pp. 24–25</ref> Still later, after [[Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC)|Jerusalem fell]] to the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the book was revised and expanded further to reflect the circumstances of the late exilic and post-exilic community.<ref>Mays (1976), p. 30</ref>