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Article contents
Liturgical Traditions in Mic. 7
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 June 2011
Extract
The understanding of Mic.7 was helped considerably in the year 1924, when Hermann Gunkel published a study of 7:7–20. In opposition to the predominant “literary critical” method of separating Biblical material into different sources, Gunkel wanted to use this passage to demonstrate the “literary historical” approach which he wished to carry through in the sphere of Old Testament research. His purpose was not to distinguish between primary written sources of a Biblical book, but to observe the representative forms (Gattungen) which occur in the text, to determine the practical basis for the origin of the textual elements and the milieu in which they were transmitted (the Sitz im Leben), and to deal with the text as a whole organically and not mechanically. His approach was in fact what has later come to be known as “form criticism.” Gunkel brilliantly demonstrated that the whole passage, Mic.7:7–20, can be understood as a homogeneous composition. He thought of a poem in four parts which had been artistically composed and constructed like a liturgy to be used at one of Jerusalem's mourning festivals.
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References
1 This paper is based on a study published in Swedish several year ago, “Mik.7 såsom ‘messiansk’ text med särskild hänsyn till Matt.10:35f. och Luk. 12:53,’ Svensk Exegetisk Årsbok 12 (1947), 279–302. Dr. John T. Willis of Nashville, Tennessee, used the original for his dissertation, and with the intention to make it available to readers not familiar with the Swedish language he sent the author a most accurate English translation. The author has now revised the contents, leaving out passages of interest only for the original readers, and inserting references to recent publications. He wants to express his sincere gratitude to Dr. Willis for his translation and suggestions.
2 H. Gunkel, Der Micha-Schluss. Zur Einführung in die literaturgeschichtliche Arbeit am Alten Testament, Zeitschrift für Semitistik 2(1924), 145–78. [English translation: The Close of Micah: A Prophetical Liturgy, What Remains of the Old Testament and Other Essays (1928), 115–49. Tr.]
3 Gunkel, op. cit., 176. F. Praetorius, Zum Micha-Schluss, Zeitschrift für Semitistik 3(1924), wrote a sequel to Gunkel's essays, but limited his investigation to the metrical problem, 72f.
4 Among others Hylmö, G., De s.k. profetiska Uturgiernas rytm, stil och komposition, I (1929), 10.Google Scholar
5 Those scholars who make a break between Mic.7:1–6 and 7:7–20 have often relied on J. Wellhausen's verdict in Skizzen und Vorarbeiten 5(1892), 145.: Judgment and salvation prophecies are not allowed to come from the same mouth.
6 Gunkel, op. cit., 152
7 J. Lindblom, Micha literarisch untersucht (1929), 10, emphasized that prophetic revelations are not to be treated as publications according to our logical standards, and yet separated Mic.7:1–6 and 7–20.
8 S. H. Hooke, The Myth and Ritual Pattern of the Ancient Near East, Myth and Ritual (1933), 6. The idea was taken over by Scandinavian scholars, for instance A. Haldar, Associations of Cult Prophets among the Ancient Semites (1945), 92ff.
9 I. Engnell, Gamla Testamentet I (1945), 58.
10 In this passage, “my palate’ is probably the literal meaning, for the basic sense of nefies seems to be “throat,’ “mouth,’ etc. This can be deduced from passages like Isa.s:i4, Hab.2:s (to open one's mouth), Numb.n:6 (our throat is dry, i.e., languishes because it has no food but manna), Prov.6:30 (to fill one's palate, viz., with food); cf. further Num.21:5, Isa.29:8, 55:2, Jer.31:25, Ez.4:14, PS.69:II, Job 10:1, Prov.10:3, 27:7. Of course in other passages it can also be translated by “soul,’ as is usually done. It does not alternate so much in the context.
11 O. Eissfeldt, Ein Psalm aus Nord-Israel, Micha 7,7–20, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 112(1963), 264.
12 F. C. Burkitt, Micah 6 and 7 a Northern Prophecy, JBL 45(1926), 159ff.; Eissfeldt, op. cit., 262–65. — A. Bruno, Micha und der Herrscher aus der Vorzeit (1923), deals with the Judean location of the book, but does not discuss chapters 6 and 7.
13 Among many studies published on this subject, a most valuable essay is still A. R. Johnson, The Role of the King in the Jerusalem Cultus, The Labyrinth, ed. by S. H. Hooke (1935), 71–111.
14 Interpreted as “for the Davidic king’ by S. Mowinckel, Kongepsalmerne (1916), 59f.; Psalmenstudien (1924), 72ff.; I. Engneill, Studies in Divine Kingship (1943), 177. The analogy between l˘ Dāwīd and lē Ba'al in the Ras Shamra texts is also significant: A. Lods, Quelques remarques sur les poèmes mythologiques de Ras Shamra et leurs rapports avec l'Ancien Testament, Revue d'histoire et de philosophic religieuses 16(1936), 117; he did not interpret l˘ as referring to somebody's liturgical function, but as indicating a specific kind of text.
15 Notice also the LXX's translation of Mic.7:4b: αἱ ἐκδιήσɛις σπυ ἥκασιν, νῦνἔσονται κλαυϧμοί αὐτῶν The word ἐκδίκησις here seems to have an active meaning.
16 A. Jeremias, Babylonisches im Neuen Testament (1905), 97f.
17 Bezold, C., Catalogue of the Cuneiform Tablets in the Kouyondijk Collection of the British Museum II (1891), 880, on K.7861.Google Scholar
18 Winckler, H., Geschichte Israels I (1895), 123.Google Scholar
19 J. Lindblom has dealt with this motif of “the upside down world’ in his Profetismen i Israel (1934), 675; in his Prophecy in Ancient Israel (1962), 366f., he only says that popular ideas may lie behind the description of social dissolution.
20 The similarity between Mic.7:sf. and Mal.3:24 is also mentioned by Lindblom, Micha (n.7), 127.
21 I. Engnell, Studies, 32 e.p.
22 Billerbeck, P., Kommentar zum Neuen Testament I (1922), 586.Google Scholar
23 Lindblom, Micha (n.7), 125ff., emphasized the affinity between Mic.7:1–4 and 7:5–6 so much that he wanted to explain the latter verses as a secondary addition. It may be that the text has passed through different stages, although we can know nothing about them. But the important thing is that the two groups of verses deal with the same theme. This leads us to study the text as a continuous unit, such as we now have it.
24 Valuable observations of similarities between Mic.7 the Psalms were made by B. Stade, Streiflichter auf die Entstehung der jetzigen Gestalt der alttestamentlichen Prophetenschriften, Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 23 (1903), 153–71, P. 164–71.
25 The variant reading “as’ seems more natural than the usual reading “in.’ However, there is scarcely any important difference.
26 On this, as well as on the rest of Mic.7, see Stade (n.24).
27 Here as in v. 10a, the Hebrew text has a collective feminine ('ōyaḇtî “you my enemy’): W. Gesenius-E. Kautzsch, Hebräische Grammatik (1909), 122f. As v.10b also shows, a host of enemies is meant (cf. p. 363).
28 According to the LXX: “over the fact that I have fallen; and I shall arise, since the Lord, if I sit in darkness, will shine for me.’ — The last words of the Hebrew text should perhaps be read instead: “the Lord is a light for me.’
29 G. Widengeen, Konungens vistelse i dödsriket. En studie till Psalm 88, Svensk Exegetisk Årsbok 10 (1945), 66ff., with references to parallels from the Tammuzreligion, published by M. Witzel, Tammuz-Liturgien und Verwandtes (1935): G. W. Ahlström, Psalm 89 (1959), 142–62 (rich material of the same kind).
30 Engnell, Studies (n.14), index under “Collective responsibility of the king.’
31 Cf. note 27.
32 Hebrew, šoḵnî, archaic form of the participle with a hireq compagnis.
33 Eissfeldt (n.ii), 262–64. His localization is supported by J. Dus, Weiteres zum nordisraelitischen Psalm Micha 7,7–20, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft 115 (1965), 14–22; but Dus dates the prophecy around 1100 B.C. because he thinks it has to do with the ark.
34 Hebrew, nś'.
35 There are several modern studies of liturgy and eschatology with regard to various parts of the Book of Micah: W. BEYEKLIN, Die Kulttraditionen Israels in der Verkündigung des Propheten Micha (Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments 72, 1959); E. Hammershaimb, Einige Hauptgedanken in der Schrift des Propheten Micha, Studio, Theologica 15 (1961), 11–34; A. S. Kapelrud, Eschatology in the Book of Micah, Vetus Testamentum 11 (1961), 392–405.
36 Mic. 7 was not much used as a Christological prophecy. Probably the expression “I have sinned against the Lord’ (Mic.7:a) prevented this. But reference can be made for instance to C. F. Wilischen-M. C. Haymann, Biblia paralleloharmonico exegetica 4:4 (1764), 319ff.
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