MICAH (Hebrew Mikhāh, abbreviation of Mikhāyāh « Who [is] like Yahweh? »). - An Ephraimite (sometimes also called Micah) from the time of the Judges (v.). He had stolen 1,100 shekels of silver from his mother. About to be discovered, he returned the money, which was consecrated to divine worship. To imitate the Mosaic prescriptions, M. made himself an ephod (v.), but also tērāphim or statuettes of household gods (cf. Gen. 31:19) forbidden by the Law, and he established a cult which in his intention was not to have any idolatrous purpose. When a Levite from Bethlehem happened by, M. kept him in his house so that he might serve him as a priest (Judg. 17:1-13). Later, however, the latter was obliged to move to Laish, later called Dan, at the site of present-day Tell el-Qāḍī, 5 km west of Bānijās. There he established a schismatic sanctuary for the tribe of Dan (ibid. 18:1-31).
The accounts about M. form one of the appendices of the book of Judges and have the manifest purpose of tracing the origin of the sanctuary of Dan (v.), famous until the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel (722 B.C.). The superimposition of superstitious elements and of a spontaneous, naive religiosity is explained by the author as the effect of an abnormal period of Hebrew history (cf. Judg. 17:5; 18:1).
M. is also the name given to the prophet Micah (v.) in the Masoretic text (cf. Mic. 1:1; Jer. 26:18 according to the qērē). For other figures of the same name, of whom generally only the name is known, cf. 2 Sam. 22:12; 1 Chron. 5:5; 8:34-35; 22:20; Neh. 11:17-22.
Angelo Penna