Micah

Julia M. O’Brien is Paul H. and Grace L. Stern Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She is editor in chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies (2014), and her other publications include Challenging Prophetic Metaphor (Westminster John Knox, 2008); Nahum through Malachi (Abingdon Old Testament Commentary series, 2004); Nahum (Sheffield Academic Press, 2002; 2nd ed. 2009); and Priest and Levite in Malachi (Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series, 1990). With Chris Franke, she co-edited Aesthetics of Violence in the Prophets (T. & T. Clark, 2010). She holds PhD and MDiv degrees from Duke University and a BA from Wake Forest University. Barbara E. Reid, general editor of the Wisdom Commentary series, is a Dominican Sister of Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is the Carroll Stuhlmueller, CP Distinguished Professor of New Testament Studies, and president emerita of Catholic Theological Union (the first woman who held the position). She has been a member of the CTU faculty since 1988 and also served as vice president and academic dean from 2009 to 2018. She holds a PhD in biblical studies from The Catholic University of America and was president of the Catholic Biblical Association in 2014–2015. Her most recent publications are Luke 1–9 and Luke 10–24, co-authored with Shelly Matthews (WCS 43A, 43B; Liturgical Press, 2021); and At the Table of Holy Wisdom: Global Hungers and Feminist Biblical Interpretation (Paulist, 2023).Carol J. Dempsey, OP is professor of biblical studies at the University of Portland, Oregon, with special expertise in Old Testament and prophets. She holds a PhD in biblical studies from The Catholic University of America, and has authored several books including Jeremiah: Preacher of Grace, Poet of Truth (Liturgical Press, 2007) and Reading the Bible, Transforming Conflict.

• ContentsList of Abbreviations    ixAcknowledgments    xiList of Contributors    xiiiForeword: “Tell It on the Mountain”—or, “And You Shall Tell Your Daughter [as Well]”Athalya Brenner-Idan    xvEditor’s Introduction to Wisdom Commentary:“She Is a Breath of the Power of God” (Wis 7:25)    xixBarbara E. Reid, OPAuthor’s Introduction: Putting Micah in Context    xxxixMicah 1–3   Judgments against Female Cities and Male Leaders    1Micah 4–5   Exaltation of Daughter Jerusalem and Her King    39Micah 6–7   YHWH’s Lawsuit and Daughter Jerusalem’s Response   73Conclusion   A Feminist Response to Micah’s Theology    119Works Cited    127Index of Scripture References    135Index of Subjects    139

"The offer of the Wisdom Commentary, with its accent on feminist reading, is welcome and much needed. Julia O'Brien has invested her entire academic career in a probe of that question, so that she is peculiarly equipped to author such a commentary. Her reading of Micah-that is, reader-centered-is enormously rich and perceptive. She shows how the question of gender justice and injustice permits us to see clearly so much in the prophetic text that we have otherwise missed. Her work is a remarkable advance in our reading of the prophet."Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary