Like Amos, Micah was a prophet with a dour message for the wealthy and contentedly unscrupulous land-holders in the second half of the eighth century B.C. Under the reigns of Jotham (750-735), Ahaz (735-715) and Hezekiah (715-687), the slide toward lost independence and foreign subjugation was well underway. During Ahaz's reign, for example, Judah became a vassal-state of Assyria - aligning itself with Assyria's military might as a shield against an invasion by Israel and Syria.

But the cost of this alliance was great. Judah not only became politically subservient, her citizens were expected to acknowledge Assyria's gods as well. Hezekiah tried to extract Judah from this sticky web his father Ahaz had wrapped about the country, finally mounting a full-scale rebellion against Assyria's new…