For the CANONICAL order and place of the Prophets, see Appdx-1, and p. 1206-7.
For the CHRONOLOGICAL order of the Prophets, see Appdx-77.
For the Inter-relation of the Prophetic Books, see Appdx-78.
For the Formulae of Prophetic Utterance, see Appdx-82.
For References to the Pentateuch by the Prophets, see Appdx-92.
For the Inter-relation of the Minor (or Shorter) Prophets, see p. 1206.
The Prophecy of MICAH is dated as being given "in the days of JOTHAM,AHAZ, and HEZEKIAH, kings of Judah".
MICAH begins, apparently, a year or two before the end of Jotham''s reign, Isaiah, in that case, had already been prophesying some seventeen or eighteen years.
By comparing 4:10 with Isa_39:6, we have another case of similar words occurring in two different prophets; and some, having concluded that one prophet copied from another, have built upon this, certain theories as to dates, &c. But no valid argument can be based on such coincidences:for the simple reason that we are not dealing with the words of the Prophets, but with the words which God spake by them (Heb_1:1, &c). Surely God may speak the same message, even in identical words, by two, three, or more of His prophets. If the need were the same, why should not the words be the same ?
In this ease, the period covered by Micah and Isaiah was almost exactly the same (cp. Mic_1:1 with Isa_1:1; and see Appdx-77). It is no wonder that the circumstances did call for similar utterances, constituting a confirmation of the Word of Jehovah "by the mouth of two or three witnesses". Both were independent, without any idea of "copying" one from the other, as is alleged by the writer in The Encyclopedia Britannica, eleventh (Cambridge) edition, 1910, 1911, vol. xviii, p. 357, who says:"it is impossible that much, if any, of these chapters (Mic. 4-7) can be ascribed to Micah himself". This is said in face of the fact that Jeremiah (Mic_26:16-19) definitely quotes and refers to Micah.
Having regard to Mic_1:1, we see he must have been a contemporary of Isaiah for nine-and-twenty, or thirty years (Isaiah continuing for another seventeen or eighteen years if he died in the Manassean persecution. See Appdx-50, p. 68, and Appdx-77). We may thus date Micah as from 632 to 603 B. C.
In connection with this we may well compare other passages as follows: