Abstract
The Back Cover claims that this book presents “the best of current feminist biblical scholarship” in “serious scholarly engagement with the whole text, not only those texts that explicitly mention women.” Then, in the Foreword, Athalya Brenner-Idan confirms this view, stating that the book presents “nonauthoritative, pluralistic viewpoints” written “by women for women and men, of confessional as well as non-confessional convictions” (p. xvi). The General Editor, Barbara E. Reid, provides a more fully informative Editor's Introduction to Wisdom Commentary: “She Is a Breath of the Power of God” (Wis 7: 2 5), in which she describes the contents as “A Symphony of Diverse Voices” (p. xx) and guides readers through the multi-plicity of methods and approaches encom-passed in this feminist wisdom commentary series. The preliminary section of the book then closes with the fully detailed Author's Introduction: Putting Micah in Context.
Here, O'Brien describes how Micah texts have been used to support claims for social justice over many years but follows this by problematizing the notion/s of justice involved, showing her understanding that the concept is not as simple as might appear in terms of aims—equal opportu-nities or equal outcomes—or execution— how justice might be recognized—and evaluation—who would be in a position to judge this—or have the right to do so. Her personal criteria demand evaluating the varied outcomes generated by deployment of the words of the text in the areas of “gender, race, sexual orientation, ethnic identity, and political status” (p. xl). In particular, she reminds readers that while gender “is made … it must appear natural” (p. xl).
She offers suggestions as to the possible nature and time of the world behind the text but is comfortable to retain ambi-guity about relying on any of the suggested scenarios as being certain while acknowledging that the later redacting of the book creates some of its unevennesses. Prefer-ring to adopt the Persian period, when Jerusalem was the center of the province called Yehud, as the setting for the final form of Micah and adopting alongside that a focus on how the book is understood and reacted to by today's readers, O'Brien believes that inviting readers to note the different world portrayed in Micah will encourage them to look more deeply into the createdness of modern understandings of the ways the world works.
Thereafter, O'Brien provides material always to be found in commentaries, discussion of the historical, economic and political background. In particular, she identifies “Gender. Empire. Blame. Land. Fairness” (p. lv) as typifying the ideological and theological foci of the book and which are presented in poetic and rhetorical forms, these engagingly explained. Subsequent to these lengthy, but vital, introductory matters is the com-mentary on the text of Micah divided into three sections, each including sidebar contributions from the author and ten scholars listed in the Front Matter, and followed by a Conclusion.
Micah 1–3 Judgments against Female Cities and Male Leaders. Here, O'Brien deftly juggles the likely understandings of the text open to the hypothesized original hearers of the prophecy, the Persian per-iod hearers and modern day readers moving among political, historical, ethnically-aware, gendered, agrarian, postcolonial and literary approaches to lay open the complexity of the message/s of the text, the variety of polemic uses to which cas-tigation of female behaviors may be put being particularly explored.
Micah 4–5 Exaltation of Daughter Jerusalem and Her King. O'Brien notes that the idealized image of the restored Jerusalem hauntingly indicates that this is not the current case; common miseries of women's lives are woven into the account and make the contrast plain. Modern day situations of female distress that speak to these issues are discussed. The section ends foretelling disaster again but more likely one ap-proaching Jerusalem's “enemies” this time.
Micah 6–7 Yhwh's Lawsuit and Daughter Jerusalem's Response. The final section of Micah takes the form of a styl-ized covenant lawsuit wherein the deity im-pugns the people for not responding as he desires to the good he has done for them. But the province of Yehud, under Persian administrative control, would have experi-enced a leaching of its life-giving produce towards the centers of power in the Per-sian Empire. There would be little equal-ity among the citizens; hence the lament presented voices the concerns of the poor-est, and is perhaps—as O'Brien claims— spoken by Daughter Jerusalem.
In the Conclusion, A Feminist Re-sponse to Micah's Theology, O'Brien addresses the “theology of blame,” often known as “retribution theology,” com-monly seen as the discursive thread of Micah and notes that this understanding of what is happening raises ethical issues that are hard to sidestep. However, she adduces recent studies of responses to trauma to show how victims of disaster may begin to re-assert themselves and seek greater control over their futures and that casting Yhwh in the role of punisher is actually less isolating and abandoning of the victims than were they victims of random chance, since they are still “under his eye” and able to return to his familial care if they repent and change their ways. Insights from Postcolonial Studies aid in recognizing the varying gender roles of punisher and nurturer and where they are being subverted in the book of Micah.
This tidy and efficient book closes with a list of Works Cited, a full bibliography being available online, an Index of Scriptural References, and an Index of Subjects.