Micah
55x50” OIL ON CANVAS/WOOD 2009
We encounter Micah in the Book of Exodus when Pharaoh intensified the labor of the Israelite slaves.The Midrash explains that when the Israelites could no longer meet their daily quota of construction bricks, their infants were used to fill the spaces of the walls.
Moses protested to God who answered that the infants being placed in the walls were destined to be wicked . However, if Moses desired, he could see for himself and take one out from between the bricks. Moses did this, and the child was called Micah (meaning the crushed one).
The next reference we have to Micah is in the commentary on Exodus.
When the Israelites were ready to leave Egypt , Moses attempted to fulfill his promise to Joseph to bring his bones. which had been sunk into the Nile in an iron coffin, to burial in the promised land.
To raise the coffin, God gave Moses a tablet inscribed with the words ”Arise Ox”, ( transliterated from Hebrew as “Aleh Shor”), a reference to Joseph. . Micah then stole the tablet and carried it into the desert as the Jews traveled.
At Mt. Sinai, the Israelites, fearing Moses’ prolonged absence, demanded that Aaron make them a God to lead them. Aaron, stalling for time, asked the people for their gold ornaments. When the ornaments were thrown into the fire, Micah also threw in the stolen tablet, and immediately, a golden calf emerged.
In the lunette of the painting, the babies are shown in the bricks. A single vacant area indicates the removal of Micah. The Hebrew words for
“Arise Ox” can be seen at the bottom of the image of the burning calf.
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