Sargon sent away 27,290 captives, the youth and pride of Israel and Samaria, and had them scattered widely apart, in all his provinces. The conqueror, himself, proceeded southward to meet and defeat Sabako, at Raphia, on the great Nile-delta-highway along the Mediterranean coast. While the records do not show that these events made any impression upon the leaders of thought, such as Isaiah, in Jerusalem, they brought Micah his first opportunity to prohesy. Living in Moresheth, on the highroad from Gaza to Jerusalem, Micah, who up to this time knew only of the corruption of the classes and the oppression of the masses of Judah, now had first-hand information of the political situation, as well. Sargon's armies captured and passed through Gaza on their march to Raphia. By way of Gaza, Micah learned that Samaria had not been razed to the ground. There was, therefore, hope for the city and for Israel. Micah's hope, however, was not political. He, unlike Isaiah in Jerusalem, was not concerned with politics. His concern was with the social wrongs and economic outrages of which, as he had now learned, both Israel and Judah were victims. There was this distinction, however, Israel had already collected the wages of its sins, had paid the price and had been chastised by the rod of Assyria. Judah might be recalled to its better self and escape a similar calamity. So, before the dust of Sargon's victorious armies, passing through Gaza, had settled in the roads, Micah went again to Jerusalem and launched forth earnestly and with vigor upon his prophetic mission. In his very first public utterance he drew a deadly parallel between Israel and Judah: "Hear, ye peoples, all of you; Hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: And let the Lord God be witness against you, The Lord from His holy temple. For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of His place. And will come down, and tread upon the high places the earth. And the mountains shall be molten under Him, And the valleys shall be cleft, As wax before the fire, As waters that are poured down a steep place. For the transgression of Jacob is all this, And for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?" Fearlessly, with bold strokes, and in vivid pictures, he described the terrible conditions as he knew them: "Hear, I pray you, ye chiefs of Jacob, And ye judges of the house of Israel! You surely ought to know what is just! Yet, you hate good and love evil; You who devour the flesh of my people, Flay their skin from off of them, And break their bones!" It was possible for Judah to be saved, if the governing classes, the judiciary, the great landowners and the wealthy merchants dealt justly and righteously with the common people, the poor, the peasant and the wage earner: