"The seers shall be put to shame, And the diviners confounded. Yea, they shall all cover their lips, For there is no answer of God. But as for me, I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, And of judgment and of might, To declare unto Jacob his transgression And unto Israel his sin." For years Micah kept at his task. He was indeed a tribune of the people, the champion of their rights against the vested interests, the great commoner of his day and time, fearlessly and courageously standing out against all opposition, trusting absolutely in God. At last came the crisis of 704-1 and Hezekiah's memorable change of mind and heart. Micah played no mean part with Isaiah, in Hezekiah's reforms that followed. Reforms were needed, however, not alone by "the heads of the house of Jacob" and "the rulers of the house of Israel," not alone in the courts of law and among the priests and prophets; they were needed as well in the religious beliefs and practices of the common people, whose cause was Micah's cause. With the passing of all political danger to the fatherland, Micah retired permanently to his farms in Moresheth. There he devoted the remainder of his peaceful, happy years to teaching the common people, "_my_ people," as he fondly refers to them, the religious, moral and ethical life that God demanded of them. Micah employed the same vivid, picturesque language in his speeches of peace as he did in his addresses of war. There is extant a remarkable oration in which he pictures a religious controversy between God and his people, and in which he makes a declaration of what _true religion_ is that has not been better phrased in all the thousands of books that have been written on religious subjects since that day. The address is in the form of a dialogue between God and Israel, and reads as follows: "Hear ye now what the Lord is saying: 'Arise, contend thou before the mountains, And let the hills hear thy voice. Hear, O ye mountains, the Lord's controversty, And ye enduring rocks, the foundations of the earth: For the Lord hath a controversy with His people, And He will plead with Israel." Then God is pictured pleading with the people: "O my people, what harm have I done unto thee? And wherein have I wearied thee? Testify against me. Is it because I brought thee out of the land of Egypt, And redeemed thee out of the house of bondage, And sent before thee Moses, Aaron and Miriam? O my people, remember now what Balak, king of Moab, devised, And what Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him; (Remember what took place) from Shittim unto Gilgal, That ye may know the righteous acts of the Lord."