Micah 6:1-15

The Lord Demands Justice, not Ritual

6:1 Listen to what the Lord says:

“Get up! Defend yourself ¹  before the mountains! ² 

Present your case before the hills!” ³ 

6:2 Hear the Lord’s accusation, you mountains,

you enduring foundations of the earth!

For the Lord has a case against his people;

he has a dispute with Israel! ⁴ 

6:3 “My people, how have I wronged you? ⁵ 

How have I wearied you? Answer me!

6:4 In fact, I brought you up from the land of Egypt,

I delivered you from that place of slavery.

I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to lead you. ⁶ 

6:5 My people, recall how King Balak of Moab planned to harm you, ⁷ 

how Balaam son of Beor responded to him.

Recall how you journeyed from Shittim to Gilgal,

so you might acknowledge that the Lord has treated you fairly.” ⁸ 

6:6 With what should I ⁹  enter the Lord’s presence?

With what ¹⁰  should I bow before the sovereign God? ¹¹ 

Should I enter his presence with burnt offerings,

with year-old calves?

6:7 Will the Lord accept a thousand rams,

or ten thousand streams of olive oil?

Should I give him my firstborn child as payment for my rebellion,

my offspring – my own flesh and blood – for my sin? ¹² 

6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good,

and what the Lord really wants from you: ¹³ 

He wants you to ¹⁴  promote ¹⁵  justice, to be faithful, ¹⁶ 

and to live obediently before ¹⁷  your God.

6:9 Listen! The Lord is calling ¹⁸  to the city!

It is wise to respect your authority, O Lord! ¹⁹ 

Listen, O nation, and those assembled in the city! ²⁰ 

6:10 “I will not overlook, ²¹  O sinful house, the dishonest gain you have hoarded away, ²² 

or the smaller-than-standard measure I hate so much. ²³ 

6:11 I do not condone the use of rigged scales,

or a bag of deceptive weights. ²⁴ 

6:12 The city’s rich men think nothing of resorting to violence; ²⁵ 

her inhabitants lie, ²⁶ 

their tongues speak deceptive words. ²⁷ 

6:13 I will strike you brutally ²⁸ 

and destroy you because of your sin.

6:14 You will eat, but not be satisfied.

Even if you have the strength ²⁹  to overtake some prey, ³⁰ 

you will not be able to carry it away; ³¹ 

if you do happen to carry away something,

I will deliver it over to the sword.

6:15 You will plant crops, but will not harvest them;

you will squeeze oil from the olives, ³²  but you will have no oil to rub on your bodies; ³³ 

you will squeeze juice from the grapes, but you will have no wine to drink. ³⁴ 

[6:1]  ¹ tn Or “plead your case” (NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “present your plea”; NLT “state your case.”

[6:1]  ² sn As in some ancient Near Eastern treaties, the mountains are personified as legal witnesses that will settle the dispute between God and Israel.

[6:1]  ³ tn Heb “let the hills hear your voice.”

[6:2]  ⁴ tn This verse briefly interrupts the Lord’s statement (see vv. 1, 3) as the prophet summons the mountains as witnesses. Because of this v. 2 has been placed in parentheses in the translation.

[6:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “My people, what have I done to you?”

[6:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “before you.”

[6:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “remember what Balak…planned.”

[6:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “From Shittim to Gilgal, in order to know the just acts of the Lord.” Something appears to be missing at the beginning of the line. The present translation supplies the words, “Recall how you went.” This apparently refers to how Israel crossed the Jordan River (see Josh 3:1; 4:19-24).

[6:6]  ⁹ sn With what should I enter the Lord’s presence? The prophet speaks again, playing the role of an inquisitive worshiper who wants to know what God really desires from his followers.

[6:6]  ¹⁰ tn The words “with what” do double duty in the parallelism and are supplied in the second line of the translation for clarification.

[6:6]  ¹¹ tn Or “the exalted God.”

[6:7]  ¹² tn Heb “the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is often translated “soul,” but the word usually refers to the whole person; here “the sin of my soul” = “my sin.”

[6:8]  ¹³ sn What the Lord really wants from you. Now the prophet switches roles and answers the hypothetical worshiper’s question. He makes it clear that the Lord desires proper attitudes more than ritual and sacrifice.

[6:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “except.” This statement is actually linked with what precedes, “What does he want from you except….”

[6:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to do,” in the sense of “promote.”

[6:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “to love faithfulness.”

[6:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to walk humbly [or perhaps, “carefully”] with.”

[6:9]  ¹⁸ tn Or “the voice of the Lord is calling.” The translation understands קוֹל (qol, “voice”) as equivalent to an imperative.

[6:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “one who sees your name is wisdom.” It is probably better to emend יִרְאֶה (yir’eh, “he sees”) to יִרְאָה (yir’ah, “fearing”). One may then translate, “fearing your name is wisdom.” The Lord’s “name” here stands by metonymy for his authority.

[6:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb (apparently) “Listen [to] the staff and the one who appointed it.” Verse 10 then begins with עוֹד (yod, “still” or “again”). The translation assumes an emendation to שִׁמְעוּ מַטֶּה וּמוֹעֵד הָעִיר (shim’u matteh umo’ed ha’ir, “listen, O tribe and the assembly of the city”).

[6:10]  ²¹ tn The meaning of the first Hebrew word in the line is unclear. Possibly it is a combination of the interrogative particle and אִשׁ (’ish), an alternate form of יֵשׁ (yesh, “there is/are”). One could then translate literally, “Are there treasures of sin [in] the house of the sinful?” The translation assumes an emendation to הַאֶשֶּׁה (ha’esheh, from נָשָׁא, nasha’, “to forget”), “Will I forget?” The rhetorical question expects an answer, “No, I will not forget.”

[6:10]  ²² tn Heb “the treasures of sin”; NASB “treasures of wickedness”; NIV “ill-gotten treasures.”

[6:10]  ²³ tn Heb “the accursed scant measure.”

[6:11]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Do I acquit sinful scales, and a bag of deceptive weights?” The rhetorical question expects an answer, “No, I do not,” and has been translated as a declarative statement for clarity and emphasis.

[6:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “because her rich are full of violence.”

[6:12]  ²⁶ tn Heb “speak lies.”

[6:12]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and their tongue is deceptive in their mouth.”

[6:13]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and also I, I will make you sick, striking you.”

[6:14]  ²⁹ tc The first Hebrew term in the line (וְיֶשְׁחֲךָ, vÿyeshkhakha) is obscure. HALOT 446 s.v. יֶשַׁח understands a noun meaning “filth,” which would yield the translation, “and your filth is inside you.” The translation assumes an emendation to כֹּחַ-וְיֶשׁ (vÿyesh-koakh, “and [if] there is strength inside you”).

[6:14]  ³⁰ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term וְתַסֵּג (vÿtasseg) is unclear. The translation assumes it is a Hiphal imperfect from נָסַג/נָשַׂג (nasag/nasag, “reach; overtake”) and that hunting imagery is employed. (Note the reference to hunger in the first line of the verse.) See D. R. Hillers, Micah (Hermeneia), 80.

[6:14]  ³¹ tn The Hiphal of פָּלַט (palat) is used in Isa 5:29 of an animal carrying its prey to a secure place.

[6:15]  ³² tn Heb “you will tread olives.” Literally treading on olives with one’s feet could be harmful and would not supply the necessary pressure to release the oil. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 119. The Hebrew term דָּרַךְ (darakh) may have an idiomatic sense of “press” here, or perhaps the imagery of the following parallel line (referring to treading grapes) has dictated the word choice.

[6:15]  ³³ tn Heb “but you will not rub yourselves with oil.”

[6:15]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and juice, but you will not drink wine.” The verb תִדְרֹךְ (tidrokh, “you will tread”) must be supplied from the preceding line.