Micah 6:8-16

8 I shall show to thee, thou man, what is good, and what the Lord asketh of thee; forsooth for to do doom, and for to love mercy, and be busy for to walk with thy God. (I shall tell thee, ye people, what is good, and what the Lord asketh of thee; and that is, to act rightly, or with justice, and to love mercy/and to love mercifully, and to be busy, or committed, to walk with thy God.)

9 The voice of the Lord crieth to the city, and health shall be to all men dreading thy name. Ye lineages, hear; and who shall approve it? (The voice of the Lord crieth to the city, and success, or victory, shall be for all those who fear his name/for all those who revere his name. Listen, ye tribes, to him who hath gathered thee together/Listen, ye tribes, all ye who gather together in the city.)

10 Yet fire is in the house of unpious men, the treasures of wickedness, and a less measure, (which make me) full of wrath. (Yet in the house of the unrighteous, or of the wicked, there is fire, yea, the treasures of wickedness, and a false measure, which make me very angry.)

11 Whether I shall justify the wicked balance, and the guileful weights of a little sack, (Can I justify a wicked, or a false, balance, and a bag of deceitful weights,)

12 in which rich men thereof be filled with wickedness? And men dwelling therein spake leasing, and the tongue of them was guileful in the mouth of them. (in which the rich there be filled with wickedness? And those living there spoke lies, and their tongues were deceitful in their mouths.)

13 And I therefore began for to smite thee, in(to) perdition on thy sins. (And so I began to strike thee down unto perdition, for thy sins.)

14 Thou shalt eat, and shalt not be [ful]filled, and thy meeking is in the middle of thee (and thy humbling is in thy midst); and thou shalt take (hold), and shalt not save; and (that) which thou shalt save, I shall give into (the) sword.

15 Thou shalt sow, and shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olive, and shalt not be anointed with oil; and (make) must, and shalt not drink (the) wine.

16 And thou keptest the behests of Omri, and all the work of the house of Ahab, and hast walked in the lusts of them, that I should give thee into perdition, and men dwelling in it into hissing, either scorning, and ye shall bear the shame of my people. (And thou hast followed the ways of Omri, and all the work of the house of Ahab, and hast walked in their lusts, so that now I shall give thee unto perdition, and the people living there unto hissing, or mocking, and ye shall bear the shame of my people.)

Micah 6:8-16 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO MICAH 6

This chapter contains reproofs of the people of Israel for their sins, threatening them with punishment for them. The prophet is bid to tell them of the controversy the Lord had with them, which he did, Mic 6:1,2; and the Lord calls upon them to declare if they had any thing to object to his attitude towards them, Mic 6:3; and then puts them in mind of the favours they had received from him, in bringing them out of Egypt, and giving them such useful persons to go before them, lead and instruct them, as he had, Mic 6:4; and also reminds them of what passed between Balak, king of Moab, and Balaam the soothsayer; the questions of the one, and the answer of the other; whereby the designs of the former against them were frustrated, Mic 6:5-8; but since the voice of the Lord by his prophet was disregarded by them, they are called upon to hearken to the voice of his rod, Mic 6:9; which should be laid upon them for their fraudulent dealings, injustice, oppression, lies, and deceit, Mic 6:10-12; and therefore are threatened with sickness and desolation, and a deprivation of all good things, the fruit of their labours, Mic 6:13-15; and that because the statutes of Omri, the works of Ahab, and their counsels, were observed by them, Mic 6:16.