Yahweh Prosecutes Judah (Micah 6)
Micah 6-7 is the third and last oracle of the book. The first two began with “Hear” (1:2; 3:1) as does the third (6:1). The first oracle addressed to “you peoples,” that is, to the nations. It is a witness to all the inhabitants of the earth. The second oracle is addressed the “heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel,” that is, to the military, political, and religious leaders of Judah. The last oracle appears to be addressed to the people of the covenant since Yahweh “has a controversy with his people,” such that Yahweh says, “O my people!”
The responsibility for the consequences that befall Judah are deeply rooted in its leadership but the people are also complicit. The nation, led by foolish and violent leaders, has followed their lead on the whole, though it is probable that there were many who had not bowed the knee (like Micah, for example).
In this oracle, particularly chapter six, we see two movements: a lawsuit and its charges. The prophet functions as Yahweh’s prosecutor who presses charges against the people. It is a covenant lawsuit in the wake of Judah’s rebellion and their unjust practices that failed to show mercy and walk with God.
The Lawsuit (Micah 6:1-8)
The lawsuit is identified by the Hebrew word rib (רִ֣יב), which is often translated “controversy” (6:2) or “case” (6:1) but is actually a legal term. It is a prosecution (Micah 6:1-22). The Hebrew term is used twice along with the intent to convict, contend, reprove, or correct in Micah 6:2 (יִתְוַכָּֽח). This is a courtroom scene: God is the judge, Micah is Yahweh’s prosecutor, creation serve as a witness, and Yahweh is the judge. It is a covenant lawsuit.
The invitation (6:1-2)
The people of God are invited to participate in the lawsuit. As defendants, they have a voice. But there are also witnesses or jurors—those who will hear the case and bear witness to its truthfulness.
The people are invited to plead their cases and raise their voice in defense before the mountains and hills of creation. The creation knows the story; they have seen the activities. And here they are like jurors or witnesses in the lawsuit. Perhaps they are the audience before whom God prosecutes the people.
The mountains and the foundations of the earth—the immovable dimensions of creation itself—are solid footing for the case Yahweh will present. It is a cosmic courtroom to which all creation is invited to hear the lawsuit Yahweh prosecutes through the prophet Micah. Yahweh will reprove and judge Israel in the light of the covenant God established with them long ago.
Yahweh Addresses the People (6:3-5)
In this cosmic courtroom, Yahweh addresses the people so that they might remember “the saving (righteous) acts of the LORD” (Micah 6:5).
What saving acts? The prophet rehearses the story of the Exodus, the wilderness, and the crossing over the Jordan.
- God delivered them from Egyptian enslavement.
- God sent leaders to guide them through the wilderness to the land of promise.
- God protected them from hostile forces like Balak of Moab.
- God brought them from Shittim (east of the Jordan) to Gilgal (west of the Jordan).
These are the righteous deeds of the Lord. They are God’s saving acts which are celebrated in the Psalms, remembered by the prophets, and taught in the Torah. Has Israel forgotten?
It is interesting what Micah chooses to name. There are many details he could have specified. One of the more significant—and not mentioned elsewhere except in the Torah itself—is the naming of three leaders: Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. All are called prophets in the Torah. They are all “sent.” They are all divine agents among the people, and Miriam is not restricted to women but also leads the whole of Israel (men and women) in the song of celebration in Exodus 15.
The movement from Shittim to Gilgal is the movement across the Jordan. So, this line completes the journey from Egypt through the wilderness across the Jordan (even though none of the named leaders enter the land with the people).
How has Yahweh treated the people? He freed them, guided them, protected them, and gave them the land in which they now dwell. As Isaiah 5:7 says, what else could I have done for you?
Have God’s saving acts wearied Israel? Have they mistreated Israel? No, creation itself which witnessed this movement from Egypt to the promised land testifies to God’s faithful love for Israel. God’s covenant of love has never had any other goal.
The People Respond (6:6-7)
The people respond with a desire to worship, perhaps even to satisfy God in some way (as some attempt in Psalm 50). To “come before” or “meet” the Lord is an entrance liturgy, like Psalm 15 and Psalm 24. It is to enter God’s presence, to seek the face of God in worship—it is to bow down before God. This is an entrance into the earthly temple (we may presume) that is analogous to entering the heavenly temple to seek God’s face.
What should we bring, the people ask. How do we respond to God to acknowledge our sin and seek forgiveness?
- Burnt offerings, even calves a year old?
- Thousands of rams, even ten thousand rivers of oil?
- My firstborn, the fruit of my body?
The people want to give their best, and the offers intensive their supplication. Burnt offerings? Not that? How about even calves a year old, which are highly valued.
Ok, not that? How about thousands of rams along with rivers of oil. While the number of rams is conceivable for a national celebration (Passover week, for example, during the time of Hezekiah include thousands of animals, 2 Chronicles 30), the amount of oil is extravagant and practically impossible. Such oil is used in the baking of bread with grain offerings. This is a lot of bread! In other words, the people are offering God a celebration where the people come and eat bread and meat, and presumably drink wine in honor of God in order to seek forgiveness or celebrate God’s coming deliverance. They hope to persuade God.
The offer of the firstborn is no fantasy. The surrounding Canaanite cultures, especially the Phoenicians, are well known for the sacrifice of children. Mesha, the king of Moab, records the sacrifice of his own son on a stele which is now in the Louvre in Paris. This archaeological find (found in Jordan in 1868; known as the Mesha Stele). It actually mentions the Israelite king Omri and his son. It dates from around 840 BCE (approximately 130 or so years before Micah’s third oracle). We also Judah’s king Ahaz sacrificed his son(s) in the Valley of Hinnom, according to 2 Kings 16:3 (and 2 Chronicles 28:3). Ahaz was Hezekiah’s father. This probably happened somewhere between 732 and 716 BCE.
So, the offer is a real one. Judah’s leadership was willing to offer a son, if this is what God wanted. But that is not what God wanted.
The ethic (6:8)
God does not want the sacrifice of a firstborn. Rather, God wants the living sacrifice of faithful people. God requires the people to sacrifice themselves through justice, mercy, and humility. What is good? The people already know, but they don’t practice it (as we will see in the second half of chapter 6).
What is good? Not only for Israel, but for all human beings. Micah addresses not only the covenant people in this statement but “Adam” (human beings)—adam knows what is good! Thus, the nations are also judged by the good God identifies. It is a universal call to be truly human, that is, to reflect the goodness and likeness of God. This is what is required, or more literally, this is what the Lord seeks. This is what the Lord wants for humanity.
- To do justice (עֲשׂ֤וֹת מִשְׁפָּט֙), or in Greek ποιεῖν κρίμα.
This is a common theme in the Hebrew Bible (e.g., Isaiah 1:17; 16:5; Psalm 99:4). This is what God expects from judges and leaders in Israel (1 Kings 3:28; Jeremiah 22:3). It refers to a system of communal righteousness that orders society in equitable and peaceful ways. This is a quality human beings are to embody in their own lives, families, and systems.
- To love mercy (אַ֣הֲבַת חֶ֔סֶד), or in Greek ἀγαπᾶν ἔλεον.
The Hebrew terms hesed (חֶ֔סֶד) is one of the most important words in the Hebrew Bible. It is part of God’s own self-description in Exodus 34:6. Nortoriously difficult to translate into English, it has a variety of renditions: mercy, covenant loyalty, lovingkindness, steadfast love, steadfast devotion. Psalm 136 echoes the way hesed is part of God’s creation and redemptive story.
The people of God are to “love” this quality and emulate it. The people of God are to embody God’s own hesed in their lives. It represents a priority—this is what the people of God love, prioritize, and emphasize. As Christopher-Smith notes, this “phrase about ‘steadfast devotion’ disallows a harsh and vindictive idea about ‘justice’” (p.196). Justice is tempered with mercy and steadfast love, and steadfast love seeks justice for those who do not have it.
- To walk humbly with your God (הַצְנֵ֥עַ לֶ֖כֶת עִם־אֱלֹהֶֽיךָ), or in Greek ἕτοιμον εἶναι τοῦ πορεύεσθαι μετὰ κυρίου θεοῦ σου.
“Humbly” is the common translation, but it may also mean cautiously, carefully or with circumspection. It is a call for wisdom, but the main point is to “walk with God.” What does God seek? Yahweh wants humans to walk in the paths of God’s own life and character, that is, to be like God. Israel is called to be holy because God is holy. In essence, the call to walk with God humbly is a call to obedience—to walk in God’s paths.
Many suggest that this summary is influenced by Deuteronomy 10:12-13 (and Jeremiah 7:23 might as well): “So now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? Only to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD your Goda and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being.”
Included in Deuteronomy’s sense of walking in the ways of God according to God’s requirements are: a circumcised heart, justice for the people (no partiality or bribes), justice for the orphan and widow, the love of strangers by the provision of food and clothing, and a commitment to worship God alone (Deuteronomy 10:16-20).
This triad is also echoed in Matthew 23:23, which Jesus calls the weightier matters of the law: justice (righteousness), mercy (love), and faithfulness (walking with God).
If we want to know what the meaning of “mercy, justice, and obedience (humility)” or “doing, loving, and walking” (Limburg, p. 271) is in Micah 6:8, probably the most helpful starting point is the immediate context of Micah 6:9-16. There the prophet lays out the charges—the realities in Judah that violate “mercy, justice, and humility.”
The Specific Charges (Micah 6:9-16)
God has dragged Judah into court because the nation is filled with evil like treasures hoarded in the house of the wicked. Evil fills Judah, and God is indignant. The voice of God confronts Jerusalem (“the city”) and its tribal leaders who assemble there. This assembly, however, turns into a courtroom where the charges are specified. This is a judgment oracle.
The speech articulates some specific evils that have brought about these consequences.
- Economic, crimes of the marketplace. This included dishonest weights and measures.
- Violence, bloodshed for power, control, and economic gain. The wealthy used their status to gain advantage by violent means.
- Deceit, lying is pervasive and used for gain and power.
- Idolatry, the statues of Omri (cf. Jeremiah 10:3) who introduced the Baal cult to Israel that spread to Judah.
This stands in contrast to what it means to walk humbly, lover mercy, and do justice. Doing what God requires means:
- Economic justice and the rejection of violence.
- Loving mercy means reversing the economic and violent abuses of the day.
- Walking with God means worshipping the true God rather than idols.
The contrast between 6:8 and 6:10-12 deserve more attention than I have given here. We learn something about the positive nature of justice, mercy, and walking with God while also noting what the effects of injustice, cruelty, and idolatry are. The people of Israel did not do what God required, and therefore they will experience their reward for such evil.
Therefore, Yahweh says, the consequences follow. This includes hunger, loss, sword, and desolation. Ultimately, it is the destruction of a nation, the exile of both Israel and Judah. Neither shall benefit from their labors in the land—the sow but will not reap.
Due to their sin, the people of God will suffer the fruits of their evil.