rd

Micah 6

An exhortation to the dumme creatures to hear the judgement against Israél being unkind. 6 What manner of sacrifices do please God.
1.Hearken ye now what the Lord saith, Arise thou, and contend before the amountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.
2.Hear ye, ô mountains, the Lord’s quarrel, and ye mighty foundations of the earth: for the Lord hath a quarrel against his people, and he will plead with Israél.
3.O my people, what have I done unto thee? or wherein have I grieved thee? testify against me.
4.Surely I bbrought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants, and I have sent before thee, Mosés, Aarón, and Miriám.
5.O my people, remember now what Balák King of Moáb had devised, and what Balaám the son of Beór answered him, from cShittím unto Gilgál, that ye may know the drighteousness of the Lord.
6.Wherewith eshal I come before the Lord, and bow my self before the hie God? Shal I come before him with burnt offerings, and with calves of a year old?
7.Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil? shal I give my ffirstborn for my transgression, even the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8.He hath shewed thee, ô man, what is good, and what the Lord requireth of thee: gsurely to do justly, and to love mercy, and to humble thy self, to walk with thy God.
9.The Lord’s voice cryeth unto the hcity, and the man of wisdom shal see thy name: Hear the rod, and who hath appointed it.
10.Are yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure, that is abominable?
11.Shal I justify the wicked balances, and the bag of deceitful weights?
12.For the rich men ithereof are ful of cruelty, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
13.Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, and in making thee desolate because of thy sins.
14.Thou shalt eat & not be satisfied, and kthy casting down shalbe in the middes of thee, and thou lshalt take hold, but shalt not deliver: and that which thou deliverest, will I give up to the sword.
15.Thou shalt sow, but not reap: thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil, and make sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine.
16.For the mstatutes of Omrí are kept, and all the manner of the house of Aháb, and ye walk in their counsels, that I should make thee waste, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shal bear the reproach of my people.

Notes

1-a.
He takes the high mountains and hard rocks to witness against the obstinacy of his people.
4-b.
I have not hurt you, but bestowed infinite benefits upon you.
5-c.
That is, remember my benefits from the beginning how I delivered you from Balaam’s curse, and also spared you from Shittim, which was in the plain of Moab, till I brought you into the land promised.
5-d.
That is, the truth of his promise and his manifold benefits toward you.
6-e.
Thus the people by hypocrisy ask how to please God, and are content to offer sacrifices, but will not change their lives.
7-f.
There is nothing so dear to man, but the hypocrites will offer it unto God, if they think thereby to avoid his anger: but they will never be brought to mortify their own affections and to give themselves willingly to serve God as he commands.
8-g.
The Prophet in few words calls them to the observation of the second table, to know if they will obey God aright or no, saying that God has prescribed them to do this.
9-h.
Meaning, that when God speaks to any city or nation, the godly will acknowledge his majesty and consider not the mortal man that brings the threatening, but God that sends it.
12-i.
That is, of Jerusalem.
14-k.
You shall be consumed with inward grief and evils.
14-l.
Meaning, that the city should go about to save her men, as they that lay hold on that which they would preserve.
16-m.
You have received all the corruption and idolatry, wherewith the ten tribes were infected under Omri and Ahab his son: and to excuse your doings, you allege the Kings authority by his statutes, and also wisdom and policy in so doing, but you shall not escape punishment, but as I have showed you great favour, and taken you for my people, so shall your plagues be accordingly, Luke 12.47.