Micah 6

The Indictment of the Lord

1 q Hear what the Lord says:
Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
and let the hills hear your voice.
2 r Hear, you mountains, s the indictment of the Lord,
and you enduring foundations of the earth,
for the Lord has an indictment against his people,
and he will contend with Israel.

3 "O my people, t what have I done to you?
u How have I wearied you? Answer me!
4 For v I brought you up from the land of Egypt
and w redeemed you from the house of slavery,
and I sent before you Moses,
Aaron, and x Miriam.
5 O my people, remember y what Balak king of Moab devised,
and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,
and what happened from z Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know a the saving acts of the Lord."

What Does the Lord Require?

6 b "With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before c God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 d Will the Lord be pleased with 1 thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
e Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"
8 He has told you, O man, what is good;
and f what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness, 2
and to g walk humbly with your God?

Destruction of the Wicked

9 The voice of the Lord cries to the city -
and it is sound wisdom to fear h your name:
"Hear of i the rod and of him who appointed it! 3
10 Can I forget any longer the treasures 4 of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
and the scant measure that is accursed?
11 Shall I acquit the man j with wicked scales
and with a bag of deceitful weights?
12 Your 5 rich men are k full of violence;
your inhabitants l speak lies,
and m their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
13 Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow,
n making you desolate because of your sins.
14 o You shall eat, but not be satisfied,
and there shall be hunger within you;
you shall put away, but not preserve,
and what you preserve I will give to the sword.
15 p You shall sow, but not reap;
you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;
you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.
16 For you have kept the statutes of q Omri, 6
and all the works of the house of r Ahab;
and you have walked in their counsels,
that I may make you s a desolation, and your 7 inhabitants s a hissing;
so you shall bear t the scorn of my people."

  1. Cross References
    Micah 1:2
    Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.
  2. Cross References
    Psalms 50:1
    The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
    Psalms 50:4
    He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
    Ezekiel 36:4
    Therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God : Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, the ravines and the valleys, the desolate wastes and the deserted cities, which have become a prey and derision to the rest of the nations all around.
  3. Cross References
    Isaiah 1:18
    Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord : though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
    Hosea 4:1
    Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land.
  4. Cross References
    Isaiah 5:4
    What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
    Jeremiah 2:5
    Thus says the Lord : "What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?
    Jeremiah 2:31
    And you, O generation, behold the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness? Why then do my people say, 'We are free, we will come no more to you'?
  5. Cross References
    Isaiah 43:22 - 23
    Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel!
    Malachi 1:13
    But you say, 'What a weariness this is,' and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lord.
  6. Cross References
    Exodus 12:51
    And on that very day the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.
    Hosea 12:13
    By a prophet the Lord brought Israel up from Egypt, and by a prophet he was guarded.
    Amos 2:10
    Also it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.
  7. Cross References
    2 Samuel 7:23
    And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods?
  8. Cross References
    Exodus 15:20
    Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing.
    Numbers 12:1 - 2
    Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman.
  9. Cross References
    Numbers 22:5
    Sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor at Pethor, which is near the River in the land of the people of Amaw, to call him, saying, "Behold, a people has come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the earth, and they are dwelling opposite me.
  10. Cross References
    Numbers 25:1
    While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab.
  11. Cross References
    Judges 5:11
    To the sound of musicians at the watering places, there they repeat the righteous triumphs of the Lord, the righteous triumphs of his villagers in Israel. "Then down to the gates marched the people of the Lord.
  12. Cross References
    Hosea 5:6
    With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the Lord, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them.
    Hebrews 10:4
    For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
  13. Cross References
    Isaiah 57:15
    For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
  14. Cross References
    1 Samuel 15:22
    And Samuel said, "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord ? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
  15. Cross References
    2 Kings 3:27
    Then he took his oldest son who was to reign in his place and offered him for a burnt offering on the wall. And there came great wrath against Israel. And they withdrew from him and returned to their own land.
    2 Kings 16:3
    But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.
    2 Kings 21:6
    And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.
    2 Kings 23:10
    And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech.
    Leviticus 18:21
    You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.
  16. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 10:12
    And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but 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.
  17. Cross References
    Genesis 5:22
    Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters.
  18. Cross References
    Isaiah 30:27
    Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke; his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire.
  19. Cross References
    Isaiah 10:5
    Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury!
    Isaiah 30:32
    And every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them.
  20. Cross References
    Hosea 12:7
    A merchant, in whose hands are false balances, he loves to oppress.
  21. Cross References
    Amos 3:10
    "They do not know how to do right," declares the Lord, "those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds."
    Habakkuk 1:2 - 3
    O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save?
  22. Cross References
    Hosea 7:13
    Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me.
  23. Cross References
    Jeremiah 9:8
    Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully; with his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he plans an ambush for him.
  24. Cross References
    Micah 7:13
    But the earth will be desolate because of its inhabitants, for the fruit of their deeds.
  25. Cross References
    Hosea 4:10
    They shall eat, but not be satisfied; they shall play the whore, but not multiply, because they have forsaken the Lord to cherish
  26. Cross References
    Zephaniah 1:13
    Their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste. Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit them; though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them.
    Haggai 1:6
    You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.
  27. Cross References
    1 Kings 16:25 - 26
    Omri did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did more evil than all who were before him.
    Micah 1:13
    Harness the steeds to the chariots, inhabitants of Lachish; it was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, for in you were found the transgressions of Israel.
  28. Cross References
    1 Kings 16:30 - 33
    And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him.
    1 Kings 21:25 - 26
    ( There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited.
  29. Cross References
    2 Chronicles 29:8
    Therefore the wrath of the Lord came on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them an object of horror, of astonishment, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes.
  30. Cross References
    2 Chronicles 29:8
    Therefore the wrath of the Lord came on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them an object of horror, of astonishment, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes.
  31. Cross References
    Isaiah 25:8
    He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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