Chapter 6

1 Listen to what the Lord says: “Get up! Defend yourself before the mountains. Present your case before the hills.” 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! 3 “My people, how have I wronged you? How have I wearied you? Answer me! 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.⁠ 5 My people, recall how King Balak of Moab planned to harm you, how Balaam son of Beor responded to him.⁠ Recall how you journeyed from Shittim to Gilgal, in order to know the just acts of the Lord.⁸” 6 With what should I enter the Lord’s presence? With what should I bow before the sovereign God? Should I enter his presence with burnt offerings, with year-old calves? 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? 8 He has told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord really wants from you: He wants you to carry out justice, to love faithfulness, and to live obediently before your God.⁠ 9 Listen! The Lord is calling to the city! It is wise to respect your authority, O Lord.⁠ Listen, O nation, and those assembled in the city! 10 “I will not overlook, O sinful house, the dishonest gain you have hoarded away or the smaller-than-standard measure I hate so much.⁠ 11 I do not condone the use of rigged scales or a bag of deceptive weights. 12 The city’s wealthy people readily resort to violence; her inhabitants tell lies; their tongues speak deceptive words. 13 I will strike you brutally and destroy you because of your sin. 14 You will eat, but not be satisfied. Even if you have the strength to overtake some prey, you will not be able to carry it away; if you do happen to carry away something, I will deliver it over to the sword. 15 You will plant crops, but will not harvest them;⁠ you will squeeze oil from the olives, but you will have no oil to rub on your bodies; you will squeeze juice from the grapes, but you will have no wine to drink. 16 You follow Omri’s edicts and all the practices of Ahab’s dynasty; you follow their policies. Therefore I will make you an appalling sight; the city’s inhabitants will be taunted derisively, and nations will mock all of you.”⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Micah 6:15 and John 4:37

Hebrew Bible · New Testament

Summary

Micah uses farming language to show how disobedience makes work fruitless, echoing the covenant curses that say they will plant but not harvest. John reshapes this from loss to describe cooperation, where one plants and another gathers the results.

Passages

Micah 6:15

Hebrew Bible

12 The city’s wealthy people readily resort to violence; her inhabitants tell lies; their tongues speak deceptive words. 13 I will strike you brutally and destroy you because of your sin. 14 You will eat, but not be satisfied. Even if you have the strength to overtake some prey, you will not be able to carry it away; if you do happen to carry away something, I will deliver it over to the sword. 15 You will plant crops, but will not harvest them; you will squeeze oil from the olives, but you will have no oil to rub on your bodies; you will squeeze juice from the grapes, but you will have no wine to drink.

600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Micah

John 4:37

New Testament

34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Don’t you say, ‘There are four more months and then comes the harvest?’ I tell you, look up and see that the fields are already white for harvest! 36 The one who reaps receives pay and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps can rejoice together. 37 For in this instance the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap what you did not work for; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”

90–110 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in John

References

"... In an agrarian economy, the sowing and planting of crops is a major event, the timing of which depends on the type of seed, for which there is always a “time” (Ecclesiastes 3:2). In the Bible, God is viewed as the One who instructs the farmer how to do his work rightly (Isaiah 28:29). Sometimes plowing the soil and planting went together; at other times one followed the other so that some seed fell on paths, rocky ground or Human Sowing. Sowing is spoken of figuratively for setting various things in motion. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament it is used for engaging in a righteous or loving activity (Proverbs 11:18; Ecclesiastes 11:1; Hosea 10:12; compare James 3:18), for initiating evil and disrupting unity (Job 4:8; Proverbs 6:14, 19; 16:28; 22:8) and for undertaking a spiritual task (Galatians 6:8–9). Linked with harvesting, it gives birth to proverbs about the link between energy expended and outcome expected, such as “you reap whatever you sow” (Galatians 6:7), “one sows and another reaps” (see Job 31:8; Micah 6:15; compare John 4:37) or “those who sow in tears reap in joy” (see Psalm 126:5; Proverbs 22:8). It is also a metaphor for giving, which if done sparingly will result in a small return, if done generously in a large return (2 Corinthians 9:7–10) ..."

Leland Ryken, James C. Wilhoit, and Tremper Longman III, eds., Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1998), 2719–2720.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Micah7 chapters

Compare Micah 6:15 and John 4:37

Summary

Passages

Micah 6:15

John 4:37

References

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