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Micah

About this book
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 Treaty of Kadesh 1:21 and Micah 6:2

Ancient Near East, Egyptian · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Ramses II's treaty with the Hittites ends its list of witnesses with the gods of the mountains and rivers, the heavens, the soil and the great sea. Micah summons the mountains and the foundations of the earth themselves to hear God's case.

Passages

Treaty of Kadesh 1:21

Ancient Near East, Egyptian · Egyptian-Hittite Peace Treaty
the queen of the heavens, gods, lords of swearing, the goddess, the mistress of the soil, the mistress of swearing, Teskher, the mistress of the mountains, and the rivers of the land of Kheta, the gods of the land of Kezweden, Amon, the Sun-god, Sutekh, the male gods and the female gods of the mountains and the rivers of the land of Egypt, of the heavens, the soil, the great sea, the wind, and the storms.
1259 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Treaty of Kadesh

Micah 6:2

Hebrew Bible
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”
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Micah

References

“... In the covenants the gods are called upon to serve as witnesses to the undertaking of obligation and the oath and in the case of a vassal treaty the gods of the administrator and taker of the oath alike are invited. In addition to the gods, the natural forces are involved: mountains, rivers, wells, the abyss, the heavens and earth, wind and clouds. Also mentioned are a thousand gods who serve as punishing witnesses and it is pointed out that all the gods and goddesses including the gods of the underworld appear as witnesses. [...] In the biblical covenant we should obviously not expect any but the one God who is party to the covenant, however, natural forces are invoked as witnesses: heaven and earth (Deut. 4.26; 30.19; 31.28), and in prophecy, mountains and hills (Mic. 6.1-2). ...”
Moshe Weinfeld, “The Loyalty Oath in the Ancient Near East,” in Normative and Sectarian Judaism in the Second Temple Period (London: T&T Clark International, 2005), 21–22.

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Treaty of Kadesh 1:21 and Micah 6:2

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