Micah 6 commentary

MICAH 6 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
1
Listen to what the LORD says: "Stand up, plead
your case before the mountains; let the hills hear
what you have to say.
BARNES, "Hear ye now what the Lord saith - If ye will not hear the rebuke of
man, hear now at last the word of God. “Arise thou, Micah.” The prophet was not willing
to be the herald of woe to his people; but had to arise at the bidding of God, that he
might not “be rebellious like that rebellious house” Eze_2:8. Stand up; as one having all
authority to rebuke, and daunted by none. He muses the hearer, as shewing it to be a
very grave urgent matter, to be done promptly, urgently, without delay. “Contend thou
before (better, as in the English margin with) the mountains.” Since man, who had
reason, would not use his reason, God calls the mountains and hills, who Rom_8:20
unwillingly, as it were, had been the scenes of their idolatry, as if he would say (Lap.),
“Insensate though ye be, ye are more sensible than Israel, whom I endowed with sense;
for ye feel the voice and command of God your Creator and obey Him; they do not. I cite
you, to represent your guilty inhabitants, that, through you, they may hear My complaint
to be just, and own themselves guilty, repent, and ask forgiveness.” “The altars and idols,
the blood of the sacrifices, the bones and ashes upon them, with unuttered yet clear
voice, spoke of the idolatry and guilt of the Jews, and so pronounced God’s charge and
expostulation to be just. Ezekiel is bidden, in like way, to prophesy against “the
mountains of Israel Eze_6:2-5, “I will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your
high places, and your altars shall be desolate.” : “Lifeless nature without voice tells the
glory of God; without ears it hears what the Lord speaks.” Psa_19:3; Luk_19:40.
CLARKE, "Arise, contend thou - This chapter is a sort of dialogue between God
and the people. God speaks the five first verses, and convicts the people of sin,
righteousness, and judgment. The People, convinced of their iniquity, deprecate God’s
judgments, in the sixth and seventh verses. In the eighth verse God prescribes the way in
which they are to be saved; and then the prophet, by the command of God, goes on to
remonstrate from the ninth verse to the end of the chapter.
GILL, "Hear ye now what the Lord saith,.... Here begins a new discourse, and with
an address of the prophet to the people of Israel, to hear what the Lord had to say to
them by way of reproof for their sins now, as they had heard before many great and

precious promises concerning the Messiah, and the happiness of the church in future
time; to hear what the Lord now said to them by the prophet, and what he said to the
prophet himself, as follows:
arise; O Prophet Micah, and do thine office; sit not still, nor indulge to sloth and ease;
show readiness, diligence, activity, zeal, and courage in my service, and in carrying a
message from me to my people:
contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice; open the
cause depending between me and my people; state the case between us before the
mountains and hills; and exert thyself, and lift up thy voice loudly, and with so much
vehemence, that, if it was possible, the very mountains and hills might hear thee; the
Lord hereby suggests that they would as soon hear as his people; thus upbraiding their
stupidity, as he elsewhere does; see Isa_1:2. Kimchi and Ben Melech render it, to the
mountains, which is much to the same sense with our version; call and summon them as
witnesses in this cause; let the pleadings be made before them, and let them be judges in
this matter; as they might be both for God, and against his people: the mountains and
hills clothed with grass, and covered with flocks and herds; or set with all manner of fruit
trees, vines, olives, and figs; or adorned with goodly cedars, oaks, and elms; were
witnesses of the goodness of God unto them, and the same could testify against them;
and, had they mouths to speak, could declare the abominations committed on them; how
upon every high mountain and hill, and under every green tree, they had been guilty of
idolatry. The Targum, and many versions (q), render it, "with the mountains"; and the
Vulgate Latin version, and others, "against the mountains" (r); the inhabitants of Judea,
that being a mountainous country, especially some parts of it. Some by "mountains"
understand the great men of the land, king, princes, nobles; and, by "hills", lesser
magistrates, with whom the Lord's controversy chiefly was; they not discharging their
offices aright, nor setting good examples to the people. Some copies of the Targum, as
the king of Spain's Bible, paraphrase it,
"judge or contend with the fathers, and let the mothers hear thy voice;''
which Kimchi thus explains, as if it was said, let the fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
and the mothers Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah, hear what their children hath
rendered to the Lord; let them be, as it were, called out of their graves to hear the ill
requital made to the Lord for all his goodness.
HENRY, "Here, I. The prefaces to the message are very solemn and such as may
engage our most serious attention. 1. The people are commanded to give audience: Hear
you now what the Lord says. What the prophet speaks he speaks from God, and in his
name; they are therefore bound to hear it, not as the word of a sinful dying man, but of
the holy living God. Hear now what he saith, for, first or last, he will be heard. 2. The
prophet is commanded to speak in earnest, and to put an emphasis upon what he said:
Arise, contend thou before the mountains, or with the mountains, and let the hills hear
thy voice, if it were possible; contend with the mountains and hills of Judea, that is, with
the inhabitants of those mountains and hills; and, some think, reference is had to those
mountains and hills on which they worshipped idols and which were thus polluted. But it
is rather to be taken more generally, as appears by his call, not only to the mountains,
but to the strong foundations of the earth, pursuant to the instructions given him. This
is designed, (1.) To excite the earnestness of the prophet; he must speak as vehemently as
if he designed to make even the hills and mountains hear him, must cry aloud, and not

spare; what he had to say in God's name he must proclaim publicly before the
mountains, as one that was neither ashamed nor afraid to own his message; he must
speak as one concerned, as one that desired to speak to the heart, and therefore appeared
to speak from the heart. (2.) To expose the stupidity of the people; “Let the hills hear thy
voice, for this senseless careless people will not hear it, will not heed it. Let the rocks, the
foundations of the earth, that have no ears, hear, since Israel, that has ears, will not
hear.” It is an appeal to the mountains and hills; let them bear witness that Israel has fair
warning given them, and good counsel, if they would but take it. Thus Isaiah begins with,
Hear, O heavens! and give ear, O earth! Let them judge between God and his vineyard.
JAMISON, "Mic_6:1-16. Appeal before all creation to the Israelites to testify, if they
can, if Jehovah ever did aught but acts of kindness to them from the earliest period:
God requires of them not so much sacrifices, as real piety and justice: Their impieties
and coming punishment.
contend thou — Israel is called by Jehovah to plead with Him in controversy.
Mic_5:11-13 suggested the transition from those happy times described in the fourth and
fifth chapters, to the prophet’s own degenerate times and people.
before the mountains — in their presence; personified as if witnesses (compare
Mic_1:2; Deu_32:1; Isa_1:2). Not as the Margin, “with”; as God’s controversy is with
Israel, not with them.
K&D 1-2, "Introduction. - Announcement of the lawsuit which the Lord will have
with His people. - Mic_6:1. “Hear ye, then, what Jehovah saith; Rise up, contend with
the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice! Mic_6:2. Hear ye, O mountains,
Jehovah's contest; and ye immutable ones, ye foundations of the earth! For Jehovah
has a contest with His people; and with Israel will He contend.” In Mic_6:1 the nation
of Israel is addressed in its several members. They are to hear what the Lord says to the
prophet, - namely, the summons addressed to the mountains and hills to hear Jehovah's
contest with His people. The words “strive with the mountains” cannot be understood
here as signifying that the mountains are the objects of the accusation, notwithstanding
the fact that signifies to strive or quarrel with a person (Jdg_8:1; Isa_50:8; Jer_2:9);
for, according to Mic_6:2, they are to hear the contest of Jehovah with Israel, and
therefore are to be merely witnesses on the occasion. Consequently can only express the
idea of fellowship here, and must be distinguished from in Mic_6:2 and Hos_4:1, etc.
The mountains and hills are to hearken to the contest (as in Deu_32:1 and Isa_1:2), as
witnesses, “who have seen what the Lord has done for Israel throughout the course of
ages, and how Israel has rewarded Him for it all” (Caspari), to bear witness on behalf of
the Lord, and against Israel. Accordingly the mountains are called , the constantly
enduring, immutable ones, which have been spectators from time immemorial, and ,
foundations of the earth, as being subject to no change on account of their strength and
firmness. In this respect they are often called “the everlasting mountains” (e.g.,
Gen_49:26; Deu_33:15; Psa_90:2; Hab_3:6). Israel is called (Jehovah's people) with
intentional emphasis, not only to indicate the right of Jehovah to contend with it, but to
sharpen its own conscience, by pointing to its calling. Hithvakkach, like in the niphal in
Isa_1:18.

CALVIN, "Here the Prophet avowedly assumes that the people were sufficiently
proved guilty; and yet they resisted through a hardiness the most obdurate, and
rejected all admonitions without shame, and without any discretion. He is therefore
commanded to direct his discourse to the mountains and to the hills; for his labor
had now for a long time been useless as to men. The meaning then is that when the
Prophet had spent much labor on the people and derived no fruit, he is at length
bidden to call the mountains and the hills to bear their testimony to God; and thus
before the elements is made known and proved the ungodliness and the obstinacy of
the people. But before he relates what had been committed to him, he makes a
preface, in order to gain attention.
Hear ye what Jehovah says. The Prophets are wont, on very serious subjects, to
make such a preface as is here made by Micah: and it is indeed sufficiently evident
from the passage, that he has here no ordinary subject for his teaching, but that, on
the contrary, he rebukes their monstrous stupidity; for he had been addressing the
deaf without any advantage. As then the Prophet was about to declare no common
thing, but to be a witness of a new judgment, — this is the reason why he bids them
to be unusually attentive. Hear, he says, what Jehovah saith. What is it? He might
have added, “Jehovah has very often spoken to you, he has tried all means to bring
you to the right way; but as ye are past recovery, vengeance alone now remains for
you: he will no more spend labor in vain on you; for he finds in you neither shame,
nor meekness, nor docility.” The Prophet might have thus spoken to them; but he
says that another thing was committed to his charge by the Lord, and that is, to
contend or to plead before the mountains. And this reproach ought to have most
acutely touched the hearts of the people: for there is here an implied comparison
between the mountains and the Jews; as though the Prophet said, — “The
mountains are void of understanding and reason, and yet the Lord prefers to have
them as witness of his cause rather than you, who exceed in stupidity all the
mountains and rocks.” We now then perceive the design of God.
Some take mountains and hills in a metaphorical sense for the chief men who then
ruled: and this manner of speaking very frequently occurs in Scripture: but as to
the present passage, I have no doubt but that the Prophet mentions mountains and
hills without a figure; for, as I have already said, he sets the hardness of the people
in opposition to rocks, and intimates, that there would be more attention and
docility in the very mountains than what he had hitherto found in the chosen people.
And the particle ,at, is often taken in the sense of before: it means also with; but in
this place I take it for , lamed, before or near, as many instances might be cited. But
that this is the meaning of the Prophet it is easy to gather from the next verse, when
he says —
COFFMAN, "This begins the concluding section of Micah (Micah 6-7). The prophet
had already declared the guilt of Israel and pronounced dramatically the divine

sentence of the destruction of their "sinful kingdom," stating also at the same time
the salvation that would yet be available to a faithful remnant of the chosen people,
preserved and purified through the terrible punishment to come. In this last division
of the prophecy, Micah again stressed that the judgment to fall upon them was due
solely to "their ingratitude and resistance to the commandments of God,"[1] and
that only by sincere repentance would any of them be able to participate in the
covenant blessings. Most of this chapter is in the form of a formal "lawsuit, in which
God, as both accuser and judge, indicts, and then pronounces sentence on his
people."[2] The basic assumption underlying Micah, and all of the prophets, is the
prior existence of a covenant relationship between God and Israel. The whole
Pentateuch and the entire previous history of Israel are the background. The legal
fabric in which this lawsuit appears, therefore, "is related directly to Israel's
chosenness. Her election status is the reason for her obligation to act according to
Yahweh's moral requirements."[3] In a precious summary attributed by Hailey to
Farrar:
"In the earlier chapters, we have the springtide of hope; but we have in these
(Micah 6-7) the paler autumn of disappointment."[4]
The charge against Israel in this chapter is simply that of breach of contract. In
every age, without exception, God's blessing is conditional, always dependent upon
the continued love and obedience of God's people to himself; but Israel had made
the tragic mistake of supposing that God would still be with them, even though they
had wantonly rejected and disobeyed his commandments.
Micah 6:1
"Hear ye now what Jehovah saith: Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let
the hills hear thy voice."
"This language and style of the saying are drawn from the sphere of legal practice in
Israel."[5] It is exactly the same type of courtroom language that appears
continually in the prophets "across the history of prophecy from Hosea to
Malachi."[6]
The calling of the mountains and hills to be witness was characteristic courtroom
procedure in those days. Nature itself would be an appropriate witness against
Israel, whose conduct in rejecting their God and protector was contrary to nature.
TRAPP, "Verse 1
Micah 6:1 Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the
mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.
Ver. 1. Hear ye now what the Lord saith] Exordium breve est, sed plane patheticum,
saith Gualther. This is a short, but pithy and pathetic preface, wherein he woos their
attention: Audite quaeso, Hear, I pray you. Ministers are spokesmen for Christ, and
must therefore give good words: and yet remembering on whose errand they come,

it is required that they be found faithful, 1 Corinthians 4:2.
Arise, contend thou] Surge, age, O Micah! Debate thou God’s cause against this
rebellious and ungrateful people, as it were in judgment; calling all, even the
insensible creatures, to be judges. See the like Deuteronomy 32:1, Isaiah 1:2, Micah
1:2 (for these two prophets have many things common), and be sensible, that some
sit as senseless before a preacher still as the seats they sit on, pillars they lean to,
dead bodies they tread upon; so that we have need (as one did once in my hearing)
to call to the walls and windows to hear the word of the Lord. This heavy ear is
meted for a singular judgment, Matthew 13:13-14, Isaiah 30:8-9. The philosopher
was angry with his Boeotians: telling them that they had not their name for nought,
since their ears were ox ears, and that they were dull creatures, and incapable of
counsel. Demosthenes also, for like cause, called upon his countrymen of Athens to
get their ears healed; and Diogenes used to tell his tale to the statues and images,
that he might inure himself to lose his labour, as he had so often done, in speaking to
the people. Let us, to the wearing of our tongues to the stumps, preach and pray
never so much, men will on in sin, said blessed Bradford, in that excellent sermon of
his of repentance. We cry till we are hoarse (saith another rare preacher), we speak
till we spit forth our lungs; but all to as little purpose as Bede did, when he preached
to a heap of stones. Asino quispiam narrabat fabulam: at ille movebat aures. But
shall people thus carry it away, and God lose the sweet words? Never think of it.
Those that will not hear the word shall bear the rod, Micah 6:9 : and if they could
but see their misery they would do as the prophet requires, cut their hair and cast it
away, under the sense of the horror of God’s indignation, Jeremiah 7:27; Jeremiah
7:29, they would beg of God a hearing ear (which is as an earring of gold, Proverbs
25:12), and beseech him to make the bore bigger, that his word might enter; yea, to
draw up the ears of their souls to the ears of their bodies, that one saving sound
might pierce both at once. Let him that hath an ear to hear, hear; or if yet any think
good to forbear, let him forbear, Ezekiel 3:27, but he will certainly repent it. He that
now gives God occasion to call to the hills, &c., shall one day tire the deaf
mountains, saying, Fall on me, hide me, dash and quash me in a thousand pieces. Oh
that I might trot directly to hell, and not stay to hear that dreadful discedite, Go, ye
cursed!
CONSTABLE, "Verse 1-2
In this litigation speech, Micah called his audience to hear what Yahweh had told
him to say. Yahweh had a case (lawsuit, Heb. rib) to bring against His people. The
Lord was summoning Israel to defend herself in a courtroom setting. He addressed
the mountains, hills, and foundations of the earth as the jury in this case (cf.
Deuteronomy 32:1; Isaiah 1:2). The Lord called this jury, which had observed
Israel"s history from its beginning, to hear His indictment against the nation.
Compare the function of memorial stones ( Genesis 31:43-50; Joshua 22:21-28). If
these jurors could speak, they would witness to the truthfulness of the Lord"s
claims.

EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMMENTARY
Verses 1-8
THE REASONABLENESS OF TRUE RELIGION
Micah 6:1-8
WE have now reached a passage from which all obscurities of date and authorship
disappear before the transparence and splendor of its contents. "These few verses,"
says a great critic, "in which Micah sets forth the true essence of religion, may raise
a well-founded title to be counted as the most important in the prophetic literature.
Like almost no others, they afford us an insight into the innermost nature of the
religion of Israel, as delivered by the prophets."
Usually it is only the last of the verses upon which the admiration of the reader is
bestowed: "What doth the Lord require of thee, O man, but to do justice and love
mercy and walk humbly with thy God?" But in truth the rest of the passage
differeth not in glory; the wonder of it lies no more in its peroration than in its
argument as a whole.
The passage is cast in the same form as the opening chapter of the book-that of the
Argument or Debate between the God of Israel and His people, upon the great
theatre of Nature. The heart must be dull that does not leap to the Presences before
which the trial is enacted.
The prophet speaks:-
"Hear ye now that which Jehovah is saying; Arise, contend before the mountains,
And let the hills hear thy voice! Hear, O mountains, the Lord’s Argument, And ye,
the everlasting foundations of earth!"
This is not mere scenery. In all the moral questions between God and man, the
prophets feel that Nature is involved. Either she is called as a witness to the long
history of their relations to each other, or as sharing God’s feeling off the
intolerableness of the evil which men have heaped upon her, or by her droughts and
floods and earthquakes as the executioner of their doom. It is in the first of these
capacities that the prophet in this passage appeals to the mountains and eternal
foundations of earth. They are called, not because they are the biggest of existences,
but because they are the most full of memories and associations with both parties to
the Trial.
The main idea of the passage, however, is the trial itself. We have seen more than
once that the forms of religion which the prophets had to combat were those which
expressed it mechanically in the form of ritual and sacrifice, and those which
expressed it in mere enthusiasm and ecstasy. Between such extremes the prophets
insisted that religion was knowledge and that it was conduct rational intercourse

and loving duty between God and man. This is what they figure in their favorite
scene of a Debate which is now before us.
"Jehovah hath a Quarrel with His People, And with Israel He cometh to argue."
To us, accustomed to communion with the Godhead, as with a Father, this may seem
formal and legal. But if we so regard it we do it an injustice. The form sprang by
revolt against mechanical and sensational ideas of religion. It emphasized religion as
rational and moral, and at once preserved the reasonableness of God and the
freedom of man. God spoke with the people whom He had educated: He plead with
them, listened to their statements and questions, and produced His own evidences
and reasons. Religion-such a passage as this asserts-religion is not a thing of
authority nor of ceremonial nor of mere feeling, but of argument, reasonable
presentation and debate. Reason is not put out of court: man’s freedom is respected;
and he is not taken by surprise through his fears or his feelings. This sublime and
generous conception of religion, which we owe first of all to the prophets in their
contest with superstitious and slothful theories off religion that unhappily survive
among us, was carried to its climax in the Old Testament by another class of writers.
We find it elaborated with great power and beauty in the Books of Wisdom. In these
the Divine Reason has emerged from the legal forms now before us, and has become
the Associate and Friend off Man. The Prologue to the Book of Proverbs tells how
Wisdom, fellow of God from the foundation of the world, descends to dwell among
men. She comes forth into their streets and markets, she argues and pleads there
with an urgency which is equal to the urgency of temptation itself. But it ‘is not all
the earthly ministry of the Son of God, His arguments with the doctors, His parables
to the common people, His gentle and prolonged education of His disciples, that we
see the reasonableness of religion in all its strength and beauty.
In that free court of reason in which the prophets saw God and man plead together,
the subjects were such as became them both. For God unfolds no mysteries, and
pleads no power, but the debate proceeds upon the facts and evidences of life: the
appearance of character in history; whether the past be not full of the efforts of
love; whether God had not, as human willfulness permitted Him, achieved the
liberation and progress of His people.
God speaks:-
"My people, what have I done unto thee? And how have I wearied thee-answer Me!
For I brought thee up from the land of Misraim, And from the house of slavery I
redeemed thee. I sent before thee Moses, Aharon and Miriam. My people, remember
now what Balak king of Moab counseled, And how he was answered by Bala’am,
Beors son-So that thou mayest know the righteous deeds of Jehovah."
Always do the prophets go back to Egypt or the wilderness. There God made the
people, there He redeemed them. In law book as in prophecy, it is the fact of
redemption which forms the main ground of His appeal. Redeemed by Him, the

people are not their own, but His. Treated with that wonderful love and patience,
like patience and love they are called to bestow upon the weak and miserable
beneath them. One of the greatest interpreters of the prophets to our own age,
Frederick Denison Maurice, has said upon this passage:
"We do not know God till we recognize Him as a Deliverer; we do not understand
our own work in the world till we believe we are sent into it to carry out His designs
for the deliverance of ourselves and the race. The bondage I groan under is a
bondage of the will. God is emphatically the Redeemer of the Will. It is in Chat
character He reveals Himself to us. We could not think of God at all as the God, the
living God, if we did not regard Him as such a Redeemer. But if of my will, then of
all wills: sooner or later I am convinced He Will be manifested as the Restorer,
Regenerator-not of something else, but of this roof the fallen spirit that is within
us."
In most of the controversies which the prophets open between God and man, the
subject on the side of the latter is his sin. But that is not so here. In the controversy
which opens the Book of Micah the argument falls upon the transgressions of the
people, but here upon their sincere though mistaken methods of approaching God.
There God deals with dull consciences, but here with darkened and imploring
hearts. In that case we had rebels forsaking the true God for idols, but here are
earnest seekers after God, who have lost their way and are weary. Accordingly, as
indignation prevailed there, here prevails pity; and though formally this be a
controversy under the same legal form as before, the passage breathes tenderness
and gentleness from first to last. By this as well as by the recollections of the ancient
history of Israel we are reminded of the style of Hosea. But there is no expostulation,
as in his book, with the people’s continued devotion to ritual. All that is past, and a
new temper prevails. Israel have at last come to feel the vanity of the exaggerated
zeal with which Amos pictures them exceeding the legal requirements of sacrifice;
and with a despair, sufficiently evident in the superlatives which they use, they
confess the futility and weariness of the whole system, even in the most lavish and
impossible forms of sacrifice. What then remains for them to do? The prophet
answers with the beautiful words that express an ideal of religion to which no
subsequent century has ever been able to add either grandeur or tenderness.
The people speak:-
"Wherewithal shall I come before Jehovah, Shall I bow myself to God the Most
High? Shall I come before Him with burnt-offerings, With calves of one year? Will
Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, With myriads of rivers of oil? Shall I
give my firstborn for a guilt-offering The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"
The prophet answers:-
"He hath shown thee, O man, what is good; And what is the Lord seeking from thee,
But to do justice and love mercy, And humbly to walk with thy God?"

This is the greatest saying of the Old Testament; and there is only one other in the
New which excels it:-
"Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
"Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and
ye shall find rest unto your souls."
"For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light."
PETT, "Verses 1-8
Micah Now Calls On Creation To Witness YHWH’s Case Against Israel, And
Finishes By Stating YHWH’s Requirements. (Micah 6:1-8)
Knowing that the people might be puzzled as to why YHWH should treat His people
as described in Micah 5:10-15, Micah, having called on creation as witnesses, now
presents YHWH’s case. The people respond to His case and reveal in their response
their total lack of understanding of what YHWH is really like. Their view is that He
can be pacified with offerings and gifts. Micah then replies by explaining what
YHWH does really want of them, that they will do what is right, love compassion,
and walk thoughtfully before God.
The Prophet calls on creation to hear YHWH’s case against His people (Micah 6:1-
2).
‘Hear you now what YHWH says,
“Arise, contend you before the mountains,
And let the hills hear your voice.
Hear, O you mountains, YHWH’s controversy,
And you enduring foundations of the earth,
For YHWH has a controversy with his people,
And he will contend with Israel.”
YHWH Puts His Case to the People (Micah 6:3-4).
“O my people, what have I done to you?
And in what have I wearied you?

Testify against me.”
“For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt,
And redeemed you out of the house of bondage,
And I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.”
O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab devised,
And what Balaam the son of Beor answered him;
Remember from Shittim to Gilgal,
That you may know the righteous acts of YHWH.”
The People Ask What Is Required Of Them (Micah 6:6-7).
With what shall I come before YHWH?
And bow myself before the high God?
Shall I come before him with burnt–offerings,
With calves a year old?
Will YHWH be pleased with thousands of rams,
Or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
The Prophet Explains What YHWH Really Wants (Micah 6:8).
Micah 6:8
“He has showed you, O man, what is good,
And what does YHWH require of you?
But to do justly, and to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?

We will now consider it section by section.
Micah 6:1-2
‘Hear you now what YHWH says,
“Arise, contend you before the mountains,
And let the hills hear your voice.
Hear, O you mountains, YHWH’s controversy,
And you enduring foundations of the earth,
For YHWH has a controversy with his people,
And he will contend with Israel.”
In the first instance Micah calls on the people to hear what YHWH says, and then
calls on them to make their case before the mountains and hills which have
witnessed all that has gone on in past ages, especially the false worship in the high
places. Then he turns to the mountains and the foundations of the earth, asking
them to witness the controversy that YHWH has with His people, and will now
bring before them
Note the careful chiastic arrangement. The opening and closing thoughts are of
contending, while in between come the two controversies. This calling on creation to
witness God’s controversies with His people is a regular feature of the prophets. See
Isaiah 3:13 ff; Isaiah 5:3 ff; Jeremiah 25:31; Hosea 4:1; Hosea 12:2.
Micah 6:3
“O my people, what have I done to you?
And in what have I wearied you?
Testify against me.”
YHWH Himself now calls on His people to tell Him what He has done to upset them,
and why they have grown weary of Him. He is calling on them to testify against
Him. But before they make their reply He explains what He has done for them so
that they will be without excuse.
BI 1-3, "Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice
God’s controversy with Israel
In this text we have God offering to plead before the sinner.

The parties, who are they? On the one part, the Lord of universal nature. On the other
part, man, Israel, the Church. The manner of pleading this cause. Who can coolly hear
this language? At the sound of these words conscience takes fright. The matter of
controversy is, the whole conduct of man to God, and the whole conduct of God to man.
I. Hear what complaints man has to bring against God, and what, God has to answer.
That a creature should complain of his Creator should seem a paradox. We are apt to
complain of God on three accounts: His law seems too severe, His temporal favours too
small, and His judgments too rigorous.
1. Are not the laws of God just in themselves. What is the design of those laws? Is it
not to make you as happy as possible? Are not those laws infinitely proper to make
you happy in this world? And doth not God exemplify these laws Himself? What does
God require of you, but to endeavour to please Him?
2. Complaints against God as the governor of the world. Man complains of
providence; the economy of it is too narrow and confined, the temporal benefits
bestowed are too few and partial. This complaint, we allow, has some colour. But
from the mouth of a Christian it cannot come without extreme ignorance and
ingratitude. If the morality of Jesus Christ he examined it will be found almost
incompatible with worldly prosperity. Temporal prosperity is often hostile to our
happiness. Had God given us a life full of charms we should have taken little thought
about another.
3. Complaints against the rigour of His judgments. If we consider God as a Judge,
what a number of reasons may be assigned to prove the equity of all the evils that He
hath brought upon us. But if God be considered as a Father, all these chastisements,
even the most rigorous of them, are perfectly consistent with His character. It was
His love that engaged Him to employ such severe means for your benefit.
II. Hear what complaints God has to bring against man. Every one is acquainted with
the irregularities of the Jews. They corrupted both natural and revealed religion. And
their crimes were aggravated by the innumerable blessings which God bestowed on
them. Apply to ourselves—
1. When God distinguishes a people by signal favours, the people ought to distinguish
themselves by gratitude to Him. When were ever any people so favoured as we are?
2. When men are under the hand of an angry God they are called to mourning and
contrition. We are under the correcting hand of God. What are the signs of our right
feeling and mood?
3. To attend public worship is not to obtain the end of the ministry. Not to become
wise by attending it is to increase our miseries by aggravating our sins.
4. Slander is a dangerous vice. It is tolerated in society only because every one has an
invincible inclination to commit it.
5. If the dangers that threaten us, and the blows that providence strikes, ought to
affect us all, they ought those most of all who are most exposed to them.
6. If gaming be innocent in any circumstances, they are uncommon and rare. Such is
the controversy of God with you. It is your part to reply. What have you to say in your
own behalf? (J. Saurin.)

God’s appeal to His people
The prophet is directed to plead with Judah, and to expostulate with them for their
rebellious backslidings. The prophet is directed to address himself to inanimate nature;
to summons the very senseless earth itself, as it were, to be an auditor of his words, and
an umpire between God and His people. There is something, indeed, very solemn and
awful in this appeal. The prophet was directed to proclaim, in the face of all nature, the
equity and justice of God’s dealings; and to challenge, as it were, a scrutiny from His
people. He condescends to put Himself (so to speak) on trial, to demand an investigation
into His dealings, and to plead His cause as man with his fellow man. Having exhibited
the claims which God had upon the grateful obedience of His people, and, by
consequence, the inexcusableness of their revolt, the prophet next introduces, in His
figurative description, the Israelites as being struck with alarm and consternation at the
condition whereunto their transgression had brought them, and, in the excitement of
their minds, as seeking to appease the anger of a justly offended God by the most costly
and abundant sacrifices. May we not take up the words of the prophet, and, adapting
them to our own times and circumstances, say, “The Lord hath a controversy with His
people”? May we not, as Micah did, stand forth to challenge a hearing for the cause of the
Lord, to show of His righteous dealings towards us, to plead for the equity and mercy of
His government, and to leave the folly and ingratitude and rebellion of those whom He
hath so signally favoured utterly and absolutely without excuse? We cannot plead
ignorance, or that He is a rigid taskmaster whose service is hard and oppressive. Nor can
a conscious sense of unfitness and depravity be pleaded as an excuse for not complying
with the invitations of a gracious God to engage in His service. Why, then, is it that men
refuse to listen to the gracious calls of God? There is but one plea that can be urged with
any apparent reason; namely, the utter inability of fallen man, of himself, to turn unto
God, or to make one movement toward that which is good. While it is acknowledged that
the grace of God alone can change the carnal mind, and renew the corrupt heart, and
incline the apostate will, yet we must ever bear in mind that God worketh not without
means; He accomplisheth not without methods and instruments. In the work of grace it
is precisely as in the works of nature, that God hath appointed certain steps to be
followed, in the economy of His providence, on the part of man, which He doth cause to
be successful to the production of their object. Then we must use the means of His
special appointment; humbly come to Him in faith and prayer, to pray that we may have
grace to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. (J. B. Smith, D.
D.)
Man in the moral court of history
I. Here is a call on man to give audience to Almighty God. “Hear ye now what the Lord
saith.”
1. Natural. What is more natural than for a child to hang on the lips and attend to the
words of his parent? How much more natural for the finite intelligence to open its
ears to the words of the Infinite!
2. Binding. The great command of God to all is, “Hearken diligently to Me; hear, and
your souls shall live.”
3. Indispensable. It is only as men hear, interpret, digest, appropriate, incarnate
God’s Word that they can rise to a true, noble, and happy life.
II. Here is a summons to inanimate nature to hear the controversy between God and

Man. “Arise, contend thou before the mountains.” The appeal to inanimate nature—
1. Indicates the earnestness of the prophet. Every minister should be earnest.
“Passion is reason” here.
2. Suggests the stupidity of the people. Perhaps the prophet meant to compare them
to the dead hills and mountains. As hard in heart as the rocks.
3. Hints the universality of his theme. His doctrine was no secret; it was as open and
free as nature.
III. A challenge to Man to find fault with Divine dealings. This implies—
1. That they could bring nothing against Him.
2. It declares that He had done everything for them. (Homilist.)
Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord’s controversy—
The influences of external nature
The striking feature of Micah’s prophecy is the mode in which he appeals to the objects
of nature. While Isaiah borrows his imagery from the sublime realms of the imagination;
Jeremiah, from the scenes of human life; Ezekiel, from the realms of the dead; and
Daniel, from allegories connected with history; Micah paints from the mountain, the
tree, and the flood. In the text, and many other passages, we see the tendency of this
prophet to associate with the external forms of nature the presence and the judgments of
God. It is very natural that the objects of God’s creation should speak to the human mind
of Himself. The sublime silence of nature raises our mind far above the thoughts of this
world, and fixes its gaze on the Eternal.
1. The objects of nature in their different ways speak of Him, and show in singular
fashion how He is ever present at the events of mankind.
2. The objects of nature indirectly speak of religion and of heaven to the thoughtful
mind. They embody and call out from us each elementary principle of religion.
Majesty and sublimity are suggested by the mountain; repose by the evening sky; joy
and gladness by that of the morning, etc.
3. The objects of nature become the home of association. This power of association
that connects us to the scenes of daily life is essentially religious; it appeals to all the
higher and holier parts of our nature when severed from their earthly dross.
4. There is another way in which this appeal to nature becomes a very practical
matter. Nature is monotonous; so is God. We find it where we left it. The scene of
nature which witnessed our early devotion becomes in after years our accuser and
condemnation.
5. And nature suggests the Divine cause, the intelligent mind, the adaptation of the
physical world to the wants of His creatures. But while this observation of nature so
elevates the mind to God, it has its faults and infirmities, which are its own. Without
the Word of God the works of God may mislead us. There is a further infirmity; the
tendency there is in the objects of nature to cast melancholy and despondency over
the mind. There are two elements of our nature which produce conscious happiness
—hope and practical energy. To make hope effective, there must be a certain amount
of connection between our practical energy and itself. The essence and health of our
being rests in overcoming difficulties. Where we find no opportunity of doing this we

become conscious of feelings without their natural vent, and the result is melancholy
and ennui. But when we come to gaze upon the sublime forms of nature, none of our
practical energies being of necessity called out towards them, we turn away with
impressions of disappointment and sadness: the objects are too much for us, because
we are not necessarily practically concerned upon them. It is singular that few people
are more negligent of the call to Divine worship, are more blunted in their
appreciation of Christianity, than the farming and agricultural classes.
Manufacturing populations are much more actively intelligent. (E. Munro.)
O My people, what have I done irate thee?—
The Lord’s controversy with us
God offers Himself to be judged as to His dealings.
1. Is there nowhere a cry to provoke the Lord to ask, What have I done unto you?
What should the heart reply? It concerns us to consider. When we fall short in
putting to account the whole store of God’s mercies we are sure to charge the
deficiency upon God’s niggardliness, and not upon our own unfaithfulness; for self-
justification is always the immediate consequence of self-inflicted loss. It is the very
extent of God’s mercies which makes men murmurers and complainers; for by so
much the more they have failed to take due advantage of them. What would one
reasonably expect from those highly favoured of God? But what is the real state of
things? Discontent, disobedience, unthankfulness, unwatchfulness, murmurings,
rebellion, open violation of God’s statutes, public profanation of His ordinances,
common and declared neglect and contempt of His sacraments and means of grace,
are the prevailing features of the picture. What a question to be put by a merciful God
and a redeeming Saviour, to any one of us—“What have I done unto Thee?” Do we
incur the rebuke?
2. The question goes further yet,—“Wherein have I wearied thee?” How cutting a
question to the people that profess His name! (R. W. Evans, B. D.)
The Lord’s controversy
The history of Israel is a most humbling and affecting picture of the depravity of the
human heart. The Sinai covenant, though it had much of Gospel in it, yet was essentially
a covenant of works. The turning point of its blessings was the nation’s obedience. In the
New Testament the legal dispensation is ever opposed to the Gospel covenant, in which
the turning point is not our obedience, but the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ; yet
are its blessings dispensed in such a way as infallibly secures the highest obedience of the
renewed soul. The first covenant excited to holiness, and in those that were real saints,
and lived above their covenant, it promoted it, but did not secure it; but the Gospel not
only excites on higher grounds, not only promotes to the highest point, but infallibly
secures sanctification in all that really receive it.
II. God’s affecting complaint of His ancient people. They were wearied of the Lord and
His pleasant service. And as they sowed, they reaped. They reaped misery and
destruction. But is this confined to them? How often even the true saints of God seem
weary of their God! How soon we are weary of His services; of His rod; aye, even of God
Himself,

II. God’s most tender expostulation. Such an expostulation from a grieved fellow
creature would be wonderful, but consider the dignity of Him who speaketh. Let
unwearied kindness, unbroken faithfulness, tender love, most unmerited and most
sovereign grace all speak. Oh, that this view of the Divine character were laid on all our
hearts and consciences! Oh, that our souls might be stirred up deeply to repent of past
unwearinesses, to take them to the Fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, and there
receiving fresh springs of life and love, consecrate ourselves unweariedly to His glory. (J.
H. Evans, M. A.)
What can man accuse, God of?
It is impossible to predict what impression the same truth will make upon the different
minds of men. But surely, all the terrors of God could not more effectually overawe the
heart of a sinner than the passage of Scripture which I have now read. It strikes my ear
like the last sound of God’s mercy. Instead of vindicating His authority, does He
condescend to plead the reasonableness of His law? Then His forbearance is almost
exhausted, and the day of grace is nearing its end. The supreme Lord of heaven and earth
appeals to sinners themselves, for the mildness and equity of His government; and
challenges them to produce one instance of undue severity towards them, or the least
shadow of excuse for their undutiful behaviour towards Him.
I. A direct proof of the goodness of God, and of his tender concern for the welfare of His
creatures. This appears from—
1. The unwearied patience which He exercises towards transgressors.
2. The sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
3. The various means which God employs for reclaiming men from their ways of folly
and vice. He is not only the gracious Author of the plan of redemption, but He has
likewise set before us the most powerful motives to persuade us to embrace His
proffered favour, and to comply with His designs of mercy.
4. The fact that He has selected some of the most notorious offenders in the different
ages of the world to be monuments of the riches of His grace.
II. Objections urged against the mildness and equity of the Divine administration.
1. Is it the holiness and perfection of His law that is complained of? This complaint is
both foolish and ungrateful. The law of God requires nothing but what tends to make
us happy, nor doth it forbid anything which would not be productive of our misery.
2. Is it the threatening with which the law is enforced that is complained of? But
shall God be reckoned an enemy to your happiness because He useth the most
effectual means to promote it? There is a friendly design in all God’s threatenings.
3. Perhaps the objection is to the final execution of the threatenings. But would the
threatenings be of any use at all if the sinner knew that they would never be
executed?
4. Do you blame God for the temptations you meet with in the world, and those
circumstances of danger with which you are surrounded? But temptations have no
compulsive efficacy; all they can do is solicit and entice.
5. Do you object that you cannot reclaim or convert yourselves? But you can use the
means appointed. He who does not employ these faithfully, complains very

unreasonably if the grace is withheld which is only promised with the use of the
means. The truth of the matter is, that the sinner has no right to complain of God; he
destroys himself by his own wilful and obstinate folly, and then he accuses God, as if
He were the cause of his misery. Consider that to be your own destroyers is to
counteract the very strongest principle of your natures, the principle of self-
preservation. (H. Blair, D. D.)
2
Hear, O mountains, the LORD's accusation;
listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth.
For the LORD has a case against his people; he is
lodging a charge against Israel.
BARNES, "Hear, ye strong (or, it may be, ye enduring,) foundations of the
earth - Mountains and rocks carry the soul to times far away, before and after. They
change net, like the habitable, cultivated, surface of the earth. There they were, before
the existence of our short-lived generations; there they will be, until time shall cease to
be. They have witnessed so many vicissitudes of human things, themselves unchanging.
The prophet is directed to seize this feeling of simple nature. “They have seen so much
before me,” Yes! “then they have seen all which befell my forefathers; all God’s benefits,
all along, to them and to us, all their and our unthankfulness.”
He will plead with Israel - God hath a strict severe judgment with His people, and
yet vouchsafes to clear Himself before His creatures, to come down from His throne of
glory and place Himself on equal terms with them. He does not plead only, but mutually
(such is the force of the word) impleads with His people, hears if they would say aught
against Himself, and then gives His own judgment . But this willingness to hear, only
makes us condemn ourselves, so that we should be without excuse before Him. We do
owe ourselves wholly to Him who made us and hath given us all things richly to enjoy.
If we have withdrawn ourselves from His Service, unless He dealt hardly with us, we
dealt rebelliously and ungratefully with Him. God brings all pleas into a narrow space.
The fault is with Him or with us. He offers to clear Himself. He sets before us His good
deeds, His Loving kindness, Providence, Grace, Long-suffering, Bounty, Truth, and
contrasts with them our evil deeds, our unthankfulness, despitefulness, our breach of His
laws, and disorderings of His creation. And then, in the face of His Goodness, He asks,
“What evil have I done, what good have I left undone?” so that our evil and negligences
should be but a requital of His. For if it is evil to return evil for evil, or not to return good
for good, what evil is it to return evil for His exceeding good! As He says by Isaiah, “What
could have been done more to My vineyard and I have not done in it. Wherefore, when I
looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?” Isa_5:4.
And our Blessed Lord asks; “Many good works have I shewed you from My Father. For

which of those works do ye stone Me?” Joh_10:32. “Which of you convinceth Me of sin?
And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me?” Joh_8:46. Away from the light of God,
we may plead excuses, and cast the blame of our sins upon our temptations, or passions,
or nature, that is, on Almighty God Himself, who made us. When His light streams in
upon our conscience, we are silent. Blessed if we be silenced and confess to Him then,
that we be not first silenced in the Day of Judgment Job_1:8; Job_2:3; Eze_14:20.
Righteous Job said, “I desire to reason with God” Job_13:3; but when his eye saw Him,
he said, “wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” Job_42:5-6.
CLARKE, "Hear ye, O mountains - Micah, as God’s advocate, summons this
people into judgment, and makes an appeal to inanimate creation against them. He had
spoken to the priests, to the princes, to the people. He had done every thing that was
necessary to make them wise, and holy, and happy; they had uniformly disobeyed, and
were ever ungrateful. It was not consistent with either the justice or mercy of God to
permit them to go on without reprehension and punishment. He now calls them into
judgment; and such was the nature of their crimes that, to heighten the effect, and show
what reason he had to punish such a people, he appeals to inanimate creation. Their
ingratitude and rebellion are sufficient to make the mountains, the hills, and the strong
foundations of the earth to hear, tremble, and give judgment against them. This, then, is
the Lord’s controversy with his people, and thus he will plead with Israel.
GILL, "Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye strong
foundations of the earth,.... These are the words of the prophet, obeying the divine
command, calling upon the mountains, which are the strong parts of the earth, and the
bottoms of them the foundations of it, to hear the Lord's controversy with his people,
and judge between them; or, as some think, these are the persons with whom, and
against whom, the controversy was; the chief and principal men of the land, who were as
pillars to the common people to support and uphold them:
for the Lord hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with
Israel; his people Israel, who were so by choice, by covenant, by their own avouchment
and profession: they had been guilty of many sins and transgressions against both tables
of the law; and now the Lord had a controversy with them for them, and was determined
to enter into judgment, and litigate the point with them; and dreadful it is when God
brings in a charge, and pleads his own cause with sinful men; they are not able to
contend with him, nor answer him for one of a thousand faults committed against him;
see Hos_4:1.
HENRY 2-5, " The message itself is very affecting. He is to let all the world know that
God has a quarrel with his people, good ground for an action against them. Their
offences are public, and therefore so are the articles of impeachment exhibited against
them. Take notice the Lord has a controversy with his people and he will plead with
Israel, will plead by his prophets, plead by his providences, to make good his charge.
Note, 1. Sin begets a controversy between God and man. The righteous God has an action
against every sinner, an action of debt, an action of trespass, an action of slander. 2. If
Israel, God's own professing people, provoke him by sin, he will let them know that he
has a controversy with them; he sees sin in them, and is displeased with it, nay, their sins
are more displeasing to him than the sins of others, as they are a greater grief to his
Spirit and dishonour to his name. 3. God will plead with those whom he has a

controversy with, will plead with his people Israel, that they may be convinced and that
he may be justified. In the close of the foregoing chapter he pleaded with the heathen in
anger and fury, to bring them to ruin; but here he pleads with Israel in compassion and
tenderness, to bring them to repentance, Come now, and let us reason together. God
reasons with us, to teach us to reason with ourselves. See the equity of God's cause, it will
bear to be pleaded, and sinners themselves will be forced to confess judgment, and to
own that God's ways are equal, but their ways are unequal, Eze_18:25. Now, (1.) God
here challenges them to show what he had done against them which might give them
occasion to desert him. They had revolted from God and rebelled against him; but had
they any cause to do so? (Mic_6:3): “O my people! what have I done unto thee? Wherein
have I wearied thee?” If subjects quit their allegiance to their prince, they will pretend
(as the ten tribes did when they revolted from Rehoboam), that his yoke is too heavy for
them; but can you pretend any such thing? What have I done to you that is unjust or
unkind? Wherein have I wearied you with the impositions of service or the exactions of
tribute? Have I made you to serve with an offering? Isa_43:23. What iniquity have
your fathers found in me? Jer_2:5. He never deceived us, nor disappointed our
expectations from him, never did us wrong, nor put disgrace upon us; why then do we
wrong and dishonour him, and frustrate his expectations from us? Here is a challenge to
all that ever were in God's service to testify against him if they have found him, in any
thing, a hard Master, or if they have found his demands unreasonable. (2.) Since they
could not show any thing that he had done against them, he will show them a great deal
that he has done for them, which should have engaged them for ever to his service,
Mic_6:4, Mic_6:5. They are here directed, and we in them, to look a great way back in
their reviews of the divine favour; let them remember their former days, their first days,
when they were formed into a people, and the great things God did for them, [1.] When
he brought them out of Egypt, the land of their bondage, Mic_6:4. They were content
with their slavery, and almost in love with their chains, for the sake of the garlic and
onions they had plenty of; but God brought them up, inspired them with an ambition of
liberty and animated them with a resolution by a bold effort to shake off their fetters. The
Egyptians held them fast, and would not let the people go; but God redeemed them, not
by price, but by force, out of the house of servants, or, rather, the house of bondage, for it
is the same word that is used in the preface to the ten commandments, which insinuates
that the considerations which are arguments for duty, if they be not improved by us, will
be improved against us as aggravations of sin. When he brought them out of Egypt into a
vast howling wilderness, as he left not himself without witness, so he left not them
without guides, for he sent before them Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, three prophets (says
the Chaldee paraphrase), Moses the great prophet of the Old Testament, Aaron his
prophet (Exo_7:1), and Miriam a prophetess, Exo_15:20. Note, When we are calling to
mind God's former mercies to us we must not forget the mercy of good teachers and
governors when we were young; let those be made mention of, to the glory of God, who
went before us, saying, This is the way, walk in it; it was God that sent them before us,
to prepare the way of the Lord and to prepare a people for him. [2.] When he brought
them into Canaan. God no less glorified himself, and honoured them, in what he did for
them when he brought them into the land of their rest than in what he did for them when
he brought them out of the land of their servitude. When Moses, Aaron, and Miriam,
were dead, yet they found God the same. Let them remember now what God did for
them, First, In baffling and defeating the designs of Balak and Balaam against them,
which he did by the power he has over the hearts and tongues of men, Mic_6:5. Let them
remember what Balak the king of Moab consulted, what mischief he devised and
designed to do to Israel, when they encamped in the plains of Moab; that which he
consulted was to curse Israel, to divide between them and their God, and to disengage

him from the protection of them. Among the heathen, when they made war upon any
people, they endeavoured by magic charms or otherwise to get from them their tutelar
gods, as to rob Troy of its Palladium. Macrobius has a chapter de ritu evocandi Deos -
concerning the solemnity of calling out the gods. Balak would try this against Israel; but
remember what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, how contrary to his own
intention and inclination; instead of cursing Israel, he blessed them, to the extreme
confusion and vexation of Balak. Let them remember the malice of the heathen against
them, and for that reason never learn the way of the heathen, nor associate with them.
Let them remember the kindness of their God to them, how he turned the curse into a
blessing (because the Lord thy God loved thee, as it is, Deu_23:5), and for that reason
never forsake him. Note, The disappointing of the devices of the church's enemies ought
always to be remembered to the glory of the church's protector, who can make the
answer of the tongue directly to contradict the preparation and consultation of the heart,
Pro_16:1. Secondly, In bringing them from Shittim, their last lodgment out of Canaan,
unto Gilgal, their first lodgment in Canaan. There it was, between Shittim and Gilgal,
that, upon the death of Moses, Joshua, a type of Christ, was raised up to put Israel in
possession of the land of promise and to fight their battles; there it was that they passed
over Jordan through the divided waters, and renewed the covenant of circumcision;
these mercies of God to their fathers they must now remember, that they may know the
righteousness of the Lord, his righteousness (so the word is), his justice in destroying the
Canaanites, his goodness in giving rest to his people Israel, and his faithfulness to his
promise made unto the fathers. The remembrance of what God had done to them might
convince them of all this, and engage them for ever to his service. Or they may refer to
the controversy now pleaded between God and Israel; let them remember God's many
favours to them and their fathers, and compare with them their unworthy ungrateful
conduct towards him, that they may know the righteousness of the Lord in contending
with them, and it may appear that in this controversy he has right on his side; his ways
are equal, for he will be justified when he speaks, and clear when he judges.
JAMISON, "Lord’s controversy — How great is Jehovah’s condescension, who,
though the supreme Lord of all, yet wishes to prove to worms of the earth the equity of
His dealings (Isa_5:3; Isa_43:26).
K&D, "
CALVIN, "Hear, ye mountains, the controversy of Jehovah, (161) how? and ye
strong foundations of the earth, he says. He speaks here no more of hills, but
summons the whole world; as though he said, “There is not one of the elements
which is not to bear witness respecting the obstinacy of this people; for the voice of
God will penetrate to the farthest roots of the earth, it will reach the lowest depths:
these men will at the same time continue deaf.” And he says not, the Lord threatens
you, or denounces judgment on you; but Jehovah has a contention with his people.
We now then see that there is no metaphor in these words; but that the Prophet
merely shows how monstrous was the stupor of the people, who profited nothing by
the celestial doctrine delivered to them, so that the very mountains and the whole
machinery of earth and heaven, though destitute of reason, had more understanding
than these men. And it is not unusual with the Prophets, we know, to turn their

discourse to mute elements, when there remains no hope of success from men. But
our Prophet does not abruptly address mountains and hills as Isaiah does, (Isaiah
1:2,) and as also Moses had done,
‘Hear, ye heavens, what I shall say, let the earth hear the words of my mouth,’
(Deuteronomy 32:1,)
but he prefaces his discourse by saying, that it had been specially commanded to
him to summon the mountains and hills to God’s judgment. By saying then, “Hear
ye what Jehovah saith,” he prepares as I have said, the Jews to hear, that they might
know that something uncommon and altogether unusual was to be announced, —
that the Lord, in order more fully to convict them of extreme impiety, intended to
plead his cause before the mountains.
Arise, then, and plead before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. What
sort of voice was this? They who think that the judges are here figuratively pointed
out may be easily refuted; for Micah in the next verse mentions the substance of this
pleading, namely that the Lord expostulated with his people. We hence see that God
had no contention with the mountains, but that, on the contrary, the mountains were
summoned, that they might understand God’s pleading, not against them, but
against the people. Hear then, ye mountains, Jehovah’s controversy, and ye strong
foundations of the earth, that is, the very rocks. There is nothing so hard in the
world, he says, that shall not be inane to hear; for this pleading shall reach the
lowest depths. Jehovah then has a controversy with his people, and he will plead, or
contend, with Israel It follows —
COFFMAN, "Verse 2
"Hear, O mountains, Jehovah's controversy, and ye enduring foundations of the
earth; for Jehovah hath a controversy with his people, and he will contend with
Israel."
The climax of this eloquent and impressive beginning is the announcement of the
defendant. It is Israel!
"Who can be the guilty party in so awesome a court hearing? Micah finally satisfies
the deliberately aroused curiosity of his audience with the shocking news that the
one to stand trial is Yahweh's people, Israel, the Southern Kingdom by its covenant
name."[7]
The charge, of course, is breach of contract, under the terms of which God had long
ago forewarned his people that their covenant would be abrogated and the intended
blessings denied.
"His people ..." These words are most significant, the equivalent of which is
repeated again and again (Micah 6:3,5,16). The word used here is [~amiy];
(Jehovah's people), a word that stands with special significance to indicate the
sacred relationship between God and his family. "It also indicated the right of

Jehovah to contend with it."[8]
TRAPP, "Verse 2
Micah 6:2 Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD’S controversy, and ye strong
foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and he
will plead with Israel.
Ver. 2. Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord’s controversy] Although the people would
neither hear nor obey God, the prophet doth; and, according to command, he
summoneth the mountains to hear and testify; the Lord seeming to say unto him, as
once he did to Ezekiel, "But thou, son of man, be not thou rebellious like that
rebellious house; but hear what I say unto thee, and do it." It might seem to him a
senseless thing to cite the mountains. But he knew that if God command a thing, to
argue or debate upon it were bold presumption, to search the reason of it proud
curiosity, to detract or disobey it flat rebellion. To the mountains and foundations of
the earth he applies himself; haply with like mind and in like manner as the host of
Nola did to the churchyard, and there called at the graves of the dead, Oh, ye good
men of Nola, come away; for the Roman censor calls for your appearance; for he
knew not where to call for a good man alive.
And ye strong foundations of the earth] Those "roots of the mountains," Jonah 2:7;
yet not so strong but God can shake them, Job 9:5-6, Nahum 1:5-6; and that by so
weak a creature as air, gotten underground, and seeking a vent. He can lift them off
their foundations, Deuteronomy 32:22, and carry them to another place to hear his
controversy, as he did the hill in Herefordshire, A. D. 1571, and that other in the
territories of Bern, that removing out of his place in an earthquake, covered a whole
village, that had ninety families in it. {See Trapp on "Amos 1:1"}
For the Lord hath a controversy with his people] {See Trapp on "Hosea 4:1"} Learn
to tremble before this great God, who "sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the
inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers," Isaiah 40:22; which he can shake out of
their place at pleasure, and send them packing to hell. O consider what a fearful
thing it is to be at controversy with God, and to have him both our accuser, witness,
and judge. O the terror of the Lord at that great and last day of the world! Utinam
ubique de hoc iudicio differetur! "Then shall they begin to say to the mountains,
Fall on us" (but they shall reply, We are witnesses against you for your detestable
unthankfulness), "and to the hills, Cover us," Luke 23:30, but they shall echo out,
Cover us; for who can dwell with this devouring fire? who can abide these
everlasting burnings?
And he will plead with Israel] At which time they shall find that an empty title hath
but an empty comfort; and that tribulation and anguish shall be on every soul of
man that doeth evil: but of the Jew first, because of his privilege, and then of the

Gentile, Romans 2:9. None so deep in utter darkness as those that once were angels
of light. Let us all pray with holy David, "Enter not into judgment with thy servant,
O Lord," Psalms 143:2. And with Job, "If thou shouldest contend with me, I could
not answer thee one of a thousand," Job 9:2-3. And with Daniel, "O Lord,
righteousness belongs unto thee; but to us confusion of face, because we have sinned
against thee," Daniel 9:7-8.
PULPIT, "Hear ye, O mountains. Insensate nature is called upon as a witness. (For
similar appeals, comp. Deuteronomy 4:26; Deuteronomy 32:1; Isaiah 1:2; Jeremiah
22:29.) The Lord's controversy. So God calls his pleading with his people to show
them their sin and thankless unbelief; as he says in Isaiah 1:18, "Come, and let us
reason together" (comp. Hosea 4:1; Hosea 12:2). Ye strong (enduring) foundations
of the earth. The mountains are called everlasting (Genesis 49:26; Deuteronomy
33:15), as being firm, unchangeable, and as compared with man's life and doings,
which are but transitory. The LXX. offers an interpretation as well as a translation,
3
"My people, what have I done to you? How have I
burdened you? Answer me.
BARNES, "O My people - This one tender word, twice repeated , contains in one a
whole volume of reproof. It sets before the eyes God’s choice of them of His free grace,
and the whole history of His loving-kindness, if so they could be ashamed of their
thanklessness and turn to Him. “Mine,” He says, “ye are by creation, by Providence, by
great deliverances and by hourly love and guardianship, by gifts of nature, the world, and
grace; such things have I done for thee; what against thee? ‘what evil have I done unto
thee?’” “Thy foot did not swell these forty years” Deu_8:4, for He upbears in all ways
where He leads. Wherein have I wearied thee? for “His commandments are not
grievious” 1Jo_5:3. Thou hast been weary of Me, O Israel, God says by Isaiah, “I have not
wearied thee with incense; thou hast wearied Me with thine iniquities” Isa_43:22-24.
CLARKE, "O my people, what have I done unto thee? - They are called to
show why God should not pronounce sentence upon them. This condescension is truly
astonishing! God appears to humble himself to his creatures. You have acted basely,
treacherously, and ungratefully to me; this had already been proved by the prophets.
What cause have I given you for such conduct? I have required a religious service from
you; but have I wearied you by a fatiguing round of difficult duties? If I have, now testify
against me; and you shall be first heard, and your plea received, if it be reasonable and
good. They are silent; and God proceeds, and states what he has done for them.

GILL, "O my people,.... These are the words of the Lord himself by the prophet,
expressing his strong affection to the people of Israel, of which his goodness to them was
a full proof, and this was an aggravation of their ingratitude to him; they were his people,
whom he had chosen for himself above all people of the earth; whom he had redeemed
from the house of bondage, had distinguished them by his layouts, and loaded them with
his benefits, and yet they sinned against him:
what have I done unto thee? what evil things, what injuries to provoke to such
usage? "what iniquity have you", or "your fathers, found in me", to treat me after this
manner? have I been "a wilderness", or "a land of darkness", to you? Jer_2:5; have I
withheld or denied you anything that was for your good? The Targum is,
"O my people, what good have I said I would do unto thee, and I have not done it?''
all that the Lord had promised he had performed; not one good thing had failed he had
spoken of; how much good, and how many good things, had he done for them? nay, what
good things were there he had not done for them? and what more could be done for them
than what had been done? and yet they sinned against him so grossly; see Isa_5:4;
and wherein have I wearied thee? what heavy yoke have I put upon thee? what
grievous commandments have I enjoined thee? is there anything in my service, any duty,
too hard, severe, or unreasonable? are the sacrifices required burdensome? "have I
caused thee to serve with an offering, and wearied thee with incense?" is there any just
reason to say of these things, "what a weariness is it?" See Isa_43:23;
testify against me; declare it publicly, if any good thing has been wanting, or any evil
thing done: thus the Lord condescends to have the case fairly debated, and everything
said that could be said in their favour, or against him: astonishing condescension and
goodness!
JAMISON, "my people — the greatest aggravation of their sin, that God always
treated them, and still treats them, as His people.
what have I done unto thee? — save kindness, that thou revoltest from Me
(Jer_2:5, Jer_2:31).
wherein have I wearied thee? — What commandments have I enjoined that
should have wearied thee as irksome (1Jo_5:3)?
K&D 3-5, "Mic_6:3-5 open the suit. Mic_6:3. “My people! what have I done unto
thee, and with what have I wearied thee? Answer me. Mic_6:4. Yea, I have brought
thee up out of the land of Egypt, redeemed thee out of the slave-house, and sent before
thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Mic_6:5. My people! remember now what Balak the
king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim
to Gilga; that thou mayest discern the righteous acts of Jehovah.” The Lord opens the
contest with the question, what He has done to the nation, that it has become tired of

Him. The question is founded upon the fact that Israel has fallen away from its God, or
broken the covenant. This is not distinctly stated, indeed; but it is clearly implied in the
expression , What have I done, that thou hast become weary of me? , in the hiphil, to
make a person weary, more particularly to weary the patience of a person, either by
demands of too great severity (Isa_43:23), or by failing to perform one's promises
(Jer_2:31). , answer against me, i.e., accuse me. God has done His people no harm, but
has only conferred benefits upon them. Of these He mentions in Mic_6:4 the bringing up
out of Egypt and the guidance through the Arabian desert, as being the greatest
manifestations of divine grace, to which Israel owes its exaltation into a free and
independent nation (cf. Amo_2:10 and Jer_2:6). The (for) may be explained from the
unexpressed answer to the questions in Mic_6:3 : “Nothing that could cause
dissatisfaction with me;” for I have done nothing but confer benefits upon thee. To set
forth the leading up out of Egypt as such a benefit, it is described as redemption out of
the house of bondage, after Exo_20:2. Moreover, the Lord had given His people
prophets, men entrusted with His counsels and enlightened by His Spirit, as leaders into
the promised land: viz., Moses, with whom He talked mouth to mouth, as a friend to his
friend (Num_12:8); and Aaron, who was not only able as high priest to ascertain the
counsel and will of the Lord for the sake of the congregation, by means of the “light and
right,” but who also, along with Moses, represented the nation before God (Num_12:6;
Num_14:5, Num_14:26; Num_16:20; Num_20:7 ff., and 29). Miriam, the sister of the
two, is also mentioned along with them, inasmuch as she too was a prophetess
(Exo_15:20). In Mic_6:5 God also reminds them of the other great display of grace, viz.,
the frustration of the plan formed by the Moabitish king Balak to destroy Israel by means
of the curses of Balaam (Numbers 22-24). refers to the plan which Balak concocted with
the elders of Midian (Num_22:3 ff.); and , Balaam's answering, to the sayings which this
soothsayer was compelled by divine constraint to utter against his will, whereby, as
Moses says in Deu_23:5-6, the Lord turned the intended curse into a blessing. The words
“from Shittim (Israel's last place of encampment beyond Jordan, in the steppes of Moab;
see at Num_22:1 and Num_25:1) to Gilgal” (the first place of encampment in the land of
Canaan; see at Jos_4:19-20, and Jos_5:9) do not depend upon , adding a new feature to
what has been mentioned already, in the sense of “think of all that took place from
Shittim to Gilgal,” in which case would have to be repeated in thought; but they are
really attached to the clause , and indicate the result, or the confirmation of Balaam's
answer. The period of Israel's journeying from Shittim to Gilgal embraces not only
Balak's advice and Balaam's answer, by which the plan invented for the destruction of
Israel was frustrated, but also the defeat of the Midianites, who attempted to destroy
Israel by seducing it to idolatry, the miraculous crossing of the Jordan, the entrance into
the promised land, and the circumcision at Gilgal, by which the generation that had
grown up in the desert was received into the covenant with Jehovah, and the whole
nation reinstated in its normal relation to its God. Through these acts the Lord had
actually put to shame the counsel of Balak, and confirmed the fact that Balaam's answer
was inspired by God.
(Note: With this view, which has already been suggested by Hengstenberg, the
objections offered by Ewald, Hitzig, and others, to the genuineness of the words
“from Shittim to Gilgal,” the worthlessness of which has been demonstrated by
Caspari, fall to the ground.)

By these divine acts Israel was to discern the e
; i.e., not the mercies of Jehovah, for tse
does not mean mercy, but “the righteous acts of Jehovah,” as in Jdg_5:11 and 1Sa_12:7.
This term is applied to those miraculous displays of divine omnipotence in and upon
Israel, for the fulfilment of His counsel of salvation, which, as being emanations of the
divine covenant faithfulness, attested the righteousness of Jehovah.
CALVIN, "Here God, in the first place, offers to give a reason, if he was accused of
any thing. It seems indeed unbecoming the character of God, that he should be thus
ready as one guilty to clear himself: but this is said by way of concession; for the
Prophet could not otherwise express, that nothing that deserved blame could be
found in God. It is a personification, by which a character; not his own, is ascribed
to God. It ought not therefore to appear inconsistent, that the Lord stands forth
here, and is prepared to hear any accusation the people might have, that he might
give an answer, My people! what have I done? By using this kind expression, my
people, he renders double their wickedness; for God here descends from his own
elevation, and not only addresses his people, in a paternal manner, but stands as it
were on the opposite side, and is prepared, if the people had anything to say, to give
answer to it, so that they might mutually discuss the question, as it is usually done
by friends. Now the more kindly and indulgently the Lord deals with his people, the
more enhanced, as I have said, is their sin.
He says first, What have I done to thee? that is, what hast thou to accuse me with?
He adds In what have I caused trouble (162) to thee? or, In what have I been
troublesome to thee? Testify, he says, against me. This testifying was to be made to
the mountains and hills; as though he said, “I am ready to plead my cause before
heaven and earth; in a word, before all my creatures.” Some render the passage,
“Answer me:” and , one, is also to answer; but the context requires the former
meaning; for God conceded so much liberty to the Jews, that they might bring
forward against him any fault they had to allege.Testify, he says, against me; that is,
there are witnesses present; make public now thy case by stating particulars, I am
ready for the defense. We hence see the truth of what I have before stated, — that a
character, not his own is ascribed to God: but this is done by way of concession. He
afterwards adds —
COFFMAN, "Verse 3
"O, my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee?
testify against me."
This plaintive cry was addressed by God Himself to his sinful people; and it is
related to the basic marvel of unbelief (Mark 6:6). What an incredible thing, really,
that a people so blessed and honored by God would rebel against him, despise his
laws, and revert to the wretched licentiousness of the Canaanite paganism! Isaiah
also echoed this same exclamation: "What more could have been done to my
vineyard, that I have not done it?" (Micah 5:4).

TRAPP, "Verse 3
Micah 6:3 O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied
thee? testify against me.
Ver. 3. O my people, what have I done unto thee?] Or rather, what have I not done
to do thee good? "O generation, see ye the word of the Lord," and not hear it only;
was ever anything more evidencing and evincing than what I now allege? "Have I
been a wilderness unto Israel, a land of darkness?" Jeremiah 2:31. May I not well
say unto you, as Themistocles did to his ungrateful countrymen, What? are ye weary
of receiving so many benefits from one man? But say, What harm have I ever done
you? and wherein have I wearied you, or been troublesome to you? unless it be by
daily loading you with lovingkindnesses, Psalms 68:19, and bearing with your
provocations? Forgive me that injury, 2 Corinthians 12:13.
Testify against me] "Put me in remembrance, let us plead together, declare thou
against me, that thou mayest be justified," Isaiah 43:26. See here, first, with what
meekness and mildness God proceedeth against sinners: so Isaiah 5:3. Iudicate
quaeso. See, next, that God is content, for our better confliction, to submit his
courses unto scanning, and to bring his proceedings with us to a trial before he pass
sentence; that "he might be justified when he speaketh, and cleared when he
judgeth," Psalms 51:4. Here he wills them to plead the cause with him, as it were at
even hand; offering to make answer to whatsoever they could object or lay to his
charge. Seipsum quasi reum sistit (Gaulther). He maketh himself the defendant, and
bids them put in their bill of complaint against him, freely and without fear. This is
stupenda sane dignatio, a wonderful condescension indeed. Should he use martial
law against us, and as soon as ever we offend (like Draco) write his laws in blood
upon us (as one well saith), it were but just and right. But for him to reason and
plead with us about the justice of his cause before he proceeds to judgment, this
deserves admiration and acknowledgment in the highest degree. O the depth!
CONSTABLE, "The Lord called the Israelites, His people, to testify how He had
caused them to be so weary of Him that they ceased to obey Him. His rhetorical
questions were unanswerable; He had not given them reason to become dissatisfied
with Him (cf. 1 Samuel 17:29; 1 Samuel 20:1; 1 Samuel 26:18; 1 Samuel 29:8; Isaiah
5:4). His questions convey a sense of pathos; rather than simply criticizing them, He
asked how He had failed them. They had complained against Him often, but He had
given them no occasion to do so.
NISBET, "A BESEECHING GOD
‘O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify
against Me.’
Micah 6:3
The history of God’s dealings with us is a history of benefits on His side, of
ingratitude on ours. It is a history of persistent kindness and goodness from Him
Who knows what our needs are and what is good for us, and of careless neglect of

this goodness on our part, who know neither what we need nor what is best for us.
Old Testament and New alike present this picture both of God and of man.
I. There is something very remarkable about all this.—Usually, when a man has
anything to give which is worth having, people are only too ready to receive it.
Usually, instead of his having to press it on them, they beset him with petitions to
give it them. So much so that what is offered as a free gift is usually looked upon
with suspicion, as if it could not be worth much, or it would not be offered gratis.
Nay, if any one asks you very earnestly to accept anything, you almost begin to think
you do him a favour in accepting it, instead of your receiving a benefit. This is the
way with men. So much is this the case that the generality of people who do not
think much about religion get into a mistaken way of looking at God’s action in the
matter. People talk of repenting by and by, of becoming religious at some future
time, of putting off the consideration of God’s message till they are more at liberty
to attend to it, just as if they thought that it was they who were doing God a service,
instead of God offering them an inconceivable benefit. I do not affirm that people
deliberately say this to themselves, but it comes to pretty much the same thing. They
never think of asking, Why does God thus plead with us? What is it that God thus
offers? What will become of me if I do not attend to His message? They go on as if
they thought that any time would do for listening to it; as if they thought that if God
be so very anxious that they should listen to His message, He would take care that
somehow or other they should not ultimately lose the good of it, and so they let the
Gospel message slip by year after year, until it is to be feared that in many cases it
never gets heard to any good purpose at all.
II. The devil has many ways of ruining souls, and getting them to think in this way is
one of them.—Look at the facts as they stand. Why is God so urgent with us? Why is
God so anxious that we should listen to His Message—that we should leave off
sinning, begin at once to practise Holy Living, and close with the offers of His
Grace? It is just because God knows, if we do not, that our eternal welfare depends
upon it; and He wants to awaken us to see our danger. God desires our good, not His
own advantage. See how earnestly any one of you that is a parent warns his children
against those evil courses in youth which will lead to a manhood of disgrace,
misfortune, and failure. Opportunities once lost never return. The past is past.
Neither God nor man can bring it back again. And yet I imagine there is many a
child who acts by its parents as some of us do by our God, and fancies that his
parents’ entreaties need not be taken so very seriously, that if his parents are so very
anxious for his welfare, they will somehow see that any bad consequences of his
conduct will be turned aside, and that, at any rate, he need not take the matter so
seriously. Now, you know what a mistake this is on your children’s part. God knows
that if we do not grow good now, and get the mastery over evil now, evil will have
got the mastery over us, and that in the next world it will be too late to mend.
Therefore, God is so urgent with us to lose no time in beginning to grow good men
betimes, since He knows its importance. God desires our good, as you desire your
children’s good, and so He takes all the pains that can be taken to bring us into good
ways now, that we may escape having to suffer for it then. When men fancy that if

God presses our good upon us so very earnestly, He will not let us miss it in the end
whatever we do, they make the saddest mistake possible. God Himself cannot bring
back a lost opportunity, and God wants to prevent our losing our opportunities.
III. Then, again, God knows the evil that is in us better than we do, and He knows
how blind we are to it.—We do not see our own sinfulness, any more than we see the
harm it will do us. We do not know the disease of our nature. If we did we should
seek its cure. But we do not. And God knows that we do not. Therefore, again He
tries to awaken us to see how we really stand. This is the explanation of all those
earnest calls to repentance.
IV. This shows you why Satan is so anxious to make men put off their repentance,
and to make men think that if God is so anxious for their good He will somehow
take care of them, even if they do not attend to Him at once.—The Devil knows what
we do not know, or at least what we will not think about, namely, that this life is the
time for growing out of our sins and into goodness, and that every year that he can
get us to put it off is so much lost to us, and so much gained to him. God wishes our
good. God desires that life should be to us one progressive growth in goodness, and a
constant dying out of evil. And as this is a work of time—a progressive work—it
follows that in every stage of our lives there is a special portion of this work to be
done, and which, if left undone, can either never be done at all, or else becomes
infinitely more difficult to do afterwards. We cannot be standing still. We must be
either growing better or growing worse: either growing in goodness, and therefore
more fit for God’s world beyond the grave, or growing in evil, and therefore less fit
for it. It is just because it is ‘hard to be good’ that Christ our Lord died for us, and
that the Holy Spirit came into the world on the Day of Pentecost, and that the word
of God is given us in the Bible. But God has given us help enough if we use it, not
merely to grow good, but also to rejoice in it, as He says, ‘My yoke is easy and My
burden is light.’ He willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be
converted and live, wherefore turn again and live ye.
Illustration
‘This chapter doubtless contains a distinct address. Jehovah condescends to plead
His cause against Israel, calling upon the mountains and hills of the land—its most
enduring characteristics—to witness between Him and them. But the verdict had to
be given by the people’s hearts.
‘Jehovah asks what evil He had done that His people had turned away from Him.
He had brought them out of Egypt, and redeemed them from slavery. He had sent
His chosen servants to help them. He had nullified the stratagems of Balak which he
devised against their well-being. What more could He have done!’

4
I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you
from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you,
also Aaron and Miriam.
BARNES, "For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed
thee out of the hoarse of servants - What wert thou? What art thou? Who made
thee what thou art? God reminds them. They were slaves; they are His people in the
heritage of the pagan, and that by His outstretched arm. God mentions some heads of
the mercies which tie had shown them, when He had made them His people, His
redemption of them from Egypt, His guidance through the wilderness, His leading them
over the last difficulty to the proraised land. The use of the familiar language of the
Pentateuch is like the touching of so many key-notes, recalling the whole harmony of His
love. Moses, Aaron, and Miriam together, are Lawgiver, to deliver and instruct; Priest, to
atone; and prophetess Exo_15:20 to praise God; and the name of Miriam at once
recalled the mighty works at the Red Sea and how they then thanked God.
CLARKE, "I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt - Where you were slaves,
and grievously oppressed; from all this I redeemed you. Was this a small benefit? I sent
before thee Moses, my chosen servant, and instructed him that he might be your leader
and lawgiver. I sent with him Aaron, that he might be your priest and transact all
spiritual matters between myself and you, in offerings, sacrifices, and atonements. I sent
Miriam, to whom I gave the spirit of prophecy, that she might tell you things to come,
and be the director of your females. To this sense the Chaldee, “I have sent three
prophets before you; Moses, that he might teach you the tradition of judgments, Aaron,
that he might make atonement for the people; and Miriam, that she might instruct the
females.”
GILL, "For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt,.... Instead of doing them
any wrong, he had done them much good; of which this is one instance, and he was able
to produce more: this a notorious, plain, and full proof of his goodness to them, which
could not be denied. It may be rendered, as it is by some, "surely I brought thee up" (s),
&c. this is a certain thing, well known, and cannot be disproved; it must be allowed to be
a great favour and kindness to be brought up out of a superstitious, idolatrous,
Heathenish people, enemies to God and true religion, and who had used them in a
barbarous and cruel manner:
and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; or, "out of the house of
bondage"; as the same words are rendered, Exo_20:2; that is, out of hard service, in
which their lives were made bitter; out of cruel bondage and slavery; which made them

cry to the Lord for help and deliverance, and he heard them, and sent them a deliverer;
by whose hand he redeemed them from this base and low estate in which they were, and
for which they ought ever to have been thankful, and to have shown their gratitude by
their cheerful and constant obedience. Some take "the house of servants" to be
descriptive, not of the state of the children of Israel in Egypt, but of the character of the
Egyptians themselves; who, being the posterity of Ham, were inheritors of his curse, that
he should be a servant of servants; and so it is an aggravation of the blessing, that Israel
were redeemed from being servants to the servants of servants. This sense is mentioned
by Kimchi and Abarbinel:
and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam; not to bring them the news of
their deliverance out of Egypt, before they came out of it, as Kimchi; but to be their
guides to conduct and direct them in all matters, civil and religious. Moses was their
lawgiver, leader, and commander; Aaron was their priest to offer sacrifice for them, and
to intercede on their behalf; and Miriam was a prophetess; and they were all very useful
and beneficial to them; and a very great blessing it is to a people to have a good
constitution, civil and ecclesiastic, and to have good magistrates, and good ministers of
the word. The Targum is,
"I sent before thee three prophets, Moses to teach the tradition of the judgments, Aaron
to make atonement for the people, and Miriam to instruct the women.''
JAMISON, "For — On the contrary, so far from doing anything harsh, I did thee
every kindness from the earliest years of thy nationality.
Miriam — mentioned, as being the prophetess who led the female chorus who sang
the song of Moses (Exo_15:20). God sent Moses to give the best laws; Aaron to pray for
the people; Miriam as an example to the women of Israel.
CALVIN, "God, having testified that he had in nothing been troublesome to the
people, now states with how great and with how many benefits he had bound them
to himself. But we may prefer taking the words as explanatory and somewhat
ironical that he records his benefits in the place of trouble or vexation; though, in
my judgment, it is better to read the two clauses apart. I have brought thee, he says,
from the land of Egypt, from that miserable bondage; and then he says, I have
redeemed thee (163) By the word, redeem, he expresses more clearly and more fully
illustrates his kindness. Then he adds, I have set over thee as leaders Moses, and
Aaron, and Miriam, the sister of them both. Benefits, we know, are often
accompanied with injuries; and he who obliges another destroys all his favor, when
he turns kindness as it often happens, into reproach. It is hence frequently the case,
that he who has been kind to another brings so serious an injury, that the memory
of his kindness ought not to continue. God mentions here these two things, — that
he had conferred vast benefits on the people, — and yet that he had in nothing been
burdensome to them; as though he said “Many are those things which I can, if
necessary, on my part bring forward, by which I have more than a hundred times
made thee indebted to me; now thou canst not in thy turn bring anything against
me; thou canst not say that I have accompanied my benefits with wrongs, or that
thou hast been despised, because thou were under obligations to me, as it is often the
case with men who proudly domineer, when they think that they have made others

bound to them. I have not then thought proper to accompany my great favors with
anything troublesome or grievous to thee.” We now understand why the Prophet
expressly mentions these two things, — that God had in nothing been vexatious to
his people, — and that he had brought them up from the land of Egypt.
That redemption was so great, that the people ought not to have complained, had it
been the will of God to lay on their shoulders some very heavy burdens: for this
answer might have been ever readily given, — “Ye have been delivered by me; ye
owe to me your life and your safety. There is therefore no reason why any thing
should be now burdensome to you; for the bondage of Egypt must have been
bitterer to you than hundred deaths; and I redeemed you from that bondage.” But,
as the Lord had treated his redeemed people so kindly and so humanely, yea, with so
much indulgence, how great and how intolerable was their ingratitude in not
responding to his great kindness? We now more fully understand the Prophet’s
meaning in these words.
I have made thee to ascend, he says, from Egypt; and then, I have redeemed thee.
He goes on, as we have said, by degrees. He afterwards adds, I have sent before thy
face Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. God means here that it had not been a momentary
kindness; for he continued his favor towards the Jews when he set over them Moses
and Aaron, and Miriam, which was an evidence of his constant care, until he had
completed his work of delivering them. For Moses was a minister of their
deliverance in upholding civil order, and Aaron as to the priesthood and spiritual
discipline. With regard to Miriam, she also performed her part towards the women;
and as we find in Exodus 15:0, she composed a song of thanksgiving after passing
through the Red Sea: and hence arose her base envy with regard to Moses; for being
highly praised, she thought herself equal to him in dignity. It is at the same time
right to mention, that it was an extraordinary thing, when God gave authority to a
woman, as was the case with Deborah that no one may consider this singular
precedent as a common rule. It now follows —
COFFMAN, "Verse 4
"For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house
of bondage; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam."
The one greatest act of God's grace and mercy had been, of course, their redemption
from Egyptian slavery. Moses, Aaron, and Miriam were the great personalities
associated with that deliverance; and by such a reference God is reminding Israel of
all that they owe to his merciful providence and protection. God had not burdened
his people, but he had loaded them with mercies and blessings.
TRAPP, "Verse 4
Micah 6:4 For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of
the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
Ver. 4. For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt] Here God twits them with his

Micah 6 commentary

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Micah 6 commentary