In Micah 6:1-4, the Lord speaks of all that He has done for Israel, getting them out of Egypt where they were slaves. In Micah 6:5, he relates how He protected them from Balak, king of Moab (in Numbers 22-24).

Then, in Micah 6:6-8, the Lord asks, rhetorically, how the people should worship Him: “With calves of a year old?” and then goes on with a reference to the idol Moloch, “shall I give my firstborn for my transgression?” Obviously these external acts do no good at all without internal repentance and a stopping of any transgressions.

Then He answers the question. Micah says, “He has told thee oh man, what is good,” and continues the stirring, familiar words; "do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God". ¹

Micah 6:9 is about humility. It's a really important idea that started to be a problem for humankind all the way back in the story of the Garden of Eden. To eat of the tree of “the knowledge of good and evil” is to take to oneself the right/ability to decide which is which, and not listen to what God says about it. To walk “humbly” is to listen to God. That’s the meaning of “hear ye the rod and who has appointed it.”

Micah 6:10-11 points out that there is still some falsification with these people. The lean ephah is a cheating on the amount of liquid in a pitcher, and liquids refer to truth. Stones are used as weights to balance a scale that weighs out a purchase of food, and deceitful stones will cheat the buyer. Food means a form of good.

In Micah 6:12, 13, the rich mean people who, because they know a lot about natural things, believe they are also wise about spiritual things. ² Here they are wicked and love the life of evil and falsity, nor can they be changed.

Then, in Micah 6:14-16, the chapter ends with a list of the problems such people will face. To eat, in the good sense, is to take in good. However, the gifts given by people who are immersed in evils and falsities turn out to be false gifts. People try to get things that will make them happy, but it doesn’t happen. Olives and their oil mean good, and grapes and their juice mean truth. ³

What are the laws of Omri? Omri was one of the wickeder kings of Israel, and Ahab was the wickedest king of all. To follow them means desolation and reproach.

In some ways, this chapter is a lot like many others in the books of the prophets. And yet, for centuries it has stood out, because it contains one of the Word's most powerful, concise, statements of how we should live: "Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God."

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365. From this it can be established that the rich and the poor alike come into heaven, the one as easily as the other. The belief that the poor enter heaven easily and the rich with difficulty comes from not understanding the Word where the rich and the poor are mentioned. In the Word, those who have an abundance of cognitions of good and truth, thus who are within the Church where the Word is, are meant in the spiritual sense by the "rich"; while those who lack these cognitions, and yet desire them, thus who are outside the Church and where there is no Word, are meant by the "poor".

[2] The rich man clothed in purple and fine linen, and cast into hell, means the Jewish nation, which is called rich because it had the Word and had an abundance of cognitions of good and truth therefrom, "garments of purple" signifying cognitions of good, and "garments of fine linen" cognitions of truth. ¹ But the poor man who lay at the rich man's entrance-hall and longed to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, and who was carried by angels into heaven, means the nations that have no cognitions of good and truth and yet desired them (Luke 16:19-31). By the rich who were called to a great supper and excused themselves is meant the Jewish nation, and by the poor brought in in their place are meant the nations outside the Church (Luke 14:16-24).

[3] What is meant by the rich of whom the Lord said:

It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Matthew 19:24.

Will also be told. By the rich there are meant the rich in both a natural sense and a spiritual sense. In the natural sense the rich are those who have an abundance of riches and set their heart upon them; but in the spiritual sense they are those who have an abundance of cognitions and knowledges, which are spiritual riches, and who desire by means of these to introduce themselves into the things of heaven and the Church from their own intelligence. And because this is contrary to Divine order it is said to be "easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye", a "camel" signifying the faculty of learning and knowing in a general way, and a "needle's eye" signifying spiritual truth. ² That such is the meaning of a "camel" and a "needle's eye" is not at present known, because the knowledge that teaches what is signified in the spiritual sense by the things said in the literal sense of the Word has not up to this time been disclosed. In the single things of the Word there is a spiritual sense and also a natural sense; for immediate conjunction having ceased, the Word has been written by pure correspondences of natural things with spiritual things in order that there might be conjunction of heaven with the world, that is, a conjunction of angels with men. This makes clear who in particular are meant in the Word by the "rich man".

[4] That the "rich" in the Word mean in the spiritual sense those who are in cognitions of truth and good, and "riches" the cognitions themselves, which are spiritual riches, can be confirmed from various passages (as in Isaiah 10:12-14; 30:6-7; 45:3, Jeremiah 17:3; 48:7; 50:36-37; 51:13, Daniel 5:2-4, Ezekiel 26:7, 12; 27:1 to the end; Zechariah 9:3-4, Psalm 45:12, Hosea 12:8, Revelation 3:7-8, Luke 14:33 and elsewhere). Also that the "poor" in the spiritual sense signify those who do not have cognitions of good and of truth, and yet desire them (Matthew 11:5, Luke 6:20-21; 14:21; Isaiah 14:30; 29:19; 41:17-18, Zephaniah 3:12-13). All these passages may be seen explained in accordance with the spiritual sense in ARCANA CAELESTIA (Arcana Coelestia 10227).

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