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."

Bilješke:

2209. 'And I have grown old' means after it ceased to be such - that is, ceased to be [merely] human and not Divine - when that which was human was cast off. This is clear from the meaning of 'growing old' as casting off the human, dealt with above in 2198, 2203. As regards the rational in general, when it thinks about Divine things, especially from the truth it possesses, it cannot possibly believe that such things exist. It is unable to do so because for one thing it has no grasp of them, and for another appearances born from the illusions of the senses cling to it, by means of which and from which it thinks, as becomes clear from the examples which have been introduced above in 2196. To these, for the sake of illustration, let the following be added.

[2] Is the rational, if consulted, able to believe in the existence of the internal sense of the Word which, as has been shown, is so remote from the literal sense? And is it thus able to believe that the Word is that which joins heaven and earth together, that is, the Lord's kingdom in heaven to the Lord's kingdom on earth? Is the rational able to believe that souls after death converse with one another most distinctly, doing so not by means of speech consisting of spoken words, yet nevertheless so completely that they express more in a minute than man does in an hour by the use of his speech; or that the angels likewise converse with one another, but in a language which is more perfect still though imperceptible to spirits; and also that all souls on entering the next life know how to use this kind of speech even though they are never taught how to do so? Is the rational able to believe that present within one affection which a person has, indeed within a single sigh expressing his affection, there are things perceived by angels which are so countless that they cannot possibly be described; or that every affection which a person has, indeed every idea comprising his thought, is an image of him and is such that it includes within it in a wondrous fashion every detail of his life, besides thousands upon thousands of other such things?

[3] When the rational which derives its wisdom from the evidence of the senses, and is wrapped in the illusions of the senses, thinks about such things it does not believe that they can be so, for it is not able to form any idea for itself except from such things as it perceives by some sensory power whether external or internal. How must it be when it thinks about Divine celestial and Divine spiritual things which are higher still? For there must always exist, born from the evidence of the senses, some appearances for thought to rest upon, and when these appearances are withdrawn the idea ceases to exist. This has also become clear to me from spirits who are newcomers and who take very great delight in the appearances they have brought with them from the world. They have said that they did not know whether they would be able to think if those appearances were taken away from them. Such is the nature of the rational regarded in itself.