What Is Micah 6: 1-8?

Micah 6:1-8 from a literary prospective: As a entity, the book of Micah is a compilation of prophetic messages that were delivered by the prophet Micah. As a book it is arranged into a pattern of sections that alternate between judgement and salvation with there being three cycles of these two actions with Micah 6:1-8 falling into the section of “judgement” (Childs 431). Micah chapter six can be divided into two sections with two different oracle type portions, with the first portion, the portion that I will be writing about, being verses 1-8 with the Covenant dispute and the second section, verses 9-16, bringing about a call to attention. As a minor prophet, Micah as a book, falls into the prophetic genre of Biblical literature, as …show more content…
(Bailey and Barker 108). God invites the mountains and the hills and other inanimate objects as witnesses due to their roles as witnesses to the covenant, the mountains have been associated before in the Old Testament as "closer" to God due to the proximity to heaven, such as Mount Sinai where Moses received the gift of the Ten Commandments from God and the imagery in the New Testament when Jesus delivers the Beatitudes on the Mount. Ezekiel 36 also makes references to the use of mountains as witnesses or listeners, when the "Son of man" is told to prophesy to the mountains of Israel. In the second verse God also presents His dispute with Israel as He asks these witnesses who listened to Israel's case to also listen to His own accusation, however, the verb that is used implies a pleading and an appeal to reason to show that He is speaking in love and not anger (Kelley …show more content…
God asks his people to give an explanation to the witnesses and tell them why they have sinned and what God has done to make them tired of Him. Although God asks what He has done to them it was God who should be wearied of man, it is reminiscent in the book of Isaiah, when God says, “…you have not wearied yourselves for me, Israel.” (Isaiah 43:22b) implying in both places that the people may have becoming tired of God despite His great faithfulness and constant deliverance towards them. Man continues to be unfaithful to God and His covenant and continues to sin, yet God continues to be faithful and compassionate. In verses three, God begins to present His case against the people, using language of rebuke intertwined with tenderness. He asks questions about what he has done to "burden" His people, questions that are reminiscent of Jeremiah 2:5 when God asks His people what wrong their ancestors found in Him that they went away from