Old Testament · Minor Prophets
Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly, and Bethlehem named seven centuries early.
A contemporary of Isaiah, working the same crisis from the countryside rather than the court. Micah alternates between judgment and hope so abruptly that the seams show, and the judgment falls hardest on those who covet fields and seize them, and on prophets who declare peace when they are fed and war when they are not. The book contains two of the most quoted lines in Scripture: the promise that from Bethlehem, little among the clans of Judah, will come a ruler, which the scribes quote to Herod without hesitation; and the summary of what the LORD requires, to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God, which arrives as the answer to a man asking how many sacrifices would be enough.
If you remember one thing
One verse in Micah names Bethlehem seven centuries early, and another compresses the whole law into three demands. Few books say so much in so little space.
“He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Micah 6:8
Micah 6:6-8
The question of whether to offer a firstborn child, answered by what the LORD actually requires. The question is rhetorical, and its presence shows the practice was known enough to name.
Named here rather than skipped. Where Christians read a passage differently, we say so instead of choosing for you.
Everyone here has a write-up, drawn from the same records that explain the names while you read the text.
A contemporary of Isaiah who indicted both kingdoms for corruption yet distilled true religion to a single line, do justice, love mercy, walk humbly. Seven centuries early, he named little Bethlehem as the birthplace of Israel's ruler.
A diviner from the Euphrates hired to curse Israel, who could only say what God gave him to say, including one of the clearest messianic lines in the Torah. The Bible's later verdict on him is harsh: Numbers, Peter, Jude, and Revelation all treat him as the pattern of a religious professional who sells his gift.
Games built on this book’s people and story.
