Rereading Micah 6:8 “What the Lord Requires” - Part 2

In Part 1 of this study, I discussed how the prophet Micah presented the Lord’s case against Israel. In the present post I will discuss what the Lord requires of his followers. However, before reflecting on what God requires from his people, it becomes necessary to look at God’s case against Israel again.

The issue raised by Micah was that Israel had rejected the good. This was the same accusation brought by Hosea against the people of the Northern Kingdom: “Israel has rejected what is good” (Hosea 8:3). What Hosea and Micah were declaring to the people was that they had abandoned the requirements that Yahweh had imposed on the nation. These requirements involved the people’s social and moral responsibilities toward each other and toward God.

So, Micah rejected the suggestions made by the people that more sacrifices and offerings would please Yahweh. He also rebuked the people for their failure to understand what God demanded from his followers. Micah’s words are similar to Hosea’s exhortation to Israel: “So now, come back to your God! Act on the principles of love and justice, and always live in confident dependence on your God” (Hosea 12:6 NLT).

The first requirement refers to the moral obligation that existed among the members of the covenant community. The expression “O man” has been understood to have a universal application, that is, that it applies to people everywhere. But the prophet was not addressing humanity in general; he was exhorting people who followed God.

Justice was expected of those people who were joined together in a community bound by the bonds of the covenant. To do justice is to do what is right according to the demands stipulated in the covenant between God and Israel.

The third requirement, “To walk humbly with God” refers to a way of life in which an individual does not live independently of God but lives within the will and ways of God. This expression also means to live in a personal relationship with God. Enoch walked with God (Genesis 5:22) and so did Noah (Genesis 6:9).

It is the second requirement that requires explanation. The Lord requires that his followers “love mercy.” But, what does it mean “to love mercy”? The English dictionary defines “mercy” as “the compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender,” “pity,” benevolence,” and “an act of kindness or compassion.” However, here Micah is not saying that the Lord is requiring”kindness” or “pity.” The Lord requires these things from his followers, but not in Micah 6:8.

The word “mercy” is a translation of the Hebrew hesed. The word hesed is used in the Old Testament to describe God’s faithful commitment to Israel even when the nation was unfaithful to God. The word is also used to describe the conduct God expected from each Israelite: “For I desire loyalty and not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6).

In previous studies of the word hesed in the Old Testament (see below), I have shown that the word should be translated “commitment,” “faithfulness,” “loyalty.”

So, what God requires of his followers is not sacrifice or something material that can be quantified and understood as a way of bribing God. What God requires of his people is faithfulness and commitment to the relationship established by the covenant. He requires the giving of one’s life to him and to his way of life and that one rejoice in living that kind of life.

What God requires is not doing good for good’s sake. What God requires of his followers is that they be committed and love being committed to God.

If we take the word hesed in Micah 6:8 and translate it as “commitment” or “loyalty,” then Micah 6:8 would read as follow:

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love commitment [or “love being committed”] and to walk humbly with your God.

Loving being committed to God is what God requires of his followers.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Note: Other studies on the word hesed:

Rereading Isaiah 40:6

The Inconsistencies of the NIV - Part 2

Tags: Commitment, Faithfulness, Hesed, Loyalty, Micah 6:8

Rereading Micah 6:8 “What the Lord Requires”

Part 1: The Presentation of the Lord’s Case

Micah 6:8 is a verse very familiar to students of the Bible because it describes what God requires of his followers.

The context of this verse, Micah 6:1-8, contains words that are connected with the court of law in ancient Israel. In the Old Testament, it was common for the elders of a city to come together and hold court in open places near the city gate (Amos 5:10; Ruth 4:1).

At these gatherings, the people came to the elders for legal decisions. In these local courts, legal procedure and language were used and the proceedings would be familiar to most people. When addressing the people of Judah, Micah used the language of the courts and his listeners understood the seriousness of the charges brought against them.

When Micah spoke to the people, he used the word rib. The verbal form of the word rib is used in Micah 6:1 and it is translated plead your case. The noun form of the word occurs twice in Micah 6:2 and it is translated controversy. With these words Micah is acting as Yahweh’s lawyer in a covenantal lawsuit, indicating that Yahweh had a legal case against his people.

The Lawyer Summons the People To Court:

“Now listen to what the LORD is saying: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Listen to the LORD’s lawsuit, you mountains and enduring foundations of the earth, because the LORD has a case against His people, and He will argue it against Israel” (Micah 6:1-2).

Yahweh Presents His Case:

“O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the LORD” (Micah 6:3-5).

The People Present Their Defense:

“With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, 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?” (Micah 6:6-7).

The Lawyer Presents the Verdict:

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

Micah begins the Lord’s case against Israel by calling the mountains to be witnesses in the legal proceedings. In the covenants known in the Ancient Near East, the gods were called as witnesses to verify a violation of the covenant. Since Israel was not allowed to have other gods before Yahweh, the everlasting foundations of the earth served as witnesses of God’s case against Israel.

Yahweh presents his case by reminding the people of how much he had done for them. He delivered them from the oppressive life they lived in Egypt; he delivered them from the house of slavery; he sent them three great leaders to help them on their journey from Egypt to Canaan; and he delivered them from the hands of Balak, king of Moab, and from the curses of Balaam, the false prophet. Yahweh did all these things so that the people might appreciate his mighty work.

After Yahweh presented his case, the people presented their defense.

In their minds the people believed they had already done enough. They had brought sacrifices to the temple and made their offerings to God. Now they asked the prophet what else they needed to do. “What else must I do to show proper respect to God?” The people wondered what else God was requiring of them: more offerings and more yearling calves? Do we need to give to God thousands of rams? Or olive oil in abundance? Or even the sacrifice of our firstborn child?

After both cases were presented, the prophet presented the decision of the court. What the Lord wanted was not more sacrifices nor elaborate rituals. Rather, Micah declared what the Lord required of his people:

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Tomorrow: Part 2 - "What the Lord Requires"

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Commitment, Faithfulness, Hesed, Loyalty, Micah 6:8

Hosea 6:6 and the NIV

Peter Kirk wrote an excellent post in Better Bibles Blog titled “Hosea 6:6: harmonising with NT destroys OT.” His post continues my argument here and here that the NIV is inconsistent in translating some Hebrew words in the book of Hosea.

In his post, Peter shows that the translation of Hosea 6:6 in the NIV was influenced by the translator’s attempt at harmonizing the text in Hosea with the text in Matthew.

Peter wrote:

I suspect that the real reason is because 6:6 is quoted in the New Testament, in Matthew 9:13 and 12:7. But the quotation is taken from the LXX rendering of this verse which is itself apparently a mistranslation. That is, the Greek word eleos used to render Hebrew hesed, here and in most other places in LXX and by Matthew, does not normally have the same meaning as hesed. Rather, it means "mercy", and so in Matthew is correctly translated "mercy". The problem apparently came when the translators decided that the text in Hosea must be adjusted to fit Matthew's use of the verse, as they understood it. Unfortunately by doing so they managed to completely mess up their translation of Hosea, removing the clear markers of cohesion in this prophecy and destroying its sense.

Read Peter’s article in its entirety by clicking here.

I agree with Peter’s view. And I also agree with his conclusion: “The NIV Old Testament is sadly marred in a number of places by misplaced attempts to harmonise with the New Testament.”

I encourage you to read Peter’s article.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary.

Tags: Exegesis, Hesed, Hosea, NIV, Translation

The Inconsistencies of the NIV - Part 2

In my post yesterday, I pointed out the inconsistency of the NIV in translating the word da‘at elohim in the book of the prophet Hosea. In that post I mentioned the problems preachers have when using the NIV in trying to arrive at a proper understanding of the biblical text.

Today I want to study another inconsistency found in the NIV that, to me at least, obfuscates the original meaning of the biblical text and sends a confusing message to a reader who cannot read the biblical text in its original language.

Again, in my comparison, I will use three other translations. I will compare the NIV with the NRSV, the ESV, and the TNIV. I could have used other translations, but my focus is on the NIV.

I use the NIV as the model for comparison since many people in my congregation have chosen to use the NIV because of the simplified language it uses to convey the biblical message. To readers whose first language is not English, the NIV is easy to understand. However, because of the inconsistency of the NIV, at times, the message the NIV presents is not as clear as it should be.

Another example of inconsistency in the NIV’s translation of Hosea is found in the use of the word hesed. The following is a translation of hesed in Hosea 4:1:

Hosea 4:1 (NIV): “Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites, because the LORD has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: ‘There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.’”

In this verse, the NIV translates the word hesed as love. The word hesed is difficult to translate in English because the word has a wealth of meanings in Hebrew. The correct understanding of hesed is attained only in a study of the context of where the word is used. However, as H. J. Zobel has shown in the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, 5:47, “the one who receives an act of hesed responds with a similar act of hesed, or at least that the one who demonstrates hesed is justified in expecting an equivalent act in return.”

In a study of the word hesed in Isaiah, “Rereading Isaiah 40:6,” I wrote:

The word hesed is related to the covenant God established with Israel at Sinai. The word hesed refers to the commitment that binds two parties to a relationship.

In his book, The Word Hesed in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993), Gordon Clark says that hesed is an "action performed, in the context of a deep and enduring commitment between two persons or parties" (p. 267). Since faithfulness to a relationship is a character of God, God also expects his people to be as committed to the relationship as he is.

When the word is applied to God, it refers to his faithfulness to the relationship. Thus, the word is best translated "faithfulness," "unfailing love," "loyalty." When the word is applied to human beings, it refers to the loyalty and commitment that people should bring to that relationship. In this case, a good translation of hesed should be "commitment," "loyalty." A strong relationship is built on commitment. Israel should be as loyal and committed to the covenant as God was.

In Hosea 4:1, the NRSV translates hesed as “loyalty;” the ESV as “steadfast love,” and the TNIV as “love.” Love or steadfast love is a good translation, but “loyalty” is a better translation.

On the other hand, the NIV translates the same word, hesed, as “mercy” in Hosea 6:6:

Hosea 6:6 (NIV): “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”

In this verse the translations differ:

NRSV: “For I desire steadfast love.”
ESV: “For I desire steadfast love.”
TNIV: “For I desire mercy.”

In my opinion, the HCSB has a better translation: “For I desire loyalty.”

The word “mercy” does not convey in English what the biblical author was trying to communicate to his audience. In English, the word “mercy” means a compassionate treatment of a person, to be kind or forgiving to someone.

This is not what the biblical writer was trying to convey to his readers. If the NIV had been consistent and used “love” here as it used it in 4:1, the message would be the same. However, the inconsistency of the NIV leaves the reader at a loss because they will believe that what the Lord requires from his people is that they be compassionate to fellow Israelites when in reality God was requiring the people’s loyalty to the relationship established by the covenant.

In Hosea 12:6 the NIV translates hesed as “love” and in Hosea 10:12, the NIV translates hesed as “unfailing love.” At least “unfailing love” in the NIV is better than “kindness” in the ASV, “piety” in the NAB, and “goodness” in the TNK.

There are several lessons to be learned here for pastors who do not know Hebrew. The first lesson is: consult more than one translation when studying the biblical text. Check several translations and compare how the biblical text is translated. Second, consult good exegetical commentaries. Since translations differ, commentaries will also differ. A good exegetical commentary will provide a brief study to the meaning of important theological words in the text.

The third and final lesson is that it is never too late to study biblical languages. No one needs to be a scholar in Hebrew or Greek, but a basic knowledge of the language will help pastors know how to consult an interlinear translation of the biblical text or check the meaning of specific words in a Hebrew or Greek lexicon.

When it comes to biblical translations, the saying remains true: “trust, but verify.”

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Hesed, Hosea, NIV, Preaching, Translation