Discovery BoxMicah 6:6-8 
Context6:6 With what should I 1 enter the Lord’s presence?
With what 2 should I bow before the sovereign God? 3
Should I enter his presence with burnt offerings,
with year-old calves?
6:7 Will the Lord accept a thousand rams,
or ten thousand streams of olive oil?
Should I give him my firstborn child as payment for my rebellion,
my offspring – my own flesh and blood – for my sin? 4
6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good,
and what the Lord really wants from you: 5
He wants you to 6 promote 7 justice, to be faithful, 8
and to live obediently before 9 your God.
1 sn With what should I enter the
2 tn The words “with what” do double duty in the parallelism and are supplied in the second line of the translation for clarification.
3 tn Or “the exalted God.”
4 tn Heb “the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is often translated “soul,” but the word usually refers to the whole person; here “the sin of my soul” = “my sin.”
5 sn What the
6 tn Heb “except.” This statement is actually linked with what precedes, “What does he want from you except….”
7 tn Heb “to do,” in the sense of “promote.”
8 tn Heb “to love faithfulness.”
9 tn Heb “to walk humbly [or perhaps, “carefully”] with.”
