Passage

Micah 6.8

"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8, NASB95)

Micah 6:8 is the prophet's summary verdict on what YHWH actually requires of His covenant people, set against the previous verses' escalating offer of sacrifices, rams, oil, and even firstborn-children. The trio justice / kindness ([[H2617 - hesed|hesed]]) / humble walking compresses the whole prophetic ethic into one line, and the verse functions as a load-bearing OT ethics anchor across the codex. Modern skeptics sometimes deploy this verse as the "real" OT religion in opposition to Levitical sacrifice, but Micah and the priestly system are not opposed: Micah indicts sacrifice offered apart from covenant ethics, not sacrifice as such.

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"6. Wherewith shall I come before Jehovah, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a year old? 7. will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"

"8. He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

"9. The voice of Jehovah crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom will see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it. 10. Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and a scant measure that is abominable?" (Micah 6:6-10, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"6. How shall I come before Yahweh, and bow myself before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7. Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams? With tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my disobedience? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"

"8. 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?"

"9. Yahweh's voice calls to the city, and wisdom sees your name: "Listen to the rod, and he who appointed it. 10. Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and a short ephah that is accursed?" (Micah 6:6-10, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"6. Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? 7. Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or 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?"

"8. He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

"9. The LORD'S voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it. 10. Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?" (Micah 6:6-10, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"6. With what do I come before Jehovah? Do I bow to God Most High? Do I come before Him with burnt-offerings? With calves, sons of a year? 7. Is Jehovah pleased with thousands of rams? With myriads of streams of oil? Do I give my first-born [for] my transgression? The fruit of my body [for] the sin of my soul?"

"8. He hath declared to thee, O man, what [is] good; Yea, what is Jehovah requiring of thee, Except, to do judgment, and love kindness, And lowly to walk with thy God?"

"9. A voice of Jehovah to the city calleth, And wisdom doth fear Thy name, Hear ye the rod, and Him who appointed it. 10. Are there yet [in] the house of the wicked Treasures of wickedness, And the abhorred scanty ephah?" (Micah 6:6-10, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Micah of Moresheth, with YHWH's direct discourse
Audience: Judah and the Northern Kingdom of Israel under covenant indictment
Location: Judah, addressing both kingdoms
Time period: Micah's ministry c. 735 to 700 BC, overlapping Isaiah

Theological reading

The verse sits inside a covenant lawsuit (Micah 6:1-8) where YHWH puts His people on trial. The hypothetical worshipper in vv. 6-7 escalates increasingly extravagant sacrificial offers: yearling calves, then thousands of rams, then ten thousands of rivers of oil, then finally his own firstborn. The prophet's reply in v. 8 short-circuits the escalation. The issue was never inadequate cultic volume; the issue was that ritual without covenant righteousness is precisely what YHWH rejects (Isaiah 1.11-17, Hosea 6.6, Amos 5.21-24).

The triadic answer pairs an act (do [[H4941 - mishpat|mishpat]], render right judgment in the public sphere), a disposition ([[H2617 - hesed|hesed]], covenant-loyalty kindness, the affection that keeps faith with neighbor and God), and a posture (walk humbly with your God, an interior orientation that recognizes who is creature and who is Creator). The three are not three departments but three facets of one covenantal life: outward justice without inward humility becomes activism; inward humility without outward justice becomes private piety; loyal hesed binds the two.

This verse becomes one of the most quoted OT-ethics texts in modern apologetics for a reason. It refuses the secular caricature of OT religion as bloodthirsty ritualism while also refusing the liberal-Protestant caricature that the prophets repudiated the sacrificial system. Micah, like Isaiah and Hosea, criticizes sacrifice offered as a covenant-substitute, not sacrifice as such; the cult was always meant to function inside the ethic this verse summarizes.

Jesus' summary of the Law and Prophets (Matthew 22.37-40) and his "weightier matters" indictment of the Pharisees draw the same line Micah draws here.

Key words

H4941 - mishpat, mishpat - "judgment, justice"; the load-bearing first term
H2617 - hesed, hesed - "loyal-kindness, covenant-love"; the middle term
H2896 - tov, tov - "good"; what YHWH has shown is good
H6213 - asah, asah - "do, perform"; the imperative undergirding the trio
H3068 - YHWH - the covenant name; humble walking is with this God specifically

Theological themes

Ethical monotheism. YHWH's character generates a binding ethic; this is not arbitrary divine command but flows from who God is.
Covenant lawsuit (rib). Micah 6 is a courtroom scene; v. 8 is the verdict on what fidelity actually requires.
Sacrifice and ethics are not opposed. The verse rejects sacrifice-as-substitute-for-ethics, not the sacrificial economy itself.
Public and personal. Outward mishpat and inward hesed and humble walking are inseparable.
OT-NT continuity. The prophetic ethic Micah summarizes is exactly what Jesus identifies as the weightier matters of the Law.

Cross-references

Hosea 6.6 - "I desire loyalty rather than sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings"
Isaiah 1.11-17 - YHWH rejects ritual divorced from justice; "learn to do good, seek justice"
Amos 5.21-24 - "let justice roll down like waters"
Deuteronomy 10.12 - Mosaic-Torah parallel: "what does the LORD your God require of you"
Matthew 22.37-40 - Jesus' summary of the Law: love God, love neighbor
Matthew 7.12 - the Golden Rule as Law-and-Prophets summary

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.