Глава 6

Micah 6:1. Hear the word of the Lord: Vastani, judge the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Look at the mountains, which, with My help, received your enemies dead, and say boldly; if only you are able to speak, and your mouth is not blocked by the greatness of the good deed. But you will not be able to do this; I'll do the talking myself. Micah 6:2. Hear the mountains of the judgment of the Lord, and the wilds of the foundations of the earth: how is the judgment of the Lord upon His people, and upon Israel? strive to have. Because rational beings suffer from unreason; then I will make inanimate things reasonable judges. Micah 6:3. My people, what will I do to you? or how did I insult you? or why the cold? answer Mi. Tell me the reason for the enmity; reprove if you have experienced anything sorrowful from Me. And since those who have nothing to say must remain silent, by the way he added: “Answer Mi,” if you have something to say, speak openly. Micah 6:4–5. Before I brought you out of the land of Egypt, I delivered you from the house of work, and I sent before you Moses, and Haran, and Miriam. My people, remember what was the council of Balak, king of Moab, and what did Balaam, the son of Beor, tell him from Sitia to Gilgal? so that the truth of the Lord may be known. Will you really point out as an insult that, having delivered you from the bitter slavery of Egypt, he gave you complete freedom, employing wonderful and honorable men, Moses and Aaron, in his service, and even the wives, without depriving them of proper care for them, but also placing Mariam in charge over them and fulfilling her prophetic gift? And if you want to erase this from your memory, then remember what happened to Balaam, consider why Balaak sent him, and how, moved by My power, he brought you not an oath, but a blessing. Yet I did this, not giving a reward for your truth, but allowing them to see my own truth; because, having spoken the promise to your forefather, he fulfilled the established covenant with him. The Prophet, having uttered these words on behalf of God, and seeing the insensitivity of the people, instead of the people, arouses himself to pious thoughts, and says: Micah 6:6. In what way will I comprehend the Lord? will I hide my Most High God? How will I reward Him who has provided me with so many good things? What will I use to repay Him? Shall I offer Him with the burnt offering of the first yearling bulls? Micah 6:7. Will the Lord receive food in thousands of rams, or in tens of fat goats? Shall I give my firstborn for my wickedness, the fruit of my womb for the sins of my soul? Nothing human, says the Prophet, not many bulls, not whole flocks of sheep, not one-year-old goats, not firstborn children sacrificed to God, is enough to free me from many sins. If all this is not enough for the resolution of sins; then how will I repay for God’s good deeds? Thus, having first offered human reasoning, the Prophet again pronounces the Divine answer. Micah 6:8. Let it be known to you, man, what is good, or what the Lord seeks from you, except to do justice, and to love mercy, and to be ready to walk with the Lord your God. This was spoken by the God of all through the mouth of blessed David; for, having rejected all the sacrifices honored in the law, and said: “I will not accept from your house bulls, nor from your flocks goats, for every beast of the forest is Mine” (Ps. 49:9, 10), he added: “devour the sacrifice of praise to God, and render your prayers to the Most High: and call on Me in the day of your tribulation, and destroy you, and glorify Me" (Ps. 49:14, 15); and again: “If you had desired sacrifices, you would have given them: you do not favor burnt offerings. The sacrifice to God is a broken spirit: a contrite and humble heart God will not despise” (Ps. 50:18, 19). The same can be found in all the Prophets. Therefore, here too God says: all My statutes are known to you; I want you to strive for justice, to be kind to your neighbor, and to obey God who created you in everything. This was legitimized by Me and through Moses: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind: and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Luke 10:27). Therefore, when you do this; Micah 6:9. The voice of the Lord will be called to the city, and those who fear His name will save: because, in fact, using His providence for you, you will imagine that you hear the very voice of the Lord, arranging your salvation. listen to the tribe: who will decorate the city? Micah 6:10. Food, fire, and the house of the lawless; gather up the property of the lawless, and with the reproach of unrighteousness? Just as fire does not bring decoration to a city, but produces fire and destruction, so the inclination to untruth, accompanied by insolence and insults, harms those who indulge in it. Micah 6:11. The food shall be justified in the measure of the wicked, and in the sackcloth of the measure of the unjust, Micah 6:12. Is it from them that you fill your wealth with untruth? and they that dwell therein speak lies, and their tongue is exalted in their mouth. In addition to wickedness and lawlessness, you also dared to do what the Prophet recently accused; they used incorrect measures and scales, they accumulated wealth out of covetousness, they polluted the tongue with lying words. Therefore, says God, I will begin your punishment, and I will subject you to torture for iniquity, and I will send frequent and continuous disasters upon you. For he expressed this by saying: Micah 6:14. You will eat and not be satisfied, and it will darken in you, I will cover you with the darkness of disasters, and by fleeing you will not get rid of your enemies. For God continues: and having been seduced, and not saved, even if the whites are exhausted, they will give themselves over to weapons. And even if you work hard to cultivate the land, you will not benefit from its fruits. Micah 6:15. And the laws of My people will perish. And making it clear that he was now speaking not about God’s law, but about their lawless life, he added: Micah 6:16. And you kept the justifications of Zamri and all the affairs of the house of Ahaavl, and walked in their council, so that I would deliver you to destruction, and those who dwell in it to destruction, and you would receive the reproaches of people. Having become jealous of Achaab’s wickedness, you will be given over to these disasters; and whoever sees the wickedness that has befallen you will signify by “screaming” their greatness. Having uttered all this, the Prophet complains that, having used many words, he worked without benefit.