Micah 6:7

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,.... If single burnt offerings of bullocks and heifers will not do, will rams, and thousands of them, be acceptable to him?

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?

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams? the law did direct the offering of rams, single beasts for single sacrifices; if this be too little, they shall be multiplied, we will give many, very many; for the phrase is a hyperbole. With ten thousands of rivers of oil: oil was required too in their sacrifices, in the meat-offerings of them, but in no great quantities, a log, or hin, i.e. half a pint, or three quarts; but we know such gifts are infinitely short of the Divine goodness bestowed on us; he who is our God is worthy of rivers of oil, multiplied to thousands; had we such store it should be all his. Such-like hyperbole you meet with in . Shall I give my first-born? this is proposed not as a thing practicable by any rule of reason or religion, but as a proof of their readiness, as Abraham, to offer up their first-born, as he did offer up his Isaac to God. It is much to part with any of our children, but it is more to part with the strength, and glory, and hope of our families; yet, like hypocrites, or like unnatural heathen, this they would do, rather than what would please the Lord. For my transgression; to appease the anger of the Lord for my sins; would these be expiatories? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? the question is repeated to affect us the more: the words would bear this reading, Shall I give my first-born? This would be my sin. The fruit of my body? These would be the sin of my soul.

Micah 6:7 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?Ver. 7. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams?] It was taken for a maxim among all nations that no man was to come before God empty handed, nor to serve him of free cost. And although Lycurgus the Lacedaemonian made a law that no man should be at very great charge for a sacrifice, lest he should grow weary of God’ s service; yet when the famous carver Phidias advised the Athenians to make the statue of Minerva rather of marble than of ivory, 1. Because more durable (this passed with allowance), 2. Because less chargeable, at the mention hereof, with infinite indignation, they commanded him silence. Pliny tells us of Alexander the Great, that when, as being yet a youth, he cast great store of frankincense upon the altar, and his schoolmaster told him he must not be so liberal till he had subdued the frankincense countries; when once he had conquered Arabia he sent his schoolmaster a shipfull of frankincense, largely exhorting him to worship the gods therewith. Superstition is, for the most part, not liberal only, but prodigal and no wonder, when as good works are by Bellarmine said to be mercatura regni coelestis the price and purchase of heaven. Hence their churches are so stuffed with vowed presents and memories, as at Loretto, and elsewhere, they are fain to hang their cloisters and churchyards with them. What would not men give, what will they not suffer, that they may be saved? I would swim through a sea of brimstone, said one, that I might come to heaven at last. But those that would buy heaven, and do offer, as these here, a bribe for a pardon, shall hear, Thy money perish with thee; and those that seek to be saved by their works Luther fitly calls the devil’ s martyrs; they suffer much and take much pains to go to hell, they buy their damnation, as one saith the Pharisees did when they gave Judas those thirty pieces, for which he sold his salvation. Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, &c.] The superstitious Jews used, we know, to offer up their children in sacrifice to Moloch, or Saturn, 2 Kings 17:15-17; 2 Kings 21:5-7; 2 Kings 23:10, and that in an apish imitation of Abraham’ s offering his son Isaac. To the same Saturn the Phoenicians are said to have sacrificed the best of their sons (Euseb. Praep. Evang. lib. 4). So did the Carthaginians, as Diodorus Siculus testifies. And when as they had for a while left off so to do, and were overcome by Agathocles, they (supposing that the gods were therefore angry with them, because they had not done as formerly) slew two hundred at once, at the altar, of their young nobility, to pacify the offended deity.

(7) The fruit of my body.—Will God require the sacrifice of such a precious possession, as Isaac was to Abraham, to atone for my wrong-doing? There may possibly be an allusion to human sacrifices, such as Ahaz offered to Molech, or to the act of Mesha, King of Moab, who “took his eldest son, that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him up for a burnt offering upon the wall.”

Verse 7. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams] These might be procured, though with difficulty; but conscience says neither will these do. With ten thousands of rivers of oil] This is absurd and impossible; but could even these be procured, could they all make atonement for such guilt, and ingratitude, and rebellion? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression] This was sinful and wicked; but such offerings had been made by the Phoenicians, and their successors the Carthaginians; and this very custom was copied by the corrupt Israelites. See some cases of such offerings, 2Kg 3:27; Leviticus 20:27. The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?] This clause is an explanation of the former. Shall I make the first-born, the best and goodliest of my children, חטאת chattath, a SIN-OFFERING for my soul? And thus the original is used in a multitude of places. When they had put all these questions to their reason and conscience, they found no satisfaction; their distraction is increased, and despair is about to take place, when Jehovah, the plaintiff, in his mercy interposes:

7. with thousands of rams] With hecatombs, a Greek would have said. The calves are estimated by quality; the rams, by quantity. rivers of oil] Or, ‘torrents of oil;’ like ‘brooks [torrents] of honey,’ Job 20:17. my firstborn for my transgression] This is the climax of Israel’s offers; he will not withhold his most precious possession. The valley of Hinnom was for centuries defiled by sacrifices of children to the ‘devouring’ Fire-god, Moloch; a custom derived from ‘the nations whom Jehovah cast out from before the children of Israel’ (2 Kings 16:3). The narrative of the substitution of the ram for Isaac (Genesis 22:13), and the law of the redemption of the firstborn of man (Exodus 13:13), show that, although perhaps permitted ‘for the hardness of men’s hearts’ in earlier times, such human sacrifices were no longer admitted by the prophetic and legal interpreters of the Divine will to Israel. Comp. Leviticus 18:21; Leviticus 20:2, 2 Kings 16:3; 2 Kings 23:10, Isaiah 57:5, Jeremiah 7:31, Ezekiel 16:20; Ezekiel 20:26

JEHOVAH AND ISRAEL IN — THE , Micah 6:1 to Micah 7:20.With Micah 6:1, begins a new series of utterances.