What Does Micah 6:3 Mean in the King James?
O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
God asks you to bring the charge into the open: name what he has done and where you feel worn down, even as testimony against him.
THE MEANING
God addresses you as ‘my people’ and asks what he has done to you and where he has wearied you. Your complaint has a place in this relationship: the verse invites a direct answer, even one spoken against God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that honest complaint against God is forbidden or must be hidden: here the challenge is invited as testimony.
THE ROOT
עֲנֵה
aneh
GROWS FROM
ענה
anah
to answer or respond
“testify” in this verse is aneh. The verb carries the sense of answering, so the verse’s courtroom language also holds a direct invitation to reply. The direction ‘against me’ leaves that answer genuinely open.
ALSO GROWS
anah: to answer or respond
עָנָה
It shows that the call for testimony is also a call for a spoken reply.
ma'aneh: an answer or response
מַעֲנֶה
This noun from the same root makes the expected response part of the same word-family.
עָשִׂיתִי
asiti
GROWS FROM
עשה
asah
to do or make
The question points to concrete action: what has been done in the relationship? This root also names a deed or work, keeping the focus on acts that can be brought into view and examined.
ALSO GROWS
ma'aseh: a deed, work, or act
מַעֲשֶׂה
It names the actions that the question asks the reader to consider.
oseh: one who does or makes
עֹשֶׂה
It links the action to the one who carries it out, keeping responsibility in view.
הֶלְאֵתִיךָ
hele'eticha
GROWS FROM
לאה
la'ah
to grow weary or become tired
“wearied” in this verse is hele'eticha. The question gives weariness its own place beside the question of what was done. It makes the felt cost speakable rather than leaving it hidden inside a general complaint.
ALSO GROWS
la'ah: to grow weary or tire
לָאָה
This base form carries the same experience of weariness named in the verse.
nil'ah: to become weary or worn out
נִלְאָה
This form shows weariness as a state that can come upon someone.
THE PATTERN
A dispute opens into the light when someone directly asks for an answer, a judgment, or a charge.
Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me.And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?THE THREAD
What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?The word translated ‘done’ in both verses comes from עשה (asah), meaning to do or make. Both questions bring the relationship into view through what has been done and what follows from it.
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