The people speak:--
_Wherewithal shall I come before Jehovah,_ _Shall I bow myself to God the Most High?_ _Shall I come before Him with burnt-offerings,_ _With calves of one year?_ _Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams,_ _With myriads of rivers of oil?_ _Shall I give my firstborn for a guilt-offering,_[902] _The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?_
The prophet answers:--
_He hath shown thee, O man, what is good;_ _And what is the LORD seeking from thee,_ _But to do justice and love mercy,_ _And humbly_[903] _to walk with thy God?_
This is the greatest saying of the Old Testament; and there is only one other in the New which excels it:--
_Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest._ _Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls._ _For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light._
[898] See above, pp. 369 ff.
[899] Omitted from the above is the strange clause _from Shittim to Gilgal_, which appears to be a gloss.
[900] See the passages on the subject in Professor Harper's work on Deuteronomy in this series.
[901] See above, p. 161.
[902] See above, p. 370, on the futility of the argument which because of this line would put the whole passage in Manasseh's reign.
[903] This word הצנע is only once used again, in Prov. xi. 2, in another grammatical form, where also it might mean _humbly_. But the root-meaning is evidently _in secret_, or _secretly_ (cf. the Aram. צנע, to be hidden; צניע, one who lives noiselessly, humble, pious; in the feminine of a bride who is modest); and it is uncertain whether we should not take that sense here.