Micah 6:7

"Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul."

"Thousands of rams ..." God had never commanded any such excessive sacrifice as that; but it was one of the conceits of the northern Israel that the multiplication of sacrifices God had indeed commanded would make up for their shameless worship at the godless shrines of the Baalim. Amos (Amos 4:4-5) reveals that instead of offering sacrifices as God had requested, they were offering them "every morning"; and the tithes which were due once a year, they were offering "every three days." We followed other commentators in the supposition that all of that was "hyperbole"; but in the light of what is evident here, it is clear enough that Israel had indeed attempted to buy God off with "thousands of rams," and with "ten thousand rivers of oil."

Some of Israel's kings, especially, had offered the most outlandish numbers of beasts as sacrifices. Solomon offered 1,000 burnt-offerings (1 Kings 3:4), 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep (1 Kings 8:63; 2 Chronicles 30:24; 35:7). Solomon must have supposed that cleared him of the blame for having 700 wives and 300 concubines!

"The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ..." Having already taken the position that Micah 6:6-7 are the response of a "truly sincere people" wishing to know how to approach God, some of the exegetes are really embarrassed by this; so they try to get rid of it. "The proposal (about human sacrifice) is not drawn from the recognized range of possibilities ... it is rather a function of the escalation of the list."[15] However, this is no mere rhetorical exaggeration. Human sacrifice was indeed being practiced in Israel:

"A god especially associated with child sacrifice was Molech, who was given a sanctuary called Topheth, "burning place," somewhere on the southern side of Jerusalem, where the grisly rite was performed."[16]

"They offered to appease God's wrath by the pagan practice of infanticide, as in the examples of the kings of Israel, and Ahaz of Judah (2 Kings 16:3; 17:17)".[17]

Furthermore, it is not true, necessarily, that the Biblical accounts of Israel's kings doing such things "are told as exceptional cases."[18] On the contrary, there must have been a wide-spread indulgence in that sinful thing, as indicated by the presence in the city of Jerusalem itself of a sanctuary to Molech.

Before leaving Micah 6:7, one other thing needs to be noted. In order to proclaim the humanist manifest of "no sacrifice" in the service of God, some offer a comment like this: "When Abraham had shown himself willing to offer his son, Isaac is not required from him."[19] But the implication that God required "nothing" is wrong. On that very occasion, a sacrifice was required, God himself providing it in the instance of the lamb caught by his horns in the bushes.