6.6: How can I come before the Lord, to bow down before God on high?
Should I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves in their first year?
6.7: Would the Lord delight in thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Could I give my firstborn to pay for my crimes, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
6.8: O mortal, you have already been told what is good, what the Lord demands of you To do justice, to love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.
The seed for Walk Humbly originated the day after the 2024 election. I felt dazed, gut-punched, betrayed, fearful. Betrayed by my fellow citizens, by the media which had rosily predicted a different outcome, Fearful of what the future would hold — many of those fears already realized, less than a year into the new administration.
As is my custom, I turned to music for solace, but this time it didn’t help. Whatever I listened to rang hollow. Except, after a few weeks, Bach. Bach never disappoints. YouTube offered as a suggestion Cantata 45, Es ist dir gesagt, a cantata already familiar to me, performed by the marvelous Netherlands Bach Society. The opening chorus, one of Bach’s best, employs those words of Micah 6:8.
As 2025 progressed and we witnessed ever-worsening arrogance from the administration and Congress, I kept thinking about that verse and how badly we were in need of humility as well as justice and mercy. So simple, but not easy at all.
At length I decided to set the verse to music and consulted my rabbi, Saul Oresky (Mishkan Torah Synagogue, Greenbelt, Md.) for advice on the best English version. Rabbi Oresky convinced me to precede the verse with 6:6-7, which verses provide context for 6:8, asking the question which 6:8 answers. Mostly I followed his advice, making a few changes in consideration that Walk Humbly is a concert piece, not a liturgical piece. I set to work early in October 2025.
The perplexing questions of 6:6-7 are asked first by the tenors, who are then joined by the altos and finally by the sopranos, leading to the second half of 6:7. The basses then get their chance as the text turns to the anguished query about sacrificing the firstborn.
The mood changes abruptly for 6:8. Minor gives way to major, and the full chorus sings God’s reassuring answer through the prophet: No, Mortal, sacrifices are not the point. Justice, mercy and humility are all that is required.
On Nov. 2, 2025 I completed the finishing touches and entered the date stamp.
May Walk Humbly help to serve us all as a reminder of the importance of justice, mercy and humility, virtues too often neglected in today’s world.