Mikha 1:1

Introduction

1:1 This is the prophetic message that the Lord gave to ¹  Micah of Moresheth. He delivered this message ²  during the reigns of ³  Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. The prophecies pertain to ⁴  Samaria ⁵  and Jerusalem. ⁶ 

Mikha 2:12

The Lord Will Restore His People

2:12 I will certainly gather all of you, O Jacob,

I will certainly assemble those Israelites who remain. ⁷ 

I will bring them together like sheep in a fold, ⁸ 

like a flock in the middle of a pasture; ⁹ 

they will be so numerous that they will make a lot of noise. ¹⁰ 

Mikha 3:6

3:6 Therefore night will fall, and you will receive no visions; ¹¹ 

it will grow dark, and you will no longer be able to read the omens. ¹² 

The sun will set on these prophets,

and the daylight will turn to darkness over their heads. ¹³ 

Mikha 3:9

3:9 Listen to this, you leaders of the family ¹⁴  of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation ¹⁵  of Israel!

You ¹⁶  hate justice

and pervert all that is right.

Mikha 4:1

Better Days Ahead for Jerusalem

4:1 In the future ¹⁷  the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all; ¹⁸ 

it will be more prominent than other hills. ¹⁹ 

People will stream to it.

Mikha 4:7

4:7 I will transform the lame into the nucleus of a new nation, ²⁰ 

and those far off ²¹  into a mighty nation.

The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion,

from that day forward and forevermore.” ²² 

Mikha 6:8

6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good,

and what the Lord really wants from you: ²³ 

He wants you to ²⁴  promote ²⁵  justice, to be faithful, ²⁶ 

and to live obediently before ²⁷  your God.

Mikha 6:14-15

6:14 You will eat, but not be satisfied.

Even if you have the strength ²⁸  to overtake some prey, ²⁹ 

you will not be able to carry it away; ³⁰ 

if you do happen to carry away something,

I will deliver it over to the sword.

6:15 You will plant crops, but will not harvest them;

you will squeeze oil from the olives, ³¹  but you will have no oil to rub on your bodies; ³² 

you will squeeze juice from the grapes, but you will have no wine to drink. ³³ 

Mikha 7:2

7:2 Faithful men have disappeared ³⁴  from the land;

there are no godly men left. ³⁵ 

They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; ³⁶ 

they hunt their own brother with a net. ³⁷ 

Mikha 7:10

7:10 When my enemies see this, they will be covered with shame.

They say ³⁸  to me, “Where is the Lord your God?”

I will gloat over them. ³⁹ 

Then they will be trampled down ⁴⁰ 

like mud in the streets.

Mikha 7:17

7:17 They will lick the dust like a snake,

like serpents crawling on the ground. ⁴¹ 

They will come trembling from their strongholds

to the Lord our God; ⁴² 

they will be terrified ⁴³  of you. ⁴⁴ 

[1:1]  ¹ tn Heb “The word of the Lord which came to.”

[1:1]  ² tn The words “he delivered this message” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[1:1]  ³ tn Heb “in the days of” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).

[1:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “which he saw concerning.”

[1:1]  ⁵ map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[1:1]  ⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “the remnant of Israel.”

[2:12]  ⁸ tc The MT reads בָּצְרָה (batsrah, “Bozrah”) but the form should be emended to בַּצִּרָה (batsirah, “into the fold”). See D. R. Hillers, Micah (Hermeneia), 38.

[2:12]  ⁹ tc The MT reads “its pasture,” but the final vav (ו) belongs with the following verb. See GKC 413 §127.i.

[2:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and they will be noisy [or perhaps, “excited”] from men.” The subject of the third feminine plural verb תְּהִימֶנָה (tÿhimenah, “they will be noisy”) is probably the feminine singular צֹאן (tso’n, “flock”). (For another example of this collective singular noun with a feminine plural verb, see Gen 30:38.) In the construction מֵאָדָם (me’adam, “from men”) the preposition is probably causal. L. C. Allen translates “bleating in fear of men” (Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah [NICOT], 300), but it is possible to take the causal sense as “because of the large quantity of men.” In this case the sheep metaphor and the underlying reality are mixed.

[3:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “it will be night for you without a vision.”

[3:6]  sn The coming of night (and darkness in the following line) symbolizes the cessation of revelation.

[3:6]  ¹² tn Heb “it will be dark for you without divination.”

[3:6]  sn The reading of omens (Heb “divination”) was forbidden in the law (Deut 18:10), so this probably reflects the prophets’ view of how they received divine revelation.

[3:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the day will be dark over them.”

[3:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[3:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “house.”

[3:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons (also at the beginning of v. 10).

[4:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “at the end of days.”

[4:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “will be established as the head of the mountains.”

[4:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “it will be lifted up above the hills.”

[4:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “make the lame into a remnant.”

[4:7]  ²¹ tn The precise meaning of this difficult form is uncertain. The present translation assumes the form is a Niphal participle of an otherwise unattested denominative verb הָלָא (hala’, “to be far off”; see BDB 229 s.v.), but attractive emendations include הַנַּחֲלָה (hannakhalah, “the sick one[s]”) from חָלָה (khalah) and הַנִּלְאָה (hannil’ah, “the weary one[s]”) from לָאָה (la’ah).

[4:7]  ²² tn Heb “from now until forever.”

[6:8]  ²³ sn What the Lord really wants from you. Now the prophet switches roles and answers the hypothetical worshiper’s question. He makes it clear that the Lord desires proper attitudes more than ritual and sacrifice.

[6:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “except.” This statement is actually linked with what precedes, “What does he want from you except….”

[6:8]  ²⁵ tn Heb “to do,” in the sense of “promote.”

[6:8]  ²⁶ tn Heb “to love faithfulness.”

[6:8]  ²⁷ tn Heb “to walk humbly [or perhaps, “carefully”] with.”

[6:14]  ²⁸ tc The first Hebrew term in the line (וְיֶשְׁחֲךָ, vÿyeshkhakha) is obscure. HALOT 446 s.v. יֶשַׁח understands a noun meaning “filth,” which would yield the translation, “and your filth is inside you.” The translation assumes an emendation to כֹּחַ-וְיֶשׁ (vÿyesh-koakh, “and [if] there is strength inside you”).

[6:14]  ²⁹ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term וְתַסֵּג (vÿtasseg) is unclear. The translation assumes it is a Hiphal imperfect from נָסַג/נָשַׂג (nasag/nasag, “reach; overtake”) and that hunting imagery is employed. (Note the reference to hunger in the first line of the verse.) See D. R. Hillers, Micah (Hermeneia), 80.

[6:14]  ³⁰ tn The Hiphal of פָּלַט (palat) is used in Isa 5:29 of an animal carrying its prey to a secure place.

[6:15]  ³¹ tn Heb “you will tread olives.” Literally treading on olives with one’s feet could be harmful and would not supply the necessary pressure to release the oil. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 119. The Hebrew term דָּרַךְ (darakh) may have an idiomatic sense of “press” here, or perhaps the imagery of the following parallel line (referring to treading grapes) has dictated the word choice.

[6:15]  ³² tn Heb “but you will not rub yourselves with oil.”

[6:15]  ³³ tn Heb “and juice, but you will not drink wine.” The verb תִדְרֹךְ (tidrokh, “you will tread”) must be supplied from the preceding line.

[7:2]  ³⁴ tn Or “have perished”; “have been destroyed.”

[7:2]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and an upright one among men there is not.”

[7:2]  ³⁶ tn Heb “for bloodshed” (so NASB); TEV “for a chance to commit murder.”

[7:2]  ³⁷ sn Micah compares these ungodly people to hunters trying to capture their prey with a net.

[7:10]  ³⁸ tn Heb “who say.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[7:10]  ³⁹ tn Heb “My eyes will look on them.”

[7:10]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “a trampled-down place.”

[7:17]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “like crawling things on the ground.” The parallelism suggests snakes are in view.

[7:17]  ⁴² tn Thetranslationassumesthatthe phrase אֶל־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ (’el-yÿhvah ’elohenu, “to the Lord our God”) goes with what precedes. Another option is to take the phrase with the following verb, in which case one could translate, “to the Lord our God they will turn in dread.”

[7:17]  ⁴³ tn Heb “they will be in dread and afraid.”

[7:17]  ⁴⁴ tn The Lord is addressed directly using the second person.