Mikha 1:9

1:9 For Samaria’s ¹  disease ²  is incurable.

It has infected ³  Judah;

it has spread to ⁴  the leadership ⁵  of my people

and has even contaminated Jerusalem! ⁶ 

Mikha 1:14

1:14 Therefore you ⁷  will have to say farewell ⁸  to Moresheth Gath.

The residents ⁹  of Achzib ¹⁰  will be as disappointing

as a dried up well ¹¹  to the kings of Israel. ¹² 

Mikha 2:6

2:6 ‘Don’t preach with such impassioned rhetoric,’ they say excitedly. ¹³ 

‘These prophets should not preach of such things;

we will not be overtaken by humiliation.’ ¹⁴ 

Mikha 6:12

6:12 The city’s rich men think nothing of resorting to violence; ¹⁵ 

her inhabitants lie, ¹⁶ 

their tongues speak deceptive words. ¹⁷ 

[1:9]  ¹ tn Heb “her”; the referent (Samaria) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:9]  ² tc The MT reads the plural “wounds”; the singular is read by the LXX, Syriac, and Vg.

[1:9]  tn Or “wound.”

[1:9]  ³ tn Heb “come to.”

[1:9]  ⁴ tn Or “reached.”

[1:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “the gate.” Kings and civic leaders typically conducted important business at the city gate (see 1 Kgs 22:10 for an example), and the term is understood here to refer by metonymy to the leadership who would be present at the gate.

[1:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “to Jerusalem.” The expression “it has contaminated” do not appear in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied to fill out the parallelism with the preceding line.

[1:9]  map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:14]  ⁷ tn The subject of the feminine singular verb is probably Lachish.

[1:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “you will give a dowry to”; NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “give parting gifts to.” Lachish is compared to a father who presents wedding gifts to his daughter as she leaves her father’s home to take up residence with her husband. In similar fashion Lachish will bid farewell to Moresheth Gath, for the latter will be taken by the invader.

[1:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “houses.” By metonymy this refers to the people who live in them.

[1:14]  ¹⁰ sn The place name Achzib (אַכְזִיב, ’akhziv, “place on the dried up river”; see HALOT 45 s.v. אַכְזָב) creates a word play on the similar sounding term כָּזָב (kazav, “lie, deception”; HALOT 468 s.v. כָּזָב). Like the dried up river upon which its name was based, the city of Achzib would fail to help the kings of Israel in their time of need.

[1:14]  ¹¹ tn Or “will be a deception.” The term אַכְזָב (’akhzav) is often translated “deception,” as derived from the verb I כָּזָב (“to deceive, lie”; HALOT 467-68 s.v. I כזב). However, it probably means “what is dried up,” since (1) the noun elsewhere refers to an empty well or dried river in summer (Jer 15:18; cf. Job 6:15-20) (HALOT 45 s.v. אַכְזָב); (2) the place-name “Achzib” (אַכְזִיב) literally means “place on the אַכְזָב [dried up river]” (HALOT 45 s.v. אַכְזָב); and (3) it is derived from the verb II כָּזָב (“to dry up [brook]”; Isa 58:11), which also appears in Mishnaic Hebrew and Arabic. The point of the metaphor is that Achzib will be as disappointing to the kings of Israel as a dried up spring in the summer is to a thirsty traveler in the Jordanian desert.

[1:14]  ¹² sn Because of the enemy invasion, Achzib would not be able to deliver soldiers for the army and/or services normally rendered to the crown.

[2:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “‘Do not foam at the mouth,’ they foam at the mouth.” The verb נָטַף (nataf) means “to drip.” When used of speech it probably has the nuance “to drivel, to foam at the mouth” (HALOT 694 s.v. נטף). The sinful people tell the Lord’s prophets not to “foam at the mouth,” which probably refers in a derogatory way to their impassioned style of delivery. But the Lord (who is probably still speaking here, see v. 3) sarcastically refers to their impassioned exhortation as “foaming at the mouth.”

[2:6]  ¹⁴ tc If one follows the MT as it stands, it would appear that the Lord here condemns the people for their “foaming at the mouth” and then announces that judgment is inevitable. The present translation assumes that this is a continuation of the quotation of what the people say. In this case the subject of “foam at the mouth” is the Lord’s prophets. In the second line יִסַּג (yissag, a Niphal imperfect from סוּג, sug, “to remove”) is emended to יַסִּגֵנוּ (yassigenu; a Hiphil imperfect from נָסַג/נָשַׂג, nasag/nasag, “to reach; to overtake”).

[2:6]  tn Heb “they should not foam at the mouth concerning these things, humiliation will not be removed.”

[6:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “because her rich are full of violence.”

[6:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “speak lies.”

[6:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and their tongue is deceptive in their mouth.”