Mikha 3:1-3

God Will Judge Judah’s Sinful Leaders

3:1 I said,

“Listen, you leaders ¹  of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation ²  of Israel!

You ought to know what is just, ³ 

3:2 yet you ⁴  hate what is good, ⁵ 

and love what is evil. ⁶ 

You flay my people’s skin ⁷ 

and rip the flesh from their bones. ⁸ 

3:3 You ⁹  devour my people’s flesh,

strip off their skin,

and crush their bones.

You chop them up like flesh in a pot ¹⁰  –

like meat in a kettle.

Mikha 3:11

3:11 Her ¹¹  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ¹² 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ¹³  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ¹⁴ 

Disaster will not overtake ¹⁵  us!”

[3:1]  ¹ tn Heb “heads.”

[3:1]  ² tn Heb “house.”

[3:1]  ³ tn Heb “Should you not know justice?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you should!”

[3:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “the ones who.”

[3:2]  ⁵ tn Or “good.”

[3:2]  ⁶ tn Or “evil.”

[3:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “their skin from upon them.” The referent of the pronoun (“my people,” referring to Jacob and/or the house of Israel, with the Lord as the speaker) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “and their flesh from their bones.”

[3:2]  sn Micah compares the social injustice perpetrated by the house of Jacob/Israel to cannibalism, because it threatens the very lives of the oppressed.

[3:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “who.”

[3:3]  ¹⁰ tc The MT reads “and they chop up as in a pot.” The translation assumes an emendation of כַּאֲשֶׁר (ka’asher, “as”) to כִּשְׁאֵר (kish’er, “like flesh”).

[3:11]  ¹¹ sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

[3:11]  ¹² tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

[3:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

[3:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

[3:11]  ¹⁵ tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”