Mikha 3:7

3:7 The prophets ¹  will be ashamed;

the omen readers will be humiliated.

All of them will cover their mouths, ² 

for they will receive no divine oracles.” ³ 

Mikha 3:6

3:6 Therefore night will fall, and you will receive no visions; ⁴ 

it will grow dark, and you will no longer be able to read the omens. ⁵ 

The sun will set on these prophets,

and the daylight will turn to darkness over their heads. ⁶ 

Mikha 7:5

7:5 Do not rely on a friend;

do not trust a companion!

Don’t even share secrets with the one who lies in your arms! ⁷ 

Mikha 7:19

7:19 You will once again ⁸  have mercy on us;

you will conquer ⁹  our evil deeds;

you will hurl our ¹⁰  sins into the depths of the sea. ¹¹ 

Mikha 7:10

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

They say ¹²  to me, “Where is the Lord your God?”

I will gloat over them. ¹³ 

Then they will be trampled down ¹⁴ 

like mud in the streets.

Mikha 7:16

7:16 Nations will see this and be disappointed by ¹⁵  all their strength,

they will put their hands over their mouths,

and act as if they were deaf. ¹⁶ 

Mikha 4:3

4:3 He will arbitrate ¹⁷  between many peoples

and settle disputes between many ¹⁸  distant nations. ¹⁹ 

They will beat their swords into plowshares, ²⁰ 

and their spears into pruning hooks. ²¹ 

Nations will not use weapons ²²  against other nations,

and they will no longer train for war.

[3:7]  ¹ tn Or “seers.”

[3:7]  ² tn Or “the mustache,” or perhaps “the beard.” Cf. KJV, NAB, NRSV “cover their lips.”

[3:7]  ³ tn Heb “for there will be no answer from God.”

[3:6]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the day will be dark over them.”

[7:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “from the one who lies in your arms, guard the doors of your mouth.”

[7:19]  ⁸ tn The verb יָשׁוּב (yashuv, “he will return”) is here used adverbially in relation to the following verb, indicating that the Lord will again show mercy.

[7:19]  ⁹ tn Some prefer to read יִכְבֹּס (yikhbos, “he will cleanse”; see HALOT 459 s.v. כבס pi). If the MT is taken as it stands, sin is personified as an enemy that the Lord subdues.

[7:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “their sins,” but the final mem (ם) may be enclitic rather than a pronominal suffix. In this case the suffix from the preceding line (“our”) may be understood as doing double duty.

[7:19]  ¹¹ sn In this metaphor the Lord disposes of Israel’s sins by throwing them into the waters of the sea (here symbolic of chaos).

[7:10]  ¹² tn Heb “who say.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[7:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “My eyes will look on them.”

[7:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “a trampled-down place.”

[7:16]  ¹⁵ tn Or “be ashamed of.”

[7:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and their ears will be deaf.” Apparently this means the opposing nations will be left dumbfounded by the Lord’s power. Their inability to respond will make them appear to be deaf mutes.

[4:3]  ¹⁷ tn Or “judge.”

[4:3]  ¹⁸ tn Or “mighty” (NASB); KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “strong”; TEV “among the great powers.”

[4:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “[for many nations] to a distance.”

[4:3]  ²⁰ sn Instead of referring to the large plow as a whole, the plowshare is simply the metal tip which actually breaks the earth and cuts the furrow.

[4:3]  ²¹ sn This implement was used to prune the vines, i.e., to cut off extra leaves and young shoots (M. Klingbeil, NIDOTTE 1:1117-18). It was a short knife with a curved hook at the end sharpened on the inside like a sickle.

[4:3]  ²² tn Heb “take up the sword.”