Mikha 1:2

The Judge is Coming

1:2 Listen, all you nations! ¹ 

Pay attention, all inhabitants of earth! ² 

The sovereign Lord will testify ³  against you;

the Lord will accuse you ⁴  from his majestic palace. ⁵ 

Mikha 1:16

1:16 Shave your heads bald as you mourn for the children you love; ⁶ 

shave your foreheads as bald ⁷  as an eagle, ⁸ 

for they are taken from you into exile.

Mikha 2:11

2:11 If a lying windbag should come and say, ⁹ 

‘I’ll promise you blessings of wine and beer,’ ¹⁰ 

he would be just the right preacher for these people! ¹¹ 

Mikha 4:8

4:8 As for you, watchtower for the flock, ¹² 

fortress of Daughter Zion ¹³  –

your former dominion will be restored, ¹⁴ 

the sovereignty that belongs to Daughter Jerusalem.

[1:2]  ¹ tn Heb “O peoples, all of them.”

[1:2]  ² tn Heb “O earth and all its fullness”; KJV “and all that therein is.”

[1:2]  ³ tn Heb “May the sovereign Lord testify against you.” The verb וִיהִי (vihiy) is jussive, which normally conveys a volitional sense of an urgent request or prayer (“may he testify!”). However, GKC 325-26 §109.k notes that here the jussive form is used without any volitional sense for the ordinary imperfect, as a rhythmic shortening at the beginning of a sentence, thus removed as far as possible from the principal accent (cf. Gen 49:17; Deut 28:8; 1 Sam 10:5; 2 Sam 5:24; Hos 6:1; 11:4; Amos 5:14; Zeph 2:13; Zech 9:5; Pss 72:16-17; 104:31; Job 18:12; 20:23, 26, 28; 27:8; 33:21; 34:37; Ruth 3:4). Thus, the translation here renders the jussive as an ordinary imperfect. Some translations render it in a traditional jussive sense: (1) urgent request: “And let my Lord God be your accuser” (NJPS); or (2) dependent purpose/result: “that the Sovereign Lord may witness against you” (NIV).

[1:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “the Lord from his majestic palace.” Since the verb is omitted it is unclear whether the implied term be supplied from the preceding line (“he will testify against you”) or the following line (“he is leaving”). So the line may be rendered “the Lord will accuse you from his majestic temple” or “the Lord will come forth from his majestic temple.” Most translations render it literally, but some remove the ambiguity: “the Lord God accuses you from his holy temple” (CEV); “He speaks from his holy temple” (TEV).

[1:2]  ⁵ tn Or “his holy temple” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). This refers to the Lord’s dwelling in heaven, however, rather than the temple in Jerusalem (note the following verse, which describes a theophany).

[1:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “over the sons of your delight.”

[1:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “make wide your baldness.”

[1:16]  ⁸ tn Or “a vulture” (cf. NIV, TEV); CEV “a buzzard.” The Hebrew term נֶשֶׁר (nesher) refers to the griffon vulture or eagle.

[2:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “if a man, coming [as] wind and falsehood, should lie”; NASB “walking after wind and falsehood”; NIV “a liar and a deceiver.”

[2:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I will foam at the mouth concerning wine and beer.”

[2:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he would be the foamer at the mouth for this people.”

[4:8]  ¹² tn Heb “Migdal-eder.” Some English versions transliterate this phrase, apparently because they view it as a place name (cf. NAB).

[4:8]  ¹³ sn The city of David, located within Jerusalem, is addressed as Daughter Zion. As the home of the Davidic king, who was Israel’s shepherd (Ps 78:70-72), the royal citadel could be viewed metaphorically as the watchtower of the flock.

[4:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to you it will come, the former dominion will arrive.”