Mikha 1:8

1:8 For this reason I ¹  will mourn and wail;

I will walk around barefoot ²  and without my outer garments. ³ 

I will howl ⁴  like a wild dog, ⁵ 

and screech ⁶  like an owl. ⁷ 

Mikha 2:11

2:11 If a lying windbag should come and say, ⁸ 

‘I’ll promise you blessings of wine and beer,’ ⁹ 

he would be just the right preacher for these people! ¹⁰ 

Mikha 3:3

3:3 You ¹¹  devour my people’s flesh,

strip off their skin,

and crush their bones.

You chop them up like flesh in a pot ¹²  –

like meat in a kettle.

Mikha 4:4

4:4 Each will sit under his own grapevine

or under his own fig tree without any fear. ¹³ 

The Lord who commands armies has decreed it. ¹⁴ 

[1:8]  ¹ tn The prophet is probably the speaker here.

[1:8]  ² tn Or “stripped.” The precise meaning of this Hebrew word is unclear. It may refer to walking barefoot (see 2 Sam 15:30) or to partially stripping oneself (see Job 12:17-19).

[1:8]  ³ tn Heb “naked.” This probably does not refer to complete nudity, but to stripping off one’s outer garments as an outward sign of the destitution felt by the mourner.

[1:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will make lamentation.”

[1:8]  ⁵ tn Or “a jackal”; CEV “howling wolves.”

[1:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “[make] a mourning.”

[1:8]  ⁷ tn Or perhaps “ostrich” (cf. ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT).

[2:11]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will foam at the mouth concerning wine and beer.”

[2:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he would be the foamer at the mouth for this people.”

[3:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “who.”

[3:3]  ¹² 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”).

[4:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “and there will be no one making [him] afraid.”

[4:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts has spoken.”