Mikha 2:3

2:3 Therefore the Lord says this: “Look, I am devising disaster for this nation! ¹ 

It will be like a yoke from which you cannot free your neck. ² 

You will no longer ³  walk proudly,

for it will be a time of catastrophe.

Mikha 2:12

The Lord Will Restore His People

2:12 I will certainly gather all of you, O Jacob,

I will certainly assemble those Israelites who remain. ⁴ 

I will bring them together like sheep in a fold, ⁵ 

like a flock in the middle of a pasture; ⁶ 

they will be so numerous that they will make a lot of noise. ⁷ 

Mikha 4:10

4:10 Twist and strain, ⁸  Daughter Zion, as if you were in labor!

For you will leave the city

and live in the open field.

You will go to Babylon,

but there you will be rescued.

There the Lord will deliver ⁹  you

from the power ¹⁰  of your enemies.

Mikha 4:13

4:13 “Get up and thresh, Daughter Zion!

For I will give you iron horns; ¹¹ 

I will give you bronze hooves,

and you will crush many nations.” ¹² 

You will devote to the Lord the spoils you take from them,

and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler ¹³  of the whole earth. ¹⁴ 

Mikha 5:4

5:4 He will assume his post ¹⁵  and shepherd the people ¹⁶  by the Lord’s strength,

by the sovereign authority of the Lord his God. ¹⁷ 

They will live securely, ¹⁸  for at that time he will be honored ¹⁹ 

even in the distant regions of ²⁰  the earth.

Mikha 5:8

5:8 Those survivors from Jacob will live among the nations,

in the midst of many peoples.

They will be like a lion among the animals of the forest,

like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,

which attacks when it passes through;

it rips its prey ²¹  and there is no one to stop it. ²² 

[2:3]  ¹ tn Heb “clan” or “extended family.”

[2:3]  ² tn Heb “from which you will not remove your neck.” The words “It will be like a yoke” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[2:3]  ³ tn Or “you will not.”

[2:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “the remnant of Israel.”

[2:12]  ⁵ tc The MT reads בָּצְרָה (batsrah, “Bozrah”) but the form should be emended to בַּצִּרָה (batsirah, “into the fold”). See D. R. Hillers, Micah (Hermeneia), 38.

[2:12]  ⁶ tc The MT reads “its pasture,” but the final vav (ו) belongs with the following verb. See GKC 413 §127.i.

[2:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “and they will be noisy [or perhaps, “excited”] from men.” The subject of the third feminine plural verb תְּהִימֶנָה (tÿhimenah, “they will be noisy”) is probably the feminine singular צֹאן (tso’n, “flock”). (For another example of this collective singular noun with a feminine plural verb, see Gen 30:38.) In the construction מֵאָדָם (me’adam, “from men”) the preposition is probably causal. L. C. Allen translates “bleating in fear of men” (Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah [NICOT], 300), but it is possible to take the causal sense as “because of the large quantity of men.” In this case the sheep metaphor and the underlying reality are mixed.

[4:10]  ⁸ tn Or perhaps “scream”; NRSV, TEV, NLT “groan.”

[4:10]  ⁹ tn Or “redeem” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[4:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “hand.” The Hebrew idiom is a metonymy for power or control.

[4:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I will make your horn iron.”

[4:13]  ¹² sn Jerusalem (Daughter Zion at the beginning of the verse; cf. 4:8) is here compared to a powerful ox which crushes the grain on the threshing floor with its hooves.

[4:13]  ¹³ tn Or “the Lord” (so many English versions); Heb “the master.”

[4:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and their wealth to the master of all the earth.” The verb “devote” does double duty in the parallelism and is supplied in the second line for clarification.

[4:13]  sn In vv. 11-13 the prophet jumps from the present crisis (which will result in exile, v. 10) to a time beyond the restoration of the exiles when God will protect his city from invaders. The Lord’s victory over the Assyrian armies in 701 b.c. foreshadowed this.

[5:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “stand up”; NAB “stand firm”; NASB “will arise.”

[5:4]  ¹⁶ tn The words “the people” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “by the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.”

[5:4]  ¹⁸ tn The words “in peace” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Perhaps וְיָשָׁבוּ (vÿyashavu, “and they will live”) should be emended to וְשָׁבוּ (vÿshavu, “and they will return”).

[5:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “be great.”

[5:4]  ²⁰ tn Or “to the ends of.”

[5:8]  ²¹ tn The words “its prey” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:8]  ²² tn Heb “and there is no deliverer.”