Mikha 3:2-4

3:2 yet you ¹  hate what is good, ² 

and love what is evil. ³ 

You flay my people’s skin ⁴ 

and rip the flesh from their bones. ⁵ 

3:3 You ⁶  devour my people’s flesh,

strip off their skin,

and crush their bones.

You chop them up like flesh in a pot ⁷  –

like meat in a kettle.

3:4 Someday these sinners will cry to the Lord for help, ⁸ 

but he will not answer them.

He will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have done such wicked deeds.”

[3:2]  ¹ tn Heb “the ones who.”

[3:2]  ² tn Or “good.”

[3:2]  ³ tn Or “evil.”

[3:2]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “who.”

[3:3]  ⁷ 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”).

[3:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “then they will cry out to the Lord.” The words “Someday these sinners” have been supplied in the translation for clarification.