Mikha 4:1-3

Better Days Ahead for Jerusalem

4:1 In the future ¹  the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all; ² 

it will be more prominent than other hills. ³ 

People will stream to it.

4:2 Many nations will come, saying,

“Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,

to the temple ⁴  of Jacob’s God,

so he can teach us his commands ⁵ 

and we can live by his laws.” ⁶ 

For Zion will be the source of instruction;

the Lord’s teachings will proceed from Jerusalem. ⁷ 

4:3 He will arbitrate ⁸  between many peoples

and settle disputes between many ⁹  distant nations. ¹⁰ 

They will beat their swords into plowshares, ¹¹ 

and their spears into pruning hooks. ¹² 

Nations will not use weapons ¹³  against other nations,

and they will no longer train for war.

Mikha 4:8

4:8 As for you, watchtower for the flock, ¹⁴ 

fortress of Daughter Zion ¹⁵  –

your former dominion will be restored, ¹⁶ 

the sovereignty that belongs to Daughter Jerusalem.

Mikha 4:13

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

For I will give you iron horns; ¹⁷ 

I will give you bronze hooves,

and you will crush many nations.” ¹⁸ 

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

and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler ¹⁹  of the whole earth. ²⁰ 

[4:1]  ¹ tn Heb “at the end of days.”

[4:1]  ² tn Heb “will be established as the head of the mountains.”

[4:1]  ³ tn Heb “it will be lifted up above the hills.”

[4:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[4:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “ways.”

[4:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “and we can walk in his paths.”

[4:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “instruction [or, “law”] will go out from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

[4:2]  map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[4:3]  ⁸ tn Or “judge.”

[4:3]  ⁹ tn Or “mighty” (NASB); KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “strong”; TEV “among the great powers.”

[4:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[for many nations] to a distance.”

[4:3]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Heb “take up the sword.”

[4:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Migdal-eder.” Some English versions transliterate this phrase, apparently because they view it as a place name (cf. NAB).

[4:8]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “to you it will come, the former dominion will arrive.”

[4:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I will make your horn iron.”

[4:13]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn Or “the Lord” (so many English versions); Heb “the master.”

[4:13]  ²⁰ 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.