Mikha 4:3

4:3 He will arbitrate ¹  between many peoples

and settle disputes between many ²  distant nations. ³ 

They will beat their swords into plowshares, ⁴ 

and their spears into pruning hooks. ⁵ 

Nations will not use weapons ⁶  against other nations,

and they will no longer train for war.

Mikha 4:13

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

For I will give you iron horns; ⁷ 

I will give you bronze hooves,

and you will crush many nations.” ⁸ 

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

and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler ⁹  of the whole earth. ¹⁰ 

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 ¹¹  and there is no one to stop it. ¹² 

Mikha 6:5

6:5 My people, recall how King Balak of Moab planned to harm you, ¹³ 

how Balaam son of Beor responded to him.

Recall how you journeyed from Shittim to Gilgal,

so you might acknowledge that the Lord has treated you fairly.” ¹⁴ 

Mikha 7:17

7:17 They will lick the dust like a snake,

like serpents crawling on the ground. ¹⁵ 

They will come trembling from their strongholds

to the Lord our God; ¹⁶ 

they will be terrified ¹⁷  of you. ¹⁸ 

[4:3]  ¹ tn Or “judge.”

[4:3]  ² tn Or “mighty” (NASB); KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “strong”; TEV “among the great powers.”

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

[4:3]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “take up the sword.”

[4:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will make your horn iron.”

[4:13]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Or “the Lord” (so many English versions); Heb “the master.”

[4:13]  ¹⁰ 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.

[5:8]  ¹¹ tn The words “its prey” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:8]  ¹² tn Heb “and there is no deliverer.”

[6:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “remember what Balak…planned.”

[6:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “From Shittim to Gilgal, in order to know the just acts of the Lord.” Something appears to be missing at the beginning of the line. The present translation supplies the words, “Recall how you went.” This apparently refers to how Israel crossed the Jordan River (see Josh 3:1; 4:19-24).

[7:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “like crawling things on the ground.” The parallelism suggests snakes are in view.

[7:17]  ¹⁶ tn Thetranslationassumesthatthe phrase אֶל־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ (’el-yÿhvah ’elohenu, “to the Lord our God”) goes with what precedes. Another option is to take the phrase with the following verb, in which case one could translate, “to the Lord our God they will turn in dread.”

[7:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “they will be in dread and afraid.”

[7:17]  ¹⁸ tn The Lord is addressed directly using the second person.