Mikha 4:6

Restoration Will Follow Crisis

4:6 “In that day,” says the Lord, “I will gather the lame,

and assemble the outcasts whom I injured. ¹ 

Mikha 7:19

7:19 You will once again ²  have mercy on us;

you will conquer ³  our evil deeds;

you will hurl our ⁴  sins into the depths of the sea. ⁵ 

[4:6]  ¹ sn The exiles of the nation are compared to lame and injured sheep.

[7:19]  ² tn The verb יָשׁוּב (yashuv, “he will return”) is here used adverbially in relation to the following verb, indicating that the Lord will again show mercy.

[7:19]  ³ tn Some prefer to read יִכְבֹּס (yikhbos, “he will cleanse”; see HALOT 459 s.v. כבס pi). If the MT is taken as it stands, sin is personified as an enemy that the Lord subdues.

[7:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “their sins,” but the final mem (ם) may be enclitic rather than a pronominal suffix. In this case the suffix from the preceding line (“our”) may be understood as doing double duty.

[7:19]  ⁵ sn In this metaphor the Lord disposes of Israel’s sins by throwing them into the waters of the sea (here symbolic of chaos).