Mikha 6:15

6:15 You will plant crops, but will not harvest them;

you will squeeze oil from the olives, ¹  but you will have no oil to rub on your bodies; ² 

you will squeeze juice from the grapes, but you will have no wine to drink. ³ 

Mikha 7:1

Micah Laments Judah’s Sin

7:1 I am depressed! ⁴ 

Indeed, ⁵  it is as if the summer fruit has been gathered,

and the grapes have been harvested. ⁶ 

There is no grape cluster to eat,

no fresh figs that I crave so much. ⁷ 

Mikha 1:6

1:6 “I will turn Samaria ⁸  into a heap of ruins in an open field –

vineyards will be planted there! ⁹ 

I will tumble ¹⁰  the rubble of her stone walls ¹¹  down into the valley,

and tear down her fortifications to their foundations. ¹² 

Mikha 4:4

4:4 Each will sit under his own grapevine

or under his own fig tree without any fear. ¹³ 

The Lord who commands armies has decreed it. ¹⁴ 

Mikha 2:11

2:11 If a lying windbag should come and say, ¹⁵ 

‘I’ll promise you blessings of wine and beer,’ ¹⁶ 

he would be just the right preacher for these people! ¹⁷ 

[6:15]  ¹ tn Heb “you will tread olives.” Literally treading on olives with one’s feet could be harmful and would not supply the necessary pressure to release the oil. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 119. The Hebrew term דָּרַךְ (darakh) may have an idiomatic sense of “press” here, or perhaps the imagery of the following parallel line (referring to treading grapes) has dictated the word choice.

[6:15]  ² tn Heb “but you will not rub yourselves with oil.”

[6:15]  ³ tn Heb “and juice, but you will not drink wine.” The verb תִדְרֹךְ (tidrokh, “you will tread”) must be supplied from the preceding line.

[7:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “woe to me!” In light of the image that follows, perhaps one could translate, “I am disappointed.”

[7:1]  ⁵ tn Or “for.”

[7:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “I am like the gathering of the summer fruit, like the gleanings of the harvest.” Micah is not comparing himself to the harvested fruit. There is an ellipsis here, as the second half of the verse makes clear. The idea is, “I am like [one at the time] the summer fruit is gathered and the grapes are harvested.”

[7:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “my appetite craves.”

[1:6]  ⁸ map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[1:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “into a planting place for vineyards.”

[1:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “pour” (so NASB, NIV); KJV, NRSV “pour down”; NAB “throw down”; NLT “roll.”

[1:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “her stones.” The term stones is a metonymy for the city walls whose foundations were constructed of stone masonry.

[1:6]  ¹² tn Heb “I will uncover her foundations.” The term “foundations” refers to the lower courses of the stones of the city’s outer fortification walls.

[4:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “and there will be no one making [him] afraid.”

[4:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts has spoken.”

[2:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “if a man, coming [as] wind and falsehood, should lie”; NASB “walking after wind and falsehood”; NIV “a liar and a deceiver.”

[2:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I will foam at the mouth concerning wine and beer.”

[2:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he would be the foamer at the mouth for this people.”