Micah 7:16-17

Context

7:16 Nations will see this and be disappointed by¹ all their strength,

they will put their hands over their mouths,

and act as if they were deaf.²

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

like serpents crawling on the ground.³

They will come trembling from their strongholds

to the Lord our God;⁴

they will be terrified⁵ of you.⁶

[7:16] ¹tn Or “be ashamed of.”

[7:16] ²tn Heb “and their ears will be deaf.” Apparently this means the opposing nations will be left dumbfounded by the Lord’s power. Their inability to respond will make them appear to be deaf mutes.

[7:17] ³tn Heb “like crawling things on the ground.” The parallelism suggests snakes are in view.

[7:17] ⁴tn 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] ⁵tn Heb “they will be in dread and afraid.”

[7:17] ⁶tn The Lord is addressed directly using the second person.