4:1 Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan 1 who live on Mount Samaria!
You 2 oppress the poor;
you crush the needy.
You say to your 3 husbands,
“Bring us more to drink!” 4
4:1 Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan 5 who live on Mount Samaria!
You 6 oppress the poor;
you crush the needy.
You say to your 7 husbands,
“Bring us more to drink!” 8
1:4 So I will set Hazael’s house 9 on fire;
fire 10 will consume Ben Hadad’s 11 fortresses.
28:21 To show partiality 12 is terrible, 13
for a person will transgress over the smallest piece of bread. 14
2:2 They confiscate the fields they desire,
and seize the houses they want. 15
They defraud people of their homes, 16
and deprive people of the land they have inherited. 17
2:9 You wrongly evict widows 18 among my people from their cherished homes.
You defraud their children 19 of their prized inheritance. 20
7:2 Faithful men have disappeared 21 from the land;
there are no godly men left. 22
They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; 23
they hunt their own brother with a net. 24
7:3 They are determined to be experts at doing evil; 25
government officials and judges take bribes, 26
prominent men make demands,
and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them. 27
3:3 Her princes 28 are as fierce as roaring lions; 29
her rulers 30 are as hungry as wolves in the desert, 31
who completely devour their prey by morning. 32
1 sn The expression cows of Bashan is used by the prophet to address the wealthy women of Samaria, who demand that their husbands satisfy their cravings. The derogatory language perhaps suggests that they, like the livestock of Bashan, were well fed, ironically in preparation for the coming slaughter. This phrase is sometimes cited to critique the book’s view of women.
2 tn Heb “the ones who” (three times in this verse).
3 tn Heb “their.”
4 sn Some commentators relate this scene to the description of the marzeah feast of 6:3-6, in which drinking played a prominent part (see the note at 6:6).
5 sn The expression cows of Bashan is used by the prophet to address the wealthy women of Samaria, who demand that their husbands satisfy their cravings. The derogatory language perhaps suggests that they, like the livestock of Bashan, were well fed, ironically in preparation for the coming slaughter. This phrase is sometimes cited to critique the book’s view of women.
6 tn Heb “the ones who” (three times in this verse).
7 tn Heb “their.”
8 sn Some commentators relate this scene to the description of the marzeah feast of 6:3-6, in which drinking played a prominent part (see the note at 6:6).
9 tn “Hazael’s house” (“the house of Hazael”) refers to the dynasty of Hazael.
10 tn Heb “it”; the referent (the fire mentioned in the previous line) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
11 sn Ben-hadad may refer to Hazael’s son and successor (2 Kgs 13:3, 24) or to an earlier king (see 1 Kgs 20), perhaps the ruler whom Hazael assassinated when he assumed power.
12 tn The construction uses the Hiphil infinitive הַכֵּר (hakken) as the subject of the sentence: “to have respect for [or, recognize] persons is not good” (e.g., 24:23; 18:5; Deut 1:17; Lev 19:15). Such favoritism is “not good”; instead, it is a miscarriage of justice and is to be avoided.
13 tn Heb “not good.” This is a figure of speech known as tapeinosis – a deliberate understatement to emphasize a worst-case scenario: “it is terrible!”
14 tn The meaning and connection of the line is not readily clear. It could be taken in one of two ways: (1) a person can steal even a small piece of bread if hungry, and so the court should show some compassion, or it should show no partiality even in such a pathetic case; (2) a person could be bribed for a very small price (a small piece of bread being the figure representing this). This second view harmonizes best with the law.
15 tn Heb “they desire fields and rob [them], and houses and take [them] away.”
16 tn Heb “and they oppress a man and his home.”
17 tn Heb “and a man and his inheritance.” The verb עָשַׁק (’ashaq, “to oppress”; “to wrong”) does double duty in the parallel structure and is understood by ellipsis in the second line.
18 tn Heb “women.” This may be a synecdoche of the whole (women) for the part (widows).
19 tn Heb “her little children” or “her infants”; ASV, NRSV “young children.”
20 tn Heb “from their children you take my glory forever.” The yod (י) ending on הֲדָרִי (hadariy) is usually taken as a first person common singular suffix (“my glory”). But it may be the archaic genitive ending (“glory of”) in the construct expression “glory of perpetuity,” that is, “perpetual glory.” In either case, this probably refers to the dignity or honor the
21 tn Or “have perished”; “have been destroyed.”
22 tn Heb “and an upright one among men there is not.”
23 tn Heb “for bloodshed” (so NASB); TEV “for a chance to commit murder.”
24 sn Micah compares these ungodly people to hunters trying to capture their prey with a net.
25 tn Heb “upon evil [are their] hands to do [it] well.”
26 tn Heb “the official asks – and the judge – for a bribe.”
27 tn More literally, “the great one announces what his appetite desires and they weave it together.” Apparently this means that subordinates plot and maneuver to make sure the prominent man’s desires materialize.
28 tn Or “officials.”
29 tn Heb “her princes in her midst are roaring lions.” The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as fierce as”) for clarity.
30 tn Traditionally “judges.”
31 tn Heb “her judges [are] wolves of the evening,” that is, wolves that prowl at night. The translation assumes an emendation to עֲרָבָה (’aravah, “desert”). For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 128. The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as hungry as”) for clarity.
32 tn Heb “they do not gnaw [a bone] at morning.” The precise meaning of the line is unclear. The statement may mean these wolves devour their prey so completely that not even a bone is left to gnaw by the time morning arrives. For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 129.