Deuteronomy 32:2

32:2 My teaching will drop like the rain,

my sayings will drip like the dew, ¹ 

as rain drops upon the grass,

and showers upon new growth.

Amos 7:16

7:16 So now listen to the Lord’s message! You say, ‘Don’t prophesy against Israel! Don’t preach ²  against the family of Isaac!’

Micah 2:6

2:6 ‘Don’t preach with such impassioned rhetoric,’ they say excitedly. ³ 

‘These prophets should not preach of such things;

we will not be overtaken by humiliation.’ ⁴ 

Micah 2:11

2:11 If a lying windbag should come and say, ⁵ 

‘I’ll promise you blessings of wine and beer,’ ⁶ 

he would be just the right preacher for these people! ⁷ 

¹ tn Or “mist,” “light drizzle.” In some contexts the term appears to refer to light rain, rather than dew.

² tn The verb, which literally means “to drip,” appears to be a synonym of “to prophesy,” but it might carry a derogatory tone here, perhaps alluding to the impassioned, frenzied way in which prophets sometimes delivered their messages. If so, one could translate, “to drivel; to foam at the mouth” (see HALOT 694 s.v. נטף).

³ tn Heb “‘Do not foam at the mouth,’ they foam at the mouth.” The verb נָטַף (nataf) means “to drip.” When used of speech it probably has the nuance “to drivel, to foam at the mouth” (HALOT 694 s.v. נטף). The sinful people tell the Lord’s prophets not to “foam at the mouth,” which probably refers in a derogatory way to their impassioned style of delivery. But the Lord (who is probably still speaking here, see v. 3) sarcastically refers to their impassioned exhortation as “foaming at the mouth.”

⁴ tc If one follows the MT as it stands, it would appear that the Lord here condemns the people for their “foaming at the mouth” and then announces that judgment is inevitable. The present translation assumes that this is a continuation of the quotation of what the people say. In this case the subject of “foam at the mouth” is the Lord’s prophets. In the second line יִסַּג (yissag, a Niphal imperfect from סוּג, sug, “to remove”) is emended to יַסִּגֵנוּ (yassigenu; a Hiphil imperfect from נָסַג/נָשַׂג, nasag/nasag, “to reach; to overtake”).

⁵ tn Heb “if a man, coming [as] wind and falsehood, should lie”; NASB “walking after wind and falsehood”; NIV “a liar and a deceiver.”

⁶ tn Heb “I will foam at the mouth concerning wine and beer.”

⁷ tn Heb “he would be the foamer at the mouth for this people.”