Micah 1:2

The Judge is Coming

1:2 Listen, all you nations! ¹ 

Pay attention, all inhabitants of earth! ² 

The sovereign Lord will testify ³  against you;

the Lord will accuse you ⁴  from his majestic palace. ⁵ 

Micah 1:9

1:9 For Samaria’s ⁶  disease ⁷  is incurable.

It has infected ⁸  Judah;

it has spread to ⁹  the leadership ¹⁰  of my people

and has even contaminated Jerusalem! ¹¹ 

Micah 2:11

2:11 If a lying windbag should come and say, ¹² 

‘I’ll promise you blessings of wine and beer,’ ¹³ 

he would be just the right preacher for these people! ¹⁴ 

Micah 3:3

3:3 You ¹⁵  devour my people’s flesh,

strip off their skin,

and crush their bones.

You chop them up like flesh in a pot ¹⁶  –

like meat in a kettle.

Micah 4:1

Better Days Ahead for Jerusalem

4:1 In the future ¹⁷  the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all; ¹⁸ 

it will be more prominent than other hills. ¹⁹ 

People will stream to it.

Micah 4:5

4:5 Though all the nations follow their respective gods, ²⁰ 

we will follow ²¹  the Lord our God forever.

Micah 6:2

6:2 Hear the Lord’s accusation, you mountains,

you enduring foundations of the earth!

For the Lord has a case against his people;

he has a dispute with Israel! ²² 

Micah 6:16

6:16 You implement the regulations of Omri,

and all the practices of Ahab’s dynasty; ²³ 

you follow their policies. ²⁴ 

Therefore I will make you an appalling sight, ²⁵ 

the city’s ²⁶  inhabitants will be taunted derisively, ²⁷ 

and nations will mock all of you.” ²⁸ 

Micah 7:14

7:14 Shepherd your people with your shepherd’s rod, ²⁹ 

the flock that belongs to you, ³⁰ 

the one that lives alone in a thicket,

in the midst of a pastureland. ³¹ 

Allow them to graze in Bashan and Gilead, ³² 

as they did in the old days. ³³ 

¹ tn Heb “O peoples, all of them.”

² tn Heb “O earth and all its fullness”; KJV “and all that therein is.”

³ tn Heb “May the sovereign Lord testify against you.” The verb וִיהִי (vihiy) is jussive, which normally conveys a volitional sense of an urgent request or prayer (“may he testify!”). However, GKC 325-26 §109.k notes that here the jussive form is used without any volitional sense for the ordinary imperfect, as a rhythmic shortening at the beginning of a sentence, thus removed as far as possible from the principal accent (cf. Gen 49:17; Deut 28:8; 1 Sam 10:5; 2 Sam 5:24; Hos 6:1; 11:4; Amos 5:14; Zeph 2:13; Zech 9:5; Pss 72:16-17; 104:31; Job 18:12; 20:23, 26, 28; 27:8; 33:21; 34:37; Ruth 3:4). Thus, the translation here renders the jussive as an ordinary imperfect. Some translations render it in a traditional jussive sense: (1) urgent request: “And let my Lord God be your accuser” (NJPS); or (2) dependent purpose/result: “that the Sovereign Lord may witness against you” (NIV).

⁴ tn Heb “the Lord from his majestic palace.” Since the verb is omitted it is unclear whether the implied term be supplied from the preceding line (“he will testify against you”) or the following line (“he is leaving”). So the line may be rendered “the Lord will accuse you from his majestic temple” or “the Lord will come forth from his majestic temple.” Most translations render it literally, but some remove the ambiguity: “the Lord God accuses you from his holy temple” (CEV); “He speaks from his holy temple” (TEV).

⁵ tn Or “his holy temple” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). This refers to the Lord’s dwelling in heaven, however, rather than the temple in Jerusalem (note the following verse, which describes a theophany).

⁶ tn Heb “her”; the referent (Samaria) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tc The MT reads the plural “wounds”; the singular is read by the LXX, Syriac, and Vg.

⁸ tn Heb “come to.”

⁹ tn Or “reached.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “the gate.” Kings and civic leaders typically conducted important business at the city gate (see 1 Kgs 22:10 for an example), and the term is understood here to refer by metonymy to the leadership who would be present at the gate.

¹¹ tn Heb “to Jerusalem.” The expression “it has contaminated” do not appear in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied to fill out the parallelism with the preceding line.

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

¹² tn Heb “I will foam at the mouth concerning wine and beer.”

¹³ tn Heb “he would be the foamer at the mouth for this people.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “who.”

¹⁷ tc The MT reads “and they chop up as in a pot.” The translation assumes an emendation of כַּאֲשֶׁר (ka’asher, “as”) to כִּשְׁאֵר (kish’er, “like flesh”).

²¹ tn Heb “at the end of days.”

²² tn Heb “will be established as the head of the mountains.”

²³ tn Heb “it will be lifted up above the hills.”

²⁶ tn Heb “walk each in the name of his god.” The term “name” here has the idea of “authority.” To “walk in the name” of a god is to recognize the god’s authority as binding over one’s life.

²⁷ tn Heb “walk in the name of.”

³¹ tn This verse briefly interrupts the Lord’s statement (see vv. 1, 3) as the prophet summons the mountains as witnesses. Because of this v. 2 has been placed in parentheses in the translation.

³⁶ tn Heb “the edicts of Omri are kept, and all the deeds of the house of Ahab.”

³⁷ tn Heb “and you walk in their plans.”

³⁸ tn The Hebrew term שַׁמָּה (shammah) can refer to “destruction; ruin,” or to the reaction it produces in those who witness the destruction.

³⁹ tn Heb “her”; the referent (the city) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴⁰ tn Heb “[an object] of hissing,” which was a way of taunting someone.

⁴¹ tc The translation assumes an emendation of the MT’s עַמִּי (’ammi, “my people”) to עַמִּים (’ammim, “nations”).

⁴¹ tn Or “with your scepter” (the Hebrew term can mean either “rod” or “scepter”).

⁴² tn Heb “the flock of your inheritance.”

⁴³ tn Or “in the midst of Carmel.” The Hebrew term translated “pastureland” may be a place name.

⁴⁴ sn The regions of Bashan and Gilead, located in Transjordan, were noted for their rich grazing lands.

⁴⁵ tn Heb “as in the days of antiquity.”