Jeremiah 2:5

2:5 This is what the Lord says:

“What fault could your ancestors ¹  have possibly found in me

that they strayed so far from me? ² 

They paid allegiance to ³  worthless idols, and so became worthless to me. ⁴ 

Micah 4:5

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

we will follow ⁶  the Lord our God forever.

Micah 4:1

Better Days Ahead for Jerusalem

4:1 In the future ⁷  the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all; ⁸ 

it will be more prominent than other hills. ⁹ 

People will stream to it.

Micah 1:1

Introduction

1:1 This is the prophetic message that the Lord gave to ¹⁰  Micah of Moresheth. He delivered this message ¹¹  during the reigns of ¹²  Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. The prophecies pertain to ¹³  Samaria ¹⁴  and Jerusalem. ¹⁵ 

[2:5]  ¹ tn Heb “fathers.”

[2:5]  ² tn Or “I did not wrong your ancestors in any way. Yet they went far astray from me.” Both translations are an attempt to render the rhetorical question which demands a negative answer.

[2:5]  ³ tn Heb “They went/followed after.” This idiom is found most often in Deuteronomy or covenant contexts. It refers to loyalty to God and to his covenant or his commandments (e.g., 1 Kgs 14:8; 2 Chr 34:31) with the metaphor of a path or way underlying it (e.g., Deut 11:28; 28:14). To “follow other gods” was to abandon this way and this loyalty (i.e., to “abandon” or “forget” God, Judg 2:12; Hos 2:13) and to follow the customs or religious traditions of the pagan nations (e.g., 2 Kgs 17:15). The classic text on “following” God or another god is 1 Kgs 18:18, 21 where Elijah taunts the people with “halting between two opinions” whether the Lord was the true God or Baal was. The idiom is often found followed by “to serve and to worship” or “they served and worshiped” such and such a god or entity (see, e.g., Jer 8:2; 11:10; 13:10; 16:11; 25:6; 35:15).

[2:5]  ⁴ tn The words “to me” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit from the context: Heb “they followed after the worthless thing/things and became worthless.” There is an obvious wordplay on the verb “became worthless” and the noun “worthless thing,” which is probably to be understood collectively and to refer to idols as it does in Jer 8:19; 10:8; 14:22; Jonah 2:8.

[4:5]  ⁵ 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.

[4:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “walk in the name of.”

[4:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “at the end of days.”

[4:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “will be established as the head of the mountains.”

[4:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “it will be lifted up above the hills.”

[1:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “The word of the Lord which came to.”

[1:1]  ¹¹ tn The words “he delivered this message” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[1:1]  ¹² tn Heb “in the days of” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).

[1:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “which he saw concerning.”

[1:1]  ¹⁴ map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[1:1]  ¹⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.