Micah 1:10

1:10 Don’t spread the news in Gath! ¹ 

Don’t shed even a single tear! ² 

In Beth Leaphrah sit in the dust! ³ 

Micah 7:5

7:5 Do not rely on a friend;

do not trust a companion!

Don’t even share secrets with the one who lies in your arms! ⁴ 

Micah 2:6

2:6 ‘Don’t preach with such impassioned rhetoric,’ they say excitedly. ⁵ 

‘These prophets should not preach of such things;

we will not be overtaken by humiliation.’ ⁶ 

Micah 1:1

Introduction

1:1 This is the prophetic message that the Lord gave to ⁷  Micah of Moresheth. He delivered this message ⁸  during the reigns of ⁹  Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. The prophecies pertain to ¹⁰  Samaria ¹¹  and Jerusalem. ¹² 

Micah 3:4

3:4 Someday these sinners will cry to the Lord for help, ¹³ 

but he will not answer them.

He will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have done such wicked deeds.”

Micah 7:8

Jerusalem Will Be Vindicated

7:8 My enemies, ¹⁴  do not gloat ¹⁵  over me!

Though I have fallen, I will get up.

Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. ¹⁶ 

Micah 7:17-18

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

like serpents crawling on the ground. ¹⁷ 

They will come trembling from their strongholds

to the Lord our God; ¹⁸ 

they will be terrified ¹⁹  of you. ²⁰ 

7:18 There is no other God like you! ²¹ 

You ²²  forgive sin

and pardon ²³  the rebellion

of those who remain among your people. ²⁴ 

You do not remain angry forever, ²⁵ 

but delight in showing loyal love.

Micah 4:2-3

4:2 Many nations will come, saying,

“Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,

to the temple ²⁶  of Jacob’s God,

so he can teach us his commands ²⁷ 

and we can live by his laws.” ²⁸ 

For Zion will be the source of instruction;

the Lord’s teachings will proceed from Jerusalem. ²⁹ 

4:3 He will arbitrate ³⁰  between many peoples

and settle disputes between many ³¹  distant nations. ³² 

They will beat their swords into plowshares, ³³ 

and their spears into pruning hooks. ³⁴ 

Nations will not use weapons ³⁵  against other nations,

and they will no longer train for war.

[1:10]  ¹ tn Heb “Tell it not in Gath.” The Hebrew word for “tell” (נָגַד, nagad) sounds like the name of the city, Gath (גַּת, gat).

[1:10]  ² tn The Hebrew infinitive absolute before the negated jussive emphasizes the prohibition.

[1:10]  ³ tc The translation assumes a masculine plural imperative. If one were to emend בְּבֵית (bÿvet) to בֵית (vet), Beth Leaphrah would then be the addressee and the feminine singular imperative (see Qere) could be retained, “O Beth Leaphrah, sit in the dust.”

[7:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “from the one who lies in your arms, guard the doors of your mouth.”

[2:6]  ⁷ 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.”

[2:6]  ⁸ 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”).

[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.

[3:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “then they will cry out to the Lord.” The words “Someday these sinners” have been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[7:8]  ¹⁶ tn The singular form is understood as collective.

[7:8]  ¹⁷ tn Or “rejoice” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NCV “don’t laugh at me.”

[7:8]  ¹⁸ sn Darkness represents judgment; light (also in v. 9) symbolizes deliverance. The Lord is the source of the latter.

[7:17]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “like crawling things on the ground.” The parallelism suggests snakes are in view.

[7:17]  ²⁰ tn 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]  ²¹ tn Heb “they will be in dread and afraid.”

[7:17]  ²² tn The Lord is addressed directly using the second person.

[7:18]  ²² tn Heb “Who is a God like you?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No one!”

[7:18]  ²³ tn Heb “one who.” The prayer moves from direct address (second person) in v. 18a to a descriptive (third person) style in vv. 18b-19a and then back to direct address (second person) in vv. 19b-20. Due to considerations of English style and the unfamiliarity of the modern reader with alternation of persons in Hebrew poetry, the entire section has been rendered as direct address (second person) in the translation.

[7:18]  ²⁴ tn Heb “pass over.”

[7:18]  ²⁵ tn Heb “of the remnant of his inheritance.”

[7:18]  ²⁶ tn Heb “he does not keep hold of his anger forever.”

[4:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “house.”

[4:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “ways.”

[4:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and we can walk in his paths.”

[4:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “instruction [or, “law”] will go out from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

[4:3]  ²⁸ tn Or “judge.”

[4:3]  ²⁹ tn Or “mighty” (NASB); KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “strong”; TEV “among the great powers.”

[4:3]  ³⁰ tn Heb “[for many nations] to a distance.”

[4:3]  ³¹ sn Instead of referring to the large plow as a whole, the plowshare is simply the metal tip which actually breaks the earth and cuts the furrow.

[4:3]  ³² sn This implement was used to prune the vines, i.e., to cut off extra leaves and young shoots (M. Klingbeil, NIDOTTE 1:1117-18). It was a short knife with a curved hook at the end sharpened on the inside like a sickle.

[4:3]  ³³ tn Heb “take up the sword.”