Micah 1:16

1:16 Shave your heads bald as you mourn for the children you love; ¹ 

shave your foreheads as bald ²  as an eagle, ³ 

for they are taken from you into exile.

Micah 2:9

2:9 You wrongly evict widows ⁴  among my people from their cherished homes.

You defraud their children ⁵  of their prized inheritance. ⁶ 

[1:16]  ¹ tn Heb “over the sons of your delight.”

[1:16]  ² tn Heb “make wide your baldness.”

[1:16]  ³ tn Or “a vulture” (cf. NIV, TEV); CEV “a buzzard.” The Hebrew term נֶשֶׁר (nesher) refers to the griffon vulture or eagle.

[2:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “women.” This may be a synecdoche of the whole (women) for the part (widows).

[2:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “her little children” or “her infants”; ASV, NRSV “young children.”

[2:9]  ⁶ 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 Lord bestowed on each Israelite family by giving them a share of his land to be inherited perpetually from one generation to another within each family. The term הָדָר (hadar) may refer to possessions that a person prizes (Lam 1:6).