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 5:4-5

5:4 He will assume his post ⁶  and shepherd the people ⁷  by the Lord’s strength,

by the sovereign authority of the Lord his God. ⁸ 

They will live securely, ⁹  for at that time he will be honored ¹⁰ 

even in the distant regions of ¹¹  the earth.

5:5 He will give us peace. ¹² 

Should the Assyrians try to invade our land

and attempt to set foot in our fortresses, ¹³ 

we will send ¹⁴  against them seven ¹⁵  shepherd-rulers, ¹⁶ 

make that eight commanders. ¹⁷ 

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! ¹⁸ 

Micah 6:4

6:4 In fact, I brought you up from the land of Egypt,

I delivered you from that place of slavery.

I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to lead you. ¹⁹ 

Micah 7:2

7:2 Faithful men have disappeared ²⁰  from the land;

there are no godly men left. ²¹ 

They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; ²² 

they hunt their own brother with a net. ²³ 

Micah 7:17

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

like serpents crawling on the ground. ²⁴ 

They will come trembling from their strongholds

to the Lord our God; ²⁵ 

they will be terrified ²⁶  of you. ²⁷ 

[1:2]  ¹ tn Heb “O peoples, all of them.”

[1:2]  ² tn Heb “O earth and all its fullness”; KJV “and all that therein is.”

[1:2]  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).

[1:2]  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).

[1:2]  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).

[5:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “stand up”; NAB “stand firm”; NASB “will arise.”

[5:4]  ⁷ tn The words “the people” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “by the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.”

[5:4]  ⁹ tn The words “in peace” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Perhaps וְיָשָׁבוּ (vÿyashavu, “and they will live”) should be emended to וְשָׁבוּ (vÿshavu, “and they will return”).

[5:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “be great.”

[5:4]  ¹¹ tn Or “to the ends of.”

[5:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and this one will be peace”; ASV “and this man shall be our peace” (cf. Eph 2:14).

[5:5]  ¹² tc Some prefer to read “in our land,” emending the text to בְּאַדְמָתֵנוּ (bÿ’admatenu).

[5:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “raise up.”

[5:5]  ¹⁴ sn The numbers seven and eight here symbolize completeness and emphasize that Israel will have more than enough military leadership and strength to withstand the Assyrian advance.

[5:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “shepherds.”

[5:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and eight leaders of men.”

[6:2]  ¹⁶ 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.

[6:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “before you.”

[7:2]  ²⁶ tn Or “have perished”; “have been destroyed.”

[7:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and an upright one among men there is not.”

[7:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “for bloodshed” (so NASB); TEV “for a chance to commit murder.”

[7:2]  ²⁹ sn Micah compares these ungodly people to hunters trying to capture their prey with a net.

[7:17]  ³¹ tn Heb “like crawling things on the ground.” The parallelism suggests snakes are in view.

[7:17]  ³² 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]  ³³ tn Heb “they will be in dread and afraid.”

[7:17]  ³⁴ tn The Lord is addressed directly using the second person.