Discovery BoxMicah 1:9
Context1:9 For Samaria’s 1 disease 2 is incurable.
It has infected 3 Judah;
it has spread to 4 the leadership 5 of my people
and has even contaminated Jerusalem! 6
Isaiah 45:7
Context45:7 I am 7 the one who forms light
and creates darkness; 8
the one who brings about peace
and creates calamity. 9
I am the Lord, who accomplishes all these things.
Amos 3:6
Context3:6 If an alarm sounds 10 in a city, do people not fear? 11
If disaster overtakes a 12 city, is the Lord not responsible? 13
[1:9] 1 tn Heb “her”; the referent (Samaria) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[1:9] 2 tc The MT reads the plural “wounds”; the singular is read by the LXX, Syriac, and Vg.
[1:9] 5 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.
[1:9] 6 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.
[45:7] 7 tn The words “I am” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text the participle at the beginning of v. 7 stands in apposition to “the Lord” in v. 6.
[45:7] 8 tn On the surface v. 7a appears to describe God’s sovereign control over the cycle of day and night, but the following statement suggests that “light” and “darkness” symbolize “deliverance” and “judgment.”
[45:7] 9 sn This verses affirms that God is ultimately sovereign over his world, including mankind and nations. In accordance with his sovereign will, he can cause wars to cease and peace to predominate (as he was about to do for his exiled people through Cyrus), or he can bring disaster and judgment on nations (as he was about to do to Babylon through Cyrus).
[3:6] 10 tn Heb “If the ram’s horn is blown.”
[3:6] 11 tn Or “tremble” (NASB, NIV, NCV); or “shake.”
