Micah 2:9-13

2:9 You wrongly evict widows ¹  among my people from their cherished homes.

You defraud their children ²  of their prized inheritance. ³ 

2:10 But you are the ones who will be forced to leave! ⁴ 

For this land is not secure! ⁵ 

Sin will thoroughly destroy it! ⁶ 

2:11 If a lying windbag should come and say, ⁷ 

‘I’ll promise you blessings of wine and beer,’ ⁸ 

he would be just the right preacher for these people! ⁹ 

The Lord Will Restore His People

2:12 I will certainly gather all of you, O Jacob,

I will certainly assemble those Israelites who remain. ¹⁰ 

I will bring them together like sheep in a fold, ¹¹ 

like a flock in the middle of a pasture; ¹² 

they will be so numerous that they will make a lot of noise. ¹³ 

2:13 The one who can break through barriers will lead them out ¹⁴ 

they will break out, pass through the gate, and leave. ¹⁵ 

Their king will advance ¹⁶  before them,

The Lord himself will lead them. ¹⁷ 

[2:9]  ¹ tn Heb “women.” This may be a synecdoche of the whole (women) for the part (widows).

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

[2:9]  ³ 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).

[2:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “Arise and go!” These imperatives are rhetorical. Those who wrongly drove widows and orphans from their homes and land inheritances will themselves be driven out of the land (cf. Isa 5:8-17). This is an example of poetic justice.

[2:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “for this is no resting place.” The Lord speaks to the oppressors.

[2:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “uncleanness will destroy, and destruction will be severe.”

[2:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “if a man, coming [as] wind and falsehood, should lie”; NASB “walking after wind and falsehood”; NIV “a liar and a deceiver.”

[2:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “I will foam at the mouth concerning wine and beer.”

[2:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “he would be the foamer at the mouth for this people.”

[2:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the remnant of Israel.”

[2:12]  ¹¹ tc The MT reads בָּצְרָה (batsrah, “Bozrah”) but the form should be emended to בַּצִּרָה (batsirah, “into the fold”). See D. R. Hillers, Micah (Hermeneia), 38.

[2:12]  ¹² tc The MT reads “its pasture,” but the final vav (ו) belongs with the following verb. See GKC 413 §127.i.

[2:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “and they will be noisy [or perhaps, “excited”] from men.” The subject of the third feminine plural verb תְּהִימֶנָה (tÿhimenah, “they will be noisy”) is probably the feminine singular צֹאן (tso’n, “flock”). (For another example of this collective singular noun with a feminine plural verb, see Gen 30:38.) In the construction מֵאָדָם (me’adam, “from men”) the preposition is probably causal. L. C. Allen translates “bleating in fear of men” (Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah [NICOT], 300), but it is possible to take the causal sense as “because of the large quantity of men.” In this case the sheep metaphor and the underlying reality are mixed.

[2:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the one who breaks through goes up before them.” The verb form is understood as a perfect of certitude, emphasizing the certainty of this coming event.

[2:13]  ¹⁵ tn The three verb forms (a perfect and two preterites with vav [ו] consecutive) indicate certitude.

[2:13]  ¹⁶ tn The verb form (a preterite with vav [ו] consecutive) indicates certitude.

[2:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the Lord [will be] at their head.”