Micah 3:1

God Will Judge Judah’s Sinful Leaders

3:1 I said,

“Listen, you leaders ¹  of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation ²  of Israel!

You ought to know what is just, ³ 

Micah 3:9

3:9 Listen to this, you leaders of the family ⁴  of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation ⁵  of Israel!

You ⁶  hate justice

and pervert all that is right.

Micah 5:2

A King Will Come and a Remnant Will Prosper

5:2 (5:1) As for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, ⁷ 

seemingly insignificant ⁸  among the clans of Judah –

from you a king will emerge who will rule over Israel on my behalf, ⁹ 

one whose origins ¹⁰  are in the distant past. ¹¹ 

Micah 5:1

5:1 (4:14) ¹²  But now slash yourself, ¹³  daughter surrounded by soldiers! ¹⁴ 

We are besieged!

With a scepter ¹⁵  they strike Israel’s ruler ¹⁶ 

on the side of his face.

Micah 5:5

5:5 He will give us peace. ¹⁷ 

Should the Assyrians try to invade our land

and attempt to set foot in our fortresses, ¹⁸ 

we will send ¹⁹  against them seven ²⁰  shepherd-rulers, ²¹ 

make that eight commanders. ²² 

Micah 3:11

3:11 Her ²³  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ²⁴ 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ²⁵  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ²⁶ 

Disaster will not overtake ²⁷  us!”

Micah 7:3

7:3 They are determined to be experts at doing evil; ²⁸ 

government officials and judges take bribes, ²⁹ 

prominent men make demands,

and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them. ³⁰ 

Micah 4:13

4:13 “Get up and thresh, Daughter Zion!

For I will give you iron horns; ³¹ 

I will give you bronze hooves,

and you will crush many nations.” ³² 

You will devote to the Lord the spoils you take from them,

and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler ³³  of the whole earth. ³⁴ 

[3:1]  ¹ tn Heb “heads.”

[3:1]  ² tn Heb “house.”

[3:1]  ³ tn Heb “Should you not know justice?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you should!”

[3:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[3:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “house.”

[3:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons (also at the beginning of v. 10).

[5:2]  ⁷ sn Ephrathah is either an alternate name for Bethlehem or the name of the district in which Bethlehem was located. See Ruth 4:11.

[5:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “being small.” Some omit לִהְיוֹת (lihyot, “being”) because it fits awkwardly and appears again in the next line.

[5:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “from you for me one will go out to be a ruler over Israel.”

[5:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “his goings out.” The term may refer to the ruler’s origins (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT) or to his activities.

[5:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “from the past, from the days of antiquity.” Elsewhere both phrases refer to the early periods in the history of the world or of the nation of Israel. For מִקֶּדֶם (miqqedem, “from the past”) see Neh 12:46; Pss 74:12; 77:11; Isa 45:21; 46:10. For מִימֵי עוֹלָם (mimey ’olam, “from the days of antiquity”) see Isa 63:9, 11; Amos 9:11; Mic 7:14; Mal 3:4. In Neh 12:46 and Amos 9:11 the Davidic era is in view.

[5:1]  ¹⁰ sn Beginning with 5:1, the verse numbers through 5:15 in the English Bible differ by one from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 5:1 ET = 4:14 HT, 5:2 ET = 5:1 HT, 5:3 ET = 5:2 HT, etc., through 5:15 ET = 5:14 HT. From 6:1 the verse numbers in the English Bible and the Hebrew Bible are again the same.

[5:1]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew verb גָדַד (gadad) can be translated “slash yourself” or “gather in troops.” A number of English translations are based on the latter meaning (e.g., NASB, NIV, NLT).

[5:1]  ¹² tn Heb “daughter of a troop of warriors.”

[5:1]  ¹³ tn Or “staff”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “rod”; CEV “stick”; NCV “club.”

[5:1]  ¹⁴ tn Traditionally, “the judge of Israel” (so KJV, NASB).

[5:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “and this one will be peace”; ASV “and this man shall be our peace” (cf. Eph 2:14).

[5:5]  ¹⁴ tc Some prefer to read “in our land,” emending the text to בְּאַדְמָתֵנוּ (bÿ’admatenu).

[5:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “raise up.”

[5:5]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “shepherds.”

[5:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and eight leaders of men.”

[3:11]  ¹⁶ sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

[3:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

[3:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

[3:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

[3:11]  ²⁰ tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”

[7:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “upon evil [are their] hands to do [it] well.”

[7:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the official asks – and the judge – for a bribe.”

[7:3]  ²¹ tn More literally, “the great one announces what his appetite desires and they weave it together.” Apparently this means that subordinates plot and maneuver to make sure the prominent man’s desires materialize.

[4:13]  ²² tn Heb “I will make your horn iron.”

[4:13]  ²³ sn Jerusalem (Daughter Zion at the beginning of the verse; cf. 4:8) is here compared to a powerful ox which crushes the grain on the threshing floor with its hooves.

[4:13]  ²⁴ tn Or “the Lord” (so many English versions); Heb “the master.”

[4:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and their wealth to the master of all the earth.” The verb “devote” does double duty in the parallelism and is supplied in the second line for clarification.