Micah 4:1

Better Days Ahead for Jerusalem

4:1 In the future ¹  the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all; ² 

it will be more prominent than other hills. ³ 

People will stream to it.

Micah 5:12

5:12 I will remove the sorcery ⁴  that you practice, ⁵ 

and you will no longer have omen readers living among you. ⁶ 

Micah 7:13

7:13 The earth will become desolate ⁷ 

because of what its inhabitants have done. ⁸ 

Micah 2:5

2:5 Therefore no one will assign you land in the Lord’s community. ⁹ 

Micah 3:12

3:12 Therefore, because of you, ¹⁰  Zion will be plowed up like ¹¹  a field,

Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,

and the Temple Mount ¹²  will become a hill overgrown with brush! ¹³ 

Micah 5:10

The Lord Will Purify His People

5:10 “In that day,” says the Lord,

“I will destroy ¹⁴  your horses from your midst,

and smash your chariots.

Micah 7:4

7:4 The best of them is like a thorn;

the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. ¹⁵ 

The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen –

your appointed time of punishment – is on the way, ¹⁶ 

and then you will experience confusion. ¹⁷ 

Micah 5:2

A King Will Come and a Remnant Will Prosper

5:2 (5:1) As for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, ¹⁸ 

seemingly insignificant ¹⁹  among the clans of Judah –

from you a king will emerge who will rule over Israel on my behalf, ²⁰ 

one whose origins ²¹  are in the distant past. ²² 

Micah 1:1-2

Introduction

1:1 This is the prophetic message that the Lord gave to ²³  Micah of Moresheth. He delivered this message ²⁴  during the reigns of ²⁵  Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. The prophecies pertain to ²⁶  Samaria ²⁷  and Jerusalem. ²⁸ 

The Judge is Coming

1:2 Listen, all you nations! ²⁹ 

Pay attention, all inhabitants of earth! ³⁰ 

The sovereign Lord will testify ³¹  against you;

the Lord will accuse you ³²  from his majestic palace. ³³ 

Micah 2:11

2:11 If a lying windbag should come and say, ³⁴ 

‘I’ll promise you blessings of wine and beer,’ ³⁵ 

he would be just the right preacher for these people! ³⁶ 

Micah 5:5

5:5 He will give us peace. ³⁷ 

Should the Assyrians try to invade our land

and attempt to set foot in our fortresses, ³⁸ 

we will send ³⁹  against them seven ⁴⁰  shepherd-rulers, ⁴¹ 

make that eight commanders. ⁴² 

Micah 7:1

Micah Laments Judah’s Sin

7:1 I am depressed! ⁴³ 

Indeed, ⁴⁴  it is as if the summer fruit has been gathered,

and the grapes have been harvested. ⁴⁵ 

There is no grape cluster to eat,

no fresh figs that I crave so much. ⁴⁶ 

Micah 7:10

7:10 When my enemies see this, they will be covered with shame.

They say ⁴⁷  to me, “Where is the Lord your God?”

I will gloat over them. ⁴⁸ 

Then they will be trampled down ⁴⁹ 

like mud in the streets.

Micah 2:4

2:4 In that day people will sing this taunt song to you –

they will mock you with this lament: ⁵⁰ 

‘We are completely destroyed;

they sell off ⁵¹  the property of my people.

How they remove it from me! ⁵² 

They assign our fields to the conqueror.’ ⁵³ 

Micah 5:7-8

5:7 Those survivors from ⁵⁴  Jacob will live ⁵⁵ 

in the midst of many nations. ⁵⁶ 

They will be like the dew the Lord sends,

like the rain on the grass,

that does not hope for men to come

or wait around for humans to arrive. ⁵⁷ 

5:8 Those survivors from Jacob will live among the nations,

in the midst of many peoples.

They will be like a lion among the animals of the forest,

like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,

which attacks when it passes through;

it rips its prey ⁵⁸  and there is no one to stop it. ⁵⁹ 

[4:1]  ¹ tn Heb “at the end of days.”

[4:1]  ² tn Heb “will be established as the head of the mountains.”

[4:1]  ³ tn Heb “it will be lifted up above the hills.”

[5:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “magic charms” (so NCV, TEV); NIV, NLT “witchcraft”; NAB “the means of divination.” The precise meaning of this Hebrew word is uncertain, but note its use in Isa 47:9, 12.

[5:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “from your hands.”

[5:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “and you will not have omen-readers.”

[7:13]  ⁷ tn Or “will be ruined.”

[7:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “on account of its inhabitants, because of the fruit of their deeds.”

[2:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “therefore you will not have one who strings out a measuring line by lot in the assembly of the Lord.”

[3:12]  ¹³ tn The plural pronoun refers to the leaders, priests, and prophets mentioned in the preceding verse.

[3:12]  ¹⁴ tn Or “into” (an adverbial accusative of result).

[3:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the mountain of the house” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).

[3:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “a high place of overgrowth.”

[5:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “cut off” (also in the following verse).

[7:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “[the] godly from a row of thorn bushes.” The preposition מִן (min) is comparative and the comparative element (perhaps “sharper” is the idea) is omitted. See BDB 582 s.v. 6 and GKC 431 §133.e.

[7:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the day of your watchmen, your appointed [time], is coming.” The present translation takes “watchmen” to refer to actual sentries. However, the “watchmen” could refer figuratively to the prophets who had warned Judah of approaching judgment. In this case one could translate, “The day your prophets warned about – your appointed time of punishment – is on the way.”

[7:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “and now will be their confusion.”

[5:2]  ²² 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]  ²³ tn Heb “being small.” Some omit לִהְיוֹת (lihyot, “being”) because it fits awkwardly and appears again in the next line.

[5:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “from you for me one will go out to be a ruler over Israel.”

[5:2]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ 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.

[1:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “The word of the Lord which came to.”

[1:1]  ²⁶ tn The words “he delivered this message” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[1:1]  ²⁷ tn Heb “in the days of” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).

[1:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “which he saw concerning.”

[1:1]  ²⁹ map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[1:1]  ³⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “O peoples, all of them.”

[1:2]  ²⁹ tn Heb “O earth and all its fullness”; KJV “and all that therein is.”

[1:2]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ 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]  ³² 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).

[2:11]  ³¹ 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]  ³² tn Heb “I will foam at the mouth concerning wine and beer.”

[2:11]  ³³ tn Heb “he would be the foamer at the mouth for this people.”

[5:5]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and this one will be peace”; ASV “and this man shall be our peace” (cf. Eph 2:14).

[5:5]  ³⁵ tc Some prefer to read “in our land,” emending the text to בְּאַדְמָתֵנוּ (bÿ’admatenu).

[5:5]  ³⁶ tn Heb “raise up.”

[5:5]  ³⁷ 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]  ³⁸ tn Heb “shepherds.”

[5:5]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and eight leaders of men.”

[7:1]  ³⁷ tn Heb “woe to me!” In light of the image that follows, perhaps one could translate, “I am disappointed.”

[7:1]  ³⁸ tn Or “for.”

[7:1]  ³⁹ tn Heb “I am like the gathering of the summer fruit, like the gleanings of the harvest.” Micah is not comparing himself to the harvested fruit. There is an ellipsis here, as the second half of the verse makes clear. The idea is, “I am like [one at the time] the summer fruit is gathered and the grapes are harvested.”

[7:1]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “my appetite craves.”

[7:10]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “who say.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[7:10]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “My eyes will look on them.”

[7:10]  ⁴² tn Heb “a trampled-down place.”

[2:4]  ⁴³ tc The form נִהְיָה (nihyah) should be omitted as dittographic (note the preceding וְנָהָה נְהִי vÿnahah nÿhiy).

[2:4]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “exchange.” The LXX suggests a reading יִמַּד (yimmad) from מָדַד (madad, “to measure”). In this case one could translate, “the property of my people is measured out [i.e., for resale].”

[2:4]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “how one removes for me.” Apparently the preposition has the nuance “from” here (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[2:4]  ⁴⁶ tc The Hebrew term שׁוֹבֵב (shovev, “the one turning back”) elsewhere has the nuance “apostate” (cf. NASB) or “traitor” (cf. NIV). The translation assumes an emendation to שָׁבָה (shavah, “captor”).

[5:7]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “the remnant of” (also in v. 8).

[5:7]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “will be.”

[5:7]  ⁴⁸ tn This could mean “(scattered) among the nations” (cf. CEV, NLT) or “surrounded by many nations” (cf. NRSV).

[5:7]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “that does not hope for man, and does not wait for the sons of men.”

[5:8]  ⁴⁹ tn The words “its prey” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:8]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “and there is no deliverer.”