Discovery BoxMicah 4:1--5:5
Context4:1 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.
4:2 Many nations will come, saying,
“Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,
to the temple 4 of Jacob’s God,
so he can teach us his commands 5
and we can live by his laws.” 6
For Zion will be the source of instruction;
the Lord’s teachings will proceed from Jerusalem. 7
4:3 He will arbitrate 8 between many peoples
and settle disputes between many 9 distant nations. 10
They will beat their swords into plowshares, 11
and their spears into pruning hooks. 12
Nations will not use weapons 13 against other nations,
and they will no longer train for war.
4:4 Each will sit under his own grapevine
or under his own fig tree without any fear. 14
The Lord who commands armies has decreed it. 15
4:5 Though all the nations follow their respective gods, 16
we will follow 17 the Lord our God forever.
4:6 “In that day,” says the Lord, “I will gather the lame,
and assemble the outcasts whom I injured. 18
4:7 I will transform the lame into the nucleus of a new nation, 19
and those far off 20 into a mighty nation.
The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion,
from that day forward and forevermore.” 21
4:8 As for you, watchtower for the flock, 22
fortress of Daughter Zion 23 –
your former dominion will be restored, 24
the sovereignty that belongs to Daughter Jerusalem.
4:9 Jerusalem, why are you 25 now shouting so loudly? 26
Has your king disappeared? 27
Has your wise leader 28 been destroyed?
Is this why 29 pain grips 30 you as if you were a woman in labor?
4:10 Twist and strain, 31 Daughter Zion, as if you were in labor!
For you will leave the city
and live in the open field.
You will go to Babylon,
but there you will be rescued.
There the Lord will deliver 32 you
from the power 33 of your enemies.
4:11 Many nations have now assembled against you.
They say, “Jerusalem must be desecrated, 34
so we can gloat over Zion!” 35
4:12 But they do not know what the Lord is planning;
they do not understand his strategy.
He has gathered them like stalks of grain to be threshed 36 at the threshing floor.
4:13 “Get up and thresh, Daughter Zion!
For I will give you iron horns; 37
I will give you bronze hooves,
and you will crush many nations.” 38
You will devote to the Lord the spoils you take from them,
and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler 39 of the whole earth. 40
5:1 (4:14) 41 But now slash yourself, 42 daughter surrounded by soldiers! 43
We are besieged!
With a scepter 44 they strike Israel’s ruler 45
on the side of his face.
5:2 (5:1) As for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, 46
seemingly insignificant 47 among the clans of Judah –
from you a king will emerge who will rule over Israel on my behalf, 48
one whose origins 49 are in the distant past. 50
5:3 So the Lord 51 will hand the people of Israel 52 over to their enemies 53
until the time when the woman in labor 54 gives birth. 55
Then the rest of the king’s 56 countrymen will return
to be reunited with the people of Israel. 57
5:4 He will assume his post 58 and shepherd the people 59 by the Lord’s strength,
by the sovereign authority of the Lord his God. 60
They will live securely, 61 for at that time he will be honored 62
even in the distant regions of 63 the earth.
Should the Assyrians try to invade our land
and attempt to set foot in our fortresses, 65
we will send 66 against them seven 67 shepherd-rulers, 68
make that eight commanders. 69
[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.”
[4:2] 6 tn Heb “and we can walk in his paths.”
[4:2] 7 tn Heb “instruction [or, “law”] will go out from Zion, and the word of the
[4:3] 9 tn Or “mighty” (NASB); KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “strong”; TEV “among the great powers.”
[4:3] 10 tn Heb “[for many nations] to a distance.”
[4:3] 11 sn Instead of referring to the large plow as a whole, the plowshare is simply the metal tip which actually breaks the earth and cuts the furrow.
[4:3] 12 sn This implement was used to prune the vines, i.e., to cut off extra leaves and young shoots (M. Klingbeil, NIDOTTE 1:1117-18). It was a short knife with a curved hook at the end sharpened on the inside like a sickle.
[4:3] 13 tn Heb “take up the sword.”
[4:4] 14 tn Heb “and there will be no one making [him] afraid.”
[4:4] 15 tn Heb “for the mouth of the
[4:5] 16 tn Heb “walk each in the name of his god.” The term “name” here has the idea of “authority.” To “walk in the name” of a god is to recognize the god’s authority as binding over one’s life.
[4:5] 17 tn Heb “walk in the name of.”
[4:6] 18 sn The exiles of the nation are compared to lame and injured sheep.
[4:7] 19 tn Heb “make the lame into a remnant.”
[4:7] 20 tn The precise meaning of this difficult form is uncertain. The present translation assumes the form is a Niphal participle of an otherwise unattested denominative verb הָלָא (hala’, “to be far off”; see BDB 229 s.v.), but attractive emendations include הַנַּחֲלָה (hannakhalah, “the sick one[s]”) from חָלָה (khalah) and הַנִּלְאָה (hannil’ah, “the weary one[s]”) from לָאָה (la’ah).
[4:7] 21 tn Heb “from now until forever.”
[4:8] 22 tn Heb “Migdal-eder.” Some English versions transliterate this phrase, apparently because they view it as a place name (cf. NAB).
[4:8] 23 sn The city of David, located within Jerusalem, is addressed as Daughter Zion. As the home of the Davidic king, who was Israel’s shepherd (Ps 78:70-72), the royal citadel could be viewed metaphorically as the watchtower of the flock.
[4:8] 24 tn Heb “to you it will come, the former dominion will arrive.”
[4:9] 25 tn The Hebrew form is feminine singular, indicating that Jerusalem, personified as a young woman, is now addressed (see v. 10). In v. 8 the tower/fortress was addressed with masculine forms, so there is clearly a shift in addressee here. “Jerusalem” has been supplied in the translation at the beginning of v. 9 to make this shift apparent.
[4:9] 26 tn Heb “Now why are you shouting [with] a shout.”
[4:9] 27 tn Heb “Is there no king over you?”
[4:9] 28 tn Traditionally, “counselor” (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). This refers to the king mentioned in the previous line; the title points to the king’s roles as chief strategist and policy maker, both of which required extraordinary wisdom.
[4:9] 29 tn Heb “that.” The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) is used here in a resultative sense; for this use see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §450.
[4:9] 30 tn Heb “grabs hold of, seizes.”
[4:10] 31 tn Or perhaps “scream”; NRSV, TEV, NLT “groan.”
[4:10] 32 tn Or “redeem” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
[4:10] 33 tn Heb “hand.” The Hebrew idiom is a metonymy for power or control.
[4:11] 34 tn Heb “let her be desecrated.” the referent (Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[4:11] 35 tn Heb “and let our eye look upon Zion.”
[4:12] 36 tn The words “to be threshed” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation to make it clear that the
[4:13] 37 tn Heb “I will make your horn iron.”
[4:13] 38 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] 39 tn Or “the Lord” (so many English versions); Heb “the master.”
[4:13] 40 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.
[5:1] 41 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] 42 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] 43 tn Heb “daughter of a troop of warriors.”
[5:1] 44 tn Or “staff”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “rod”; CEV “stick”; NCV “club.”
[5:1] 45 tn Traditionally, “the judge of Israel” (so KJV, NASB).
[5:2] 46 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] 47 tn Heb “being small.” Some omit לִהְיוֹת (lihyot, “being”) because it fits awkwardly and appears again in the next line.
[5:2] 48 tn Heb “from you for me one will go out to be a ruler over Israel.”
[5:2] 49 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] 50 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.
[5:3] 51 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the
[5:3] 52 tn Heb “them”; the referent (the people of Israel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[5:3] 53 tn The words “to their enemies” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
[5:3] 54 sn The woman in labor. Personified, suffering Jerusalem is the referent. See 4:9-10.
[5:3] 55 sn Gives birth. The point of the figurative language is that Jerusalem finally finds relief from her suffering. See 4:10.
[5:3] 56 tn Heb “his”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[5:3] 57 tn Heb “to the sons of Israel.” The words “be reunited with” are supplied in the translation for clarity.
[5:4] 58 tn Heb “stand up”; NAB “stand firm”; NASB “will arise.”
[5:4] 59 tn The words “the people” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
[5:4] 60 tn Heb “by the majesty of the name of the
[5:4] 61 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] 63 tn Or “to the ends of.”
[5:5] 64 tn Heb “and this one will be peace”; ASV “and this man shall be our peace” (cf. Eph 2:14).
[5:5] 65 tc Some prefer to read “in our land,” emending the text to בְּאַדְמָתֵנוּ (bÿ’admatenu).
[5:5] 67 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.
