Micah 7:14-17
Context7:14 Shepherd your people with your shepherd’s rod, 1
the flock that belongs to you, 2
the one that lives alone in a thicket,
in the midst of a pastureland. 3
Allow them to graze in Bashan and Gilead, 4
as they did in the old days. 5
7:15 “As in the days when you departed from the land of Egypt,
I will show you 6 miraculous deeds.” 7
7:16 Nations will see this and be disappointed by 8 all their strength,
they will put their hands over their mouths,
and act as if they were deaf. 9
7:17 They will lick the dust like a snake,
like serpents crawling on the ground. 10
They will come trembling from their strongholds
to the Lord our God; 11
[7:14] 1 tn Or “with your scepter” (the Hebrew term can mean either “rod” or “scepter”).
[7:14] 2 tn Heb “the flock of your inheritance.”
[7:14] 3 tn Or “in the midst of Carmel.” The Hebrew term translated “pastureland” may be a place name.
[7:14] 4 sn The regions of Bashan and Gilead, located in Transjordan, were noted for their rich grazing lands.
[7:14] 5 tn Heb “as in the days of antiquity.”
[7:15] 6 tn Heb “him.” This probably refers to Israel in a collective sense. Because the switch from direct address to the third person is awkward, some prefer to emend the suffix to a second person form. In any case, it is necessary to employ a second person pronoun in the translation to maintain the connection for the English reader.
[7:15] 7 sn I will show you miraculous deeds. In this verse the
[7:16] 8 tn Or “be ashamed of.”
[7:16] 9 tn Heb “and their ears will be deaf.” Apparently this means the opposing nations will be left dumbfounded by the
[7:17] 10 tn Heb “like crawling things on the ground.” The parallelism suggests snakes are in view.
[7:17] 11 tn Thetranslationassumesthatthe phrase אֶל־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ (’el-yÿhvah ’elohenu, “to the
[7:17] 12 tn Heb “they will be in dread and afraid.”
[7:17] 13 tn The