Mikha 1:2

The Judge is Coming

1:2 Listen, all you nations! ¹ 

Pay attention, all inhabitants of earth! ² 

The sovereign Lord will testify ³  against you;

the Lord will accuse you ⁴  from his majestic palace. ⁵ 

Mikha 1:7

1:7 All her carved idols will be smashed to pieces;

all her metal cult statues will be destroyed by fire. ⁶ 

I will make a waste heap ⁷  of all her images.

Since ⁸  she gathered the metal ⁹  as a prostitute collects her wages,

the idols will become a prostitute’s wages again.” ¹⁰ 

Mikha 1:11

1:11 Residents ¹¹  of Shaphir, ¹²  pass by in nakedness and humiliation! ¹³ 

The residents of Zaanan can’t leave their city. ¹⁴ 

Beth Ezel ¹⁵  mourns, ¹⁶ 

“He takes from you what he desires.” ¹⁷ 

Mikha 4:1

Better Days Ahead for Jerusalem

4:1 In the future ¹⁸  the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all; ¹⁹ 

it will be more prominent than other hills. ²⁰ 

People will stream to it.

Mikha 4:9

4:9 Jerusalem, why are you ²¹  now shouting so loudly? ²² 

Has your king disappeared? ²³ 

Has your wise leader ²⁴  been destroyed?

Is this why ²⁵  pain grips ²⁶  you as if you were a woman in labor?

Mikha 5:1

5:1 (4:14) ²⁷  But now slash yourself, ²⁸  daughter surrounded by soldiers! ²⁹ 

We are besieged!

With a scepter ³⁰  they strike Israel’s ruler ³¹ 

on the side of his face.

Mikha 6:9

6:9 Listen! The Lord is calling ³²  to the city!

It is wise to respect your authority, O Lord! ³³ 

Listen, O nation, and those assembled in the city! ³⁴ 

Mikha 7:6

7:6 For a son thinks his father is a fool,

a daughter challenges ³⁵  her mother,

and a daughter-in-law her mother-in-law;

a man’s enemies are his own servants. ³⁶ 

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

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

[1:2]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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).

[1:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “and all her prostitute’s wages will be burned with fire.”

[1:7]  sn The precious metal used by Samaria’s pagan worship centers to make idols are here compared to a prostitute’s wages because Samaria had been unfaithful to the Lord and prostituted herself to pagan gods, such as Baal.

[1:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will make desolate” (so NASB).

[1:7]  ⁸ tn Or “for” (KJV, NASB, NRSV).

[1:7]  ⁹ tn No object is specified in the Hebrew text; the words “the metal” are supplied from the context.

[1:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for from a prostitute’s wages she gathered, and to a prostitute’s wages they will return.” When the metal was first collected it was comparable to the coins a prostitute would receive for her services. The metal was then formed into idols, but now the Lord’s fiery judgment would reduce the metal images to their original condition.

[1:11]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew participial form, which is feminine singular, is here used in a collective sense for the all the residents of the town. See GKC 394 §122.s.

[1:11]  ¹² sn The place name Shaphir means “pleasant” in Hebrew.

[1:11]  ¹³ tn The imperatival form is used rhetorically, emphasizing that the inhabitants of Shaphir will pass by into exile.

[1:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “have not come out”; NIV “will not come out”; NLT “dare not come outside.”

[1:11]  sn The expression can’t leave their city alludes to a siege of the town. The place name Zaanan sounds like the verb “come out” (i.e., “can’t leave”) in Hebrew.

[1:11]  ¹⁵ sn The place name Beth Ezel means “house of nearness” or “house of proximity” in Hebrew.

[1:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the lamentation of Beth Ezel.” The following words could be the lamentation offered up by Beth Ezel (subjective genitive) or the mourning song sung over it (objective genitive).

[1:11]  ¹⁷ tc The form עֶמְדָּתוֹ (’emdato) should be emended to חֲמַדְּתוֹ (khamadto, “his (the conqueror’s) desire”).

[1:11]  tn The precise meaning of the line is uncertain. The translation assumes: (a) the subject of the third masculine singular verb יִקַּח (yiqqakh, “he/it takes”) is the conqueror, (b) the second masculine plural suffix (“you”) on the preposition מִן (min, “from”) refers to the residents of Shaphir and Zaanan, (c) the final form עֶמְדָּתוֹ should be emended to חֲמַדְּתוֹ, “his (the conqueror’s) desire.”

[4:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “at the end of days.”

[4:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “will be established as the head of the mountains.”

[4:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “it will be lifted up above the hills.”

[4:9]  ²¹ 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]  ²² tn Heb “Now why are you shouting [with] a shout.”

[4:9]  ²³ tn Heb “Is there no king over you?”

[4:9]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ tn Heb “grabs hold of, seizes.”

[5:1]  ²⁷ 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]  ²⁸ 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]  sn Slash yourself. Slashing one’s body was a form of mourning. See Deut 14:1; 1 Kgs 18:28; Jer 16:6; 41:5; 47:5.

[5:1]  ²⁹ tn Heb “daughter of a troop of warriors.”

[5:1]  sn The daughter surrounded by soldiers is an image of the city of Jerusalem under siege (note the address “Daughter Jerusalem” in 4:8).

[5:1]  ³⁰ tn Or “staff”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “rod”; CEV “stick”; NCV “club.”

[5:1]  sn Striking a king with a scepter, a symbol of rulership, would be especially ironic and humiliating.

[5:1]  ³¹ tn Traditionally, “the judge of Israel” (so KJV, NASB).

[6:9]  ³² tn Or “the voice of the Lord is calling.” The translation understands קוֹל (qol, “voice”) as equivalent to an imperative.

[6:9]  ³³ tn Heb “one who sees your name is wisdom.” It is probably better to emend יִרְאֶה (yir’eh, “he sees”) to יִרְאָה (yir’ah, “fearing”). One may then translate, “fearing your name is wisdom.” The Lord’s “name” here stands by metonymy for his authority.

[6:9]  ³⁴ tn Heb (apparently) “Listen [to] the staff and the one who appointed it.” Verse 10 then begins with עוֹד (yod, “still” or “again”). The translation assumes an emendation to שִׁמְעוּ מַטֶּה וּמוֹעֵד הָעִיר (shim’u matteh umo’ed ha’ir, “listen, O tribe and the assembly of the city”).

[7:6]  ³⁵ tn Heb “rises up against.”

[7:6]  ³⁶ tn Heb “the enemies of a man are the men of his house.”