Mikha 4:2

4:2 Many nations will come, saying,

“Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,

to the temple ¹  of Jacob’s God,

so he can teach us his commands ² 

and we can live by his laws.” ³ 

For Zion will be the source of instruction;

the Lord’s teachings will proceed from Jerusalem. ⁴ 

Mikha 4:13

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

For I will give you iron horns; ⁵ 

I will give you bronze hooves,

and you will crush many nations.” ⁶ 

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

and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler ⁷  of the whole earth. ⁸ 

Mikha 5:3

5:3 So the Lord ⁹  will hand the people of Israel ¹⁰  over to their enemies ¹¹ 

until the time when the woman in labor ¹²  gives birth. ¹³ 

Then the rest of the king’s ¹⁴  countrymen will return

to be reunited with the people of Israel. ¹⁵ 

Mikha 5:5

5:5 He will give us peace. ¹⁶ 

Should the Assyrians try to invade our land

and attempt to set foot in our fortresses, ¹⁷ 

we will send ¹⁸  against them seven ¹⁹  shepherd-rulers, ²⁰ 

make that eight commanders. ²¹ 

Mikha 6:16

6:16 You implement the regulations of Omri,

and all the practices of Ahab’s dynasty; ²² 

you follow their policies. ²³ 

Therefore I will make you an appalling sight, ²⁴ 

the city’s ²⁵  inhabitants will be taunted derisively, ²⁶ 

and nations will mock all of you.” ²⁷ 

[4:2]  ¹ tn Heb “house.”

[4:2]  ² tn Heb “ways.”

[4:2]  ³ tn Heb “and we can walk in his paths.”

[4:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “instruction [or, “law”] will go out from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

[4:2]  map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[4:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “I will make your horn iron.”

[4:13]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Or “the Lord” (so many English versions); Heb “the master.”

[4:13]  ⁸ 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.

[4:13]  sn In vv. 11-13 the prophet jumps from the present crisis (which will result in exile, v. 10) to a time beyond the restoration of the exiles when God will protect his city from invaders. The Lord’s victory over the Assyrian armies in 701 b.c. foreshadowed this.

[5:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the people of Israel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:3]  ¹¹ tn The words “to their enemies” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:3]  ¹² sn The woman in labor. Personified, suffering Jerusalem is the referent. See 4:9-10.

[5:3]  ¹³ sn Gives birth. The point of the figurative language is that Jerusalem finally finds relief from her suffering. See 4:10.

[5:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “his”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to the sons of Israel.” The words “be reunited with” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[5:3]  sn The rest of the king’s brothers are the coming king’s fellow Judahites, while the sons of Israel are the northern tribes. The verse pictures the reunification of the nation under the Davidic king. See Isa 11:12-13; Jer 31:2-6, 15-20; Ezek 37; Hos 1:11; 3:5.

[5:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and this one will be peace”; ASV “and this man shall be our peace” (cf. Eph 2:14).

[5:5]  ¹⁷ tc Some prefer to read “in our land,” emending the text to בְּאַדְמָתֵנוּ (bÿ’admatenu).

[5:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “raise up.”

[5:5]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ tn Heb “shepherds.”

[5:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “and eight leaders of men.”

[6:16]  ²² tn Heb “the edicts of Omri are kept, and all the deeds of the house of Ahab.”

[6:16]  ²³ tn Heb “and you walk in their plans.”

[6:16]  sn The Omride dynasty, of which Ahab was the most infamous king, had a reputation for implementing unjust and oppressive measures. See 1 Kgs 21.

[6:16]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew term שַׁמָּה (shammah) can refer to “destruction; ruin,” or to the reaction it produces in those who witness the destruction.

[6:16]  ²⁵ tn Heb “her”; the referent (the city) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:16]  ²⁶ tn Heb “[an object] of hissing,” which was a way of taunting someone.

[6:16]  ²⁷ tc The translation assumes an emendation of the MT’s עַמִּי (’ammi, “my people”) to עַמִּים (’ammim, “nations”).

[6:16]  tn Heb “and the reproach of my people you will bear.” The second person verb is plural here, in contrast to the singular forms used in vv. 13-15.