Mikha 5:11

5:11 I will destroy the cities of your land,

and tear down all your fortresses.

Mikha 5:14

5:14 I will uproot your images of Asherah ¹  from your midst,

and destroy your idols. ² 

Mikha 7:11

7:11 It will be a day for rebuilding your walls;

in that day your boundary will be extended. ³ 

Mikha 7:13

7:13 The earth will become desolate ⁴ 

because of what its inhabitants have done. ⁵ 

Mikha 7:15

7:15 “As in the days when you departed from the land of Egypt,

I will show you ⁶  miraculous deeds.” ⁷ 

[5:14]  ¹ tn Or “Asherah poles.”

[5:14]  sn Asherah was a leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles. These were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4). The Lord states that he will destroy these images, something the Israelites themselves should have done but failed to do.

[5:14]  ² tn The MT reads “your cities,” but many emend the text to צִרֶיךָ (tsirekha, “your images”) or עֲצַבֶּיךָ (’atsbbekha, “your idols”).

[7:11]  ³ sn Personified Jerusalem declares her confidence in vv. 8-10; in this verse she is assured that she will indeed be vindicated.

[7:13]  ⁴ tn Or “will be ruined.”

[7:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “on account of its inhabitants, because of the fruit of their deeds.”

[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 Lord responds to the petition of v. 14 with a brief promise of deliverance.