Mikha 6:1--7:20
Konteks6:1 Listen to what the Lord says:
“Get up! Defend yourself 1 before the mountains! 2
Present your case before the hills!” 3
6:2 Hear the Lord’s accusation, you mountains,
you enduring foundations of the earth!
For the Lord has a case against his people;
he has a dispute with Israel! 4
6:3 “My people, how have I wronged you? 5
How have I wearied you? Answer me!
6:4 In fact, I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
I delivered you from that place of slavery.
I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to lead you. 6
6:5 My people, recall how King Balak of Moab planned to harm you, 7
how Balaam son of Beor responded to him.
Recall how you journeyed from Shittim to Gilgal,
so you might acknowledge that the Lord has treated you fairly.” 8
6:6 With what should I 9 enter the Lord’s presence?
With what 10 should I bow before the sovereign God? 11
Should I enter his presence with burnt offerings,
with year-old calves?
6:7 Will the Lord accept a thousand rams,
or ten thousand streams of olive oil?
Should I give him my firstborn child as payment for my rebellion,
my offspring – my own flesh and blood – for my sin? 12
6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good,
and what the Lord really wants from you: 13
He wants you to 14 promote 15 justice, to be faithful, 16
and to live obediently before 17 your God.
6:9 Listen! The Lord is calling 18 to the city!
It is wise to respect your authority, O Lord! 19
Listen, O nation, and those assembled in the city! 20
6:10 “I will not overlook, 21 O sinful house, the dishonest gain you have hoarded away, 22
or the smaller-than-standard measure I hate so much. 23
6:11 I do not condone the use of rigged scales,
or a bag of deceptive weights. 24
6:12 The city’s rich men think nothing of resorting to violence; 25
her inhabitants lie, 26
their tongues speak deceptive words. 27
6:13 I will strike you brutally 28
and destroy you because of your sin.
6:14 You will eat, but not be satisfied.
Even if you have the strength 29 to overtake some prey, 30
you will not be able to carry it away; 31
if you do happen to carry away something,
I will deliver it over to the sword.
6:15 You will plant crops, but will not harvest them;
you will squeeze oil from the olives, 32 but you will have no oil to rub on your bodies; 33
you will squeeze juice from the grapes, but you will have no wine to drink. 34
6:16 You implement the regulations of Omri,
and all the practices of Ahab’s dynasty; 35
you follow their policies. 36
Therefore I will make you an appalling sight, 37
the city’s 38 inhabitants will be taunted derisively, 39
and nations will mock all of you.” 40
Indeed, 42 it is as if the summer fruit has been gathered,
and the grapes have been harvested. 43
There is no grape cluster to eat,
no fresh figs that I crave so much. 44
7:2 Faithful men have disappeared 45 from the land;
there are no godly men left. 46
They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; 47
they hunt their own brother with a net. 48
7:3 They are determined to be experts at doing evil; 49
government officials and judges take bribes, 50
prominent men make demands,
and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them. 51
7:4 The best of them is like a thorn;
the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. 52
The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen –
your appointed time of punishment – is on the way, 53
and then you will experience confusion. 54
7:5 Do not rely on a friend;
do not trust a companion!
Don’t even share secrets with the one who lies in your arms! 55
7:6 For a son thinks his father is a fool,
a daughter challenges 56 her mother,
and a daughter-in-law her mother-in-law;
a man’s enemies are his own servants. 57
7:7 But I will keep watching for the Lord;
I will wait for the God who delivers me.
My God will hear my lament. 58
7:8 My enemies, 59 do not gloat 60 over me!
Though I have fallen, I will get up.
Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. 61
7:9 I must endure 62 the Lord’s anger,
for I have sinned against him.
But then 63 he will defend my cause, 64
and accomplish justice on my behalf.
He will lead me out into the light;
I will experience firsthand 65 his deliverance. 66
7:10 When my enemies see this, they will be covered with shame.
They say 67 to me, “Where is the Lord your God?”
I will gloat over them. 68
Then they will be trampled down 69
like mud in the streets.
7:11 It will be a day for rebuilding your walls;
in that day your boundary will be extended. 70
7:12 In that day people 71 will come to you 72
from Assyria as far as 73 Egypt,
from Egypt as far as the Euphrates River, 74
from the seacoasts 75 and the mountains. 76
7:13 The earth will become desolate 77
because of what its inhabitants have done. 78
7:14 Shepherd your people with your shepherd’s rod, 79
the flock that belongs to you, 80
the one that lives alone in a thicket,
in the midst of a pastureland. 81
Allow them to graze in Bashan and Gilead, 82
as they did in the old days. 83
7:15 “As in the days when you departed from the land of Egypt,
I will show you 84 miraculous deeds.” 85
7:16 Nations will see this and be disappointed by 86 all their strength,
they will put their hands over their mouths,
and act as if they were deaf. 87
7:17 They will lick the dust like a snake,
like serpents crawling on the ground. 88
They will come trembling from their strongholds
to the Lord our God; 89
they will be terrified 90 of you. 91
7:18 There is no other God like you! 92
You 93 forgive sin
and pardon 94 the rebellion
of those who remain among your people. 95
You do not remain angry forever, 96
but delight in showing loyal love.
7:19 You will once again 97 have mercy on us;
you will conquer 98 our evil deeds;
you will hurl our 99 sins into the depths of the sea. 100
7:20 You will be loyal to Jacob
and extend your loyal love to Abraham, 101
which you promised on oath to our ancestors 102
in ancient times. 103
[6:1] 1 tn Or “plead your case” (NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “present your plea”; NLT “state your case.”
[6:1] sn Defend yourself. The
[6:1] 2 sn As in some ancient Near Eastern treaties, the mountains are personified as legal witnesses that will settle the dispute between God and Israel.
[6:1] 3 tn Heb “let the hills hear your voice.”
[6:2] 4 tn This verse briefly interrupts the
[6:3] 5 tn Heb “My people, what have I done to you?”
[6:5] 7 tn Heb “remember what Balak…planned.”
[6:5] 8 tn Heb “From Shittim to Gilgal, in order to know the just acts of the
[6:6] 9 sn With what should I enter the
[6:6] 10 tn The words “with what” do double duty in the parallelism and are supplied in the second line of the translation for clarification.
[6:6] 11 tn Or “the exalted God.”
[6:7] 12 tn Heb “the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is often translated “soul,” but the word usually refers to the whole person; here “the sin of my soul” = “my sin.”
[6:8] 13 sn What the
[6:8] 14 tn Heb “except.” This statement is actually linked with what precedes, “What does he want from you except….”
[6:8] 15 tn Heb “to do,” in the sense of “promote.”
[6:8] 16 tn Heb “to love faithfulness.”
[6:8] 17 tn Heb “to walk humbly [or perhaps, “carefully”] with.”
[6:9] 18 tn Or “the voice of the
[6:9] 19 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
[6:9] 20 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”).
[6:10] 21 tn The meaning of the first Hebrew word in the line is unclear. Possibly it is a combination of the interrogative particle and אִשׁ (’ish), an alternate form of יֵשׁ (yesh, “there is/are”). One could then translate literally, “Are there treasures of sin [in] the house of the sinful?” The translation assumes an emendation to הַאֶשֶּׁה (ha’esheh, from נָשָׁא, nasha’, “to forget”), “Will I forget?” The rhetorical question expects an answer, “No, I will not forget.”
[6:10] 22 tn Heb “the treasures of sin”; NASB “treasures of wickedness”; NIV “ill-gotten treasures.”
[6:10] 23 tn Heb “the accursed scant measure.”
[6:10] sn Merchants would use a smaller than standard measure so they could give the customer less than he thought he was paying for.
[6:11] 24 tn Heb “Do I acquit sinful scales, and a bag of deceptive weights?” The rhetorical question expects an answer, “No, I do not,” and has been translated as a declarative statement for clarity and emphasis.
[6:11] sn Merchants also used rigged scales and deceptive weights to cheat their customers. See the note at Amos 8:5.
[6:12] 25 tn Heb “because her rich are full of violence.”
[6:12] 26 tn Heb “speak lies.”
[6:12] 27 tn Heb “and their tongue is deceptive in their mouth.”
[6:13] 28 tn Heb “and also I, I will make you sick, striking you.”
[6:14] 29 tc The first Hebrew term in the line (וְיֶשְׁחֲךָ, vÿyeshkhakha) is obscure. HALOT 446 s.v. יֶשַׁח understands a noun meaning “filth,” which would yield the translation, “and your filth is inside you.” The translation assumes an emendation to כֹּחַ-וְיֶשׁ (vÿyesh-koakh, “and [if] there is strength inside you”).
[6:14] 30 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term וְתַסֵּג (vÿtasseg) is unclear. The translation assumes it is a Hiphal imperfect from נָסַג/נָשַׂג (nasag/nasag, “reach; overtake”) and that hunting imagery is employed. (Note the reference to hunger in the first line of the verse.) See D. R. Hillers, Micah (Hermeneia), 80.
[6:14] 31 tn The Hiphal of פָּלַט (palat) is used in Isa 5:29 of an animal carrying its prey to a secure place.
[6:15] 32 tn Heb “you will tread olives.” Literally treading on olives with one’s feet could be harmful and would not supply the necessary pressure to release the oil. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 119. The Hebrew term דָּרַךְ (darakh) may have an idiomatic sense of “press” here, or perhaps the imagery of the following parallel line (referring to treading grapes) has dictated the word choice.
[6:15] 33 tn Heb “but you will not rub yourselves with oil.”
[6:15] 34 tn Heb “and juice, but you will not drink wine.” The verb תִדְרֹךְ (tidrokh, “you will tread”) must be supplied from the preceding line.
[6:16] 35 tn Heb “the edicts of Omri are kept, and all the deeds of the house of Ahab.”
[6:16] 36 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] 37 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] 38 tn Heb “her”; the referent (the city) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[6:16] 39 tn Heb “[an object] of hissing,” which was a way of taunting someone.
[6:16] 40 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.
[7:1] 41 tn Heb “woe to me!” In light of the image that follows, perhaps one could translate, “I am disappointed.”
[7:1] 43 tn Heb “I am like the gathering of the summer fruit, like the gleanings of the harvest.” Micah is not comparing himself to the harvested fruit. There is an ellipsis here, as the second half of the verse makes clear. The idea is, “I am like [one at the time] the summer fruit is gathered and the grapes are harvested.”
[7:1] 44 tn Heb “my appetite craves.”
[7:2] 45 tn Or “have perished”; “have been destroyed.”
[7:2] 46 tn Heb “and an upright one among men there is not.”
[7:2] 47 tn Heb “for bloodshed” (so NASB); TEV “for a chance to commit murder.”
[7:2] 48 sn Micah compares these ungodly people to hunters trying to capture their prey with a net.
[7:3] 49 tn Heb “upon evil [are their] hands to do [it] well.”
[7:3] 50 tn Heb “the official asks – and the judge – for a bribe.”
[7:3] 51 tn More literally, “the great one announces what his appetite desires and they weave it together.” Apparently this means that subordinates plot and maneuver to make sure the prominent man’s desires materialize.
[7:4] 52 tn Heb “[the] godly from a row of thorn bushes.” The preposition מִן (min) is comparative and the comparative element (perhaps “sharper” is the idea) is omitted. See BDB 582 s.v. 6 and GKC 431 §133.e.
[7:4] 53 tn Heb “the day of your watchmen, your appointed [time], is coming.” The present translation takes “watchmen” to refer to actual sentries. However, the “watchmen” could refer figuratively to the prophets who had warned Judah of approaching judgment. In this case one could translate, “The day your prophets warned about – your appointed time of punishment – is on the way.”
[7:4] 54 tn Heb “and now will be their confusion.”
[7:5] 55 tn Heb “from the one who lies in your arms, guard the doors of your mouth.”
[7:6] 56 tn Heb “rises up against.”
[7:6] 57 tn Heb “the enemies of a man are the men of his house.”
[7:7] 58 tn Heb “me.” In the interest of clarity the nature of the prophet’s cry has been specified as “my lament” in the translation.
[7:8] 59 tn The singular form is understood as collective.
[7:8] 60 tn Or “rejoice” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NCV “don’t laugh at me.”
[7:8] 61 sn Darkness represents judgment; light (also in v. 9) symbolizes deliverance. The
[7:9] 64 tn Or “plead my case” (NASB and NIV both similar); NRSV “until he takes my side.”
[7:9] 66 tn Or “justice, vindication.”
[7:10] 67 tn Heb “who say.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[7:10] 68 tn Heb “My eyes will look on them.”
[7:10] 69 tn Heb “a trampled-down place.”
[7:11] 70 sn Personified Jerusalem declares her confidence in vv. 8-10; in this verse she is assured that she will indeed be vindicated.
[7:12] 71 tn Heb “they.” The referent has been specified as “people,” referring either to the nations (coming to God with their tribute) or to the exiles of Israel (returning to the
[7:12] 72 tn The masculine pronominal suffix suggests the
[7:12] 73 tc The MT reads וְעָרֵי (vÿ’arey, “and the cities [of Egypt]”), but the parallel line indicates this is a corruption of וְעַד (vÿ’ad, “even to”).
[7:12] 74 tn Heb “the River,” referring to the Euphrates River. This has been specified in the translation for clarity (so also NASB, NIV).
[7:12] 75 tn Heb “and sea from sea.” Many prefer to emend this to מִיָּם עַד יָם (miyyam ’ad yam, “from sea to sea”).
[7:12] 76 tn Heb “and mountain of the mountain.” Many prefer to emend this to וּמֵהַר עַד הַר (umehar ’ad har, “and mountain to mountain”).
[7:13] 77 tn Or “will be ruined.”
[7:13] 78 tn Heb “on account of its inhabitants, because of the fruit of their deeds.”
[7:14] 79 tn Or “with your scepter” (the Hebrew term can mean either “rod” or “scepter”).
[7:14] 80 tn Heb “the flock of your inheritance.”
[7:14] 81 tn Or “in the midst of Carmel.” The Hebrew term translated “pastureland” may be a place name.
[7:14] sn The point seems to be that Israel is in a vulnerable position, like sheep in a thicket populated by predators, while rich pastureland (their homeland and God’s blessings) is in view.
[7:14] 82 sn The regions of Bashan and Gilead, located in Transjordan, were noted for their rich grazing lands.
[7:14] 83 tn Heb “as in the days of antiquity.”
[7:15] 84 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] 85 sn I will show you miraculous deeds. In this verse the
[7:16] 86 tn Or “be ashamed of.”
[7:16] 87 tn Heb “and their ears will be deaf.” Apparently this means the opposing nations will be left dumbfounded by the
[7:17] 88 tn Heb “like crawling things on the ground.” The parallelism suggests snakes are in view.
[7:17] 89 tn Thetranslationassumesthatthe phrase אֶל־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ (’el-yÿhvah ’elohenu, “to the
[7:17] 90 tn Heb “they will be in dread and afraid.”
[7:17] 91 tn The
[7:18] 92 tn Heb “Who is a God like you?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No one!”
[7:18] 93 tn Heb “one who.” The prayer moves from direct address (second person) in v. 18a to a descriptive (third person) style in vv. 18b-19a and then back to direct address (second person) in vv. 19b-20. Due to considerations of English style and the unfamiliarity of the modern reader with alternation of persons in Hebrew poetry, the entire section has been rendered as direct address (second person) in the translation.
[7:18] 95 tn Heb “of the remnant of his inheritance.”
[7:18] 96 tn Heb “he does not keep hold of his anger forever.”
[7:19] 97 tn The verb יָשׁוּב (yashuv, “he will return”) is here used adverbially in relation to the following verb, indicating that the
[7:19] 98 tn Some prefer to read יִכְבֹּס (yikhbos, “he will cleanse”; see HALOT 459 s.v. כבס pi). If the MT is taken as it stands, sin is personified as an enemy that the
[7:19] 99 tn Heb “their sins,” but the final mem (ם) may be enclitic rather than a pronominal suffix. In this case the suffix from the preceding line (“our”) may be understood as doing double duty.
[7:19] 100 sn In this metaphor the
[7:20] 101 tn More literally, “You will extend loyalty to Jacob, and loyal love to Abraham.
[7:20] 102 tn Heb “our fathers.” The Hebrew term refers here to more distant ancestors, not immediate parents.
[7:20] 103 tn Heb “which you swore [or, “pledged”] to our fathers from days of old.”
