Mikha 3:1

God Will Judge Judah’s Sinful Leaders

3:1 I said,

“Listen, you leaders ¹  of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation ²  of Israel!

You ought to know what is just, ³ 

Mikha 3:9

3:9 Listen to this, you leaders of the family ⁴  of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation ⁵  of Israel!

You ⁶  hate justice

and pervert all that is right.

Mikha 1:16

1:16 Shave your heads bald as you mourn for the children you love; ⁷ 

shave your foreheads as bald ⁸  as an eagle, ⁹ 

for they are taken from you into exile.

Mikha 2:13

2:13 The one who can break through barriers will lead them out ¹⁰ 

they will break out, pass through the gate, and leave. ¹¹ 

Their king will advance ¹²  before them,

The Lord himself will lead them. ¹³ 

Mikha 3:11

3:11 Her ¹⁴  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ¹⁵ 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ¹⁶  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ¹⁷ 

Disaster will not overtake ¹⁸  us!”

[3:1]  ¹ tn Heb “heads.”

[3:1]  ² tn Heb “house.”

[3:1]  ³ tn Heb “Should you not know justice?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you should!”

[3:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[3:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “house.”

[3:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons (also at the beginning of v. 10).

[1:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “over the sons of your delight.”

[1:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “make wide your baldness.”

[1:16]  ⁹ tn Or “a vulture” (cf. NIV, TEV); CEV “a buzzard.” The Hebrew term נֶשֶׁר (nesher) refers to the griffon vulture or eagle.

[2:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the one who breaks through goes up before them.” The verb form is understood as a perfect of certitude, emphasizing the certainty of this coming event.

[2:13]  ¹¹ tn The three verb forms (a perfect and two preterites with vav [ו] consecutive) indicate certitude.

[2:13]  sn The “fold” from which the sheep/people break out is probably a reference to their place of exile.

[2:13]  ¹² tn The verb form (a preterite with vav [ו] consecutive) indicates certitude.

[2:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “the Lord [will be] at their head.”

[3:11]  ¹⁴ sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

[3:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

[3:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

[3:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

[3:11]  ¹⁸ tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”