Mikha 3:11

3:11 Her ¹  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ² 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ³  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ⁴ 

Disaster will not overtake ⁵  us!”

Mikha 1:15

1:15 Residents of Mareshah, ⁶  a conqueror will attack you, ⁷ 

the leaders of Israel shall flee to Adullam. ⁸ 

Mikha 5:7

5:7 Those survivors from ⁹  Jacob will live ¹⁰ 

in the midst of many nations. ¹¹ 

They will be like the dew the Lord sends,

like the rain on the grass,

that does not hope for men to come

or wait around for humans to arrive. ¹² 

Mikha 2:12

The Lord Will Restore His People

2:12 I will certainly gather all of you, O Jacob,

I will certainly assemble those Israelites who remain. ¹³ 

I will bring them together like sheep in a fold, ¹⁴ 

like a flock in the middle of a pasture; ¹⁵ 

they will be so numerous that they will make a lot of noise. ¹⁶ 

Mikha 5:8

5:8 Those survivors from Jacob will live among the nations,

in the midst of many peoples.

They will be like a lion among the animals of the forest,

like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,

which attacks when it passes through;

it rips its prey ¹⁷  and there is no one to stop it. ¹⁸ 

Mikha 7:4

7:4 The best of them is like a thorn;

the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. ¹⁹ 

The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen –

your appointed time of punishment – is on the way, ²⁰ 

and then you will experience confusion. ²¹ 

[3:11]  ¹ sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

[3:11]  ² tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

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

[3:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

[3:11]  ⁵ tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”

[1:15]  ⁶ sn The place name Mareshah sounds like the Hebrew word for “conqueror.”

[1:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “Again a conqueror I will bring to you, residents of Mareshah.” The first person verb is problematic, for the Lord would have to be the subject (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). But the prophet appears to be delivering this lament and the Lord is referred to in the third person in v. 12. Consequently many emend the verb to a third person form (יָבוֹא, yavo’) and understand the “conqueror” as subject.

[1:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “to Adullam the glory of Israel will go.” This probably means that the nation’s leadership will run for their lives and, like David of old, hide from their enemy in the caves of Adullam. Cf. NIV’s “He who is the glory of Israel will come to Adullam,” which sounds as if an individual is in view, and could be understood as a messianic reference.

[5:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “the remnant of” (also in v. 8).

[5:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “will be.”

[5:7]  ¹¹ tn This could mean “(scattered) among the nations” (cf. CEV, NLT) or “surrounded by many nations” (cf. NRSV).

[5:7]  ¹² tn Heb “that does not hope for man, and does not wait for the sons of men.”

[5:7]  sn Men wait eagerly for the dew and the rain, not vice versa. Just as the dew and rain are subject to the Lord, not men, so the remnant of Israel will succeed by the supernatural power of God and not need the support of other nations. There may even be a military metaphor here. Israel will overwhelm their enemies, just as the dew completely covers the grass (see 2 Sam 17:12). This interpretation would be consistent with the image of v. 7.

[2:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “the remnant of Israel.”

[2:12]  ¹⁴ tc The MT reads בָּצְרָה (batsrah, “Bozrah”) but the form should be emended to בַּצִּרָה (batsirah, “into the fold”). See D. R. Hillers, Micah (Hermeneia), 38.

[2:12]  ¹⁵ tc The MT reads “its pasture,” but the final vav (ו) belongs with the following verb. See GKC 413 §127.i.

[2:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and they will be noisy [or perhaps, “excited”] from men.” The subject of the third feminine plural verb תְּהִימֶנָה (tÿhimenah, “they will be noisy”) is probably the feminine singular צֹאן (tso’n, “flock”). (For another example of this collective singular noun with a feminine plural verb, see Gen 30:38.) In the construction מֵאָדָם (me’adam, “from men”) the preposition is probably causal. L. C. Allen translates “bleating in fear of men” (Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah [NICOT], 300), but it is possible to take the causal sense as “because of the large quantity of men.” In this case the sheep metaphor and the underlying reality are mixed.

[5:8]  ¹⁷ tn The words “its prey” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and there is no deliverer.”

[7:4]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ tn Heb “and now will be their confusion.”