Mikha 4:1

Better Days Ahead for Jerusalem

4:1 In the future ¹  the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all; ² 

it will be more prominent than other hills. ³ 

People will stream to it.

Mikha 5:3

5:3 So the Lord ⁴  will hand the people of Israel ⁵  over to their enemies ⁶ 

until the time when the woman in labor ⁷  gives birth. ⁸ 

Then the rest of the king’s ⁹  countrymen will return

to be reunited with the people of Israel. ¹⁰ 

Mikha 6:14

6:14 You will eat, but not be satisfied.

Even if you have the strength ¹¹  to overtake some prey, ¹² 

you will not be able to carry it away; ¹³ 

if you do happen to carry away something,

I will deliver it over to the sword.

Mikha 7:1

Micah Laments Judah’s Sin

7:1 I am depressed! ¹⁴ 

Indeed, ¹⁵  it is as if the summer fruit has been gathered,

and the grapes have been harvested. ¹⁶ 

There is no grape cluster to eat,

no fresh figs that I crave so much. ¹⁷ 

Mikha 7:3-4

7:3 They are determined to be experts at doing evil; ¹⁸ 

government officials and judges take bribes, ¹⁹ 

prominent men make demands,

and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them. ²⁰ 

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

the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. ²¹ 

The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen –

your appointed time of punishment – is on the way, ²² 

and then you will experience confusion. ²³ 

Mikha 7:11

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

in that day your boundary will be extended. ²⁴ 

[4:1]  ¹ tn Heb “at the end of days.”

[4:1]  ² tn Heb “will be established as the head of the mountains.”

[4:1]  ³ tn Heb “it will be lifted up above the hills.”

[5:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

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

[5:3]  ⁶ tn The words “to their enemies” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:3]  ⁷ sn The woman in labor. Personified, suffering Jerusalem is the referent. See 4:9-10.

[5:3]  ⁸ sn Gives birth. The point of the figurative language is that Jerusalem finally finds relief from her suffering. See 4:10.

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

[5:3]  ¹⁰ 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.

[6:14]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn The Hiphal of פָּלַט (palat) is used in Isa 5:29 of an animal carrying its prey to a secure place.

[7:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “woe to me!” In light of the image that follows, perhaps one could translate, “I am disappointed.”

[7:1]  ¹⁵ tn Or “for.”

[7:1]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “my appetite craves.”

[7:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “upon evil [are their] hands to do [it] well.”

[7:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the official asks – and the judge – for a bribe.”

[7:3]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ 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]  ²² 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]  ²³ tn Heb “and now will be their confusion.”

[7:11]  ²⁴ sn Personified Jerusalem declares her confidence in vv. 8-10; in this verse she is assured that she will indeed be vindicated.