Mikha 6:9

6:9 Listen! The Lord is calling ¹  to the city!

It is wise to respect your authority, O Lord! ² 

Listen, O nation, and those assembled in the city! ³ 

Mikha 1:8

1:8 For this reason I ⁴  will mourn and wail;

I will walk around barefoot ⁵  and without my outer garments. ⁶ 

I will howl ⁷  like a wild dog, ⁸ 

and screech ⁹  like an owl. ¹⁰ 

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. ¹¹ 

I will bring them together like sheep in a fold, ¹² 

like a flock in the middle of a pasture; ¹³ 

they will be so numerous that they will make a lot of noise. ¹⁴ 

[6:9]  ¹ tn Or “the voice of the Lord is calling.” The translation understands קוֹל (qol, “voice”) as equivalent to an imperative.

[6:9]  ² 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 Lord’s “name” here stands by metonymy for his authority.

[6:9]  ³ 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”).

[1:8]  ⁴ tn The prophet is probably the speaker here.

[1:8]  ⁵ tn Or “stripped.” The precise meaning of this Hebrew word is unclear. It may refer to walking barefoot (see 2 Sam 15:30) or to partially stripping oneself (see Job 12:17-19).

[1:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “naked.” This probably does not refer to complete nudity, but to stripping off one’s outer garments as an outward sign of the destitution felt by the mourner.

[1:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will make lamentation.”

[1:8]  ⁸ tn Or “a jackal”; CEV “howling wolves.”

[1:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “[make] a mourning.”

[1:8]  ¹⁰ tn Or perhaps “ostrich” (cf. ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT).

[2:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the remnant of Israel.”

[2:12]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tc The MT reads “its pasture,” but the final vav (ו) belongs with the following verb. See GKC 413 §127.i.

[2:12]  ¹⁴ 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.