Mikha 7:14-17

7:14 Shepherd your people with your shepherd’s rod, ¹ 

the flock that belongs to you, ² 

the one that lives alone in a thicket,

in the midst of a pastureland. ³ 

Allow them to graze in Bashan and Gilead, ⁴ 

as they did in the old days. ⁵ 

7:15 “As in the days when you departed from the land of Egypt,

I will show you ⁶  miraculous deeds.” ⁷ 

7:16 Nations will see this and be disappointed by ⁸  all their strength,

they will put their hands over their mouths,

and act as if they were deaf. ⁹ 

7:17 They will lick the dust like a snake,

like serpents crawling on the ground. ¹⁰ 

They will come trembling from their strongholds

to the Lord our God; ¹¹ 

they will be terrified ¹²  of you. ¹³ 

[7:14]  ¹ tn Or “with your scepter” (the Hebrew term can mean either “rod” or “scepter”).

[7:14]  ² tn Heb “the flock of your inheritance.”

[7:14]  ³ 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]  ⁴ sn The regions of Bashan and Gilead, located in Transjordan, were noted for their rich grazing lands.

[7:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “as in the days of antiquity.”

[7:15]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ sn I will show you miraculous deeds. In this verse the Lord responds to the petition of v. 14 with a brief promise of deliverance.

[7:16]  ⁸ tn Or “be ashamed of.”

[7:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “and their ears will be deaf.” Apparently this means the opposing nations will be left dumbfounded by the Lord’s power. Their inability to respond will make them appear to be deaf mutes.

[7:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “like crawling things on the ground.” The parallelism suggests snakes are in view.

[7:17]  ¹¹ tn Thetranslationassumesthatthe phrase אֶל־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ (’el-yÿhvah ’elohenu, “to the Lord our God”) goes with what precedes. Another option is to take the phrase with the following verb, in which case one could translate, “to the Lord our God they will turn in dread.”

[7:17]  ¹² tn Heb “they will be in dread and afraid.”

[7:17]  ¹³ tn The Lord is addressed directly using the second person.