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God Will Judge Judah’s Sinful Leaders

I said,
“Listen, you leaders[a] of Jacob,
you rulers of the nation[b] of Israel!
You ought to know what is just,[c]
yet you[d] hate what is good[e]
and love what is evil.[f]
You flay my people’s skin[g]
and rip the flesh from their bones.[h]
You[i] devour my people’s flesh,
strip off their skin,
and crush their bones.
You chop them up like flesh in a pot[j]
like meat in a kettle.
Someday these sinful leaders[k] will cry to the Lord for help,
but he will not answer them.
He will hide his face from them at that time,
because they have done such wicked deeds.”

This is what the Lord has said about the prophets who mislead my people,[l]

“If someone gives them enough to eat,
they offer an oracle of peace.[m]
But if someone does not give them food,
they are ready to declare war on him.[n]
Therefore night will fall, and you will receive no visions;[o]
it will grow dark, and you will no longer be able to read the omens.[p]
The sun will set on these prophets,
and the daylight will turn to darkness over their heads.[q]
The prophets[r] will be ashamed;
the omen readers will be humiliated.
All of them will cover their mouths,[s]
for they will receive no divine oracles.”[t]
But I[u] am full of the courage that the Lord’s Spirit gives

and have a strong commitment to justice.[v]
This enables me to confront Jacob with its rebellion
and Israel with its sin.[w]
Listen to this, you leaders of the family[x] of Jacob,
you rulers of the nation[y] of Israel!
You[z] hate justice
and pervert all that is right.
10 You[aa] build Zion through bloody crimes,[ab]
Jerusalem through unjust violence.
11 Her[ac] leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases,[ad]
her priests proclaim rulings for profit,
and her prophets read omens for pay.
Yet they claim to trust[ae] the Lord and say,
“The Lord is among us.[af]
Disaster will not overtake[ag] us!”
12 Therefore, because of you,[ah] Zion will be plowed up like[ai] a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,
and the Temple Mount[aj] will become a hill overgrown with brush![ak]

Better Days Ahead for Jerusalem

And in future days[al] the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all;[am]
it will be more prominent than other hills.[an]
People will stream to it.
Many nations will come, saying,
“Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,
to the temple of Jacob’s God,
so he can teach us his ways
and we can live by his laws.”[ao]
For instruction will proceed from Zion,
the Lord’s message from Jerusalem.
He will arbitrate[ap] between many peoples
and settle disputes between many[aq] distant nations.[ar]
They will beat their swords into plowshares,[as]
and their spears into pruning hooks.[at]
Nations will not use weapons[au] against other nations,
and they will no longer train for war.
Each will sit under his own grapevine
or under his own fig tree without any fear.[av]
The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has decreed it.[aw]
Though all the nations follow their respective gods,[ax]
we will follow[ay] the Lord our God forever.

Restoration Will Follow Crisis

“In that day,” says the Lord, “I will gather the lame
and assemble the outcasts whom I injured.[az]
I will transform the lame into the nucleus of a new nation,[ba]
and those far off[bb] into a mighty nation.
The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion,
from that day forward and forevermore.[bc]
As for you, watchtower for the flock,[bd]
fortress of Daughter Zion[be]
your former dominion will be restored,[bf]
the sovereignty that belongs to Daughter Jerusalem.”
Jerusalem, why are you[bg] now shouting so loudly?[bh]
Has your king disappeared?[bi]
Has your wise leader[bj] been destroyed?
Is this why[bk] pain grips[bl] you as if you were a woman in labor?
10 Twist and strain,[bm] Daughter Zion, as if you were in labor!
For you will leave the city
and live in the open field.
You will go to Babylon,
but there you will be rescued.
There the Lord will deliver[bn] you
from the power[bo] of your enemies.
11 Many nations have now assembled against you.
They say, “Jerusalem must be desecrated,[bp]
so we can gloat over Zion!”[bq]
12 But they do not know what the Lord is planning;
they do not understand his strategy.
He has gathered them like stalks of grain to be threshed[br] at the threshing floor.
13 “Get up and thresh, Daughter Zion!
For I will give you iron horns;[bs]
I will give you bronze hooves,
and you will crush many nations.”[bt]
You will devote to the Lord the spoils you take from them
and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler[bu] of the whole earth.[bv]

Footnotes

  1. Micah 3:1 tn Heb “heads.”
  2. Micah 3:1 tn Heb “house.”
  3. Micah 3:1 tn Heb “Should you not know justice?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you should!”
  4. Micah 3:2 tn Heb “the ones who.”
  5. Micah 3:2 tn Or “good.”
  6. Micah 3:2 tn Or “evil.”
  7. Micah 3:2 tn Heb “their skin from upon them.” The referent of the pronoun (“my people,” referring to Jacob and/or the house of Israel, with the Lord as the speaker) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  8. Micah 3:2 tn Heb “and their flesh from their bones.”sn Micah compares the social injustice perpetrated by the house of Jacob/Israel to cannibalism, because it threatens the very lives of the oppressed.
  9. Micah 3:3 tn Heb “who.”
  10. Micah 3:3 tc The MT reads “and they chop up as in a pot.” The translation assumes an emendation of כַּאֲשֶׁר (ka’asher, “as”) to כִּשְׁאֵר (kishʾer, “like flesh”).
  11. Micah 3:4 tn Heb “they,” referring to the indicted leaders in vv. 1-3.
  12. Micah 3:5 tn Heb “concerning the prophets, those who mislead my people.” Some prefer to begin the quotation after “the Lord has said” (cf. NIV). But when the preposition עַל (ʿal, “about”) occurs with this introductory formula it regularly indicates who is being spoken about. (When a person is not the object of the preposition, it may begin the quote, meaning “because.”) Including the first person pronominal suffix (in “my people”) after a third person introduction may sound awkward, but also occurs in Jer 14:15; 23:2 (and perhaps Jer 12:14, a text critical question). Hillers prefers to add הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) at the beginning of the quotation, after the graphically similar יְהוָה (yehvah; see D. R. Hillers, Micah [Hermeneia], 44). The phrase הוֹי עַל (hoy ʿal, “woe upon”) occurs in Jer 50:27 and Ezek 13:3 (with “the prophets” following the preposition in the latter instance).
  13. Micah 3:5 tn Heb “those who bite with their teeth and cry out, ‘peace.’” The phrase “bite with the teeth” is taken here as idiomatic for eating. Apparently these prophets were driven by mercenary motives. If they were paid well, they gave positive oracles to their clients, but if someone could not afford to pay them, they were hostile and delivered oracles of doom.
  14. Micah 3:5 tn Heb “but [as for the one] who does not place [food] in their mouths, they prepare for war against him.”
  15. Micah 3:6 tn Heb “it will be night for you without a vision.”sn The coming of night (and darkness in the following line) symbolizes the cessation of revelation.
  16. Micah 3:6 tn Heb “it will be dark for you without divination.”sn The reading of omens (Heb “divination”) was forbidden in the law (Deut 18:10), so this probably reflects the prophets’ view of how they received divine revelation.
  17. Micah 3:6 tn Heb “and the day will be dark over them.”
  18. Micah 3:7 tn Or “seers.”
  19. Micah 3:7 tn Or “the mustache,” or perhaps “the beard.” Cf. KJV, NAB, NRSV “cover their lips.”
  20. Micah 3:7 tn Heb “no divine response” or “no answer from God.”
  21. Micah 3:8 sn The prophet Micah speaks here and contrasts himself with the mercenaries just denounced by the Lord in the preceding verses.
  22. Micah 3:8 tn Heb “am full of power, the Spirit of the Lord, and justice and strength.” The appositional phrase “the Spirit of the Lord” explains the source of the prophet’s power. The phrase “justice and strength” is understood here as a hendiadys, referring to the prophet’s strong sense of justice.
  23. Micah 3:8 tn Heb “to declare to Jacob his rebellion and to Israel his sin.” The words “this enables me” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
  24. Micah 3:9 tn Heb “house.”
  25. Micah 3:9 tn Heb “house.”
  26. Micah 3:9 tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons (also at the beginning of v. 10).
  27. Micah 3:10 tn Heb “who.”
  28. Micah 3:10 tn Heb “bloodshed” (so NAB, NASB, NIV); NLT “murder.”
  29. Micah 3:11 sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).
  30. Micah 3:11 tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”
  31. Micah 3:11 tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”
  32. Micah 3:11 tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”
  33. Micah 3:11 tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”
  34. Micah 3:12 tn The plural pronoun refers to the leaders, priests, and prophets mentioned in the preceding verse.
  35. Micah 3:12 tn Or “into” (an adverbial accusative of result).
  36. Micah 3:12 tn Heb “the mountain of the house” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).
  37. Micah 3:12 tn Heb “a high place of overgrowth.”
  38. Micah 4:1 sn Cf. Isa 2:2. See the note at Gen 49:1.
  39. Micah 4:1 tn Heb “will be established as the head of the mountains.”
  40. Micah 4:1 tn Heb “it will be lifted up above the hills.”
  41. Micah 4:2 tn Heb “and we can walk in his paths.”
  42. Micah 4:3 tn Or “judge.”
  43. Micah 4:3 tn Or “mighty” (NASB); KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “strong”; TEV “among the great powers.”
  44. Micah 4:3 tn Heb “[for many nations] to a distance.”
  45. Micah 4:3 sn Instead of referring to the large plow as a whole, the plowshare is simply the metal tip which actually breaks the earth and cuts the furrow.
  46. Micah 4:3 sn This implement was used to prune the vines, i.e., to cut off extra leaves and young shoots (M. Klingbeil, NIDOTTE 1:1117-18). It was a short knife with a curved hook at the end sharpened on the inside like a sickle.
  47. Micah 4:3 tn Heb “take up the sword.”
  48. Micah 4:4 tn Heb “and there will be no one making [him] afraid.”
  49. Micah 4:4 tn Heb “for the mouth of the Lord…has spoken.”
  50. Micah 4:5 tn Heb “walk each in the name of his god.” The term “name” here has the idea of “authority.” To “walk in the name” of a god is to recognize the god’s authority as binding over one’s life.
  51. Micah 4:5 tn Heb “walk in the name of.”
  52. Micah 4:6 sn The exiles of the nation are compared to lame and injured sheep.
  53. Micah 4:7 tn Heb “make the lame into a remnant.”
  54. Micah 4:7 tn The precise meaning of this difficult form is uncertain. The present translation assumes the form is a Niphal participle of an otherwise unattested denominative verb הָלָא (halaʾ, “to be far off”; see BDB 229 s.v.), but attractive emendations include הַנַּחֲלָה (hannakhalah, “the sick one[s]”) from חָלָה (khalah) and הַנִּלְאָה (hannilʾah, “the weary one[s]”) from לָאָה (laʾah).
  55. Micah 4:7 tn Heb “from now until forever.”
  56. Micah 4:8 tn Heb “Migdal Eder.” Some English versions transliterate this phrase, apparently because they view it as a place name (cf. NAB).
  57. Micah 4:8 sn The city of David, located within Jerusalem, is addressed as Daughter Zion. As the home of the Davidic king, who was Israel’s shepherd (Ps 78:70-72), the royal citadel could be viewed metaphorically as the watchtower of the flock.
  58. Micah 4:8 tn Heb “to you it will come, the former dominion will arrive.”
  59. Micah 4:9 tn The Hebrew form is feminine singular, indicating that Jerusalem, personified as a young woman, is now addressed (see v. 10). In v. 8 the tower/fortress was addressed with masculine forms, so there is clearly a shift in addressee here. “Jerusalem” has been supplied in the translation at the beginning of v. 9 to make this shift apparent.
  60. Micah 4:9 tn Heb “Now why are you shouting [with] a shout.”
  61. Micah 4:9 tn Heb “Is there no king over you?”
  62. Micah 4:9 tn Traditionally, “counselor” (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). This refers to the king mentioned in the previous line; the title points to the king’s roles as chief strategist and policy maker, both of which required extraordinary wisdom.
  63. Micah 4:9 tn Heb “that.” The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) is used here in a resultative sense; for this use see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §450.
  64. Micah 4:9 tn Heb “grabs hold of, seizes.”
  65. Micah 4:10 tn Or perhaps “scream”; NRSV, TEV, NLT “groan.”
  66. Micah 4:10 tn Or “redeem” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
  67. Micah 4:10 tn Heb “hand.” The Hebrew idiom is a metonymy for power or control.
  68. Micah 4:11 tn Heb “let her be desecrated.” The referent (Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  69. Micah 4:11 tn Heb “and let our eye look upon Zion.” This is a Hebrew idiom for a typically smug or condescending look by someone in a superior position.
  70. Micah 4:12 tn The words “to be threshed” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation to make it clear that the Lord is planning to enable “Daughter Zion” to “thresh” her enemies.
  71. Micah 4:13 tn Heb “I will make your horn iron.”
  72. Micah 4:13 sn Jerusalem (Daughter Zion at the beginning of the verse; cf. 4:8) is here compared to a powerful ox which crushes the grain on the threshing floor with its hooves.
  73. Micah 4:13 tn Or “the Lord” (so many English versions); Heb “the master.”
  74. Micah 4:13 tn Heb “and their wealth to the master of all the earth.” The verb “devote” does double duty in the parallelism and is supplied in the second line for clarification.sn In vv. 11-13 the prophet jumps from the present crisis (which will result in exile, v. 10) to a time beyond the restoration of the exiles when God will protect his city from invaders. The Lord’s victory over the Assyrian armies in 701 b.c. foreshadowed this.