1:16 Shave your heads bald as you mourn for the children you love; 1
shave your foreheads as bald 2 as an eagle, 3
for they are taken from you into exile.
3:2 yet you 4 hate what is good, 5
and love what is evil. 6
You flay my people’s skin 7
and rip the flesh from their bones. 8
7:20 You will be loyal to Jacob
and extend your loyal love to Abraham, 9
which you promised on oath to our ancestors 10
in ancient times. 11
1 tn Heb “over the sons of your delight.”
2 tn Heb “make wide your baldness.”
3 tn Or “a vulture” (cf. NIV, TEV); CEV “a buzzard.” The Hebrew term נֶשֶׁר (nesher) refers to the griffon vulture or eagle.
4 tn Heb “the ones who.”
5 tn Or “good.”
6 tn Or “evil.”
7 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
8 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 tn More literally, “You will extend loyalty to Jacob, and loyal love to Abraham.
10 tn Heb “our fathers.” The Hebrew term refers here to more distant ancestors, not immediate parents.
11 tn Heb “which you swore [or, “pledged”] to our fathers from days of old.”