1:6 “I will turn Samaria 1 into a heap of ruins in an open field –
vineyards will be planted there! 2
I will tumble 3 the rubble of her stone walls 4 down into the valley,
and tear down her fortifications to their foundations. 5
1:11 Residents 6 of Shaphir, 7 pass by in nakedness and humiliation! 8
The residents of Zaanan can’t leave their city. 9
Beth Ezel 10 mourns, 11
“He takes from you what he desires.” 12
2:1 Those who devise sinful plans are as good as dead, 13
those who dream about doing evil as they lie in bed. 14
As soon as morning dawns they carry out their plans, 15
because they have the power to do so.
2:13 The one who can break through barriers will lead them out 16
they will break out, pass through the gate, and leave. 17
Their king will advance 18 before them,
The Lord himself will lead them. 19
7:2 Faithful men have disappeared 20 from the land;
there are no godly men left. 21
They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; 22
they hunt their own brother with a net. 23
7:17 They will lick the dust like a snake,
like serpents crawling on the ground. 24
They will come trembling from their strongholds
to the Lord our God; 25
they will be terrified 26 of you. 27
1 map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.
2 tn Heb “into a planting place for vineyards.”
3 tn Heb “pour” (so NASB, NIV); KJV, NRSV “pour down”; NAB “throw down”; NLT “roll.”
4 tn Heb “her stones.” The term stones is a metonymy for the city walls whose foundations were constructed of stone masonry.
5 tn Heb “I will uncover her foundations.” The term “foundations” refers to the lower courses of the stones of the city’s outer fortification walls.
6 tn The Hebrew participial form, which is feminine singular, is here used in a collective sense for the all the residents of the town. See GKC 394 §122.s.
7 sn The place name Shaphir means “pleasant” in Hebrew.
8 tn The imperatival form is used rhetorically, emphasizing that the inhabitants of Shaphir will pass by into exile.
9 tn Heb “have not come out”; NIV “will not come out”; NLT “dare not come outside.”
sn The expression can’t leave their city alludes to a siege of the town. The place name Zaanan sounds like the verb “come out” (i.e., “can’t leave”) in Hebrew.
10 sn The place name Beth Ezel means “house of nearness” or “house of proximity” in Hebrew.
11 tn Heb “the lamentation of Beth Ezel.” The following words could be the lamentation offered up by Beth Ezel (subjective genitive) or the mourning song sung over it (objective genitive).
12 tc The form עֶמְדָּתוֹ (’emdato) should be emended to חֲמַדְּתוֹ (khamadto, “his (the conqueror’s) desire”).
tn The precise meaning of the line is uncertain. The translation assumes: (a) the subject of the third masculine singular verb יִקַּח (yiqqakh, “he/it takes”) is the conqueror, (b) the second masculine plural suffix (“you”) on the preposition מִן (min, “from”) refers to the residents of Shaphir and Zaanan, (c) the final form עֶמְדָּתוֹ should be emended to חֲמַדְּתוֹ, “his (the conqueror’s) desire.”
13 tn Heb “Woe to those who plan sin.” The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe”; “ah”) was a cry used in mourning the dead.
14 tn Heb “those who do evil upon their beds.”
15 tn Heb “at the light of morning they do it.”
16 tn Heb “the one who breaks through goes up before them.” The verb form is understood as a perfect of certitude, emphasizing the certainty of this coming event.
17 tn The three verb forms (a perfect and two preterites with vav [ו] consecutive) indicate certitude.
sn The “fold” from which the sheep/people break out is probably a reference to their place of exile.
18 tn The verb form (a preterite with vav [ו] consecutive) indicates certitude.
19 tn Heb “the
20 tn Or “have perished”; “have been destroyed.”
21 tn Heb “and an upright one among men there is not.”
22 tn Heb “for bloodshed” (so NASB); TEV “for a chance to commit murder.”
23 sn Micah compares these ungodly people to hunters trying to capture their prey with a net.
24 tn Heb “like crawling things on the ground.” The parallelism suggests snakes are in view.
25 tn Thetranslationassumesthatthe phrase אֶל־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ (’el-yÿhvah ’elohenu, “to the
26 tn Heb “they will be in dread and afraid.”
27 tn The