2:12 I will certainly gather all of you, O Jacob,
I will certainly assemble those Israelites who remain. 1
I will bring them together like sheep in a fold, 2
like a flock in the middle of a pasture; 3
they will be so numerous that they will make a lot of noise. 4
4:2 Many nations will come, saying,
“Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,
to the temple 5 of Jacob’s God,
so he can teach us his commands 6
and we can live by his laws.” 7
For Zion will be the source of instruction;
the Lord’s teachings will proceed from Jerusalem. 8
5:3 So the Lord 9 will hand the people of Israel 10 over to their enemies 11
until the time when the woman in labor 12 gives birth. 13
Then the rest of the king’s 14 countrymen will return
to be reunited with the people of Israel. 15
1 tn Heb “the remnant of Israel.”
2 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.
3 tc The MT reads “its pasture,” but the final vav (ו) belongs with the following verb. See GKC 413 §127.i.
4 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.
5 tn Heb “house.”
6 tn Heb “ways.”
7 tn Heb “and we can walk in his paths.”
8 tn Heb “instruction [or, “law”] will go out from Zion, and the word of the
map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the
10 tn Heb “them”; the referent (the people of Israel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
11 tn The words “to their enemies” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
12 sn The woman in labor. Personified, suffering Jerusalem is the referent. See 4:9-10.
13 sn Gives birth. The point of the figurative language is that Jerusalem finally finds relief from her suffering. See 4:10.
14 tn Heb “his”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
15 tn Heb “to the sons of Israel.” The words “be reunited with” are supplied in the translation for clarity.
sn The rest of the king’s brothers are the coming king’s fellow Judahites, while the sons of Israel are the northern tribes. The verse pictures the reunification of the nation under the Davidic king. See Isa 11:12-13; Jer 31:2-6, 15-20; Ezek 37; Hos 1:11; 3:5.