2:2 They confiscate the fields they desire,
and seize the houses they want. 1
They defraud people of their homes, 2
and deprive people of the land they have inherited. 3
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
3:7 The prophets 9 will be ashamed;
the omen readers will be humiliated.
All of them will cover their mouths, 10
for they will receive no divine oracles.” 11
1 tn Heb “they desire fields and rob [them], and houses and take [them] away.”
2 tn Heb “and they oppress a man and his home.”
3 tn Heb “and a man and his inheritance.” The verb עָשַׁק (’ashaq, “to oppress”; “to wrong”) does double duty in the parallel structure and is understood by ellipsis in the second line.
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 Or “seers.”
10 tn Or “the mustache,” or perhaps “the beard.” Cf. KJV, NAB, NRSV “cover their lips.”
11 tn Heb “for there will be no answer from God.”