3:6 Therefore night will fall, and you will receive no visions; 1
it will grow dark, and you will no longer be able to read the omens. 2
The sun will set on these prophets,
and the daylight will turn to darkness over their heads. 3
5:3 So the Lord 4 will hand the people of Israel 5 over to their enemies 6
until the time when the woman in labor 7 gives birth. 8
Then the rest of the king’s 9 countrymen will return
to be reunited with the people of Israel. 10
6:14 You will eat, but not be satisfied.
Even if you have the strength 11 to overtake some prey, 12
you will not be able to carry it away; 13
if you do happen to carry away something,
I will deliver it over to the sword.
1 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.
2 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.
3 tn Heb “and the day will be dark over them.”
4 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the
5 tn Heb “them”; the referent (the people of Israel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn The words “to their enemies” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
7 sn The woman in labor. Personified, suffering Jerusalem is the referent. See 4:9-10.
8 sn Gives birth. The point of the figurative language is that Jerusalem finally finds relief from her suffering. See 4:10.
9 tn Heb “his”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 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.
11 tc The first Hebrew term in the line (וְיֶשְׁחֲךָ, vÿyeshkhakha) is obscure. HALOT 446 s.v. יֶשַׁח understands a noun meaning “filth,” which would yield the translation, “and your filth is inside you.” The translation assumes an emendation to כֹּחַ-וְיֶשׁ (vÿyesh-koakh, “and [if] there is strength inside you”).
12 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term וְתַסֵּג (vÿtasseg) is unclear. The translation assumes it is a Hiphal imperfect from נָסַג/נָשַׂג (nasag/nasag, “reach; overtake”) and that hunting imagery is employed. (Note the reference to hunger in the first line of the verse.) See D. R. Hillers, Micah (Hermeneia), 80.
13 tn The Hiphal of פָּלַט (palat) is used in Isa 5:29 of an animal carrying its prey to a secure place.