Micah 3:9

3:9 Listen to this, you leaders of the family of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation of Israel!

You hate justice

and pervert all that is right.

Micah 7:19

7:19 You will once again have mercy on us;

you will conquer our evil deeds;

you will hurl our sins into the depths of the sea.


tn Heb “house.”

tn Heb “house.”

tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons (also at the beginning of v. 10).

tn The verb יָשׁוּב (yashuv, “he will return”) is here used adverbially in relation to the following verb, indicating that the Lord will again show mercy.

tn Some prefer to read יִכְבֹּס (yikhbos, “he will cleanse”; see HALOT 459 s.v. כבס pi). If the MT is taken as it stands, sin is personified as an enemy that the Lord subdues.

tn Heb “their sins,” but the final mem (ם) may be enclitic rather than a pronominal suffix. In this case the suffix from the preceding line (“our”) may be understood as doing double duty.

sn In this metaphor the Lord disposes of Israel’s sins by throwing them into the waters of the sea (here symbolic of chaos).