4:10 Twist and strain, 1 Daughter Zion, as if you were in labor!
For you will leave the city
and live in the open field.
You will go to Babylon,
but there you will be rescued.
There the Lord will deliver 2 you
from the power 3 of your enemies.
6:14 You will eat, but not be satisfied.
Even if you have the strength 4 to overtake some prey, 5
you will not be able to carry it away; 6
if you do happen to carry away something,
I will deliver it over to the sword.
1 tn Or perhaps “scream”; NRSV, TEV, NLT “groan.”
2 tn Or “redeem” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
3 tn Heb “hand.” The Hebrew idiom is a metonymy for power or control.
4 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”).
5 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.
6 tn The Hiphal of פָּלַט (palat) is used in Isa 5:29 of an animal carrying its prey to a secure place.