¹ sn The place name Maroth sounds like the Hebrew word for “bitter.”

² tc The translation assumes an emendation of חָלָה (khalah; from חִיל, khil, “to writhe”) to יִחֲלָה (yikhalah; from יָחַל, yakhal, “to wait”).

tn Heb “[the residents of Maroth] writhe [= “anxiously long for”?] good.”

³ tn Heb “though disaster has come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem.”

⁴ sn The prophet Micah speaks here and contrasts himself with the mercenaries just denounced by the Lord in the preceding verses.

⁵ tn Heb “am full of power, the Spirit of the Lord, and justice and strength.” The appositional phrase “the Spirit of the Lord” explains the source of the prophet’s power. The phrase “justice and strength” is understood here as a hendiadys, referring to the prophet’s strong sense of justice.

⁶ tn Heb “to declare to Jacob his rebellion and to Israel his sin.” The words “this enables me” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

⁷ tn The words “to be threshed” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation to make it clear that the Lord is planning to enable “Daughter Zion” to “thresh” her enemies.

⁸ sn With what should I enter the Lord’s presence? The prophet speaks again, playing the role of an inquisitive worshiper who wants to know what God really desires from his followers.

⁹ tn The words “with what” do double duty in the parallelism and are supplied in the second line of the translation for clarification.

¹⁰ tn Or “the exalted God.”