Micah 4
New English Translation
Better Days Ahead for Jerusalem
4 And in future days[a] the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all;[b]
it will be more prominent than other hills.[c]
People will stream to it.
2 Many nations will come, saying,
“Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,
to the temple of Jacob’s God,
so he can teach us his ways
and we can live by his laws.”[d]
For instruction will proceed from Zion,
the Lord’s message from Jerusalem.
3 He will arbitrate[e] between many peoples
and settle disputes between many[f] distant nations.[g]
They will beat their swords into plowshares,[h]
and their spears into pruning hooks.[i]
Nations will not use weapons[j] against other nations,
and they will no longer train for war.
4 Each will sit under his own grapevine
or under his own fig tree without any fear.[k]
The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has decreed it.[l]
5 Though all the nations follow their respective gods,[m]
we will follow[n] the Lord our God forever.
Restoration Will Follow Crisis
6 “In that day,” says the Lord, “I will gather the lame
and assemble the outcasts whom I injured.[o]
7 I will transform the lame into the nucleus of a new nation,[p]
and those far off[q] into a mighty nation.
The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion,
from that day forward and forevermore.[r]
8 As for you, watchtower for the flock,[s]
fortress of Daughter Zion[t]—
your former dominion will be restored,[u]
the sovereignty that belongs to Daughter Jerusalem.”
9 Jerusalem, why are you[v] now shouting so loudly?[w]
Has your king disappeared?[x]
Has your wise leader[y] been destroyed?
Is this why[z] pain grips[aa] you as if you were a woman in labor?
10 Twist and strain,[ab] 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[ac] you
from the power[ad] of your enemies.
11 Many nations have now assembled against you.
They say, “Jerusalem must be desecrated,[ae]
so we can gloat over Zion!”[af]
12 But they do not know what the Lord is planning;
they do not understand his strategy.
He has gathered them like stalks of grain to be threshed[ag] at the threshing floor.
13 “Get up and thresh, Daughter Zion!
For I will give you iron horns;[ah]
I will give you bronze hooves,
and you will crush many nations.”[ai]
You will devote to the Lord the spoils you take from them
and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler[aj] of the whole earth.[ak]
Footnotes
- Micah 4:1 sn Cf. Isa 2:2. See the note at Gen 49:1.
- Micah 4:1 tn Heb “will be established as the head of the mountains.”
- Micah 4:1 tn Heb “it will be lifted up above the hills.”
- Micah 4:2 tn Heb “and we can walk in his paths.”
- Micah 4:3 tn Or “judge.”
- Micah 4:3 tn Or “mighty” (NASB); KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “strong”; TEV “among the great powers.”
- Micah 4:3 tn Heb “[for many nations] to a distance.”
- Micah 4:3 sn Instead of referring to the large plow as a whole, the plowshare is simply the metal tip which actually breaks the earth and cuts the furrow.
- Micah 4:3 sn This implement was used to prune the vines, i.e., to cut off extra leaves and young shoots (M. Klingbeil, NIDOTTE 1:1117-18). It was a short knife with a curved hook at the end sharpened on the inside like a sickle.
- Micah 4:3 tn Heb “take up the sword.”
- Micah 4:4 tn Heb “and there will be no one making [him] afraid.”
- Micah 4:4 tn Heb “for the mouth of the Lord…has spoken.”
- Micah 4:5 tn Heb “walk each in the name of his god.” The term “name” here has the idea of “authority.” To “walk in the name” of a god is to recognize the god’s authority as binding over one’s life.
- Micah 4:5 tn Heb “walk in the name of.”
- Micah 4:6 sn The exiles of the nation are compared to lame and injured sheep.
- Micah 4:7 tn Heb “make the lame into a remnant.”
- Micah 4:7 tn The precise meaning of this difficult form is uncertain. The present translation assumes the form is a Niphal participle of an otherwise unattested denominative verb הָלָא (halaʾ, “to be far off”; see BDB 229 s.v.), but attractive emendations include הַנַּחֲלָה (hannakhalah, “the sick one[s]”) from חָלָה (khalah) and הַנִּלְאָה (hannilʾah, “the weary one[s]”) from לָאָה (laʾah).
- Micah 4:7 tn Heb “from now until forever.”
- Micah 4:8 tn Heb “Migdal Eder.” Some English versions transliterate this phrase, apparently because they view it as a place name (cf. NAB).
- Micah 4:8 sn The city of David, located within Jerusalem, is addressed as Daughter Zion. As the home of the Davidic king, who was Israel’s shepherd (Ps 78:70-72), the royal citadel could be viewed metaphorically as the watchtower of the flock.
- Micah 4:8 tn Heb “to you it will come, the former dominion will arrive.”
- Micah 4:9 tn The Hebrew form is feminine singular, indicating that Jerusalem, personified as a young woman, is now addressed (see v. 10). In v. 8 the tower/fortress was addressed with masculine forms, so there is clearly a shift in addressee here. “Jerusalem” has been supplied in the translation at the beginning of v. 9 to make this shift apparent.
- Micah 4:9 tn Heb “Now why are you shouting [with] a shout.”
- Micah 4:9 tn Heb “Is there no king over you?”
- Micah 4:9 tn Traditionally, “counselor” (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). This refers to the king mentioned in the previous line; the title points to the king’s roles as chief strategist and policy maker, both of which required extraordinary wisdom.
- Micah 4:9 tn Heb “that.” The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) is used here in a resultative sense; for this use see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §450.
- Micah 4:9 tn Heb “grabs hold of, seizes.”
- Micah 4:10 tn Or perhaps “scream”; NRSV, TEV, NLT “groan.”
- Micah 4:10 tn Or “redeem” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
- Micah 4:10 tn Heb “hand.” The Hebrew idiom is a metonymy for power or control.
- Micah 4:11 tn Heb “let her be desecrated.” The referent (Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Micah 4:11 tn Heb “and let our eye look upon Zion.” This is a Hebrew idiom for a typically smug or condescending look by someone in a superior position.
- Micah 4:12 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.
- Micah 4:13 tn Heb “I will make your horn iron.”
- Micah 4:13 sn Jerusalem (Daughter Zion at the beginning of the verse; cf. 4:8) is here compared to a powerful ox which crushes the grain on the threshing floor with its hooves.
- Micah 4:13 tn Or “the Lord” (so many English versions); Heb “the master.”
- Micah 4:13 tn Heb “and their wealth to the master of all the earth.” The verb “devote” does double duty in the parallelism and is supplied in the second line for clarification.sn In vv. 11-13 the prophet jumps from the present crisis (which will result in exile, v. 10) to a time beyond the restoration of the exiles when God will protect his city from invaders. The Lord’s victory over the Assyrian armies in 701 b.c. foreshadowed this.
Micah 4
Legacy Standard Bible
The Law Will Go Forth from Zion
4 Now it will be that in the (A)last days
The (B)mountain of the house of Yahweh
Will be established [a]as the head of the mountains,
And will be lifted up above the hills,
And the (C)peoples will stream to it.
2 (D)And many nations will come and say,
“(E)Come and let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh
And to the house of the God of Jacob,
That (F)He may instruct us from His ways
And that we may walk in His paths.”
For (G)from Zion will go forth the law,
And the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.
3 And He will (H)judge between many peoples
And will render decisions for mighty, [b]distant nations.
And they will hammer their swords (I)into plowshares
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation will not lift up sword against nation,
And never again will they learn war.
4 And each of them will (J)sit under his vine
And under his fig tree,
With (K)no one to make them tremble,
For the (L)mouth of Yahweh of hosts has spoken.
5 Though all the peoples walk
Each in the (M)name of his god,
As for us, (N)we will walk
In the name of (O)Yahweh our God forever and ever.
6 “In that day,” declares Yahweh,
“I will assemble the (P)lame
And (Q)gather the banished,
Even those upon whom I have brought calamity.
7 I will make the lame a (R)remnant
And the outcasts a mighty nation,
And (S)Yahweh will reign over them in Mount Zion
From now on and forever.
8 And as for you, [c](T)tower of the flock,
[d]Hill of the daughter of Zion,
To you it will come—
Even the (U)former dominion will come,
The kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.
9 “Now, why do you (V)make a loud shout?
Is there no king among you,
Or has your (W)counselor perished,
That writhing has taken hold of you like a woman in childbirth?
10 (X)Writhe and labor to give birth,
Daughter of Zion,
Like a woman in childbirth;
For now you will (Y)go out of the city,
Dwell in the field,
And go to Babylon.
(Z)There you will be delivered;
(AA)There Yahweh will redeem you
From the hand of your enemies.
11 But now (AB)many nations have been assembled against you
Who say, ‘Let her be polluted,
And let our eyes behold Zion in triumph.’
12 But they do not (AC)know the thoughts of Yahweh,
And they do not understand His counsel;
For He has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.
13 Arise and (AD)thresh, daughter of Zion,
For your horn I will make iron,
And your hoofs I will make bronze,
That you may (AE)pulverize many peoples,
That you may (AF)devote to Yahweh their greedy gain unto destruction
And their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.
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