Micah 3:9-12
New Living Translation
9 Listen to me, you leaders of Israel!
You hate justice and twist all that is right.
10 You are building Jerusalem
on a foundation of murder and corruption.
11 You rulers make decisions based on bribes;
you priests teach God’s laws only for a price;
you prophets won’t prophesy unless you are paid.
Yet all of you claim to depend on the Lord.
“No harm can come to us,” you say,
“for the Lord is here among us.”
12 Because of you, Mount Zion will be plowed like an open field;
Jerusalem will be reduced to ruins!
A thicket will grow on the heights
where the Temple now stands.
Micah 3:9-12
New English Translation
9 Listen to this, you leaders of the family[a] of Jacob,
you rulers of the nation[b] of Israel!
You[c] hate justice
and pervert all that is right.
10 You[d] build Zion through bloody crimes,[e]
Jerusalem through unjust violence.
11 Her[f] leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases,[g]
her priests proclaim rulings for profit,
and her prophets read omens for pay.
Yet they claim to trust[h] the Lord and say,
“The Lord is among us.[i]
Disaster will not overtake[j] us!”
12 Therefore, because of you,[k] Zion will be plowed up like[l] a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,
and the Temple Mount[m] will become a hill overgrown with brush![n]
Footnotes
- Micah 3:9 tn Heb “house.”
- Micah 3:9 tn Heb “house.”
- Micah 3:9 tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons (also at the beginning of v. 10).
- Micah 3:10 tn Heb “who.”
- Micah 3:10 tn Heb “bloodshed” (so NAB, NASB, NIV); NLT “murder.”
- Micah 3:11 sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).
- Micah 3:11 tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”
- Micah 3:11 tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”
- Micah 3:11 tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”
- Micah 3:11 tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”
- Micah 3:12 tn The plural pronoun refers to the leaders, priests, and prophets mentioned in the preceding verse.
- Micah 3:12 tn Or “into” (an adverbial accusative of result).
- Micah 3:12 tn Heb “the mountain of the house” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).
- Micah 3:12 tn Heb “a high place of overgrowth.”
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