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.”
Micah 3:9-12
English Standard Version
9 (A)Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel,
(B)who detest justice
and make crooked all that is straight,
10 (C)who build Zion with blood
and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 (D)Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
(E)its priests teach for a price;
(F)its prophets practice divination for money;
(G)yet they lean on the Lord and (H)say,
“Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
(I)No disaster shall come upon us.”
12 Therefore because of you
(J)Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem (K)shall become a heap of ruins,
and (L)the mountain of the house (M)a wooded height.
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The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
