Micah 4:6-13
New English Translation
Restoration Will Follow Crisis
6 “In that day,” says the Lord, “I will gather the lame
and assemble the outcasts whom I injured.[a]
7 I will transform the lame into the nucleus of a new nation,[b]
and those far off[c] into a mighty nation.
The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion,
from that day forward and forevermore.[d]
8 As for you, watchtower for the flock,[e]
fortress of Daughter Zion[f]—
your former dominion will be restored,[g]
the sovereignty that belongs to Daughter Jerusalem.”
9 Jerusalem, why are you[h] now shouting so loudly?[i]
Has your king disappeared?[j]
Has your wise leader[k] been destroyed?
Is this why[l] pain grips[m] you as if you were a woman in labor?
10 Twist and strain,[n] 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[o] you
from the power[p] of your enemies.
11 Many nations have now assembled against you.
They say, “Jerusalem must be desecrated,[q]
so we can gloat over Zion!”[r]
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[s] at the threshing floor.
13 “Get up and thresh, Daughter Zion!
For I will give you iron horns;[t]
I will give you bronze hooves,
and you will crush many nations.”[u]
You will devote to the Lord the spoils you take from them
and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler[v] of the whole earth.[w]
Footnotes
- 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 4:6-13
International Standard Version
6 “At that time,” declares the Lord,
“I will assemble the lame;
and I will gather those whom I have scattered,
along with those whom I have afflicted.
7 I will transform the lame into survivors,
and those who were scattered into a strong nation;
and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion,
now and forever.”
Zion’s Captivity
8 “And you, watchtower of the flock,
you stronghold of the daughter of Zion,
it will happen even to you:
The former dominion, even the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem, will come.
9 Why are you crying so loud now?
There’s no king among you, is there?
Perhaps your advisor has died?
For pain has overtaken you like a woman in labor.
10 Be in pain! Be in labor, you daughter of Zion,
like a woman about to give birth,
because now you will depart from the city,
living in the open fields.
To Babylon you will go.
There you will be delivered,
there the Lord will rescue you from the power[a] of your enemies.”
The Nations Despise Zion
11 “Now many nations have gathered against you, saying,
‘Let her be defiled,’ and
‘Let’s look down on Zion.’
12 But they don’t know the thoughts of the Lord,
and they don’t understand his tactics,
for he will gather them like harvested grain to his threshing floor.
13 Get up and smash[b] them to pieces, daughter of Zion,
because I will make your horn like iron
and your hooves like bronze!
And you will beat many people to pieces,
and I will consecrate their dishonest[c] gain to the Lord
and their assets to the Lord of the entire earth.”
Footnotes
- Micah 4:10 Lit. hand
- Micah 4:13 Lit. thresh
- Micah 4:13 The Heb. lacks dishonest
NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.
