Through My Bible Yr 01 – January 09
Through My Bible Yr 01 – January 09
Micah 1 – 2
Micah 1
1 This is the word of the Lord that came to Micah from Moresheth, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. He saw this vision concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2 Listen, all you peoples!
Pay close attention, earth and all of you who fill it!
The Lord God will testify against you.
The Lord will testify from his holy temple.
The Lord’s Judgment Is Coming on Samaria and Jerusalem
3 Look! The Lord is coming out from his place.
He will come down and will trample the high places of the land.
4 The mountains will melt beneath him,
and the valleys will flow away like wax near a fire,
like water spilling down a mountainside.
5 All this will happen because of the rebellion of Jacob,
because of the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the rebellion of Jacob? Is it not Samaria?
What is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?
6 That is why I have sentenced Samaria to become
a heap of ruins in the open countryside,
a place where someone might plant a vineyard.
I have hurled down its stones into the valley. [1]
I will expose its foundation.
7 All her carved idols will be crushed,
and all her wages will be burned with fire.
I will sentence all her useless images to destruction.
Because she collected a prostitute’s wages to obtain them,
they will become a prostitute’s wages again.
Micah’s Mourning
8 Because of this I must lament and grieve.
I must walk barefoot and naked.
I must howl like a jackal
and make a mourning shriek like an ostrich, [2]
9 because her plague is incurable.
It has even spread to Judah.
It has arrived at the gate of my people.
It has come all the way up to Jerusalem.
10 Do not announce it in Gath.
Do not weep at all.
In Beth Ophrah roll around in the dust. [3]
11 Pass by, inhabitants of Shaphir, naked and ashamed.
The inhabitants of Za’anan [4] must not go out.
Beth Ezel mourns. It takes away its support from you. [5]
12 The inhabitants of Maroth anxiously wait for good,
because disaster has come down from the Lord to the gates of Jerusalem.
13 Hitch fast horses to the chariot, you inhabitants of Lachish.
You were the beginning of sin for the Daughter of Zion,
because the rebellious deeds of Israel were found also in you.
14 Therefore you will give farewell gifts to Moresheth Gath.
The houses of Akzib will be undependable to the kings of Israel.
15 I will once again bring a conqueror to you, you inhabitants of Mareshah.
The glory of Israel will come to Adullam. [6]
16 Shave your heads and cut off your hair
to mourn for the children that delight you.
Make yourself bald as a buzzard,
because your children will be taken away from you into exile.
Woe to Those Who Plan Wickedness
Micah 2
1 Woe to those who plan wickedness,
who make preparations for evil while lying on their beds.
By the morning light they carry it out,
because it is in the power of their hands to do so.
2 They covet fields and seize them.
They covet houses and take them away.
They deprive a person of his house,
and a man of his inheritance.
3 Therefore this is what the Lord says:
Look, I am making plans against this family of clans,
plans for a disaster from which you cannot save your necks.
You will not be able to hold your heads high,
because it will be an evil time.
4 On that day a saying will arise about you.
People will moan this sad song:
“We have been completely devastated.
My people’s portion in the land is divided up.
He takes it from me and assigns our fields to traitors.” [7]
5 Because of this, there will be no one to measure off an allotted inheritance for you in the assembly of the Lord.
Lying Prophets
6 “Stop preaching,” they preach. [8] “Do not preach about these things,”
but these charges will not be turned away. [9]
7 Should the house of Jacob say,
“Is the Spirit of the Lord impatient?
Would he really do these things?”
Will my words fail to accomplish good things for people who walk uprightly?
8 But lately my people have stood up like an enemy.
You strip off the splendid robe from those who pass by
as they return safely from battle. [10]
9 You drive the women among my people out of their comfortable houses.
You take away my splendor from their children forever.
10 Get up and leave,
for this will not be a place to rest,
because the impurity that destroys it will bring painful destruction.
11 If a man full of bluster and lies comes and says,
“I will preach for you about wine and beer,”
he would be just the preacher for these people.
A Promise for the Remnant
12 I will surely assemble all of you, Jacob.
I will surely gather together the surviving remnant of Israel.
I will establish them like a flock in its fold,
like a herd in its pasture,
like a happy crowd of noisy people. [11]
13 The one who breaks through the siege line [12] will go up ahead of them.
They too will break out and pass through the gate,
and their king will cross over in front of them,
with the Lord as their head.
Footnotes
- Micah 1:6 Though the events described in verse 6 still lay in the future as Micah was writing about them, the Hebrew verbs express past time, indicating that the events were already determined by God.
- Micah 1:8 Or perhaps a type of owl
- Micah 1:10 In this section there is a lot of word play between the city names and the verbs. For example, in verse 10 the name Gath sounds similar to the Hebrew word for tell, and the line that reads in Beth Ophrah roll around in the dust could be translated in Dust City roll around in the dust. The translation does not attempt to reproduce all the puns because many of them do not have good English equivalents or they simply express similarity of sound.
- Micah 1:11 The stop mark ′ shows that Za’an- is to be pronounced as two syllables.
- Micah 1:11 The meaning of this line is uncertain.
- Micah 1:15 This line does not seem to provide a parallel to its neighbors. It may mean that the nobles of Israel are refugees to Adullam, or that God comes there in judgment.
- Micah 2:4 Or apostates
- Micah 2:6 Or stop droning on. The basic meaning of the Hebrew word is drip or drool. This implies that Micah’s message is a tiresome one that the people do not want to hear. The English word preach sometimes retains this negative connotation when a speaker’s message about behavior is unwelcome.
- Micah 2:6 The translation above, which follows the Hebrew reading, interprets this line as a warning from the Lord that the complainers cannot escape the prophesied judgment. Many translations emend the verb and take this as a continuation of the words of the people: These insults of yours will never touch us. Another option is to take the last part of the verse as a question: Will there be no end to the scolding?
- Micah 2:8 The meaning of this line is uncertain.
- Micah 2:12 The meaning of this line is uncertain.
- Micah 2:13 This phrase has traditionally been understood as a reference to the Messiah.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.