translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: MIC

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “heads.”


text: Heb “house.”


text: Heb “Should you not know justice?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you should!”


text: Heb “the ones who.”


text: Or “good.”


text: Or “evil.”


text: Heb “their skin from upon them.” The referent of the pronoun (“my people,” referring to Jacob and/or the house of Israel, with the Lord as the speaker) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “and their flesh from their bones.” sn Micah compares the social injustice perpetrated by the house of Jacob/Israel to cannibalism, because it threatens the very lives of the oppressed.


text: Heb “who.”


label: NET textual note

text: The MT reads “and they chop up as in a pot.” The translation assumes an emendation of כַּאֲשֶׁר ( ka ’ asher , “as”) to כִּשְׁאֵר ( kish ’ er , “like flesh”).


text: Heb “then they will cry out to the Lord .” The words “Someday these sinners” have been supplied in the translation for clarification.


text: Heb “concerning the prophets, those who mislead my people.” The first person pronominal suffix is awkward in a quotation formula that introduces the words of the Lord . For this reason some prefer to begin the quotation after “the Lord says” (cf. NIV), but this leaves “concerning the prophets” hanging very awkwardly at the beginning of the quotation. It is preferable to add הוֹי ( hoy , “woe, ah”) at the beginning of the quotation, right after the graphically similar יְהוָה ( yÿhvah ; see D. R. Hillers, Micah [Hermeneia], 44). The phrase הוֹי עַל ( hoy ’ al , “woe upon”) occurs in Jer 50:27 and Ezek 13:3 (with “the prophets” following the preposition in the latter instance).


text: Heb “those who bite with their teeth and cry out, ‘peace.’” The phrase “bite with the teeth” is taken here as idiomatic for eating. Apparently these prophets were driven by mercenary motives. If they were paid well, they gave positive oracles to their clients, but if someone could not afford to pay them, they were hostile and delivered oracles of doom.


text: Heb “but [as for the one] who does not place [food] in their mouths, they prepare for war against him.”


text: Heb “it will be night for you without a vision.” sn The coming of night (and darkness in the following line) symbolizes the cessation of revelation.


text: Heb “it will be dark for you without divination.” sn The reading of omens ( Heb “divination”) was forbidden in the law ( Deut 18:10 ), so this probably reflects the prophets’ view of how they received divine revelation.


text: Heb “and the day will be dark over them.”


text: Or “seers.”


text: Or “the mustache,” or perhaps “the beard.” Cf. KJV, NAB, NRSV “cover their lips.”


text: Heb “for there will be no answer from God.”


text: Heb “am full of power, the Spirit of the Lord , and justice and strength.” The appositional phrase “the Spirit of the Lord ” explains the source of the prophet’s power. The phrase “justice and strength” is understood here as a hendiadys, referring to the prophet’s strong sense of justice.


text: Heb “to declare to Jacob his rebellion and to Israel his sin.” The words “this enables me” are supplied in the translation for clarification.


text: Heb “house.”


text: Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons (also at the beginning of v. 10 ).


text: Heb “bloodshed” (so NAB, NASB, NIV); NLT “murder.”


text: For location see Map5-B1 ; Map6-F3 ; Map7-E2 ; Map8-F2 ; Map10-B3 ; JP1-F4 ; JP2-F4 ; JP3-F4 ; JP4-F4 .


text: Heb “judge for a bribe.”


text: Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”


text: Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”


text: Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”


text: The plural pronoun refers to the leaders, priests, and prophets mentioned in the preceding verse.


text: Or “into” (an adverbial accusative of result).


text: Heb “the mountain of the house” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).


text: Heb “a high place of overgrowth.”