Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 17 November 2024
Read
my translation starting with v. 9:
It is the voice
of Yahweh that calls out to the city, so, it is the one who is
prudent who will respect Your reputation. Y’all give heed to the
rod; indeed, who will partner with her? Is there still a house of a
wicked man, treasuries of wickedness, or an
upsettingly-short-changed bushel? Would I come off clean using
wicked balance-scales or using a bag of deceptive weights? Because
her rich men have been full of violence and her residents have
spoken falsehood (indeed their tongue is unreliable in their mouth),
so also I Myself will begin to cause strikes against you – to
cause desolation because of your sins. As for you, you will eat, but
you will not feel full; instead, emptiness will be yours in your
innards. Furthermore, you will retreat but not get to safety, and
whoever you do save, I will give to the sword. You yourself will
plant [seeds] but you will not harvest. You yourself will use the
foot-press for the olive (but you will not lotion with the oil) and
for grape-juice, but you will not drink the wine. You have only kept
for yourself the statutes of Omri and every fabrication of the house
of Ahab. Furthermore y’all have walked in their counsels,
therefore I have given you to become appalling, and her residents to
become ridiculous, and it is the stigma of my people that y’all
will carry.
So far, in Micah 6, we have been introduced to the courtroom, and then to God’s accusations against the Jewish nation of Micah’s day in verses 10-12, and now, in verse 13, we arrive at the sentence of the Judge, and we see that, although “The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, [nevertheless] he will by no means clear the guilty…” (Numbers 14:18, ESV)
The first verb in v.13 was understood to mean “begin” by the Greek, Latin, and Aramaic-speaking church for the first 1500 years, but Jewish scholars in the Medieval age influenced modern English versions to interpret it as “sicken/grieve.” Recently some scholars (like the NIV editors1) have been reconsidering it and going back to interpreting it “begin,” and I am in favor of that, although it doesn’t make a huge difference either way.
But, while I agree with the NIV editors on interpreting the first verb in v.13 with the English word “begin,” I disagree with the NIV’s interpretation of the next word to mean “destroy.”
The central meaning of that word nacah is “to strike.” (Micah used other words when he meant “destroy2.”)
God wasn’t planning to “destroy” His people; rather He was implementing discipline for their sins, with the goal of purifying them and renewing relationship with them, which is why He exhorted them to “heed” His “rod” of discipline back in v.9.
And, for what it’s worth, the word for “strike” in Hebrew is spelled in the Hiphil stem which denotes causation. In other words, God would be the cause behind this disciplinary action, not necessarily the one directly and literally spanking them; He would do it by inciting foreign armies to sweep through Israel and make strikes against His people.
This, of course, will bring “grief/sickness/wounding” to Israel.
As we read in the New Testament book of Hebrews, “...all discipline, for the duration, doesn't seem to be a joy (but rather a grief!), yet afterward, it pays back to the ones who have been exercised by it the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” (Hebrews 12:11, NAW)
God, as a loving Father, brings discipline into our lives to move us away from sin and draw us closer to Him.
The “desolation3” which Micah says this discipline would bring was part of the covenant which God had made with Israel back in Leviticus 26:27&32 “If y'all don't give heed to me... and y'all keep walking defiantly in relation to me, then I will walk with furious defiance in relation to you, and I – yes I – will discipline y'all sevenfold because of y'all's sins... And I myself will cause the land to be desolate, and y'all's enemies who settle in it will wreak desolation upon it.” (NAW)
And, to be perfectly clear, God says it is “because of your sins.”
The problem is not God’s holiness, and it’s not the people’s environment, or their suppressed emotions; the problem is their offenses against God.
Psalm 107:17 “Fools, because of their transgression, And because of their iniquities, [a]re afflicted.” ~NKJV
Verses 14 and 15 start with an emphatic pronoun “you.”
Verse 13 started with the emphatic pronoun “I,” focusing on what God would do to instigate discipline for the list of offenses He had detailed in verses 10-12.
Now the focus shifts in vs.14-16 to God’s people and what they would experience under God’s discipline. The first discipline they would experience in v.14 is...
The meaning of Micah’s words is somewhat ambiguous, and the word translated “emptiness/hunger/vileness/casting-down” does not appear anywhere else in the Bible, so it is not a well-defined word, but it likely describes a literal famine – “You will eat but you will not feel full, and you will still have an empty stomach” – a fitting reprisal to those who have been short-changing customers on grain4.
Now, this might sound like a petty act of revenge by God in a moment of frustration with His people, but it really isn’t. Some 800 years before, God had written down a covenant with this nation, and anyone in Micah’s day who was familiar with the wording of that covenant would immediately recognize that Micah is quoting the curses in Leviticus 26 for breaking that covenant5:
Lev. 26:23-26 “If... y'all keep walking defiantly in relation to me, then... I will cause a sword to come upon y'all avenging the vengeance of the covenant, and though y'all may be gathered into your cities, even then I will send a plague into the midst of y'all, and y'all will be given into the hand of the enemy. When I shatter y'all's food supply, then ten women will bake y'all's bread in one oven, and they will bring back y'all's bread in ounce-measures; although y'all will eat, you will not be satisfied.” (NAW, cf. Dt. 28:38-40)
The Israelites were failing to uphold the promises they had made to God: they were, according to verses 10-12, worshiping idols instead of Him; they were doing morally-wicked and oppressive things; they were lying, cheating, and killing, and so the curses they had agreed to 800 years ago came true in their lives.
The prophet Hosea was warning Israel of the same thing while Micah was warning Judah: Hosea 4:10 “For they shall eat, but not have enough; They shall commit harlotry, but not increase; Because they have ceased obeying the LORD.” (NKJV)6
Now, as we consider the application of this warning today, I believe it should be expanded to include – not only literal famine, when food gets short in a war, but also – spiritual famine, the dissatisfaction experienced by people who have things but do not have a right relationship with God and so they cannot be satisfied by things.7
God’s word tells us that it is God who satisfies the soul of human beings: Psalm 145:16 “You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing.” (NKJV, cf. Ps. 103:5)
When we attempt to “satisfy” our souls by consuming earthly things, we will remain “empty.”
No amount of accumulating social media contacts, no amount of eating food, and no amount of drug-taking or sexual experiences or existential thrill-seeking will ever be enough to satisfy you. You will always crave more because your soul was not designed to be satisfied with earthly things. (cf. Eccl. 5:10; Isa. 55:2)
It can only feel full when it is in right relationship with God. 17th Century French philosopher Blaise Pascal famously observed in his Pensées: “...the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself.8”
“Emptiness will be in your midst” until you enter into (or return to) covenant relationship with God through trusting Jesus.
The second half of v. 14 applies the same idea to soteriology. A second result of breaking faith with God and sinning against Him is that we will experience...
Micah’s phrases are a little obscure here, but what it clear is the Hebrew verb palat which occurs twice in the second half of v.14.
It is a word which means “save/deliver/cause to escape/make safe.”
And the opposite of this “saving” is the “sword,” which was the standard weapon of war.
So, although most of the more-recent English translations imply that the people will be unsuccessful at saving money and food9, I think this is more likely talking about saving human beings, like family members, because being “given to the sword” means to be killed.
And that fits right in with the curses of Leviticus 26:33-39 “...I will unsheathe a sword behind y'all... and y'all's cities will become wasteland... they will flee retreating from a sword – and they will even fall... And y'all will perish among the nations, and the land of y'all's enemies will consume you, and as for those of y'all who are left, they will degenerate in their iniquity in the lands of your enemies…” (NAW)
Even if you apply it to being a “prepper” and stockpiling food for the coming judgment, the situation is the same; you can’t outsmart God by hiding in a bunker with a bunch of freeze-dried food, hoping to escape the hardships of His judgment.
Your attempts to save yourself from His judgment will not work, because the whole point of His discipline is to teach you that you cannot save yourself – that you need God to save you. So when God brings discipline, He will put you in a situation where you cannot save yourself – where you must abandon all your earthly props and trust Him alone to save you.
Moving into v.15, not only will God discipline His people with dissatisfaction and failure to save themselves, but also by theft, especially...
The three staples of the Jewish diet: wheat, olive oil, and grape juice are mentioned, in v.15, along with the processes by which each were made, but God says He will prevent them from using what they had grown on their farms – presumably beause a foreign army would steal it.
The singular “you” is very emphatic in verses 14 and 15. Some English versions make the mistake of switching to a plural “you/yourselves” here, but the singular in the original is designed to drive home the consequences of sin in a very personal way. Each individual in Micah’s audience
would personally feel rashes from not being able to lotion with oil in the dry climate,
would personally feel the horror of loved ones hacked to death by swords,
and would personally feel the rumble of hunger in their stomachs.
What Micah is proclaiming concerning the discipline of losing possession of their food staples is, again, nothing more than a reminder of the consequences of unfaithfulness to God which his people had already agreed to in the Mosaic law. (Deuteronomy 28:15-41)
And, true to God’s clear communication patterns, Micah wasn’t the only prophet raising the issue; Amos, for instance, had already warned Israel a generation before Micah: Amos 5:11 “Therefore, because you tread down the poor And take grain taxes from him, Though you have built houses of hewn stone, Yet you shall not dwell in them; You have planted pleasant vineyards, But you shall not drink wine from them.” (NKJV, cf. Zeph. 1:13)
Now, in today’s global economy, you might not run out of flour and oil and juice, but you will not escape the consequences of sin. As Matthew Henry commented, “God has many arrows in his quiver; if one miss the sinner, the next shall not.”
These physical forms of discipline which God promised to employ with His people in verses 14-15 are accompanied by social forms of discipline in v.16.
The first of the three foolish associations is “keeping/observing the statutes of Omri”
Omri was the 6th king of the northern kingdom of Israel. He lived about 150 years before Micah. And he was famous for founding the capitol city of Samaria.
1 Kings 16:25-26 tells us that “Omri did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and did worse than all who were before him. For he walked in all the ways of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin by which he had made Israel sin, provoking the LORD God of Israel to anger with their idols.” (NKJV)
Jeroboam, you may remember, was the one who split Israel into two kingdoms after David and Solomon, and became the first king of the northern half. He built golden statues of calves on the northern and southern borders of his kingdom and told the Israelites to worship those idols. In fact, He invented an entire counterfeit religion with non-Levitical priests and new holidays and everything, just to prevent his people from worshiping God at the temple in Jerusalem. (1 Kings 12)
Now, no specific “statutes” are recorded in the Bible as coming from King Omri, but where this Hebrew word for “statutes” occurs elsewhere in the Bible, it refers to
rules regarding religious holidays (Jer. 5:24),
how idols were made (Jer. 10:3),
how to offer sacrifices on an altar (Ezek. 43:18),
and rules for temples (Ezek. 44:5),
so I think it’s safe to conclude that Omri used the power of the state to enforce false worship practices in direct defiance of God.
A lot of Christians today do not understand that the world is still actively trying to turn people away from worshiping Jesus by inventing false worship practices, including:
spiritual directors who have no knowledge of God,
inspirational music which blasphemes God,
holidays which have nothing to do with being holy,
idolatrous devotion to material things,
and rules for how to live your life in direct contradiction to God’s word.
When Christians “go with the flow” of popular culture, naively accepting all the world’s religious counterfeits, we are “keeping the statutes of Omri,” and it is just as offensive to God now as it was back in Micah’s day!
In
Micah’s day, folks were “observing the statutes of Omri,”
but, tell me, whose
“statutes” are
we to keep? God’s, of course:
Leviticus
25:17-18 “...I am the LORD your God, so y'all must act
on MY statutes, and y'all must keep my judgments and
act on them…” (NAW)
John 14:15 Jesus said,
“If ye love me, keep my commandments10”
(KJV)
The second foolish association the Jews made was to follow “every11 work/practice of the house of Ahab.”
King Ahab was Omri’s son. He is the one who married Jezebel and set up shrines for her pagan gods Baal and Ashtoreth, and there are several stories in the Bible about his faceoffs with the Prophet Elijah.12
The Bible doesn’t use the word “work/practice” particularly of Ahab, but the Hebrew word for “work” does show up consistently around Micah’s time in the Bible13 as a synonym for an “idol,” for instance, 2 Kings 19:18 “...they were not gods, but the work of men's hands – wood and stone.” (NKJV)
Hosea, whose prophetic ministry overlapped with Micah’s, elaborated on what was going on in Israel at the time: Hosea 13:1-4 “When Ephraim spoke, trembling, He exalted himself in Israel; But when he offended through Baal worship, he died. Now they sin more and more, And have made for themselves molded images, Idols of their silver, according to their skill; All of it is the work of craftsmen. They say of them, ‘Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves!’” (NKJV) - referring to Jeroboam’s and Omri’s counterfeit worship with the golden calves
In the Bible, man-made “work” of idolatry is contrasted to the “work of God.”
Ecclesiastes 7:13 exhorts us to “consider the work14 of God” in creation;
Psalm 64:9-10 exhorts us that when God executes justice, “All men shall fear, And shall declare the work of God; For they shall wisely consider His doing. The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and trust in Him…” (NKJV)
And, in John 6:29 Jesus exhorted us to consider the work of God in salvation: “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom [God] sent.” (NKJV)
Coming back to Micah 6:16, the 3rd foolish association the Jews made was to “walk in their counsels/advice/devices/traditions/advice” – presumably those of Omri & Ahab15.
The Hebrew word for “counsel” here is also a contrast word in the Bible, used to contrast the “counsels” of God with the counsels of man16:
Proverbs 22:19-21 “So that your trust may be in the LORD; I have instructed you today... Have I not written to you excellent things Of counsels and knowledge, That I may make you know the certainty of the words of truth…” (NKJV, cf. Ps. 81:8-12)
Hosea 11:1-6 "When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son. As they called them, So they went from them; They sacrificed to the Baals, And burned incense to carved images. I taught Ephraim to walk, Taking them by their arms; But they did not know that I healed them. I drew them with gentle cords, With bands of love, And I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them. He shall not return to the land of Egypt; But the Assyrian shall be his king, Because they refused to repent. And the sword shall slash in his cities, Devour his districts, And consume them, Because of their own counsels.” (NKJV, cf. Jer. 7:22-26)
Let me note, by the way, that, in Hebrew, the pronouns of Micah 6:16 are all over the place: the audience is referred to as “He,” as well as “you” (singular), “y’all” (plural), and “her.”
You might not see that wide a variety of pronouns if you are reading a modern English version, because most editors nowadays smooth out the original grammar by making it all say “you/ your.”
But if you have a version that renders that variety of pronouns more literally, don’t let it confuse you. They all seem to be referring to the Jews Micah was speaking to, whereas the first person pronouns (“I/me/my”) consistently refer to God.
The best explanation I can come up with for why Micah switched between singular and plural in this passage is that maybe there was an important person in Micah’s audience that he wanted to speak pointedly to from time to time, and the rest of the time he was addressing everybody in his audience, and also occasionally using the pronoun “her” to refer to the whole city of Jerusalem.17
1) “to make them appalling/a desolation/ruin/destruction”
This Hebrew word primarily means emotional shock – horror, being appalled.
Of course, nobody wants to be the sort of person that everybody is uncomfortable being around, so that was one of the covenant curses of Deuteronomy 28:15-37 “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you… 36 The LORD will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods-- wood and stone. And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the LORD will drive you.” (NKJV)
Now 2 Chronicles 29:6-8 tells us that Micah’s king, Hezekiah, took heed to Micah’s prophecy and even quoted from it, saying, “[O]ur fathers have trespassed and done evil in the eyes of the LORD our God; they have forsaken Him… Therefore, the wrath of the LORD has fallen upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He has ‘given them up to trouble, to desolation, and to jeering,’ as you see with your eyes.” Perhaps at that moment King Hezekiah was looking out over the city wall at the Assyrian army that was surrounding Jerusalem and hearing General Rabshaqeh yelling taunts at him.
Hezekiah’s resolve to ask the LORD to save Jerusalem, staved off that crisis, but Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea and Joel all prophesied that “horror” like this would come around again if the nation did not repent.
2) The 2nd shameful consequence of orienting themselves toward Man instead of God would be that Israel would be given over “to become ridiculous/to derision/hissing.”
As best I can tell, Micah made this word up as a sort of onomatopoeia; it’s very similar to the way we use the word “pshew,” to indicate a dismissive attitude toward someone (“Oh him? Pshew!”), which is why some versions translated it “hissing.”
Later, the Prophet Jeremiah also picked up on Micah’s words and applied them to his situation, where the sins of his people were bringing on God’s discipline in the form of invasion by the Chadean army: Jer. 19:3-8 “...because they have burned incense.. to other gods... and... have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal... therefore behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘that... I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies... their corpses I will give as meat for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. I will make this city desolate and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.” (NKJV)
Nobody wants to be “ridiculous” and not taken seriously, but that is one of the consequences which God ordained for people who care more about the opinions of men than of God – they will lose the esteem of man which they so crave, and they will be made fun of.
Jesus said, however, that those who obey Him and trust Him to save them, even at the risk of being “reproached” by men for doing so, will have “joy” and a “bountiful reward in heaven.” (Matthew 5:11-12, NAW)
3) The 3rd shameful consequence of living according to man-made religion and idolatry and humanistic counsels is that they would “bear the stigma/scorn/reproach of God’s people.”
Hosea 12:14 says something similar: “Ephraim provoked Him to anger most bitterly; Therefore his Lord will leave the guilt of his bloodshed upon him, And return his reproach upon him.” (NKJV)
“Reproach” is not a word used in the Law of Moses, and the Hebrew text here is curious: “...bear the reproach of my people.” What is the reproach of God’s people? There shouldn’t be anything reproachful about being God’s people!
The phrase doesn’t occur anywhere else in the Bible; the closest match is Isaiah 25:8 “He has swallowed up death for ever; and Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from all faces, and the shame/reproach of His people He will take away from over all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken.” (NAW)
I believe we need to translate the construct “shame of” not in terms of what is intrinsic to being God’s people, but rather in terms what is being experienced by God’s people18.
In other words, Micah is not saying that they will have to bear the shame of being God’s people, but rather that, because they are God’s people they will experience reproach as part of God’s loving, relationship-restoring disciplinary process – that is, they would have to bear the curses which would come into force for breaking covenant with God.19
By the same token, that’s why God could say in Isaiah 25:8 that He would take away the shame experienced by His people when they are restored (after discipline).
If you are running away from God, worshipping other things and hurting other people, this is a warning for you. God will bring you to account. You will be unable to satisfy yourself, unable to save yourself, and unable to keep what you have worked so hard to get for yourself. You will experience shunning, ridicule, and shame. Why? Because God is intent on breaking your stubborn pride and bringing you into a restored relationship with Himself. He won’t stop until He achieves His goal, so you might as well give up now and “bow yourself before God Most High.” (Mic. 6:6)
If you have been cruising along and suddenly have been bombarded out of the blue by dissatisfaction, loss, shock, ridicule, and shame, seriously consider whether this might be God disciplining you. He doesn’t discipline you because He hates you; He does it because He loves you and wants to draw you closer to Him. Ask the Holy Spirit to convict you of your sin and lead you to repentence, and He will do it! (John 16:8)
Finally, if you are not experiencing God’s discipline, thank Him for giving you the grace to “walk humbly with Him” and enjoy sweet fellowship with Him! And keep your eyes open to encourage brothers and sisters who are drooping a bit under God’s discipline and “strengthen the drooping hands and the feeble knees, and make straight paths with your feet in order that the crippled might not veer away but rather be healed. Keep pursuing peace with all men, along with the holiness without which nobody will see the Lord...” (Heb. 11:12-14, NAW)
DouayB (Vulgate) |
LXXC |
BrentonD (Vaticanus) |
KJVE |
NAW |
Masoretic HebrewF |
13 And I therefore began to strike thee [with] desolation for thy sins. |
13 καὶ ἐγὼ ἄρξομαιG τοῦ πατάξαι σε, ἀφανιῶ [σε] ἐπὶ H ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις σου. |
13
Therefore
will I X begin
to smite thee; I will destroy
[thee]
|
13 Therefore also will I X make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins. |
13 so also I Myself will begin to cause strikes against you – to cause desolation because of your sins. |
(יג) וְגַםI אֲנִי הֶחֱלֵיתִיJ הַכּוֹתֶךָ הַשְׁמֵםK עַל חַטֹּאתֶךָ. |
14
Thou shalt eat, but shalt not be filled:
and thy
humiliation
shall be in the midst
of thee: and thou shalt |
14
σὺ φάγεσαι καὶ οὐ μὴ ἐμπλησθῇς·
καὶ |
14
X Thou shalt
eat, and shalt not be satisfied; and there
shall be X
|
14
X Thou shalt
eat, but not be satisfied;
and thy
casting
down shall
be in the midst
of thee; and thou shalt |
14 As for you, you will eat, but you will not feel full; instead, emptiness will be yours in your innards. Furthermore, you will retreat but not get to safety, and whoever you do save, I will give to the sword. |
(יד) אַתָּה תֹאכַל וְלֹא תִשְׂבָּע וְיֶשְׁחֲךָN בְּקִרְבֶּךָ וְתַסֵּגO וְלֹא תַפְלִיט וַאֲשֶׁר תְּפַלֵּט לַחֶרֶב אֶתֵּן. |
15
Thou shalt sow, but shalt not reap: thou shalt tread the
olive[s]P,
but shalt not |
15
σὺ σπερεῖς καὶ οὐ μὴ ἀμήσῃς, σὺ
πιέσεις ἐλαίαν καὶ οὐ μὴ ἀλείψῃ
ἔλαιον, καὶ οἶνον
καὶ οὐ μὴ πί |
15
Thou X shalt
sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt press the olive, but
thou shalt not anoint [thyself]
with oil; and |
15 Thou X shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou X shalt tread the olive[s], but thou shalt not anoint [thee] with oil; and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine. |
15 You yourself will plant [seeds] but you will not harvest. You yourself will use the foot-press for the olive, but you will not lotion with the oil, and for grape-juice but you will not drink the wine. |
(טו) אַתָּהQ תִזְרַע וְלֹא תִקְצוֹר אַתָּה תִדְרֹךְ זַיִת וְלֹא תָסוּךְR שֶׁמֶן וְתִירוֹשׁS וְלֹא תִשְׁתֶּה יָּיִןT. |
16
For thou hast kept the statutes of Amri, and all the work[s]
of the house of Achab: and |
16
καὶ ἐφύλαξας τὰ δικαιώματαU
Ζαμβρι καὶ πάντ |
16
For thou hast kept the statues of Zambri, and [done]
all the work[s]
of the house of Achaab; and ye have walked in their |
16 For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the work[s] of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people. |
16 You have only kept for yourself the statutes of Omri and every fabrication of the house of Ahab. Furthermore y’all have walked in their counsels, therefore I have given you to become appalling, and her residents to become ridiculous, and it is the stigma of my people that y’all will carry. |
(טז) וְיִשְׁתַּמֵּרV חֻקּוֹת עָמְרִי וְכֹל מַעֲשֵׂהW בֵית אַחְאָב וַתֵּלְכוּ בְּמֹעֲצוֹתָם לְמַעַןX תִּתִּי אֹתְךָ לְשַׁמָּהY וְיֹשְׁבֶיהָZ לִשְׁרֵקָהAA וְחֶרְפַּת עַמִּי תִּשָּׂאוּ. |
1Owen also cited Newcome.
2The Hebrew word here is from the root נכה = to strike. By contrast, the Hebrew verb roots behind the three instances of “destroy” in the KJV are חבל in Mic. 2:10, אבד in 5:10, and שמד in 5:14.
3cf.
Isaiah 1:7
“Your country is wasted; your cities burned with fire. In front of
you foreigners consume your ground; it is desolate,
as overthrown by foreigners.”
(NAW)
Isaiah
6:11
“Then I said, “Unto what extent, Lord?” And He said, ‘Until
whenever cities crash to ruin without inhabitant, and houses are
without a human and the ground is ruined – a desolation.’”
(NAW)
Hosea
5:9
“Ephraim shall be desolate
in the day of rebuke; Among the tribes of Israel I make known what
is sure." (NKJV)
Micah
1:9
“because her plague is incurable, because he has come to Judah; he
has reached to the gate of my people – unto Jerusalem!”
(NAW)
4Waltke: “In poetic justice, the guilty are punished precisely in the area in which they have sinned.”
5Compare Lev. 26:26c אכלתם ולא תשׂבעו to Micah 6:14 תאכל ולא תשׂבע – the only difference is that the verbs are plural in the former and singular in the latter.
6Later on, the Prophet Haggai would raise the same point with the Reconstruction Jews when they broke covenant with God: Haggai 1:6 “You have sown much, and bring in little; You eat, but do not have enough; You drink, but you are not filled with drink; You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; And he who earns wages, Earns wages to put into a bag with holes.” (NKJV, cf. Isaiah 9:19-20, Jer. 12:13)
7Calvin suggested a curious application of inability “to derive from bread any nourishment” which he seemed to attribute to the miraculous, but a modern, man-made fulfillment of this might be the production of highly-processed foods designed for long shelf-life, which have very low nutritional value. Alternately, Henry suggested: “because the food shall not digest, for want of God's blessing going along with it, or because the appetite shall by disease be made insatiable...”
8Pensées, translated by W. F. Trotter, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1958. The last sentence in the original language, in the 1904 Hachette edition from Paris reads, « mais qui en sont toutes incapables, parce que ce gouffre infini ne peut être rempli que par un objet infini et immuable, c’est-a-dire que par Dieu même? »
9Since the first half of this verse and the next verse are about food, it is reasonable to seek that meaning in the second half of this verse.
10Εντολας – a synonym for the word δικαιώματά in the Greek versions of Micah.
11Keil made a case for the Hebrew word “all/every” to include “all” the evil done by Ahab, including Baal-worship, persecution of prophets, murder of Naboth, and other sins.
121 Kings 16:30-31 “Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians; and he went and served Baal and worshiped him.”
13In 2 Kings 22:17, 2 Chron. 32:19, Psalm 115:4; 135:15, Isaiah 17:8, 37:19, Jeremiah 10:3 &15, 51:18, and Hosea 13:2.
14 פֹּעַל – a synonym to Micah’s מַעֲשֵׂה
15Keil: “The suffix attached to בְּמֹעֲצוֹתָם refers to Ahab and Omri.” cf. Waltke: “Omri, Ahab, and his household...”
16See
also in the following GNT occurrences
of the LXX word βουλη, how
God’s plan of salvation is contrasted with the plans of men:
Lk. 7:30; 23:51; Acts 2:23; 4:28; 20:27; Eph. 1:11; Heb.
6:17.
“By counsels, the Prophet no doubt meant that
false kind of wisdom which always shines forth in the traditons of
men; and by statutes, he meant the kingly authority.” ~J.
Calvin, 1559 AD
17cf.
Keil: “In אֹתְךָ the whole nation
is addressed: in the second clause, the inhabitants of the capital
as the principal sinners; and in the third, the nation again in its
individual members.”
cf. Waltke: “[T]he discontinuity of
pronouns... is too pervasive to make the emendations convincing...
The distinction between the ruling house and the city’s
inhabitants runs throughout vv 9, 12, and 16, yet they are united in
their sin and in I AM’s covenant curses upon them…. To make
clear that the whole city is under judgment, I AM shifts from ‘you’
singular to ‘you’ plural: ‘you walk’ and ‘you will bear,’
the terminal verbs of v 16A and v 16B respectively.”
18Waltke’s explanation that "עמ is a genetive of disadvantage… ‘against my people’” is unnecessarily complicated grammar where a straightforward construct “of my people” makes fine sense.
19Anthony
Gilby also interpreted this in terms of experiencing God’s
discipline: “[Z]edechiah the last kyng ouer Iuda may be a terrible
example vnto al kings, had fyrst his sons slayne in hys owne sight,
then had hys eyes worthely put forth by the Babiloniās, and so
kept in lyue by dayly delusion of the Chaldes to beare the shame of
ye people of god. Yea they ar without nūber whō the Lord hath
more greuosly by his iustice thus plaged. ”
Calvin
rejected the view (held
by Waltke) that this
would merely be a punishment of the rich oppressors, but, “by the
reproach of God’s people, I understand the heavier judgments,
which were justly prepared for all the ungodly, whom God had favored
with such special honor, as to regard them as his people: for the
servant, who knew his master’s will, and did it not, was on that
account more severely corrected, Luke 12:47.” cf. Cohen:
“a reproach which is all the greater because Israel is God’s
people.” Henry:
“[T]heir having been once the people of God does but turn so much
the more to their reproach…”
AMy
original chart includes the following copyrighted English versions:
NASB, NIV, ESV, Bauscher’s version of the Peshitta, and Cathcart’s
version of the Targums, but I remove these columns from my public,
non-copyrighted edition of this chart so as not to infringe on their
copyrights. NAW is my translation. When a translation adds words not
in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done so by the use
of italics or greyed-out text, I put the added words in [square
brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is different
from all the other translations, I underline it. When a
version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs
too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far
from the grammar form of the original text, I use strikeout.
And when a version omits a word which is in the original text, I
insert an X. I also place an X at the end of a word if the original
word is plural but the English translation is singular. I
occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between
the various editions and versions when there are more than two
different translations of a given word. The only known Dead Sea
Scroll containing Micah 6 is the Wadi Muraba’at Scroll, containing
parts verses 1-7 & 11-16 and dated around 135 AD. Where the DSS
is legible and in agreement with the MT, the MT is colored purple.
Where the DSS supports the LXX/Vulgate/Peshitta with omissions or
text not in the MT, I have highlighted
with yellow the LXX
and its translation into English, and where I have accepted that
into my NAW translation, I have marked it with {pointed brackets}.
BDouay Old Testament first published by the English College at Douay, A.D. 1609, Revised by Bishop Richard Challoner, Published in 1582, 1609, 1752. As published on E-Sword.
C“Septuagint” Greek Old Testament, edited by Alfred Rahlfs. Published in 1935. As published on E-Sword.
DEnglish translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton, 1851, “based upon the text of the Vaticanus” but not identical to the Vaticanus. As published electronically by E-Sword.
E1769 King James Version of the Holy Bible; public domain. As published electronically by E-Sword.
FFrom
the Wiki Hebrew Bible
https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%9B%D7%94_%D7%91/%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%AA
.
DSS text comes from https://downloads.thewaytoyahuweh.com
GAquilla’s and Theodotian’s Greek versions support this translation.
HCuriously, both Aq. and Theod. add the word “all,” which isn’t in any of the other source documents I surveyed.
I“Clausal conjunctive links the condemnation (vv 13-15) with the accusation (vv 10-12)… underscored by the correlative particle gam, expressing correspondence: ‘in recompense…’” ~B. Waltke, 2007 AD
JPointed
differently, this word can mean “begin,” and that was the
interpretation of the church for its first 1500 years. Gilby and
Calvin, however, advocated for “make sick” in the mid-1500’s.
Despite the concurrence of the modern English versions on the
Masoretic pointing meaning “weaken/sicken,” BHS suggests going
back to the ancient interpretation, perhaps following Newcome.
Waltke suggested that “The versions are more easily explained away
than the MT, whose reading is probably idiomatic.”
Keil (who
translated it “incurably”) noted that “The perfect [tense]
expresses the certainty of the future.” Waltke, on the
other hand, commented that the “perfective signifies resolve.”
Go figure.
Concerning the suffix “you,” Keil
maintained that it “refers to the people, not of the capital only,
but, as we may see from v.16, of the whole of the kingdom of Judah,”
while Waltke maintained that “it probably refers to the ruler who
bears the scepter [in] v.9.”
“Just as they smote the poor
and the oppresed with their devices and guile, so will God smite
them with sore wounds.” ~Cohen, quoting Kimchi (a quote also taken
up by M. Henry in his commentary.)
“The sum of what is said
is that nothing would be an obstacle to prevent God from inflicting
punishment on the people, for there would be no want of power in his
case.” ~J. Calvin, 1559 AD
KIn fulfillment of the curses of Lev. 26. It is interesting that all the Greek and Aramaic versions insert the pronoun “you” as the object of this verb. NASB and NIV followed them. The Latin versions follow the MT without “you,” followed by KJV and ESV. No DSS are legible at this point for corroboration of the Hebrew text.
LThe LXX got “darkness” by switching two of the Hebrew letters.
Mcf. Aq. καταληψη (“he will hold firmly”), Sym. εξεις (“you will hold”), Theod. αναφυξεις (“you will make room”)
NHapex Legomenon. Vulgate, NASB, and Peshitta interpret as a noun (which is the Westminster morphology and that of Beall/Banks/Smith and of the Hebrew Open Scriptures), but LXX, NIV, and ESV interpret as a verb. (KJV could be either.) BDB defined as “emptiness,” Strong defined as “casting down,” and Holladay defined as “dung.” English versions have conjectured mostly along two lines: Geneva/KJV/NASV/Peshitta/Waltke/Ehrman all went the route of bowel movements = “casting down/vileness/dysentery” (which may be what was intended by Rashi, AJV and one of the Targums = “sickness”), and NIV/NKJV/ESV/NLT/Keil all went for “hunger/emptiness” (as did one of the Targums). The NET Bible was an outlier with “there is strength.” According to Cohen, Kimchi advocated for “humiliation,” and that was picked up by Calvin (“dejection”) and his English translator Owen (“depression”) as well as Henry (“God can cast a nation down by that which is in the midst of them.”).
ODiscounting the passages about “moving” boundary markers (Deut. 19:14; 27:17, Prov. 22:28; 23:10, Hos. 5:10) and a bunch of passages which followed this verb up with the preposition “after” (generally denoting physical movement in a retrograde motion), the uses of this word in the Wisdom literature denote the abandonment of a covenant relationship with God (Psalm 53:4; 78:57; 80:19; Prov. 14:14), and the only other incidence in the Prophets is Mic. 2:6 (“humiliation removed”). The only other instance of this verb by itself is in Canticles where some translate “fence in.” Vulgate, Targums, and most English versions interpret in terms of “taking hold of” something to keep and use. LXX and Peshitta seem to be outliers with “depart” and “thresh” respectively. There is a Jewish interpretation from Ibn Jannah, Ibn Ezra, & Kimchi, passed on by Gilby, G. R. Driver, AJV, Cohen, Margolis, Torczyner, S. Goldman, and Waltke, that it refers to the human reproductive process of “conceiving.” Calvin rejected that as “too strained.” This verb is never used to mean that anywhere else, but it is nevertheless, not an inappropriate interpretation, seeing that sterility and miscarraige were part of the covenant curses. According to Cohen, Rashi and Malbim’s interpretation was like mine: “finding safety... for their possessions or their dependants,” and that was also the interpretation of Calvin (and Owen of Thrussington also attributed it to Henderson), Henry (“wives and children”), and Keil (“carry off thy goods and family”).
PThe Vulgate is actually singular like the Hebrew, Peshitta, and Septuagint are.
QLatin, Greek, & Aramaic versions all carry over the emphatic singular “you’s,” but they disappear in English versions.
RThe Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Aramaic manuscripts are all singular “you” here, but the NIV, ESV, NLJ, and NET changed the singular to plural “yourselves/your bodies.”
SAramaic versions inserted a copy of the verb from the first half of this verse, showing the proper interpretation of the Hebrew which has no verb here in the second half of the verse. “Tread” is intended to be supplied here by ellipsis, for only the object (“grape juice”) is explicitly supplied in the Hebrew.
TLXX and Peshitta dropped out this word, but the context still makes it clear that wine is the object, so it’s no great loss. The Hebrew, Latin, and Aramaic manuscripts all read singular (“you shall not drink”) but the LXX changed it to plural (“ye shall not drink”).
Ucf. synonym used by Sym. and Theod. = προσταγματα
VThis
is a 3ms Hitpael spelling: “And he kept for himself.” Calvin,
Geneva, KJV, Ewald, and NASB plausibly interpreted the Hitpael as
passive (“It was kept”), but the problem with a passive
interpretation is that it mismatches a plural subject (“statutes”)
with a singular verb. Owen of Thrussington justified breaking this
grammar rule by considering it “an anomalous idiom,” which seems
suspect of special pleading. The traditional interpretation (LXX,
Theodotian, Peshitta, Targum, Vulgate, Wellhausen, NIV, ESV, NET,
NLT) is to change the Hebrew verb from 3rd to 2nd
person, carrying on the singular from the previous verses (“you
kept for yourself”). Keil took the slightly-different approach of
preserving the third person in the indefinite sense (“one
carefully observes for himself” – also accepted by Waltke,
although he also favored the feminine singular emendation of Elliger
and Hillers, referring to “the city”). Keil noted, “[T]his
intensive form of the piel,
is the strongest expression for
שמר
and is not to
be taken as passive, but in a reflective sense.”
Part of the difficulty is
that there is no normative pattern of pronouns in this verse, as
they flip-flop throughout on whether the second person is
singular or plural, with the next instance being plural, (“y’all
have walked”), the next instance being singular (“I gave you”),
and the last instance being plural (“y’all will bear”).
This
verb also has a vav
prefix, a simple conjunction which was
translated with a simple conjunction in the Latin (et)
and Greek (και),
appropriately translated “only” by the NLT, but omitted in the
NASB, NIV, and NET. In the Aramaic Peshitta and Targums, it is
changed to a more specific causal conjunction ܥܠ,
which
was
followed by Geneva, KJV & ESV (“For”).
WSingular in DSS, MT, and Vulgate (opus), therefore also in Geneva and NLT, but curiously plural (“works”) in LXX, Peshitta, Targums, and all standard English versions. Waltke called it a “collective singular,” but it seems better to use the most-straightforward translation (“every work”) when it serves well enough.
X“By לְמַעַן the punishment is represented as intentionally brought about by the sinners themselves, to give prominence to the daring with which men lived on in godlessness and unrighteousness.” ~C. F. Keil, 1891 AD
Y“שַׁמָּה does not mean devastation here; but in parallelism with שְׁרֵקָה, horror, or the object of horror, as in Deu. 28:37; Jer. 25:9; Jer. 51:37, and 2Chr. 29:8.” ~Keil (Waltke agreed: “astonishment, horror”)
ZThe suffix is the 3rd person feminine singular pronoun, which is admittedly unexpected and abrupt, so sometime after the turn of the 20th century, English translations almost unanimously decided to change this pronoun to 2nd person masculine singular (or perhaps even plural). The NET Bible was the only exception I could find, which changed the 3fs pronoun into the fs noun “city,” which seems mostly likely to be the referent.
AAMicah is the first Bible author to use this word. His king took it up immediately in 2 Chron. 29:8, and Jeremiah later on in Jer. 19:8; 25:9, 18; 29:18; 51:37.