Micah 3
New English Translation
God Will Judge Judah’s Sinful Leaders
3 I said,
“Listen, you leaders[a] of Jacob,
you rulers of the nation[b] of Israel!
You ought to know what is just,[c]
2 yet you[d] hate what is good[e]
and love what is evil.[f]
You flay my people’s skin[g]
and rip the flesh from their bones.[h]
3 You[i] devour my people’s flesh,
strip off their skin,
and crush their bones.
You chop them up like flesh in a pot[j]—
like meat in a kettle.
4 Someday these sinful leaders[k] will cry to the Lord for help,
but he will not answer them.
He will hide his face from them at that time,
because they have done such wicked deeds.”
5 This is what the Lord has said about the prophets who mislead my people,[l]
“If someone gives them enough to eat,
they offer an oracle of peace.[m]
But if someone does not give them food,
they are ready to declare war on him.[n]
6 Therefore night will fall, and you will receive no visions;[o]
it will grow dark, and you will no longer be able to read the omens.[p]
The sun will set on these prophets,
and the daylight will turn to darkness over their heads.[q]
7 The prophets[r] will be ashamed;
the omen readers will be humiliated.
All of them will cover their mouths,[s]
for they will receive no divine oracles.”[t]
8 But I[u] am full of the courage that the Lord’s Spirit gives
and have a strong commitment to justice.[v]
This enables me to confront Jacob with its rebellion
and Israel with its sin.[w]
9 Listen to this, you leaders of the family[x] of Jacob,
you rulers of the nation[y] of Israel!
You[z] hate justice
and pervert all that is right.
10 You[aa] build Zion through bloody crimes,[ab]
Jerusalem through unjust violence.
11 Her[ac] leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases,[ad]
her priests proclaim rulings for profit,
and her prophets read omens for pay.
Yet they claim to trust[ae] the Lord and say,
“The Lord is among us.[af]
Disaster will not overtake[ag] us!”
12 Therefore, because of you,[ah] Zion will be plowed up like[ai] a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,
and the Temple Mount[aj] will become a hill overgrown with brush![ak]
Footnotes
- Micah 3:1 tn Heb “heads.”
- Micah 3:1 tn Heb “house.”
- Micah 3:1 tn Heb “Should you not know justice?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you should!”
- Micah 3:2 tn Heb “the ones who.”
- Micah 3:2 tn Or “good.”
- Micah 3:2 tn Or “evil.”
- Micah 3:2 tn 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.
- Micah 3:2 tn 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.
- Micah 3:3 tn Heb “who.”
- Micah 3:3 tc The MT reads “and they chop up as in a pot.” The translation assumes an emendation of כַּאֲשֶׁר (ka’asher, “as”) to כִּשְׁאֵר (kishʾer, “like flesh”).
- Micah 3:4 tn Heb “they,” referring to the indicted leaders in vv. 1-3.
- Micah 3:5 tn Heb “concerning the prophets, those who mislead my people.” Some prefer to begin the quotation after “the Lord has said” (cf. NIV). But when the preposition עַל (ʿal, “about”) occurs with this introductory formula it regularly indicates who is being spoken about. (When a person is not the object of the preposition, it may begin the quote, meaning “because.”) Including the first person pronominal suffix (in “my people”) after a third person introduction may sound awkward, but also occurs in Jer 14:15; 23:2 (and perhaps Jer 12:14, a text critical question). Hillers prefers to add הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) at the beginning of the quotation, after the graphically similar יְהוָה (yehvah; see D. R. Hillers, Micah [Hermeneia], 44). The phrase הוֹי עַל (hoy ʿal, “woe upon”) occurs in Jer 50:27 and Ezek 13:3 (with “the prophets” following the preposition in the latter instance).
- Micah 3:5 tn 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.
- Micah 3:5 tn Heb “but [as for the one] who does not place [food] in their mouths, they prepare for war against him.”
- Micah 3:6 tn 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.
- Micah 3:6 tn 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.
- Micah 3:6 tn Heb “and the day will be dark over them.”
- Micah 3:7 tn Or “seers.”
- Micah 3:7 tn Or “the mustache,” or perhaps “the beard.” Cf. KJV, NAB, NRSV “cover their lips.”
- Micah 3:7 tn Heb “no divine response” or “no answer from God.”
- Micah 3:8 sn The prophet Micah speaks here and contrasts himself with the mercenaries just denounced by the Lord in the preceding verses.
- Micah 3:8 tn 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.
- Micah 3:8 tn Heb “to declare to Jacob his rebellion and to Israel his sin.” The words “this enables me” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
- 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.”
弥迦书 3
Chinese New Version (Simplified)
指摘官长与领袖
3 我说：
“雅各的首领，你们要听，
以色列家的官长，你们也要听；
难道你们不知道公平吗？
2 然而，你们恨恶良善，喜爱邪恶，
从人身上剥皮，
从人骨头上剔肉。
3 你们吃我民的肉，
剥他们的皮，
打断他们的骨头，
切成像锅里的块，
像釜中的肉块。
4 那时，他们要向耶和华呼求，
耶和华却不应允他们。
到那时，耶和华必掩面不顾他们，
因为他们行了恶事。”
责备假先知
5 关于那些使我民走迷路的先知，
耶和华这样说：
“他们的牙齿有所咀嚼的时候，
就大叫‘平安’；
谁不把食物给他们吃，
他们就攻击那人。”
6 因此你们只有黑夜，没有异象，
只有黑暗，没有默示。
对先知，日头要下落，
为他们，白日变为黑暗。
7 先见必抱愧，
得默示的人要蒙羞；
他们都必掩着上唇，
因为没有 神的答复。
8 至于我，我却借着耶和华的灵，
满有力量、公平和能力，
可以向雅各述说他的过犯，
向以色列指出他的罪恶。
恶有恶报─圣城被毁
9 雅各家的首领，你们要听这个，
以色列家的官长，你们也要听；
你们厌恶公平，
屈枉正直，
10 用人血建锡安，
以罪孽造耶路撒冷。
11 城中的首领为贿赂而审判，
祭司为薪俸而教导，
先知为银子说默示，
他们竟倚靠耶和华，说：
“耶和华不是在我们中间吗？
灾祸必不会临到我们身上。”
12 所以，为你们的缘故，
锡安必像被耕种的田地，
耶路撒冷必变为乱堆，
这殿的山要成为丛林中的高冈。
Micah 3
King James Version
3 And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?
2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;
3 Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.
4 Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.
5 Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.
6 Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.
7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.
8 But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.
9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.
10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us.
12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.
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