Micah 1:7-9

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Micah 1:7 tn Heb “and all her prostitute’s wages will be burned with fire.”sn The precious metal used by Samaria’s pagan worship centers to make idols is compared to a prostitute’s wages because Samaria had been unfaithful to the Lord and prostituted herself to pagan gods such as Baal.
2. Micah 1:7 tn Heb “I will make desolate” (so NASB).
3. Micah 1:7 tn Or “for” (KJV, NASB, NRSV).
4. Micah 1:7 tn No object is specified in the Hebrew text; the words “the metal” are supplied from the context.
5. Micah 1:7 tn Heb “for from a prostitute’s wages she gathered, and to a prostitute’s wages they will return.” When the metal was first collected it was comparable to the coins a prostitute would receive for her services. The metal was then formed into idols, but now the Lord’s fiery judgment would reduce the metal images to their original condition.
6. Micah 1:8 tn The prophet is probably the speaker here.
7. Micah 1:8 tn Or “stripped.” The precise meaning of this Hebrew word is unclear. It may refer to walking barefoot (see 2 Sam 15:30) or to partially stripping oneself (see Job 12:17-19).
8. Micah 1:8 tn Heb “naked.” This probably does not refer to complete nudity, but to stripping off one’s outer garments as an outward sign of the destitution felt by the mourner.
9. Micah 1:8 tn Heb “I will make lamentation.”
10. Micah 1:8 tn Or “a jackal”; CEV “howling wolves.”
11. Micah 1:8 tn Heb “[make] a mourning.”
12. Micah 1:8 tn Or perhaps “ostrich” (cf. ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT).
13. Micah 1:9 tn Heb “her.”
14. Micah 1:9 tc The MT reads the plural “wounds/plagues”; the singular is read by the LXX, Syriac, and Vg.
15. Micah 1:9 tn Heb “come to.”
16. Micah 1:9 tn Or “reached.”
17. Micah 1:9 tn Heb “the gate.” Kings and civic leaders typically conducted important business at the city gate (see 1 Kgs 22:10 for an example), and the term is understood here to refer by metonymy to the leadership who would be present at the gate.